JOB NEWS!

I finally got my transfer set so I'll be able to continue as a bra specialist in California (the one that worked out best is at the Santa Anita mall in Arcadia, in the middle of the area we're looking to live in, so I'm good either way).  I've also applied for eight-kajillion babysitting and other jobs in the past few days to supplement and make it more like full-time employment.  It was such a blessing and encouragement to get things figured out with VS so we at least have somethinggg to put down on apartments aps.  Thanks for the prayers - keep it up :)

Attack of the killer bugs!!

Anyone else had an overload of creepy crawlies in their house recently?  Evidently the weather has caused tonnnns of bugs to come out!! (LA hit 113 yesterday!  When we were there, we saw ants everywhere.)  Unfortunately, Gary is just as scared of spiders as I am...so we are living in fear together!  Haha!  There must have been a recent hatching because there are tons in our house!  We've both killed a few, but I think it's time to go get some spider spray and the bug vacuum I've always wanted from skymall!!  This morning I ran out of the shower with shampoo in my hair thanks to a yucky eight-legged creature!  It doesn't stop there - we also have had  few pesky flies and can't go out the front door thanks to a herd of wasps that have taken over the entryway! Several of our friends posted similar stories on facebook today.  The bugs are trying to take over!! :-o
Here is a link to the story about the weather-bug issue: http://www.weather.com/outlook/videos/record-heat-bring-out-the-bugs-18371

We've returned!

We made it back safely from Pasadena!  No official news yet, just weighing our options (we found some good ones!) and trying to work everything out with lotttts of prayer!!
We really like the Covina/West Covina area - slightly slower, more open, and less congested - a little more midwestern :)
While there, we found some new favorite restaurants - like El Pollo Loco (way better and more authentic than Taco Bell but not too much more expensive) and Daphne's (Greek, obviously, and they have this amazing fire feta topping - i love anyyyything with feta!!).
On the way back we stayed with my uncle again in Vegas.  It was our 2 month-iversary  so we went down to the strip and walked around a bit (watched the water show at the Bellagio and other similar free things haha!).   It was a lovely evening and overall a lovely trip.  Can't wait til everything comes together and we can get settled in Cali :)

California Dreamin'...almost Realized.

 Well, we made it!  We are in Pasadena - at least temporarily.  We stayed with my uncle in Las Vegas on Sunday night to break up the driving an headed down Monday morning(after stopping and Gold & Silver Pawn Shop ... the one from Pawn Stars on the History Channel .. got to see the Old Man and Chumlee for a couple seconds before they removed everyone for more filming).
We are staying with a pastor and his wife for the week while we check out apartments.  Looked at several today - some good, some ... less good, but still have a lot more to see tomorrow!  Thanks for all of your prayers for our travels and search!!

Just the Beginning ...

Welcome friends!  Gary and I are just starting this blog so you can keep up with our crazy lives as we move out West!

I've backtracked a little to recount our adventures since the wedding and catch you up on what's been going on :)

ENJOY!!

Updates in Idaho

After we got settled in, we were back to wedding mode – no, not our wedding, but some friends were getting married that next weekend.  Their family had come out for our wedding and was an incredible help to us, so we returned the favor by mulching, making programs, etc.  The night of the rehearsal, Gary drove down to Salt Lake for a Waking Ashland (one of his favorite bands) reunion concert (which he had bought tickets for in LA when we thought we were going there right away, so he had to switch them to SLC) and didn’t get home until about 4:30am.  We had a great time at the wedding the next day.

