Fall

Wow, it's definitely been awhile!

Jordi's brother Dave started a climbing gym, and Jordi pretty much built it (except the climbing walls - they had proffessional climbers do that!) Here is the gym when they first started on it:

And here it is after a solid month of nonstop work:

Jordi built the loft, cabinets, shelves and everything was custom made. There's a bathroom around the corner behind the wall which he installed also.

And here's the final outcome! :

A huge success - fun project for Jordi and great new business for Dave.

Meanwhile, I was working a lot at the newspaper and the pool, which I don't really document with pictures, but here are some links:

http://www.thecapistranodispatch.com/view/full_story/10292567/article-Woman-Tutors-Kids-in-Garage-to-Keep-a-Promise?instance=SJC_living_headlines

http://www.el-despacho.com/ED_20101105.pdf

Page 6, 10, 12 - but all translated from English papers, not written in Spanish :-/

http://www.parkinson.org/About-Us/Press-Room/NPF-In-The-News/2010/September/Hope-Through-Harmony.aspx

This was an article I wrote for the times, and the National Parkinson's Disease website posted it also! I loved writing it and getting to know Bob and the singing groups. They actually just had their concert, which we went to, and it was great!

http://www.sanclementetimes.com/view/full_story/10425029/article-Hospice-Focuses-on-Life?

This one was especially cool because it was about the company that my mom works for and I got to interview her and people she knew! :) I had a great time doing it!

The pool is going well also, everyone I work with is great and all the regulars that come every day know each other and the lifeguards, which makes for a good atmosphere :)

Here we are on Thanksgiving day with Jordi's family. Jordi, Megan, Vegard (Norwegian friend that I met at the pool) me, Grandma Jan, Uncle Mark and his awesome girlfriend Jodi, Krissy (Jord's mom) Donpa (Krissy's dad) and Dave. Jord's dad was taking the picture - it was a really fun and delicious night! :)

The next day we drove to Santa Barbara to spent time with my side of the family. It was a BEAUTIFUL weekend up there - cold, clear, and fall-ish. We had more Thanksgiving leftovers, watched Toystory 3, went for a great bike rides on the bike paths and walks through the neighborhoods, and one day we went for an awesome hike with the whole fam.

Here we all are at our sunny vantage point:

Amazing view of the ocean and all of Santa Barbara!

We are getting ready for Christmas - we got our tree very hassle-free from Rite-Aide, and a centerpiece that Auntie Laurie, Mom, and Grandma helped me make when we were in Santa Barbara. We are looking forward to THREE Christmas parties in San Clemente - one with my work, and two at friends houses, so we are excited that we apparently have friends and a life here in town :)

Merry Christmas!

Labor-free day and free labor

Last weekend was Labor Day - I had Monday off and Jordi had no jobs scheduled, so we were very excited for a long weekend together. We were thinking of going to San Luis Obispo, but in life you either have money but no time, or time but no money. In this case it was the latter, so we decided to take advantage of the awesome town we live in and explore the area a bit more. Saturday both of our parents came over to our house and we headed down to the beach for an all day beach day. It was the first all-day beach day we've had this summer, and it was so fun to bring all our toys and picnic and relax the whole day! The forecast called that Saturday would be the only day of the weekend that it would be sunny, so we were crossing our fingers they'd be right. We toted down beach chairs, umbrella's, coolers, horseshoes, a football, paddleball, and even the kayak!

It was gloomy when we got down there, but the sun came out in the afternoon and it was beautiful. We didn't leave the beach til around 6, fat (from Mom's amazing chocolate chip cookies) and very happy!

Sunday we went to church and saw our favorite waitress from a restaurant downtown with her boyfriend. We chatted for a bit and found out that she knows some of my friends from college! We like them a lot, and are hoping to hang out with them in the future :)

In the afternoon we biked down through Camp Pendleton to Oceanside. First we biked through San Clemente, which smelled like seaweed and barbecue's. After passing the power plant, you ride through a very long campground, with lots of trails along the bluff and down to the ocean - we're going to have to explore that another day! Then you ride along the old Highway 1, which is super pretty and smells like delicious California Sage.

