Look Out!

We've been having BEAUTIFUL weather out here for the last few days, so Stephen and I have been taking advantage of the nice weather and spending some time outdoors.  This week we played a little soccer, went for a walk, and also broke out one of our Christmas presents...racquetball gear!  Now, I realize racquetball is an indoor sport, but we take a little walk outside to get to our apartment's court.  And I think racquetball is so fun, that I want to write about that rather than focusing on the GREAT weather that I'm absolutely loving. 

Now it should be known that Stephen has a good bit of experience playing racquetball from back in the day when he and his dad would play together.  I, on the other hand, have now played racquetball a total of two times.  I remember going to the YMCA when I was a little kid and watching my dad play racquetball.  Then in college we had a ton of courts at the Rec Center, and I always saw people in there crashing into walls, working up a serious sweat, and having a blast. I was always secretly jealous of them because I thought it would be so much fun to play.

Well, I've discovered that for me it IS fun...as long as you have the ability to laugh at yourself each time you swing with all your might at this little blue ball flying at you from all directions after bouncing off every possible surface, only to completely whiff and miss the ball.  And also if you swing and completely come short of hitting the ball because you're too scared you're going to crash into a wall or hit the wall with your racquet.  And ending games with scores of 15 to 1.  As long as you can just laugh about all that, you're gonna love it.  :-)

Well, maybe it just takes a few times to get the hang of the game.  At least my wonderful husband laughs with me (or probably at me) and doesn't get too frustrated with my lack of hand-eye coordination.  According to him, I'm getting better, especially if I keep my eyes open when I swing.  Right...  But I'm not giving up yet!  One day I will actually swing and hit the ball.  More than three times in a game! 

We Love San Diego!

For my birthday and Valentine's day, Stephen took me on a trip down to San Diego for a long weekend.  It was WONDERFUL!!!  I officially love San Diego.  Something about being close to the water and sail boats and fun little beach towns just gets to me.  Unfortunately Stephen pretty much hates the beach.  Mostly it's the sand and sun that he doesn't like, but being the wonderful husband that he is, he endured it all with minimal complaining.  See: Plus I think it helped that he had a dinner at this amazing establishment to look forward to:  (if you can't tell, it's Ruth's Chris Steakhouse...AMAZING!)  Definitely the best steak I have ever had.  And it was a wonderful dinner with my husband.  He sure does treat me well!

Some of the things we did while we were in San Diego:

Went to the San Diego Zoo!!!  It was pretty impressive.  We spent almost an entire day there.  I was definitely reminded of God's creativity in all the different, and sometimes very strange looking, animals.  Incredible colors, weird features, all with a purpose.  It goes to show God's infinite wisdom, knowledge, and creativity!

Coronado Island.  You drive on this awesome, crazy high bridge over the ocean to get to the island.  It was quaint, very well kept, and had the best beaches I've seen in California so far.  I'd love to stay here one day (at the Hotel del Coronado, right on the beach!)!

The helicopter you see in the sky is actually a CH-47 Chinook.  It's a military helicopter that looks like this up close:

San Diego and Coronado Island are home to many members of the United States Navy, as well as a huge Navy base (or many bases...they were everywhere!)  It was pretty interesting.  Our hotel was right down the road from the Anti-Submarine Warfare Base.  Stephen thought that was pretty cool.  And we got to walk along the ports and see some awesome ships like:

The U.S.S. Midway

And this VERY old pirate ship!

And lastly, we went to La Jolla, which is a town about 10 miles north of downtown San Diego.  Based on the great recommendation of my mom, who was out here last year with my dad, we knew this was one stop we had to make.  It has a pretty incredible coastline with a great walking path all along it.  Here's one of many pics we took during our walk.  And we also got to see a bunch of sea lions sunbathing on the beaches!

Oh, and we can't forget Stephen's impromptu camera appearance!  While walking by the shops in La Jolla, this lady approached us doing "market research" and asked for Stephen, being the technically savvy consumer that he is, to give an interview.  He did a fantastic job and I stood in the background taking pictures :-)

Well, that's pretty much it for our trip.  I loved it!  Even though it's only been about six months since our wedding, it felt like we were on a second honeymoon.  Or maybe I'm just really in love with my husband and love getting to go away and spend some undivided time with him.  Either way, it was a great!  Thanks for the trip, my love!

