Lake Arrowhead

This is Hudson Brannon 

So fun to hang around with!  He is very accomplished in using the words hat, ball and dog.

The Poladian house with tons of snow!  So much fun - well, maybe for Carly and I who didn't have to partake in the shoveling of the driveway.  This is before it got another big dump of snow on Monday.  

Matt and Chad cooked us an amazing meal on Valentine's Day!  Tri-Tip - a favorite in both households.

This is my cute husband! Relaxing!

We had such a wonderful time with our great friends!

Great Book

Matt gave me the book Shopping for Time by Carolyn Mahaney and her daughters for Valentine's Day.  I finished it yesterday - an accomplishment for one who usually starts a book and finishes about a year later, or sometimes never.  But this one I couldn't put down.  Very easy to read, not very long,  really helpful and very encouraging. 

It really got me thinking about some disciplines I would like to add to my life.  For starters, I have been "rising early" to make sure I have time in the Word every morning.  It has been great and I haven't been too tired!  

Thanks Lord for the grace to get up and start my day with some uninterrupted time spent digging into your Word.

Out of the mouths of babes

"You're not creepy" the blond - haired, blue - eyed second grader said to me.

"What?" I replied.

"All of the other substitutes we've had this year have been creepy, but you're not.  You're nice."

Thank you Lord that you created me to be a nice sub and not creepy.

Date Nite

We are so excited that Matt's schedule this quarter has allowed us to devote a night to a date! It has been fun to get creative and think about activities to do that evening.  We have gone to Golden Spoon and walked around the Irvine Spectrum and this past week we went to Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf for my favorite tea latte.  I was thinking about it all day and really looking forward to it, but it tasted even sweeter when we got it for FREE!!!  Their machines weren't taking gift cards that night so the girl said "It's on us!  Enjoy!" and she gave us the size bigger than we ordered.  Wow!  What a blessing.  My love for the Lord grew through this demonstration of His care for us in financially tight times!  My love for Coffee Bean grew as well!

Half Marathon - Irvine, CA

Before our 13.1 mile run today!

Rachel Osborne and Rachel Bishop

The whole group

The Poladians

Heather Eckert

And after!  Look - we are still smiling!

It was a great day and a great run.  I'm so thankful the Lord allowed my body to keep moving like that for 2 hours and 25 minutes.  What a blessing!

Tidbits from the Season

We have thoroughly enjoyed our time at home, away from school and work, resting and relaxing with friends and family.  A snapshot of all that has happened is below!

Matt surprised me with a trip to Chicago the week before Christmas.  We stayed in the city for a day and a half covering all of Michigan Ave!  It was so wonderful to be in a bustling city, dusted with snow and a definite chill in the air.  We then took a train out to Champaign to spend time with our great friends the Burdetts!  We had a tour of their cute little town, visited their church, walked through University of Illinois where John is attending school to obtain his PhD in Music Education and tried with all of our might to stay warm. The weather dropped below freezing allowing us to feel the pain on your skin of such cold temperatures.  We pray for our friends who will experience that over and over through the winter as we returned to warm California sunshine.  

Upon our return from Chicago we dove head first into holiday activities. We scheduled as many dinners, breakfasts, and lunches as we could and loved every minute of it.  We had wonderful Christmas celebrations with family.  This is how it went for us:

Christmas Eve: 

• Breakfast with Poladian Cousins courtesy of Auntie Barbara - Thanks AB!
• Jenny headed off to breakfast #2 with Dad and Melissa for a little father daughter time - a tradition we both look forward to..We love you Dad!
• Church at ABF - where we met!  So great to be there
• Dinner with the extended Cooper side of the family
• Dessert with the extended Poladian side of the family

Christmas Day:

• Breakfast with immediate Poladian family
• rest of the day with the immediate Cooper family
• drove to Irvine 

Day after Christmas:

• spent the day playing games and hanging out with the Osborne clan

2 Days after Christmas:

• DISNEYLAND - so busy but so fun!  We had a great time with the Poladians/Bosserts playing in the Magic Kingdom.  We really enjoyed the churros!  Matt brought me one at the same time I got one for him.  You can see I had already eaten my half of the one I got and Matt still had the whole thing!  I couldn't wait!!

Week after:

• Some rest and fun in the snow of Lake Arrowhead!  We love being up there and enjoyed our time with the Matthews and Poladians.  We celebrated New Year's by going to bed nice and early at 9:30!  Melissa and Eric were the only ones to stay up and ring in the new year :).  We made a snowman and shopped in the village.  It was fabulous!

And now we are back in Irvine!  Geared up and ready for a new quarter of school. It seemed easier this time to adjust to life in the OC.  I prayed and the Lord was faithful to answer my prayers.  He always answers, but this time he answered how I asked!  I take delight in the ease of the transition and thank Him for his grace in allowing it and giving us such a wonderful time at home.  

Thoughts on the new year to come....

A Must Read

I encourage everyone to go to my friend Danice's blog and read the story of her son Cole.  He was born with profound hearing loss and heard for the first time last week!  Praise God!  He received cochlear implants in early December and they were activated on friday so he could hear!  Amazing. 

http://theburdettjourney.blogspot.com