Then you cut across to the other side of the freeway and into Camp Pendleton, which was kinda weird. We passed lots of government housing and ugly storage units. Ridiculously large trucks from Texas and Montana wood zoom by quite regularly. Finally we made it to Oceanside, and took the train back up to San Clemente where we went to Sonny's for some pizza, which smelled great and tasted even better! ;)

Monday we hiked up Saddleback mountain, as far up as we could get. You have to drive offroad for about half an hour just to get to the trailhead, which is pretty fun. The beginning of the trail is very pretty and nice, and then it turns to death. It gets really hot and dry and never-ending. We hiked for over two hours just switchbacks through the shrubbery on a super narrow trail. We almost got run over by mountain bikers racing down a few times. It was not that great. We didn't have enough water to try and make it to the top, but we ended up doing about 10 miles all together. One day I'd like to get to the top, and although it's really not the greatest trail the views are still awesome.

So that was our weekend! Then I was sick with a bad chest cold the rest of the week, and this week I've been working a lot, and Jordi's been looking for work. He has been incredibly productive during his down time though. He made us a dining room table (really pretty!) he made cookies, dinner a couple nights, along with working on his website and advertising stuff. Another thing he's been working on is getting us insurance. We applied for Kaiser and got a surprising letter of rejection. Causes of rejection?

1- "Serious medications listed on your application"

Yes, Jordi got very sick in Asia and was suspected of having a gastrointestinal parasite. He took "serious" medication, and got better. Voila!

2 - "your history of back pain or injury within the last 12 months"

Jordi worked for a few years in an office setting in front of a computer, and his back became tight. He went to the doctor and they gave him stretches to do. Now that he is not in an office setting and does stretches, he has no further symptoms.

3- "your history of Hepatitis A"

I had Hepatitis A, which is non-chronic, and a virus that does not remain in the body. This was 15 years ago and I fully recovered, thank you very much.

4- "your self identified history of a medical or health related condition"

????

It's a little bit preposterous because we are pretty dang healthy and almost never go to the doctor, yet they still don't want our money! They don't know a good thing when it hits them in the face! :) Anyways, yet another fun thing Jordi gets to deal with while I teach the kiddos how to swim and freeze my brains out while I'm at it.

On that note - thank goodness I have no terror children this session! However it is cold. My days start with a feeling of dread, then a feeling of cold, then a feeling of accomplishment, when I'm taking my hot shower. Newspaper is still going well, although I am waiting for the opportunity to talk with my boss about where this is going, because I'm not so keen on filling up my hours with "free labor". I have worked a lot on two articles that will be featured on the same page - one is about a singing group for those with Parkinson's called Tremble Clefs, and the other is about a barbershop style chorus and quartet in San Clemente. They are putting on a concert together in November to raise awareness for Parkinson's.

I was invited to their after practice ritual of wine and singing at Sonny's where I was even lucky enough to be serenaded by these handsome gents!

I've had a lot of fun doing it and meeting lots of people, but it is very time consuming and hard work. I'm also about to do an article about Ricardo who owns Ricardo's Place, a Mexican restaurant, and he's very involved in the community. Anyways, I will post when they come out...my latest writing is about back to school:

http://www.el-despacho.com/ED_20100903.pdf page 4

Well that's all for now! Hasta pronto... ;)

Califreeway

Well, I just finished reading about some great friends and fam and all their great blogged adventures. Eric and Nicki went to Rome (the only weekend flight deals we get are to Denver or Detroit - not fair!) Aaron went snowboarding and Melis is going to Fiji, Tim and Jen went to the Grand Canyon....what do Jordi and I do? We drive. We drive to Encinitas for Dave's birthday, we drive to Tustin for a bible study with my grandparents, we drive to Placentia to see my parents, I drive to Crystal Cove to go to Bar Method, Jordi drives to Laguna Woods to do some work. We drive to San Diego or San Luis Obispo to see friends. We drive. We absolutely hate driving, but driving is what we do A LOT!

On that note, I do have to say I got the opportunity to go backpacking in the mountains a couple weekends ago, and that was really fun!

I went with two other girl friends and it was gorgeous and fun, and pretty hard. We hiked 16 miles the first day, to the summit, and 8 miles out the second day. I fully loved it and want to do it more!! :)

Jordi's been working really hard, and for the past few months we usually get 0-1 day a week together as a weekend, but this coming weekend I have Monday off, and he will be in between jobs, so we are very much looking forward to some play time together!

Other than working and driving, we are finding time for tennis, surfing, and trying out all the new (for us) restaurants ;)

Splashes, Splashes We All Fall Down!

Well, a few things to report!

