LB Marathon

Jeremiah and I traveled down to Long Beach last weekend so that Jeremiah and his friend Josh could run in the Long Beach Marathon. They chose to run the 10K, but next year Jeremiah says he'd like to bike the actual marathon. They both did really well in the run, but Jer said it wasn't quite fair that they had to pass a Cold Stone Creamery (and weren't supposed to stop...) Both runners did quite well in the race, though it's definitely hard to compete with 20,000 othe people...

The best part of the weekend for me was getting together with Josh and his wife Carin, as well as their son, Nolan and their newborn daughter, Hannah.

Labor Day Weekend

We had two couples come visit us this holiday weekend (neither couple had met before). Our friends Melissa and Johnny were in from Hawaii (sadly going back tomorrow!) and we had not seen them since last September!!! And James and Kari decided to come up from Orange County! We had such a nice weekend of eating, talking, hiking in Camp Nelson, and eating some more! It was so wonderful to see everyone again!

Definitely ready for a good hike!

It's always fun to see a rattlesnake...

James was brave and drank out of the soda springs fountain in Camp Nelson... Not exactly his favorite...

Sacramento & Lake Tahoe Vacation

Jeremiah and I joined his mother, her fiance, his sister Charlene, and a couple of our really good friends in Lake Tahoe during this past 4th of July weekend. On the way up (the ride is about 6 hours), we stopped in Sacramento and toured around the state capital and Old Town Sacramento for about 4 hours. It was LOTS of fun, and a very good learning experience for me as I'd never been there before. I'm excited to show the pictures to my students this coming year.

Lake Tahoe was beautiful. We stayed in Jeremiah's cousin's "cabin" - more like a mansion :) It was really nice! The cabin is located in the Donnor Pass area, so again I am looking forward to sharing our photos with my 8th graders this year because I teach about the tragedy that happened there.

We toured around the Donnor Pass museum, we ate a picnic lunch at a nearby park, we went on a canoe ride, we ate some delicious food, and we even got to cross the border into Reno, Nevada...There we slept through a wonderfully relaxing show about the planets in the Reno Planetarium. :) Best $6 we ever spent! (Almost all of us in our party fell asleep...they make those seats so comfortable!!!)

On July 4th, we traveled down to Tahoe City and enjoyed a very nice fireworks show on Commons Beach. I carried around a lit citronella candle and everyone laughed at me until the next morning when they looked at their mosquito-bitten legs :) By the way, Jeremiah and Aaron looking so handsome in their matching July 4th shirts :)

It was a fantastic mini vacation - we stayed from Saturday until Tuesday.

Grace's Birthday

Last Friday, Jeremiah and I finally got to go swimming (it's only been 106 degrees outside) at our friend Grace's Birthday party. Here she is with her son Evan at her mom and dad's house. They are moving in a few days, so it was fun to enjoy the pool on one of their last days in their house.

Birthday!

I just had to share this picture of a gift my friend Grace gave me for my birthday. She made these flower cookies herself, and they taste AMAZING! She needs to open up her own bakery. Porterville could definitely use one!

San Luis Obisbo Spring Break Vacation!

This past week was our Spring break, so we took a journey away from Porterville and our home and enjoyed spending time with our friends Rebekah and Aaron on the central CA coast!

We stayed at the most adorable bed & breakfast ever - European style! It was located in the heart of downtown SLO, so we were able to easily walk to all of the cute shops that the town has to offer. The food and wine was delicious, and the rooms were quaint and bright. The only negative part was the ceiling fan in our room...it made so much noise when turned on that we couldn't sleep...and since there was no air conditioning, we found the 'bed' part of the hotel a little frustrating!

We visited Hearst Castle, and although we'd been before, we took a different tour this time - the garden & wine cellar. We loved it, and Rebekah and I were quite entertained at how well our cameras could take pictures of all the pretty flowers...see below! :)

Perhaps one of our favorite parts of the trip was going to a yummy seafood restaurant in Pismo Beach - about 10 minutes from the hotel. We literally had a bucket of seafood tossed on our table (we could choose 3 different types - we had wild shrimp, lobster and crab), and we were able to eat like animals :) Another favorite part of the trip for me and Rebekah was watching our two husbands eat a chocolate covered worm... ewwwwwww!

