Interesting Times...thats for sure!

OK so, things have been going good...we did come across one small, well maybe not so small snag. One night we Jonathan and I were both having trouble sleeping, we both figured that our air conditioner wasn't cooling off as much as we would have liked for it to, this all happening on a Wednesday night. Thursday, I was out of the house all day and Jonathan was up at his office all day, so we turned the complete system off, and left Gracie outside. When we came home later that evening, about 7pm, we realize that the ac is not coming on at all on the outside unit, but the thermostat seems to be working. It being later in the evening when we realized all this we couldn't exactly call our landlord, so we slept outside. Now when I say we slept outside, its not at all what it would be like in Texas. We have AMAZING patio furniture, ceiling fans, covered patio, great fenced in yard with our privacy fence, and COOL, so cool in fact that I had two blankets. So now its Friday morning, Jonathan's day off. We tried calling our landlord, but was unable to reach him all day long, so we go to the movie night at church and happen to run into our Pastor and his wife (who owns the house) and we tell her whats going on, and she said to call her if we can't get ahold of Dale, anyway long story short...we still didn't get the ac fixed by saturday. So Saturday night is where we get an adrenaline rush. We are doing our now usual routine of getting the bed ready outside and Gracie starts barking at something, but its off back the back of the fence so we can't see, well me of course being DEATHLY AFRAID of the dark, start thinking the worse..Jonathan gets up to "prove me wrong" and turns on the lights, checks all areas of the yard..and I start to hear what I'm pretty sure is a helicopter, so Jonathan rushes to turn off the patio lights so we can see if we are able to see where it is, since its seems like its flying pretty low. Well, right when Jonathan turns off the lights (him being closer to the dining room door, me being closer to the bedroom door), we spot the helicopter, and he is SPOTLIGHTING THE AREA, and RAPIDLY, approaching our house. Now when I say "rapidly approaching" I mean this all literally happened in a matter of say...7 to 8 seconds! Now, I also have some knowledge on when this sort of thing occurs, usually they are either looking for someone on foot, in car, or just shedding some light on something pretty important. This information does absolutely NOTHING for my freaked out nerves and mind. The helicopter is literally coming up our street, and so Jonathan says with a shaky loud voice, "GET INSIDE QUICK!!" So we both go in our separate doors, lock them, close the blinds, then realized we forgot Gracie outside...so As Jonathan is bringing her in I sneak a peak out the blinds and see the spotlight go from our neighbors house to our house...and right then and there I'm for sure I stopped breathing. I then in one single leap jumped to the bed and baracaded myself in one spot that soon became cement for my feet. Now, in the midst of all this, keep in mind we have no internet, can't get any channels on tv, so we basically have no way of getting information. Except our phones, but thats only top stories, so we figure this should be on there...NOTHING. ZIPPO. NADA. I ask Jonathan to call one of his friends from the church to see what they know, but he wouldn't cause this was late in the evening. So I text a friend close to our house, but she is a flight attendant and was on a flight and didn't get my message in our rush panic. So finally Jonathan sees that I am most certainly not going to calm down until we figure out whats going on so he calls the San Bernardino Police Department. When he gets someone on the phone they don't know what we're talking about, so the next person we get on the phone is THE CHIEF OF POLICE, so I'm thinkin..."holy crap, this is serious, well at least we'll see ourselves on the news, or cops,..something!" Only to hear on the other end of the phone, "oh sorry, about the disturbance folks, just doing some training in the area, doing a fly over with some guys...!" ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME?!?!?! TRAINING?!?!? I've only had a minor panic, need to change my underclothes, take a muscle relaxer type moment!! So needless to say...I still didn't get much sleep, but I also didn't sleep outside stilll....my nerves were at an all time high and I couldn't un-wind...So anyway, Our AC did get fixed Monday morning, and it turns out that something inside the thermostat was corroded and caused the power source from inside to not work on the outside and took about 2 hours to fix, but ALAS, we have air, and are no longer sleeping outside, and as happy as could be!



