davies' wedding...

It seems like only yesterday that Kara and I were walking down the aisle and exchanging vows and becoming one in front of our friends and families. That was such a special time for me, therefore, I was so excited to see my good friend Tim Davies get married on Saturday.

Tim "Nailgun" Davies was a college roommate of mine (David) during my years at Cal Poly. He was definitely the manilest man in the house (for evidence, observe his nickname). He is a great friend and married a great gal. Their wedding was inland from Leucadia (15-30 min. north of San Diego) on an estate that was B-E-A-utiful! But more than that, it was a beautiful wedding.

We also were able to reconnect with many friends of the past. It was wonderful to see them all, especially our good friend, Melanie Rhodes. She was like a sister to us in the A-Town house. She would bake us cookies, style our hair (mainly Tyler's dreadlocks), and bring a joy to the house that only she could. Currently, she is in New Orleans teaching 2nd grade in tough school district. But if anyone could do it, it would be Melanie!

Congrats to you Tim and Jen, may God Bless your marriage and your lives! We had a wonderful time, enjoy the pictures!

photo display...

I wanted to pose a survey to all you "Blog-watchers" out there. Do you prefer the "Slide" way of observing photos (see planting trees...) or the posting of the photos individually (see spring retreat...)? 

I much appreciate your input and I will utilize that method in the blog entries to come. Thanks so much!

spring retreat...

We want to first give "props" to our parents for taking us camping all of during our younger years. We learned that there is a lot more work involved than in your average weekend away. From the shopping, to the setting up of tents, to the cooking for 20, and to the drive down gave us much more respect to the efforts of our parents. Therefore we want to thank them.

Anyway, we took 20 college students down to San Clemente State Beach for a Spring Retreat. It was the first retreat for Paradox and for us. Hence, it is needless to say, we learned a lot and had a great time. We left on Friday, which was more monotonous than working at the Library, and sat in traffic for about 4 hours, and we returned on Sunday, and that took a record time of 2 hours and 40 minutes.

The weekend was filled with bonfire smoke, sugar, tents, surfing, soccer, pranks, and a lot of milk. All in all, it will definitely be something that will happen again. Below are some pictures of the weekend.

planting trees...

Well, albeit that there are many out there who wonder what exactly I (David) do for a job. You might ask yourself, "What in the world does he do all day at church? Is there enough for him to do to fill all the time?" And those are legitimate questions to ask if you have never worked done this type of work before, it would seem that there was enough things to fill up my time. But, let me tell you, there is plenty of things to be done.

One thing that Paradox (the college ministry) was involved in was the planting of trees at a nearby High School. One girl in the group had a desire to reach out to the community of Santa Barbara and show the love of Christ to them, therefore we have participated in numerous service opportunities to exemplify that love to those who don't normally see it. This particular time we planted trees. It was a great time, although hot, it was great doing something out of love for the people.

I have included a slideshow to show you all the good time we had.

The Angels

This is the whole Angel crew with our newest addition. Sadly we are missing my hubby in these shots. I made that Too- Too for Addy and she could not figure out why she was wearing so much material. Her face tells the story.

Our Little Girls

Ava, my new neice, is a joy to be around. She is learning new words everyday, but still loves the word "ball" the most. Addison, my brother's daughter, is an absolute doll. She has the best personality and I miss her everyday. I hope to go back to Colorado soon and see how much she has grown in person.

Women

Today I went to a womens bible study at Susan Riders house. While I was there I realized that there is something special about Christian women. We are able to gather with all different types of ages and feel completely at home. The bond that Christ gives breaks down all barriers and gives you a connection to anyone. We also ate an amzing breakfast of red rasberry waffles and had a study on prayer. I can't think of anything I would have rather done on a foggy morning in Santa Barbara. David is sitting in front of me studying the bible right now and I have nothing to do today. That means that I might just paint or read. I am so excited because I found a chair and a half on craigslist that we are planning on purchasing. I love decorating my new home!