Ghetto Bowling

This past Wednesday instead of our regular Jr High service, XChange ministries went bowling!!! Four solid hours of bowling and laughing with some awesome 7th and 8th graders. My favorite part of the evening was being able to spend time having conversations with my girls. There are so many of them on Sundays and Wednesdays, and you want to be able to say hello to everyone and check in on them all, and it's just not possible in that short time. So this was a great chance to hear a little more of what's been going on in their lives and to continue building relationships.

One thing that has been a hard adjustment to life and ministry here in Los Angeles is the fact that everyone is so spread out that it's difficult to be involved beyond just Sundays and Wednesdays (when we're all in the same place). These kids drive up to an hour in any direction to get to church. It's not like we all live in the same town...in fact, the majority of my small group girls live 45 minutes away. So needless to say, getting together with them is somewhat difficult. It was nice to have some hang out time with them! Here's a pic of a few of my girls. They are great and they love Jesus!

Montrose Bowl 2008

Birthday Cake!

Stephen's birthday was two weeks ago and his wonderful mom sent him a package full of fun birthday items! Included were some ingredients and a recipe for one of Stephen's favorite cakes! And I have to mention that the recipe originally came from Mrs. Mindy Cagle, former Grace Jr High Pastor's wife, so you know that it is good! We've been so busy that I haven't even had a chance to make it for him until this week. So Tuesday night I finally pulled everything together and made him his cake. I turned out soooo good! Thanks for the recipe and ingredients, Janet!!! We took a pic of Stephen with the birthday hat on, but he wouldn't let me put it on here...probably something to do with all the colorful feathers on the hat haha! So instead you get a pic of me and our yummy cake...

Up All Night

I can't believe January is already over. I have a feeling this year is going to fly by...

This past weekend we had a Jr High Lock-In at the church. When I hear the word lock-in, two things come to mind: lots of fun and NO SLEEP. And that's exactly what happened. I haven't been to a lock-in since high school, and all my memories of our youth group lock-ins are great ones. This one proved just as good.

Within the first 30 minutes, all 100+ junior highers (and probably some of the staff) had run around enough to create quite a stench, which stayed with them and only increased as the night wore on. If you've ever spent much time with junior highers, you know what I'm talking about.

Some of the highlights of the night were:

• A mechanical bull, which everyone, including Stephen and me, got to ride
• Stephen's team taking 2nd place and mine taking 3rd in the 1:00am DODGEBALL TOURNAMENT (which finished at 4:00am)
• Getting to hang out with some awesome 7th and 8th graders
• NO SLEEP (I don't know that we'd consider this a highlight....)
• Going to bed as soon as it was all over

Needless to say, it was a lot of fun and very tiring. We definitely spent the majority of the daylight hours on Saturday sleeping. And then our bodies were so sore that we moved as little as possible the rest of the weekend. Who knew that a dodgeball tournament could create such pain. Maybe by the time it rolls around next year, we'll be ready to do it again!

More Rose Parade

Ok, I know we posted about this a little while back, but like I said, we lost all our pictures from the parade. I just found some great ones and thought I'd put a few more on here. The floats were so cool. Remember they are made completely out of flowers or other organic material. Pretty impressive!

The China Beijing Olympic float, which cause a little bit of controversy with human rights protesters carrying signs and camped out around it. These little ponies were some of Stephen's favorites

The Hawaii float again!

My personal favorite...look at all the detail!

The end.

Happy 25th Birthday!

This week Stephen turned 25! In the midst of an incredibly busy week, we made it into downtown LA on his birthday to go watch the Lakers play the Phoenix Suns!!! Going to a Laker's game is one of the things we really wanted to do while we live here. The Lakers lost, but it was still a great experience. Here are some pictures from the game
We also drove down towards San Diego yesterday to visit a couple vineyards not too far from us and we discovered more of the beauty of California. I loved it! Los Angeles is NOT the beautiful California that I had always pictured, but north and south of LA are where it's at! We drove past beautiful coast lines, green rolling mountains, gorgeous palm trees...the works. We're planning a trip to San Diego in just a few weeks and I can't wait to see more of this beautiful state. Hooray for getting out of the concrete jungle of LA! (as Stephen likes to call it) :-)