The Lonesome August Post

Lots to write about, but I need to start with my near heart attack today.

It was time for Emma to eat and take a nap so I told Alice to stay downstairs and play while mommy put Emma to bed. Of course, she climbed the stairs after 10 minutes or so, right when Emma was starting to nod off. Once she reached the top step I started shaking my head "no" so she wouldn't come in and make a bunch of noise to distract Emma and wake her up. At that moment I blinked and saw her feet fly up into the air...

It didn't matter that Emma was almost asleep or in the middle of eating. I gently threw her into the center of our bed and RAN to the stairs to see what had become of my firstborn. All of this probably only took seconds, but it felt like I was moving in slow motion. When I got to the top of the stairs I saw Alice only 4 or 5 stairs from the top, clutching the stair she'd grabbed mid-fall and screaming. She was, apparently, freaked out by the ordeal as well. After a quick inspection I found no blood or bumps and held her until she calmed down, reminding her to be careful on the stairs.

My heart didn't stop racing for at least 15 minutes. In fact, writing the experience out has made it start racing again... and she didn't even get hurt!

...breathe...

Before today's excitement came vacation excitement. We spent 4 nights camping with Andrew's family (sans his youngest brother who couldn't get off work... as John would say, "bummah"). After camping we stayed a week at a friend's lake house at Bass Lake during a serious heat wave, followed by two nights in Santa Maria visiting family. I'll attempt some summaries of each leg of the trip:

Camping: First time with all four of us in a tent. By the second morning wasn't sure I'd make it another two nights. Third morning proved that it was possible. Was really hot during the day and pleasantly cold at night. Slightly concerned with keeping warm the babies who don't stay under their covers.

Bass Lake: Since Alice & Emma were forced to sleep "in the same room" camping, we kept it going. Kind of awesome. Spent lots of time at the lake. Over 100 degrees EVERY DAY. Alice & Emma both loved the water. Started a "Gilmore Buoy Swim" tradition. Yeah, we're that cool.

Santa Maria: Introduced Emma to her second cousin, Miles, for the first time. He's 18 days older and ridiculously cute. Lots of photos (which haven't made it off the camera) were taken. Ate much delicious food.

And now we're home and Andrew started school this morning at 8AM, with his LAST semester of Hebrew. No, not his last semester of seminary, but (Lord-willing) only three more semesters and an anticipated graduation date of December 2013.

Can't. Wait.

The girls have been sleeping in Alice's room since we returned and yesterday we finally determined how we could get all things baby-related into their room. Okay, most things baby-related. It's sort of impossible to contain all things baby in one place. You understand if you have a baby. Even more so if you have a toddler. I spent a good three hours this morning re-organizing clothing: boxing up clothes that Emma has grown out of (I think she's FINALLY past her three month clothes... yeah, she's seven months old), boxing up clothes that Alice has grown out of, getting out clothes that now fit each girl, sorting, folding, sorting, folding again after one of them grabbed a stack and dumped it. But they've both been pretty excellent in allowing me to get things done while they play "together."

Alice had her first real explosion at Emma yesterday. There was lots of screaming (on Alice's part) and a toy was thrown (at Emma). No one was seriously injured. Apparently Emma had shown interest in sucking the wheel of Alice's doll stroller. Not. Okay. I think it was a small taste of what is to come. Ah sisters.

There's probably more to write about. Losing brain power. Pictures might come soon, but they will come eventually. It was kind of nice being away from all technology for two weeks.

The Longer Version

I'm going to attempt to keep this relatively short, but I make no guarantees...

Well, we went to Virginia and Washington DC last week and Alice had her first two plane rides. Both flights were non-stop and she napped! On the way to DC she napped for about an hour and the flight home... maybe 15-20 minutes. But she did really well and we had a few people tell us that she did great. YAY Alice!

We arrived late Wednesday night, were picked up by my sister at the airport, checked into our hotel, and attempted to put Alice to bed. I think she actually fell asleep around 10:30 or 11? I don't really remember. She had some pretty crazy sleeping patterns (if you could call them "patterns") while there. She slept in on Thursday until 9:30 or 10 and then we headed off to DC via the metro. It was a BUSY day and we saw tons of stuff, but we definitely need to go back. Alice did great in the stroller for most of the day and took a nice nap in the afternoon. We were all pretty beat by the end of the day and finished with dinner at Chipotle. YUM.

Friday we packed up from the hotel and went to breakfast at IHOP before heading over to Arlington National Cemetery. Since I'm a tired pregnant woman, we only saw a fraction of the cemetery before going to the U.S. Marine Corps War Memorial (Iwo Jima Memorial) just outside the cemetery. Again, since I'm a tired pregnant woman, I asked Happy to let me stay (with Lisa & Alice) while he walked back to the car and came to the memorial so I didn't have to walk more. He got lost for about 45 minutes in the car and ended up near the Pentagon before finding his way back to us, waiting in the parking lot of the Iwo Jima Memorial. So exciting :-) We then sat in a bit of rush hour traffic as we left DC and headed to where we stayed in Virginia. Matt (Lisa's boyfriend) graciously housed us for the remainder of our stay in Virginia and was incredibly hospitable. Lisa managed to procure every large baby item we needed (stroller, car seat, high chair, pack n play) which made our lives significantly easier. It was awesome.

