One more week!

Hey there everyone! We're getting excited! One week from tomorrow - we will be getting on an airplane at LAX and flying home to PENNSYLVANIA!!! We can't wait. I'll be honest though - it's so hard to believe that we've been here for 3 months already. How ridiculously fast time goes. It's really only felt like a couple of weeks. But we've been having a blast out here - so that probalby explains it. But we're excited to smell the sweet PA air, to enjoy some cold weather, and of course, to see the people we love most in this world! We'll be home for 8 days - four days in Harrisburg and four in Pittsburgh! We hope we get to see as many of you as possible!

Ok - well, that's it. A short one. We'll give you a better update once we see you - AT HOME!!!

All I Want for Christmas is....training wheels please.

OK - SO (this is Timmy by the way) - I CLEARLY have forgotten how to ride a bike. Some of you may know that I have really gotten into road biking over the past three or so years ever since I bought a GREAT bike from my old Brit buddy - James Hubbard. This bike has treated me great over the past three years. Well TWICE - and I'll repeat that - TWICE I have fallen off this bike in the past TWO WEEKS!!! And I'm not talking, "oops, I forgot my feet were still clipped in when I got to the stop light - here i go." No - I'm talking wipe outs - like you have when body surfing or boggie boarding - only not a nice cushion of ocean water to keep you safe - but the hard, jaggedy, cruel pavement of the road. The first accident occured about three weeks ago. I was riding with a group of friends from Fuller and we were descending the final hill of our 24 mile ride when I got going to fast, hit a sharp curve, hit the breaks, back tire slid, and I hit the road with my left knee to break my fall. Luckily - there was nothing else that broke - except my bike. On top of losing quite a bit of skin from my knee and hand, i popped two tubes, destroyed one tire, bent both wheels, and had to replace the front wheel. It was not a happy time for me. Well - finally, after two weeks, everything was fixed (including my knee - thanks to my wonderful nurse wife), I had new biking shoes with clips, and was ready to go. So this past Friday, I got up early and went off to meet my friend Ben. Not TWO BLOCKS from my apartment, riding down a straight as an arrow street, my left foot came out of the clip, the bike swerved out of control, and what else was there to break my fall again - you guessed it - my left knee. Luckily - I managed to lose skin three OTHER parts of my knee that weren't injured before. With any luck, I can finish off any healthy skin next time I go out. So - I'm not sure what's happening to me - but I'm thinking that this Christmas, it might be wise to invest in some training wheels, knee pads, and inflatable arm wingys just in case I crash into water and forget how to SWIM too.

But besides my biking mishaps - things are going well. A week ago I turned 26!! Woohooo! Who knows what this year will hold. But I had a great birthday and so many of you made me feel special by either calling or sending me lovely facebook messages! Debbie and I were finally able to go out for my birthday on Saturday night to the Macaroni Grill - my favorite of chain restaurants. They simply have the best bread you can get ANYWHERE!!!

We're excited for Thanksgiving! We'll be spending it in San Diego with Deb's sister Patti. We're so glad we'll be able to be with family. We hope you all have a wonderful Holiday and we want you to know that we couldn't possibly thank God MORE for all you wonderful souls that he has brought into our lives. Until next time - may the Lord bless and keep you. May he cause his face to shine upon you and be gracious unto you - and give you peace FOREVER!

love,
Timmy and Deb

NEW VIDEO!!

Hello dear readers! You may have already heard (most likely by me) that I've posted my first comedic short online (one of hopefully many to come)! It's a short film called 'the conversation' and it's about two good friends who learn the hard way that silent conversation in the back of class can lead to devastating, earthshattering, and even horrific misunderstandings. There are three places that you can go to see it - and if you wouldn't mind - it would be great if you went to all three. You only have to watch it on one - but the more hits I get on each - the better!! Here are the links:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igWrEEidASU

http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/489538502a - BE SURE to vote on this one (voting it funny would be nice!)

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=2071234124

If you don't feel like highlighting and pasting them, the links are in the tab to the right of our blog.


Also - feel free to check out my myspace page from time to time. I'll be keeping that updated and will be putting other stuff on there as well!

http://www.myspace.com/timmymorgan

I hope you enjoy it! If you don't get it - that's fine. It could be one of those concepts that only Aaron (the other guy in the video) and I find funny - and we're ok with that! But TELL YOUR FRIENDS!! Since I don't have a manager - any help you can give me is GREAT!