We did have a nice weekend home after the last time I posted, but 1 day is nowhere near enough time to decompress after a month of socializing and working. We spent the day going to Farmers Market, spa hopping at the Ritz Carlton, and using some movie coupons to see Inception - which was pretty good! But the day flew by and we were back to the grind on Monday. The next weekend two friends of mine from college spent the night on Friday night and we hung out on Saturday morning (Pedro's breakfast burritos and walk to the beach!), and on Saturday afternoon we braved the crazy weekend traffic to go to a wedding in San Diego. Much to my surprise, we got there on time! It was a beautiful wedding at a cute little church in La Jolla, and it was fun to simply attend a wedding and see our friends and family. After the wedding we spent the night at our friends house in Del Mar. The next morning we went out to breakfast with them, and saw Jordi's family for a bit before finally making it back to our house in the afternoon. We were exhausted yet again, only to look forward to another Monday morning.

This week has been good and bad. Good news: Jordi quit Solatube! He is very excited to be able to devote 100% of his time and energy to contracting jobs. We have a lot to figure out, but we both felt that this was a good decision, and I am happy for him and excited to see what happens! :) So if anyone knows anyone that needs anything done....Sacher Contracting is official! (www.sachercontracting.com)

Bad news: This has been the all time worst week in all my summers of teaching swim lessons. I cannot believe the kids that I have in my classes. To describe everything that has happened this week would take too long - but a few lowlights: one class I have contains a screamer who hates me and the water, as well as a little girl who can't swim but loves the water, and almost drowns 5 times a day because she won't hold on to the wall or kickboard, she just jumps off everything! Between the two of them it's the most ridiculous class of constantly luring one and rescuing the other. Today after I dunked the screamer, he yelled so loud and for so long, I finally sat him up on the wall where he proceeded to run off the pool deck, through the front lobby and out onto the street before being caught by a lifeguard. And that's just my first class. Then come the bigger kids who come late to class and cannonball on my head before I even know what's going on, and fight with each other constantly. Who is raising these kids? Except for a few, they are terrors! I definitely do not get paid enough to put up with them, but yet, there I am....And when I get home from work - cold, wet, and smelling of chlorine - I quickly change and go to my internship at the San Clemente Times. I am still enjoying my internship, but it's also a lot to balance being gone all day, Jordi's new entrepreneurship, organizing the house, making dinner, etc...However, I think the crazy kids at the pool are the most unbalancing aspect for my mental well being.

Luckily I don't have class on Fridays, and we are spending this next weekend at home!

Free Summer Beach Concert Series at the pier by our house. Just like Redondo ;) and very fun!

The Ole Hanson Beach Club where I work. Right by the ocean! You go through the front entrance and the pool is in the back. The upstairs and park area are used for events.

July

So much goodness in so little time!

Every weekend in July was booked for us, so we've been busy, but definitely having tons of fun.

The first weekend was 4th of July, and our friends Brett and Vicki from San Luis Obispo came and stayed with us for 2 nights. We always stay at their house when we're up there visiting, but they've never been to San Clemente, so it was fun to return the favor and show them our town.

Here we all are at our favorite wine bar in downtown San Clemente. The next day we went to the beach and had a bbq with some more friends over, and watched the fireworks off of the pier.

The next weekend I flew to Orlando to be in my best friend Corrie's wedding. I flew out on Thursday and came back Sunday morning. Meanwhile Jordi spent the weekend

with his friends at an amazing beach house in Carlsbad surfing and Jacuzzi-ing.

Here is me with the lovely bride in the apartment where we stayed for the weekend. I had a great time meeting Corrie's other friends from all over, seeing 0ld friends again, and enjoying Orlando, Coco beach, and the warm weather!

The day I came back to Orange County was the actual day of my grandma's 80th birthday, and we went to the Balboa Bay Club for the most amazing brunch of my life, followed by an exciting World Cup game ;)

The next weekend is when we all celebrated Grandma Annetta's birthday - cousins from Virginia and Santa Barbara were all there, as well as Steph from Texas, who had just passed all her flight tests and was ready to party! ;)

Friday evening Grandpa and Grandma took us all out to dinner at a steakhouse, and then we took a Hummer limo down to Laguna where we walked around the art festival, and got to see Pageant of the Masters. It is soo unbelievable and so much fun!! If you've never been, I definitely recommend it - especially in a limo, because instead of dealing with horrible traffic, we were eating cake and toasting Grandma ;)

The next morning all the girls in the family went to Zov's Cafe for an exceptional brunch, while the boys went to Costco to prepare for the BBQ. We had a great time!

