Sunday, December 30, 2007

Merry Post Christmas!

I told someone at church Merry Christmas this morning :-) Guess it's time to change that to Happy New Year! I can't believe 2008 is only a day and a half away! I'll have to write a reflective post on 2007 and all it's excitement and the endless possibilities of 2008, but we'll save that for the next one. Right now I'm still in the Christmas mood. :-)

During the holiday Stephen and I flew home to Alabama to spend some time with his wonderful family. We had such a good time being with them and eating yummy southern food, even though there were some humiliating moments during the traditional game of Dirty Santa. Being around his family always reminds me of God's love and kindness...it just flows out of them! (yes, even you, Frank)

Then Stephen's dad drove us to Atlanta to spend a few days with my family. We had fun playing lots of games and being our normal competitive selves. It was good to have some time to celebrate Christmas with them and just hang out. Then we miraculously managed to fit all our presents, clothes, and wedding gifts into our bags so that we didn't have to worry about the flight home. It was a great trip and we had such a great time with our families.

We hope you guys had a very Merry Christmas as well! We are so thankful that God chose to send His Son to the earth as a baby, who would one day to die to take the penalty for our sins. What an incredible gift we have been given and we look forward to the day when our Savior returns to earth.

"For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The Mighty God, The Everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this."
Isaiah 9:6,7

Wednesday, December 19, 2007

Never-Ending Thank You's

Sorry it's been a little while since we've written. We've been somewhat busy with Christmas things, and a lot busy with finishing up our thank you notes from our wedding. Yep, the oh-so-dreaded thank you notes. I'm a little ashamed to say that we haven't finished sending them all yet and it's been 3 and a half months since the wedding (thank goodness for the 1 yr grace period!), but let's be honest here, we had well over TWO HUNDRED thank you notes to write, so it was bound to take a little time...

We are extremely thankful for those gifts, and more importantly for the people who gave them, but it is no easy task to write that many notes. I am extremely happy to say that we should have the last ones finished tomorrow!!! My goal has been to be completely done by Christmas and we are going to make it!

So let's move on!

This past weekend Stephen and I went on a little getaway to Pasadena. We got a fantastic deal on a hotel room from Priceline.com and decided we would go away for the weekend, relax, and finish up some Christmas shopping. It was so great. We caught a movie, walked around the street-front stores in Pasadena, ate a great dinner at Cheesecake Factory, and overall had a fantastic time just being together. We've decided that we need to do this about every 6 months, and next time we're going to San Francisco (assuming we can afford it!).

While we were walking around Pasadena we walked right by this little beauty parked on the street:
It's a 1955 Chevy Corvette and it looked incredible! Needless to say Stephen stopped and stared for a while and then made me get out my camera so he could take a picture of it :-)

It was a great weekend and now we're gearing up for our trip to Alabama in just a few days! Hooray! Hope you guys are enjoying this time of the year. Don't get stressed about the gifts...that's not what it's really about anyway.

"For God so loved the world that He sent his only Son, that all who believe in Him may have eternal life."
John 3:16

Saturday, December 8, 2007

Gifts and More Sickness

Well earlier I wrote about Stephen being sick and it seems like now it's my turn. Our week has been pretty low-key as a result of me not feeling too great. I say low-key, yet we still went to a Jr High Staff Christmas Party, XChange (Wed. night Jr High service), and out for a date night dinner at Outback tonight. Now that we're back home I'm thinking Outback a day after throwing up may not have been my brightest idea....

Oh well.

The Staff Christmas Party was a lot of fun. The Bierhorst's house was absolutely beautiful, set up with fine china, candles, and Martinelli's Sparkling Cider for our staff of about 30. Pretty impressive, I must say. But the best part by far was the quality fellowship we shared. That and the best game of White Elephant I've ever played. What a fun group of people we get to serve alongside!

