Well, from our move down we have kind of been on a hiatus as far as posting on our blog. Things have gone well and we made it hear safely! Praise the Lord and thank you all so much for praying. I'll have to tell you though, following the trailer was a bit scary at times. The trailer would start fishtailing and sometimes it would get worse and worse...at this point I would just start praying out loud that I wouldn't suddenly see the Tahoe and trailer fly off the road. The trek down for the most part was Tobin and Darrol in the Tahoe/Trailer, Marty in the Toyota, and me in the Subaru. We drove from Medford, OR to Upland, CA in one day (well just over one day). We started in Medford on the 31st and then got to Upland around 2am on New Years Day...It was an interesting and new way to ring in the New Year, which we did literally by calling one another on our cell phones after midnight! Thankfully, God also protected us from any drunk or crazy drivers. It was amazing once we hit the LA freeways it may as well have been 4pm rather than 1am! Crazy how this area never sleeps!
New Years Day we awoke and got right unpacking and cleaning the house we will be living in. You can never be too sure of what you are getting yourself into when moving, especially when you have never seen the place you are moving into! God has blessed us with the ability to live in a house, rather than an apartment, but it definitely comes with it's own types of responsibilities. The owners haven't lived in the home for several months, and prior to leaving had still be remodeling. So we entered upon a lot sheet rock dust on everything and multiple other odds and ends that hadn't been finished. So instead of just unpacking in a nice clean space, we spent days wiping down everything. Now we know it's clean! It was such a blessing to have the extra hands and help of Darrol and Marty! We never could have accomplished as much! I even cleaned our master bedroom shower...it's so big I can run laps in it, get my morning workout and take a shower all at the same time (I don't always do the laps, but it definitely it large enough that I could)!
Darrol and Marty left on the 4th of January for their trek back up north, and Tobin started working as a fellow on the 5th. So that left me with a week to continue cleaning and "making house." I also went to St Jude where I'll be working on the same floor that I was when we lived here a year ago. I have to go through all the orientation and such again, but thankfully the Lord has provided me with income and job at this point! We would continue to ask you to pray that I might find a Nurse Practitoner position, so that I can continue to utilize those skills and keep my licensure up to date.
Oh and the Lord has provided us with a couch!!!! PRAISE THE LORD!!!! It was such a blessing because one of Tobin's officemates heard we were looking to buy a couch and he said, I have a nice one in storage that isn't being used, and you can use it for free! Thankfully the couch was right on the outside of the storage unit so very easy access! I'll post pictures later, but as I type this I am enjoying the comfort the couch provides!
We also attended a church today that seems like a great fit and good fellowship to be involved with. It's called Foothill Bible Church. We heard about it because last Sunday we were at home in the afternoon, and two gentleman ran our doorbell (and they weren't Mormons or Jehovah Witnesses) they were Christians, going door-to-door sharing the Gospel! Praise the Lord, you don't see that enough these days! Anyways, they found out we were Christians and new to the area so we were able to talk about the church a bit. It seems like a strong fellowship dedicated to Christ and founded on The Bible! There also is a choir which I'm hoping to get involved with.
Then this afternoon, Tobin and I ventured out to our backyard, which is more like a landmine that has blown up with parts of the landfill in it. Jenna and Josh (or housemates) found in our backyard among other things the following: a computer screen, desk chair, baseballs, flat basketballs, two floor lamps (that actually function just fine and we cleaned up and are using in our bedroom), lots of rocks, bricks, pipes, wheelbarrows, etc, etc. You get my drift. Anyways, the land in the backyard is also very uneven. So Tobin found a wire sifter in the backyard and we started utilizing it! We sifted out 4 wheelbarrows full of good dirt, and filled 4 buckets with gravel/rocks! It's nice to try and make a place look better and get your hands a bit dirty. I hope the owners appreciate the work we are doing...their probably glad to have someone work on it!
Anyways, those are our adventures and transitional changes for now! We also changed from 5 degree weather to 80 degrees! I am still in shock that it is January and our bird of paradise plants are in full bloom! Welcome to good sunny So Cal. I will miss my four seasons, but sun isn't a bad thing either.
Well, I hope to post more photos of the place later this week. Hope y'all are having a wonderful beginning to your New Year. To us it didn't really seems like a big change, and I think I'm still realizing that it's a new year because I haven't had to write the date much (since I'm not working).
A challenging climb for me...both physically and mentally
Hopping around on rocks was much of the weekend. Here's an action shot!
Cooking our yummy second dinner...Rice and Black Bean Burritos!
Strange change to the tropics....
Our legs were getting numb!
