2009 in Review

As fast as 2009 went - and I think it went faster than any year I can remember - it was truly an amazing year PACKED with amazing experiences that we will never forget. And since we failed to share these experiences with you on here as they happened - I (Timmy) thought I'd try to sum up the highlights with a few pictures as well.

I would say the first really exciting experience of 2009 came in March with our very first century bike ride (100 miles) in Solvang, CA. We spent the first two months of the year training for this. Since we moved to California (over two years ago already) - cycling has become a real passion for us. So to bike 100 miles at one time was really something.


April brought one of the highlights of my entire year in the booking of my very first commercial. It was a commercial for a new roller coaster at Universal Orlando called the Hollywood Rip Ride and Rocket. I played the part of rock 'n roller Syd Vinyl - a washed up 80's has-been who Orlando called up to promote the new ride. It really was an amazing experience and a huge encouragement for me that I #1 actually booked something and #2 - that it wasn't just an ordinary commercial - but an opportunity to put a lot of my comedy and other gifts to use! While that was the only onscreen commercial I booked last year, 2009 also brought a ton of direction for me as far as my voiceover pursuits go. I was able to book some smaller jobs and begin working with some agents. I have high hopes that 2010 will bring even more exciting year and bring more clarity and direction in the comedy/acting front.


May brought Debbie's sister Katie's wedding. It was so wonderful to fly home for a week and be part of such a wonderful celebration. Debbie was Katie's maid of honor and she did a great job being...honorable??





We had an amazing summer filled with bike riding, hiking and a trip to Cape Hatteras with my family. In August we took a hugely anticipated trip to the Grand Canyon - where we hiked down and camped on the Havasupai indian Reservation with our good friends the Widemans and Whites. There we hiked, played, relaxed, and swam in the amazing Havasupai river and it's waterfalls. It was one of the most beautiful places I've ever been.


The highlight of our Autumn came in October when we flew home for Messiah College's 100 year anniversary homecoming - where I performed a standup comedy set in front 800 people. I was well received (phewww) and it was so great, once again, to be home and see family.

And probably the highlight of 2009 - was our amazing and epic 3 week adventure through Australia in December (see earlier postings).

Debbie had a great year in nursing. She's still working hard on the Oncology unit at Huntington Hospital and she's already completed a year and a half of her online grad program at Cal State! Half way done! This year will bring more studying for her and next fall, she will begin the final leg of her degree with clinical rotations. It will be challenging - but she will continue to thrive!

2009 was a wonderful year indeed filled with wonderful experiences and deepening relationships. In fact - this blog would have become a blook if I had filled it with every highlight of this year. We truly look back with hearts running over with thanksgiving and we look forward to 2010 with anticipation and hope. There still remains many question marks and much uncertainty as far as where our path is going. But we continue to trust God through it all. We wish you all a Happy New year. And we'll do our best to keep you in the loop as we move forward!

blessings,
Tim and Deb

Home Sweet Home

Well, we sadly boarded our plane for Los Angeles this morning, thus bringing an end to a trip we will never forget. We are safe and sound now, back in our Pasadena apartment. We don't finish this trip crossing it off of our list of places to go and things to do, but hope to return again in the future.

Looking back, we can't say that this trip went too fast ~ it actually went by at a perfect pace. And there wasn't one dud of a day; each and every day was great and memorable. We enjoyed perfect weather, good health, safe travels, and delicious food. And we can honestly say that the people of Australia are among the most warm, hospitable and friendly people we've ever met. If you have not gone to Australia, you must!

Our brains are too tired and jet-lagged to think straight, so this will be all for tonight. But hope to keep up the blog (right, heard that before)...

G'day mates.

