Ten Weeks from Tuesday

Soon, we'll be saying "goodbye" to this...

and this...

and this...

... and saying "hello" to this...

On June 30 (ten weeks from Tuesday), we will be driving out of L.A. to start our journey towards Asia! Upon leaving L.A. we will be visiting family as we roadtrip from the West Coast to the Midwest. We are super excited to see our family again and look forward to treasuring those times together prior to our departure.

As we get closer and closer to our time to leave L.A. we have come to both appreciate and be annoyed by L.A. at the same time. We have already begun eating at restaurants that we know we won't have in Asia. Last night was Arby's! It was delicious. Normally, we don't eat such unhealthy food, but we keep saying that we're trying to absorb as much American culture as we can in our last weeks here. That's the same excuse I give for my current addictions to "American Idol" and "The Biggest Loser!"

Where have we been?

Okay, it's been a while since we've gotten online to post a new blog entry. It's happened to us again, life has gotten too busy! So, here's a little about what has been filling out time...

--We've been taking a Saturday morning class for 6 weeks now and have 10 more left to go. The class is great, but there is a lot of homework. We keep trying to carve out blocks of time to sit down and work through the weekly assignments.
--More medical fun for Annie! Annie recently saw the podiatrist. He had to give her a steriod shot into the ball of her foot to settle some inflamation. While there the doctor also noticed a fungal infection in Annie's toenail and decided to remove the infected nail. We both just got our dental insurance activated and went to see the dentist. Annie found out that sometime in the past two years she has started grinding her teeth and now has a number of cavities. When she went to get the first few filled she had a very bad experience. After three shots of novicane she could still feel the drill. Through all of this Annie has quickly realized why torture often affects the teeth and toes... it really hurts!
--Brian has been teaching on Sunday mornings to fill in while his boss has been out of town. He has really enjoyed it, but it's kept him quite busy.
--We've begun the paperwork necessary to move ourselves to Asia for work. And there is a lot of paperwork! We are taking it in small chunks one evening at a time. We can only trust in Father that it will all come together in His ways and His timing.
--In the midst of all our busy-ness we've also been able to have a little fun with friends and escape for the occasional cheeseburger and shake at the 50's Cafe. If you haven't heard from us in a while, please forgive us. We hope to have another newsletter going out in May. By that time we should have our assignement for where we'll be placed to teach in Asia. We can't wait!

Some Wedding Mad-libs

Our friend, Katie, put this artistic photo together. She is so creative!

This was taken during the wedding reception.

For our wedding we wrote our own Mad-libs for our guests to fill out. We were surprised by how many people did them! Over the course of our first year of marriage we've taken time to read them. Below are two of our favorites. The bolded words are those that were filled in for the game. If you don't know what Mad-libs are, then this is going to look really crazy to you!

The First Date

Brian and Annie met on a websited called flower.com. When Brian saw Annie's smelly picture on-line, he said, "Holy Baloney!" On the other hand, Annie thought Brian's picture looked like a tapir. Still, she dangerously agreed to meet him at Khadafi's Cafe. Brian said that he would be wearing a strong push-up.

When Annie snorted in the cafe she was happy that Brian was funky. He thought she was too. They ordered their chunky drinks and began talking. Annie told Brian about her suspicious career as an organized criminal. Brian was very impressed. He told Annie about his favorit hobby, doing jumping jacks. She thought this was so totally yellow.

Annie and Brian fried for 17,327 hours. They discovered a shared interest in the former Yugoslavia. They each told sotries of flushing there last summer. They especially enjoyed the fluffy people and their eggs.

At the end of the date, Brian shrugged Annie to her car and asked her for another lemming. Annie was very pokey. To say good-bye, Annie held up her sacro-iliac and said "Laugh it." Brian did, and now they are getting married!

The Proposal

Brian realized that Annie was the floor of his life, so he came up with a sweeping plan. Brian bought her a green ring from his friend in Golden Gate. His plan was in motion.

When Brian crashed Annie to go out with him, she thought this ws just another tasty date. They began by visiting a kitchen where they observed many beautiful dogs. Annie was impressed by Brian's knowledge of lights. next, he chopped her to a Persian restaurant. She danced Brian and said "I eat this place!"

