Super Fun Weekend

This weekend was packed full of fun! Carissa and Blake came to visit from Vegas and we had SO much fun...we hung out in Hollywood on Friday night, went to the beach and to the Santa Anita (horse) Race Track on Saturday, and BBQed on Saturday night before they left. Then Jordan and I went to our new church on Sunday morning - for Easter, and then to the beach and laid out in the 85 degree weather all afternoon. We even went in the ocean - I'm talking bathing suits and sun burns, people! It was the most amazing way to spend Easter. I've never had an Easter so nice - especially in March! My family back in Idaho had to endure an inside Easter egg hunt due to the 40 degree weather and rain. But not us! We were loving it here. It was amazing to just be out in the beautiful weather, admiring God's creation. So relaxing...
I've come to realize something about living down here...I may not love it all the time - especially when I sit in ridiculous traffic all the way to work, like this morning - but this place is amazing! We have everything we could ever need or want within about an hour of us. We can go to the beach, the horse race track, hollywood, and anything else all in one day. It's so different from Idaho, and sometimes I hate it, but there's still something to be said for its beauty. Even now, I've been looking into going camping somewhere around here and I'm finding out about all these great places to go - all within a few hours of here. And, as I was telling my mom a few weeks ago, no matter how long we live here, we will never be able to explore all this metropolis has to offer - there's just no way...but we're having fun trying.
I have to say this, now that we live so close to the beach, my whole outlook on living here has changed. I like it so much more! It makes all the difference in the world. And this amazing weather we're having right now definitely doesn't hurt - who knew you could get sunburned in March? That's all but impossible in Idaho at this time of year. Life is good...
I'll post pics soon - I promise.

What a Crazy Week...

This week has been so crazy. Last Wednesday night my mom told me that my dog Maddie (who has been in our family for almost 9 years) was probably going to have to be put down soon. Maddie (the dog on the right) has been going downhill for a few months now, and was definitely suffering from some sort of cancer in her bladder region. I wont go into details here (it's still really hard), but my parents decided this weekend that she had suffered enough and put her down on Saturday. I cried and cried - from Wednesday on, I would just cry at random times throughout the day. Maddie was a part of my family and it really feels like I lost someone very close to me. The good thing is, though, that she's not suffering anymore. She can run now and be herself once more - and for those of you that know her, you know that she had quite the personality (which she seemed to lose when she was so sick).

In other crazy sad news, one of Jordan's little brother, Zachary's best friends from middle school and early high school passed away on Sunday. We're not sure yet exactly what happened, but it was either suicide or an accidental overdose, and it happened while his family was at Church. I mentored him when he was a freshman in high school and I was a senior, so I can't help but have those thoughts that if I had been a better mentor that year maybe none of this would have happened. Honestly, though, it's been hard to even let this tragedy in, with the week I had crying over Maddie. It's almost too much for one person to handle.

On a positive note, I saw Lars Ulrich yesterday at work (he's the drummer for Metallica, for those of you who don't know). I think he's filming a TV show pilot, and his kids were with him and they're really cute! So that was fun. Also, Jordan has been amazing throughout this entire ordeal, and that's been what's kept me going. I really don't know what I would do without him. He's so good to me and I really don't deserve him. And we live by the beach now, so our plan for this weekend is, first of all, to not have anything bad happen (like we have control over that, but we're thinking positively here), and also to explore our new area more and maybe ride our bikes to the beach, walk on the pier or the promenade and hope that Carissa and Blake come next weekend. Anyone else want to come down?

We Moved Successfully...

Thanks to many friends. We now have a new place to call home, and we're having a great time setting up all our stuff and figuring out how to arrange our things in our new home. It's just so great to finally be out of the craziness that was our life in the city - we were literally surrounded by traffic lights and concrete and pavement and buildings for miles around - not exactly our style. Now, we are surrounded by grass and houses and yards and cool little restaurants and cafes and beaches!! So much better for us. And we're hoping Jordan's sister and her husband (Janee and Gib) will move out our way soon...they live in Hollywood right now, but we'd love for them to be closer to us! Then we could all go to the beach and ride our bikes together. Sounds like fun, huh?
In other news, Jordan's dad, Steve, came to visit this weekend...a little stressful since we were moving, but well worth that tiny bit of stress to have the extra help with moving. He was so great. He helped us pack and organize us all for the big move (we had four cars that took one load each and we borrowed my brother's tiny Mazda truck that took three loads over). It was pretty insane, and Steve was such a huge help! Also insane - moving in TRAFFIC! Bleck. I hate it. But oh well, it's done. And we have all our stuff inside our new home, so that's pretty amazing. Also, some of our stuff is even organized and our entire bookshelf is decorated with an artists touch thanks to our friend Kat, who is simply amazing. She went crazy and just started unpacking boxes the moment we got them all in the door. The rest of us were so tired and lazy by the time it was all done, but not her - she was like the energizer bunny...literally, she kept going and going until we physically took her out of the apartment to go to dinner. It was the greatest thing, though...really...amazing.
So all in all, I feel like I need a weekend to recover from the weekend, but life is good. We are so happy in Santa Monica and speding time with Steve was so fun. We went to the beach and walked on the pier, and had a great dinner the night before he left. It was really fun to hang out with him without the rest of the family - that never happens...Not that we don't love the rest of the family, it was just a unique time for us to spend with him. I wish it could have lasted for longer...