Thursday/Friday Fun

Cori @ the Park

Yesterday afternoon I took the kids the the park. There are quite a few parks all around us. This one is a block away. The kids played on the playground and I took pictures.

Joel @ the Park

Joel pounding out the chicken

Last night I was off work and so I asked Nate to make dinner. Nate asked Joel to help him cook. Joel learned how to cut up the green onions, bread the chicken and make the pasta. The dinner was great. We had Chicken Marsele, which is a chicken breaded and topped with a mushroom and green onion sauce severed over a bed of angel hair pasta with an aglio butter. I found out this morning that Nate gave Joel some money since he helped make dinner. Joel was even more excited then.

Teaching Joel to cut onions

This morning I got out of the shower to see that Nate had made breakfast for the family and delivered it to us. Cori's to her bed and mine to the counter in the bathroom. Joel was already up and watching tv.

Screamer chilling on the grass

Nate and the dogs

For lunch we went to Mile Square Park which is about 20 minutes away. This park is a square mile with 36 hole golf course, a couple of playground, a walking track around and in the park, and a couple of lakes. There is also some baseball and soccer fields. We took a picnic lunch, the kids with their bikes, and the dogs. Bella chased some ducks into the lake, she also went into the lake. We walked and played on the playground and let Bella chase a squirrel. Screamer was so tired after all the walking that Nate had to carry him back to the car. Screamer kept laying down on the grass since he was so tired.

When we got home, I took the kids to the pool for a couple of hours. Now Nate and Joel are spending some time together, Cori is spending the night at a friends house and I have the place to myself.

Eating Lunch

Swinging on the swings

2 Months and Counting

We have now been out in California for 2 months and are starting to get into a routing. We both have jobs and have unpacked the entire house. We have been to the beach and the pool many times. Both kids have made a few friends and we done lots of things as a family. We have started going thru our DVD collection and having "movie night". There are a lot of good movies we have that the kids are now getting old enough to watch. We have watched the Xmen series, Twilight series, Terminator series, and Monday night the kids and Nate watched "I am Legend". I got home about 15 min before the movie ended. After the movie was over, both kids came into my bedroom and asked if zombies are real. Nate had told them "yes" and they wanted to know the real answer. Joel started describing the movie to me. His arms are waving and he is jumping up and down, while tell me the movie was "awesome, it has action, drama, romance, scary and everything." Then both kids went to watch "happy" movies in their rooms before going to sleep.

~ Week of Drama, Up's and Down's, and Life just rushing past ~

When I was living in Alabama, everyone always complained about the traffic on 280..... Here is something to be thankful for.... This is a picture of my drive to work on Monday night. The traffic is 5 lanes in each direction and we are all traveling at about 60-65 miles an hour. This is also one of the smaller freeways in the area.

Monday and Tuesday were following shifts at work. I enjoyed them and will be glad to be on the floor by myself on Thursday night. Wednesday afternoon, I went in to take my server test. I thought the test went well but I did not have all the answers that I should have had.

Thursday was my first night on the floor of the restaurant, by myself. I had a great night. I only had 4 tables with $400 in sales.....the tips off the table were AWESOME! I only had a 3 table section and it was a slow night. I can't wait to get more experience and bigger sections.

Friday, Nate and I were both off work so we took the kids to the beach. We videoed the kids riding their wave-boards and building sandcastles. The water was extra cold and the sun very really came out. I sat in my beach chair ready a book. We had a picnic lunch and also saw a school of dolphins about 15 feet off shore. They swam around us for about 20 mins. Then we came back home and Nate made us Chicken Mar-sole for dinner. Right before dinner I got a call from King's Fish House and I have to retake my server test. So after dinner Nate and I drove up to the restaurant to get the test for me to study. I was up till midnight studying.

Today, I got up early to study for my server test. I had to make a 95 or above in order to stay on at King's Fish House. I studied really hard and took the test at 10am this morning. I think I did a good job on the test. The GM talk to me as I was leaving and told me that he would see me on Sunday. He did not think he would even need to grade the test. He also told me that I had done a really good job on my first shift on the floor, which was Thursday night.

As I was studying this morning, Joel yelled to Cori and told her there was something gross of hers in the hall. It was her bra, I asked Joel why he did not want to go pick it up and he told me it was too disgusting.

After getting home from the test, I have helped both kids hook up video games in their rooms. Cori has the Nintendo 64 and Joel has the Playstation 2. Now the house is very quiet as the kids are each playing quietly in their rooms.

Today is my Mother-in-Law's birthday and my sister-in-law's baby shower. They had the shower this morning for new little baby Bryce Dillard and the party tonight for Mom. We wish we could have been there. I am sure there will be pictures and stories from your fun weekend.

Weddings and Marriage

I have been working on my photo's in photoshop today. This requires that I take a look at a bunch of older family photos. I have done two collage's of our family weddings. 

These weddings range from 1998 when Nate and I got married to last May when Nate's youngest sister Carrie got married. That is 11 years and 11 weddings throughout both families.