Stephen and I walked away from the White Elephant game with a gift basket of Starbucks treats and a toddler carseat. Yep. A toddler carseat. The lure of the gigantic, wrapped box was too much for us to pass over, so we chose our unknown gift and ended up walking home with it. Needless to say we got ragged on the rest of the night about our plans for children in the very near future. WHICH IS DEFINITELY NOT OUR PLAN! Although as a disclaimer, I must say that God is definitely in control of our lives and not us. :-)

The carseat looks somewhat like this:
We're either going to give it to Goodwill or use it at another white elephant party. :-)

On a different note, I must say that Stephen has taken wonderful care of me as I've been feeling ill. He is such an attentive and caring husband. Last night I was feeling pretty sickly. He climbed into bed and started praying that God would heal my body quickly. The second he finished praying, I ran into the bathroom and after a few unpleasant moments of hugging the toilet and praying for Christ's return, I felt much better. God definitely answered Stephen's prayer quickly! :-) Today has been a much better day, thus the bright idea of mine that we should eat dinner at Outback. I have no idea what I was thinking considering the only thing I had eaten all day was crackers and half a bagel. Hopefully tonight won't be similar to last night. So far, so good.

Monday, December 3, 2007

Hockey Anyone?

Saturday night we went to see the L.A. Kings play at the Staples Center in downtown L.A. The Kings really aren't that great, but we still had a lot of fun. Here's a few pics for you guys:The Staples Center is also where the Lakers play. We're hoping to go see one of their games next!

And lastly, my handsome husband in downtown L.A. after the game. He did a fantastic job driving us through the crazy L.A. traffic and streets!I love being married to this man!

Saturday, December 1, 2007

Oh Christmas Tree

We put up a few more lights outside today and I spent part of the afternoon wrapping presents. It's Christmas time! As I've already said, our little apartment doesn't have room for a big tree, so we bought a mini tree and I finally took a few pics of it!


Hooray! Now we're about to walk out the door to go to an L.A. Kings hockey game. The majority of our days are spent doing normal stuff and hanging out at home, but I sure love it when we get to go do fun things like this! We'll be sure to take some pics!

Friday, November 30, 2007

Get Well Soon

Life has been interesting around the Webb house for the last week. Stephen's been sick since last Thursday and I've learned a whole lot more about diabetes. If you have diabetes, then even if your blood sugar has been under the best control of your life, a few days of being sick can throw it all off.

I have learned that being sick with diabetes is completely different than just plain being sick because now you're having to keep your blood sugar in check while not being able to eat, throwing up, having no appetite, etc. Your blood sugar level depends a lot on what you eat (or don't eat) and so being sick can have a pretty big impact on you.

Stephen's blood sugar has been so good since we've been married that I'm used to him coming home raving about how good his blood sugar stayed. This week it's been lots of lows and pump alarms going off at all hours of the day and night.... Now don't worry, it's not as bad as it may sound - the pump alarm just warns him when his blood sugar is getting lower than we want - but it's been abnormal for us.

I must say that my amazing husband still maintains a sweet and pleasant attitude even when he's sick. He's been a trooper and doesn't complain at all when he's not feeling well...he's actually been apologizing for being in such a funk, but in all honesty, he's probably the most easy going sick person I know. Thankfully he's definitely on the mend and has been feeling much better. It's just been a different kind of week for us. Hope you guys are staying healthy as the weather gets cooler!

Sunday, November 25, 2007

A Happy Thanksgiving

I hope everyone had a wonderful thanksgiving! I know we did, and we've been enjoying the extra long weekend! I had forgotten how nice it is to have 3 days in a row of sleeping in and just relaxing. Vacations really are great! :-)

Stephen and I shared Thanksgiving day with two of the families in Jr High ministry, the Scott's and the Duncan's (our Jr High Pastor). It was a beautiful and yummy meal and some good fellowship. We have so much to be thankful to the Lord for right now; our first holiday as a married couple for one! Although we couldn't make it home to share Thanksgiving with our families, we're really excited about Christmas coming up in just a few short weeks. We'll be seeing family before we know it!

I really like this time of year! We put up a little tree with lights and ornaments on it (I'll take a pic soon and put it on here) and we also put up some Christmas lights outside on our patio. After a lot of hype about how much Stephen dislikes putting up Christmas lights, he was actually a really good sport about it and did a great job with them. Friday night we turned off all the lights but the Christmas tree and the lights outside (opened the sliding glass door's blinds so we could see them really well) and watched a movie together. It was a lot of fun and I honestly couldn't have been happier or more content cuddling up next to my wonderful husband.

