Fall

This is one big reason why we moved here. It's so beautiful!

Milestone?

Today, I looked over at Rinn and she was rummaging through her toy bin looking for what she wanted to play with. I did a double-take. She's doing WHAT? Yeah, I don't know if it's a milestone or when that should occur, but it's pretty dang cool!

8 Months!

Rinn is 8 months old! She has sure changed from the little baby that I gave birth to. She has grown so much and can do so much now. No longer does she lay there and cry; now she crawls after me from room to room and cries. :) She can feed herself banana, rice cake, and rice chex. She waves hi to people even if she is at first afraid or shy (she buries her head into my shoulder than coyly gives a smile and then waves. It’s very cute!). She can crawl, going from sitting to crawling and then back to sitting, pull herself up on things that are low, catch herself when she begins to tip or fall (most of the time), and she can maneuver quickly. She is a smart, happy, energetic little girl. How capable she is now makes it seem like she isn’t a baby but a little girl sometimes.

She loves to play with musical type things: she loves to hit the oat can, she loves to shake her shaker egg (thanks for the idea Christina!), and she loves to shake her rattle. These are probably more things that children developmentally do at this age, but it’s fun to think that she just might be musically gifted! :)

Yay for another month! Keep growing kido!

Happy 50th!!

Happy 50th B.S.!!! We miss you and our thoughts are with you today. We hope that you all had fun and that it went great!

Someone let me know how it went, ok?
Missing you all!!

Cool things that have happened to us - a list

• Met the Bishop and his wife.
  
• Spent 2 days over at their house for a significant amount of time having fun hanging out by ourselves and with them.
• Found temporary housing by way of staying in the house that the Bishop is trying to sell - with the only condition being that we have it ready to show potential buyers when they might want to see it.
• Played and picniced in our new/temporary backyard!
• Drove along the river with the beautiful fall colors!!!
• Drove through the country with the beautiful fall colors.
• Drove through the city with the beautiful fall colors.
  
• Looked out our front window at the beautiful fall colors. :) hehe.
• After being pulled over for speeding, got off with a written warning and had a pleasant (truly, no jest) with a state trooper. They are serious about their Speed Limit here. Very serious. Nothing like CA.
• Discovered a resturant that we love! Old Chicago is awesome - pizza, pasta, and and excellent beer selection - what is not to love!
• Explored the Diocesan House (their office) and discovered their "Resource Center."

There is much more that I cannot put here. Feel free to call and ask me! :) We are having a lot of fun. Now if George could just get a job...


We miss you all so much. Especially on Sundays when we are not worshiping at B.S. Let us know how you are doing!

In case you were wondering...

...our stuff made it here and it is all in excellent condition! It took us 2 full days to unload it into a storage unit. We did it and everything looked like it made it with only a little wear. It made it into storage without it or us getting hurt. We are very blessed for those who helped us pack it into the truck! Thanks again!

What do you do...

...when the Bishop tells you to feel free to explore his house as he walks out the door? You run around crazy and do a little happy dance that you are in the Bishop's house!!

After looking at all the normal stuff (bathroom, livingroom - hardly normal with the Bishop's staffs in the umbrella stand and precious crosses in the glass cabinet - office, kitchen) you head downstairs to the basement. Yeah, they have basements here. Very weird for the CA girl.

Anyways, you're in the basement and what do you see?
If you know Bishop A. at all then it won't be a hard guess - baseball. Absolutely everything baseball. Cards, jerseys, wheaties boxes, models, memorabilia up the wazoo.

After that shock, you should be prepared for what comes next. You go to a door expecting a bathroom and what do you find? It was kind of like a game, what is behind door #1?
Well, not a bathroom - a full blown chapel. Complete enough to hold mass...in his basement. Shock and awe do not cover the feelings we had when we were expecting a toilet and a sink. We did not see a shower, but the altar with the cross. After that there was nothing else to do, but to sink to our knees and pray. It was an experience that I will never forget. It was a time when you knew that God was there. Words cannot fully express it.