We went back to the house, and Grandma was baptized by my dad, which was really sweet. Afterwards everyone jumped in, even Tanya and Mac (although their participation was not exactly voluntary...) It was fun to see Grandpa and Grandma in the pool! :)

It was the most beautiful hot day ever, and we could see Catalina, and we played in the pool all afternoon. Then we had a delicious BBQ dinner, and continued giving Grandma her gifts of 80. Grandpa gave her 80 See's chocolate hearts, Dad wrote her a hilarious poem with 80 lines, I wrote out 80 hymns but took out a word from each title that she had to fill in - she got them all! It was fun to see everyone's creative "80" ideas. We played a few games, and watched a movie on the fabulous TV, and had some of Alyssa's homemade Tiramisu ice cream cake - amazing!!!

That brings us to this last weekend! Jordi and I were both in our friends Jeff and Ali's wedding. They are our good friends from college, and it was really fun that we bo

th got to be involved in their special day. The wedding was held at our friend Cody's gorgeous ranch house in east Encinitas. It was magazine perfect - complete with iced tea in mason jars, horses in the background, twinkle lights, homemade beer, bocce ball, and ridiculously fun dancing! :) Instead of holding bouquets, our eco friendly friend Ali had us holding pots of succulents, and instead of a cake they had an acai bar, where you got a bowl of acai and got to put on all the different toppings.

First picture is Jordi with the groomsmen. Jeff is in the middle with the tie. The picture of us going down the isle is not ideal, but at least you get an idea of our outfits ;) And the first dance with the wedding party in the background. We had an absolutely amazing time with all of our friends, and were very blessed and honored to be part of it.We have been so fortunate to be able to celebrate so many important events in the lives of our friends and family this month! We are definitely ready to stay home this next weekend though! :)

Heading into Summer

Well! Once again I have totally slacked on my duties 0f updating this blog. Last time I wrote we were getting settled and it was my birthday. By now I am well adjusted to being 25, thank you very much. Speaking of 25, today is June 25th, exactly 25 months of us being married! :) (Scott, do we get a present??)

Anyways, so much has happened since last time I wrote - thank goodness!! Jordi has been working very hard for Solatube installing skylights, and also doing his own side business of contracting. Being the hard worker that he is, sometimes he will forget to take a weekend off. He did take some time off for our one year anniversary that was exactly one month ago. We went to Palm Springs and stayed at my auntie Andrea and Richard's awesome little guest house biking distance from the town, while they were in Europe. After the trauma of accidentally breaking into their house, setting offextremely loud alarms in the middle of the night, meeting the friendly neighborhood cops, hopping fences, and finally finding the hidden guest house in the orchard, we had a great relaxing time!! Palm Springs in BEAUTIFUL and we had great discussions, leisurely breakfasts, and fun bike rides.

Probably the best thing about May is that Scott and Andrea were here, and Steph was here for a bit. The Swards had to come back for a month for depositions and doctor appointments. Although it was a hard time for them in this way, it was a blessing to see them again, and I am so grateful for the time I / we had with them. Stephanie came out one weekend to see them, and we gave her a surprise 21st Birthday Party, which was really fun! One day Scott and Andrea came down to San Clemente to hang out with Jordi and I. We went to the park where Scott and Jord hashed it out on the tennis courts, walked around downtown, and went out for pizza. It was fun to have them all to ourselves!! :)

When all my siblings went back to their homes, I decided it was time to get serious about getting some jobs! The first thing I did was try to sell my Cambodian bags and wallets that Andrea had brought back for me. I named this little company Papaya Tree, and made tags for everything. You can see pictures of most of the things I am selling at

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Papaya-Tree/127035450663528?ref=ts

but here is a sneak peak:

I also applied for just about any job I could think of - walking around the town and asking for applications, Craigslist, I applied for the City and a few other places I thought would be cool to work for. I was surprised and thankful for how many interviews I got. I ended up getting an internship with the San Clemente Times, which I am loving so far! My first "article" is published - it's a restaurant review:

http://www.sanclementetimes.com/view/full_story/8026818/article-Restaurant-Spotlight--The-Riders-Club-Café?instance=restaurant_spotlight

I loved doing the interview, and was a bit frustrated at how limited the spot is - any descriptive word I used was edited out! My next article is going to be in Spanish, for the Spanish newspaper called El Despacho. I will let you know how it goes!