We met up with Mom as we drove down to VA and stayed up late (or just stayed on CA time?) playing with Alice until her bed time and then chatting once she was asleep. Really wonderful. Dad & Belen drove down Friday as well, but went straight to their hotel since it was so late. Everyone (Happy, Amy, Alice, Dad, Belen, Mom, Matt, Lisa) spent Saturday walking around downtown Staunton (pronounced Stanton) doing some sightseeing which eventually led us to the Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library. We got a tour of the home where he was born and got a glimpse of what life was like back then. Really crazy. Makes me appreciate running water and electricity and... carpet :-) Saturday night was dinner at El Puerto with a massive group of Godwins and Lenkers (Matt's family). The food was delicious and the company was even better. Mango salsa is, as Happy would say, the bomb diggity.

Sunday morning we went to church at Barren Ridge Church of the Brethren, where Matt grew up going to church and where his grandparents still attend and his cousin's husband is the pastor. We both thoroughly enjoyed the service and were warmly greeted by Matt's grandparents and cousin's family. After church my long lost friend from high school came for a visit (who knew she lived only an hour from my sister???) and we had a low-key, hangout afternoon. Mom made butternut squash soup for dinner that was delicious. In fact, I wouldn't mind some right now...

Mom had to go back home on Monday so we said our goodbyes before heading to Charlottesville (where Lisa lives & works) to tour Thomas Jefferson's Monticello. REALLY cool house and beautiful gardens. Alice did well on our tour of the house as Mommy maintained a steady stream of Cheerios to her mouth. She lost it at the very end of the tour and we slipped out a side door before joining back up with Daddy & Aunt Lisa for our self-guided tour around the gardens & cemetery. After Monticello we were all ready for lunch, but decided to make a very important stop for cider donuts... I mean, to see the Carter Mountain Orchard and the amazing view of the Virginia countryside. Okay, I'll be honest, I've been craving cider donuts (specifically from Mack's Apples, the farm down the street from where I grew up) for basically this entire pregnancy. Unfortunately, cider donuts do not exist in my southern California life so I was MORE than happy to stop and check out these cider donuts. I want one right now...

Alas, donuts do not make for a hearty lunch so we went to a delicious sandwich shop called Baggby's which Lisa recommended. We then found a bookstore that Happy wanted to check out, which was where we ended our small tour of Charlottesville. Lisa showed us her house and then, as we drove back to Matt's, pointed to where she works. Such a nice area! It makes my southern California life feel like the big city. Dinner was at Matt's house--these spectacular lasagna rolls that Lisa made--and then laundry as we prepared to leave Tuesday morning.

Phew. That's the "stuff" version. Lots more could be said, but I'll save that for in person conversations with those interested :-) We're home now and mostly adjusted back to California time. Alice is going on 1 1/2 hours in her nap (the first decent nap since we came home) after a fun morning at the Irvine Pumpkin Patch. Pictures can be found here, but here's a cute one just to entice you to check out the rest!

Alice's First East Coast Visit

Here's the little woman waving in the airport after her first flight. She did SO great. I don't have time (or energy) right now to write a full post, but wanted to point interested readers to pictures from our trip. There are over 200 and mostly of stuff (as opposed to people), but SUPER cool. We had such a wonderful time visiting my sister and other family members and seeing what life is like in Virginia. Alice is mostly back to California time, though hasn't napped so well yet. We'll see how tomorrow goes. Glad to be home, but missing family. Hopefully there will be another visit in the not-too-distant future!

Stay-at-Home-Mom Life

Happy Independence Day!!!

Andrew is back and we're in full-blown fireworks stand mode. Actually, that has just meant a few more phone calls than normal and making trips from the stand back to church with money so we don't have too much at the stand at one time. It's wonderful having him back home, though he seems to have some residual effects of Guatemala still bothering him. Fun fun fun.

This morning Alice & I went for a walk around the "lake" at the park down the street. It was HOT, but Alice was smothered with sunscreen and wearing her sunhat (which she is getting better at leaving ON her head) in her nice shaded stroller. If you haven't seen it already, Alice likes to wave at just about everyone who walks by. When we go to the grocery store, the doctor's office, Costco, to get the mail, she waves and smiles at anyone she sees whether they're looking or not. Today in the park there were a number of people running/walking around the lake. Some received a smile and cheerful wave while others elicited the coveted giggle. Only a select few were privileged to witness her overjoyed exclamations combined with all-over-body-wiggles and leg kicks. Those are my personal favorites.

As we made our way back home and I anticipated a dip in the pool I couldn't help but marvel at the blessing it is to be home with my daughter. I feel like I'm finally getting to know her better and seeing her personality blossom. Then again, it could just be the age she's in where things are easier to see now. Either way, I'M LOVING IT!!! Though I will say that the dip in the pool was less than pleasant with a squirmy almost 14 month old wanting to get in and out of the pool and run around and "jump" in and sit in her floating boat thing and get out of the boat thing and... well, you get the idea.

