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!

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!

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.

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!

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