Overdue-ness.

Do you ever have a blog and then not update for a long time, then are almost embarrassed to get back on cause it's been so long? I mean, before the baby update of course is what I'm talking about. Either way, here I am again!

Not really sure where to start. I think a visit to NY was blogged about more "recently".

--Since then, we had Evening Bible Camp the end of June-beginning of July for two weeks. It was good working with such an amazing group of people! We would have it in the local park every evening. It was the "station" kind of Vacation Bible School, which I really love.
     So every evening we'd get there around 4 pm and set up the tents and then have to tear them down again around 8 pm. During the day, we'd have different daytime activities (such as work projects or prayer "treasure hunts") for the staff, so that was when we really got to know them.
     There were a lot of kids that came to Evening Bible Camp! That was exciting! Dustin and I were "floaters", so we got to see all the different stations and help out in different ways which was really fun! It reminded me a lot of my job description at Beaver Lake Camp in Canada, which I loved! Kaylie came to help with EBC, too, so that was a huge perk being around her for two weeks!

--The next big event was going to PA for a BMA Convention/DNI Retreat.  That was so good and so horrible at the same time. That sounded bad, let me explain. :) The convention was really good and extra special because we stayed at my grandparents and my mom and Kaylie came to visit us just cause we were so close to home!! It was just so precious being around family again. More on family later. :)
     Then after convention, we left for the retreat which was just in a different area of PA. That was also so good! I loved it!
     The traveling to and from PA was the horrible part. I was in the middle of (or the end of, I thought) my morning sickness. I get motion sick while traveling even without being pregnant, so everything was just dramatic and magnified. :( Long story short and a bunch of throwing up later, I did get better obviously, but getting better included a trip to the hospital because we were scared I was getting dehydrated. I feel much, much better these days. Praise the LORD! Those were days when I thought to myself that we'd probably only be having one kid. One is enough, right? :) Ladies say you magically forget about morning sickness later on though. Imagine that.

--Our Herm and Sarah and baby Carson friends came to visit! THAT WAS SO SO FUN! Too short, but oh so precious. We showed them around some of our favorite places (like the beach and the Americana and took them to the park for park food) and just had so much fun hanging out with them.

--My grandparents are coming to visit in a few weeks and then over Thanksgiving we are going to drive up to Washington to visit Kaylie! We're excited about those upcoming events!


So yea, that's all the visiting and visitors type news, I see. Normal news is that life is normal. :) I guess our life has already taken on a different normal with the baby though, with doctor visits and such.  Like I said earlier, I've been feeling so good these days. People say the second trimester is a breeze and it basically is! It was so good to actually be in the mood to cook again and work in the kitchen!
And I drink coffee again! That was gross for a while.
And I love/crave all things simple. Like McDonalds food and stewed crackers and chicken fingers. Lovely, right?
And I get so hungry so fast.
And our baby's the size of a mango today!! :) 
And no, I don't think we're finding out the baby's gender.
And no, I haven't felt it move yet (I don't think?). Annnnny day now!
And I have never slept and napped so often in my life as I have these past months.
And sadly, I made the mistake of making some things in the kitchen while or right before I got really sick, so now those things are disgusting to me. Like Artisan Bread. Isn't that so sad?
Funny story. I got a phone case right before I got sick and finally a few weeks later took it off again. Now it is so gross to me. It reminds me of throwing up and feeling disgusting. It's in perfect shape, but I hate it now. Let me know if you need a pinkish IPhone 5c case.

     I've also been so homesick lately. It definitely hadn't sunk it as deep before this. I just very, very often miss family & home. Please please, I beg of you. I know it's easy to take things close to you for granted, but if you live around any family, get together with them. Treasure them. Not to be bossy, but if they mean anything to you, you would do this. This is what I was talking about when I mentioned how precious it was to see family in PA. It's hard missing family campouts and birthday parties and get togethers. So go to them even if you're busy. Treasure those and all times with family. I think that is how God intended it. I think living around family is possibly one of the richer blessings in life. He created "the family", after all.  Oh, it's not like we don't have precious relationships here. We love the friends and church family here! But I'm strictly talking about blood relatives here.
     I even miss cold weather. It's not that this weather doesn't have it's perks, but if you were used to experiencing crisp, beautiful falls & snowy, cold winters your whole life, wouldn't you miss those things? You would, I think. So you be thankful for cold faces and snowy roads this winter, and I'll try to be thankful for the 50-70 degree weather with no snow to snow me in.
     Hey, I just preached a little to you, so go ahead, and preach to me. :)

     Here is a perk of living in this weather though. Dustin and I celebrated TWO YEARS of marriage yesterday!! That's actually just a fun fact of life, not a weather perk. Actually we celebrated on Saturday at the beach! That's the fun weather perk. :)  It was a nice 80 degrees probably. Got a little burned. :) It was so fun though. I won't lie, I do love living close to the beach. We even saw 3 dolphins close to shore!!