This week we're preparing for the college/F.I.T.(career) camping trip from Friday to Monday and then we'll take the rest of the week as a family vacation at Bass Lake at a friend's cabin. SO wonderful! My goals this week are to make an extensive packing list, have the first meeting of the girls' bible study (SO exciting!), get all the laundry done, and clean everything before we head out at a ridiculous hour on Friday morning. Hoping that Alice will transfer and fall back asleep in her car seat :-)

Almost time for Alice to wake up! The picture is from my sister's visit when we went to Disneyland (THANK YOU JACQUELYN!!!). Alice loved the merry-go-round. Have a lovely 4th of July!

Palm Springs and a New School Year

Sunday through Tuesday, Amy, Alice and I were in Palm Springs with Pastor Ron and Susie and their three kids: Mark, Jeffrey and Alicia. As you'd expect, it was hotter than hot, averaging about 110 degrees while we were there. We stayed in a two-bedroom condo that a generous person in our church let us stay in for fairly cheap. The air conditioning was cranked up (down?) the whole time we were there, making for an almost 40 degree difference between the outside and inside temperatures during the hottest part of the day. We took several pictures and videos, which you can view here.

This coming Wednesday marks the beginning of my fifth semester at Talbot. I'm taking Apologetics, Biblical Leadership & Management, and Exegesis in Acts and the Epistles. Yep, that last mouthful is my last required Greek class! That means two things: 1) People now will (mistakenly!) expect me to be proficient in biblical Greek, and 2)I can begin taking Hebrew in the spring!

Last night I checked online to see if any of my professors had posted syllabi and was ridiculously excited to see my Apologetics syllabus up. My professor, Garrett DeWeese, not only posted the syllabus, but also all the supplementary reading, the first day of class' powerpoint slides, and other miscellaneous links and resources. Besides the last day of class, I think the first day of class is my favorite day of the semester!

Today I have Alice until 11ish and then a church friend will be watching her. She's getting big, but especially growing long. Here's a video for you to enjoy!

Vacation Pictures

We just got back from vacation. Here's some pictures! We'll comment on our vacation later.

Two Years, Paintball and Work Boots

Yesterday marked the second anniversary of our marriage. Because of the kindness of my Uncle Glenn and Aunt Dorothy, we were able to spend the weekend at their apartment in El Cajon, near San Diego. We got lots of rest, went to Coronado Island and enjoyed the beach. It was a very relaxing and needed time of being together. We are both so grateful to God for his provision for us over the past two years. We know that is only by his abundant grace that we are more in love now than we've ever been.

Several weeks ago, several of the men of Village Bible Church drove down to Camp Pendleton to engage in some very serious work: Paintball. Actually, it was probably one of the most fun days I've ever had. I'd never been paintballing before and I'd heard many horror stories about the pain and the soreness and the welts. Well, those stories were true, but those things were all worth it. The place we played at was pretty incredible. I believe there were at least eight different courses with all kinds of buildings, ramparts, trees, nets, bushes, trucks, tanks and other objects to make for some really fun and tactical matches.

If you want to know more, ask me sometime, but here are a few pictures that show the aftermath.
Monday was my first day of work at Pan-Pacific Plumbing. The morning commute was nice as Amy and I drove to work together. I was put to work outside doing "pre-fab," a term I only heard from Amy a day later. Basically, I helped out with the guys who were cutting, fitting and organizing pipe to go to the various jobs that PPP has going right now. It was somewhat interesting and I got to learn a lot about it pretty quickly. However, my work boots wreaked havoc on my feet. I hadn't really worn them too much since my construction job in Palmdale right after graduation from TMC. They were pretty cheap work boots from K-mart and the soles are just shot. So, my feet are still paying for it, and sometimes it's difficult to watch. That's it for now. I will post some pictures from my friend Travis' wedding sometime soon.

What's Going On?

Well, a lot has been going on down here in our little corner of Orange County. Here's a peek into all of it.

• On the morning of Thursday, April 3, Amy and I headed out for a four-day camping trip to the Grand Canyon in Arizona (for those of you that were wondering). We rented a Saturn Aura from Avis for $1.07! We decided to use some of our credit card points to get $200 in gift certificates to Avis. So we crammed all our stuff into the sizable back seat and enormous trunk and started out on a 500-mile trip around 10:30am. Here are all the freeways/highways that we ended up taking: 22, 57, 60, 15, 40 and 64! We arrived at Mather Campground at the Grand Canyon just as the last light of day was disappearing. We caught a brief, darkened glimpse of the canyon as we drove to the campsight. One first for me was setting up camp by the headlights of the car. That was fun! Oh yeah, it was freezing while we were there, literally! Well, to make a long story short, we had a great time sleeping, cooking, eating, hiking, taking pictures, making and enjoying fires and having the great privilege of acknowledging our God for his creation of such a wonderful place. We're both so glad we went and Amy actually added a state to her list of states visited!

