We sold our house!!!

Hooray!!! We are so excited! It is a huge burden off of our shoulders to not have to pay a mortgage anymore! We sold it to what sounds like a great young couple! Here are a few pics of what we did:

KITCHEN BEFORE...






KITCHEN AFTER.....





THE LIVING ROOM BEFORE...




THE LIVING ROOM AFTER...





THE MASTER BED & BATH BEFORE...






THE MASTER BED & BATH AFTER...





AND NOW THE REST OF THE HOUSE...

GUEST BEDROOM


GUEST BATHROOM


JOHNS OFFICE


BACKYARD



I guess I am a tiny bit sad, John and I put so much hard work into it, but we KNOW we are now where we are supposed to be! We'll have another house one day :) For now we have great memories of our first one!

And we're home....oh wait, but off again!

Well, we just got home from our staff retreat in palm desert and it was awesome! It was so great to not only get to know the JH staff better, but the HS and College as well! Such great people! Here are a few highlights!

-John winning in poker and therefore we could afford to eat breakfast at the hotel, it was delicious!
-Sadie and I realizing we have a lot in common! So fun!
-Shopping at HomeGoods with Alicia, Amanda, Sadie, and Briley (Alicia and Phil's 6 mo. old) and Brylie taking to poop of her life! It went everywhere. Who new so much stuff could come out of something so small!?
-Getting lost on the way back from bowling! And searching for a RiteAid only to be disappointed by the selection of ice cream!
-Riddles where the answer is Dry Ice!
-laying by the pool all day!
-Morning devotional with the Staff
-PF Changs, ummm, delicious dinner and great conversation
-the night at the ghetto ice rink, where many spills were taken
-getting to see Katie Shannon!
-Late night oodles!

All in all, it was a great time and now we are off to Palm Springs for our Volunteer Staff Retreat. I know you are thinking, when does this girls work? I will be in the office today! We will officially be home monday and then I think a normal routine will set in!

And we're off again...

Well, John and I are off again, we head out in the morning with the student ministries team to Palm Desert for a staff retreat! We are so excited, 3 days of hanging out, relaxing, and getting to know really great people! We will return on wednesday afternoon! John starts work this week at CVCS and he is so excited! I can't wait to go visit him and see him in his new element. Seriously, God is blessing us so much!!!

We did get an offer on our house, we are just now waiting to see if it will go through! Our hope is to be in our new place by the end of september or 1st week of October, so be looking for an invite to a house warming party!!

I am pretty sure I will have internet in Palm Desert so I will hopefully let you know how much I am enjoying it!

Just got back from Summer Camp!

So John and I just arrived back in Mission Viejo from summer camp with Mariners Junior high! Umm and I have to be honest probably the best camp experience as an adult in my whole life! It was a houseboat trip to lake shasta in Nor Cal. Here are some highlights:

-taking 52 students and seeing them all connect in a very cool way with each other and Jesus
-going tubing with the sweetest little 6th graders and getting wrecked
-being able to just hang out with students and not worry about anything else
-watching our students do crazy jumps off the top of the houseboats
-a student in our group named Connor, seriously hilarious!
-the hike to the waterfall, students slipping into different pools along the way
-Marshall Quakenbush being the first to throw himself into the mud
-the students got to go wakeboarding, kneeboarding, or tubing everyday!
-getting to know a very cool group of paid staff and volunteer staff
-watching John connect with so many students and volunteers
-ummm, laying in the sun all day!!!
-late night dutch blitz and speed uno
-taking 50 Junior Highers to Denny's at 430 in the morning because our bus driver was a speed racer!
-I can't believe this is my job!!

And of course I have no picutres because of a lame camera, but when I get them from others I'll put some up!

High School Musical 2 Review

Well, last night after John's softball game we headed over to the Johnston house to watch High School Musical 2 with some friends! It was so fun! The movie ended up being very entertaining to watch!

