More Cali Life!

So we've lived in Tracy, CA for almost 9 months! That's crazy. This time has totally flown by. It feels like we lived in Owasso just yesterday, yet it feels like it was 10 years ago because so much in our lives have changed. Speaking of 10 years ago, 10 years ago Tyler and I met! Pretty crazy that it's been 10 years since that sunny April day at Camp Cyokamo! Elizabeth brought it up that it's been 10 years since she and Nathaniel met on their blind date in May 2003. I had never put it together that we both met our husbands in the same year. Granted, they have been married for much more of that ten years than we have (I can't believe they've been married almost 10 years!), it's pretty cool that we both met our husbands within a couple weeks of each other.

We've had a lot of visitors lately! I'll call it the marathon of guests. Having my parents, Tyler's mom, and Elizabeth out here was amazing. A total blessing to have our family travel out to see our lives in Cali. I know I always want to visualize what my family is doing, so I know it helped them understand our lives by seeing everything that is a part of our every day life! If only they could have stayed longer. We got to do a lot of fun new things with them. Each spent a day in SF and a day in Napa Valley(eating amazing food and aweing at the scenery!), and then with Elizabeth we also got to go back to Stanford so she could have a look around and then venture over to nearby Half Moon Bay. We LOVED getting to go to the beach for the first time since moving here! We didn't spend a ton of time there, but it was really a beautiful day and who doesn't love the ocean!?

I was totally surprised at how nice the beach was that we went to. We actually went a little north of HMB to Montara Beach (at the advice of our waiter at Princeton Seafood Company --delicious fish & chips!) The sand was not nearly as rough as some people describe California beach. I'm used to the softest, whitest sand of Destin and Panama City Beach in Florida, so the California coast was new for me. The sand was soft (in most places) and the water FREEZING! We got our feet a little wet, and it was my 2nd time in the Pacific ocean, so it was nice to be back after many years of playing in the Gulf of Mexico. I loved the Gulf but the view of ocean and mountains touching is amazing, a wonderful work of art.

I can officially say we made it through our first California winter. I have to say, it was everything I dreamed it would be. I wore a heavy coat only a handful of times and only when going outside at night. Jackets pretty much covered the rest, or long sleeved shirts or hoodies! My dream of a warmer winter has finally come true and it made winter completely bearable. Although, we did learn that Californians aren't too sure on how to handle rain. Winter is our rainy season and by rain I mean drizzle. Nothing like spring rains in Oklahoma! We had a few downpours, but I have to say I LOVED those rains, it brought me back to OK in my heart. On Easter we even had some thunder and lightning which is rare out here. It brought me much joy! And it finally taught us why we had to answer so many rain related questions on our driver's tests when we got our licenses... People drive completely different when it rains here and they seem to think the only setting for wind shield wipers is ultra fast!

Spring comes early in CA, for that I am forever thankful. We spent about 3 months without using any AC and minimal heat.. it was fantastic! But I'm beginning to understand why people in Tracy talk so much about the heat. I always think it's funny because it gets much hotter and is way more humid in OK, so I'm hesitant to complain about heat here... but I think the real problem is that it stays hot for a lot longer than in OK. It's been pretty hot for awhile now, I understand why they complain about the heat... and it's going to stay hot for a long time. But it makes me happy, I'd much rather have a long, hot  summer than a long, cold winter. Plus, knowing it snowed this past week where I used to live, I cannot even dream of complaining of the heat!

I feel like my family can testify now to the wonderment that is California weather... You look at the forecast for 10 days and it's not in the 40's and 80's within the same week and I love it. I can count on sunshine and warmth for most days, and the days I can't the cloud cover is a blessing. It's so different than any place I've ever lived, and it's awesome. But I'd gladly take a few more crazy thunder storms, that's what I miss most about Oklahoma weather.

Life is moving along. We're about to enter the summer season with trips to SoCal for CIY! I can't wait, I've always wanted to visit SoCal and in just a couple months I get to spend several days down at Biola U. with my favorite high school students! Before we know it, we'll be celebrating a year of living in Tracy. Time is flying by so quickly!