           Another highlight of our time here was taking Gary golfing for the first time.  He did pretty well, even on the hottest day of the summer (about 110 degrees I believe).
          The two coldest, windiest days so far happened to be two Sundays in a row with church picnics!  For the first we went to Nat-soo-pah on my dad’s birthday.  It’s a hot springs pool so luckily the warm water made up for how chilly it was.  That was also the major wildfire day with smoke billowing through the town.  The other picnic was at my parents’ house for the youth and their families.  We played volleyball and other lawn games and enjoyed a barbeque.  Most recently, Gary joined a fantasy football league with some men from the church and roped me in to make the numbers even.  I worked with some of the girls at church on a dance for them to perform this past Sunday.  I was also supposed to perform a dance, but in practice the day before, I landed a jump wrong and sprained my toe, so I’ve been pretty immobile all week.   Gary was sad he had to leave the Perrine Bridge festival (base jumping extravaganza) to take me to the E.R. 
           We just celebrated Gary’s 23^rd birthday, which unfortunately wasn’t too exciting because I was sick, but we took him out to dinner later. :) 

            We’ve both been dealing with a change in the humidity – don’t get me wrong, we love the dry air, but have been getting headaches and sore throats from the change.  I also spent Labor Day throwing up 10 times, but am feeling mostly better now.  These challenges have put a damper in some of our plans working on getting things figured out for California.  On that note, we are still searching, searching, searching!  Gary has applied for a few youth pastor and other positions and we are trying to narrow down apartments based on internet photos!  We are planning to try to head down to Pasadena next week to do some looking!  Please continue to be in prayer for both of these searches.  Most of it has been in Gary’s court – I’ve been slaving away at those thank you notes! 

Road Trip

We finally got all packed up and were able to leave on August 5^th!  Following are some of the highlights of our adventure:

Day 1:

We set off in the afternoon, finished a few last-minute errands, and then had a lovely few hours sitting through Chicago traffic, of course.  Just outside of the city, we decided to stop in Elgin so Gary could see Judson University’s campus (where my dad and brother both attended).  It was about dinner time, so we stopped for our favorite Chicago foods - well, not the normal Giordano’s, but El Faro for me and White Castle for him.

Soon we were in Wisconsin, reading through the travel books and playing road games, but it was getting dark and I was getting tired, so I went to sleep.  Around Eau Claire, about 20 miles before our hotel, Gary was getting sleepy without me to talk to so he pulled off onto a side highway where there was a McDonalds so he could get out and walk around for a minute.  As we turned back up onto that small highway towards the ramp, a buck followed by a doe ran straight for our car, across all the lanes!  Gary slowed down and moved to the side, assuming the deer would see us and stop or run behind us.  Instead, I guess the buck wanted to protect his doe, so he decided to ram his antlers into the front/side of our car!  His body flung around and hit Gary’s door and left some lovely waste on the side.  Well, we’re pretty sure the deer wasn’t too hurt, but the car didn’t come out so well!  We pulled over to check out the damage only to realize Gary’s car door wouldn’t open more than two inches.  That’s right, the entire rest of our adventure included Gary having to climb in and out of his tiny Sunfire through my door (which also meant if he could avoid getting out he would, so I was stuck with pumping gas and cleaning bugs off the windshield the whole way!).  Otherwise the car was just a little smashed in, nothing too serious (we’re okay and we’ve already settled it with the insurance).  Even though the deer in Wisconsin are not our favorite, the people are very kind – several men stopped to see if we needed help!  The positive side of getting charged by a deer?  When we stopped to check out the damage, I discovered we were parked in front of a business that started with the letter “x” – we could finally finish the sign game!!

Day 2:

            Every girl’s dream!  This day we drove up into Minnesota and visited the Mall of America!  If only we could have stayed longer (and had more money)!!  We did walk through the entire mall, but Gary kept reminding me we still had a long drive that evening.  We spent the most time in the Godiva store (silly, since I had one of those at my home mall, but who cares, it’s Godiva) and the Brain Store (this is the only location outside of Chicago – it’s awesome!).  We also finally ate at Rainforest Café, since we had always wanted to (and we had also heard their food was subpar, but we really enjoyed it!!). 

            We spent the rest of the day simply driving to Sioux Falls, enjoying the scenery.

Day 3:

            We journeyed through South Dakota, sharing the road with billions of motorcycles.  We eventually learned that the 70^th annual motorcycle rally in Sturgis (just outside the Black Hills) was happening that weekend, right as we drove through (hence the heightened price of hotels and busiest days of the year at all of the tourist stops).  I saw more motorcycles in those couple of days than I had in my entire life! 