I also got hired as a swim instructor for the City pool, called Ole Hanson Beach club - it's an old pool built in the 30's right on the beach, it's pretty cool!

I am still interviewing for another position at a Financial Services office, but am thinking I will probably take the lifeguarding job and continue with my internship at the paper.

Whew! Well that is everything in a nutshell! We are sooo thankful for the job opportunities that I've been blessed with, and praying Jordi will get more contracting jobs so he can be done with installing.

Can't wait for summer - it's going to be warm and glorious down here in San Clemente. Come visit!!! (The water is already warm enough to swim in on a hot day! )

Pictures!!! And turning 25

Here is our house! This is the living room - from that window you can get a good little glimpse of the ocean.

Alyssa - notice the God Bless Our Pad above the couch? ;)

On the Left is the view you get from entering in the front door. I have Andrea's (and Melissa's) green hutch filled with some of my favorite things, and the red coffee table is

serving as a storage for games as well as a stand for the Ginormous TV we are using from Uncle Mark.

The next picture is down the hall, in between the living room area and kitchen. In the hallway is our laundry/ hall closet space. At the end of the hallway is the bathroom. To the Right is our bedroom, and to the left is our office space, with the desk, and hopefully guestroom, if we get a bed in there.

Here you can see the dining room, when you walk in the door it's to the right, and behind it is the kitchen. Like the chandelier? I used to hate it, but with all our other stuff in there, I don't notice it too much. Jordi took the back off of that counter so I could use it as shelf space for the microwave and other stuff. Very nice to have!

And this is me in our driveway on my 25th Birthday. That's the True Value parking lot right across the street. We go there all the time, it's very handy for Jord ;)

As a housewarming/birthday party we had a whole bunch of friends over for a bbq, it was really fun. On my actual birthday, Jordi didn't have to work, so we went surfing, had breakfast in Laguna, and hung out in San Clemente in the afternoon. It was a very relaxing and nice day - which we hadn't had in a while since we've been so focused on getting our house in order.

Well, there's a little taste! Hope to see you all sooooon. I'm getting very excited to see Scott and Andrea and Steph!

Our New Life

So I'm just going to elaborate a bit on our life the past few weeks, and all the answers to prayer that have us where we are now!

While we were still living at my parents house, I decided I was going to visit my best friend Corrie, living in Dallas, during her Spring Break (she's a teacher). Jordi wanted to go to Phoenix to help his friend out there with remodeling their house, so he decided to go while I was in Dallas. We had been apartment hunting a few times, and the selection was rather depressing. We toured lots of dark, ugly apartments - some smelling of mold, some with really weird 70's touches, most without garages (a necessity with all of Jordi's tools and our toys!!) I swear the 70's were the worst possible thing that could have ever happened to architecture and building. The 50's, like our last apartment in Redondo, still used tiles, implemented the invention of windows, etc..the 60's you can see the aesthetics decrease, but there is still lots of light and relatively normal space. The 70's comes along, and all of the sudden windows are "sooo last decade" and instead it's really cool to have paneled walls, dark passageways, random storage hidden in the paneling right under the vaulted ceilings and cottage cheese. There are even paneled mirrors! Built in anything is cool, no matter if it is helpful or attractive. The uglier the lamps, and the chunkier the drywall, the better! It's scary out there, is all I have to say to all you apartment hunters!

We lucked out and found an apartment built in the 80's. Once again, windows are in fashion, although so is stick-on linoleum tiles (which we are constantly having to restick when they slide up on eachother), and vinyl countertops (blech). And of course, the color mauve - the color of our vinyl countertops, the vaulted ceilings and walls, and our grandiose ugly chandelier.

Anyways, this was by far the least ugly apartment, with the most windows, and it had a garage, so we decided to apply for it. The day before I left for Dallas and Jordi left for Phoenix, we found out that we had been accepted! Unfortunately since we didn't have jobs, we had to pay 2x the rent for our deposit + first months rent + prorated March rent. We paid A LOT to move in!!!

