Exeter and Three Rivers

Today was an amazing day. We took a fun day trip about 45 minutes from our home... and the above picture is what we saw! This is Lake Kaweah, located in Three Rivers, CA, just north-east of Porterville. It is so beautiful, breathtaking really. This picture was taken from the road while we were driving. We're planning on camping near this river around Labor Day if possible. This town is known as the Gateway to the Sequoias because it is only 7 miles from the gate of the Sequoia National Park. The town is adorable, and what we loved best about is was the people. There's a real love for the area by the people living there, and that is so special to see, and to be a part of. First, we drove through a little town called Exeter in order to get to Three Rivers. We happen to have extended family in that town, so it was great to see it! Then we went sightseeing at a placed called Slick Rock - another place where people can swim in the rushing waters of the river itself. It looked so refreshing, but we didn't have our bathing suits with us - and it was also in the bright 104 degree sunshine! Our air-conditioned car was much more comfortable! We first went to lunch at the Pizza Factory, one of maybe 5 restaurants in town. The pizza was delicious, and the people making it were around our age and told us they were born and raised in the area, and loved it. We could see why - they're surrounded by nature and tons to do! Then, we went to Reimer's Candy and Gift Shop, recommended by all of the tourist brochures we have. They have so much candy and fudge inside, and some unique gifts as well. Jeremiah tasted a lemon creme chocolate, and I caught a picture of his first bite (below) as he pondered whether or not he like it... turns out he LOVED it! Guess we'll be back for more! Then we went to their homemade ice cream shop, and we shared a cookies and creme ice cream cone made out of oreo cookies - so the icecream was more chocolaty than vanilla...my favorite! We wound up talking to a couple who live near Porterville, and they told us all about the Sequoia Park and Kings Canyon - so we're getting really excited to go see it on Saturday when Jeremiah's mom and sister come to visit! We then went to the Three Rivers Chambers of Commerce/Museum where we learned a lot of history about the area (a project for my upcoming students is brewing...there is so much history around us!) and we had some more wonderful conversations with the locals. This museum was different than most because we were allowed to touch everything (rather than it all being behind glass). The most interesting part was what we learned about Paul Bunyon (that tall tale/folktale character we all learned about in Elementary school)...turns out that he spent much of his time in Three Rivers, and he even opened up his own restaurant in Porterville! (it's still here) . There's a HUGE statue of him outside the museum that Jeremiah snatched some great pictures of, and it was all carved from a fallen Sequoia tree. That statue was in Three Rivers for years, then moved to Porterville, and has now been placed back in Three Rivers to stay. We thought that was really interesting for sure! Lastly, we drove to the oldest and smallest post-office in the country - still open! (showcased below). It's so small that only one person beside the postmistress behind the counter can fit inside! We thought that was pretty amazing too. It was left behind from a time when a Utopian community was attempted in the area (only lasted 2 years, but the post-office remained). Below this picture, enjoy the collage of other pics we took from today. (Remember to click on it to make it larger!)

Lastly, we ended today by going swimming at 10:00 PM! It was soooooooooooo hot inside our apartment (it still is...but my hair is still wet from the water which feels good with the fans blowing on it). I'd never gone swimming at night before, and it was so refreshing and peaceful. We do wonder if we have any neighbors however...we hardly see any... It's kinda strange....

Well, enjoy the pictures!

Melissa's Parents Come To Porterville

On Saturday morning, my parents came to visit Porterville, and miraculously, the weather was below 100 degrees! We had a wonderful time together...for the first few hours that is. I became super sick from something I ate at a farmer's market the night before, and my mother came to my rescue and played doctor during her stay. Meanwhile, my father and Jeremiah played medicine finders and shopped through Porterville's stores to find me all the medications and other items I needed to get better! Good news is that I had a quick recovery, bad news...my parents had already gone back to Cypress by that point! But, these two pictures capture the fun times we did share together. We toured them around town, and we ate some amazing homemade orange ice cream together (the above picture). We wound up going to the Tulare Outlets, and while mom and I enjoyed walking around, my father and Jeremiah decided there wasn't enough "manly" stuff to look at... it was all just clothes... Again, my mother and I were having lots of fun!