Looks like we will have internet after Labor Day weekend, so after that hopefully I'll be able to post the pictures of the house and when we stopped at the Grand Canyon!!! Oh and as for Jonathan being at the church, things are going good. There have been a few moments of frustration just because there is such high expectations of him and turning this middle school group into something that will no longer be a burden for people in the church. He has already got some fun events planned, going to the beach in a couple of weeks, laser tag in october. They have asked Jonathan to start up a Middle School Choir, so that is in the works, and I will be leading a drama team for the Middle School as well...The Minister of Music has asked Jonathan to play the guitar for the Contemporary Service they plan to start this coming sunday, so things are getting exciting, and the ball is definitely rolling. Please just be in prayer for us, more specifically for Jonathan...sometimes things get hard when you have spent your life planning for one thing, only to find out God takes you in a different direction....We are doing our best to support and encourage one another, but that is exhausting at times too...We at times just don't have it in us to put that smile on our face, and when that happens, Satan for sure steps in and attacks both of us...this is definitely helping the both of us grow more with one another as a couple...so please just be in prayer for the two of us, that we won't grow tired of one another, and that we would feel God's presence and strength, not just at the low times, but at all times....Thanks Guys! I hope everyones weeks are going well...Love and Miss everyone!!

NO INTERNET...AGGHHH!!!!!

OK, so things are going GREAT! Except, we still have no internet access...:( Soon, hopefully...so for now you probably will only see posts from me every couple of days for when I can get up to Jonathan's office and use it! But anyway, we celebrated Jonathan's 25th birthday yesterday and one of the other staff members heard that Applebee's was his favorite restaurant, so he gave him a card and so we all know where we had dinner...lol. It was good, it really was. Jonathan and I have been in THE BEST of moods since we finally got all nice and settled in, and things so far are going good. We usually end our days with sitting outside on our AMAZING patio area with a nice cool breeze, and NO MOSQUITOS!!! yea!!! haha, but really, things are going great so far. Jonathan has completely set up his office at work and all looks good there, they gave him his business cards, and I almost started tearing up..silly I know, but lets face it..we all know I'm the emotional one! Other than that, we're just still familiarizing ourselves with the church and their way of things around here...and trying to plan some small stuff for the kids since school has already started we can't really do anything too extravagant right now...I am looking for a job, so keep me in your prayers for that, I was wanting to work at the day school they have here at the church, but all they have right now are part time positions, which isn't bad, but I would like to have a full time, but we'll see, it may be something that I fall back on :) OH, And I have taken TONS of pics of our house, and believe me...the color in the pics is pretty different from whats in person, but as soon as Jonathan is around when I am posting then maybe he can help me figure out how to post them from a different computer..until then!!! Be praying for us...we're praying for all y'all too!!! LOVE AND MISS EVERYONE STILL!!!!

Pictures of our House, Part I

OK, so I tried putting the pictures in order like you would walk in the house and this would be the order, but...didn't work out so well. SO, the first pictures your seeing are the kitchen area. (believe me...the yellow is MUCH worse in person!) The next two pictures are Jonathan's office, right across from the living room. (it was a bedroom, but they busted out part of the wall and made it a den space, which we LOVE) The next few pictures are the living room, my personal favorite of all the house. (and when we paint it - ah, amazing!) We love our fireplace, and no, its not made for woodburning, it is gas, but can be used for wood burning, but most likely we won't. Then the outside pictures are from the street. You can see the big shade tree we have in the front, and then to the left of the driveway is our side gate that leads to a cement walkway to the back yard.(which you'll see later!) enjoy these for now, and I'll post some more in a minute!!

Hereeee's California!!!!