A Little of Oklahoma in California

Last month was quite a crazy month for Tyler and I. Today I will focus on the best part of last month: my parents came to visit! We looked forward to family coming to visit ever since we moved. To get to show our family around California was SO much fun. It's so different from Oklahoma and it is nice for them to understand where we live a little better!

My parents arrived late on a Saturday night so we didn't do much the first night... just some talking and sleeping! I was so excited to bring my parents to church on Sunday and see how our Sunday mornings are spent. They got to sit in on the youth service with us and enjoy a morning spent talking about and doing worship. It was so fun just to introduce them to people that are a part of our every day lives. Church is obviously a huge part of all of our lives so it was so wonderful to get to attend with family. It was also great to let them see how great our church family is and how we are so well taken care of!

On Monday morning my mother and I pretty much just sat and talked. Dad slept in a bit so we had a very quiet morning full of chatting, chatting that I so greatly missed! There's nothing like sitting and talking with your mom face to face after months of being apart. So much wisdom and encouragement came from our conversations. That after noon Tyler and I had a meeting so my parents drove around a little and we did a little more exploring just around Tracy to show them the town. Riding in the car with them was fun to just hear their reactions to Tracy. They, like me, loved to comment on how cute and comfortable Tracy is. The comfort of Tracy is definitely one of the reasons why it was so easy to move here. It really feels like our home!

On Tuesday we took them to explore San Francisco! I was so excited to show them around because they, like Tyler and I, LOVE cities! It must be in the blood. We took them to the major sites, Golden Gate Bridge, Fisherman's Wharf, Pier 39 (where we enjoyed the fish n chips for lunch!), through Chinatown, and from Union Square all the way down through downtown and the Ferry Building! We really got to see most everything we wanted to. I know they loved exploring with us.

The next day we had an opportunity to travel to a place I had not been yet, Sonoma (wine country). A family from FCC in Owasso was actually vacationing in Napa at the same time so my parents arranged for us to go have lunch with them in Sonoma. It was quite rainy and cloudy so we did not get to see a ton of the beautiful land, but what we did see was still so beautiful. I've never seen as much beautiful and diverse scenery as I have in since moving to California. We ate a cute little restaurant on the Square in Sonoma. Sonoma was such a quaint little town! I'd love to go there again and just spend the day there (and maybe on a non-rainy day!) Tyler was not able to join us on the Sonoma endeavor so I got to spend the day with my mom and dad by myself. Again, it was full of great conversations that only happen face to face.

I was super sad to see them go. The visit was no where near long enough, but I assume that's how it will be every time. Time with parents is SO precious. It's so hard to live this far from family so I'm super thankful they are willing to come visit us! Later this week Tyler's mom will be here, Elizabeth is coming later this month/early May, and we have some potential plans for other visitors this summer! Time is flying by with all of our family venturing out to see us, I'm so thankful for them coming out here!

How Life Changes

Lately I've been thinking about "where" we were a year ago. Not necessarily physically, but emotionally, spiritually, and mentally. Around this time last year we were visiting a church up in the Northeast. A beautiful town and a church that is doing great things in the Albany area. One thing we always say we are thankful for is that throughout our year of interviewing places, we got to see what God is doing in so many churches all over the country. This was one of those churches. While we would have gone anywhere God called us, I much prefer the California weather to what we'd have in Albany. A year ago, God was still working out his plan to move us to Tracy.

Then I can think about "where" we were two years ago around this time. I had recently come back from a trip to New York for a class called "Exegeting the City". This class changed and challenged my worldview. It was an awesome trip of exploring NYC, but even more so this class was one of the best ones of my college education. I knew after taking that class that God wanted me to open my mind so that he could move and use me and Tyler anywhere in the country, or anywhere in the world. I know that that class was a part of God's plan to form me in to the best version of myself. It's pretty cool to see how God used a class two years ago to help prepare me for the place I'd move to a year and half later. I needed to open my mind to how God views people in order to be willing to love people in different cultures.