Below, we all shared some more fun times as mom and I struggled to get the sun visor on our windshield. 10 minutes later...it was done...

Exploring Porterville

Today we drove around the remaining parts of Porterville that we had not yet discovered. We found the town library, we found the oldest community theatre in California (Barn Theatre), and we walked around the oldest and largest park in Porterville (Murry Park). It was a lovely day, despite the 107 degree temperature, and to top it off, we went to a cute little shop in Strathmore (population just over 2000) that makes their own ice cream. They are especially noted for their Orange ice cream, and we realized that the reasoning behind this is because they are located just across the street from the Sunkist Orchards! It was especially refreshing, and a yummy, satisfying treat to share.

The best part of the day happened just past 9:30PM. Jeremiah and I decided we wanted to bake something for the wonderful maintenance man in our apartment complex that has helped us with so much since we moved in. I asked him if he liked chocolate, and he told me he did.... so, we purchased a chocolate chip cookie package today, and set off to bake it tonight. However....we bought it at around 3:30pm, and we completely forgot to take it out of car until this evening. But, everything looked normal, at first...

The following is what I learned today about cooking:

Cooking Lesson #1
Chocolate chips melt (even if at first appearance they look whole and unmelted, if left in 107 degree temperature, they will turn to mush as soon as touched)

Cooking Lesson #2
When stirred together with egg and butter, melted chocolate chips will turn the entire batter into dark brown mix (picture brownies)

Cooking Lesson #3
It is very difficult to tell when the cookie edges have reached their 'golden brown coloring' as the box describes when the cookie mix is already dark brown.... (so sadly the cookies on the bottom rack burned within 5 minutes)

Cooking Lesson #4
Always bake only one batch at a time if the cookie trays can't all fit on one shelf (at least in our electric oven)

But, all in all, most of our chocolate cookies (notice, I left out the word 'chips') came out well (we tasted one) and maybe the man will never find out that they were supposed to be pretty golden cookies with chocolate chips in them.... unless of course he reads our blog.... Well, at least he says he likes chocolate....

The End for today.... unfortunately we have no pictures to upload because our brand new camera is somehow busted...so we are going back to Costco to exchange it for a new one tomorrow... ??? maybe it's not good to keep it in a home that stays at about 95 degrees or over inside all day long??? who knows.....

Pool Party 2009

This past weekend, Jeremiah and I went down to Southern California and had a pool party at our cousins' home, Alden, Malynda, Melissa, and Daisy (the new member of the family!) We had so much fun playing Badmitton in their pool, and we're already looking forward to getting together again next summer to continue this now two year old tradition! We also enjoyed our drive in Alden's 1929 Ford.

Make sure to click the above collage to see all the pictures much larger.

Click on the following to see a fun video from the day:

It's HOT Outside!

We found a great and cost effective way to stay cool in Porterville...

And the ice cream is a must as well...

Another wonderful day together

Today we woke up and it was 109 degrees outside, so Jeremiah decided we must get out of the house and enjoy air conditioning that wouldn't cost us money! So, we saw the new Harry Potter film, and it was magnificent! I recommend it to all Harry Potter fans out there! This one was the best yet (and longest - it covered just about the entire book). We watched it with the rest of Porterville.

Earlier today, we visited my school and enjoyed walking around the campus. One of the maintenance men there allowed me to enter one of the classrooms, and it just happened to be a summer school History classroom! I really loved it - it's CLEAN, and the textbooks still look NEW! Amazing. I am getting excited, though a bit nervous to start this teaching job. Jeremiah's a step ahead of me in the planning process, but the greatest part is that I get to steal all of his ideas since he has more experience than I do!