After their long dinner, they drove to the top of a wine and enjoyed the purple view. Brian felt a little pink as he prepared to "pop the big cake." He gave Annie a knife, and she unwrapped it. Then she said, "Thank you, I hate it." But there was more. Brian urged Annie to deliver the appliance. Annie was reluctant saying, "I can see the shoe on the box!" Brian was insistent. Faithfully, Annie did as he asked and discovered a mushy ring. Brian quickly fell to his knee andasked, "Will you chase me?" Annie shouted, "Heck no!" And now, they are married.

One Year Already!

On January 26, we celebrated our one-year wedding anniversary! We can't believe how quickly the time has gone. We continue to enjoy learning about each other and laughing together.

To celebrate we took a road-trip up to central California and had a lovely time the whole way. Our first stop was to visit our aunt in Fresno. We had a great time just talking, eating Chick Fil-A and painting a plate together at Color Me Mine.

Our next leg of the trip was up to Lake Tahoe. What a beautiful drive it was! After living in such a highly congested area for so long we were refreshed to see so much open space. It started snowing as we got farther up the mountain. The highway department had a blockade where they were stopping them and requiring snow chains for any two-wheel drive vehicles. Brian and I pulled off and had another first in our marriage... putting on snow chains! What was most funny about this experience was that once we got the chains on and continued down the highway there wasn't too much snow. They plows had already cleared most of it. Oh well, we had an adventure anyway!

In Tahoe we stayed on the 9th floor of a hotel with a view of Lake Tahoe. It was amazing! We sat for a while just taking in the view of the snow falling over the lake. Because the roads were bad, we stayed within walking distance of the hotel. We managed to eat dinner at a casino buffet and watch "Frost/Nixon." This was the very last film that Annie worked on as an extra. You can see her if you know where to look... and if you look quick! The movie was great, and we highly recommend it.

Our main reason for going to Lake Tahoe was for the skiing! A friend recommended a great ski area, and we had perfect conditions. The snow from the night before left a nice layer of powder, and since we were skiing on a Monday, there weren't too many people on the slopes. I hadn't really ever been skiing before, so she attended "ski school." After the morning class I was able to join Brian on the big hills! Well, we skied a green course and a little of a blue course. I didn't like going too fast, and I REALLY didn't like the ski lift. In the end, it was a lot of fun. Brian got to share one of his favorite activities with me. Neither of us was injured, quite sore, but not injured.

We stopped over in Sacramento on our way back to SoCal. We took a free tour of the capital building that was quite interesting and fun. Our tour guide was a real kick. She made a point of taking us by the sign outside the governor's office that shows the growing state defecit because of the overdue budget.

On our trip we spent some of our time in the truck listening to our Chinese lessons. There are times when we really like the language and other times when we wanted to take out the CD, launch it across the highway and drive over it a few times. We know that with Father's help we can do anything, but this is a challenge!

It's so great to have a husband when you need to put on snow chains!

The guys in yellow were charging people $30 just to put the chains on for you!

Ahhhh.... snow.

Our room with a view.

We just love this pose!

This was at the top of the mountain. It looked like we were going to ski into the lake!

Annie is trying not to look scared on the chair lift.

This was a huge lake!

At the California State Capitol.

I loved this picture from the lobby area.

Below is the sign outside the governor's office showing the defecit.

Livin' in L.A.

Rock concerts, movies and summertime, oh my! This has been the past few days for us.

Last Thursday we got to see a friend's band (Tommy Peacock and the Gas) play at the House of Blues on Sunset Blvd. It was quite an experience! There was another band playing when we got there. I'll never understand the type of music they were playing. It was very angry. The lead singer had a nice voice... when he actually sang. Most of the time he was screaming into the microphone. Brian said that the theme of every song they sang was, "Everything sucks." That was about it! Luckily, we only had to listen to about three of their songs before Tommy's band took the stage. They were so much more fun... and more talented. We really had a great time listening to their music and watching them perform. They really put on a show. Of all the time we've lived in L.A. we have only gone to one other concert! We don't get out much.

On Saturday night we went our for a hot date. This is something else we rarely do! Ususally, we just pick up a DVD at the library and put a frozen pizza in the oven. Thanks to the kindness of our friends, we were able to make use of some free movie passes and a gift card to P.F. Chang's. This was our first time to P.F. Chang's, a Chinese-style restaurant. It was nowhere near authentic Chinese! We laughed at how we've become Chinese food snobs. After dinner we walked to the movie theatre and saw "Slumdog Millionaire." The movie was wonderful! We highly recommend it (but also caution that it is rated "R"). It was just a very well-told story. And, it showed a lot about these slums where the main character grew up. Seeing this made us very grateful for all the comforts we have in America.