Things are still going great for us out here! Deb and I got to meet Patti (Deb's sister) - who lives in San Diego - for dinner on Thursday night halfway between LA and San Diego! It was a great time!! It is such a blessing having family living nearbye.

We continue to work hard out here and we're loving it. Of course your thoughts and prayers are SOOO much appreciated! Hope you're having a wonderful weekend!

tim and deb

A little taste of China

Last Sunday night, after our evening church service, we went out to eat with some fellow church-goers. We went to a Chinese restaurant, and our friends, who happen to be of Chinese decent, ordered for us in Chinese. We felt like we had entered into another country ~ the restaurant was in a mostly Asian community and hardly any of the store signs were in English. We were the only two white people in site... It was fun, though. And we had to eat with chopsticks! I quickly learned that the best way to eat with those things is to shovel the food in to your mouth from the bowl and gave up on trying to pick up the pieces of food. The food was pretty tastey too, much better than Panda Express. After dinner we went to get 'Boba' drinks. That was an experience in itself. It is essentially large tapioca balls floating in sweet, cold chai tea. You have a big straw to drink through, and as you drink the liquid chai tea, you also suck up these large tapioca balls. You essentially drink/chew this beverage. Yeah, not our favorite drinks in the world, but it was fun to try. You can go to this website to see what we're talking about. (lollicup.com)

Tim auditioned for a goofy dance competition show (like Napoleon Dynamite style dancing) that will be on ABC next year. We are waiting to hear back from the judges. Keep your fingers crossed! In the meantime, he is continuing to do some extra work. Next Monday, Nov. 12 Tim will hopefully make his debut on Heros. And then the following Sunday night, he may be on Desperate Housewives. Keep your eyes out for him, you may not see any better acting for a long time... :) I went through chemotherapy class last week and will start giving chemo to patients shortly. And, of course, I am enjoying my job at the hospital. So far so good on the scooter too. No one has beeped at me yet! The weather is still warm amd it's comical to see snowmen here for sale with the Christmas stuff. They don't get any snow here! How can they even know what a snowman is...?

My funnest day yet!

Soooo - yesterday (this is Tim by the way) I had my most fun gig yet. I was booked - through an online casting company called LAcasting - on a video project that Bette Midler was having made to open for her big Las Vegas show starting next year. The premise is that a HUGE tornado tears through Las Vegas, picking up all sorts of "Las Vegas type" people - Elvis, a couple getting married, construction workers, showgirls etc. Well, I was booked as the groom AND a construction worker. It was such a blast. They put us in harnesses and then we put our costumes over top of the them and we were hooked into this suspension system in front of a huge green screen. We were hoisted above the ground and they blew a lot of air on us and we flipped around - all the while trying to continue the wedding ceremony. I'm not exaggerating when I say this - but it was probably one of the most physically demanding things I've ever done. I was drenched in sweat after the long takes and the director yelling different things for us to do. When I was a construction worker, they had us go from swaying in the wind to dancing to YMCA. By the end of that, I truly felt like I was going to throw up. But it was so fun and the director and crew all were so nice and told me they thought I was funny - SUCCESS!!! It was a non union gig (which means not much money) but you know - I'm really thankful for the experience and can only hope for more like it. Yet another chapter in living the dream!!

Oh - and by the way, if you happen to find yourself in Las Vegas next year, be sure to check out Bette's new show. It will be staged in Caesar's Palace and you won't be able to miss me. I'm at the very beginning on apparently the biggest screen in the history of mankind. Check it out. The picture I've included gives you an idea of what I was doing! Hope you're having an awesome day!!

DON'T WORRY - WE'RE SAFE!!!!

Hello Dear Readers (however many of you there might be)!

I (timmy) thought I would just take a minute to let you know that we are SAFE! We are NOT one of the 3/4 of a million people who've had to be evacuated because of these crazy fires. These fires, as you may have heard, are being rapidly spread by the Santa Ana winds - which blow east to west. Pasadena happens to be one of the further inland parts of LA - so the fire won't be coming out here. We also aren't directly in line with the winds so if a fire did start here, it would be quickly contained. So now you can sleep. Goodnight! :) Our good friend Amy Freeman is here and we took an awesome hike today on Echo Mountain and we could really see the smoke. At 1 pm, the color of the sun reflecting off the ground looked like sunset colors, not midday. Our neighbors told us today that they actually saw ash coming down like snow in Pasadena. I've got a few pictures attached for you to see. Please pray that we get some rain and that these wild fires stop.