Hope you enjoy this holiday season and don't forget to take care of your Christmas shopping sooner rather than later! :-)

Sunday, November 18, 2007

Wedding Pictures!


We finally have all our wedding pictures!!! There are way too many to put on here, but we'll post a few for you guys to enjoy!



We are so thankful for this wonderful day and all the people who joined us to celebrate our covenant of marriage!

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

When I Was Your Age...

Today I went to a private high school in L.A. and took orders for graduation caps and gowns. First, Cali schools have many things that are very different from anything I grew up knowing about school. I'm going to mention a few differences in a moment, but I must begin by noting that while we were there, some lunch carts rolled by our table on the way to being set up for lunch time. The carts were selling SUSHI. That's right. At this high school you can pick the soggy french fries, the mystery meat chicken strips, or SUSHI. School is definitely a little different out here.....

When I Was A Your Age....
  1. All the schools I went to were made up of one big building with classrooms in different hallways within the building. Out here all the schools have outdoor campuses and are made up of lots of little buildings where the classrooms face outside and you walk outside to get from one class to another.
    1. This completely changes my dislike of all Disney movies that take place in a high school because they are now realistic to me. I always thought sets of kids hanging outside in between classes was so unrealistic; my school was nothing like that....I just never knew how the Cali's did it.
    1. I totally saw a kid playing his guitar on a bench in between classes at one of the high schools. This further confirms my notion that the Disney movies actually had it right.
  2. BRUNCH - how did the Texas school system miss out on this?!? Every school out here has a break halfway through the morning for the kids to eat a snack. HELLO! How come I had to starve every day as I waited for my 12:30 lunch to come around after eating breakfast SIX HOURS earlier. This brunch idea is ingenious!!!
  3. Did I mention the sushi?
  4. Multicultural - I love the fact that there are so many races living in L.A. The high schools are so diverse! It is beautiful, and completely foreign to what I grew up knowing.
While I really like some of the aspects of school out here in L.A., I'm pretty sure we don't really want to raise children out here, so I guess they will miss out on all these cool things. That is, unless other schools start to pick up these things as well! But I'm not that far out of high school myself and I already feel like saying, "When I was a kid, things were different." I can only imagine what it will be like when our own (future) children are in school...

Sunday, November 11, 2007

Venice & Santa Monica

Yesterday Stephen and I went on a little excursion to Venice Beach and Santa Monica. To our surprise, these two places are only about 30 minutes from our front door! We had a blast walking around and seeing the sights.

We hit Venice first. We'd both heard that Venice is a pretty crazy place, and I'd say that is somewhat true. There's this great walkway along the beach where vendors set up booths of random stuff to buy and people put on various shows for you to watch. There's also a big recreation center right on the beach where you can play basketball, miniature tennis, workout at Muscle Beach (a weight room on the beach), and bike and rollerblade along the beach. It was pretty cool.

I actually got pulled in to be a part of one of the shows! This guy was crazy and after about 20 minutes of talking about how much pain he was about to be in, he finally walked barefoot on a big pile of broken bottles and glass.
He had me hold a bottle, a fake crawfish, and put on some "island wear"

Then there was this guy painted in all gold who looked like a statue until you stuck some cash into his box and he went crazy and did some dance moves and then went back to being a statue. We're pretty sure the dog in front of him was fake.

Stephen got stopped by a guy trying to sell CDs of his band and took a moment to give him his opinion of the music.
After walking along Venice Beach, we drove a couple miles north to Santa Monica. This place is awesome! It has a pier that has a carnival on it(!) AND a blocked off street called 3rd Street Promenade that is set up as an outdoor mall. GREAT L.A. SHOPPING (I'm definitely taking Sara here when she comes out!). Once it got dark, more people came out to put on shows like those at Venice Beach. We watched a group of guys break dancing and stopped to listen to an evangelist as he took on questions about Christianity. Great stuff.

