First Season in California

Today marks 5 months that we've lived in California.

I cannot believe the opportunities we've had to grow in these last months.
We immediately got involved with South Bay Church. I have been given several projects to work on and have interned here since September. After this internship is over, I plan to start volunteering with another non-profit to continue to gain more experience in my field. John Mark and I also joined the student ministry leadership team.  Before we came, there were weekly Bible studies and a few student ministry events, but our awesome team has played a major role in making Ignite Student Ministry into a program! It has truly been a growing experience and we are thrilled to be a part of this from it's beginning stages.
After months of applying to what seemed like everywhere and job hunting, I was finally able to start my job with REI in October. I am so grateful to finally be working after over a year of unemployment. I am really enjoying it. Even though it's retail and my hours are always different, I feel so blessed to be working and feel like there is a lot of opportunity to grow in the company! I hope to stay with REI for a while!
JM's job has thrown us a few unanticipated curveballs, but for the most part it is a good job and has given him some time to still be active at South Bay. Unfortunately he has worked most weekends and has been given some weird hours, but we are happy that he so far has not been deployed away from home.
It definitely was a culture shock when we moved here and life is not quite what we were expecting, but we are in a good place in our lives right now and we are just trying to take everything in while learning as much as possible. The Bay area pace of life and traffic is a lot to get used to, but we've been able to take some incredible hikes and day trips and there is still so much more to explore!
We miss our families like crazy!! I believe this is the longest I have ever gone without seeing my family, but we know this is just another piece of our life journey! I really struggle with looking forward to the next step in life rather than living in the now, so I am really trying to acknowledge this incredible opportunity we have in this season of life. But to be honest, it's really hard to not look forward to moving closer to family. Thankfully, the Redwines will be here for Christmas and we are so excited!
Thanksgiving was my first holiday away from family - JM had to be away a few times when he was underway. We planned on just staying home, the two of us and having our first holiday alone. But some of the staff at South Bay invited us to join them for Thanksgiving. We decided to go and it was an awesome day with our church family! All together there were 5 families - 10 adults and 9 kids! We are all transplants to California and thousands of miles away from our families. It's incredible to do life with these people!
God is doing big things in our hearts and lives and this new season is seriously just insane!

Hike to Mt. Mitchell 2012

The Color Run

Wow! Does this look like a colorful splash of fun or what?!

Last year I did a...

mud run [this is after we were hosed down!]

with a bunch of my college girlfriends...

But a color run looks way more inviting.

If JM and I do this, we'll be running in San Fran ;)

Check out thecolorrun.com for a city near you!

Finding Fall

We had the lovely opportunity to go to the Shenandoah Mountains over the weekend.

We did the same for Memorial weekend as well.

This time we decided to stay only Friday night so we could get back for a 20-something age group on Sunday after Church.

If you notice in the photo reel, we have no tent on our campsite.

We arrived Friday evening to set up camp.

JM pulled out our box of camping supplies and had a strange look on his face.

I knew that look and what it meant.

There's about to be a pause, an explanation and plenty of laughter to follow.

It has taken me a while to get to the laughter point so soon,

but the longer I am with JM, the more I am prepared for the unexpected!

I used to get mad - usually quite angry when this kind of stuff would happen.

"Well," I said: "we don't have a tent do we?"

And we both looked at each other and laughed.

I was going to ask him all the checklist questions when we were leaving,

but I also don't want to always check up on him.

We knew there was no rain in the forecast so we had the rain fly - that JM had mistaken for a tent -

and used it to lay on for the night.

It was an awesome night.

We watched the sun set, ate a taco dinner and sat by the fire for hours.

We ate graham crackers and chocolate for dessert because I forgot the marshmallows.

The moon was bright when we went to bed 

but early into the morning it went behind us and we were able to see so many stars huddled above us.

The sky was covered in Milky Way Galaxy goodness!

Although we were a little early for prime foliage, there were enough leaves that changed to capture some lovely fall images on our Saturday morning hike.

After some photo-ops and a picnic lunch on an overlook,

we headed to Charlottesville, VA to spend the afternoon walking around and people-watching.

