Holidays

Thanksgiving pictures. I realize I am a few holidays behind, but what else is new. We spent Thanksgiving with my family. As you can see by the pictures we all have some strange uncontrollable urge to make faces at each other while taking pictures. Maybe it's genetic?

My first time playing Wii. Jennifer and I duked it out with boxing. I did pretty well with the tennis but don't ask me about golf. I don't like golf.

It's fire time again!

Okay..okay...it's been a while since my last post. At the moment we are having a little bit of excitement with the SoCal wildfires. It was a little strange to wake up Saturday morning and see the smoke and then find out that the 5 and 14 fwys were closed. Alan had planned on visiting his dad in Anaheim but those plans got put on hold. I have taken a couple of pictures of the Sayre fire that is closest to us. The first two pictures are from the playground at school this morning.

This afternoon afterschool I wandered down the street because I kept hearing airplanes. It turns out that there are at least three fixed wing aircraft flying almost over our house to get to the fire and then up to Catasic to get more water. They were pretty impressive looking airplanes.

These bottom two pictures were taken yesterday afternoon from our balconey of the same fire.

Vacation Time!

First of all I need to apologise for all the pictures! We had so much fun though, I had to include a good sampling. We decided to go up the coast this year instead of doing a long road trip. The last two summers we drove all over the Western U.S. but we wanted to keep it a little shorter this summer. We stayed in Cambria, Monterey, and San Louis Obispo.






This was the first time we had every stayed in Cambria. We loved it! It was a little cold but it was close to Hearst Castle and we spent a lot of time at the beach.




Just North of Hearst Castle is an area where you can see Elephant Seals. They are usually there in the spring and summer. While we where there it appeared that a bunch of immature males were practicing their sparing. They were very interesting to watch! We also had a number of unusual sunsets courtesy of the Indian fire.



We spent about five days in Monterey. Of course we went to Cannery Row and the Monterey Bay Aquarium.This is an ocean sunfish. They can grow to massive sizes! I think they are really cool fish.


We took some time to sail in the Bay and kayak. We found a company right on Cannery Row so we could put in right near the kelp beds. It was a blast. We actually got to see a number of momma sea otters with their pups. I do have one confession though, I am really uncoordinated so it took me about 30-40 minutes before I felt comfortable in the kayak. I was worried about getting sea sick, tipping over, etc., but I eventually had a good time. I know, I'm a wimp!



We took a drive up to Santa Cruz. We unfortunately chose one of the days when there was a heat wave and it was over 100 degrees in Santa Cruz. We walked around the boardwalk, played video games, walked on the pier and then left.


I had some fun playing games in the arcade. I managed to win about 1600 tickets. Guess what I redeemed them for? A rolling pin, yes that's right, a silicone covered rolling pin. Who'd guess that you could redeem arcade tickets for small kitchen utensils!


Winchester Mystery House-San Jose


On the way back from Monterey we stayed in San Louis Obispo. We stayed at the Madonna Inn like we did for our honeymoon. I know that the Madonna Inn isn't for everyone but I really like staying there. It is really different and fun!





Well, that's our trip. We had a great time. Alan is back at work now and I get to putt around the house for another month or so before school starts. I am taking a summer school class through CSU Bakersfield. This Friday I start "Foundations of American Education". We don't have a lot of other summer plans except to possibly go to the Shakespeare Festival in Utah for a few days and hopefully get our condo some much needed new carpet!!!!

He's finshed!

Alan completed a certificate in Project Management from UCLA extension. We attended an awards dinner to commemorate the event.

The dinner was held at the faculty center at UCLA. After the dinner and ceremony we drove down to the 3rd street promenade in Santa Monica for a little while.

May Happenings

Well, this month has been pretty busy.

My mom is doing okay. After several surgeries and some tests it looks like most of the cancer is gone. She will only have to go through some radiation treatments over the summer as a preventative measure.

At the begnning of the month Alan and I went to the grand opening of the Americana at Brand in Glendale. It was a pretty amazing party!

On the 17th Alan and I took our moms to our 5th annual Dodger/Angel game. I am happy to say that the Dodger's won that day. It was quite hot!.