     And we also went camping (like tent camping) with the church the first weekend of October! Imagine that in NY. Freezing, I believe, is the word that came to your mind. It was so fun, but OH. SO. HOT. In the 90's or 100's somewhere. So uncomfortable especially if you're pregnant, are the words that came to your mind, I think. Haha! But really, it is a little cool to have that option to camp that late in the year, right? :)

     We still eat outside on our patio too! :)

     Pros and cons everywhere in life I guess. Contentedness and thankfulness no matter where God has you are wonderful things though, right?

     I'll end on a few pictures. :)

     I just cannot remember if I told blogland about this project we have going on. We (Us and Andrew Miller, also a VS-er out here who happens to love recording) are working on recording a CD! It'll be of songs I wrote and it's projected to be finished and ready to go by March 3rd of 2015! I'm so excited about this dream come true!  Someday I'll have to blog more extensively about this.

    This was way back in May when we visited my family in NY.  A big breakfast brunch with my friends. So precious and fun.

    Church camping!!

    Other than the ocean, we don't hardly see any large bodies of water. So this giant pond at the camp grounds was gorgeous to all of us!

    He's showing off an airplane that Dustin made for him out of silly putty. :) haha!

    Little pizza shop we went to after the beach last Saturday!

   Our happy anniversary meal of pan-seared steak, cheesey mashed potatoes, and jalapeno poppers. YUM.

    These friends and that visit. :) It was so precious. So fun.


 And that's all for now!

Baby Graber ...

 

is due March 10th, 2015. :)
We. Are. So. Excited!

Home?

Hey guys!

Sometimes I sit down to update, thinking I have so much to say, and then my mind goes blank. Gaah. Bear with me while I gather my thoughts. :)

Dustin and I just got back this past week from a wonderful, wonderful trip to NY! It was just so good to see home and family and friends.  We left on Thursday morning and arrived late afternoon. The greeting gang was Mom, Gina, Kaylie, and Logan and Alli.  It was so precious, Logan had a huge sign that said something like "Welcome back, Aunt Gi and Uncle Dustin! We missed you!".  I almost cried. :) Afterwards Logan told me that I could put it on my fridge if I want to! Haha!

We left for my cousin's wedding Friday, went to rehearsal (Dustin, Austin, and I sang two songs at the wedding! Fun!), and then were busy with the wedding on Saturday (ABSOLUTELY beautiful wedding, Matt & Nicole!).We drove home after the wedding though, so we could be home in time for church. The rest of the time was just full of a lot of family time, seeing friends, a campfire, breakfast get togethers with friends, a shopping outing with just us girls, family suppers, AND! I even gave blood with Kaylie (It was actually pretty fun!)! It was so good to be home again for a little.

And there is a small problem I need to work through. I take even less pictures with my camera now that I have an IPhone. Oopsies. So this is just a write-y post. Not a picture-y one. :)

A lot of people, both in NY and here in CA, asked if I was ready to come back. I actually was. For one, I had mentally prepared myself that I'd be there 9 days, so when 9 days were up, I knew I was headed home. That sounds too simple, but basically I was mentally prepared.  For another, Dustin came home Tuesday and I came the following Saturday, so I was REALLY ready to see him! I'm telling you, it's just different (in a good way) now with a husband involved! :) I was thankful for that extra time in NY though. 

Another questions was, "Does New York still feel like home to you?". Um yes. Because everything is still so familiar there to me. I mean that's where I grew up. I don't think being gone for almost six months will automatically change things for me.  My dear friend, Teresa, posted this perfect post recently, http://www.createdtopraisehim.blogspot.com/2014/05/note-to-self-when-moving-to-new.html . In her post, she mentioned that she read somewhere that it can take 7 years to adjust to a new community. Seven. SEVEN. I freaked out a little. I know, that might be average, and I also know that I don't want to hold myself to that and THEN accept home after 7 years. That's just silly. But reading that also felt like it gave me some..."breathing" room. I'm not saying I feel pressure to adjust here, I don't think I would say that I do. But even if it's not from other people, it can come from myself, too. I can pressure myself. Basically, yes, NY is still home to me, but there's "home" things about CA, too. For example, my house feels like my home now. CA as a whole still seems pretty... "out there" to me. But I think that's ok. Just so that I don't hold my home area so high that everything else is "way down there" and I never give another place a chance to become home for me. That's not right either.

