3rd Honeymoon? I don't think so...

Justin and I are off tomorrow to Gatlinburg, TN. We spent what we call our "1st Honeymoon" there for a week (our 2nd was a weekend in NY a week after we got home from Gatlinburg). It was gorgeous, warm, quiet, fun, and intimate. This trip will be all of the same, except the quiet and intimate qualities. We are meeting the Gordon side of our family there. Justin's parents have rented a cabin in the Smokey Mountains for all 8 of us for the week. I am looking forward to seeing my family! Abbie turned 4 today, and we get to see her and Peyton tomorrow! We didn't get to see her on her birthday last year or the year before. It was such a bummer! I'm hoping to have new pictures up when we get back. I bought batteries for the camera, so I should be able to get some good pictures.
I miss my family (both the Gordon side and the Strange side) more than I ever knew I would. Do you think our parents raise us knowing that someday we might move 2000 miles away? Do you think they're able to break through the sadness of the distance to be truly proud of what we've accomplished? Would we have been this satisfied with life if we'd stayed closer to our family? I think these are some of life's unanswered questions, or at least seem unanswerable, because we don't necessarily want to think about it.

Moving Day!

Today we are moving. Where to, you ask? Well, about half a mile away from our current location. We like to think of it as relocating to a better part of town (we currently do not like our neighbors). Hopefully we will have better neighbors!
I love moving in the middle of the week. I don't have to take off work at all. I leave for work from one location and come home to a new location that is completely unpacked and ready to live in! Props to Justin and the Megarits! As much as I'd like to move to a bigger home (one that I own), it is nice to not have very many earlthly possessions. If I had more room, I would eventually accumulate more crap. I didn't even have to pack very much. I was seriously ill all weekend, so Justin packed almost everything. My husband is the bestest! He's so great, I'm even making up words about him!
All this to say, if would like our new address for today through April 30, 2007, give me a shout!

Snow for IL, Sunshine for CA

Okay, so I just got off the phone with my dad. We were doing the normal chat thing, when he suddenly exclaimed, "Wow, it is really snowing right now!" I was a little dis-oriented by his statement, because, as I looked out my window, all I could see was mountains, green grass, and lots of sunshine! Then, as I looked at my dash, my temperature gauge read 85 degrees. So I simply mentioned that to my dad, and he said that they were supposed to get snow, but only flurries and it was definitely doing more than just "flurrying."

I used to watch weather.com to compare the temps, so I could flaunt it to everyone I knew. That got old very quickly, so I had stopped doing it. I guess I also stopped realizing that there was such a distinct difference between the Midwest, and the West Coast. Oh well. I guess my payback is that we're under a Red Flag Warning, which means that wildfires can burst up anywhere at anytime, since we've had very little rain since last summer. Luckily, the only fires burning right now are at least 60-75 miles away from us. We've only been witness to one wildfire near us (2 years ago, this July), and it actually was less than 2 miles away from our apartment.

All this to say that I love living on the West Coast!

Chandler's Not a Salt Water Dog

We went to the beach yesterday, and it was a lot of fun! (We’ve actually been going to the beach almost every Saturday and Sunday for the last month or so.) We decided to take Chandler to the beach yesterday, since he’d only been once before. That’s when we found out that he’s not a beach dog. First of all, he doesn’t like the car because we think he gets motion sick. When we got to the beach, however, he looked like he was ready to have some fun. I had brought him some water so that he wouldn’t have to drink the ocean water, but that didn’t stop him. The first thing he wanted to do was go get a long drink from the ocean. He had a good time for the first 45 minutes to hour. We would throw his Frisbee into the ocean and he would go get it. Then all the sudden he started going to the bathroom, if you could call it that, all over the place. He totally went to the bathroom right in front of a little boy who’s eyes got really wide. The mom immediately called the little boy away from Chandler…I was totally embarrassed. I gave Chandler some water and he drank it up within minutes. He then proceeded to throw up all the water (plus some salt water, I’m sure) and looked at me with these big sad eyes. I gave him some more water and the same thing happened. I walked him around for a little while to get it all out of his system, and then we decided to go home. He was fine until we got home, where we gave him more water. He was drinking and then decided he couldn’t wait to go pee. He just lifted his leg and peed all over my floor…WHILE STILL DRINKING!!! It was the most disgustingly funny thing I’d ever seen. I yelled at him and he stopped until Justin took him out to finish. We took his water away and left for about 2 hours, and came home. He still looked really sad, but he hadn’t peed anywhere else. As soon as we gave him more water, he sat by the door to go out again, though. Justin took him out and he peed a bunch then. I took him out about a half hour later, and he peed some more! He peed a bunch this morning, too, when I took him out.

