Stuff

WOW! Has a LOT happened since our last post or what?!?! I swear photos will come soon...here is a quick update, a more thoughtful one to come soon as well...
1) we are officially moved. we now live in Sunland in a cute 3 bedroom house.
2) with that said...our kids officially separated into their own rooms. they were stoked...ry and i actually had a harder time with it than they did!! they have never been apart since birth (no, they are not twins...just really close together-15m apart!) so i'm happy that they have their own space to just be.
3) kids have a great school their going to start on monday (hurray!)
4) we finally got health care all squared away and will be officially covered by monday (i hope!)
5) we were gifted a new couch, washer and dryer, king mattress and other great things to add to our new home. i can't wait to show you before and after photos.
6) well...after photos will come later than sooner...there are still quite a few boxes to get unpacked
7) how did all of our stuff fit into a small dorm apartment for 9years?!?! we now fully occupy a 1550 sq ft home!!!

which then leads me to want to purge again. have you ever seen that show hoarders? i can't ever get through a whole episode! it's painful. and i don't want to become that. so often i hold onto things because i think we'll need that eventually and we won't be able to afford it when we'll need it, so keep it!! well...with our last two moves, we unloaded a LOT of old furniture and other things that i had to come to let go. how did i get to that point? well...many of those pieces were given to us in the first place (ie-this beautiful old piano that was given to us that i took lessons on as a child that i ended up giving to my friend who really needed a new piano) and parting with these pieces became a spiritual discipline. did i really trust that the lord had us in his hands and was going to provide for us? if i did, let go of the stuff and watch him provide. if we have a need, he'll provide it. he always has. what makes me think he won't this time? so...i let go of the piano, this amazing secretary hutch that needed a LOT of TLC that we just didn't have resources to fix, another antique piece and a few more items....only to then gain some items that we needed. i'm not going to sit here and say that i don't miss those other items (well...perhaps not the piano!), BUT...it was time to let them go and see what we actually could live with and not hold onto that piece.

so...now...how can i repurpose what we have to make it fresh and new? one word-paint! the kids start school next week and in this season/semester, i have mondays, tuesdays and fridays off...guess who is going to be sanding and painting her furniture?!?! i'll show before and after shots for sure. i feel super inspired by some blogs, dear genevieve and magazines lately...i can't wait to get started. for now...hopefully this weekend we can get the rest of the stuff unpacked and settled into where it will be.

i'll post photos soon. thanks for all your prayers and support. our life certainly is an adventure

What a journey!

So, for many of you this may be redundant, but for most, it's new news...

Ryan got a call on Sunday from Pastor Duke that Sunland Neigborhood Church has asked Ryan to be their Associate Pastor of Development and Outreach!! Our hearts were there for quite some time, but it's so sweet to finally have the final official call from them.

Now...let the rush begin!! We need to pack, move and start Ryan at his job by Sept. 1st! Thankfully, the church is paying for our move, so you dear ones who have helped us in the past won't need too!! We found a house within a bikes ride distance from the church and we put in all our paper work today for it. We'll see if we got it. I hope we do!

This might be new news considering there was talk of us living in the parsonage. It just isn't big enough for our family. There are a variety of other reason, but I think we would also just thrive more being in the community, having neighbors for the kids to play with, and not living where we work any more is a big one too. So now we pack and wait to hear about the house and once we find out, we're moving.

I start Talbot teaching again next week (i'm commuting in wednesdays and thursdays) and then the kids start school on the 13th (that is our next project! finding them a school!) so...please be praying for the house that we are able to rent it, that the kids transition well, and for this huge new chapter in our life. We've never lived a hour away from home, so this will be new for us all. Thank you friends for all of your prayers, notes, calls, emails and support! we couldn't do this without you!

love!!

quick update

so...we heard back from Sunland and we are a GO for August 8th!! yeah !

We (as a family) go out, meet the congregation, introduce ourselves....then they pray for a week, ask questions, etc...and then they vote on us on the 15th and we find out then : )

Keep praying
xxo
aly

30 rock...

So this morning i woke up with Tracy Jordan in my head. But...it's pretty appropriate...

"This is not a drill people!"

Now, this quote is in reference to season 2 or was it 3....episode of "Post-nup" and it was when Tracy and his wife were about to...well...you know ; ) That is not how i'm using this quote....

