December all wrapped up

The Christmas season is over. I got some cool gifts, gave some too. Had great times with family and learned a couple things also.
I love Christmas. I love the decorations. But I also can't wait to get rid of our tree. In our amazing, tiny, cute, tiny apartment it's starting to suffocate me. :)


Doesn't Grant look so pretty






Decorating Christmas cookies with Ahlsweedes

Caught without a camera

This is the reason why I need to always have a camera on hand. Just now Luke and I were driving home and I spy a skunk hipity hopiting down the street by our apartment. When it turned the corner I said, " Luke! Follow that!" And then we drove along side it until finally it realized we were stalking it and then hide under a car. As we are enjoying that mini adventure at 1 A.M, we turn the next corner and see the oddest looking cat squating in the middle of the road pooping.

I don't know. Maybe it all seemed so funny because we are dilerous, or maybe it is just funny. You decide.

Goodnight

The Hilton along the 8

JOY!

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I'm sad to say I wasn't that upset

If any of you are familiar with the Deja Vu strip club on Rosecrans I have news for you. We were driving home tonight and saw smoke billowing up and later came to find it was the strip club. On the news they said that nobody was hurt. The club was actually closed...
With that being said,.. I'm not sad about it.

Disneyland

The Perfect Tiny Leaf

Rainy Day Rescuer

Two dogs, lots of rain. Reward,... I smell like wet dog for the rest of the day at work.

Our First Christmas Tree

Tonight we went and bought our tree.(Thanks Mom and Tom!)
It was the first one we touched. I guess we are not really into digging around. It was already opened and ready to go, so we figured why not.

Not that this should discredit our tree.


It's just right.

Plus Luke looks so stylish inspecting it.

Two reasons it's called Black Firday

1. Because when you get up in time for the sales it is still pitch black outside. We woke up at 4:00 A.M and headed to Macys, then to Target, Bed Bath and Beyond and a few other shops. I personally thought it was fantastic. I love the adventure of it all! We bought decorations(the star for the tree. Yay!). Plus we are finished with our Christmas shopping.




2. Because when you are delirious from waking up so early you sometimes do things that cause you to black out. For instance, slice your knuckle with brand new knives, pass out a couple times, cause your husband to freak out and your in-laws to drive all the way out to tell you to go to the emergency room. (By the way, thank you Lana <3)
No stitches,...they just super glued it. Now we are waiting to see how much we have to pay for them to glue my finger together.
YAY BLACK FRIDAY!

My husband and his quick anti-traditions rant

He loves Christmas. But one night he decided that he wanted to explain why Christmas trees, ornaments, candy canes and snowmen should not be involved with Christmas! He says,"What do they have to do with Jesus". So I decided to be dramatic for our friends visiting and decapitate one of the snowmen (who's head comes off ). Well, Luke wanted to show me up so he grabbed the glass bowl off ornaments and threw them across the floor!!! The best part was the look on his face when he saw that he broke them. He thought they were plastic.
HAHA!!!!

Thanksgiving 09

THANKSGIVING!
Good food, great family, too much dessert. Just the norm.

Child to remain anonymous

Well, I was sure this day would come. Really, I'm not shocked. And I'm not one to get all hyped up on this Swine Flu madness. But today it was official.
One of my favorite students in my class,...let's call him John, wasn't feeling well last Thursday. So I got down to his level, rubbed his back and said," Hey there little Johnny. What's wrong? You not feeling well? Maybe you should go home early today?" But he didn't want to go. He said he thinks he can wait.
He did not come on Friday..
He did not come today..
And then they tell me he has it.

Like I said, I'm not that concerned. I figured if I didn't get it from one of the kids at work I would get it from the PLNU students that are soon to be quarantined next door to our apartment.

I'll post any updates. :)

Living in Point Loma

I just got cut off by two mercedes in a matter of two minutes. Its hard for me to not conclude that everyone that owns one believes that the reason they are so expensive is because they paid for the road they drive on too.

LUKEY POOKIE POO

Yesterday I came home from work to find our Christmas lights on, everything all lit up...AND our apartment clean...

I love my husband.

STEPHANIE

STEPHANIE IS HERE! HERE IN SAN DIEGO! Well, right now I believe she is at Disneyland. But, you know. She arrived yesterday to surprise her man for his birthday! :)<3
What cutie lil' poopers!
She will only be here a couple more days, but that's ok. She will be back for almost two weeks in December. Then I will have more of her for myself.

I love her.
She is my favorite big haired, New Jerseyian ever!

Overflow Coffee House

So we had some guests tonight at the coffee house. This is Rocky rocking the sax.

