Today I was welcomed with a little surprise when I went to clean our bath tub!

and yes, that is seaweed.
Hmm...yes, my husband surfs :)

"the cool thing about me is...when I'm injured I can sleep and stay in the right positions for the injury and not move."

Quote of the weekend. Darren kindly went to make lunch yesterday but got a little carried with the knife + avocado and basically stabbed the palm of his hand. What we thought was a severed tendon is we think just an injury to the tendon sheath. We shall see. Thankfully there wasn't crazy amounts of blood, and he can move all of his fingers. Today he has his hand wrapped to stabilize the wound. We're praying it heals quickly. 

Pray for Darren as he can't surf for a while. 

No seriously. This is a pretty big disappointment, seeing that he loves to surf in the mornings before work and on the weekends, and has been getting pretty good. 

And I love to watch him. 

I guess I will have to surf and he will have to watch me now.

No pictures, because they don't do the wound justice. Lets just say I will be cutting the avocados from now on. 

In other news, we did get to enjoy the beach this weekend. and we're thankful for that. This picture is Friday after dinner;  a walk down to the beach to enjoy the sunset. 

Happy Monday from California :)

4th of July SoCal Style...

[started the morning out with some surfing]

[on our way to the fireworks]

[part of the group chilling before the fireworks]

[pre-gaming before the fireworks]

[the only good shot of a firework in the sky all night.....]

Our first 4th of July in California was pretty awesome. We got to enjoy it with some friends of ours from church. Thankful for community, for sure.

Wrapping up June.

 4th day in our new place, and we love it already. We randomly came across this apartment for rent 1.5 weeks ago and went to check it out. It ended up being GREAT so we jumped on it and are now moved in :) It feels so good to have our own place. This morning (after Darren surfed, of course) we made breakfast and enjoyed a fresh ocean breeze as we ate jalapeno cheddar bagels w/ cream cheese and fresh fruit and sipped a french press.


We really do want every one of you to come visit us. Scroll down, you'll see why :)

our bedroom:

backyard view from our bedroom:

Ocean view from our street:

My surfer dude!

Now we can grab beach chairs + surf boards and walk down to the beach. We are living the life and are having fun :) June gloom has lifted and the deep blue skies and warm sunshine are back!

Darren and I are both doing well. With his tan and longer hair, he looks quite like a surfer these days. I am feeling really better out here. and I never want to take that for granted. Last week David and Wilma, our pastor and his wife, left town for an Acts 29 pastors conference and we stayed at their house with the kids. I realized during that week that I really am feeling so much better. I had energy the whole week with them, and it was such a fun week, full of the beach, picnics at the park, hiking, dirty diapers, swim practice, waffle-making disasters (Darren *cough cough*), water fights in the back yard, catching frogs and giant lizards, and an occasional bloody nose and bee sting. No broken bones!

(That really did happen...a few weeks ago we babysat for a couple in our community group, and while they were peacefully enjoying a romantic anniversary dinner, their 9 year old son climbed a tree and broke his arm...we didn't think anyone else in the church would ever ask us to babysit, but alas. The pastor did! I guess when you have 6 kids, you jump at a change to get away as a couple.)

That's our latest! We love and miss all of our family and friends back home. Please come visit us! We have a bedroom waiting :)

8th Annual Hurley Bro Am

Waking up this morning...we were both pretty stoked about the day. Saturday morning greeted us with blue skies after a slightly cloudy week. Today was the 8th annual Hurley and Switchfoot sponsored Bro Am and Rob Machado Surf Competition.

We got there around 10:30 in the morning and hung out with friends from our church at the beach, watching the surf competition and checkout out vendor booths. Switchfoot started the event 8 years ago to help raise money for the homeless kids in North County San Diego (where we live). The event ended up raising around $200,000 to help at-risk kids in the area, partnering with Stand Up for Kids. Switchfoot also participated in the surf competition along with Hurley's pro surfer Rob Machado. Here is some pictures from the event..

Jon Foreman from Switchfoot

Following the surf competition, Switchfoot put on an outdoor concert on the beach. Epic.

Jon Foreman and Rob Machado covering I Won't Back Down by Tom Petty...

We had a pretty stellar time. We're going to wind down for the evening, head back to the house to cook some dinner and change the oil in my car! Looking forward to that. We're going tomorrow to check out an apartment a couple blocks off of the beach to possibly rent in downtown Carlsbad. We've been trying pretty hard to find the right place for us in that area due to the large community of friends from our church, the Fields. So Lord willing, that would be awesome! That would mean surfing in the morning before work, which wouldn't be a bad lifestyle....

.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!