I like to remember where I was seven years ago on this day. About this time seven years ago I was heading to work at Sonic. I'd probably be working the 4-10 shift, it was a Monday. I'm not sure what time my mom called me at work but I knew it was already dark out. The phone rang as I was running an order out, when I came back in I got the news that my dad was in the hospital because of a stroke. My boss made me go home but I didn't really want to do that because I'd be by myself. I went home, packed a bag and went to my 2nd family's house where I had to break the news to them what had happened and that I needed to stay with them. "Where" was I seven years ago?

I was lost. This was the first really bad thing that had happened in my life, I didn't know how to deal with tragedy or devastation. Thank goodness my father was okay, but I think more than anything it led me to a faith crisis. I had to learn what it really meant to trust God in good and bad. I hadn't ever really learned to trust him in the bad because I had never experienced the bad. It was hard. It took me months and months to realize that I didn't trust God. Then it took me years to build up that trust with him again. Sometimes I'd build it up just for something else to happen and that trust would be destroyed again. Something I didn't know when my father had a stroke was that it was okay to be upset with God and to ask questions and to have doubts because I'd never learn the truth about what it means to really have faith. Faith is not as much about how you handle the good times as it is about how you handle the bad times.

Seven years ago, God started this battle of trust and faith with me that is still a struggle today. I wouldn't ever say that he made my dad have a stroke so that I would learn the lessons but he decided to take that "bad" event in my life to teach and turn my life in to good. But like I said, every time something "bad" happens, it feels like I take a couple steps back. Sometimes more steps than others. I know that God knows what he's doing.

I can look back over the past seven years and see how God has prepared me for events that happen today, or happened recently. It doesn't make them easier. In fact, sometimes it makes them harder because I want to complain to God and say "Wait, you already taught me this lesson. Why are we going at this again?" only to realize that if I'm angry that he's "teaching" me this lesson again, I clearly didn't get it all the way the first time.

I love reflection. I love looking back and realizing how God worked. I love having lessons that God has taught me because I really need to look back and see how he has turned so many bad things into good. Every time something bad happens I can look at how he delivered me and trust that he will again. It's hard to believe at times. Today I'm not so sure I believe I can be delivered but I know deep in my heart that it's true.

My Everyday Life

So not a lot has been going on lately. Mostly my days consist of doing things to get my house ready for my parents (and hopefully brother!) to come visit in March. But when we were home for Christmas I got a lot of the same questions from people. What's living in California like? How's the church? Are you finally feeling settled? And probably the biggest question: Where are you working?

Since graduating college, Tyler and I did a lot of soul searching for myself. I know what I'm passionate about, but I also know that grown-up life comes with bills and perhaps my passions weren't going to get me a huge paycheck.

The problem with this is that I always thought I have to work. When thinking about getting a job I pictured the countless jobs that I felt were jobs I'd never want to go back to. The food industry and retail have burnt me out on their respectful categories and I was dreading having to get just another job I didn't truly care about and would leave me unfulfilled as usual. I've only had two jobs I wouldn't have minded staying at forever- my job at Ozark and at the optical! For the year we lived at home I had the pleasure of finally having a job I enjoyed and looked forward to everyday! Half of this was because of the people I worked for -it was easy to work for great bosses! The other half was that I did truly find the job interesting and liked working with the types of customers we got. But part of following Tyler's calling to work out here in Tracy, it meant leaving that job. I'm still SO thankful I got to have that experience.

But a part of moving out here meant I'd get a break from working. I've been working hard since I was 17 and I was in need of a break! So a lot of people question what I do all day, how I fill my time, so I thought I'd share with you what I'm passionate about and how it fills my days.

I never pictured myself as a "housewife". But truly, my greatest joy and passion is taking care of our home and taking care of Tyler so that he can focus on his ministry and helping lead students to Christ. It may sound super cheesy but this is what I LOVE doing- it's how I love spending my days! I haven't really found myself "bored" at all in the 5 months we've been here. I'm still working on getting our home just right and keeping track of our lives. I take care of our home so that when Tyler comes home from anything, he gets to relax and unwind from the effects of ministry.

But I also spend my time in the ministry as well. I go to most youth events and help lead the high school girls small group. I've been leading small groups for awhile and I love being in the lives of students! I also recently joined a Bible Study on a couple mornings a month and I'm so very excited about that. So this is a little picture of what I'm doing with my days. I love having a break from working outside the home, it's bringing me a lot of joy to finally be doing what I enjoy and not get stressed out by things that I'm not passionate about!