I had an awesome time in Texas with my best friend, although it did snow the day I left! At first I thought it was beautiful wonderland, and then on our drive to the airport it became scary when there were accidents every 50 yards, and a car actually came backwards down an embankment almost right into us on the freeway!!! But then when I was sitting on the runway for 2 hours waiting to be deiced, I decided the snow was just downright annoying. Jordi had fun building stuff with his 2 college buddies, and we came home happy and tired on a Sunday. That Tuesday was our move in date. Also, Melissa, my sister in law, had just come to town from Australia, and Dave, Jordi's brother just came back from his bike trip to South America. With all the siblings back in town, plus moving out of our storage and into our apartment, it was needless to say, a very hectic week!!

We had an absolute blast with Melissa, I loved having her back in town, and really wish she didn't have to go back to Australia!! :( It's also nice having Dave back in the country, and now that Easter celebrations are over, we are starting to have a little routine here in San Clemente.

When Jordi was in Arizona, one of his friends that he was working with told him that his dad's company was hiring installers in Orange County. When Jordi got back, he applied, and he has just started his training this week, our second week in the apartment! We couldn't have asked for better timing! We basically applied and moved out on faith that we would get jobs soon, and Jordi got this full time job with benefits right away! And then while Melissa was here, she introduced me to one of her good friends, Jess, that owns a Bar Method Studio in Crystal Cove. Bar Method is a type of exercise, incorporating workout moves for dancers, as well as some Pilates and Yoga stretching moves. Anyways, she needed someone to work the front desk a couple times a week, and I am currently doing that! So I work there a few hours a week, and I also get free exercise classes! Although I would love some more work, this has been great for me so far, and I love it. And Melissa came at just the right time to set me up with Jessica ;)

Everything has been so orchestrated, we thank God because we know we are in the right place for now, doing things that we enjoy for the moment. Although Jordi's job is full time, I see him so much more than when he worked for Webcor, it hardly feels like full time ;) We are loving this little town, and we both get to surf more than when we lived in Redondo, which is fun. We are so close to both our families, and most of our friends, which is really fun also. Can't wait to check out the weekly Farmer's Market downtown tomorrow! :)

Puji Tuhan!

San Clemente

We've both lived in Redondo Beach, San Luis Obispo, Placentia, Encinitas, (Jordi has Malibu on list as well) but we haven't lived in San Clemente yet! Yet another great place on the Southern California Coast. It's weirdly normal to be living here. Maybe because I've driven past it on the freeway countless times? Anyways, our little apartment is not as cute nor as little as our first apartment. The the former being dissapointing, the latter being pretty awesome. We have 2 bedrooms now, so all guests welcome! We have a great little balcony and we can see a bit of the ocean, a washer and dryer, and what sold us on the place - a private garage, carport, and parking space!! YAY! The cuteness we have to add ourselves, and we are currently in the process of making that happen ;) Between Jordi's handyman skills and Andrea and Melissa's cute furniture, the place will feel like home in no time :)

What we like about San Clemente, and our apartment so far:

We are sooooo close to the freeway! No more video game driving for 20 minutes down PCH just to get on the 110

Pedro's tacos in RIGHT across the street. We can see if from our balcony

The green hills here remind me of SLO

Not to mention a cute downtown, fun surf, and a quick drive to either of our parents. Probably the only downside is now we don't have a Trader Joe's to walk to! haha

It's been a lot of work and a lot of allergies to unpack everything, but we're slowly getting there and can't wait for each and every one of you to come visit!!

Hasta Pronto!

Rough Roads and Rainbows

The world to our eyes could be described in two ways. The first being that we have the whole world in front of us, we can choose what we want to do and where we want to live - we have so many options!

The second way being Ummmm, nobody wants us so I guess we'll live with Mom and Dad and frantically look for jobs.

So we are now going on the third month of living at my parents house, and the second month of frantically looking for jobs. Every week is a roller coaster of raised hopes, frustrating phone calls, feeling useless, and a whirlwind of options flying around in our heads.

We have mentally pictured our lives in a dozen different locations, depending on the week and scenario that looks most promising at the moment.

I am really sick of the clothes I've been wearing for the past 6 months and am dying to move out so I can wear all my clothes again! We are really ready for our own space, and to feel like adults with jobs and a house.

We have days or moments of depression, feeling like the hundreds of resume's and responses we've sent out have been received by a black hole. The rare rejection is exciting because it means somebody out there is listening and at least received the letter or resume.