Nate's side of the family, siblings, and cousins on their wedding day. 

All but one of these weddings we were able to attend. 

My side of the family, siblings weddings. The kids and I were at all of these weddings. Still waiting on the cousins to start getting married. 

I have been thinking about marriage and wedding today. Whether you are in your teen's, twenty's, or thirties when you get married, you are still young and oblivious to the world around you. Then as the years go by you realize how little you knew back then and how much more you will know and understand in the years to come. Getting married is about a commitment to the other person, till death do us part......so many people now have forgotten that part of the vows. They think it is okay to up and leave, cheat on each other, lie to each other, not communicate with each other, be best friends with other people of the opposite sex, and give up way to easily on the marriage and commitment that they made to each other and to God. 

I am so grateful for the love and commitment that Nate and I have to each other, God and our marriage. 

~ Here are the top 5 Things that I think are important 

for a marriage to survive ~ 

1. God, He has to be #1 in your life, then #1 in your marriage. By placing God in the center of your marriage then He will help you stay faithful and true to Him and your marriage. 

2. Communication ~ This is key, by communicating to each other everything and all your feelings then there is less misunderstandings and less fighting. Guys and Girls are not made the same way and thus do not think and communicate in the same way. Don't beat around the bush when you have something to say. Just say it and mean it. If you don't meant it then don't say it. 

3. Honesty ~ Be completely honest and don't lie. By being honest, don't ask your spouse a question you don't want the honest answer to. 

4. Be Flexible  ~ Things are not always all about you, so you have to be flexible. 

5. Spend Time Together ~ I know this sounds like a funny or weird suggestion to all the newlyweds who can't imagine not going to the grocery store and checking the mail without their spouse. But as time go's on and your family grows, it is harder to find time to be together just the two of you. It is great to have time together when life is not pulling you both in 10 different directions. 

Calling all married people....Am I right? Did I list one of your top 5? Or do you think there are others that should be listed? Let me know your thoughts on marriage and the life after. 

Newest Project ~ Photoshop

Since I appear to have nothing to do and a ton of time on my hands...yeah right. I have picked up a new hobby...Photoshoping my pictures and making cool collages. I love to take pictures and so I am taking my love for photo's one step further and adding them to photoshop.

By using Photoshop I can add different pictures together to make a collage....like this one of Cori

Or Make part of the picture in black n white and part in color....like this one from our trip to OKC.

Do a funky background behind us.

This one I made most of the background blank n white and also wrote in the names on the chairs from the Memorial. I like it because then you can read the names on the chairs.

These are just some of the fun things I am learning how to do. There will be more to come and lots more affects to add to the photos.

Best Beach Day Yet!

Today Nate and I were both off work. So we loaded up the towels, ice chest, book (for me), boogie boards for the kids, and sand buckets to go to the beach. The sun finally came out after we were there about 15 mins. We were finally able to enjoy a fun day at the beach in the sun. The kids are learning how to ride the waves on their boogie boards. The water was only about 65 degrees so I did not get in the water. I graciously watched the towels and ice chest and read my book. Nate got out on the boogie boards for a little while and rode a couple of waves and wiped out on a bunch more. The kids also love to play in the sand and dig holes and make casles. Fun was had by all!

A special thanks to people who do not wear age appropriate and weight appropriate clothes to the beach. You were very entertaining to me as I watched you on the beach today.

~ Moments of 1st ~

Over the last couple of months I have experianced a lot of 1st for me. I want to share those 1st with you. I have broken them down into 2 catagories. The 1st that I love and will do again. The 1st that I hate and (hope n plan) never want to do again.

~ 1st that I have Loved (almost) every minute of the experiance ~

• Moving out of the South ..... dont get me wrong I loved living there but I am enjoying the new experiances and the new things that come with moving to a new city where you do not know anyone
• Ran a half-marathon with my family....finished in 3:03. This was an awesome accomplishment that I am very proud of and cant wait to run my next one.
• Last summer I went White Water Rafting with my family in Tenn. We had a great time and I would love to go rafting again.
• Renting my first apartment/condo.
• Seeing the West coast and Pacific ocean....Awesome!
• Eating King Crab Legs....Yummmmmmm
• Setting up my family and friends on Skype.....so we can video chat more often
• Last November Nate took me golfing for the first time....and got me my own set of clubs. (who would of ever thought I would be a casual golfer)
• Learning how to use Photoshop and creating new pictures
• Driving on freeways (which are what the south calls interstates) that have 7 lanes in one direction.....talk about an adreniline rush every time you get on the freeway
• Riding the Ferris Wheel at Santa Monica Pier with Nate
• Wearing a Tie

~ 1st that I hope to not repeat anytime soon ~

• Drive across most of the country in 3 days
• Eating raw oysters
• Eating sushi
• Worked my first door-to-door sales job....Not something I want to repeat....still having nightmares about that job
• Being out of work for 6 weeks.
• Trying a new church every week....I do not like looking for a new church family

I know this is not all the first, I am sure there will be more to come......Life is all about embracing the new and exciting things while learning from each experiance.