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MmmmHmmm..

I made myself some staying home sick cookie dough. It's amazing.

FWD:

Went and saw A Christmas Carol with friends tonight. It was really good. And I feel like there was a lot of symbolism in it. I could have done without the 3D though.
I recommend it to everyone,..except for kids. Even I was creeped out at some parts.

Good night!

Kitty Wampis

I love visiting wampis.

This Morning's Adventure

Well, lets just say we've been eating a lot of ice cream and goodies lately, so I decided that I should go for a jog this morning. I have only briefly explored the other side of Chatsworth and thought that this morning would be a good time to start.

After only turning a couple corners I see a white truck start slowing down next to me. So, naturally a slight sense of panic starts creeping into my body. Some people think I'm paranoid about these such things but I just think I'm prepared. I took a womens self-defense class. I can tell you what to do with a pen, high heels and keys in any situation. (Just ask.) Anyway, I digress...It was my brother! He was driving to his next house for work and saw me struggling to catch my breath on the other side of the road.

After talking with him a couple minutes he had to get going so I start my trek again. I didn't really know where I was going, but I always thought wandering was fun. No destination, just running around. Long story short, I got miserably lost. Absolutely turned around. At one point I thought that I had crossed back over Chatsworth all the while running towards where I thought Chatsworth was, but actually running farther away. By this time it has been way longer than I had wanted this run to be, I was beginning to be exhausted, I had forgotten my brace and my knee starting hurting. All I was thinking was,"After I get up the courage to ask someone in this extravagant neighborhood if I could use their phone, how I am going to describe to Luke where I am so he can drive me home?!"

So I turn around and start heading in the opposite direction, find some people working outside a house and in a last attempt I ask them if they could point me towards Chatsworth. The only thing I know out here that can get my home.. They both kind of smile, probably because my face was beat red, I was sweaty, and because it was just up the hill.

This is an exact representation of my trek.

Ladies Night

Heather was testing our her pickup lines.
"How much does a polar bear weigh?- Enought to break the ice."
..she's a creeper.

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A Couple Updates

1. Luke and I bought our first set of Christmas lights!!! YAAAY! They are definitely the first of many. And we bought them on Halloween. (I just thought that was ironic.) I am absolutely one of those people that completely skips Halloween and moves straight into Christmas. I'm sorry to those who think it's annoying. I try not to be obnoxious about it.
2. My brother came and saved them day. He sprayed our apartment for crickets. Unfortunately he forgot to warn us that the stuff makes the crickets that are trapped inside our apartment go insane. They came out of hiding and were jumping not caring if we were there. It was terrible. I found one, dying, in some of our mixing bowls and starting dry heaving. . . . Luke thought it was funny.
   

Sunsets at work

Ecclesiastes 12:1

There is a verse that has been on my mind for a while now. I woke up this morning around 7 going over it and over it in my head. Really trying to wrap my mind around what it is saying.

Ecclesiastes 12:1
Remember your Creator
in the days of your youth,
before the days of trouble come
and the years approach when you will say,
"I find no pleasure in them" - NIV
"Honor and enjoy your Creator while you're still young,
Before the years take their toll and your vigor wanes." - The Message
" Remember now your Creator in the days of your youth,
Before the difficult days come, " - NKJV
"Don’t let the excitement of youth cause you to forget your Creator." - NLT

Youth is the time of life between childhood and maturity. It is a time in OUR lives of so much potential. Right now we are not brittle, worn, tired, blind. Right now we are alive. This is time when we can DO. We can GO. But why is it so often a time when we wander?

When studying this I found a commentary that said,

"You that are young flatter yourselves with expectations of great things from it, but believe those that have tried it; it yields no solid satisfaction to a soul; therefore, that you may not be deceived by this vanity, nor too much disturbed by it, remember your Creator, and so guard yourselves against the mischiefs that arise from the vanity of the creature.’’

When we are thinking only about ourselves, our life, our youth, we are forgetting about our creator. And the worst part is that in the end we will come back, but instead of giving him the best part of our life, he is getting the broken, leftovers.
^Malachi 1:13 ... "When you bring injured, crippled or diseased animals and offer them as sacrifices, should I accept them from your hands?" says the LORD.
"It is the greatest absurdity and ingratitude imaginable to give the cream and flower of our days to the devil, and reserve the bran, and refuse, and dregs of them for God." - Matthew Henry

We were loved tonight

So we loved them back. We made Pecan Cinnamon Rolls! YAY! It was a pain, it was amazing and by the end MOST of us were in a sugar coma. Heather held on strong.
Yes, they tasted as good as they look in the pictures.

