.pictures.

Actually, here are some pictures that Chris Melander took when he visited! Enjoy!

 

life is good in CA.

I've been enjoying this place a lot lately, Vinaka Cafe ( http://www.vinakacafe.net/ ). 1 block from the beach, it has the best coffee I've had out here yet. As I type this, I sip their organic Guatemalan coconut flavored coffee as a fresh evening breeze blows in and 2 older gentlemen play chess for hours at a time at a table next to me. 


And apparently the life-size National Geographic map on the wall here sparks some riveting conversations...2 guys across the room are arguing about whether Japan or North Korea are more of a threat to the US, as they stand, point and map out different routes/weapons/plans of attacks.

"I'm not worried about it. I'm juuuuuuust saying..." says one of the guys. (and that was 45 minutes ago. They're still passionately debating.)

In other news, Darren and I enjoyed the beach this morning. We were planning on going surfing again, but the waves weren't good, so we sat facing the ocean in our reclining beach chairs and snoozed in the sun instead. Results of our 1.5 hours on the beach today: I'm still sporting the awkward bikini tan lines. and Darren's legs are quite the sight: tan knees, slightly sun-burnt mid-things, and...well, the rest is history. 

Not much is new out here this week except that...we found an apartment that we LOVE! We are hoping to put a deposit on it this coming Tuesday and sign a lease by next weekend. It's 2 blocks from the beach, with everything we wanted. It's really lovely, and we're hoping we get it :) Its cozy, open, light, airy, remodeled, with lots of windows. 

We've become friends with a newly married couple here at the church who is visiting family in Kentucky this weekend. The girl has never been to the southeast, so she and I looked at the weather together before they left. She freaked out a little. It sure looks quite warm! 90's already, in May?! 

Not to rub things in or anything, but just for your weekly weather update, it was ~ 70 degrees, dry and sunny today. 

However, to make that easier to handle, I will say that everything is not quite perfect out here.

1) there are allergies here in San Diego. In fact the past few days has given us a run for our money. Not Knoxville "bad" but enough to where I've woken up and felt like my head was the size of a watermelon. (and may or may not have been snoring, too, according to Darren.)

2) this week we had a day (the first in 3 weeks) where we didn't see the sun. and boy is it chilly here without the sun! It started drizzling at one point on Friday, and our friend Denise said, "I don't know WHY ON EARTH its raining!!!" Like it was that much of an oddity. That's how used to it they are out here...

We're spoiled, I know.

Darren and I are having fun together, as usual. Our evenings are spent going to (2 different) community groups each week, basketball for him on Wednesdays, walks near the beach, looking for apartments and occasionally snuggling up and watching a movie. We can't wait to have our own place and have people over :)

Other random happenings:

• Darren is learning that sometimes a girl just wants some ice cream, especially when a movie and the end of a long day are involved. 
• Friends + strangers alike continue to comment on my "southern" accent. 
• Trader Joe's has good bottles of wine for $2. We're enjoying those.
• People walk their little sissy dogs in strollers here. In Knoxville, I was always used to the idea of taking your dog on a walk for the purpose of giving it excersize. Things are different here. Apparently. 

Sorry, no pictures. But there will be next time :) Especially if we get the apartment! 

So until next time, happy weekend from California! 

Well, we are loving life in California. This morning we got up early and enjoyed surfing with some couples from church. It was quite the experience, as I have never been surfing before. Loved it! So fun to be back in the ocean again. It brought back sweet memories of Rimshaw family vacations at the Outer Banks. Ahhh, that feeling of exhaustion from being in the sun and swimming in the ocean :)  The water was lovely; we wore wet suits, and at first the water was cold, but its warming up. Water temp is 65 degrees now! I warmed up quickly (seeing that I spent that 1 hour being trampled by the waves and exerting more energy than I have in over a year.) Darren was kind and said things like, "It actually is really tiring. No wonder you're worn out." I smiled and thought, Darren, honey, lets be honest, at least people weren't asking if YOU were ok out there...

and to clarify: I use the term surfing loosely. Darren got up and looked pretty good. We'll just say that I'm not quite to the point of looking like those surfer dudes in the competitions. I did ride some sweet waves :) but am still working on catching the wave AND standing up on the board. It requires a lot of strength (strength I don't quite have.) But we're excited to go surfing more. We want to get better, and its fun that we LIVE here and can go often :)

Darren is actually going surfing again with some guys after church tomorrow while I go to a baby shower for 2 different ladies in our community group. 