Here's the Santa Monica Pier and Amusement Park:

After bringing to his attention ALL the yummy things to eat like cotton candy, pretzels, funnel cake, and popcorn, Stephen finally let me get some cotton candy.
We had a great day and finished it off with a movie in one of the 3 movie theaters on the Promenade, a stop at Starbucks for a warm drink, and listening to the evangelist for about 45 minutes. I have to say this was one of the best things we have done since we've been out here. Walking the 3rd St Promenade makes a great date night! Hooray for tons to do and see and it's all just 30 minutes away from us. Now we know somewhere to take guests when they come to visit!

Friday, November 9, 2007

Life Is Good

I was never nervous about the idea of getting married to Stephen. Everyone asks you that when you're engaged, and maybe some people do get nervous about the idea of spending the rest of their life with a specific person and what it will be like, but I never had that fear. I knew the kind of man I was marrying when I went into this. I knew his character, and I knew his dedication to the Lord and to me. He never made me question his intentions. I may not have known every little detail about him, like the fact that he has 200 pairs of white socks and doesn't like the idea of getting rid of any of them, but I've found so many more things about him that I love now that we're married. There is definitely give and take, and it's a process to learn to consider another person in all that you do, but the rewards are tenfold. I could not have asked for a more wonderful husband.

Just a few of the things I love about being married to Stephen Webb:
I laugh more now than I ever have. He always compliments my cooking, even when it's not that great. He stops to wake me up and give me a kiss every morning before he leaves for work. He smiles at me across the room when we're doing Jr High ministry. He holds my hand. He lets me climb into his lap when he's sitting in our recliner. I can't wait to see him at the end of each day. I fall asleep every night knowing I am loved and deeply loving the incredible man next to me.

I thank the Lord for the gift of my husband. It is truly the Lord who brought us together and keeps us through each day.

Monday, November 5, 2007

Food...

Stephen and I are sitting on the couch watching one of his favorite shows, "Mythbusters," and we just finished a first rate dinner of grilled cheese :-D I had a few random pictures of Stevenson Ranch (the area we live in) and thought I'd put them on here for you guys to see. The first is of a California classic, In N Out Burger. You can't come to Cali and not eat at In N Out...it's legendary. However, it's probably talked up a little more than it deserves. The food is good, but I wouldn't say it's amazing. We have one in walking distance from our apt. It was dark out when I took this pic, so it's only of the sign.


Next we have the grocery store that is basically at the entrance to our apt complex. I definitely love the convenience! I took a pic of it mostly because of the palm trees. My grocery store has PALM TREES at the front of it! Sometimes the reality that I'm really living in California amazes me.
That's pretty much all I've got for tonight. Nothing too exciting; just more glimpses of what life is like for us out here. Hope you're all doing great!!!

~Rachel & Stephen

Friday, November 2, 2007

Hooray for 2 Months!

Yesterday we celebrated our 2 month anniversary! Man, we've been married for forever... ;-) Stephen and I both worked all day and we've had a busy week, so a nice, relaxed evening at home was just right. Stephen loves a good steak, so I thought I'd surprise him with a yummy candlelight dinner.

Having never attempted to cook steak of any kind before, I was a little nervous (I stood in front of the meat section in the grocery store for about 10 min just trying to figure out what cut of meat I was supposed to buy). I settled on a filet mignon (only the best for my man!) and went home to look up how to cook it. Add on a few side items like sauteed mushrooms and onions, a little mashed potatoes, and we had a meal. Somehow the meal ended up really good!!! I love to cook, but it usually takes one time of figuring something out before I can really make it good. So by the grace of God, this meal was a first time success and we had a great evening together.

I'm so thankful for my husband and every day discover more wonderful qualities about him. The Lord has truly blessed me with a man more wonderful than I dared to hope for. Happy 2 months my love!

Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Fun Weekend!