Which brings me to another topic.  I got this idea from another precious friend who I had so SO much fun catching up with in New York: Patty (http://downsouthyankee.blogspot.com/). Also linking to two blogs in one post could lead to some assumptions, but I will let the amount of my posts and space between them squash that assumption of me being a blog junkie. :) Hey, I have to read my friends blogs. :) Anyways. The inspiration.

I don't know how I'll do it exactly. Or even if I will for sure. But just giving some pros and cons of life here. Dare I call it a series? :) Patty, maybe you'd better explain it to me some more.

But for example, this.  Spanish.

I didn't realize how much I like Spanish.  I still try to do a lesson or two about 4 times a week. The last milestone (test) I took, I got a 100%! I was so shocked! Basically this is where I am at with Spanish. In English, I'd say, "Oh! Fun! Are you making a chocolate cake?!!" In Spanish, I'd probably sound something like this, "?(Except an upside down question mark haha!) Un torte chocolate (said chah-co-LATTE)?". Or another example.  "? Vivo Nuevo York?" That basically means, "Do you live in New York?". I don't know if I'm making sense, but basically I can get key words right, but the whole sentence structure and una's and un's is where I get a little stumped. So when I switch that around to when my neighbor is talking to me in English and is soooo close to saying the whole sentence perfectly and I can see how badly she wants to rattle off in Spanish, I realize secretly she's smarter than I am because at least she's speaking my language. And I just HOPE I am a fast listener and read between the lines even if she may not get all the little in between words. Actually my bigger hope is knocking her socks off someday by rattling off to her in Spanish, haha!

But I heard Spanish zero times in NY, which is fine. I mean it's normal. But I think I heard it in the airport on the way back to California and I was like awwww I miss hearing and seeing Spanish everywhere! It's a fun language and I guess gave me hope to keep pushing at it!

So that's just a tiny example of what I might be doing in the next few blog posts. Might! There are other things like the weather, food, culture, distance from home, scenic view comparisons. I don't want to compare everything to how New York had it, as in New York is the best. I want to see the positives in both and really, be content with where God has me!

Visitors...part two!

Hello again! 


I think I did a huge overkill on waiting to post as a way to "pause for effect". Just kidding. That's not why this took so long. Technical difficulties, I'll just say. :)


So just excuse me while I remind myself what I last blogged about. Jk. :)


The second and most recent batch of company was my very own familia (FAMILY in Spanish. Please tell me you got that, cause...cause it's just one of those words that makes sense.  ;) More on Spanish laterrr.)! Well not my whole family, but my sister and parents!  So I think I mentioned this in the last post, but I took Joel's to the airport Tuesday morning. Then I rushed home, gave my house a quick clean, and went to the airport again. We live about an hour (rrrreally depends on traffic) from LAX so it might've been a little silly to run home again, but I didn't know how to kill time just sitting at the airport...paying for parking...not really saving myself that much money probably. And cleaning seemed to make sense to me. :) So then I picked up Kaylie and we headed back to my house! Later that same week, on Thursday, we went back aggaaaain to the airport to pick up my parents (they had all flown out of NY together, but Dad and Mom took a detour to Kansas for minster's meeting). On the way home the last time, it took us three hours. THREE HOURS! We hit it juuuuust at rush hour, and were literally crawling along. Whoa. Thank you, California, for giving my parents such a good first impression.  That was one of the first times I was ever in traffic that bad, so it was new to me too! The freeways leading to Tujunga really don't get that crowded, which is a huge blessing, I'm realizing!


Anyways, we had so so much fun with them. It was just...wonderful. I hadn't seen my parents since December, so I was super ready for this!