Dolphins and BBQ

Even thought today was sadly our last day in Western Australia it was nonetheless BRILLIANT. This morning we got up and got ready to go out to see wild dolphins! Lisa’s mum’s boyfriend Rusty happens to own a very nice boat and graciously offered to take us out to a place nearby where wild dolphins hang out. We weren’t sure what to expect – but it turned out to be un-be-lieveable. When we got to the spot, all the sudden Dolphins popped up all over the place and actually came over to our boat to check us out on several occasions. But that wasn’t enough for us. We got our snorkel gear and fins on and hopped in. When we got in the water there weren’t actually many dolphins nearby – so we just swam around and looked at some of the other fish in the water. All the sudden we heard a ‘clicking’ sound under water and I looked down and a dolphin was swimming right under me (tim) – just 3 feet below me. This dolphin ended up swimming with us for about 2 MINUTES. It really was unreal. We didn’t touch it or ride it or anything like that. It was actually kind of intense because this was a wild animal and we weren’t sure what it would do. But it just checked us out and then went on its way. Pretty incredible. We sadly didn’t get any pics of that – but hopefully the story will suffice. Rusty took us around a bit longer and then we headed back in.

The rest of the day was spent swimming, chilling, taking Harley rides, and eating amazing food with Bree and Lisa and their family. We are just so blessed by how welcome we’ve felt here and the time Bree and Lisa have given us. In many ways this short visit has been a highlight of our whole trip. We’re sad to have to leave them tomorrow morning.

So tomorrow we head back to Sydney, spend the night (Sunday), enjoy our last remaining hours in this amazing place on Monday morning, and then head back to America on Monday evening and return to America on…Monday evening. We may pop another blog off before we head out. We’ll see. Enjoy some pics from today.

Pastries and Candy and Wineries ~ Oh my!

We just thought it would be nice to “introduce” you to the Dudek’s - for those of you who don’t know them. This is a picture of Bree and Lisa, with their 15-month-old daughter, Abbie, and Johnson, their golden retriever. Bree will be starting a new job as an assistant principal in February (when summer is over here and the kids return to school), and Lisa is a full-time mom, and she sure is good at it! Their hospitality has been phenomenal!!! They have taken the time to show us all over Western Australia to see all sorts of really neat sights and to good places to eat. The fridge was stocked full with Carmel Koalas when we arrived ☺ and they have really gone out of their way to give us a really wonderful visit.



Today, we are going over to Lisa’s mom’s house to relax around the pool and have a BBQ together with the rest of the family. Yesterday, Bree took us around town to show us some more beautiful beaches, the southern tip of Western Australia, some really neat karri trees (they grow really tall and really straight), to a winery, a candy shop that makes their own candy fresh there, a local bakery with all sorts of meat pies, pasties (sort of like a potpie filling in a fluffier pastry that you eat with your hands), and pastries, and we enjoyed a rather peaceful ride in the car out through the bush. We went for a walk in the evening as the sun was setting and spotted some more kangaroos in the field by their house. Bree had a basketball game that he played in, so we went and watched his team dominate the court and beat the other team. It was rather brutal… Here are a few pictures from our day yesterday. More to come from our adventures today.

Our day with the wonderful Aussies!

We are rather sore this morning after our day of waterskiing and tubing yesterday. What fun it was though! Lisa’s sister, Kim and her husband Sean took us out on their boat (that can go really fast!!) to play at a local freshwater dam. The sun was shining and the flies were buzzing ~ the flies are pretty nasty here. Thankfully, they do not bite, but at any given time you can easily have 20 flies on you. We were quite thankful when the wind kicked up and blew them away. We went skiing – both of us at the same time – and we both managed to get up! Everyone there went for a few laps around the lake either on the wakeboard, knee board, slalom ski, or water ski’s. Our favorite was the big “biscuit” – sort of like a big tube with no hole in the middle that can hold 2 people at once. Tim and I were out on it together, while Sean and his mate Paul were driving the boat, trying to throw us off of the biscuit around turns and such. We were laughing so hard and having so much fun trying to hold on for dear life and being thrown around back there. It was great! But, again, all of us woke up this morning feeling the after effects in our sore muscles…




