Two Year Anniversary

Here we are outside the Enterprise Fish Co. David got lobster and it was half off because we were there on a wednesday. Because it was just the two of us we had to take pictures of each other.

Yes. It fit! I loved having the dress back on. Can we have a girls party where we all wear our dresses again?

Two Year Anniversary

This picture was taken last year on our one year anniversary. I wanted to see if I could fit into my dress again. So January 13, 2010 will be my second time trying on my dress since my wedding. I have no idea if I will fit in it or not. We shall see....

Peer Pressure

David is still really sick today so I made him come into the office to get shots. He was a little reluctant but when he woke up feeling as sick as a dog he decided it was important. First I gave David two shots of Rocephin in his butt/hip. The shots stung pretty bad. After that I drew his blood for cholesterol, thyroid, mono, and some other things. David is kind of my little experiment. When I was a little girl I used to coerce my friends into letting me cut their hair, do their makeup, and I even pierced some ears. I am glad I was a good girl growing up because I am really good at peer pressure.

Our Dating Days!

David's Neon Phase

2010 Calendar

Today was an amazing day. I stayed at work from 8:30 to 5:00. And get this, I walked to work this morning. Staying at work all day is a challenge and walking to work means I had to wake up early which is an amazing fete. I am a new woman in 2010. Just kidding I am the same old me that got into my sweats about three minutes after I got home tonight. The new year always makes me anxious to get a new calendar and try to map out all my vacations, appointments, parties, events, etc. This year I hope David and I can go to Colorado to visit my brother, sister-in-law, and nieces. Then this summer we really want to back pack through Europe. We want to go to England, France, Germany, and Italy. Currently I am researching flights and asking people for help who are familiar with Europe. Whenever my boss decides when he is going on vacation then we can book flights! I hope nothing gets in the way of Europe this summer!

Me and Hudson

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan

I must admit that I may have been the only person this monday morning who was excited to go back to work. We kind of have a little family at the Doctors office. We are still a one car family right now so David had to drop me off and pick me up from work. It reminds me of the days when we were first married, prior to the purchase of our volvo. Don't worry, the volvo is just in the shop for a check up. Today when I got home from work I finished the book Snow Flower and the Secret Fan. It was a really sad story about a girl named Lily in nineteenth-century China who has to endure foot binding and an arranged marriage. What is so interesting about this story is that Lily is closer to her laotong or same old (friend) Snow Flower than she is her husband. When the ladies were in their thirties they ended up losing their life-long friendship over a misunderstanding. There were a lot of good lessons in this book. What I found to be thought-provoking was that Snow Flower wanted a friend who would sympathize with her while Lily thought it was most important to remind Snow Flower of tradition. Lily was as hard as a rock and regretted it the rest of her life. I don't want to ever be like that, but a good friend has to tell the truth. I wrestle with Snow Flower and Lily's style of friendship.

Kate's First Christmas

Kate, our niece, is the most smiley little girl I have ever seen. We get to see her this weekend and Addison who I have renamed doodle phink. I like renaming people really close to me. My brother Josh is Sechwan. His wife Kelli is Snelli. And Kate is yet to have a new name. We will make it up together when she learns to talk.

Being Domestic

Being domestic is a challenge for me and I am continually learning the art of being a housewife. Today I excelled in housewifery if I might say so myself. I woke up and made fresh carrot apple juice in my new Jack La Laine juicer. Then I made Quinoa for lunch with artichoke hearts, garlic, spinach, onions, and red bell pepper. For a snack I made David whole wheat chocolate chip oatmeal cookies that were pretty yummy. It is nice finding a good whole wheat recipe that doesn't taste like dirt. For dinner we had scrambled eggs with spinach, onions, cheese, and chicken apple sausage. I so far have kept my new years resolution of eating more veggies and david stopped eating the sausage when he got full. Well done.

I am Back

Today I was talking to my sister-in-law allison and decided it was time to get back to this blog since she is an avid reader of blogs. So this blog is dedicated to Allison. My one and only reader. Today is January 1, 2010 and I am ready to begin the new year. I have decided to eat more vegetables this year and David is stopping eating when he gets full. Funny that both of our new year resolutions are about food.

Kara's Art

Hello all, long time, no post. To much of your dismay, things have been a little crazy lately, and blogging kind of fell by the wayside. Now, we are back on, and back at it. We are so committed to blogging that Kara now has a new blog! It displays her artwork that she is working on and has already painted. To give you a bit of a teaser, I have decided to post a couple, hoping it will peak your curiosity to view her blog. She is very talented (and I am not just saying that).

If you are interested in checking out more of Kara's work go to the Kara Whalley's Art Blog. God Bless!

Paradox...the website

Well, I want to announce to you all...the Paradox WEBSITE! It is brand new and is in full swing. I have been working hard on getting it dialed in and I think that it is looking good and working good. If there is anything that you think would be better for it, let me know. But I hereby invite you all to check it out for yourself.

The address is:

www.paradoxsb.com

That is all for now, there will be a post coming soon. God Bless!

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!