My dad isn't a city slicker. By any means. Like at all. ZERO. So a couple times I just wondered what would occupy him.  I mean, he could like go on 79 walks in a day, but that'd get old. They were all flying out the following Tuesday (If you haven't picked this up already, Tuesday is a good day to fly in and out. And Thursday. FYI.) so they weren't here just a day or two (Praise the LORD.).  But then I'd be like, "Ok, he is a big boy, he can fend for himself. And he's my DAD! I don't want to drive myself crazy(and him!)  making sure he's ok every second of the day!". So this thought process was just in the very back of my mind kinda. Ok, maybe middle of my mind.


Backing up a few weeks prior to all this, Dustin and I went garage saling one Saturday and found a really beat up, old table and 4 chairs for $25.  If you hadn't noticed, we don't have a table in the house just because of the lack of room. BUT! We have the awesome, wonderful, place we love--the Patio! So we bought it and I was just going to DIY it someday and paint it with outdoor paint.  Plus it practically never rains here, so it all seemed to make sense. But I knew this would be the biggest DIY project I've done, which was a liiiiittle intimidating to me. Also, sometimes I can rush projects like that cause I'm so excited to complete them and then they turn out yuck. Cause of my rushing. Dumb, I know.


So soon after we all got to the house and ate some supper, I mentioned in passing (not knowing if I was serious or not..cause I didn't know if he'd really want to do this) that hey! Dad, you could paint our table for us if you need something to do while Dustin is at work and us girls are ....... (shopping, going to the beach, shopping, eating, shopping...you know. that stuff.)! I can't remember what his initial response was....actually I might've even said that to Mom. Anyways, the next morning he said real softly, "Hey Gina, I'll paint your table and chairs for you if you want." I was so so excited. Cause Dad is a perfectionist, and I knew he'd do a super job. I was SO into this!!! We went to the hardware store and got all we'd need, which I loved, because I knew we wouldn't forget something important with a skilled carpenter with us.  Soooooo a few pictures, please!

Good thing I quick got a "before" picture. He was faaast. And good. See how not beautiful the set was? Especially the chairs. Yikes. ^That^

To ^THIS ^!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love it. Still to this day.

THANK YOU, DAD! I love you!

 

 

 

ANNNNND.

 

 

 



Remember these guys? Ping pong ball lights! Thank you, Pinterest!  

One of those Pinterest things that actually is all it's cracked up to be. :)  

THIS is how much we loved them.

Super exciting. Dad and Dustin and basically everyone but me helped. :)

 

 

 

 

One day, me and Kaylie went to get us some famous Georgetown cupcakes. They were as good as they look. Especially that coconut one. YUM.

 

This is how excited she was. It was more her thing than mine, but it was so fun. I just went along for the..driving in downtown LA of course. :)  

 

YUM. again.

 

 

 

 

Kaylie and I skyped with these kids for a tiny bit! I think she tickled him for that smile. :)

 

 

And I took them here to the Griffith Observatory one day when Dustin was at work.

 

 

Us girls :)  

And I took Mom and Kaylie to The Fashion District. So fun. Cheap cheap fabric! 

 

And one day they insisted on cleaning for me. I think Kaylie's exact words were, "How excited are you to have a clean house?". I guess this excited!  

It's so fun working with this table now. Thank you, Fashion District, for cheap lace. 

 

This was the last evening they were here. We had a yummy supper Kaylie made: Chicken Alfredooo!! Super good.

 

 

It was so great having them here. So grateful for that time.

 

The next biggest plans on our list is a trip to NY the end of May!! Cannot wait!

 

 

 

 

Visitors...part one. :)

I suddenly feel like I have so much to blog about. 
After about 556 lectures from a certain sister that I NEED to blog more often, I have decided I really do need to. Just kidding. She only lectured me a few times. :) 
I guess I felt like I had nothing to "offer". Life seems to be settling down out here. Which is good, but as far as blogging goes, it makes me look around and say..."Now what else could I possibly blog about?" :) That's where this sister jumped in and gave me ideas...like, the whole time she was visiting me (Again!).  Pictures of that later! 

So back to what I was saying about suddenly feeling like I have so much to blog about! We'll see if I actually do. :) 

So we had visitors again! Both were family! So so fun. 
Also I think our visitors like to travel out in herds or clumps or something. :) No big deal, we are so thankful for any visitors, it's just funny! :) 

Dustin's brother, Joel & his wife, Sheila, and their two girls, Georgi and Talya, came a Thursday to the following Tuesday.  

Not only was it good to have family around, it was just so good to connect with their family. Actually their purpose for coming out here was kinda two-fold. Joel bought a project plane in Chino, CA, which is about an hour from us.  The guy who was hauling it from CA to MS needed help loading it up, so that was one of the reasons Joel's came out here.  That's what kept the guys occupied Saturday and Monday, I think! 