Seriously?

Today at work one of my students asked me if I had telephones "back in my day"...
I have nothing to say about this.

I had a glimpse of my childhood

Today at work I was kind of down in the dumps. No reason really... So I figured that was dumb and I made the attitude adjustment. Long story short I ended up playing an intense game of "Helicopter Helicopter" with a couple of third graders. At one point I got so into it that my adult body smashed into one of my students. After that I figured that I had had enough, and that for the safety of the kids I would sit the last couple rounds out. haha

Also, I just wanted to let you all know that the cricket situation has changed drastically as of this evening. Though I have never enjoyed them making themselves at home in my apartment, we kind of had a mutual agreement that if they remained in the living room, and an occasional in the bathroom, we wouldn't kill them. Well, boundaries have been breached and I caught them singing their love songs to each other in my bedroom.

It's on now. . .

2 Crickets tonight

We have been home for less than three hours and already Luke has had to catch two. Bleh.

I have no idea what just happened.

So today was not, terrible. Definitely not good. I don't know what happened. I started asking a lot of questions. At first it WAS terrible, but then I started asking the right,..I was going to say person. But I don't think you can call Him that.
Anyways, I don't really know what this is. When I went to reread it and try to find references for the verses(which I didn't find all of them) it really seems like I was having a very straight forward conversation with God. He met me right where I was,.. in my English class.
I hope this is encouraging for someone. It helped me a lot.

In what do I place my value?
Who am I to you?
Does it all really matter? A name, place, status.
What do they even mean?
I once thought of these things as valuable, but now I know that everything else is worthless compared to knowing you. (Phil3:7&8)
Because you are my hope (ps39:7)
You are the rock in which I stand
But who am I that you should care for me? (ps8:4)
My life is but a breath (ps39:11)
Do I store up my treasures here on Earth?-In a name, in a job?
Or is my store house filled in heaven?

Lord, all I know is that I want your peace to guard my heart and mind. (Phil14:7)
I want to know you
I want to experience the mighty power that raised Christ from the dead (phil3:10)
I want to run with purpose in every step (1 Cor9:26)
"For to you I will pray. My voice you shall hear in the morning." Ps5:2&3

My morning walks/jogs/attempts at fitness

A couple times a week I love to go on morning jogs. I think that you need to get use to this because I often have many things that I come across while "workin' on my fitness" that interest me or are random and amazing. So in order to help you visualize whats going on around me for future posts I took a couple pictures this morning. I have a picture of my favorite tree that i love to pass by once I conquer the hill. Also, a picture of the most amazing view I found. It's beautiful. I told Luke that it is at this point in my walk that I usually start praying and thanking God for the beautiful creation that He has me living in the middle of. Enjoy.


Also,two last things you need to know to be up to speed on this adventures.
1. I will forever be searching for the most amazing door that I came across one day while weaving in and out of the neighborhoods. This is the third time I have searched to no avail.
2. There was an amazing cat that I met one time. His name is Smokey and I long for the day to pet his silver fluff again.
and an optional 3. It would be nice to see the three legged dog again. (I didn't give him a name like I did for Smoky because he was with his owners, so I assumed he already had one.)

These little things that make up our first year

After talking with a couple people I have decided that I honestly want to continue making posts,..I just didn't want to have to update everyone on everything that has happened. So, maybe eventually you will see honeymoon pictures, read the stories, find out the airport drama,..maybe not. Maybe everyone that is reading this already knows everything that happened. Well, that's good then. (moving on)

One thing that i hope to never forget about our first year is that our apartment has issues. It's lovely, quaint, but
-has a crazy, crooked corner that is between our bedroom and the hall closet. Where most corners are at a 90 degree angle, this one is about a 50 degree
-we are able to break into our apartment in less than 10 seconds
-this morning i was woken up by a homeless man collecting cans in the dumpster next to our window
-AND-
-the crickets.(or as we call them,"tritchets".)And this is really what i wanted to talk about. They sneak in under our screen and door. There have been times where we come home to find 5 JUST IN THE ENTRANCE WAY. (buuuuuuhhh)Luke hops around on all fours catching them. (its super cute. maybe i can get a video of it sometime.)
As the days and weeks go by they have gotten bolder and more sneaky. Now they come in and sing their little songs when they know that Luke isn't home and that i won't touch them. They jump at Luke (and our neighbor that i have called to get them for me)
Bleh.
Those sneaky tritchets.

P.S. I totally was going to put up an actual picture of the crickets that invade our home everyday, but i started to and then got super creeped out.