L.A. has decided that it's had enough with winter and cut straight to summer. Because of the Santa Ana winds that blow in from the desert the temperatures have soared. The highs all this week will be in the low-80s! It's just wrong. Brian and I are very grateful for all the blessings we have, we just wish we could have colder weather. I'm sure that those of you in colder parts of the country might really enjoy 80-degree weather right now. But, I assure you that after five years of almost endless summer we're ready for a change. And, a little rain might not hurt either!

Christmas in Missouri

Christmas vacation was just what we needed! We really enjoyed getting out of the city again and spending time with family. We had a week to decompress in beautiful Missouri with Annie's family. If was refreshing to see all the open spaces and wildlife. We flew into the area on Christmas Day. Annie's mom picked us up at the airport and drove us straight to Christmas dinner.

We celebrated Christmas officially two days afterwards when we went to visit Annie's sister and her family. Annie's sister is married with five kids. The moment we walked in the door we were showered with hugs and questions about when they got to open their presents. Having children around makes Christmas much more fun. Annie's sister made a delicious brunch including her now famous cinnamon rolls. We could have eaten ten of them! Finally, we opened presents. Annie's sister recieved "Mama Mia!" on DVD. We forced Brian and Annie's brother-in-law to watch it with everyone. They were very good sports! And we were all humming Abba songs the rest of the night.

For a large portion of this trip we were just relaxing and visiting with family. What a joy! We really enjoyed playing with Annie's nieces and nephews. Brian has quickly become accustomed to being called "Uncle Brian." We went on a walk through the Nature Center where we saw a lot of wildlife. At the "cave park" the kids ran around in the caves and fed the ducks in the pond. We have really treasured all of these moments knowing that next year we won't be in the U.S. at this time.

Here are some more pictures of our fun:

Baby on the blanket that Aunt Annie made.



Uncle Brian!

Hiking at the Nature Center.

The wildlife at the Nature Center.

"Sisters! Sisters! There were never such devoted sisters."

Annie's mom trying to win at Apples to Apples.

Ugh. Too much Christmas.

Chinese Culture Weekend

This past weekend we got a good dose of Chinese culture... and loved every minute of it! On Saturday we went to see our friends Allison and Alex again. Allison is Chinese. Alex is Romanian. They are getting married next year. Allison has become one of our best Chinese tutors.

The agenda for Saturday night included learning how to make dumplings and learning how to play mah-jong. The dumplings were a lot of fun. Allison showed us how to best fold the dough wrappers so that they don't fall apart when you cook them. The best part of the dumplings was getting to eat them! They were delicious. We made so many that Allison sent us home with a plate of dumplings and instructions on how to cook them.

Mah-jong was an adventure. The rules resemble rummy, so I caught on quick enough. I just still don't understand some of the strategy of the game. The different tiles have different catagories, like a deck of cards. One of the categories had the Chinese character for the numbers 1-9. Luckily, I've learned these, so I was able to play okay. Brian and I were on a team. We lost consistently, but we had a great time. Some of Allison and Alex's friends from work joined us. Around the table were three Americans (two of those were us), two Romanians and three Chinese. It was a lot of fun listening as people switched between languages. Brian and I are slowly starting to pick up some of the Chinese.

Sunday night we continued our Chinese culture weekend by watching "The House of Flying Daggers." We watched it in Chinese with English subtitles, so we could test what we knew and learn a few new words. "The House of Flying Daggers" is a Chinese film by the popular Chinese director, Zhang YiMou. The epic story takes place in ancient China. There was a lot of kung fu action as two men battle evil empires, each other and the beautiful kung fu warrior, Mei. Kung fu martial arts are very much a part of Chinese culture and history. A friend once told me that there are stories from hundreds of years ago of kung fu masters who were so well developed that they could fly and run through the trees. This is why you often see this in kung fu fights in the Chinese movies. Brian hates this. During a scene in the movie where all the warriors were running through the tops of bamboo trees Brian said, "I just don't like this stupid crap." To which I replied, "It's not crap, it's culture!" We've learned that in a marriage we both don't always have to like all the same things.