• On April 12, we drove to Studio City for the wedding of a classmate, Micah Panama. Micah and I were classmates from first grade until we graduated from Santa Clarita Christian School. The ceremony was held in a beautiful Presbyterian church and the reception was at a very nice restaurant in Hollywood, with a view of the Hollywood sign from the street (which we forgot to take a picture of!). At the reception, I was able to see several high school friends that I hadn't seen for some time, and Amy got to finally meet them.

• This past Friday we drove up to Santa Clarita right after school got out and beat most of the traffic to attend my lifelong friend Matt Dixon's wedding. Matt and Sarah had a beautiful wedding at the Hyatt in Valencia, and again, we were able to see many friends.

• After congratulating the couple, the six of us (my family and Amy and I) piled in my parents' van and drove up to Santa Maria for the 22nd Annual Easter Egg Hunt at Grandma's! Amy and I stayed at Aunt Kathy's and Uncle Mel's due to the catlessness of that grand establishment. Saturday morning meant a typical big Parker breakfast and the usual Easter Egg Hunt festivities at Grandma's. I'm proud to say that I finally won an Easter Egg Hunt by finding all five of my eggs first! I don't think that's happened in a decade, at least. Unfortunately, Alex and Tyler and Chris were unable to make the trip and my cousin and THE best man, Mike, was on duty, protecting Santa Maria from various and sundry criminals. We made the best of it, had a good time talking and laughing and eating and watching the Spurs beat the Suns in double overtime. The ladies went shopping and soon after returning, we again piled in the van and headed to Santa Clarita. After a quick pizza dinner, Amy and I headed for home.

• Amy continues to enjoy her job as Accounting Assistant at Pan-Pacific Plumbing and is learning more and more about the different projects and duties it requires. She has also enjoyed having a fellow member of Village Bible Church and good friend, Emily, join the ranks at Pan-Pacific.

• We are in the process of looking for another car, so that Amy will have her first car and so transportation to and from Talbot will be easier on us this summer and in the fall. Lord-willing, we'd like to buy a used Toyota Camry in the next two months or so.

For pictures from the past several months and including the Grand Canyon and the weddings, you can click here to see the web albums that we've recently added. Hopefully, some of the videos will be there too, including the one of me making scrambled eggs at our campsite!

It's been busy and will continue that way, as we have several more weddings this summer. It's exciting to see God-honoring couples commit to each other for life.

Soli deo Gloria

Complaints for Christmas

Yes, you read that right. All I've got for Christmas is complaining. However, in this case, I think the complaining is warranted. This is only the second post in December 2007.

We're in Great Barrington, Massachusetts right now for Christmas. In fact, it's 8:21am as I type this. The first clock I saw this morning said 6:13am. Amy's little brother Dan woke everyone up to come downstairs to the tree to open stockings and presents. Yes, it was too early. We got many presents and enjoyed watching everyone open theirs.

Oh, and it was my first white Christmas! It hasn't snowed in three days, but the snow hasn't all melted yet. It's beautifully cold outside and we have five more full days to spend in Great Barrington. One day we'll spend partially in Connecticut at Amy's grandpa's house (we call him Pop-pop). We're hoping to maybe spend some time in Boston, since that didn't work out while we were with Amy's dad in southern New Hampshire.

Right now, Amy and Lisa are asleep on the couch; Mike and Raphaelle are asleep upstairs. Dan is trying to download ITunes and figure out his new IPod nano. John is asleep and I have no idea where Amy's mom is. That's all for now, and I will post again before we leave for home.

Back . . . due to popular demand! (Or because of two comments)

All right already! I'll attempt to post a brief update today.

Wanting to appease the Santa Maria contingent of our family - and the fact that it's one of my favorite places in California - Amy and I left Liberty Christian School at 3:33pm in an attempt to beat the traffic and get to Santa Maria before it got too late. Amy drove the whole way, and although we got stuck in the usual persnickety jam prior to and on the Sepulveda Pass, we made quite good time, arriving at the Parkers' around 8:00pm. We had a good time eating with the family and catching up with Grandma, Aunt Tracy, Uncle Mel, Aunt Kathy, Jess, and the Best Man, Mike.

The next day we went to the Harvest Festival in good ol' Arroyo Grande. Although nowhere near as good as the annual Strawberry Festival, it was still a fun atmosphere. Mike had gotten there earlier in the morning to work crowd control as part of a volunteer event for the Santa Maria Police Academy. Amy and I got some pretty good (overpriced) kettle korn and looked at a few of the booths selling the normal Central Coast fare. There was even a Ron Paul for President booth. Things wrapped up pretty quickly, and the wonderful matriarch of the Aris family treated us to Marie Callender's in Pismo Beach. Incidentally, that was where Amy and I ate on our honeymoon!

Mike and I drove back to Santa Maria, watched some of the Cal-Oregon game, read and then went golfing at Sunset Ridge. It was windy, some sprinklers were on and our golf games (as usual) were at top performance. I believe we only lost about eight or nine balls to the "lakes." It was good time for best friends to catch up and talk about life. For the first time in recent memory, no one had to climb over the barbed wire fence to retrieve a slightly mis-hit ball.