I really hope he got it all out of his system! We will not be taking him to the beach for a while, which is sad really…since he’s a lab, a.k.a. “a water dog.”

I think it's really funny how people assume one thing about you or your husband or your family or your friends, when the exact opposite is the real truth! Justin and I get a lot of assumptions made about us here in LA, when in turn they really don't match up to the real us!

No one ever expects my answer when they ask what my husband does. My answer of, "well, he's a pastor" tends to shock everyone...even if they haven't ever met him. Once they meet him, the idea seems even more ludicrous. Here he is, typically unshaven, with long, shaggy, unmanaged hair, who wears his hat down low over his eyes, and in a old t-shirt and baggy shorts. He's a pretty decent athlete, very good poker player, surfer, computer geek, creative designer and a pastor all in one! It's not the norm for that last characteristic (being a pastor) to be associated with the rest. Usually you get maybe one of those in the mix, but not usually all of them. I know I'm biased because I'm his wife, but he's a pretty cool guy!

When people meet me, even if they have some sort of pre-conceived notion about me, I tend to not be what they expect. The number one thing that shocks them is that I'm a pastor's wife. After all, most pastor's wives don't work, they stay at home. Not me...I have to work to help pay the bills. Besides, I'd be bored if I didn't have anything to do during the day. That might change after we have kids (a long time from now!), but for now that's the way it is! I have a pretty decent amount of sports knowledge for a girl. I am almost always willing to try something new, even when it obviously scares the crap out of me! I look way younger than I really am. The last time I got told how old I look, it was almost insulting...16! How crazy is that? I'm 24, THANK YOU!

I don't know, I guess I'm getting used to the shocked faces when I'm asked about myself and Justin.

The past 2 years.

Today is Justin and I’s 2nd wedding anniversary! I can’t believe it’s been 2 years since I graduated college and then got married a week later! I can honestly say I am not the same person that I was back then. I haven’t changed all my ideals, but I have learned a lot since May 24th, 2003. I’ve learned even more since December 29th, 2003, the day we moved out to California.

*I love Justin more now than I did 2 years ago, and I know that love will continue to grow every day!
*Life is not always easy…especially when you live 2000 miles away from everything you’ve known and loved for your entire life.
*Family doesn’t always live up to your expectations.
*I really can survive without my family around.
*I miss being in school…real work is not as fun.
*Having a big dog makes a big difference at night if Justin’s not at home.
*I can learn a lot from so very many different people.
*Church-In-A-Box has it’s perks and has it’s downfalls.
*Californians go absolutely crazy when it rains outside…they need to learn how to drive.
*Not many people who live in California are actually from California.
*Spanish is fun to learn when you’re only learning a couple words a day.
*Seeing a celebrity isn’t as exciting as it seems.
*The most famous places in Southern CA are filled with the weirdest people you’ll ever come into contact with.
There are a lot more things that I’ve learned over the past 2 years, but these are the ones that stuck out the most. At this point, though, the biggest thing I’ve learned is to trust that God will get me wherever he wants me to go and Justin is the biggest supporter of that fact.

Night-Time Strolls

What is it about a stroll with your husband and dog after the sun’s gone down that is so relaxing? I used to run every night with Chandler, but recently, I’ve gotten into taking 1-2 hour walks with him and sometimes Justin. I love to walk through all the really rich neighborhoods and taking in all the beautiful homes. I usually walk by them hoping that one day I would be able to own one, but mainly I love to admire their mass size and beauty. There’s this one area of Valencia called Bridgeport. In the middle of Bridgeport, there is this lake that is home to lots of ducks. Anyways…the homes that are on the “lake side,” usually start around the $1,000,000 mark. These houses are absolutely beautiful!
Back to the relaxing part of the walk…it’s been absolutely beautiful here lately! During the daytime, the temps have been around the 80’s, and at night, it usually goes down to the mid-60’s. Since it stopped raining, it’s been very rare to have a cloud in the sky, which makes for a very starry night! Whenever I take a walk at night, I tend to forget about everything that has been on my mind all day. I don’t know what the weather’s been like back in the Mid-West, but I hope everyone else can have these awesome night-time strolls!