Here we are at the zoo (You can even see Dustin taking the picture in the seal tank glass!)! 

Um, Hello, awesome pinky flamingos!  

It's KEVIN! From the movie, "Up"! 

Georgi & Talya drinking....maybe chocolate milk? Cuties :)  

 Even though she looks a liiiittle distressed in this picture, I think Talya has such pretty eyes. Ps. I forget what happened to her forehead. Sheila, do you remember?? :) 

Look who's sleeping!  

Look who's noooot! :) Tricky, Georgi, very tricky. 

For some reason, I just love this swinging at the park picture. 

And this is also a beaute!  

Fun kids' park! 

And then the very Tuesday that Joel's left, my sister, Kaylie came! Two days later, we picked up my parents at the airport. Believe me, I could drive to the airport backwards by now. JK. Not quite at that point yet. :) 

Something sweet to end on. :) Once upon a time, I asked Dustin if he could please pick up a few things at the grocery store on his way home from work. Sure, he said! And he came home with this fun bonus! ......And then yes, we actually, in real life, ate it like this. I felt so naughty. :) 

Tidbits..

So I decided to just show a few, random shots of our life here in CA. 

It's going pretty good here! We've met more of our neighbors and are getting to know our church family better, which is so fun to us! It feels like connections are slowly starting to happen. Unfortunately, relationships take time. I think there should be a way to make them happen faster. That would be a nice quality of life, I think. :) 

I do miss home though. Home. Family. My friends. 

This is nobody's fault he says this (and it really is so cute), but my nephew Logan is probably sometimes the hardest little person to answer to. "Aunt Gi, you should come to Gwamma Wapps house again! You haven't been there in a wwwwoooong time!"....and he always asks me why we're in Canniforna. Then I tell him we're here to help God. To tell people about Jesus. Then he doesn't know what to say. :) Another time he said, "Was your house here just too teeny tiny?"....haha um no. No, cause our house HERE is just too teeny tiny (Secretly we love this house, but our NY house was bigger, I think.)!! Also secretly, I love love skyping with him (Okay, Gina?). I think it's hard though, mainly cause of course he doesn't understand why we moved. And somedays it feels like I don't even know why we moved! I'm not meaning to sound depressed, cause I really am not. I do like it here and it is exciting what God will do!

We've been really blessed, you know that? It is so true. God is so good.

So pictures. Here are a few. 

 A fun sun beam one evening. Those always feel like a God-thing to me!

 Eating pizza on the way home from picking up some furniture (our kitchen pantry!) at Goodwill!! 

 THIS place. This place, this place. I love it. It is MY juice it up place! If you come, I can take you!

 Two of my close friends. The gps and the freeway. :) 

 I don't know if I'll ever stop being amazed that I live in the same state as these trees. I just think they're so cool. Even old ratty ones like this.

 This street kinda reminds my of the street we lived on in NY, Florence Avenue. Except the trees should be shorter. The street a bit skinnier. And I think there should be snow on the ground, apparently! 

 Fun date night! 

 These cool mountains I also love. 

 And then allllmost every day, I homeschool myself in Spanish. And I have to wear those McDonald's type speaker things....

 In order, they mean: "We are your teachers!", "Bye, Mom!", "The doctor is writing.", and "The bicycles are white."......someone please correct if i'm wrong. cause that'd be embarrassing. 

 Slowly but (hopefully) surely, I'm tryyyying..

 Kinda a taste of home to me. Cause we had one right in town. And CA doesn't do Dunkin. 

 A pretty plant that my neighbor lady gave me (I have no idea what it is!)!

 Latest DIY project!

 My little mountain view every morning...

 The latest read..

 The view coming from Tujunga going into LA. 

 These happen all the time! (Ehhh, Patty?!)

 This is where we have church. Mr. Hosea & Miss Ana host church in their house (Thank you guys!). Our church starts at 2:30 Sunday afternoons. After church, we always have a carry-in meal.

And then this is where we eat. This is also where we have the service (in the Sanchez' backyard). I'm sorry I didn't get a picture of the service, but I guess I just didn't feel like being "that" person. :) 

And I had to end on this cute picture. :) This was last Christmas in Mississippi. :) Cute, cute, cute.

Hope you enjoyed! Have a great week!