Christmas Time is Here!

Although our apartment is a little small, we still really wanted to get a tree! It smells so yummy and looks so great. It makes it feel like Christmas. It was also fun, since this is our first married Christmas, we got to pick out ornaments and stuff to go on the tree. Here's how it turned out!

Thanksgiving Fun!

We spent the last week in Arizona with Jeff's family. We had a great time hanging out with everybody, shopping, working on the car, going to the shooting range, playing with the kids, and eating! Here is one of my new favorite recipes.



CRANBERRY PUFFS (a.k.a. try 'em you'll like 'em wontons)
INGREDIENTS
3/4 cup fresh cranberries
1 jalapeno pepper, stem removed
1/4 cup white sugar
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
1 (14 ounce) package wonton wrappers
3 cups canola oil for frying

DIRECTIONS
In a food processor, combine the cranberries, jalapeno pepper, sugar and mayonnaise. Process until smooth. This will be your cranberry relish. Set aside half of this mixture, and pour the rest into a medium bowl. Mix cream cheese into this half until well blended.
Lay a few wonton wrappers at a time out on a clean surface. Spoon about 1 teaspoon of the cream cheese mixture onto the center of each one. Pinch the corners together to make a triangle shape. If they don't stick, wet them with a little water using your finger. Set aside on a piece of waxed paper while you assemble the remaining puffs.
Heat the oil in a large deep skillet over medium to medium-high heat. When the oil is hot, carefully set 5 to 10 of the dumplings in the pan. Do not over crowd the pan. Fry on each side until golden brown. Remove from the hot oil using tongs and place on paper towels to drain. Serve on a platter with the reserved cranberry relish as a dipping sauce. The sooner you eat them, the better they taste.

Fall is for Football

This past Saturday we were hanging out at the apartment when Jeff received a text message. It was his friend asking if we wanted two free tickets to the USC game at 5:00. Thankfully we hadn't made any solid plans that day and we were able to go. It was fun because it was their homecoming game. There were a ton of things going on around the coliseum. The thing that made the game the most fun was the fact that USC finally won! Here is a picture of us at the game.












I also went to a shower for my friend Jessica. It was so fun. We ate a really good egg dish and fruit, yummy coffee cake, and scones.
I actually was able to wear my new coat because it was a little chilly outside. Then we played games and opened presents, which was a time filled with much laughter. She is living out in Detroit right now because that's where her fiance is doing his residency, so we miss her a ton!

Life is Good and so is God

First off, I want to start by saying that I really stink at this blogging business. I love the idea and I love to read other people's blogs, but when it comes to my own, I can never think of what to write and feel like it's not exciting to read. I guess I need to just get over that, huh?!

Things are staying pretty busy down here in California. The fires have been the biggest news lately. We feel so sorry for all the families that have been effected. Luckily, we don't live close to where the fires are/were, so we didn't have to be breathing in the smoke all the time. It seems that things are starting to slow down and almost all the fires have been put out. We both are enjoying our jobs, which is always good! Jeff was asked to be the engineer in charge of an emergency shut down at the refinery, which will happen between Thanksgiving and Christmas. I am so proud of him! The only bad part is that he will probably have to work 6 days a week 12 hours a day. ROCKHARBOR is going well. I have been making some really good friends and I love being there. I feel like I am being developed a lot and am growing in a lot of different ways.

The thing that has been on my heart the most lately is God's grace and the peace He continually gives to us. As I have been going through trials in my own life and watching many of my close friends go through trials, God has been so gracious. A lot of times it is hard to see the good that comes out of hard times, but in the midst of these events, God is allowing me little glimpses of the way he is working.

Everyday I am in awe of the way God is working in my life and the lives of the people around me. I love that none of us deserve his grace or his mercy or the peace he so freely gives us, but the great thing is that he is holding it out in his hands just waiting for us to accept it. That's all we have to do. It is a daily choice to accept the things he so graciously offers, and I hope that each morning you will remember that and choose each of those things.

Chopped Veggie Salad

Okay, so for one of my wedding showers people were supposed to bring me recipes. I hadn't made any of them until yesterday and boy was it good. Here is the recipe.

3 cups each:
Celery, cauliflower, broccoli, petite frozen peas.

1 cup each:
Spanish peanuts, dried cranberries.

Dressing:
1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp. salt
1 T. Rice vinegar
2 T. Grated onion
1/4 cup parmesean cheese (ultra fine)
1 1/2 cup mayo

It is so refreshing and yummy! Jeff doesn't like mayonaise and won't even try the salad, so I guess that means more for me! :)

The Crazy Life

Wow...I didn't realize it had been over a month since I had written. I promise I am going to get better at it and maybe even Jeff will post something. Life has been pretty crazy in the past month. We went up to Washington to celebrate my birthday with my family, and went to Arizona for a wedding reception and in the midst of that craziness, Jeff was gone for a week and a half at training. Since then things haven't been getting back to "normal"...and I'm seeming to think that I don't know what "normal" is anymore. I thought it was where life was crazy busy, but I am starting to think it's the other way around. I know it's probably going to get even worse from here on out.

We did get some amazing news yesterday. Most of you know that one of our close family friends, who is like my brother, has been re-diagnosed with osteosarcoma. He has three tumors and has been in a lot of pain. They tried one type of chemo and it wasn't working very well, so they did a couple treatments with another type. He went in yesterday for tests and scans and found out that the tumors are shrinking! We were so relieved and encouraged to hear that news. Praise God!

This weekend we plan on laying low and resting a little bit...I am slowly becoming somebody who likes to be home and have my downtime. Weird...

"The Big Easy"

Last week we experienced our first days and nights apart since we have been married. I led a trip to New Orleans with 9 other people. Everybody was from ROCKHARBOR except for my parents. Let me just tell you, it was HOT! It was hot and the humidity was probably like 80 or 90%. We all had a wonderful time and really grew close as a team.