Day to day life is fun out here. One of my favorite things is our time in the mornings to have breakfast, drink coffee and talk before Darren goes to work.  Fresh produce is cheap out here, so we eat lots of fruit for breakfast (and sometimes eggs from the neighbors chickens :) 

Chris Melander came and visited us last weekend! All the way from Baltimore :) We got to introduce him to California beaches, downtown San Diego, the i5, and our favorite sushi spot and coffee shops. 

Life has been fun and sweet. Darren and I are doing well, and enjoying each other and everything new out here. The transition hasn't been difficult yet like I thought it would be. (The only difficult thing so far is the fact that, how do I say this...the UV rays are SO much stronger here than in Knoxville. Being ingenious like I am, I decided to go for a walk on the beach last week. The sun feels so warm in the fresh, breezy air out here, so I put on my bikini and wet for a lil' stroll in the sand. Lets just say that there are parts of my body that haven't seen the light for years now...and that they now know how hot the sun is here. That gave sleeping and hot showers a different spin for about a week, and I learned that even though the weather is gorgeous and you don't sweat out here, that doesn't  mean you aren't getting large doeses of our ultraviolet friends. 

So that's our latest! We are loving life, lovin' each other, and praying that we learn to love God and love other people more while we are here in this new city. 

Just another Friday...

Em just got in a couple of days ago, so we wanted to do the first weekend together right...ya know? 

So Thursday night when she got off the plane, I brought her back and introduced her to the couple that we will be living with for the next month or two, Dennis and Denise. I know.... It turns out that Denise has been suffering from a similar diagnosis as Emily has for the past few years. Her and her husband have been figuring out what it means to trust and find rest in God through suffering. We're excited about the opportunity to learn and grow in our friendship with them. It's been another gift we feel God has given us in his care for us out here!


That night, we stayed in downtown Carlsbad in a bed and breakfast next the ocean, The Pelican Cove Inn (http://www.pelican-cove.com/). We highly recommend this place! It was super relaxing and in walking distance to all of downtown. We went out for sushi and spent the rest of the evening relaxing and catching up on the past few weeks of our lives.

Friday night we decided to take a trip just a few miles south of where we live to La Jolla, north of downtown San Diego. Now. La Jolla is pretty dang awesome. You should Google it. There's a ton to do and it's gorgeous. We arrived and since I was driving, made a wrong turn, which led us to this park down by the ocean with restaurants, seals, pelicans, bluffs, and 6ft waves... so needless to say, Em wasn't upset with me. We parked the car and enjoyed the evening by walking around the bluffs, chatting with seals, and watching the sunset.

We finished the evening dining at a wonderful restaurant next to the park and right on the ocean. The restaurant, the Brockton Villa (http://www.brocktonvilla.com/), was seated on the side of a hill overlooking the ocean with a fresh ocean breeze. Em had the glazed salmon while I enjoyed a nice mirco brew and fish tacos...pretty dang good fish tacos if I might add. The salmon might have been the best that I've ever tasted as well.

We stayed the night in a hotel a block away from the restaurant right on the beach and got up the next morning to enjoy a 5 star continental breakfast: blueberry bagels, orange juice, bananas, and hotel coffee. But the apple cinnamon jelly was to die for! It went great with the bagels...Em opted out for the blueberry... We spent the next couple hours walking around La Jolla surf shops and stores looking to strike a deal on some sweet v-necks...but it didn't happen. So we left and headed to our next destination, OEX La Jolla (http://www.oexcalifornia.com/lajolla/). We took a two hour Kayak tour just off of the cove near the 7 caves of La Jolla that enter into the bluffs. We passed by Dr. Seuss's house...who knew Dr. Seuss was living it up in San Diego? I think he made the right choice. 

We decided to take it pretty easy on her first weekend here, ya know...since we'll be here for a while. 

But seriously, we feel super thankful that we got the opportunity to travel out here and enjoy doing life with one another. It's been a blast so far! We're looking forward to church this Sunday (http://www.thefieldschurch.org/), and continue meeting people who we will be settling down and doing life with. This Sunday we are having a community meal where the the church provides food and we all hang around and fellowship into the day, as well as celebrating baptisms in the ocean in the afternoon.

That's all for now, we'll see how often we keep this updated. If you think about it, you can pray that Em and I continue to learn what it means to trust the Lord with our steps and grow in our knowledge of his heart for us. Until next time...