We went to a party in a friend of Bree’s back shed. (Everyone has a back shed here that the men sit around in, drink, eat, and talk. It’s like a local pub in someone’s back yard). It was a neat experience to be the Americans invited in to shoot the breeze with these men. But we sat around for the evening and enjoyed some genuine Australian company. We also had a taste of rabbit (tastes a lot like chicken), maron (kind of like a freshwater lobster/huge crayfish) ~ it was Delicious!! You eat it cold with a little bit of salt, we’d have to say it’s better than lobster in our opinion. We also ate some homemade meat pies prepared by Bree’s dad ~ best meat pies ever! ☺ Tim entertained the gang by playing some songs on the guitar and singing for everyone. Not everyone recognized all of the American songs, but they still seemed to enjoy it and sang along to the ones they could. Bree’s dad also sang for everyone – 7 songs, each in a different language! Very impressive.

Anyway, we were pretty tired when we got home and had no trouble falling asleep. Waking up this morning was a bit more difficult… but we are ready for another day filled with adventures here in Perth.

Hope the holiday season is treating everyone well!

And we've made it to Perth!

After a 3 hour flight to Sydney, camping out in Sydney's International Airport last night (because the domestic terminal closes...), getting up at 4am to catch a taxi back to the Domestic Airport, and hopping on yet another plane for 4 more hours - we are finally here on the west side of Australia in Perth under the wonderful hospitality of Bree and Lisa Dudek. In case you are wondering who Bree and Lisa are, Tim and I met them in the United Kingdom on a 3-day tour of Scotland and have kept in touch ever since.

After our long 16 hours of travel, Bree was our knight in shining armor as he rescued us from the utter exhaustion of travel. He showed us around Perth, which felt like we were home in LA because the air is smokey from the bush fires. We enjoyed some more delicious Aussie breakfast, saw some BEAUTIFUL beaches, and then went to the Marapana wildlife world to see some Australian wildlife. Here, at this off-the-beaten-path zoo, we got to see dingo's, Tim got to drape a python around his neck, we got to feed (tame) kangaroos, ostriches, goats, deer, sheep, etc., and Deb got to fulfill her dream of holding a real-live koala! It was actually quite heavy, but surprisingly softer than imagined, and smelled of fresh eucalyptus.










We ended the day with a refreshing, much needed shower and then headed out to spot some wild kangaroos with Bree, Lisa and their 14-month-old daughter Abbie. Kangaroos are quite the pest and supposedly out number humans here. They knock down fences, eat plants, and cause car accidents. Sound familiar Pennsylvania...? Anyway, they were still neat to see them hopping and carrying a joey in their pouch. Bree and Lisa even made us feel more at home by frying up some food and cooking macaroni and cheese for dinner. Yum!

Tomorrow we're off to water-ski in the morning and to a genuine Australian BBQ tomorrow night. :)

P.S. ~ I (Deb) passed my final and am officially on winter break from school! Yippee!!

Into the Rainforest

Today was yet another wonderful day exploring another corner of this great continent (Australia, in case you’re just now joining us on this blog). Today we explored the tropical rainforests of north eastern Australia – just southwest of Cairns – through a tour company called “On the Wallaby Tours.” Our guide, Bart – a man of the world who has been in over 40 different countries, knows a ton about everything, doesn’t care much for shoes or cell phones, and can speak several languages – showed us around a specific part of the jungle called Atherton Tablelands. We got to see some fantastic vegetation – including a HUGE fig tree, which has a majority of its roots growing above ground. Apparently, 500 years ago, a bird pooped on a random (non-fig) tree and in that poop was fig seeds. After some time, those seeds began to grow on that tree and sent it’s roots down into the ground. Eventually, it grew so much that it choked out and killed the host tree and became it’s own, slightly freaky, fig tree. Check it out!