This weekend was pretty exciting for the Webb's. Stephen's dad came into town and stayed with us for the weekend (first over night guest!) and we went to Pasadena to hang out with one of my long lost friends and meet each other's husbands! Pasadena is a seriously cool town. The architecture on the buildings is incredible, there is shopping galore, and so far the only $2 movie theater that I have found anywhere close by (I miss my weekly trip to the dollar theater back in B'ham). Not to mention the fact that it is currently home to Mandy and Ben Cassil, who are so much fun! They had tons of tips of things to do in and around Los Angeles, and it was great getting to catch up with Mandy. AND Stephen's dad treated us all to dinner at a Brazilian BBQ place where they come by your table with more different kinds of meat than you can even imagine on these big skewers and slice it onto your plate until you have to be rolled out of the restaurant. Amazing. I wish I had pictures of it all. I even took my camera along and totally forgot about it. Guess we'll just have to do it all over again sometime soon!

Thursday, October 25, 2007

Mr. MVP

Wow, is it already Thursday?!? This week has flown by! Between the fires on Sunday and Monday, Junior High at Grace on Wednesday night, and work today, the week has disappeared. Stephen is napping in the recliner while I'm typing, so I'm going to brag about him a little in this post when he's least aware of it.

Last week Stephen finished up training to be an Insulin Pump Specialist and his training class voted him "Most Valuable Participant"!!! Along with getting a certificate for completing the training, he also got an MVP certificate and Gift Card, as seen below:



What a handsome guy! We're expecting big things from him in his new career...we're thinking the next step is VP of Sales, and then it's on to CEO of Medtronic from there ;-) haha. Well maybe not quite that big of a jump, but so far his first official week of being an ISP has gone well. He's definitely working hard (thus the need for a nap) and doing a great job. I couldn't be more proud of him!

Sunday, October 21, 2007

California is Burning!

I have no idea whether any of this is making the news anywhere else in the U.S., but southern Califonia is on fire! Malibu is burning to the ground and there's actually another huge fire on the other side of the interstate from us. When we were driving home from church this morning, you could see a massive cloud of smoke that covered half the sky a little ways off in the distance from us, and as the afternoon has progressed, the fire has gotten a LOT bigger and they're evacuating people. Thankfully we're across the highway a ways from it and in a pretty commercialized area, so it's pretty unlikely to come too close to us, but there is definitely smoke in the air and tiny ashes falling (don't worry, they are VERY tiny).

We're not in Alabama (or Kansas or Texas) anymore, Toto. No more humidity, tornadoes, or rain...

I must say that California has some very different weather than I'm used to. Stephen's been out here for a few years now, so this is pretty normal for him, but I'm honestly amazed at how different the weather is. I guess whenever I thought about moving out here I just thought about the fact that it's always sunny and warm in California, but there's a lot I wasn't expecting. Here's what I've got so far:
  • Rain - it doesn't rain in LA and the few times it does, it's a VERY big deal to the people out here. Last month it rained for the first time in 150 something days and they were showing people on the news who were dancing in it and going crazy. It's a big deal when it rains.
  • Desert - We live in the mountainous desert. You don't think about that when you think of Los Angeles. Desert means VERY dry, generally very warm in the days and very cool during the night. I love the warm, sunny days and cool nights and mornings. Don't so much love the dry part. We definitely registered for a humidifier when we were engaged :-)
  • Wind - oh my goodness! So if you've seen the movie "The Holliday," they talk about the Santa Anna winds. I am living in the midst of them! Dust storms blow across the highway and take the visibility down to nothing. Seriously. They shut down highways this week because of the dust storms. But more than that, they are so strong! They blow cars around on the highway and make you aware of your balance as you walk outside. Stephen says the winds don't last very long and that the "windy season" as I'm going to call it might be over by next week.
  • Earthquakes - Yikes! The FIRST NIGHT I was out here there was a real earthquake! It shook the room and I thought a big car had crashed into our building or something. No, it was just an earthquake. I have now been in two, although they were definitely nothing major, but I had never been able to say that I'd been in an earthquake until now.
I think that's all I've got at the moment, but it's only been 2 months... I must say that although the weather is very different, I really like it! I LOVE that it is sunny pretty much every single day! And I can wear a t-shirt during the day and a light jacket at night...perfect! I still walk outside and say "What a beautiful day it is" and then realize that every single day has been beautiful! I definitely see why people want to live out here. All in all, I'm thankful for this time in life to experience something new and enjoy some different aspects of God's creation.