While we were golfing, Amy and the womenfolk enjoyed their time at an apple farm or two. Some apple cider was purchased, among other things.

That night, Uncle Mel barbecued ribs, and of course, dinner was amazing. We had another good night of talking and hanging out and watching TV.

Sunday morning we got up and drove to Grandma's for waffles and turkey bacon before heading over to Grace Baptist Church for the morning worship service. There was good music and a good sermon on Sabbath rest. Interestingly, the youth pastor, Pastor James Barr, was about to practice his preaching by taking two months off for some rest and for some observation of other local youth ministry departments. We didn't stay for Sunday School and headed back to Pleasant Place (the street the Parkers live on).

And then we watched most of the Raider game. It was a beautiful thing to watch, because Raider victories have been few and far between in the last four seasons. After that, we headed home, and made in just a little over four hours!

This last weekend was a busy one as well. Amy left on Friday afternoon with more than twenty other ladies for Idyllwild in the mountains (not sure which range) for the annual women's retreat. They had a great time, and Amy especially enjoyed the colder weather (lower 40s, upper 30s!).

While those shenanigans were taking place, I headed up to Santa Clarita after the Liberty Christian Homecoming football game (Score? 54-0. Yeah, they lost.) Anyway, the 405 was great and I got to Brian, Nick and Travis' apartment around 11:15pm. I stayed up and talked with Brian and Travis until about 1:15am. I slept in Travis' sleeping bag on the couch and slept hard until about 8:30am. On Saturday, we played video games, watched TV and had brunch at IHOP. Then, I visited my college RD, Siona Savini and just talked for about two hours in his renovated and spacious apartment. After that, I headed over to 18726 Wellhaven St. to see my dad and Trevor. My mom was at Hume Lake for a ladies' retreat, and Scott was in Ontario, CA, for TMC's Outreach Week. Trev, Dad and I ate at Baja Fresh and then went to the SCCS football game. I got to talk with a bunch of people and had a great time. I left near the end of the game and got back to Westminster around 11:15pm.

Amy got back on Sunday at about 4:15 (I think) and we went to Costco and Stater Bros. before going home and fixing up the apartment. We also put up a wall cabinet above the toilet that looks real nice and adds a little bit of storage.

And now it's a new week and God is still on his throne, so let everything that has breath praise the Lord! (Psalm 150:6)

Hawaii Videos

Newly uploaded Hawaii videos can now be found in the sidebar below the Bernal videos. Hawaii videos include tours of the main house, Bamboo house and Pool house. Along with some other ones just to spice things up :-)

After Mexico...

We've been a little bit busy lately. I know I've said that before, but this time tops all the rest. We left for Mexico on June 23rd and returned June 30th. After getting some salads from Jack-in-the-Box on our way home, we arrived around 9 pm and went to bed shortly thereafter. Sunday morning found us both sick (Happy vomited twice that night and I had a pretty nice fever) and unable to do much of anything. I literally slept almost all day. Monday I went to work with a low fever and feeling much better, but not 100%. Happy stayed home since he now had a higher fever. By the end of the day we were both feeling better and figured we got food poisoning from our first dinner back in the United States. Welcome home!

We both worked on Tuesday, July 3rd, and the office closed early for me. So I got a manicure and a pedicure before heading home to finish packing and leave for the airport around 4 pm for our 7 pm flight to Oakland. We arrived in Oakland that night, were picked up by my mom-in-law and headed over to Grandpa's house. The next day was the Gilmore 4th of July "Family Reunion," which I attended for the first time! Thursday, the 5th, we left from Oakland for Hilo, Hawaii, around 3:30 pm. We arrived around 6:45 pm (Hawaii is three hours behind California), rented a car and began our two hour trek across the island to Kona, where we were staying. We were in Hawaii until Thursday morning when we drove back across the island for our 8:45 am flight. We were back in LA around 7 pm and back home around 9 pm. Friday we both went to work, Saturday we unpacked, cleaned, visited some friends and their new baby, grocery shopped and prepared for Vacation Bible School the next day at church. Since Sunday and Monday were basically more of the same (cleaning, cleaning, more cleaning.... you get the point), I'll just move on.

The reason I was updating, aside from the fact that we haven't in a LONG time, was to point out that there are pictures from Mexico and Hawaii on our web albums. I must warn you now that there are over 300 from Mexico and almost 200 (I think) from Hawaii. Thank you for all your prayers and for bugging us for pictures :-D More updates will come soon!

Easter Egg Hunt

Of course, I can't forget to mention the 21st Annual Easter Egg Hunt in Santa Maria. This is what we did on Saturday morning before we left for Montana de Oro. There are pictures on the web album from this too :-)

Our First Camping Trip!

Happy and I went on our first camping trip this weekend and got home last night!! We went to Montana de Oro State Park and had a wonderful and relaxing time. Obviously we have lots to share, but I have a monstrous stack of invoices waiting for me. For now I wanted to mention that I added our pictures to the Web Album. Enjoy!