We also got to see some crater lakes and some beautiful water falls – all the while learning tons of random facts and jokes from Bart. We’re so glad we did this tour, despite the fact that we’re still recovering from 10 dives and 3 days on a rocky boat. No joke, I (timmy) am literally still swaying back and forth. Kinda hoping it goes away soon. I’d rather not get seasick while on land. Enjoy some of the photos from today.



Tomorrow is our last day in Cairns and tomorrow night we head back to Sydney and then to Perth on the other side of the continent. And if you think of it, say a prayer for Deb. She has to take a final online tomorrow for her grad course.

And the journey continues!

G’day
Tim and Deb

Great Barrier Reef? Try AWESOME Barrier Reef!

Well, we have returned safely to land after an incredible 3 days at sea, diving one of the 7 natural wonders of the world. We are officially PADI open water diving certified!

Friday morning, we boarded a diving boat that took us an hour and a half (60 kilometers) away from land and to the reef. Here, we did our first few dives in the warm water. Theses dives were training dives and we had to perform certain skills, like fill our mask up with water and empty it out again underwater, for our certification. We then boarded the overnight boat (a much bigger boat) in the afternoon and got settled there. We did some snorkeling in the afternoon and could see tons of fish right from the surface. The reef is so colorful and alive with so many different fish and life. It was fascinating to watch. The gentle rocking of the boat put us to sleep that night.

Saturday morning we work up bright and early for a 6:30 dive. This was our final certification dive, and despite the moderately strong current, we managed to complete our tasks and pass for our certification. Shortly after breakfast, we went for a “free dive” and could finally go where and do what we pleased. We buddied up with a lovely couple from the Netherlands – Jon and Ineka – and went for a dive. It is absolutely breathtaking (no pun intended) and there are so many different kinds of fish down there. So much to watch and observe. We really enjoyed trying to swim past at a very slow pace to try to see as much life as possible.

Saturday night was a unique experience in that we participated in a night dive. Yes, indeed, we are officially crazy… but we were with many other “crazies” as well. ☺ At 7:00, it was dark out, and after a brief training session, we followed a guide out into the ocean at night. It is a completely different world at night! The smaller fish have gone to sleep and are no where to be found. The bigger fish, however, are out and about. We saw what we like to call “puppy dog” fish – big fish, roughly about 2 feet from fin to face, that swam just beside us the entire time and tried to find food using our beams from the flashlights. They would spot one and dart past you to go get it. We saw some other neat fish as well. Very cool to be diving at night.

Sunday morning we again woke up early for a 6:30 dive and this time spotted a sea turtle! We were probably about 5 feet away from it and watched it eat some breakfast in the coral. Throughout our diver, we saw some sharks, Trigger fish (mean, territorial fish – actually bit another diver (he’s ok though)), chocolate-dipped damsel (fish that looks like it was dipped in chocolate), murray eel, lion fish, and a million others that I can’t name. And we found Nemo!!! Anyway, the list goes on – we saw a lot of cool things out there.

It was a fantastic trip out to the Great Barrier Reef. And we made it back without getting eaten or stung by anything! Or puking ~ neither of us got sick. These pictures do not do it justice unfortunately, but we tried… Now we are relaxing back at the hostel and still feel like we’re rocking back and forth on the boat. Tomorrow we are off to the Tablelands for a guided rainforest tour. More pictures surely to come.

Day #9

Yet another incredible day in OZ! Today we finished up our in-class portion of PADI open water diving certification. Debbie got a 48/50 on her final - well done Deb! I, on the other hand, got a 49/50. How do I do it, you ask? 3 words: by being awesome.

So tomorrow morning we're on the boat for our HUGELY anticipated 3 day/2 night boat trip into the reef for 9 dives - including 1 night dive. So we're kinda flippin excited. I have my dramamine ready to go so I don't get the pukes and Deb and I bought brand new goggles and snorkels to use. So we are set. We rented an underwater camera - so expect some amazing pictures soon! We probably won't have web access on the boat, so this is our last entry for the next 3 days. But enjoy some pictures from last nights festivities (the fire dancers and Deb giving the didgeridoo a go)!