Saturday, October 20, 2007

Our Apartment

Well here they are, pics of our apartment! They're primarily of the living room, kitchen and dining room but we are living in a one bed, one bath apt so there's not a whole lot else to show.

A few fun notes about our apt:
  • The bathroom could be a second bedroom or small office...I've threatened Stephen with putting some of his books in there if we get too many more!
  • It came with a walk-in closet that actually holds a big dresser PLUS our hanging clothes!
  • When we got back from our honeymoon at 1:00 in the morning, the A/C wasn't working...welcome back to real life! Stephen wasn't exactly thrilled about that one, but thankfully it's fixed now and everything works great!
  • Our laundry room is actually outside. You walk out onto our patio and there's another tiny room that houses the washer & dryer. Different, but I kinda like it.
  • The lady above us has plants galore on her balcony and probably spends 1/4 of her day tending to them. They look great, that's for sure.
  • We had to buy 3 new bookshelves in addition to Stephen's 3 that he already had to hold all his books plus my few. I've always wanted a big library and this is definitely a start!!!
Alright, here are some pics:This is the main entrance to the apartment complex.

Here's the view from the leasing office. Those are some of the apartments in the bottom and then you can see some of the hills and mountains in the distance. If you haven't been to LA, you might not know that it is actually VERY mountainous. There's a hiking trail about a mile and a half from our front door!

And now the good stuff! Our front door is just to the right in this picture. And note the first two of six bookcases crammed into our apartment (which I love by the way) :-) The beautiful grapevine cross on the wall came from the wonderful Mrs. Jane Vaughn!

A closer look at the bookshelves.

Here's my handsome husband on our new reclining loveseat.

Next up, we move to the kitchen and dining room (note two more bookshelves on the way).

I love our kitchen! It's pretty much entirely filled with wedding gifts...everything you see was a present. They don't call them wedding "showers" for nothing!

And our table! This was a find at an antique shop in B'ham and was restored to its present beauty! (Mirror on the wall is courtesy of Aunt Jamie!)

And here's my lonely little bookshelf. I literally could not fit one more book on it (notice the books stuck underneath the bottom).All in all, it's a pretty great apartment. And just for you guys, we'll finish off with a pic of Stephen and me:

Have a great weekend!

Friday, October 19, 2007

Welcome To Our Life

Hello to new friends and old! Stephen and I thought we'd start a blog about our new life together out here in California so that we can keep everyone updated on what is going on with us. We want to stay connected to all our friends across the U.S., and hopefully this will be a tool to help.

We've been married now for a month and a half (48 days!...now the countdown is to our first anniversary!) and life has been great. God blessed us with a wonderful apartment in Santa Clarita, CA (just north of Los Angeles) that we are really enjoying. I've had a lot of fun making our apartment into a home, and Stephen is still asking questions like "Where do we keep the double A batteries again?" I guess that's what happens when he goes to work during the day and I'm left here to organize and find places for things :-)

We had an awesome honeymoon in Maui. It was beautiful and a great time of relaxing and enjoying being together. These are 2 of my favorite pics taken from just outside our hotel. This is the Whaler's Village in Ka'annapali, and the one below is the walkway at the back of our hotel.


Now we're back in Cali and enjoying life together. Stephen is loving his new job and finishes training tomorrow. He has been reminding me that he has to go in for a few hours this Saturday to set up his new work station and I'm getting the feeling that it's something he's really excited about. We're very thankful for God's provision of this great job for Stephen, and the fact that it's something he is passionate about.

Tonight we hosted our first guests, the Mehringers, in our new home. They're another newlywed couple who serve with us in the Jr High Ministry at Grace Community Church. We had a great time of fellowship with them and Stephen broke out his new toy...two remote control helicopters! It was pretty funny watching the boys try to figure out how to control them and trying to avoid getting hit by kamakazi copters.

I'm planning on putting some pictures of our apartment on here in the next couple days. And of course we'll put some wedding pics up as well. Thank you to everyone who came to the wedding and for the many people who helped in one way or another. You all mean
so much to us and helped to make it into an absolutely incredible day. We love you guys!

Til next time,
Stephen and Rachel