It's been a wonderful break, and now we're excited to finish this school year! (We can hardly believe it - 6 weeks left...)

5 weeks later.... Summer!

So, it has been about 5 weeks since we've last posted, and a lot has been going on! I've been teaching summer school and am getting ready for my very last week (hooray!) I've been teaching students entering 11th grade who are taking my 6 week US History class in hopes that they will pass it and not have to take the class this year. While the class has been fun and rewarding for me, I definitely must say that I am thrilled to teach middle school students throughout the school year. High school students, while a bit more independent, have a lower energy level than middle school students (which most normal people love) but my energy level matches middle school students much more! Jeremiah has been working hard on his master's classes. He is attending California State University Bakersfield and continuing his Masters in Education: Curriculum and Instruction. He should be finished by next June!!! In his spare time, he has also been the best husband in the entire world! He's cleaned the whole house each week while I've worked, he's done the laundry, he's taken care of and trained our puppies, he packs my lunches, and so much more! And on top of all of that, he picks me up each and every day at 2:45 on the dot showing me all the love that a wife could ever ask for!

So, what are all these pictures...well, we couldn't leave out Sandy and Clara, could we? During the course of these 5 weeks, Clara finally got her first haircut (as pictured) and we love the short hair so much better. We tend to agree that she likes it better too, considering that the temperature outside has been over 100 degrees! The funky picture of Sandy with the "cone of shame" around her neck was just too adorable to pass up... she'd undergone major surgery and this 'pillow' protected her from licking her stitches! She wore it for 10 days straight and handled it pretty well too! The picture of me holding the dogs was taken to introduce you (our blog viewers) to our newly found friends, and their dog, Panda! ...

...A couple of weeks ago, Jeremiah and I finally found the dog park in Visalia where we took Sandy. Well, Sandy wasn't the only one to find a close friend that day, so did we! Almost immediately, I started talking with the other girl in the dog park, and found out that her name was also Melissa, and she was married to a man whose name starts with a J like Jeremiah's name (Johnny), and whose last name starts with a P, like our last name! Then I found out that both she and her husband were also teachers, and she taught 7th and 8th grade history this past year (like me!). They've also known one another as long as Jeremiah and I have (just about 6 years now - which is crazy! - and wonderful!) So, we became FAST friends, and the following day we went to church together, hung out all afternoon, had dinner over our home together on Tuesday, and joined them for a long church event night together on Wednesday. We've since gotten closer and closer, and the four of us are all planning to go camping at Big Sur in a couple of weeks. Sadly, however, they are both moving away for a time (due to lay offs in their school district), but because of their friendship, Jeremiah and I have had soooooooooo much fun this past few weeks. staying up way too late, but loving every moment. I've seriously felt like I've been in my freshman year at college again! Sandy and Clara definitely love their dog, Panda, as well. As you can see, they were all cuddled up together on the couch (Panda's arm is on top of Clara and in the other picture, Clara and Panda are cuddled in Panda's crate!)

So what else has been going on? Well, as the next picture shows, we've been making some yummy foods! One of our fun nights involved making this pizza... nothing special, but super delicious! So, even though I've been teaching summer school, we've definitely been enjoying our summer break to its fullest as well!

Next week, we leave for a week-long cruise to the Mexican Riviera, and we both admit that we're looking forward to getting out of this heat and RELAXING!!!

Calvary Chapel Women's Retreat

Last weekend, I had the wonderful opportunity to attend the Calvary Chapel Visalia women's retreat. Jeremiah and I have finally found a church that we love attending, and it's been really nice getting to know the community of people who attend there. The retreat was located at the St. Anthony Retreat Center in Three Rivers, just 5 minutes from the entrance to Sequoia National Park. We enjoyed deep and reflective teaching, great fellowship, and beautiful hiking trails. I had fun with our camera on the hiking trails, and here I've posted some of my favorite pictures. The first collection of pictures shows Sheri and her friend Shea (top left). Sheri was the woman who led worship during the weekend, and it was awesome getting to know her and Shea. The blond woman is Lizzie. She was my roommate during the weekend, and I feel so blessed for her friendship. She and I both had no hiking shoes, and wound up hiking in our work shoes! This was definitely a challenge considering the massive rainfall that occurred earlier in the morning! Both of our shoes got pretty wet and muddy, but Lizzie was fortunate because Sheri happened to have an extra pair of shoes that fit Lizzie! Here she enjoys modeling her new large (yet stylish) shoes...we tried to shoot the last picture like a Sketcher's advertisement...