We did a bunch of different things. We tore town a garage/shop, distributed food to members of the community, did yardwork, helped at a barbecue, and fed the homeless at a place caled the wall. The two things I felt impacted me the most were distributing food and feeding the homeless. We were able to pray with people and hear their stories from when hurricane Katrina hit. Here is a picture of when we were handing out food. We were in a church parking lot and some of our team members were holding up signs that said free food. There were all kinds of people who came and got food. Some had evacuated before the hurricane and some didn't, but most of them had one thing in common...their house had been destroyed by the storm. Most of them were living in trailers.

God really worked in the lives of all the people on the team. Since I have been home, I continually think of the people there pray that they have hope and will be able to help get their city back to "normal" someday.

GOing to Mexico

This weekend we had the opportunity to go to a town outside of Ensanada, Mexico and serve families there by building them houses. We worked with a ministry called Hands of Mercy. We went with a team of over 100 people from ROCKHARBOR. We were broken up into groups of 25 and our group built one house on Friday and one on Saturday. The first family we built for was a 19 year-old boy and a 14 year-old girl who had a 10 day old baby. The second family was a mom, dad, and son. This picture is the trailer they lived in. It was very crowded inside and had a lot of cracks in it where creatures were able to find their way in.

It was pretty incredible to see the poverty these people live in. They have no running water. They all have outhouses that don't smell to nice, and most of them have big barrels of water that they put uphill from their house so they can take showers and stuff. All of the roads off the main road were made of dirt, which made for a dirty weekend. There was always dust blowing everywhere. Here is one of our finished products. (I know it's not that good of a picture, so I will post more later this week)


On the way home today we were talking about how little these people have. It makes us all more aware of everything we "think" we need and reminds us that's not what life is about. We look forward to sharing stories in person or on the phone. Please continue to pray as I am leaving in 8 days for New Orleans. :)

Our Crazy Life!

Well, life is still going at a crazy fast pace! I don't think it will ever slow down! Jeff has still been working quite a bit. He worked 66 hours last week. I am looking forward to him working 9 hour days instead. We went to see Transformers last night. It was pretty good. A little cheesy, but Jeff loved it!

All this week I have been a counselor at VBS (Vacation Bible School). I have an assistant counselor who is amazing and then 13 eight and nine year old kids that I get to hang out with for four hours a day. I love it and it has been wearing me out too! I am starting to build relationships with my kids and soon the week will be over...bummer! I will post a picture of me and my kids soon.

This weekend Jeff's family is coming into town, so it will be fun to hang out with them! I think I am going to start working full time either next week or in a couple weeks. That should be an adjustment, but I am really looking forward to it. I got trained on some of my new duties today and it's exciting! I will be working with the event management system where everybody reserves spaces in the church for their ministry events. There are a lot of details I need to know because I am the one who will approve them using the spaces. But I love details!!

Weekend in Arizona

Here are a couple pictures from our fun weekend in Arizona. Laney is using a rotten orange to help Jeff clean my car. We watched her for a little while on Saturday and she had a great time getting soaked and sitting in the car wash water. We love her! Then there's a picture of Jeff playing with Noah. He is getting very big and it is so fun to watch him walk around. We are very lucky to have such cute niece and nephews.


This weekend we went to Arizona to surprise Jeff's parents when they got back from their 5 week trip to Africa. We went to the airport with everyone and they were very surprised. We also got to spend all of Saturday with Julie, Cory, Noah, Laney, and a little bit with Kristin. Julie and Cory have a Wii, so that was fun to play even though I looked like a retard trying to play the tennis game.

We went to church on Sunday morning and then Kristin and Julie made a really good huge lunch! The drive home wasn't too bad. Today it was back to work for both of us. Jeff is really enjoying his job. He is learning a lot and is doing a lot of neat things over there. I am going to be starting full time at ROCKHARBOR pretty soon, so that's exciting.

Our life continues to stay busy with friends and church. It has been a fun summer so far and we are looking forward to our trip to Mexico and my trip to New Orleans. I know God is going to change us both!

Happy 5th of July!

Well, we were able to celebrate our first holiday as a married couple yesterday! Isn't that exciting?! Other than that there's not much else new with us. Jeff started working at Chevron last Monday and has been working a ton. They are in the middle of a big shut-down and are using all the help they can get! He worked 60 hours last week! He has been enjoying it and has also been learning a lot.

As for me I have been working, and enjoying getting home at a decent hour in the afternoon so I can clean up the apartment and have dinner ready when Jeff gets home. We went down to Costa Mesa yesterday and celebrated the 4th with the Scott family and their whole neighborhood, which was so much fun.

Tonight we are going out to dinner with some friends and are very excited about that...then it's almost the weekend! YAY!

Here We Go!

Lately I have found that a lot of people are starting to have blogs. I have been thinking about starting one for a while now, and finally Kristen convinced me to do it! I guess it's one way we can keep a larger number of poeple updated on our life and the new and exciting things going on! So here we are...

This picture is from the helicopter tour we took while we were on our honeymoon in Hawai'i. It was so much fun! We would definitely recommend it if you ever go. Just make sure and make reservations online because it's cheaper.

At the moment I am sitting at the apartment on our new comfy couch waiting for Jeff to come home. Only 3 and 1/2 more hours. Right now I am still only working part time for ROCKHARBOR, so I usually have Thursday and Fridays off, which is nice but I get bored. There are actually a lot of things I could be doing, but I feel like being lazy!

Tonight we are going to go to Disneyland because it's the last day our passes work and we really want to go on the new Finding Nemo ride (we'll see if it actually happens). I guess I should go find something productive to do! Bye for now!