Highlights...

Sorry about the hiatus

..Since March I feel like my life has entered this state of trying to work everything out for our big move back to Oregon, but the more I work on things the farther everything seems to be planned or decided. I guess God will work it all out in His good timing and I've got to be patient for that! Since March, we've been blessed with having my great friend Meg come and visit. She went to nursing school with me, among the other things of basically being a roommate, study partner, someone to just sit and roast marshmallows over a candle when the electricity would go out, or a friend who is used to tornados and could help her friend from Oregon who knew nothing of tornado sirens and what to do if that happens and something is on in the oven (yep, quite the story)....thanks Meg!

At Disneyland!

Of course we had to take her rock climbing!

With her long limbs (not limps as I previously wrote!) she did amazingly well for her first accent!

And this is proof of Meg's courage and toughness! Tobin took her Mountain biking and Meg stuck it out, and went wherever he took her! I'll be surprised if she ever wants to see us again after the way we abuse her like this!

Ahhh...and finally reunited together with most of the Jeannie Apartment crew! So good to see Amy too! These were some amazing Asian Pears that we got at the Farmer's Market in Hollywood!

Meg, I wish you lived closer, so we could share more adventures, more often!

The next weekend after Meg left was the Warrior Dash! Basically a 3 mile run with several obstacles, mud, and a chance to get a free Warrior Viking Helmet! And another chance to do an official army crawl with my amazing friend, Boom, who is in the Airforce and knows how its done correctly!!

Our "Team" We wore our Mud Run shirts from the very first one we did in 2007!

Tobin joined us at the last minute, ran the race with us, so we could all get muddy together!
My Muddy Buddy forever! This is the girl that's gotten me to do so many fun races!

For which we will have to plan more! I always thought I could be as tough as people in the military and Boom keeps me motivated to do just that! Love ya girl!
And the reward! Viking Warrior Hats and eating at Red Robin!!

Other than those exciting events and even more exciting event that I don't have documented in photos is Tobin FINISHING ALL HIS ROTATIONS IN MED SCHOOL! He officially is DONE!!! What an amazing accomplishment from the last 5 years of HARD WORK! I am so proud and amazed at my husband for the dedication. I was only in school 2 years after undergrad and that was enough to make me sick and want to be done! He has persevered and has grown so much into an amazingly knowledgeable medical professional! He used to ask me a few questions concerning medicine and I could kind of answer him, but now I ask him all the questions because he has learned and experienced so much! Tobin's last day of his rotation was with an Internal Medicine rotation and to "pass the baton" he gave away his Student Lab coat to another med student, cuz Tobin WON'T NEED IT ANYMORE!!!! Officially, Tobin will become Dr. Rummel on May 21st, but in my book he's already there! Makes me get a little teary eyed, I can't believe God blessed me with such an amazing, hardworking husband whose heart is to serve and glorify our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ through everything he does! Love you, Dr. Rummel!!!

Right now, Tobin has been relaxing and trying to prepare himself for Residency (which will be tough in its own accord), but right now trying to relax and have fun. So that means taking our new bikes our for spins! We've really enjoyed road biking together and look forward to the possibility of commuting on our bikes in Corvallis, OR!

I also flew up to Corvallis for a job interview. Still don't know the outcome of that, but waiting and praying that the Lord knows where He wants me. And praying that we might be able to know soon so that the house God allowed us to make an offer on could be ours to own. But overall, we must keep trusting in the Lord. Hard to wait at times, but that's all we can do at this point. Please pray that things would work out soon! I think that's why I've been on this hiatus, just not knowing what exactly will happen. It gets tough to daily explain that to your coworkers, who are excited to hear any new information about our move. Everyday, I keep telling everyone, "don't know yet." Pray for patience, PEACE (the opposite of all the anxiety I can have), and direction! Thank you!

The Move...

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).

Moving Weekend

Once again, it's the end of the year...so what are the Rummels doing???? Packing and moving, of course! Thankfully, we had helping hands with Darrol and Marty Rummel, and the use of their covered snowmobile trailer. The weather was a bit "frightful" outside, but who would have it any other way 2 weeks before Christmas. The guys packed the trailer in 20 degree weather, and Marty and I scrub-a-dub EVERYTHING in the apartment!

Inside the trailer

The dwindling pile!

Just scrubbing away!

I'm not too sure what they were trying to accomplish with the plastic cover for the mattress...thankfully no one asphyxiated themselves.

We are having nice vacation time for the next two weeks...Then it's the Rummels Senior and Juniors that will be caravaning down in a Tahoe, Trailer, Subaru, and Toyota! Pray for good weather around New Years!!!