The Move and More Pictures

New pictures of Alice are available in Web Album 2 on the sidebar or by clicking here.

Okay, so that was the big news. In other news, we're totally moved in to our new two-bedroom apartment. We moved a couple hundred yards across the complex we've lived in since March 2009. We are really enjoying the blessing of more space and of Alice not sleeping in our room! She's sleeping so well, too. In fact, this morning, Amy had to wake Alice up to feed her. That almost never happens!

When we signed the lease, we were astonished to find that instead of having a rent of $1,495/month, we were given $100 coupons for the next 11 months of our lease, effectively lowering our rent to $1,395/month! Praise the Lord!

I've started school again and am taking World of the Old Testament with Dr. Ken Way, Evangelism and Follow Up with Dr. Tom Steffen, and Perspectives on the World Christian Movement, which is offered through Trinity International University and will transfer.

Amy and I are planning two vacations coming up in 2011 and looking forward to Christmas in New England. I'm also leading a mission trip to Guatemala June 23-30.

This is the day that the LORD has made;
let us rejoice and be glad in it.
Psalm 118:24

Our New Apartment

I know we moved in February and it's now May, but I finally got around to taking pictures and have added them to our web albums. ALSO, there are pictures of our day at California Adventure and Disneyland AND our double date with Nick & Christie in Santa Monica on Friday night. Phew. Yeah, I know, I'm shocking you with all these pictures. Leave comments!!!!

We Moved!

So we moved on Saturday. Thanks to all who helped! My mom and dad and Scott came down. So did Travis Dalton and Nick Foy. My Aunt Cindy and Ed and my cousins Chris and Alex helped as well. Ron and Susie and Mark Johnson and Steven and Emily Tanner helped from Village Bible Church. There were four pickup trucks available and we used all of them. It was so nice to have so much help. We started moving around 9:00am and were basically done moving everything from the vehicles by 1:00pm.

There are still some boxes and things lying around the apartment but all the major things are in order. We went thrift store shopping on Monday because we both had the day off. We bought a side table and a dresser from a Salvation Army thrift store in Santa Ana. We still had the truck that the company I work for graciously allowed us to have for the weekend, so it seemed the logical thing to do. Then, last night at our home group Bible study, Ron and Susie gave us a microwave cart that fits perfectly provides some more storage.

God provided so many helping hands and we are so blessed to have so many caring friends and family members. Thanks again to all who helped. We love our new place!

If you need our new address or new phone number, let us know and we'll contact you with that information.

Family Subtractions

Unfortunately I was right about Little Guy. He died on Tuesday night. Yesterday morning some of the other fish were starting to look a little sad and when we came home last night we found Big Fatty and Pumpkin Eater were dead too. This morning Rusty was floating at the top of the bowl. So, we started with six fish and now we're down to two--Peter and Bones. Bones wasn't looking too good this morning and Peter was looking a little less lively than normal. All I have to say is that I seem to have problems keeping plants and fish alive. Hopefully I'll be better with children in the future.

Packing is going.... slowly.... Tonight we'll spend most of the evening filling up and labeling boxes and, thankfully, tomorrow I get off work at 2 pm because of the holiday weekend--which means more time to pack. We're going to pick up the keys for our new apartment between 4 and 5 pm and then drive over to work to get a truck, refrigerator dolly and regular dolly. Saturday we'll spend the day moving with the help of many people and their trucks. We are VERY thankful for that! Saturday night we're heading up to Happy's home church to hear his pastor preach his farewell sermon and to join in the dinner after the service. We'll come home Sunday night and spend much of Monday unpacking and getting ready to go back to work on Tuesday.

I'm glad for the holiday weekend :-)

Family Additions

No, I'm not pregnant :-) We have now added six goldfish to our little family--Bones, Peter, Rusty, Big Fatty, Pumpkin Eater, and Little Guy. Unfortunately, it's not looking like Little Guy is going to last much longer. He is currently quarantined in his own bowl so he doesn't infect the healthy fish. I almost named him Little Fellas and am glad I didn't because I'd be much more sad when the 28 cent fish died. But, I think I saved him from a sadder demise inside the belly of a larger fish.

You may be wondering, "Why the sudden addition?" Well, as you know, the Valentine's Day banquet was on Saturday. It just so happened that these little fish were the centerpiece for each table. I bought them Saturday morning and we managed to keep them alive throughout the banquet. And then I took them home :-D Speaking of the banquet, it went great! We had a lot of fun preparing for it and many people said they had a wonderful time. What a blessing!