Highlights:
-baseball dance routine
-Troy's solo in all black
-the final kiss!!
-hearing Katie Edwards chuckle on awkward scenes
-and Abby asking Rachel, "I don't understand why everyone is laughing?"

All in all I think the first one was better

1st day on the new job....

And it was fabulous! It's crazy doing a job that you know so well! I felt super comfortable with the staff and what my role will be on the team! I got my desk mostly set up, but there are a few more things to add. I share an office with Sadie and she is great! Ok well, I am going to tell you a little about the team...

Brian is in charge of our weekend program, any and everything weekend. He's great and a fellow Biola grad. Married with 2 cute boys!

Schu is our part-time worship guy. I only met hime briefly, but I'm sure he is great!

Cody is the coordinator of our midweek on wednesdays. At first I was confused because usually small groups meet mid-week, but wednesday night is more of a reach event. Casual, fun, hang out, with some lessons and worship, but it is more for the non-mariners students we are trying to reach! I love this idea. Cody is also a Biola grad!

Sadie is my office mate as I mentioned earlier and she does a ton. She plans all events, as well as, leads the student leaders. I mentioned in a previous post that we are leaving for a houseboat trip on saturday, she planned it all. But I think a very cool part of her job is that she organizes an afterschool program. Where students in the area can come hang out with our staff and volunteers afterschool and play games, eat dinner with us, and just have a place to go! I love it!

Phil is the Junior High pastor and leads all of us as well as doing the volunteer recruiting, training, and care, he is awesome! Seriously, I am moving from one great boss to the next! He is married to Alicia (she is so fun) and has 2 beautiful little girls!

So that's the team and I am very excited!

We made it!!!

We are officially back in Cali!! We rolled in about 1230pm on Monday! It was a very long drive, but we had so much fun! I am going to try to track down my camera cord so that I can share stories with pictures. But I will say that a highlight was when we were in Vegas and went to the MGM and saw Lions, yeah! We were within an inch of them!

Our days back in cali have been great, first we went to the Johnston to see the fam and hang out, it was so nice to be with familiar faces and people we love. After that we headed over to get John a much needed haircut! Then we met my fam for dinner at Wild Fish in Newport Beach for my parents 30th wedding anniversary celebration!! Tuesday morning we woke up and met Allison for breakfast, headed over to Saddleback to see some great people, went to the mall to get John some clothes for work, where we ran into Natalie and Kai, and then had some down time before heading to Mariners.

Last night John and I went to Mariners for the final junior high mid-week and had so much fun! One difference I am not use to is they have 6th,7th,&8th graders. The 6th graders are so small and so cute! John and I both met a lot of kids and really just had a great time! Today is my first day in the office and I couldn't be more excited to start! We head out saturday night for our JH Houseboat trip, hanging out with students, playing in the water, and getting a great tan, what more could you ask for!!!!

Ok, so I am officially back blogging...sorry for the delay!

We're going going, back back, to cali cali!!!

Well, John and I will begin our adventure in the morning. We will be heading for the grand canyon tomorrow, then up to hoover damn, next vegas for a quick visit with my sister, then we should arrive in the OC monday afternoon!

We had a great last few days with John's family! Yesterday John and his brother went to Tulsa to see the PGA tour and I got to spend all day with my sister-in-law and my sweet little neice. We swam most of the day, then went to get pedicures. It was so much fun, I did have to break the news that we were moving to my neice and she was a little upset, but was excited once I told her that when she comes to visit we would go to disneyland, sea world, and the san diego zoo!

We are excited to come to california, but are sad to leave our first home!

I'm heading to california

Well, I leave in the morning for California for a weekend of fun-filled wedding events!! Jordyn is getting married!! I am so excited for her big day! I am very sad to leave my husband, but I will be back in oklahoma before you know it, then back in california before you know it! Crazy!!! Anwyay, aside from wedding festivities, I will be hitting the beach, meeting the staff and students at Mariners(YEAH!), hanging out with the fam, and hopefully get to see a few friends!

Give me a call if you're doing nothing!