Cheers,
Tim and Deb

Scuba Class

Well, the internet is acting up again... so no pictures from today. Unfortunately you'll just have to read about our day.

We started our scuba class today and had half a day in the classroom, then spent the other half in the pool learning some skills on how to scuba dive. It was really fun and in talking to some people at our hostel, the reef sounds like it has many colorful and neat things to see. We're excited to go out on the boat and see it!

We enjoyed a BBQ at our hostel tonight and the exotic food they offered was kangaroo meat and cod that he had caught out on the reef (he hadn't gotten any crocodile). The kangaroo tasted pretty good, actually. They also had some fire dancers perform and we got to try playing the didgeridoo. It's really hard! And sounds so funny.

Well, we're off to bed now. Early start tomorrow for our second day of dive class.

~Tim and Deb

Safely in Cairns

We arrived safely in Cairns this morning and checked into our hostel with no problem. It's actually a really nice hostel, with lots of open windows and colorful wall paintings; it has a laid back, easygoing vibe to it. We've got a great room that even has a balcony attached to it! (this is a picture of the "common room" here).

We spent the afternoon walking around town and checking out the local scene. There is no swimming in the ocean here because it is pretty muddy and there are crocodiles in it. They have a "swimming lagoon" by the beach, which is basically a really big swimming pool. It was pretty crowded with lots of swimmers and sunbathers; I kept seeing skin cancer and was hoping that everyone was wearing their sunscreen! :) The marina is quite spectacular too, with the mountains in the background.

Tomorrow we start day 1 of 2 days for our dive course, then we head out to the reef on a boat for a few days. We discovered some yummy Cadburry Carmel Koalas that we've been enjoying. Tomorrow, we try kangaroo and crocodile at the Hostel’s BBQ. Gotta love that Australia.

Good on ya, mate!

~Tim and Deb

Day #6 in Sydney

Today was one of our favorite days so far. We started off by meeting up with Tim’s mom’s cousin Judith; what that makes them, we don’ know… but we’re family. She treated us to a lovely breakfast right on the bay, overlooking the Harbour Bridge and Opera House. Then we caught a ferry ride over to Watson’s Bay ~ a quaint little town in Sydney ~ and explored around there. There was an amazing view of the Pacific Ocean on top of these cliffs there, and we probably spent a good hour enjoying the view and taking it all in. We ate some yummy fish and chips, then returned on the ferry and parted ways. The rest of the afternoon we spent lounging around in a park by the Opera House and ended our day at Harry’s Café de’ Wheels ~ a meat pie cart. They load up the meat pie with mashed potatoes, mashed peas and gravy. Lovely.

We head up to Cairns tomorrow to start our scuba diving adventure. Great Barrier Reef ~ here we come!

(The internet has not been nearly as readily available as hoped... but alas, we are at trusty old McDonald's with their free wifi to enjoy!)

Yesterday (Saturday) we went to Paddington Market and enjoyed a bunch of outdoor stalls selling clothes, food, and hand-made goods. Breakfast came first, of course, and it was fried eggs, grilled tomatoes ("tah-ma-toes"), fries ("chips"), toast, bacon and tea. Yum. We enjoyed a lovely dinner right on the harbor, with the Opera House in view behind us as we ate. Then it was off to our cultural experience at the Drag Christmas show. We were all rather entertained, to say the least. Today we said good-bye to our travel mates as they are on their way to Cairns now. Tim and I took in some free museums around town and read some leisure reading in a park near the harbor for the afternoon.

I have yet to see a real-live Christmas tree. All of the Christmas decorations and festivities are pretty lousy over here compared to American standards... The weather was better today, and we are still free from sunburn!