The Whirlwind Tour, Epilogue

I know that you're all salivating to hear the story that my lovely wife decided was mine to tell, so here it is.

Amy's dad drove us to Logan International Airport in Boston early in the morning, so we arrived plenty early. After printing our tickets we joined the already backed-up line to make sure that Amy could get in because of the ongoing Godwin/Gilmore dilemma. We stood in line for about 20-25 minutes before getting to the front of the line and finding out that we did not need to wait in that line. Then we pushed, pulled and carried our baggage to the security checkpoint. And here's where things started to happen.

Amy and I both got out our wallets to show the kind man our ID.

Horror of horrors, Batman!

My driver's license was gone! I stared at my wallet with a dumb look on my face as my mind raced through all the other places it could possibly be. Unfortunately, the only thing I could come up with was that I had accidentally thrown my driver's license away with my boarding pass and ticket upon arrival in Boston.

So, I jogged back to the ticket counter and cut in front of at least 100 people waiting for their boarding pass. I told the kind lady my predicament and she reprinted my boarding pass and added an extra security code and warned me that I'd be searched. I thanked her and ran back to the line for security. Halfway there I realized that I wasn't tugging my carry-on behind me. All I had with me was my backpack. I had left my carry-on in the line when I took off to the ticket counter.

I looked all around as the line moved forward. I couldn't see my bag anywhere! I finally reached the front of the line. The airport employee checking ID was a new guy so I asked if someone had found a bag in the last few minutes. He said, "Oh, you're that guy." In case you're wondering, this did not bolster my wavering confidence in actually catching up to Amy (by this time, she's already waiting for me on the other side of security) and making our flight.

He told me to go back to the restaurant halfway to the ticket counter and ask the state troopers with the dog, because they had my bag. I thanked him and ran back to the state troopers. I interrupted their conversation, identified myself as the guy who left his carry-on by the line and asked if I could have it back. They all gave me a condescending look that I tried my hardest to ignore. One of them pulled out his walkie-talkie and called a fellow trooper who had my bag. The trooper told me to go outside and find the all-black truck. He also added that it would be $100. I was pretty sure he was joking, but I didn't think it was that funny. Once again, I thanked him and ran outside the airport where I saw an all-black truck just stopping. The state trooper stopped the car in the morass of traffic, got out, walked all the way around the back of the truck, gave me a look of disgust, opened the passenger side door and handed me the carry-on. I thanked him and ran back inside the airport and got back in the security line for the third time!

When I reached the front of the line I told the man checking ID that I had lost my driver's license and had already talked to the people at the ticket counter. I showed him my credit cards and my bank card. He examined them quickly and let me through. I put my carry-ons through the X-ray machine and had to be taken to the little area where "random" searches are made. A kind sir searched me and then searched my carry-ons. Everything was fine until he unzipped one of the outside compartments on my suitcase. I had forgotten that that's where I had placed the ice pops that my mother-in-law had put in my stocking on Christmas morning.

"What the [heck] is this?" he asked.

At this point I'm completely embarrassed because this obviously doesn't look good. These could be bombs, drugs, etc. I sheepishly told him that I got them in my stocking for Christmas. He grunted something about it being okay and then continued searching. He then asked me why "that girl over there is staring at us." "That girl" happened to be my wife, who was patiently waiting for us to finish. He finally finished and let me go.

Amy and I then literally started jogging to our gate. We heard a final boarding call and they announced that they needed "Andre and Amy Gilmore to come to" the gate. We made it on the flight but couldn't sit together.

So, all in all, it wasn't a bad day. Just another fun day in this post-9/11 world!

I did it!

Yes, that's right, I finally posted the pictures of our trip to the East coast. I must warn you though... I was pretty terrible at taking pictures while I was there. Perhaps it had to do with the fact that we were never in one place for very long. By the time I remembered that I had brought my camera, we were leaving. Some of the pictures are because Happy took the camera. He's much more diligent with taking pictures. But I did get some good Christmas morning pictures, which is very important!

Today is a very quiet day at work and there was minimal traffic on my way to work. I'm guessing it's due to the fact that many people have today off as it is Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Bummer that we don't have it off, but it's not a big deal. Happy has today off and still had practice with his guys because they'd be able to use the gym (as opposed to the parking lot where they usually practice). Such dedication!

It's also SUPER windy and really cold in this front lobby where I sit. I have the heater on my feet and it's making my hair more static. Sigh. Oh well. Now I'm going to code invoices so when they come in the mail I'm not left with such a huge stack. Have a lovely Monday and enjoy the day off if you have it!

The Whirlwind Tour

As planned, I brought my camera to work today so that I could transfer all our "Christmas" pictures (including the pictures we took on the East coast) into a web album. Unfortunately, I arrived at work and searched my camera bag to find that my USB cable (I think that's what it's called) was not there. Sigh. So, hopefully I'll find it at home somewhere and there will be new pictures tomorrow... if our internet connection decides to play nice.