Like I said, I never pictured that this is what I would long to do- to stay at home. But it truly is where God led us and if I need to work again someday- soon or in the distant future- I'll be happy to. But for now, I'm thoroughly enjoying my break!

Goodbye 2012

Here's a quick look at our 2012! It was a really great year, but I'm happy to see what 2013 brings to us!

We spent a ton of time with our favorite people while we lived in Oklahoma:

Graham's 1st birthday!

We went to many Driller's games with family to enjoy the cool Oklahoma evenings. By cool I mean only 95 degrees.

We got to go to an Elks game in Arkansas!

We spent great time at Grand Lake with my family for a few days.

My brother, Joel, got to come for the lake trip. It's always a blessing to see him. But hey, now I live a lot closer to him so hopefully I'll get to go see where he lives for once!

Us at the botanical gardens in OKC.

We spent our 2nd Anniversary in Oklahoma City. We had such a fun trip. The Thunder were in the NBA finals so there was a fun buzz around town and we got to watch a game at BJ's with a ton of fans. We also went to the OKC bombing memorials and museum which was a moving experience. I'm glad we finally did this as we've both lived in Oklahoma for a long time, but had never gone there.

We spent Easter with our families at our church in Owasso.

I accomplished something I never thought I'd do. I ran a 10k race with my sister Elizabeth, while Lydia ran a half marathon at the same time. I loved this experience and hope to run another race sometime soon!

Tyler and I ran the Mission 5k with our church in Owasso. This was a fun thing to do because 2011's Mission 5k was our first race ever and it was awesome to run 2012's race after working hard to achieve some of our weight loss goals!

Tyler was ordained in August and we were sent out by our families and churches.

We loaded everything from our storage unit into a truck to make the trek out to Cali!

We had a great 4 day trip out to Cali with some fun stops along the way. We took our time and it was a super fun road trip.

We moved to Tracy, California! 1,693 miles from my parents home where we lived.

We began renting a cute house and finally got to unpack all the stuff I'd been missing for the last year!

We explored Silicon Valley, and accomplished a dream of Tyler's to go to the Apple Headquarters.

We accomplished a dream of mine to go to a Stanford volleyball game. And we got a huge surprise when they brought out Kerri Walsh-Jennings to retire her jersey. Huge dream come true for me!

We finally got to celebrate Christmas in our new home.

We did a lot of exploring San Francisco and have enjoyed every second of the awesome location we live in!

We got to spend a great week with our families for Christmas! It was so refreshing to go home and share our lives with our families for awhile.

Not to mention we got to go to a great OSU basketball game!

What a great blessing 2012 was! We went through some challenges as we continued to wait on God's plan for our lives. We had great friends and family in Oklahoma that helped us move forward in our lives. I can't say enough about the faithfulness of God. I am so excited as we turn the page in to 2013 that I don't have to wonder when God is going to provide the right church to join. But I am totally excited to see what he brings us this year! If you would have told me as I wrote my 2011 blog last year that this year I'd be writing from Tracy, CA I never, ever would have believed you. It's a blessing to be here and I'm thrilled to see what God does with us in Tracy this year!

As Of Lately...

The holiday time of year is always a busy one for everyone. It can be especially busy for those involved in church and the ministers!

This has been a fun semester for me because I have been a part of the holiday ensemble at church! We've been practicing all semester for Thanksgiving and Christmas and the weeks in between. Music has been a huge part of my life for so long. It was in 5th grade that I tried out for and made my first real choir. Sure, I'd been in church things before but that was the first time I had to try out and got to be a part of the 5th grade Honor Choir at Burlington Elementary. Since then, I've found so much joy in reading, learning, and preforming music. This is the first time I've been really involved in music since we've been married so it's been fun to introduced Tyler to this very serious side of me. I might take church choir a little too seriously, but music is a huge passion of mine that I've been neglecting for years. Anyway, we helped lead worship and preformed some songs for our Thanksgiving worship service. It was exhausting but I loved every second of indulging in this passion of mine! I don't want the holidays to end because I want to keep on singing. 

