Then and now

Anniversary!!!

Well, yesterday was our 1st anniversary! We celebrated by taking a trip to Colorado for 4 days. We left late Wednesday night and went straight to bed, had Thursday-Saturday, and then left Sunday in the evening. Here are some picture highlights!

The Queen Anne Inn Bed & Breakfast

Red Rocks State Park

Gorgeous buildings we saw walking around

Blue Bear sculpture at the Convention Center

Colorado State Capitol

Downtown Aquarium: An Underwater Dining Adventure At the end of our 90 min. bus ride

Hammond's Candy Factory

Butterfly Pavilion

2008 by Seasons...

Winter
-Wedding plans
-trip to Colorado to visit the Allevatos and my new cousin, Naomi
-first time flying on an airplane all by myself, scary but uneventful
-coorindated 3rd Annual Valentine's Day Dinner at church
-Matt and I spent a weekend cooking together for 70 kids at Winter Camp
-got married!!!
-amazing honeymoon in Coronado, CA
-dress shopping with my best friend Carri for her wedding in July

Spring
-Women's Retreat in Aliso Viejo, had a great time fellowshipping with other women, really enjoyed having Mandy come with me. We had great conversations in the car to and from (we got a little lost) as well as at the retreat!
-my 21st birthday & first EVER drink at Applebee's with my and Matt's families
-first trip to Big Bear with the family where we got our own room!
-4-day vacation in Rancho Mirage with the most amazing bed & shower
-took the sky tram up to the top of Mt. San Jacinto

Summer
-Mammoth Camping trip for the first time as a married couple. Had a blast with Matt's brother & nieces staying in a trailer with us (the girl's first time ever camping, they did GREAT)
-Carri & Mark's wedding
-helped coordinate the 1st Annual Art Festival at Granada
-Barbara & Jason's wedding
-for the 3rd year in a row coordinated all food for Burgers & Bands at Granada
-took Lily to practices and performances in the La Habra Depot's production of Willy Wonka Jr. She was an Oompa Loompa telegrammer :)
-co-coordinated a Women's Spa Day for with Amy Olson & my mom
-Dawna & Dave's wedding
-randomly deciding to look on craigslist for cheaper apartments and finding one!
-retaking wedding portraits
-going to see Walking with the Dinosaurs with my parents, Caleb, Matt, Michael, Alia and Danielle at the Staples Center

Winter
-moving into our new apartment in Uptown Whittier
-San Diego trip with my family. We went to Coronado for lunch, SeaWorld and the Wild Animal Park (Matt's first time!)
-The Gathering, a Sunday evening worship service for young adults started at our church and Matt and I got involved serving
-Thanksgiving with the Hamel family
-spent 3 hours painting faces at Snow Day
-Knott's Berry Farm with Tony and my sisters
-coordinated 3rd Annual Youth Ministry Fundraiser
-my sister-in-law Mandy got engaged at Knott's
-Matt's and my first Christmas tree, stockings and Christmas morning together
-enjoyed both the Allevatos & Makins visits (although they weren't long enough!)
-New Year's Eve at the Tucker's playing Trivial Pursuit and watching Rocketman!

The full story of Matt's ER visit...and a little humor :)

I woke up (probably around 2:10-2:15) and realized that Matt wasn't in bed and that our bedroom door was wide open. I vaguely remembered being half asleep and hearing him walking around in the kitchen, assuming he was just getting water, and falling back asleep. Because I was only half awake when he got up I couldn't really judge how long he had been out of bed. I didn't hear him in the kitchen anymore (the floors creak alot) and the bathroom light wasn't on and I couldn't hear any noise from the bathroom. I tried to just fall back asleep telling myself "you're freaking yourself out for nothing" but I couldn't. I thought "maybe he sleep-walked and ended up falling asleep in the living room" but I doubted that. Finally after what felt like forever, I see him walking from the bathroom. I said "....Matt?" thinking he might have been asleep, and then I asked him if he was ok. He rolled into bed holding his right lower abdomen and said that it hurt really bad, but not like his stomach hurt, more like a pain, and that it woke him up. My first thought was "isn't your appendix in that general area?" so I got my computer and googled it. His symptons didn't seem consistent with appendicitis from what I read, but I knew that if it WAS it could be serious and not something to ignore. So I called my mom because I didn't really know where to take him and he was not about to let me call 911.