In other news - Deb, Amy, and I had a great weekend visiting Deb's sister Pattie in San Diego. It only took us two hours to get down there. We got to spend time at the beach, shopping (ok, it was really the ladies dong the shopping), and we went down town for a nice dinner where I swear I had the BEST Mahi Mahi I've ever had - so good, in fact, that I took a picture of it. YUM! But it really was a fun weekend and if you haven't been, San Diego is just Gorgeous!

Tonight was really neat. Deb and I (ok, it was Deb) sent a homemade invitation to each of our neighbors last week inviting them to come drop in and have some milk and cookies with us tonight - Tuesday 10/23. We really just wanted the chance to meet our neighbors and show some hospitality to them. Three different apartments (out of 12) showed up. It was a really nice time and we look forward to getting to know them better as time goes along. Deb's cookies were AMAZING! We really enjoyed getting to talk with our next door neighbors. They are from Iran and couldn't be nicer - greeting us with hugs and kisses. We even got to meet their grandchildren and daughter in law.

So day by day we are establishing ourselves here. We're REALLY loving it. When you move from so far away, you really have no idea how it will turn out - but this is turning out to be so much fun! We've hosted our first out of state visitor - thanks Amy - we're waiting for more! Ok - I gotta get to bed. I'm working on a project for Bette Midler tomorrow :) Love you all!

And the journey continues...

Sorry it's been a little while since we last posted. We are definitely getting settled in here which means we're getting busier - woohooo!! The past week proved quite an eventful week with new exciting things. Debbie continued her week (if you can call only 3 days a week) of shaddowing. But she's beginning to get some patients of her own. The days are certainly long (I can finally sympathize with the long days I have to put in for background work) and tiring - but she is still excited about her future in the hospital - working, of course, NOT being a patient.

I worked on four different shows last week and all in all, it was pretty fun. I did my second open mic at LA's famous Laugh Factory. I went on 6th and felt pretty good about my bit (I did the being born bit again). I'm finding, though, that open mics aren't really that great. Basically - the only audience you get at most open mics...are the comedians. Besides that - the room is pretty much empty. Empty room with only comedians as the audience = not so great comedic experience. There's not really much energy so it makes it tough to get an accurate picture as to how well you did. I guess it's just part of the learning. I'm excited for my Novermber 18th gig because that should be a packed room with mostly regular people - not over critical distracted non - laughing comics. haha One day I can use these experiences as great stories for when I'm on the Late Show.

On another front altogether - I've been looking for just regular part time work. I had applied and been offered a job at a local bookstore but was really struggling with the fact that I'd have to work weekends and nights (times I'd rather be using for comedy and other stuff) AND I'd only be making minimum wage. It just wasn't going to offer me the flexibility I need to make the most of my time out here. So I was really thinking and praying a lot about this and I'm so excited about how God answered that prayer. I was talking with a guy on set the other day and he brought up - you ready for this - substitute teaching!! In LA - you need a bachelors degree (check) and to pass the cbest test (not yet a check). But it's day by day schedule and in LA - get this - they pay $170 a day - and you're done each day by 3!! Plus - I think I'd really enjoy working with middle school and high school students! So I'm going to begin the process of becoming one of the most abused people in the public school system today - a substitute (hey, I'm always looking for new material). I won't be able to take the test until December 1st - but we're really excited about this possibility. It's really just perfect! So pray that I get through the red tape.

Finally - Debbie and I went to The Warehouse (our church) for the fourth time yesterday and we left just so excited! We actually KNEW people and had some great conversations. We're not quite at the "Morgans always last to leave" rep - but we're getting there. We're just so encouraged because people are starting to recognize us and know our names. That was one of our biggest prayers - that we would get connected to God's community out here - and it's happening. So praise God for that! It's certainly a process, but we're thankful that with each week, we're getting more and more plugged in to this community!!

Well thanks so much for sticking this long blog out (if you made it this far). We love you all so very much! In the words of Garrison Keillor - "be well, do good work, and stay in touch!"

love,
timmy and debbie

Oh what a beautiful morning!

The weather was too beautiful today to not be outside enjoying it! So we went for a bike ride this morning. We biked over to the famous Rose Bowl Stadium and around the path that goes around the stadium. It is a really nice path and there were a lot of people out exercising on it too. Pasadena is a little bit hillier than I thought, though. I think that my muscles are going to be a bit sore tomorrow...