Tomorrow we have no set plan on the agenda, and as usual, we look forward to seeing what God's got planned!

Food and other Fun

I had to display this picture of my beautiful husband and all of our friends in Porterville thus far... From left to right: Billy the Wells Fargo pony, Hope the always praying bear, Snuggles the favorite of Jeremiah, and Tika the dolphin from Aquatica Florida (on top of his head)

Also... many people have asked me if Jeremiah is starving now that we're living completely on our own and not spending the weeks at my mom and dad's home. The answer is - look at the pictures! (We have a special little button on our camera that is actually meant to take pictures of food, so I couldn't resist taking some...)


We've been eating quite well in Porterville, and I've been trying all sorts of recipes and marinades. From top to bottom: Fillet of Sole and Pan Fried Asparagus (thanks to Bethany's wonderful recipe) with salad, and today's main dish - salmon in soy sauce and brown sugar marinade with five cheese macaroni!

Jeremiah says he is quite pleased...and we LOVE our George Forman grill...and Costco!

Just had to show-off my new-found talent :) (Ok, so what if I completely burned the top of the steak I cooked before any of the inside cooked at all the first time around? - I'm definitely a work-in-progress!)

And besides the food, we've been enjoying our time here so much. Today we woke up bright and early before the heat set in (it gets to be about 107 degrees here!), and we took a wonderful bike ride for an hour. It's amazing, we can ride our bikes in the streets here, and cars don't even THINK about running you over (you Southern Californians know what I mean - what are so many people's main reactions when they see a biker in the street???) Actually, there are hardly any cars that drive around town, even during rush-hour time of 8:00-9:00. We were thinking about those of you stuck on the 91 or 605 in traffic today while the 5 cars that passed us were going about 45 mph around us...

We also signed our contracts with the school district today, so we are officially teachers! YEA! (we were getting a little frightened that they might say nevermind...) And then, to cool off, at 5:00, we went swimming in the very refreshing neighborhood swimming pool. It felt soooooooooooooo good! We got to talk with some of the younger kids in our neighborhood who were using the pool as well, and some of them were so excited that Jeremiah might be their teacher in a few years since they will be going to his school... It was so cute!

TV!

Ok, so I'm not a big television watcher, but sometimes, I definitely like to relax and stare at the tv while eating ice cream at night, even if I'm not really watching anything in particular. Jeremiah, on the other hand, enjoys watching a couple of shows. So, in La Habra, we bought one of those tv converter boxes, and we were able to watch lots of different channels for free! It was wonderful! And the picture was so clear.

Porterville is another story, however.... only 3 channels showed up, and they were so blurry that I didn't even enjoy staring at the snowy television screen while eating ice cream. Something had to be done...


So we got the Dish system, and I thought we should show you all how beautiful it looks on our patio...especially since we haven't invested in any other furniture out there yet!


And also, now you get to see what our back yard looks like, we back up to the freeway - no, it's not the 605... it's the 65 (just 2 numbers, because there are only 2 lanes, and only 2 cars every half hour or so...)

Other than that, it's really private. We love it!

Route 190

Today, Jeremiah and I took a trip up the mountain and into the Great Sequoia National Monument (different from the park). One road, Route 190, takes you on an amazing day-trip ride. We stopped at the halfway point (Camp Nelson), toured around a bit, and then came back down the mountain. The road is really twisty, and it gets a little scary when someone is coming down while you're going up (there are no guardrails, as Jeremiah put it: "You feel like you're flying" because you're so close to the edge of the mountain.... but God took care of us!) We found some beautiful sites, our most favorite being a natural spring water lake - which we can't wait to go swimming in next week! Enjoy the pictures above (click on it to make it much larger) or just click on the following link, and it will take you to all of them:

Route 190 (July 11, 2009) Pictures

Lake Success

Yesterday, Jeremiah and I took a ride to Lake Success, about 15 minutes away from our home in Porterville. We got to go swimming, and no one else was around for awhile! You can clic the above picture to see a blow-up picture of our Lake Success Pictures, or you can click the following link to see our pictures:

Lake Success Pictures

Our new home!