We left the house around 3:00 and arrive at Whittier Pres. around 3:10. There was no one in the Emergency Room so he got taken in pretty quick. They took 3 vials of blood and wanted a urine sample but Matt had gone to the bathroom right before we left. At one point waiting for the nurse to come with the blood sample supplies he started feeling the pain severely (we're wondering now if that was when the stone actually passed if there actually was one) and more towards his back. Anyways, they hooked him up to an IV to give him pain killers & fluid so they could take a urine sample and then the dr. came in. Boy I was shocked to see that it was Rick Fox, the dad of a kid I was in band with (he never recognized me). It was reassuring to know though that he was a Christian, even though he had no clue who we were. He examined Matt and said that it sounded more like kidney stones than appendicitis and then left us to wait for the urine sample. After they took the urine sample, it apparently didn't show anything conclusive because they took him for a CT scan around 4:55. Around 5:45 Dr. Fox came in and said that Matt was a "quandry" because while they did find a few kidney stones IN his kidney, they didn't see any blockages and it didn't appear that there was a recent passing of a kidney stone. It was possible that it was very small and that's why no evidence of it. Also, his appedix was slightly enlarged. He examined Matt again to make sure it wasn't appendicitis and then said that we could go home. If the pain returns or doesn't completely go away (it was now down to just a dull ache in his back) in 24 hours then to come back.

So we got home around 6:00 and were finally able to sleep. He says now the pain in the same as when we left the hospital - just a dull ache. Thanks for all your prayers! Gotta love facebook & blackberry!

In lighter news, I'm at my parent's house at the moment to do laundry and Caleb ran in to tell me that he "got his own iTunes" (Chelsea made him a playlist lol). So he has it on in the living room and "American Pie" came on. He ran into the kitchen where my mom and I were and said "Mom, you should sing this song if you go on American Idol." So we asked him what he would sing if he went on American Idol and he said "oh, and easy one...Batman."

No pictures...yet!

I was trying to wait til I could post pictures of the new place but I left my camera at my parent's so I'm going to stop putting it off.

We made the official move last Saturday (thanks Zoro, Zoro's friend Dan, Mandy, Mom & Dad, Hk, Tony & Jason!). We stayed up until about 2 am because I got on a roll unpacking boxes and unpacked all but probably about 6. Part of it was looking for our clean sheets (we didn't find them), part of it was trying to get settled so we could go to the first Gathering at church. I already have alot of stuff up on the walls and have 1 box left. We even got a new loveseat off Craigslist that matches the rest of our furniture!

That's the update for now :)

New addition to the family...

Well, we had seen him a few times about 3-4 months ago around the laundry room at our apartment complex and Matt thought he was the coolest cat because after Matt pet him he would follow Matt around like a dog. We haven't seen him for a long while but Saturday morning we went to leave the house around 6:45am and he was asleep on our welcome mat. We got home around 11am and he was still there asleep, so Matt let him inside and he wandered around exploring for a while then stretched out on our living room floor and fell asleep. We put him out a little while later when we left to take some boxes over to the new apartment but when we got home around 11pm he was waiting at the top of our stairs for us. We let him in for a little while then put him out when we went to bed. Sunday morning we asked around church if anyone might want a cat if we found out he was abandoned and we couldn't keep him at our new apartment. We were under the impression that pets weren't allowed at the new apartment but Matt wanted me to call and make sure. When we got home from church Sunday he was on our balcony again so I let him in. Matt decided to feed him some cat food and he gobbled it. We left again that day to take boxes to our new apartment and noticed a cat in the apartment below us, so Matt got hopeful :) Monday I took some pictures down to the management office and they said that most of the pets here at the complex will have collars and the maintenance lady didn't think it belonged to anyone here. Then I called our landlord and said that we had just rescued a cat and had thought that we weren't allowed to have pets but had seen a cat in the apartment below us. He said that they had paid a large deposit and if we were willing to do that we could have it. So we have a cat...and his name is Bagheera (as in Jungle Book). *sigh* He's a pretty good cat, as far as cats go :) He doesn't get up on the furniture except when he sits next to us on the couch. He does get up on the bed to be with us but he doesn't fight us when we kick him off. He seems to have been a pet previously because he doesn't have fleas, has been fixed, wants to stay indoors, and knows how to use the liter box. He doesn't scratch anything and he seems to not shed that much.

MOVING!!!!

Yep, that's right! We're moving! We found an apartment in uptown Whittier that's $300 less/mo. plus pays for utilities (except electricity). It's very 60's/70's but it's worth the money! We sign the rental agreement tonight and start moving in Friday. Unfortuntely, because our current apartment requires 30 days notice and the new apartment won't be held for us, we're having to pay for both apartments for the month of September. The one benefit from that is that we have all of September to move!

I'm sad to be leaving this apartment for a few reasons, the main one being it's where Matt proposed and where we came home to from our honeymoon. But aside from that, there's alot of memories...our Christmas party, sisters sleepover the night Matt got in his accident, Michael leaving for Liberia, our Guitar Hero parties with way too many of us in the place, decorating my first home...but the money we're saving will mean a more permanent house sooner hopefully.

Once we've officially made the transition I'll send everyone our new address. And if you want to help us move, just let us know when you're available!