Back from a dry spell...

This last month has been up and down. Both the ups and the downs made blogging less appealing but here I am hopefully renewed! I miss everyone in Tucson but I am learning to enjoy and appreciate Monterey. Here's a quick summary of the more exciting activities that I have found to keep myself busy and engaged:

• I have continued running with new vigor. Today I ran 3 miles straight for the first time and finished in 28 minutes! I already have my 4 mile route planned for tomorrow. God is calling me to make working out a worshipful experience instead of purely competitive or for weight loss. I am enjoying exploring this new form of worship...even when I can't breath. I've also got a running buddy on Sundays who motivates me to keep going throughout the week...though she doesn't know that yet.
• I am involved in a Beth Moore study, "The Beloved Disciple," with mostly other military wives. It is a study on the Disciple John and we're only on week 1 but I am already totally digging it :-) Already God is showing me images of Jesus through John's eyes that make him more real. She asked us to describe how Jesus might have appeared to the disciples after the first few days with him and the word that came to me that was most meaningful was "touchable." It has been a while since I have really been able to think of Jesus as a real man and someone that isn't far away. 
• This Thursday will be my first day as a volunteer at Compassion Pregnancy Center . It is a faith based organization that provides counseling and clinical services to women that are pregnant or that have had abortions. There are a number of possibilities for me here including office lacky, counselor, and speaker at the local high schools. I may not be able to actually counsel or speak while I'm here but I'm hoping to get the training. I am unsure of God's plan here but I am really excited about being involved!

And to finish it off, I have some more pictures to showcase the beauty of Monterey...from the only sunny day in weeks! Just kidding but only sort of.

And the most beautiful of all.....

 

ME IN A WETSUIT! hahahaha

I miss you friends!

Another wonderful weekend expedition

Even though my weeks are a little slow, Phil makes it up to me on the weekends with some really fun adventures! It seems that every weekend there is something brand new and mind blowing to explore. We visited the national reserve Point Lobos, which for me was like a mystical, enchanted forest. We only scratched the surface this weekend on this gorgeous reserve but what we saw made us want to come back for more! 


This little spot is very famous. It is the inspiration for various artists and, before it became a reserve, over 50 movies were shot here. Beside the beautiful scenery, there are is a wide variety of wildlife. We didn't make it to the sea lion cove or the pool where the otters play but you can bet we will next time! 

                                                                      

This program is so difficult to put pictures up in any kind of interesting looking way. 

If you get the chance to visit before we have to leave here, it wouldn't be a hard sell to get us to take you exploring through this beautiful mixture of forest and ocean. 

As soon as Phil and I can get signed up, we are going to learn how to scuba dive! This reserve has one of the best spots for diving around. We were able to see just some of the cool sea life just in pictures around the reserve and I am SOOO excited to get in that water! Learning to scuba dive will be a lifelong dream come true. 

I am trying to prolong finishing this blog so I don't have to go run...but I'm running out of other pertinent information :-) I would love to hear from you!

Good luck teachers with your back to school craziness! I wish I were in it with you...and at the same time I am jubilant that I'm not!

Sniff this!

This last week has been full of fun and breakthroughs for us. We have decided on a church that meets in an old theater downtown. "It just so happened" that when we asked the small group coordinator about joining a couples group, she said that there was a new group revving up and the first meeting was that night! We met some really nice people that love Jesus and want friends as badly as we do. I have very thankful for God's providence in this, my week has been and will continue to be the fullest it's been since we got here. My extroverted-ness was going crazy without friends!

This last weekend we also got the opportunity to take a trek up to Gilroy for their annual Garlic Festival! We were really unsure of what to expect but when we got there we realized what a  HUGE production this thing is. There was loads to do, to look at, and to eat :-) The whole fairgrounds smelled wonderfully garlic-y.

As we walked in to the festival, we saw a man using a pole that had fresh rosemary on the end to lather these large pieces of meat with mounds of some fantastic garlic topping while they slowed cooked on the grill. Such a wonderful smell!

There was a celebrity cook at the festival from the show Top Chef...

we grabbed some garlic beer and waited for the show to start!

Just kidding about the garlic in the beer ;-) The Top Chef contestant we went to see was Angelo Sosa...he talked about himself the for 20 minutes and didn't even mention his food...needless to say we had more exciting things we wanted to experience so we left. But we got a picture!

Here is the large flaming garlic bulb...Gilroy weather is much warmer than Monterey 

so this sucker made it feel almost like Tucson when you got close enough.

Garlic roasted corn!

Can you see the PILE of garlic on that fry!!!! 

We had dragon breath for days and it was so worth it!

Of course, we had to try out the garlic ice cream (no joke this time). 

It definitely tasted like garlic but it wasn't bad...it left you mouth feeling kind of tingly.

 It's worth trying if you ever get the chance!

He really did like it, I swear! We also tried some very tasty garlic bread...

but it was gone too fast for us to get a picture

I am very grateful for all of the fun and exciting (maybe sometimes challenging) adventures we are getting to have. Thanks for checking in! 

Love Love Love! And a Happy Birthday to my very wonderful Mother-In-Law! I hope you are enjoying your day!