Friends and Family Update Winter 09

Hello to our dear family and friends,

Hope the new year has been good to you all so far. Joel and I welcomed it as we seem to welcome most new years with feelings of excitement and newness, but also with the familiar wondering of "what course will our life take this year"?

LA is constantly changing. Friends come and go (often too quickly, and usually as soon as they start a family), business store fronts constantly change, or construction adds a new dimension to ones neighborhood. It's never really a given when interacting with a group, or neighbors, that anyone comes from a similar background, or even speaks the same language. I guess you probably get the picture. LA is not suburbia:) Some may say it is harsh, and well... it really can be, but Joel and I have come to love this city and think there are priceless treasures in living here, even though it can be rather hard sometimes. The sunny weather does help take an edge off the harshness at least.

With all the uncertainty of living in LA, another dimension of uncertainty we have had could be summed up in this: Joel is pursuing a "career" in ministry; He received a Masters of Divinity, not a degree in medicine, or business. I am still a student with a long way to go, motherhood on the way, and technically I have no career yet. When I do have one, it will have something to do with music. We both realize the reality of having picked uncertain fields:) but we really support one another, and even though the journey has been hard at times, it has been extraordinary. We wouldn't trade it for anything!

We never expected, with all the waiting and limbo we have experienced over the last years, that SETTLING news would greet us this new year. Joel's part-time position at church as the Young Adult Director is going full time! It's actually miraculous with the state of the economy. We are so excited, not just for the idea of Joel having a full time ministry job, but it's a church we love, and it's right in the heart of the city we love, LA. This also means, I can continue with my education at Pasadena City College, where the education is cheap/affordable, and surprisingly really outstanding. We also know where we will be raising our little girl, at least for a while. We still don't know how long we can stay in our current apartment, and there are other "up in the air" things, but we feel blessed to at least know our general geographical location. It's been like a gift.

The pregnancy journey has been fun since I stopped feeling sick at around sixteen weeks. We can both feel her kick and move at twenty five weeks now. Joel reads to her sometimes, especially Psalm 139, and I do my best to eat healthy and walk about three or four miles a day. I still have yet to start my pregnancy yoga video and need to get on that soon:) I've been juggling organizing to get ready for our girl, as well as some intensive music classes. I get a little overwhelmed with figuring out what we will need because I'm pretty simple, and for some reason, the idea of having more than I might need sort of freaks me out. It might have something to do with the fact we will be sharing a bedroom with our baby (we are in a one bedroom apartment), and have about zero storage space:). But, overall I'm just really having fun and we are excited to start our Bradley Method classes soon.

We get pretty busy because until Joel goes full-time at the end of June, he is juggling third grade teaching, the church part-time, and a pretty full load of guitar students. I'm also really involved with helping Joel at the church. We try to relax on Saturdays, and Joel has fun riding his road bike to work, and gearing up for the Pasadena triathlon this spring. We really try hard to keep quality family time a priority, and value the ideas of sabbath and rest. It's been so important for us!

There are some updated "Winter" pictures on my blog now. We didn't really take any trips this winter, and we just stayed home for Christmas, so the pictures are just our winter life, here in SoCal. We love feeling connected to family and friends even though we are far away. It's always so wonderful to hear from you!

Family & Friends Summer O8 Update

Summer was wonderful, but how busy it was took me by surprise. We loved having visitors these last few months and we had a wonderful house with a pool and hot tub to house sit at for a week or so. Joel also did his first Young Adult "event" this summer, a cookout at Griffith Park, and it was just really fun, relaxed and everyone had a good time.

Josiah, my awesome little (not so little anymore) brother visited in leu to Mexico for a mission trip. Hanging out in the pool, drinking chai shakes, and watching him surf for the first time in San Diego were some highlights. Josiah also picked up a sweet marble chess board in Mexico for us, which may be on the list for "top three gifts" that Joel has ever recieved.

Shortly after Josiah left, Bill and Margie came and we had a wonderful time. Memories I will cherish! There is nothing like a good field trip to look at houses in Malibu with Bill Dad. Simply hilarious! We had some nice meals together, ventured to the Hollywood Bowl, hung out at the best boccie ball court in America (Laguna Beach) and had some really good laughs over what must have been "treat customers bad day" in LA! First while trying to rent bikes for the beach path, then "Mike the confrontational, everything I do wrong is someone elses fault" waiter in Brentwood. Glad we could all laugh about it and still have a good time, just wish it could have been "cheap entertainment" for the parents:)

Right after Bill and Margie left, we went to Yosemite. The original vacation plan was to backpack in Nicaragua, inspired by our adventures in Guatemala last year, but there was no plane fare to match our budget. I have no regrets with Yosemite, though! It was wonderful. The highlight was hiking 17 mile Half Dome together and Joel getting to jump into waterfall pools with rainbows at the end of the hike. He said it must be a taste of what heaven will be like. It looked heavenly. At one point during the hike Joel was getting desperate for water. He hit a low point, especially when he had to wrap his shirt around his head so he would stop getting sun burnt and we could hear a rattle snake. He was pitiful but for some reason I found him hilarious trying to suck the last moisture out of a half apple. A group with water purifying tabs was passing by and he didn't hesitate ask to ask for some. He was so desperate and pitiful that I'm not sure they felt they had a choice but to help out:) At least the low point was over and soon we were drinking some safe purified mountain water and chillin' on some river rocks for rejuvenation.

At Yosemite we did some other hiking too (Cathedral Lakes and Mono Pass) and visited Mariposa Grove (giant Sequoia tree forest), Glacier Point with brilliant stars at night, and some different high sierra meadows. We did the Valley Floor bike path too, which wasn't very hard, but just incredibly scenic. The campfire each night was a highlight and roasting food over the fire, like cheese fondue and chicken sausages from TJs. Our tent was cozy and our campsites picks were peaceful, wooded and a little off the beaten path away from noise, a nice contrast from our day to day LA experience. We were so thankful for the trip!

I was able to spend a little time with Anja after Yosemite. I really liked going to Santa Barbara and hanging out with Mia and Anja at Butterfly Beach and having Anja in Pasadena for a night. I was so thankful for it! Our morning hike up Echo Mnt was a little long and dusty (I kinda led the wrong direction) but it was fun to show Anja a place I frequent.

Now the fall is basically here and we are finding our ryhthmic routine's stride again, which I don't mind, now that we had a break. Back to studies for me and back to teaching and Young Adult ministry for Joel and trying to survive financially in LA:) We have a better hold on our priorities as we delve into the busyness and have been incorporating more peaceful things like evening hikes in the San Gabriels behind our house and less time with technology... soooooo gooooood.