We remember as we left the chapel that he had mentioned that we could use the chapel downstairs as he walked out the door, but after being shocked by all the baseball memorabilia that memory was knocked out of our heads. We just laughed at the thought that this was happening to us. We never would have expected it. We thought that maybe we would have a meeting with the Bishop in his office quickly one day, but never that we would be in his house, in his chapel. How crazy! So unexpected! So awesome!!! Yay!!!

P.S. In case you were wondering, behind door #2 was the bathroom. :)

We're Here!!!

We made it! Whew, what a trip. We are exhausted and excited and anxious. A lot has happened since we have arrived and it won't be easily blogged in a quick post! We have been to 3 different churches so far.

We arrived on a Saturday night and the next morning we went to the Cathedral for Rite 1, 8:00AM. Everyone was very nice and quite shocked that we just arrived from CA the night before AND came to mass! We met a lot of nice people: the Dean and his wife, the assisting priest and his wife, and many more people! The Cathedral's architecture is a little to modern for our taste, especially considering that Lutheran church down the street is a gorgeous "classic" looking old church. There are many churches here of every denomination, though I haven't seen a Mormon one yet, and all have beautiful, classic, buildings. Then there is the Cathedral. I have to admit that it made me a bit sad.

Then, on invitation of the Bishop, we went an hour north of here to see Father Shawn be installed as vicar of a parish. It was a beautiful, quaint church which we later discovered has about 20 members! This was our first chance to meet Bishop A. and it was so good to finally get that chance. He had just arrived back from England and was sick. We also met his wife, Jo. It was a quick visit since he was ill and needed to get home to rest.

The next morning, Sunday, we went to a church just north of P. It felt as though I was in a Calvary Chapel in L.A. because the service was in an commercial building. This did not hinder the people from fellowshipping together! The Bishop spoke (no, we are not stalking him, it was another invite!) and it was a fun time. Very different from both of the times before.

We are not quite sure if any of these are the right place for us yet, but it has been lots of fun to discover the variety that the church has to offer! Talking to Jo, we discovered several other churches that we want to visit. One has only 2 members (4 regular attendees) and is in a historic church!! Sounds fun to try out to me!

Day 7 - Council Bluffs, IA to Our New Home

We really enjoyed driving through Iowa. It was beautiful like Nebraska, but with a greater number of trees and hills which if any of you know us, that is exactly what we like!

We made it to a Super Target in Des Moines - Super as in full grocery store plus regular Target. We were able to get some food and some Starbucks, which is surprisingly rare. It was a much needed break.


The clouds over the green hills and trees kept us excited about the beauty of our surroundings and looking forward to seeing where we would end up!

We headed over the big river and had dinner. We were so close that we pushed through and made it to our destination late at night. We just couldn't stop since we were so close!! Finally, we made it!!

Day 6 - North Platte, NE to Council Bluffs, IA

After much debate about staying in North Platte for another night, we headed off to see how far we could go. The weather was gorgeous. The big storm from the night before had past us and everything was clean, slightly damp, and beautiful.

The first break we found a Wendy's where lots of older people were having breakfast. Several times during our trip the first break coincides with the town's elderly getting together and yaking it up over coffee. It is fun to see them interact and to think of my own grandparents.

Our next stop happened to have free wifi (yay!) and an air show. We had a lot of fun watching the Blue Angels fly right past the windows of the restaurant! You could hear them coming before they zoomed right by. I kept exclaiming, "Oh look at that plane! Oh wow!" Then I realized that Rinn was doing practically the same things...about the semi-trucks that were driving by. :) She got into the planes after a while, though they frightened her. I didn't realize how much it had effected her until the Angels had finished. We were getting in the car when some birds flew over and she cringed and ducked. I felt so bad that she was afraid of the birds because she thought they were airplanes!





The rest of the drive was beautiful and pleasant. We got farther than we were originally thinking of going which was nice. The last pic is of a truck from the same company that we used. We recommend them. It was fun to count the number that passed us on the road.

Bragging

I'm blogging from the Bishop's house.
Neener neener.

More later, hopefully.