Since Happy didn't share any of the stories about our vacation, I'll just give you a rough outline (with stories along the way) of our "whirlwind tour," as he so aptly put it:

Friday, Dec. 22nd – Our assistant pastor (and Bible study leader) Ron picked us up at 7:30 am. We shoved, literally shoved, our bags into his Sebring and made our way to LAX. We were VERY thankful to have him cart us to and from the airport. We got on our plane with minor difficulty since my ticket said "Amy Gilmore" and my IDs all say "Amy Godwin." I had our marriage certificate, but still got patted down. But, we did get on the plane.

Our connecting flight was out of San Francisco. After arriving at our gate, getting lunch, and sitting for a while, I realized that we needed to get our boarding passes for this flight. Apparently they don't give you boarding passes for your whole trip? Anyway, Happy got in line for about a half hour before I joined him because our flight was already halfway finished boarding. After another ten minutes or so we were at the desk waiting for our boarding passes. Anyone who has ever traveled during Christmas knows the excitement this can include. Well, after a short while a woman came up carrying her 2 year old daughter. She said she had a ticket, but needed her seat assignment (the same predicament that everyone in line was facing). Of course, we had already been told at this point that our flight had been overbooked and 7 people were requested to give up their seats. As this lady interrupts our ticket guy, the woman who had been standing behind us in line comes over and says “Excuse me, but I’ve been standing in line for 35 minutes and I need my seat assignment as well!” She wasn’t exactly rude, but irritated that she’d been cut in line. To this the woman with her daughter responded, “Well, I guess you just have to be aggressive!” I’m not sure if there was more exchange between them, but I certainly was shocked by that. A little while later the aggressive lady said “Merry Christmas” to the other lady in a nasty tone. Yuck. After a little more confusion, we got our seat assignments and boarded the plane. We were in the very last row and got more than a few dirty looks as we walked past everyone. When we got to our seats (the window and middle seat) there was a rather large girl conked out in the aisle seat. The flight attendant said he’d take care of it. He said “Ma’am…” “Ma’am!” “MA’AM!!!” She drowsily awoke and got out of our way, not noticing the people around her who were stifling laughter. Minutes later she was snoring loudly. The family across the aisle was laughing, as were we. The dad said “Anyone have a bucket of water?” Happy held up a water bottle. So went the flight. With the snoring girl, the fussy screaming toddlers a few rows ahead of us, the consistent turbulence and no food, I was ready to get off the plane the second it landed.

Ok, perhaps there won’t be too many more stories included in my outline, since that story was pretty long.

When we arrived around 10:30 pm in Boston, Dad picked us up and we drove around Boston to look at lights. We got dinner and made our way back to his place. I think we finally got in bed around 1:30. We slept in late the next morning :-)

Saturday, Dec. 23rd – Dad took us around Derry and Happy got to see more of where I grew up. We walked around my high school and even checked out the football field and track. Later in the afternoon we had pizza at Sal’s (the BEST pizza I’ve ever eaten) and then went back to Dad’s so I could make my mom-in-law’s salsa for him to try. We had to modify some of the ingredients, but it still came out pretty good. Dinner was at the Bollywood Grill and it was excellent!

Sunday, Dec. 24th – Dad dropped us off at the Crabb house so we could get a ride with them to church and Dad could still go to his church. We had breakfast there and then went to Fellowship Bible Church. It was SO wonderful to see everyone and I was especially thankful that the Hastings were there visiting from Guatemala! We had a hard time leaving, but did have a long day ahead of us. Back at Dad’s we packed our stuff into his car, ate a quick lunch and got on the road to Mom’s (about 3 hours away). Once at Mom’s our stuff was unloaded, we took a bathroom break and got in Mom & John’s car to go to Pop-pop and Patty’s (in CT) for a visit. We had pizza from Antonio’s there and chatted for a couple hours before heading back to MA.

Monday, Dec. 25th – Merry Christmas! Dan woke us up around 7 am to open presents (that’s 4 am in CA for those who were wondering). It was wonderful, even though we were missing some people we like to celebrate with. We had a big breakfast of fresh eggs from Mom’s chickens, bacon and fruit. Then I got to go with Mom to get more eggs from her chickens! I even got one that was warm—a little creepy at first but still pretty cool. We got a tour of the new house and enjoyed our time with my family.

Tuesday, Dec. 26th – Up around 9 am to do laundry and pack our stuff to go back to Dad’s (a much shorter drive to Boston for our early morning flight). Mom & John were headed over to North Andover (on the Eastern side of MA) to celebrate Christmas with his family so we left around 11:30. We met up with Dad, transferred baggage, and got a quick bite to eat before going back to Dad’s. We watched The Sixth Sense and then ate Turkey pot pie for dinner. Yum!

Wednesday, Dec. 27th – I woke up at 5 am (that’s 2 am in CA) to take a shower before we left around 6:00 for our 8:30 am flight. Despite my great desire to tell you more about that adventure, I’ll refrain since this post is practically a novel already. Perhaps my wonderful husband will relay that story at a later point. We arrived home around 4 pm and went to bed early. We slept for 10 hours.