Everybodyduck - Use Me Here

Everybodyduck - Use Me Here

While I was going through my students' comments on our Bible Blog, one of the girls made a comment that reminded me of this song. I used to sing this song as a prayer when I was still single and frustrated about not being married when I was in my late twenties. I want it to be my prayer about all the things going on right now.

The youtube video has an opening title and the song but no graphics.

Why adopt?

I get this question a lot. I get questioning looks from my doctors when they ask if we've pursued in-vitro. I get asked why we're not adopting a child from the US. I saw this video today (the one below)and it reminded me why we want to adopt and why we should try to adopt more! A warning though, this video is a one or two kleenex video.

Adoption Presentation

A Tough Week

This week has been kind of difficult.

I found out that my principal will be leaving and going to a new school in July.
I saw an advertisement for a nearby condo for sale. I saw what our condos are actually selling for right now. Can we say "good-bye equity".
The process of adoptions through China continue at a snail's pace. It could be 2,3, or more years before we get matched with a child.
My mom has cancer. They removed most of it already, but they are still checking to make sure it didn't spread.

No, not a good week.

Almost Spring Break!

Well, I didn't really realize that three months have past since my last blog. I guess my life has not really changed much since then. We did our normal kinds of things like plan our summer vacation, visit family etc. I also finished my third class with CSUB. I have been enjoying the classes I have been taking so far. No new news on the adoption front. Most of the china adoption news I hear is bad news. The Chinese government is still only processing one week's worth of referral's per month. They are still backlogged from Jan 2006. This just means that our wait will indeed be quite long. No one is really sure how long, but at least three years. I check Chinaadopttalk.com every so often to get the latest scoops. Please pray for us as we continue to wait on the Lord about our adoption.
One thing I am looking forward to is our summer vacation. We are planning to go up the coast again to Cambria and Monterey! I think I need to practice a litttle more with my new camera so that I'll be ready! I ttok some random pictures looking out over our balcony for practice today.

Do the next thing

This is a poem that I looked up because Elizabeth Elliot quoted it in one (or more) of her books. I have been finishing up grades for the first semester and cleaning out my gradebook for the second semester when I saw this again. Sometimes I get really stressed by life and feel almost paralyzed because I don't know what to do or what to do first...so this poem is so good for me because it reminds me to offer up all of my anxieties and fears to the Lord, to trust that He is working for my good and to just do something...the next thing.

Do The Next Thing

"At an old English parsonage down by the sea, there came in the twilight a message to me. Its quaint Saxon legend deeply engraven that, as it seems to me, teaching from heaven. And all through the hours the quiet words ring,like a low inspiration, 'Do the next thing.'

Many a questioning, many a fear, many a doubt hath its quieting here. Moment by moment, let down from heaven, time, opportunity, guidance are given. Fear not tomorrow, child of the King, trust that with Jesus, do the next thing.

Do it immediately, do it with prayer, do it reliantly, casting all care. Do it with reverence, tracing His hand, who placed it before thee with earnest command. Stayed on omnipotence, safe 'neath His wing, leave all resultings, do the next thing.

Looking to Jesus, ever serener, working or suffering be thy demeanor, in His dear presence, the rest of His calm, the light of His countenance, be thy psalm. Do the next thing."

Santa Barbara get away and Christmas

We decided to go up to Santa Barbara for our anniversary this year. We had to wait until the weekend after the 16th because of work stuff. I think we figured out though, that trying to get away the weekend before Christmas is not an easy thing to do. But, once we were actually up there is was really nice. We finished our Christmas shopping on State street and went to see National Treasure at the Arlington theater, which is huge! We spend a few hours up at Solvang on Sunday afternoon. On Sunday night we ate at a restaurant called Brophy Brothers in Santa Barbara harbor. They had some of the best fish and chips that I've ever tasted!

There were quite a few pelicans hanging out at the entrance to the harbor. There were even a few on the wharf. They gave me a chance to try out my new camera.

Alan and I enjoyed a quiet Christmas morning at home opening gifts and then we went over to my mom's house for the rest of the day. We found it funny that while Alan got mostly clothes and gift cards, I received techno gadgets and of course books!