Tim auditioned at a comedy club in Pasadena called "The Ice House." He auditioned yesterday and they just called back today to offer him a spot in their Sunday show on November 18!!! Tim's first booking! He will have 10 minutes to do stand-up during a 2 hour long show. Wow-wee! He's on his way to becoming that comedian!

Work is going well for me (Deb) at the hospital. I think that the unit that I am working on is a good match. Tim is going to be on Hero's tomorrow as an extra. That's one of his favorite shows at the moment, so he's excited about spending 12 hours on the set tomorrow. (Extras really have to put in long days...) Anyway, we are well and hope that you are well too! So long for now.

PS Be proud of Tim. Today he was offered weed while we were sitting in the park and he just said "No." (true story) Crazy Californians...

Missing You All!!

Hey dearest friends and dear dear family! So - we miss you all a whole ton and then some. We're finding more and more to love about Southern California - but one of the things we love the most will never be found here: YOU! (that is unless you come VISIT!!) Today was our dear niece Lucy's first birthday - it's so hard to believe it's already been a year since that little angel squeezed into the world (sorry Kelle). But we could not be there :( This is one of the trades you make when you leave to chase your callings and dreams. It's kinda tough. On the other side of the coin, though, if you're going to have any problem in the world - having tons of people that you love so much is a pretty good problem to have. Some people move away to GET away from family. This is not the case for us. We're so blessed to have you all in our lives - even if it is from a distance at this particular season.

But just for a little update for y'all - this was an eventful week. Debbie finished her orientation this week and Monday will begin being a real nurse again. She's definitely excited about it. Her boss is really seeming to be a wonderful person. On Thursday, Gloria (the boss's name) took Debbie to the cafeteria on a break and bought her some tea and just intentionally chatted with her. So things are looking real good!

I worked four different extra gigs this week - I was a wedding reception guest on "Step Brothers" - Will Ferrell's new movie due out next summer (look for me in the background when John C. Reilly is giving his toast), Samantha Who (a new tv show staring Christina Applegate), Greek (don't really care about this one), and today I spent the morning at the beach and was a background beach goer for a Royal Navy commercial - so if you find yourself in England watching tv, look for me. On Friday I had my first audition - I found out about an agent who does open auditions for representation (which is actually quite rare - agents usually only want referrals) - so I went and read a commercial about Oreo's. So I'll let you know if I get an agent!!

One thing I'm excited about is a new soccer pickup group that I found. There's a group of people that play soccer in a park in Pasadena three times a week. I just got back from playing tonight. It's a great group of people who love the game. Not suprisingly, I'm one of the very few white guys that comes out to play. I love it!

So that's the update for now. Feel free to leave a comment or call us or email us! We love to hear from you! Until next time - HANG TEN DUDES!

timmy and debbie

The Work Begins!

Well - our wonderful TWO MONTH furlow/hiatus has sadly come to an end. Not that working is a bad thing at all - but not working - well - it's pretty fun :) Deb and I began working this week. Debbie is working at Huntington Hospital here in Pasadena - and this was orientation week. So Monday through Thursday Deb was up at 7AM and at the hospital sitting through seminars on benefits and hospital info. and all that fun stuff. As tough as it was to shift back into work mode, Deb is getting excited about working at Huntington. On three separate occasions - people have told her how GREAT her boss is. So she's very encouraged. Also - the benefits of working at Huntington are pretty cool. Every time Deb gives blood, she gets an hour of paid vacation AND a gift ranging from free movie tickets, starbucks coffee, a tee shirt, ice cream, or free carwash! So it's pretty awesome!

I began EXTRA work this week!!! wooohooo! The proper name is "background actor" but we all know we're just moving scenery. It was actually pretty fun - nothing I could stand doing long term - but fun to have front row seats to tv and film production. On Tuesday I was a cop for the new show "Womens Murder Club," which is beginning its first season on ABC on Friday evenings. My costume was realistic - I had the full cop getup with the full utility belt AND a bullet proof vest that I had to wear under my shirt. I probably weighed an extra 20 lbs. and looked like I weighed an extra 50. I looked quite rediculous, actually. I was also on "Criminal Minds" on Wednesday. That was a bit more boring - but I got a lot of reading done! Monday I'm on the movie "Step Brothers" with Will Ferrell - so that should be kinda fun.