Well, enjoy the pictures. It was so beautiful there. We were so close to the snow-capped mountains, and we definitely loved being surrounded by God's beauty!

More Sandy

Here are some more pictures of our cute puppy! She makes everyone happy, including our new friend Kindall who lives in our apartment complex.










In the last 2 weeks, Sandy has definitely become a fun part of our lives. Everyday she surprises us with something new... take the picture to the left for example. I was warming up the shower one day and Sandy decided to walk right in! And that's how she had her first bath! She seems to love the water, so she'll be a fun camping traveler with us this summer! We think she looks really funny when she's wet, but apparently she doesn't mind, because she did the same thing the next day!

Our next picture introduces Sandy's new playmate, Ollie. He is Kindall's dog, and the two have become best friends quickly. She spent 5 hours playing with Ollie on Friday, and even when Ollie (a dog with seemingly unlimited energy) became too tired to play anymore, Sandy continued! She pounced on him, grabbed his tail, climbed all over him...! (The picture shows Ollie growing tired and Sandy giving us the "Ha-Ha, he only THINKS we're done playing!" look!) It was hysterical to watch, and we've uploaded some videos to show you some of their dog-play! The following day, Sandy slept for more than half of it! So now we've learned the trick to make our puppy go to sleep!





Sandy enjoyed biting, licking and playing with all of Ollie's toys (one of the pictures shows the two of them playing with the same toy - it's like Lady and the Tramp!) and even his bed! (also shown in a picture).

Other exciting Sandy news...she came to her first soccer game! I took her to the game at my school on Thursday, and about 20 of my 7th and 8th graders surrounded her with lots of love and kisses. It was so sweet! Sandy loved the attention! We love that she is so calm and that she does not bark or bite people.

Other fun activities from the week - Sandy loves to play fetch with her toys! That was really exciting for me to see because it is an easy way for her to use up a lot of energy right now. We can't take her out on walks yet because she does not have all of her vaccinations, so we're thrilled to provide another outlet for her to run. She'll play fetch on our kitchen floor or on our outside patio (she's not allowed on the carpet - and she's already smart enough to realize that!).

We've also noticed that Sandy has grown attached to us. She loves to be with us ALL the time! She will take her toys and bring them over to us and play with them on our feet if we are standing, or right next to us on her couch towel if we are sitting on the couch. She also prefers to take her naps laying right by our sides instead of curling up in a corner. If we're not sitting on the couch with her, she'll look at us, walk over to the part of the couch that she knows is our seat, and continue to look at us until we sit there. Only then will she close her eyes and fall asleep! At night time, she HATES being put in the crate and will whine for at least 10 minutes every night. However, crate training is definitely the best form of training for us. She does not go potty in there, and she does not have a way to chew on anything in our home. She does not wake us up at night either, so mommy and daddy are happy in the morning when we wake her up.

Well, enjoy the videos! The first is Sandy trying to get Ollie's attention, the 2nd is Ollie and Sandy playing together, and the 3rd was taken yesterday when we gave Sandy a new biting toy - and she wasn't quite sure what to do with it! (she didn't realize it went in her mouth right away, but once she figured that part out, she played with that toy for 2 hours straight!)

O.C. Friends

We had another great weekend with our wonderful friends James and Kari. They are both a wonderful couple and loved having them. Well, before they came Jeremiah had to volunteer to work on the Friday night by watching over 200 students at Burton Middle School at a school dance and feeding them food and escorting them to a movie at 10 pm. After the dance, the school decided that the students should stay on the school bus for at least an hour waiting for the movie to start (a great idea, especially since they were on a sugar high). Well, luckily, we only live 5 minutes from the school, so Jeremiah got home around 1:40 a.m.

Now, back to the great time we had with James and Kari. We call it "Tour A" for our first time visitors to Porterville. It includes the highlights of Porterville, which is our two major streets, and everything outside of Porterville like seeing Hanford for the ice cream and going to Visalia, the city. Now, if you have already been here once then get ready for "Tour B" which includes going grocery shopping with us (our highlight of the week!)