It has been said that a missionary kid feels most at home in an airplane. Not only is this true, but in the smaller world of California, we feel most at home in our car! We are always driving to Redondo because it feels like home, or San Diego, because that is also a home. Orange County with my parents is also a home, and San Luis Obispo is always a nice home to visit. In a way, having so many homes makes me feel homeless. Now we are thinking of moving to San Clemente, because it is in between our parents houses, and we could work in either Orange County or San Diego, and maximize our connections. But in the back of my mind I also think, So am I going to find yet another place to get my hair cut and go out for tea? Are we going to find another church and another favorite evening walk? Am I going to give a piece of my heart to yet another location? I almost don't think I could handle it! But at the same time, I don't necessarily want to live in the other places I love.

Unemployment and homelessness is confusion and frustration. It's waiting and waiting while trying and trying. It's hopelessness followed by renewed resolve.

But it's not all horrible!

Jordi and I spend practically every day together! This in and of itself is much more fun than going through all this by yourself. Also, we definitely take advantage of the situation whenever we can. We ride our bikes to go play tennis. We walk to Starbucks on a Tuesday morning and use our cards we got for Christmas to order our tea and coffee, and chat for an hour before walking home. We drive to the beach and go surfing or ride bikes on the boardwalk. We take an hour to eat lunch and play scrabble. We'll decide at noon on a rainy day to go to the theatre and see a movie. We go to downtown Fullerton for jazz nights or happy hours. We do the Jillian Michaels work out DVD like every other day. We play ping pong so often that Jordi's becoming quite the menace! We go to Borders so often that I have read through an entire novel. We have learned a lot about gardening by helping my mom or Grandpa, and that's been really cool. We volunteered for Habitat for Humanity, and got free Disneyland tickets! We made scones and tea and played Backgammon while it rained. These moments are precious and I love them!

These are the rainbows in our uncertain life. When I look back at this not very easy period of life, I want to remember the good times we had in the midst, and we have lots of them!

I'm Overdue, I'm in a Rabbit Stew!

In the eloquent words of the White Rabbit from Alice and Wonderland, I do concede that this is a bit overdue! While living at my parents house looking for a job isn't quite as stimulating as World Traveling, some of you apparently still have an interest in our life, and that is why I will be writing about it :)

Well, I believe I left off on the Horrible first week back from traveling where everything seemed to go wrong! Since then our life in a nutshell has been this:

San Diego until Christmas

Orange County for Christmas and Cousin's Wedding

Redondo Beach to say hello

San Diego for New Years

Orange County to hang out with Steph

San Diego to Babysit for a few days

Orange County for Mom's birthday and Steph's goodbye

San Luis Obispo to retrieve my diploma which never got sent to me

Santa Barbara to housesit and hang out with cousins

San Diego - we scrubbed, prepped, and painted Jordi's grandparents never ending fence

Orange County - we are serious about finding jobs!

San Diego - Jordi had to go to court to fight a $450 ticket and we painted more of the fence

Orange County - still looking for jobs

As you can imagine, I will be slightly ecstatic to live in one place, whenever we do! We are also both really ready to start working and earning money!! To give you a heads up on the work situation - we have been looking at opportunities through people we know to work in Hawaii or Haiti, but as of today those are both probably not going to happen (took a few months to get that figured out though!) Jordi is still waiting for his contractors license, which he should have received weeks ago, but the lady processing it is out with the swine flu. Go figure.

He is looking to start his own contracting business, and he is also looking at properties to buy and flip or rent. We've both been sending applications and resumes all over the state, but are coming to find out that the only way anything is going to happen is through people we know, since generally applying has not been helpful AT ALL.

As for me, I would love to just have a job, and as the weeks disappear, so do my qualifications! Ideally I could get a job that would provide insurance for us since Jordi is hoping to branch out on his own. However, with no one hiring I am thinking of things I could do on my own, such as import Cambodian artisan work to Southern California where it could be deemed very chic and environmentally friendly ;) We'll see what happens!

At the moment my parents are in Costa Rica (lucky them!!) and Jordi and I get the house to ourselves. We haven't had much of that lately, so it's pretty relaxing. A few good things to report:

Jordi miraculously did not have to pay his $450 ticket! The policeman never showed up!

I got a new wetsuit, and can now surf again!

Also, my parents bought us the StrengthsFinder books and we took the test. Highly recommend it!! Insightful and encouraging.

Well that's all for now, I promise to keep this more updated in the future! :)

Thanks for caring,

Kirsten and Jordi