It's so hard to take pictures of rooms, but we did our best to capture some of the inside of our home. The next few pictures show our kitchen, part of our living room, part of our office, and part of our master bedroom (not all the frames are up in there yet). It is a very cozy and spacious home, and we are loving it! Notice that Jeremiah's reading chair is now in the master bedroom - it's working out perfectly, as he loves to read and fall asleep in it. It's easier for him to get to the bed from there when I wake him up then it is for him to go from the living room (it's old residence) upstairs to the bedroom!

Our new home!

Here is our new home! It is a two-story apartment with 3 bedrooms and 2.5 bathrooms. It is really lovely, and we have loved making it our own!




















This is the view from our front door - straight ahead is the pool (seen in the far-back of the picture). It is so peaceful here and quiet. (and very hot - the temperature was 107 degrees the other day!)














This is another view of the apartment community - straight ahead is the fitness center, so we can stay in shape!
















And for those people who said that we are living in the middle of nowhere, that's a lie! We found the Costco....

Moving Day

These pictures capture a bit of what moving day was like! It was so strange to pack up our whole home again - we had just starting moving things in during late September! It hasn't even been a year! But, we found wonderful tenants to rent our gorgeous La Habra home, so once again God has been incredibly faithful!






























The moving company was SO fast. Our stuff took up their entire truck! They took really good care of all of our stuff - nothing came broken...though we are wondering what happened to one of the floor-length mirrors - we saw them pack it, but it has gone mysteriously missing...







Now the home looks just the way we found it when we first saw it. How strange. We first saw it in July last year. But all of that furniture has now been happily transferred to our new beautiful home in Porterville... keep reading!

Going Away Party

On July 5, the day before we moved to Porterville, Jeremiah's mother and Grandmother hosted a going-away-party for us! We had so much fun, and we feel so blessed to be loved so much by all of our family members!

4th of July

We all spent 4th of July at Melissa's parents' home, and Jeremiah's mom came over too. After a delicious barbecue, we sat outside and played Yahtzee. Jeremiah's mom won BIG time!



















Jeremiah and his mom are concentrating very hard on the game....













Even Kami came out to join us. And he's even smiling for the picture! (well, he's looking at the camera...)















And to make the evening perfect, our lizard came back!!! This brings us back to how Melissa and Jeremiah met...a lizard was in the garage of Melissa's parent's home, and Melissa's mom frantically called Jeremiah over to help... and the rest is history...go to this website for more details: http://registry.weddingchannel.com/wedding_websites/PersonalWebsite.action?view=wp&occ=573099405&st=wc

Angels Game

Jeremiah's mom got four free tickets to the Angels Game from one of her vendors. The game, held on July 3, 2009, had the Angels playing against the Baltimore Orioles. Well, Melissa had always wanted to take her parents to an Angels game, and especially to a game where they could watch their true home team play! So, Jeremiah's mom surprised us and gave up her seat and Charlene's seat to Melissa's mom and dad, and everyone was really excited! Melissa's mom and dad got completely into the spirit of things - they're even
wearing a "first Angel's game" sticker!

These were the amazing seats that we had - we were able to see EVERYTHING really close.











Turns out the Orioles won that night! Now, we were afraid that Melissa's mother was going to anger the drunken men surrounding us because everytime the Orioles scored a point, she cheered while they seemed ready for murder. :) Jeremiah took this picture during the fourth inning to show just how well the Orioles did that evening compared to the Angels... yes, the Angels did eventually get on the board, but not for a long time! Go Orioles! (Even Vladimir Guerrero seems upset here at the Angels loss that evening...)


And for the final touch to an already wonderful evening, we got to watch Friday Night fireworks at the Angel's Stadium. The fireworks were so good that we decided not to watch them the following night.

This was a perfect way to spend part of our last weekend in Southern California!