Seriously...as I woke up, today is the 18th....Ry preaches and then we drop the kiddos off and go out to the bbq to meet the team leaders at Sunland and hopefully connect well with them to move onto the next stage of their interview/candidating process on August 8th. And the words of Tracy Jordan woke me up..."This is not a drill people!"

It's not. Its the 18th .... sigh...phew...if you think about it, pray for us today...the bbq is at 4.

I'll write and keep you posted this week and post some long awaited photos of our summer thus far.

First angel game!

We recently (last week) took the kids with our church to their first Angel Game. As Ry predicted, William said at the end of the 4th, "When can we go home?!" However, they totally did better than I thought they would. They sat, played with their friends, learned the art of eating sunflower seeds and peanuts in the shell, and crashed when we got home.
We had a blast...such a fun summer event! How is your summer? What are you doing? We are trying to plan an excursion of some sort each week...this was our first of the summer

Our self portrait

My boy

Is this love or hate? I can't remember when I captured the photo at the tailgate party...

Tailgating it under the Big A

Condo photos

Cute little reading nook under the stairs...Em's little school spot too...she loves reading under there and doing 'school' (since we're on summer break)

View from the loft to the downstairs

The living room

The kids room-or just Em's bunk with her new bedding (thanks katrina!!)

Our bedroom

Okay....long awaited condo photos!!
I've chosen not to hang photos b/c of knowing that this condo really is temporary-we might be here for only 2 more months, or a lot longer, once we hear from Sunland more specifically and have our next interview on the 18th, we'll have a better picture of how much longer we'll be here. In the meantime, I can't tell you how much of a retreat and blessing this condo has been. I barely ever need to turn on the lights because of all the natural lighting. I think we've ran the a/c a total of 2hrs since moving here (and that was basically on moving day!) because when you open up all the windows, the breeze makes you feel like you're at the beach. i LOVE LOVE LOVE this place. I think it will be harder to leave our condo than it was to leave Biola! this place is a gift that I can't thank my in laws enough for. I pray that the Lord will bring us another retreat like this place has been for our next home...and perhaps we can be there long enough for me to hang stuff!!

Summer Fav....

So...this summer as we've been at the new condo (i know...photos coming soon), my good friend Charity has taught me how to make a mean mojito! I made them for my friend's birthday party this past weekend and they were a hit. Here is the recipe. I also made them in old peanut butter jars that I thought would be just too fun to drink out of (and a free way to replace some of our old glasses that have broken...i LOVE drinking out of the jars-see above!!)

The Chartender (i named it after my friend, charity!) Mojito:
Shopping List:
Bacardi Rum Limon (clear rum, not the brown colored rum)
A fresh bunch of mint, not the kind that has the soil still on the stems (you can get some at albertsons I know like that)
Ice
Lime seltzer water
Sugar
Limes (about a 1/2 a lime per drink)

Directions:
10 leaves of mint and two mint stems broken at the bottom of your jar/glass
1 T and 1t of sugar
4 small lime slices slightly squeezed into the jar then dropped to the bottom of jar

Take your muddler and mash, mash, twist, twist and smoosh your limes, mint leaves and sugar all up. The goal is to have the mint leaves all broken up, the limes totally pulped and juice mixing up with the sugar.

Next pour 2 1/2 oz of Bacardi Limon Rum into jar of mashed up mint/sugar/lime mix
6 ice cubes, or whatever makes the jar fill 1/2 up with ice
invert jar into a cocktail shaker, with the jar acting as your lid/cover
Shake vigorously over the sink and make sure you hold onto the shaker and glass jar at the same time so the jar doesn't go flying off into your kitchen : ) Shake about 20 times to make sure the ice has cooled the lime/sugar/mint/rum mixture
Remove glass jar and pour the contents of the cocktail shaker into the jar
Take the lime seltzer water and pour about 1/2 glass jar worth around the interior of the cocktail shaker to get all that final mojito mixture out of the shaker and pour into the glass jar to the rim of the jar.

Squeeze a final lime on top of mojito, stir, add straw and ENJOY!!

Lemme know if you like them!! Next, it's my goal to figure out how to make the Hollywood Bowl's sangria. It's about $28 at the bowl and i'm SURE it's way cheaper at home and just as delish! I'll post the final recipe once I figure it out : )