I’m sure you can imagine that there are many more stories I could share and will hopefully do so at some point. But, if you get impatient for stories, feel free to give us a call and we’ll elaborate more than this! I hope you had a blessed Christmas and had some time to relax and remember the purpose of Christmas—to celebrate the birth of our Savior!

Thanksgiving pictures!

Yes, this is actually a picture of Happy with our FIRST CHRISTMAS TREE!!!! But there are many more pictures of this weekend in our Web Albums. If you'd like to go in order, I finally added a few pictures from our bike ride in Mile Square Park. Following that is the football game played on Thanksgiving morning. Then we got our first Christmas tree on Saturday when we came home.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!!

Even though Thanksgiving is technically tomorrow, I probably won't be thinking about posting on my blog because I'll be in Santa Clarita! Plus, I'm here at work and the phones have rung about a dozen times since I got here at 7 am. Needless to say, I'm hoping that we can all leave sooner than the originally planned 12:00 closing time. We'll see.

Soooo... HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!! I don't have pictures of any turkeys so I thought I'd post a picture of a sunset I saw from our apartment a few weeks ago. I'd just gotten my camera so I was pretty much taking pictures of anything, but this was especially beautiful. I don't see the sun set much during the week (particularly after the time change) since I leave work (driving north) just about when it's going down. Sunsets always make me think that heaven must be spectacularly breathtaking and God is the most magnificent Creator!

Last night Happy & I went to both the girls & boys high school basketball scrimmages. In light of the football games we had attended I wasn't expecting much. However, I was pleasantly surprised as the girls pulled ahead in the last minutes of the game to win by one point (I don't actually remember what the final score was :-) hehe... I'm such a girl)! The boys, on the other hand, absolutely crushed the other team and it was really fun to watch. I forget the score for their game as well, but perhaps my wonderful husband will leave a comment and fill in the missing information. I'm looking forward to the basketball season much more now than I was after the football season.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving and give thanks to the One who deserves all our praise!

Fender-bender

Before I get to our exciting car ride... We did play a rousing game of Taboo on Saturday night. Of course, none of the guys were interested in playing so all the girls enjoyed the game, especially towards the end when we were all getting a little too involved--yes, there was indeed lots of giggling!

We also had the opportunity to visit Mike's church on Sunday morning, which was cool. Even though the power went out about halfway through the sermon, the pastor preached on. I enjoyed listening in the dark and trying to keep my focus despite distractions.

On to the accident... Yes, we are fine and yes, the car is mostly fine. Here is the scenario: I was driving and traffic was pretty unpredictable (stop-go a lot). At a point where we were going about 50 mph I decided to move from the fast lane (I have since learned this is referred to as lane 1) to the next lane to the right (lane 2). I put my blinker on, checked lane 2 and lane 3 for on-coming cars and began moving over. Once I was about 3/4 of the way into the lane a large black pick-up truck sped into my lane, swerving into our front right bumper and hitting just above the front right wheel.

The kid driving (yes, I'm guessing he was a teenager--and he was talking on a cell phone) noticed that he hit us because he turned around with a surprised look on his face. He then sped off to the right, swerving in and out of traffic. So, it was a hit and run. Meanwhile, Happy awoke from his little nap to me braking as I attempted to get out of the kid's way. He wasn't entirely with it when he woke up though because he didn't realize that we'd gotten hit. He woke up because I braked so quickly. Once the kid sped off I realized that we should get his license plate number at least and thankfully rush-hour traffic helped us to do that. We actually were behind him for a while again and got the license plane number along with the make and model of the pick-up. Unfortunately, we didn't think to call the police or AAA when the accident happened, which hopefully won't make things more complicated than they already are.

We arrived at the Gilmore house not yet having seen the damage done to the car. Once we saw that the bumper had been cracked and the spot above the wheel was dented, we took pictures. Happy called AAA at that point and told us where we could get our car fixed, along with other information. They need to find the kid and see if his car has marks on it, if he's insured, etc.

The dilemma now is figuring out how I'll get to work when the car is in the shop. I'm told that one woman lives in Huntington Beach so I could take the bus and meet her and then take the bus home. The only problem: her hours are 6:30-4:00, which means I'd be there REAL early and would need to find someone to cover the phones from 4-5 pm. We're thinking in the future of changing our AAA to cover a rental car if our car is in the shop :-)

Anyway, there's the drama of the car accident. Neither of us are hurt at all and it was only minor damage. I wasn't scared or shook up after he hit us either, so I just kept driving to Santa Clarita. Actually, my first reaction was something along the lines of "That jerk just hit us... and he's not stopping!" So, I'm thankful there wasn't a larger accident and thankful that the car is still running just fine. It was also a reminder that no matter how careful I am, there are still others out there who just aren't as careful. Then again, no matter how careful I am, the Lord is always in control. If He wants to take me home, He will do it when and how He sees fit. I'm sure this whole ordeal will prove educational, if nothing else, but I wouldn't be surprised if the Lord has something else in mind!