Now the rush to pack begins. I took everything off the walls last night and packed it all away with sheets in between so nothing breaks. With things off the wall it feels more like we're on our way to moving. Saturday is the big day! I'm SO excited!!!

Done

That's right. I finally finished the Thoene series I've been reading for quite a while. Despite my first reaction to Happy ("I'm mad at them. What a terrible ending!") I would highly recommend the series because it helps you to have a better understanding of what so many families went through in the years leading up to and during WWII. Then again, the books can't do justice to what it must have really been like to live it. As for me, I'm still very interested in learning more about the Holocaust, but I think I need a little break. I'm thankful I can take a break from it if I choose to. Still, I highly recommend the series.

Next on my list of books to read is Love that Lasts: When Marriage Meets Grace by Gary & Betsy Ricucci. I'm only 20 pages in, but I like it a lot so far, and I like where they say they are heading.

Since we're moving in a month or so, I've been collecting boxes from work (there's a warehouse in back and lots of boxes available). Right now, they are still all empty and sitting in a large pile in our apartment. I've never packed up an entire apartment before so I have no idea how long it will take, but I could usually pack up from college in one evening. I'm thinking that I should spend the two Saturdays before we move packing boxes. Anyone have any advice here?

That pretty much sums up the excitement in my life. I would like to post about Happy's jr. high boys' basketball game yesterday, but I'll leave that to him. I got to go and I'm glad :-) But now I'll get to my invoices. Oh, and I'm putting a reminder on my phone so I post pictures on our blog. That means that as long as our internet cooperates, expect pictures this weekend!

Happy Hannukah, Merry Christmas, Happy Kwanzaa, and Happy New Year!

Yes, it's been that long since we last posted. Christmas was a whirlwind tour of New England and we have lots of stories to tell and pictures to share . . . but not yet.

Things are just beginning to get back to normal here in Stanton. But in a month and a half, we won't be reporting from Stanton anymore. That's right, we're moving! Again. We found a nice apartment complex a little more than five miles away in the city of Westminster. It's much quieter and a little bit off the closest main road (Brookhurst St.). It is directly across the street from an Sarah McGarvin Intermediate School, meaning we have easy access to a huge field, a playground, picnic tables, basketball courts. The rent is a bit more than we'd like to have paid, but it will significantly reduce the commute for Amy as it is four miles closer to her job. It is two miles closer to Liberty Christian School, so I have decided that once we move I will no longer take the bus to and from work. My bike will do just fine and we will save $45 a month that way. We are very excited about moving into a new apartment and thank the Lord for the way he quickly (again!) led us to this apartment. I'm sure you'll hear much more in the weeks to come!

hmm...

Well, our refrigerator came and has been plugged in since yesterday around 3 pm. It still hasn't gotten cool at all. I called this morning and they can't come out until next Friday to fix it. Sigh... Ah well, the Lord is still in control! Also, for those of you who may have our new "home" phone number, that doesn't work yet either. They will come Monday (we think) to check it out. Other than that, Happy and I went to this HUGE garage sale in the southern part of OC. It was on several streets including around 150 homes. Unfortunately we did not find the chest of drawers we were looking for, but we did find a very nice coffee table for $15! Happy also got two brand new books for $5 each. He was really excited about that :-)

So, with the lack of a telephone, we still do not have internet in our apartment. We are at the library and I have 9 more minutes until I will get kicked off. But, I will say I'm very thankful that the library is so close (about a 5 minute drive or less)! Leave comments and tell us the news with you! God bless!

Back to real life

Hello everyone!

Sorry for the delay in updating our blog. We actually don't have internet yet so it is not easy to update at this point. I'm currently at the Library in Stanton, right down the street from our new apartment! We moved in on Wednesday and have been unpacking and buying essentials since then. Today we spun off onto our own AAA auto insurance policy. I felt more like an adult when I left. Also, I've been making all our meals, another "adult" thing that I'm enjoying. Pretty soon we'll have bills and stuff!

Anyway, this won't be a long post simply because of the place I am right now and I cannot add pictures yet for the same reason. We should be getting our phone and internet hooked up some time next week though and we'll be sure to let you know. For now, the best way to contact us is by either my cell phone or Happy's. Thank you to all those who were able to attend our wedding (and for those who weren't able to but would have loved to if they could). It was a wonderful day and we had lots of fun on our honeymoon at Lake Tahoe! But keep leaving comments and checking our blog... more updates will be coming!