On December 8th we had the pleasure of throwing a Christmas party for our amazing youth group sponsors! We've seriously been blessed with incredible leaders. They've made this transition so great for us. Not only are they our sponsors but I truly consider them our friends too! It was my first time to throw a party for a group of people like this before. Let me tell you- I loved every second of it! I love being able to devote my time and energy to people who make my life better. When we were doing ministry while I was in school I was not able to devote as much as I wanted to to celebrating people we love... so this was so exciting to me. It wasn't a huge or elaborate party but I loved baking, cooking, and decorating. December 8th was also our 5 year dating anniversary! Our sponsors should feel so lucky to have spent it with us! We also spent an evening with our lovely students for a Christmas party. We ate a lot, had a white elephant gift time, and got to hang out and have fun.

We took another adventure to San Francisco to finish up our Christmas shopping. Last time we drove, parked, and walked. This time we decided to try out the public transportation and let me say, we liked that much better! It was much less stressful and quite a bit cheaper to take the train in from Pleasanton. We did still do a lot of walking, but that was because walking in big cities is one of the best ways to really take it in. There's plenty of easy and cheap public transportation, so I have to say that I think it's the better way to do the city if you don't anticipate doing things in every single part of the city. We did accomplish our shopping needs which was very exciting! We also finally found some good California themed ornaments, which I've been searching for for months!

Now that the parties are done, we've got just a little more time before we head to Oklahoma to see our families for Christmas! To say we are excited is an understatement. We can't wait to hug our parents, siblings, and especially those sweet little kids in our lives that are growing much to quickly! We love Tracy, but I'm excited to be in home, sweet 'Homa so very soon! 

Songs That Take You Back

It's no secret that I love all reality singing shows. Luckily I've pulled Tyler on board and he enjoys watching them now. Last week we even made our list of the order in which we thought XFactor contests would place-now that's a game I can get in to!

There's a contestant on The Voice that has been my favorite partially because of her voice, partially because of her song selections. She sings everything I loved about high school! Her name is Cassadee Pope and I can't wait to someday buy her album. This week I was looking forward to watching her as normal but she sang a song that took me straight back to Highway 169 on April 4th, 2006.

The day before was the day my father had his stroke. I had been at work at the time of that awful phone call, was sent home from work to an empty home and promptly went to stay with my second family, the Killions, as it was too late for me to drive to the hospital in Tulsa. One of the worst parts about that night was that Cathy didn't know what had happened by the time I got there so I had to verbalize what had happened just a couple hours after I found out. There's nothing more awful than saying something painful out loud for the first time.

The next day I went to school as normal and at 1:30 I would have had off season volleyball practice. So I went and told my coach what had happened and asked kindly if I could go ahead and miss practice so I could go to the hospital. He thought I was crazy for showing up and sent me on my way. In school they don't teach you protocol for life events like this. Just a couple days before, the newest Rascal Flatts cd came out. I had purchased it and hadn't listened yet so I popped it in before driving to Tulsa, with the hope that this cd would lift my spirits a little.

Cue waterworks. The very first song on the cd was called "Stand". I had already begun driving to Tulsa and I'm hearing these lyrics that were way too appropriate for that moment in my life. Cause when push comes to shove, you taste what you're made of. Everything about my life had changed in a moment. When Cassadee started singing, I was taken back to that exact time when I first heard this song, just like every time I hear it. Starting from that day, life changed a lot. I can look back now and see how true that song can be if you choose to not let life smother you and keep you down.

I think everyone has songs that take them back to that date, time, and place that something happened. I love these songs, I love it every time, no matter if it was a painful or a beautiful experience. Honestly, even the most painful ones can be the most beautiful ones if you don't let it ruin you.

I want to say it was some time during my freshman year of college, maybe sophomore. My parents, Lydia, James, and I went to the Rascal Flatts concert in Tulsa. You can imagine the moment I had when they started singing Stand with my father sitting just a few seats down from me, alive, Standing every day and not letting the happenings of life ruin him, along with the rest of our family. Each time I hear that song I am taken back to remember just how far we've come.

Every time you get up and get back in the race, one more small piece of you starts to fall into place.