A Little Weekend Get-a-Way

As a birthday gift for John, his parents offered to watch the kids for a weekend. Considering his birthday was two months ago, and our weekends are only getting more filled, we decided to seize the day and get out of dodge. We stayed pretty local, not wanting to waste our precious time driving; we booked a Marriott in Santa Monica right by the pier.

We were walking distance to 3rd Street, where the street performers are a'plenty.

We at at a delish restaurant called True Foods and felt energized and healthy afterwards.

We felt so energized, we were able to ride our bikes for 15 miles up and down the coast. It was beautiful. Between the pier and Venice Beach there is a giant skate park where people of all ages were showing their skills.

One of the perks of having John's Elite Marriott status is that they give you an in-room treat which could be a few different things including a pint of ice cream. Instead of just sending up one thing of ice cream, they had room service bring us a whole service, which was beautiful and fancy. Perfect for enjoying while snuggling up watching a movie.

On our way home, we stopped at a new restaurant that was recommended to me called The Counter. Holy cow, yes, that's my burger. And I wasn't even hungry!

I wish we could have these little escapes once a month, or at least once a quarter.

Or how 'bout right now?

A Night Out

John and I were invited to a formal fundraising dinner for the Boy Scouts of America at the Four Seasons Hotel. It was a fun night with a silent auction, a live auction - complete with auctioneers (one thousand give me two didigididigidi or whatever he says), live entertainment, a wonderful dinner and

scrumptious dessert. And the best part, besides being dressed to the nines and out on a date together, was being with a large group of wonderful friends and a ballroom filled with generous people who love God and Country and the BSA.

Here's a video clip of the auctioneer (and part of our table).

Happy Belated

On Friday, we got to escape to celebrate John's birthday (only a month late, but hey! it's the best we could do). It was well worth the wait! John is starting to feel a bit better from his surgery and back problems, the Holidays are over, the weather is perfect, and we were ready for a break!

Enter the Renaissance in Aliso Viejo

We had a relaxing drive down in the late morning, checked in to the hotel at noon (they were very nice to let us check in early) and then got some lunch at Native Foods which we were a bit hesitant about at first, but it was right next to the movie theater and we wanted something healthy. It was so good!!!

Then we saw "True Grit" because when you are on vacation, and it's 2:00 in the afternoon, you are able to do that. It was just us and a couple of elderly people in the whole stadium-seat theater. Nice!

Then we did some shopping, and went back to the hotel and worked out at the awesome gym.

Then we had dinner at the hotel's restaurant, Citrus (another super amazing delish hit), and ate outside near the fire pits listening to a live Reggae band. There were only adults near us. No children, no whining, no messes.

The quality of these photos above aren't the best as they were taken with a phone in the dark.

Here's a better shot:

The view from our room. Aliso Viejo is very hilly and you can see forever out towards Mission Viejo. The other direction had snow-capped mountains and the other was toward the ocean. Lovely!

On Saturday we slept in, lounged and reluctantly packed our bags. When we headed out for lunch we were both craving Native Foods again. Why not? Again, super good. Then we looked at model homes and headed out to Newport Beach to do some shopping at Fashion Island.

Thanks to grandma and grandpa, the kids were well taken care of and were ready for us to pick them up when we got home Saturday night. They were so exhausted that they fell immediately to sleep when we got home, which was yet another gift to us!

Happy Birthday John! I'm so glad we had this little getaway to recharge our batteries that have been so depleted in these last crazy couple of months.

Thursday, December 30

Taking advantage of another clear day, John decided to install the new sliding glass door.

It was quite the job, and can you imagine how heavy a door/window of this size weighs?

About 400 pounds.

And let me remind you, he's one-armed and has a very sore back (been laid up for the better part of two months). Have no fear, with the brute strength of Madison and Moi, we hefted that puppy in and we now have a beautiful, working, easy-to-slide door!

The house was quite frigid all day missing a wall and all - I think the high was in the low 50s.

We love the feeling of another project crossed off the list. Unfortunately, the list keeps growing!

Dec 22 - John's Birthday

Happy Birthday to the most amazing, wonderful, patient, efficient, kind, understanding, devoted, affectionate, intuitive, adoring, sensitive, strong, talented, inspired, loving, spiritual, knowledgable, smart, snazzy, skillful, sensible, wise, funny, tidy, clever, warmhearted, handsome, and hard-working husband in the world.

He's your all-around, all-American type of guy.

He's my better half, helpmate, devoted partner, companion, and a loyal, devout, faithful and true best friend

And he's deserving of all 40 adjectives used to describe him.

A New Life

When you're a member of The Church, your ward is a great part of your life. Today, the three wards - Newbury Park 1, 2, and 3 - that attend the Stake Center a block from my house, were completely dissolved and everybody was released from all callings.

There was a special Sacrament Meeting held for the 3 wards together, which was as big as a Stake Conference, where this was all presented. Talk about change! New boundaries have been drawn. This was long overdue since there was a huge discrepancy in the wards, where one ward was so anemic they were unable to fill callings, one person would hold multiple positions, and there was even only one counselor in the bishopric. Whereas another ward was bursting at the seams, the Primary was twice the size, many people had no callings, or 'made up' ones that people joke about like Hymn Book straightener. I'm making that part up. Maybe.

We are now in the newly formed Los Robles Ward and John is serving in the Bishopric, under Bishop Steve Lang. During his testimony, Bishop Lang said he was grateful to have John serve with him and that he "has known is wife since she was born." I thought that was pretty funny. I've seen Steve in the halls several times since he has moved to Newbury Park over the last year or so and it will be fun to be reacquainted with him and his wife Marci. They are fun people. And I do suppose he has known me since I was born as his family is from my home ward. Our wedding reception was held at his parents' home.

This will be A New Life for us. John was ordained a High Priest today. I teased him that he now has to fall asleep all the time and is too old to have any fun anymore.

We have to act like grown-ups, go to High Priest parties, and hang out with the old people.

No more sleeping in.

No more family time on Sundays. That will be the hardest since Sunday afternoon was the only time we had to hang out and relax as a family!

No more help getting the kids ready for church.

No more help with the kids during Sacrament meeting.

No more 'tag team' staying home with sick children.

Our new ward will meet at 9:00 a.m. from now on, not changing every year. He will have to be at church at 6:30 a.m. every week from now on. We are not morning people. Definitely a New Life. The fun part is they have to now fill an entire ward with callings. They have their work cut out for them!

I'm not sure how it will all work out, but I'm sure the Lord will provide a way.

His first meeting is supposed to be Tuesday night.

Oh sorry, he's in Texas.

Things are set up for November.

Oh sorry, he's in New York for those two weeks.

Visits the first Wednesday of each month.

Oh sorry, Track Club board meetings are then.

I thought he was busy before and didn't think it possible to squeeze another hour out of him. The Lord will definitely have to provide.

Now, how about providing a bathroom? Hmmm . . . . I'll need a miracle for that one. (My bathroom is still half-gutted).

On a serious note, I know these changes are inspired. There are a few things that have occurred of late that have confirmed to us that this is the way it's supposed to be. John will be excellent in his new calling and we will grow and be blessed exponentially as a family. It will be different. It will be challenging. It will be fun getting to know new ward members. It will be sad missing our good friends from our old ward. It will be worth it. It will be a new life.