I am the vine, and ye are the branches....

It's so amazing when God brings you exactly

what you need..exactly when you need it!

The past couple of weeks I have been having an extremely hard time with being homesick! I think some of it has to do with the "newness" of California wearing off...and there is the fact that I am exhausted day after day with all that goes along with teaching and at least for me...when I am tired I am EMOTIONAL! :) I have been tired for the last month! Anyway, I have been a little down at times.... and I was just last week thinking of how long it will be until I see my family and friends and wishing I could visit them....and then God sent me a "little" boost! :)

This may sound silly but I think He was trying to tell me... I care about you! I can help with the "little" trials in your life..even something as trivial as being homesick...

I got a call from my Uncle Kirk who happened to fly into Los Angeles last Monday to take a class at USC for his job! He informed me that he was going to be there for two weeks and was wondering how far we were apart. I was a little bummed at first because I knew we were at least 7 hours away from him and didn't think there would be any chance to see him!

All that to say...he really wanted to come so he rented a car on Friday night after his class and didn't get here till around 1 a.m. and then spent all day Saturday with us and turned around and drove the seven hours back on Sunday morning!

We had such a great time! I showed him our church and school and then we spent the rest of the day Saturday in Napa Valley, which is only about 30 minutes away from us!

It was such a beautiful day!

This part of the country is also called "wine country" in the world...but to me as a Christian I kept being reminded of the verse in John 15 verse 5...

" I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing . "

Here we are!

We visited several different vineyards! It's a very beautiful part of California!

One of the vineyards had a castle there as well! It was very beautiful!

Still newlyweds..after all these months! ;)

It was such an encouragement for God to send me a little "taste" of family to help with my homesickness! Thanks for coming Uncle Kirk! It meant so much!

God has truly given me the BEST family in the world! I love everyone of them!

Happy Anniversary!!

Happy 40th Anniversary Fairhaven Baptist Church!!

Tomorrow is a very special day for my home church in Indiana and I just wanted to dedicate this post to them! I hope they have a wonderful day thanking God for the great things He has done through them! I know I owe a lot of thanks myself and hundreds of others around the world as well! Happy Anniversary Fairhaven!

Good Times with Great Friends!

One of the things about my move to California that I am so thankful for are the friends that I have here! Not only are there two of my childhood friends that live here and attend the same church but there are several other people that were college friends or married college friends! How nice it has been to be able to have close friends that all know each other right off the bat!

Last Saturday...all of us got together to basically have one last "party" before the school year started and our lives were busy once again! It was such a wonderful time and we made some great memories!!!

When I stop to think about it...it is so weird to think that I have close friends that have children! It's quite a crazy thing to think about! Wow...and even more crazy is to think that that could be me?!?! (Well..maybe not for a few more years!...:) Anyhow...the point of all that is that these babies in my life are absolutely ADORABLE!!!! If you know me, you know I love babies!!! I fell in love with babies at my old job in Indiana..where I worked in the Infant room! These two babies (Leilani and Bryce) are so different in so many ways but both have me wrapped around their finger! Not just me..you will see in the pictures below, we are all in love!!!

Bryce...just look at him!!!

He's almost standing up on his own!

Leilani....Big eyes and so sweet!

I think he feels just a little smoothered when we are both around!

:)

Julian and Bryce having a very deep, personal conversation

:) He is going to be a great Dad someday!

Waiting for the food to be done!

Mommy and Bryce

Uncle Marlowe and Leilani

She loves her Daddy!

Ben feeding Bryce his bottle

Sleeping with Auntie Liz

Another great thing about our night together was the food!!! It was all very yummy!

Dan was the grillmaster!

The rest of the guys were his moral support :)

All of our preparation was done and we were just waiting on the men...

Finally!

Michelle made our dessert! It was fantastic!!

The last part of the evening was spent playing games...which included..screaming, laughing, yelling, more laughing... the shedding of tears (on my part) from laughing so hard and great memories made!

(fyi-this week we celebrated our SECOND month anniversary!!) :)

Daniel and Ben were pretty intense during this game! We were playing Apples to Apples...haha...they were the main reason for the tears!

Bryce was getting in some good laughs as well!

What a wondeful way to end the summer!