Tobin's Birthday

May 10th, we celebrated Tobin's big 2-9 in style, for breakfast!! Cinnamon rolls (whole wheat mind you), eggs, and bacon! We spiced it up with a few sparkling candles! Almost too much excitement for us! Here's proof of the fun:

Scared due to the sparks!

Lots of hot air. No there are not 29 candles...I couldn't fit them on without our smoke detector go off, it already was at 5!

Yummmmmmmmy!

Happy Birthday, Dr Tobin Rummel....we might need a doctor after eating this meal!

Just Memories Now...

Yesterday, I found out very sad news. It came as a blow to what already felt like a very tough week of illness, loss, and death. Lauren Failla, a younger sister to my very good friend Emily Failla who passed away in 2006, also died in a scuba diving accident. My first and human reaction, is to say, why so much death in one family? Why was it God's plan to take away amazing women at such a young age (they were both about 24years old)? Why will their parents never be able to attend their daughter's wedding or be grandparents? I don't know why, and I don't understand God's timing, but I do know it's never off, early, or late. But it is tough for those of us left here on earth. I so hope and pray that I will see these beautiful women in Heaven.

Yesterday morning, I was reading an article about suffering. At the time, I didn't really think much of it. But when I found out about Lauren's death in the evening, God really reminded me of the verses I read about suffering and comfort.

2Corinthians 1:3-7

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God. For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows. If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer. And our hope for you is firm, because we know that just as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our comfort.

The loss of Lauren hits me very close to home, because I love and cherish my sister. I am reminded now to grasp hold of each day the Lord blesses us with. Because it truly is a gift from Him. I don't have much more to say, definitely nothing very profound. All of this words are just humble sentences from a girl who is mourning, confused, and hurting. But Christ can be your comfort as He is my comfort. I pray that for any and everyone reading this that doesn't know Christ's comfort and saving grace. May you accept Jesus Christ into your life today. Don't run from Christ because we never know the day or the hour He has for us on this earth.

Here's some photos of Emily and Lauren Failla, I was so blessed to know you both:

My sister and I...oh how I hope to cherish each day I have with her!

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!

Ok, Part II of our Colorado Trip via picture tour;) This is the last day... so we made the most of it by meeting Elias at his place in the mountains for some snowshoeing!

The vista as we broke into the mountains

The start of our snowshoe trip, not enough time to get to the top but we had to try and get as high on the mountain as possible!

Christy before starting the climb

Dancing in Snowshoes???

The uphill begins

Christy feeling the heart pounding, awe inspiring, instant sweat that comes with such an amazing view as we rise above the trees.

Such wonderful powder to play in

Elias breaking his own trail

This is as high as we got for the day...

...but Christy had to get just a little higher

Brian had the most interesting snowshoeing method on the way down...

including removing one leg... or at least the covering.

What an awesome day!

Colorado

Just thought I would write a quick update and share some photos from our recent trip! We had a whirlwind trip to Oregon to visit family, look for housing, look for a new job and prep for a new position, followed by a quick trip to Colorado for a conference, some hiking and a fun snowshoe adventure with friends.

The photos from Oregon don't speak the required 1000 words, so how about some conference pics...

Graduating Fellows

Graduated Fellows... Good Friends

Graduated Newlyweds

Beki and Tobin

A little afternoon history trip to the cliff dwellings - amazing

This is a three story residence with the corner broken off, the large hole is the door, the small holes are for missing floor joists!

They had many modern conveniences like the kitchen with built in grinding stones...

Construction included rebar...

Halls...

Doors

Windows (door proximal and window distant)

Some thoughts - this is several hundred years old and their "brick and mortar" is mostly intact - they must have had an awesome view as it is near the top of the cliff possibly also making it easier to defend as well!

Evening with everyone from our school!

My Date!

More Photos to follow in another post...

Quick weekend up to Oregon!

I found out sometime early January that George Fox was having a May Serve Reunion during their Homecoming weekend reunion. Some of my best friends were going to be there, and it would give me a great excuse to go see my long lost nieces and nephews that I dearly miss! So I looked at my calendar and at a plane ticket, and by God's amazing miracle I was able to go!

Since it was such a spontaneous trip, I decided to keep it as a surprise for my sister who would not suspect a thing, because with my two jobs, living in So Cal, the chances of me visiting are slim to none. Plus, she already knew that Tobin and I will be visiting in March...so even more reason for me not to be coming in February. So with the help of my amazing brother-in-law, I flew into PDX, Feb 5th, rode the Maxx downtown, and enjoyed a cup of joe at Starbucks, while AJ and Maryanne drove up to Portland for a "day of shopping." Facebook even came to my aid, as Maryanne conveniently and promptly put up a post, "We are on our way to Portland!" She was excited to get to spend some Christmas/Birthday money...little did she know her sis was there waiting for her. Kudos to AJ for getting everyone out the door early so they could come meet up with me. Well, the surprise was a success. I wish I had a photo, but your imagination can probably generate a close enough picture. I was sitting in Starbucks, trying to scan the area and see them walking up, but I had no idea what corner they would be coming up (due to parking). Anyways, I was trying not to look like a nervous stalker (by continually scanning everywhere and everyone). I guess I wouldn't make that great of a spy, because I got bored, started playing a game on my iphone, and wouldn't you know that's when they walked in, and I missed them! The next thing I knew, I heard AJ's voice say, "Hey!" I turned around, and the look on Maryanne's face was priceless...absolute bewilderment. She couldn't get her mind to grasp that her sister was sitting having a cup of coffee in a Portland Starbucks! It was such a great moment. I love my sis, and I love Porter who was also a bit confused, but happy for whoever would play peek-a-boo with him!

We then shopped around Portland that day, I got to finally use a Nordstrom gift card I had gotten for my birthday back in October (that's Marty!). We went back home, stayed up late, and had lots of fun. Mostly having Porter entertain us! He's such a cute kid!

Then it was off to Fox, for a May Serve Reunion. Every May, Fox sends a International Serve Trip to various countries. God blessed me with the opportunity to go May 2003 to Brazil! It was a life changing experience for me, even though I had intentions on going and changing other people's lives, God shaped my heart to continually love and pray for those a far!

A few photos:

Homoncles Reunited! So glad Sarah got to come all the way out from New York!

It was great to see both of them and my beautiful extended family nieces!

Jane and I

We then had dinner with the May Serve Team that went to the Phillipines, lots of catching up, seeing old friends, and just enjoying being together as Believers in Christ...amazing fellowship!

Then we went to a Bruin Basketball Game! We missed the girls game, and we sat on the old people side...so it was a little hard for me, but good none the less! =)

The Boyz

Cheese!

This short three days was packed! I wanted to get it all in! So on Sunday morning Maryanne and I went over to the Miller Redhead Household! It was wonderful to see all those little redheads running around and being able to play with them! Love them!

Porter loving the swing!

My newest niece, Kate...hadn't seen her since she was just a few days old!

The whole gang, minus Andy and Ruth making faces in the background. Thanks to my amazing brother's photography skills we got this photo!

Go to this link

because you can only see a portion of it here...the photo's too wide for this blog.

Then just before leaving, we walked over to a close neighbor's house, Jana and JJ, for a little preview to Superbowl. Maryanne and I had to leave just about when the game got started, so she could take me back to the airport, but that was ok...we got to chat a bit more on the way up without a little one making noises in the back (we love you Porter, just not always in the car).

Love the baby backpack!

Can't wait to be back there soon...more on that to come!