I had my standup debut last night!! I connected with a guy who goes to Fuller Seminary and he was putting a show together for first year students and asked me to do 5 mintues. So, naturally, I did 10. It was a blast - the audience was great (yes - they laughed) and I got so much encouragement from the other comics who performed. There was actually a couple who were the headliners who have been doing a lot of work around LA who we talked to afterword for probably 30-45 minutes. They had some really nice things to say about my bit and gave me some great tips for performing out here. So bit by bit - God is connecting me to this place! Call us if you want more details.

As always - we miss you all very much. Keep in touch and stay tuned!! :)

New Wheels

So. Here's the dilemma: I (Deb) kind of need a way to get to work. Tim and I have been exploring many options. I could walk to the hospital, but that would be a long walk and I do plenty of that as a nurse anyway. Biking was an option, however we thought it might be a little dangerous to bike on the side of the road with traffic, and then I'd have to bike home after dark. Then we thought, "How about the bus?" We checked into the bus schedules and unfortunately, many nights there is no bus available to take me home. A car is out because, well, one car is plenty of money out here (insurance has doubled. But you do the math. Having 2 cars in PA was cheaper than having one car in LA) The ad should say "Geico could save you 15% or more on car insurance, except for in California. Everything here is expensive - get over it." But besides insurance, there is no place to park a second car, the upkeep would be expensive as well as not very economical. The solution: a scooter. We went to a local motorcycle/scooter dealer and went home with our new wheels. Dot (our scion's name) has a new sibling, yet to be named. It's a Honda Metropolitan scooter. It's small, zippy and get's 70-80 miles to the gallon. We're real Californians now! Especially since we now frequent Trader Joe's for groceries. We've scoped out the routes to the Hospital and have found a good, safe one to get me to and from the hospital, which happens to drive me past the famous Father of the Bride house. I'm going to take a scooter safety course too, so I'll get back to you on what tidbits I learn. We'll be taking it on the Freeway's in no time... ;)

We're still ready and waiting for visitors. And when you do come, we'll be glad to cruise you around town on our scooter. It may be a slow ride, but we'll still be saving gas! :)

Santa Barbara

We just took a nice three day/two night mini-vacation (as if our 2-month long vacation wasn't enough...) up to Santa Barbara to celebrate our 2 year anniversary! It is about an hour-and-a-half drive from here in Pasadena to Santa Barbara beach, without traffic, so it wasn't a bad trip at all. We stayed in a Bed and Breakfast 2 blocks away from the beach. Tim and I got to go to a Farmer's Market on the street (that's a picture of Tim at the Farmer's Market) and get some beautiful California produce for a nice price. We spent a lot of time on the beach and exploring around town. There we are at the PACIFIC OCEAN!!! It was a nice way to celebrate our anniversary, since we were packing up the moving truck on our real anniversary. Tomorrow we're off to apply to be extras! :) Only in L.A...

We're here!!!

Dearest Friends and Family!!! (this is Tim writing)
We are here - we are in Los Angeles California - Pasadena more specifically! We made it safely across this great country of ours. What an awesome adventure that was. If you didn't get a chance to see it, check out our dear friend Rachel's blog at blogs.messiah.edu/rmoury. We wrote all about the 9 day drip on her blog and there are pictures and everything. Check it out. We've been in Pasadena now for a WHOLE WEEK! We are officially Californians - well, ok that's not completely true since our plates still say PA and we have PA drivers licenses making us look like tourists every time we have to pull them out. But soon enough - we will be official Californians. We LOVE our apartment. It was tough trying to find a place to live from 3000 miles away because you're just never sure what you'll end up with. But this place is amazing. They completely renovated the whole thing, so it's as good as new AND IKEAized (we have one just 15 minutes away)! We're also in an awesome part of Pasadena. You can literally walk EVERYWHERE - grocery stores, coffee shops, restaurants, movie theaters, seminaries - everywhere!! We're also near Old Town Pasadena which is just beautiful. You'll see when you come visit!

Deb will begin working in another week on September 17th at the beautiful Huntington Hospital. I'm going to be beginning the process of looking for work. I will most likely start doing extra work for a while. I also plan to audition for classes at the Groundling - an improv. theater in Hollywood. And once I figure out how, I'm going to start doing standup comedy again. While standup is not ultimately what I see myself doing professionally, it will be good to get in front of people with it! I also plan to release a short indy film that I shot earlier this summer - so stay tuned.

But we thought a blog would be a great idea to keep everyone updated with how things are going for us out here. You'll be able to follow Deb and me through this crazy adventure that will lead who knows where. But we trust God through it all - knowing that He cares and He is with us! We love and miss you all! Be in touch!

Timmy and Deb