Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! We hope all is well with you this holiday season. This year, we’re coming onto 3½ years of marriage and 2½ years in our semi-new house! Can you believe how time has flown? And...now it’s time for another update...
So...we are still both working at Google and continue to do our part in organizing the world’s information. We praise God that we still have great jobs here, and Google continues to keep us full with its wonderful cafés. We expanded our palate in food and wine this year dining at La Tour d’Argent in Paris for our anniversary, Chez TJ for Greg’s birthday, and Cyrus to celebrate Greg biking his first century. We also try to use our Passport Unlimited card and restaurant.com coupons to snag great deals for yummy food! Tummy = happy!
We got bitten by the travel bug this year and visited Seattle to see family; Paris, Venice, Florence, Rome for our anniversary; SoCal for weddings and visiting friends; Napa/Santa Rosa for biking; and Lake Tahoe/Reno for a retreat and getaway. Suz continues to work at her stamp business and has gotten to visit Palm Springs and Salt Lake City with Greg’s mom for conventions. She plans to go to Orlando for Leadership in January, and together, we plan to hit San Diego, Vegas, Tahoe for snow (finally!), Alaska/Vancouver (cruise!), and Asia (Taiwan, Hong Kong, China) in 2009. Fun!
Recently, we’ve become big fans of those red and white envelopes that come in the mail (a.k.a. Netflix). This year, we managed to go through all seven seasons of Star Trek: Voyager in only six months. After that, we plowed through the first two seasons of Heroes in about three weeks. Unfortunately, we're now stuck watching Season 3 on TV, which isn't nearly as good as Season 1. And there's commercials now...oh well.
On a more serious note, one of the most significant changes for us this year is that the Lord has led us to look for a new church community, and we now call Abundant Life Christian Fellowship (ALCF) and Real World (RW) our church home. We are developing new friendships here and started up a couples’ prayer and accountability group. We also started serving on worship and A/V at RW (yay!). This was a hard decision for us, as we definitely miss our community at GrX and our old small group. But we praise the Lord that He is faithful and has answered our prayers to use our musical gifts for Him.
Gregory continues on his ever-increasing quest for more bicycle craziness. In August, he completed his first century (100 miles) for the Tour d'Organics ride in Sebastopol. Apparently, that wasn't enough because in September, he biked 235 miles to Oceano along Highway 1. The first day was 180 miles from Sunnyvale to Cambria, which took 16 hours. The second day was “only” 55 miles. At the end, we met up with coworkers to go ATV-ing at Pismo Beach. Whew!
Suz has joined the fun this year and biked 30 miles with Tour de Cure and 35 miles with Tour d’Organics. She also works out with her personal trainer and other Googlers...as she is on a mission to lose that Google-15! Suz continues to stamp and scrap and organize her craft room. She has vowed to post more pics online and is working on getting her Europe album finished...and that long overdue wedding album done too!
Dusty, our little chinchilla, has become a BIG chinchilla! In May, he turned one! He weighs in at a hefty 820 grams, which is mostly muscle from all the frantic running in his wheel. He loves climbing, exploring, and chewing on things (especially hair) as much as ever. We like Dusty!
That’s all folks...we hope you enjoyed our little update for 2008. Keep us updated with how you’re doing as well. We look forward to an awesome 2009, and we pray that the Lord will bless you and your family greatly in the coming year! Happy holidays!
Yes I know I'm long overdue for an update...so here goes...before the holiday season gets into full swing and I start going into crazy Christmas card and shopping mode. ;) (But I am ahead of the game...I already made a list of all the people we are sending updates to...too bad the list is so big and I handmake all my cards. :P We may need to nix more people off that list if I can't make them all in time...it's like wedding invites all over again...just kidding...but kinda not...:P)
Anyway, if you remember my cryptic entry about starting a new chapter in life, well, Greg and I made a really hard decision this year and we left our church community of 5 years...it's definitely been tough. :( We love the folk at GrX...esp. our small group, but as we've been praying for direction with ministry (esp. in the worship/music arena), we felt a strong leading to pack up our bags and go.
The Lord had said to Abram, "Leave your country, your people and your father's household and go to the land I will show you." (Genesis 12:1)
We've settled at Abundant Life (ALCF) and Real World (RW), and I've been learning a lot here. It's kinda exciting and scary all at the same time. I'm learning to trust the Lord and wait for His direction and guidance...rather than rushing into ministry. I'm learning that ministries happen and succeed because of the Lord and not because of what I do or how much effort I put in (though I know I still have to do my part). Please pray for the beginnings of a couples' ministry at RW (be it in the form of SNAP - sharing, nurturing, accountability, and prayer) or a couples' Bible study during RW or both. :)
In his heart a man plans his course, but the LORD determines his steps. (Proverbs 16:9)
I had worked a lot that week and was in need of a Sabbath. (Sound familiar?) I was reminiscing about college and the community I had there. Now I'm at another juncture in life...
To echo my previous sentiment..."It's a bittersweet feeling. I guess I'm all grown up now." And even more so than before. Can you believe it is now more than 4 years later...time does fly, doesn't it? :)
"Lord, where
are You leading me to? I know I just have to trust You and wait on You."
That part is still true.
"Trust in the Lord and do good; dwell in the land and enjoy safe
pasture. Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him...Be still before
the Lord and wait patiently for him..." (Psalm 37:3-7)
he biked down to Cambrian (near San Simeon -- where Hearst Castle is located) yesterday. That was 170 miles away. And then he biked the "easy" 50 miles down to Pismo Beach today. We went ATV-ing there...quite interesting...will post pics of that soon. :)
Fun fun...:) I figured I'd start by trying to stay caught up with the here and now and then backfill all the pics through August and before...now to find time to scrap some of them...:)
...because I love my hubby so much. And he loves me enough to hold my purse out in public...haha. :)
I've just finished processing a load of pics...sorted and picked good ones out, color-balanced all of them, and converted everything from raw to jpg...just need to crop a bunch of them now before posting! Will post links soon!