Well, we're here! We got pulled up in front of our house at about 6:30 (830 Texas & Wisconsin time..lol) on Thursday, August 14. We came in and were greeted by our property manager, who showed us around the house again, and told us that there was some furniture in the house, that we could help ourselves to if we wanted to, if not they would contact us and come and pick it up from the house. After he left, some guys from the church showed up to help unload...I willingly stood outside the truck and told them as they were coming off the truck where they could put certain boxes or pieces of furniture...amazingly, they finished unloading EVERYTHING in less than 20 minutes, AMAZING! Then, one of the guys that works on staff at Immanuel Baptist took us out to dinner so we could break our "road trip fast food" spell. We came back to the house and looked around at some of the stuff that was left and then collapsed into our bed and didn't wake up for quite a few hours...lol. The next day (Friday) we started un packing and moving furniture to where we wanted things....and then went up to the church to make an appearance since we had only been in for about 24 hours, we were still pretty exhausted though. Every Friday night the church has "movie night" where they show a family friendly movie and you can bring out blankets, chairs, and eat popcorn and cotton candy, or bbq, so it was fun just to say hi to some people, but again....our bed was calling our names...lol...so off to sleep we went again! Today, (saturday) I slept in, but we did find out that the sun rises about 530 (not a pleasant piece of information...), but we did find this like...double chaise lounge thing, that is real close to the ground with a comfy white mattress on it, so when I woke up...it was DEFINITELY pretty sunny out, so we all know what I did...SUN-BATHED! Oh yeah, and one hour was PLENTY ENOUGH!!! Anyway, we finished un packing and returned the u-haul truck, and went and got some food to eat...FINALLY!!! Then when we got home we realized that we really didn't have all that much left to unpack, we just needed to get all the trash, and empty boxes out, and hang stuff on the walls, and we were done...so we got to it and FINISHED! The only thing we really need now, is a table and chairs, but until then its outside on the patio furniture..which is fine since the temperature couldn't be more perfect!! Right now, we just discovered that there is an ice cream truck that runs through here at about 6:15pm, so that right there is the BEST THING YET!! lol. Jonathan and I really don't have any major plans for right now, its mainly just chillin. He has to prepare for his kids in the morning so he'll be doing that for the remainder of the evening I'm sure, and we'll both start bright and early in the morning for the staff prayer meeting at 7:15am (yikes), and so you might not hear from me tomorrow unless its just posting some pictures. We did however, take lots of pictures of the house and yard today, so hopefully I'll be putting those up asap so y'all can see what its looking like over here, and also so we can in the future see how many improvements we make...the main one will be to get the yellow out, and clean up the flower bed areas...until then...hope everyone is doing ok, and I already love and miss EVERYONE!!! (and be in prayer since tomorrow is the first day at Immanuel Baptist Church)

Some Random Pics...

So I'm just getting the hang of this blog thing, and realized that I meant to post some pictures up for y'all..oops!! Hope y'all like them...some are from the Cadillac Ranch, the some at the petrified national forest, and then some from the painted desert, and finally some of the meteor crater in arizona...ENJOY!!

Well, we're in Flagstaff!!

Well today has been a GREAT day!! I turned on the radio and listened to KLOVE christian radio basically all day today, and THAT was a God-send. I kept asking God the whole way.."please Lord, Please...let me know your here today..." Almost challenging Him.."show yourself, I DARE YOU!!!" And boy did He...through so many songs today he did. As Jonathan and I drove through the Petrified Wood National Forest, and the Painted Desert, He continued to reveal Himself. I couldn't help but sing His praises all day. How some people see these sights on a daily basis and think that God does NOT exist, is beyond me...completely beyond me. Then in the car, continuing on I-40, I was in awe of My Creator...I could have sat on the hood of my car all day and just looked at this amazing world He has created just for us, and his glory, and on comes the radio...."how great thou art...in awesome wonder...how great thou art...", now try to tell me God didn't accept my challenge and "show himself!" Then challenging Him once again, praying that He would prove to me that we are supposed to be going to Immanuel Baptist Church, and again though song..."Immanuel, God With Us" from mercyme comes playing on the radio, just confirming my thoughts that we are right where we were supposed to be right that very moment....talk about standing in amazement. I just pray that tomorrow, God will continue to not let us miss an opportunity to praise him, and glorify Him while we finish our last leg of the trip...I pray that I glorify Him EVERY SINGLE INCH OF EVERY SINGLE MILE!!!!

California....HERE WE COME!!!

Well, we left for our new adventure yesterday...CALIFORNIA BOUND! We made it to Amarillo, Texas last night...driving out we for sure felt like we were leaving "paradise" and heading to "no man's land..." lol. Gracie probably felt like we were dropping her off when we left her in a..decent..hotel room yesterday, quite a bit of barking was heard as we walked to Subway, which is a WHOLE OTHER BLOG for sure!!! This morning we woke up and took our time getting ready and left at about 11am and headed for Albequerque, New Mexico. We arrived at about 4pm. Today was a little harder, I think when I saw the sign that said "you are now leaving Texas," and "welcome to New Mexico" things really started to sink in..I started to tear up, and get extremely aggitated and I'm pretty sure that the other drivers on the road started to notice. People started to honk in frustration, which I'm still not sure why, other than to aggitate me more....needless to say things were rough today! Praying for a better day tomorrow as we head to either Phoenix, AZ or Flagstaff, AZ...