"Picnik Show"

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Mudmaids

On our way back from St. Louis, JM and I stopped at my Aunt and Uncle's house near Chattanooga, TN for the day. They were the closest family to me while I was in school, so I spent most Sunday afternoons with them. JM got very close to them too when he'd come to visit me. I had some painting for Uncle Roy's workshop I had yet to finish, so I offered to finish my job in return for an antique window. I hope to restore and decorate with it.

JM left me in TN to stay with a few of my college roommates for the rest of the week and weekend. I enjoyed walking around campus, reading - currently "Three Cups of Tea" - on benches under trees and grabbing coffee with some old friends. I drank a lot of COFFEE! {Basically I pretended to be a college student again for a few days} And, I also got a chance to visit Dr. Moodley's class and get coffee with him after [my former adviser and professor]. It was really great to just talk about future plans! I really enjoyed being in the college atmosphere again... especially being in walking distance from almost everything. I felt at such a peace (probably because I didn't have a trillion assignments crawling down my back). I love Lee's campus because it changes every semester. There's always something new to look at.

I specifically stayed for the week to celebrate my dear friend Kyle's bachelorette weekend. My old roommates and I signed up for the Knoxville Marine Mud Run in honor of the upcoming wedding. We bought cheap dresses and gave Kyle a lovely wedding dress to wear for the occasion (calling ourselves the Mudmaids). This is the first time since being married that I've spent time with just girls. Yes, I missed my husband dearly, but I really enjoyed spending time with some amazing friends and godly women! We stayed up too late, laughed until we cried, danced and sang the night away, hiked the mountains, participated in the 5k mud run in our wedding attire and most of all prayed for *Kyle and Kahlin's* journey with their wedding just a month away.

What a lovely weekend. I was definitely ready to see my husband after 4 days without him and ready to be home after a week and a half of traveling. 

I flew home Sunday, Sept 11 and had plenty of time to ponder and pray over the day that changed our country so greatly 10 years ago. I was a freshman in chorus class as I watched the second tower get hit. 

Backpacking Roan Mountain

Here are some overdue pictures from our weekend backpacking trip on Roan Mountain. It was a grueling hike covering 30 miles for the weekend (remember - we carried everything with us). The first day we hiked straight up the mountain. There was a point that I questioned whether or not I liked backpacking anymore. But I really felt like I had strength all weekend to push through at even the hardest moments. Before we left, I prayed that God would help me to stay positive throughout the trip and it made a world of a difference soaking everything in with a clear mind and joyful heart. The second day was a much easier and shorter hike. We got to our site by the afternoon and had plenty of time to rest and meet other hikers on the way. We hiked out at 5am Sunday morning to see the sunrise. We left in moonlight and under the stars hiking with our headlamps. My body had a hard time getting up when I barely slept through the night and we started directly on an incline. But it was well worth the early morning to watch the sun rise over the horizon and breathe in God's beautiful creation. 

Another backpacking weekend!

We are leaving today for the NC mountains to once again spend a weekend backpacking in God's beautiful creation. I'm so blessed to have a husband and family and friends that really respect and enjoy the outdoors! Everything we need is on our back. I love it!
I pray that I can just focus in on the little things that go easily unnoticed and I can just listen for what God wants to show me and speak in me!

Awareness is what I ask for.
Patience.
And most of all joy in His presence!

I love these kind of weekends!

Everything is ready to be packed!

Gear

Food

Music at the Beach

Yesterday before JM went to work, he told me that I needed to be ready for our date at 530! It was a pleasant surprise. I didn't know he had something planned and I was so excited! A few weeks before I wrote down all the free and local events in the city. I love summer events and the best part is that most of them are free. Well, I looked through my checklist and saw I wrote down the VA Symphony. Apparently JM didn't know that it was on my list, he heard about it on the radio on his way to work. So when he came home for lunch I asked if we were going to see the symphony and he said yes, how'd you know? The funny thing is that JM's surprises usually get spoiled somehow. He's not very good at keeping secrets from me. But, the special part was that the symphony was playing in an amphitheater right next to VA beach! An outdoor concert and the music for the night - DISNEY! We dressed to impress! What a fantastic date! Perfect I'd say!