            We drove up to the edge of the Badlands, but decided not to drive through.  There was a store just outside that had a field of prairie dogs!  My camera and I were simply enamored with these adorable little rodents.  One even nibbled on Gary’s toe!

            When Gary was younger, he had visited Wall Drug (what began as a small convenience store and through advertising has become a popular Western village with shops and restaurants that attract the masses).  Gary wanted to return so we thought we’d just walk through quickly, but got roped in by fudge and Black Hills gold (the latter of which was wayyy too expensive, but fun to look at!).  It was so warm outside that we just wanted to relax, so we decided to push off Rushmore ‘til the next day and Gary enjoyed some dinner while there (I was not hungry at that point). 

            We continued on with the motorcycles to Rapid City, on the north edge of the Black Hills.  We checked into the hotel, and at that point I was starving!  We went to get me some food, but when Gary went to pay, he discovered his debit card was missing.  Luckily we had some cash, but had to figure this out.  Turns out he had left it at the restaurant at Wall Drug, and they were holding it for him, so we had to return the next morning to retrieve it (he had just been sent a new one with new numbers, so he activated that, but we thought we’d get the old one and monitor it, just in case).  Despite all the craziness, we decided there was nothing we could do but relax – so we enjoyed learning about the Sturgis rally from some motorcyclists in the hotel hot tub.

Day 4:

           After travelling back to Wall Drug, we finally drove into the Black Hills and made our way to Mount Rushmore.  We enjoyed the informational videos and walked the “Presidential Trail” for unique views of the hill.  We ate lunch and ice cream with a view of the sculpture, a great experience (although it was Gary’s second time to the landmark, we both had a great time!).

            We took the scenic route through the forest, hoping to see some wildlife (but sadly didn’t).  We wanted to stop at an old West town, so we drove through Deadwood, which was covered in motorcyclists (we thought that route would help us avoid the traffic in Sturgis, but they were everywhere!).  After that we continued on our way to Billings, with fewer motorcycles, but a plethora of pronghorn deer.

Day 5:

            Our last day, and longest day!  No fun stops allowed; we were ready to get to Twin Falls!  We also couldn’t stop because that morning at breakfast, we heard about the fugitives that were, at that point, said to be around Yellowstone, which we would be driving around – so we certainly didn’t want to stop and die!!!  (Later we found out one had been caught that morning and the other two had been in Billings when we were!).  So we drove through the montañas of Montana – beautiful tree covered mountains, sometimes hidden from us by rain.  We enjoyed the hilarious, small, middle-of-nowhere towns and rest stops (although we were a little jumpy watching out for the convicts!). 

            We drove down through the Gallatin National Forest (still no wildlife…it was rainy) and around Yellowstone – didn’t want to take too much time to go through it since we just went last year.  About 10 miles south of West Yellowstone, Gary’s battery light came on.  We pulled off into a gas station and called his uncle, a mechanic, who said it was probably the alternator and we only would have a few more miles to go on it (we checked the GPS, our best friend on this journey, and found out there was nothing more for about 50-80 miles).  We were going to turn around and find an auto shop in West Yellowstone, but then I saw that the gas station’s sign said “Auto Repair.”  He went in to ask about it, and they were just closing, but the lady called her boss who got ahold of a mechanic who was able to return for us.  The blessing: Gary’s dad suggested we buy a few spare parts (one being an alternator) before we left in case we got into a bind.  So luckily it wasn’t too crazy – the man replaced it, we were just charged a little extra for the labor since it was after hours.

            We continued on, driving through hours and hours of Idaho.  It was wonderful to see a view of the Grand Tetons in the distance (we also visited there last summer). 

There was a beautiful sunset and then much of our journey was in the dark.  When we arrived, my parents met us to help us unpack and we could finally settle in (well, sort-of!). 

The Big Day!!

The wedding was absolutely wonderful!  Thank you so much to everyone who helped with our special day :)  Everything went very well and looked amazing!  We had a wonderful time with all of our friends and family – so thankful for everyone who was able to come :)

Here is a link to the pictures from our wedding:

http://lomasbueno.zenfolio.com/p173813228