Our last day in Sydney is tomorrow (Monday); I think we are going to try to track down some meat-pies to try. (Can you tell that food is an important part of the experience...?) :)

Until we find some more free internet ~
Tim and Deb

Day at the Beach

For the past few days we have been at the Northern Beaches - the beaches on the peninsula that extends North Sydney. They have all been gorgeous! Our "travel guides" Natalie and Andrew took us around and showed us all of the good parts of town and the best beaches. These few days have been filled with lots and lots of walking. We've gone on some pretty incredible hikes, saw a moon rise (just like a sunrise, but with the moon), rode the ferry across the bay, saw some penguins, and done a lot of exploring. We also visited the Sydney Fish Market, and took a behind the scenes tour to see the bustling auction floor where all of the fish are sorted and sold. We weren't expecting Sydney to be so cold... It's probably remained in the 60's, dropping down lower with the wind and at night, getting warmer when the sun is shining. It has been a whirlwind of a trip so far, but we are both very much enjoying Sydney. Tonight, we are off to the Opera House to take in a rather "cultural" show. :) Oh, and they have some really interesting signs here too.

We Made It!!

We are here - safe and sound in Sydney. We hit the ground running too. After getting our stuff locked away in our hostel - we met up with our good friends Andrew Scandrett and his wife Natalie Thomson and headed out into Sydney. I think we ended up walking 10 miles today - ALL over. Enjoy some pictures from our day!

Off to Australia!

So yes - we know - it's been almost an entire year since we've written on our blog. 2009 has been an amazing year filled with so many exciting things. However, I will save a year in review blog for later. Right now the big news is that tonight, at 10pm, we depart on our hugely anticipated 3 week backpacking trek through Australia!!! We've known for years that Oz is a place we must see - and it just worked out this year. We'll be going with our good friends Sam and Ellen Wu. We land in Sydney and stay there for a week, then head up to Cairnes for a week diving the great barrier reef, and finish our trip out on the West Coast in Perth to hang with our good friends Bree and Lisa Dudek. We're going to do our best to blog along the way and post pictures of the trip. So check back in with us. Who knows - maybe I'll be able to post a video or two. Here are some pictures of our preparation.

A New Year!

Welcome to 2009 readers :) So far 2009 is going pretty great! Hope you all had a wonderfully relaxing and enriching Holiday time. I'm usually kinda bummed when it's all over - but this year I'm actually doing great. We had a great time for New Years. Deb's family came out and joined us for year #2 at the rose parade. YEP - we acted homeless again and slept on the street waiting for the big event. It was a blast! And now I have some high hopes for things to come in '09.

First - I'm still pretty excited about this voiceover stuff. My commercial demo is now completed and ready! To go. If you're interested in hearing it - click here! I'm now working on my animation demo - and once that is done - I'll be shopping it to some agents and see where we can go with it all!

I have some interesting ideas for comedy this year in terms of viral type videos to make. I also hope to get more opportunities to perform out here. I go back and forth with my passion for standup - but I still want to do it and see what kind of things come my way.

Debbie is EXCITED for her second semester of grad school. She had a GREAT first semester getting A's in BOTH classes - 4.0 baby! This semester will be a bit more challenging, specifically with her Pathophysiology class (you should see the size of the flippin book) - but she is up for it!

But we'll keep you posted as we move ahead! Happy New Year to you all. I hope this is a blessed year for you all indeed!

Timmy

Merry Christmas!

It's 7PM on Christmas evening and I wanted to just write a brief note to wish all who read a very MERRY Christmas. I realized many of you east coasters are getting ready to go to bed - but I wanted to get my seasons greetings in. I hope you had a very peaceful, wonderful day. Though I'm alone on Christmas day - I'm very thankful for this Holiday and it means a great deal to us. We had a WONDERFUL visit back home with our wonderful families in PA. It was sad to return - but my awesome brother Kyle came back with us. It was so great to show him around LA.

Hope you have a great Holiday time. Bless you all!

timmy (and deb)

Home for Christmas!

Well - we are excited! This Tuesday, Deb and I are heading home for an early Christmas to the state of thrills and unending excitement - PENNSYLVANIA! It really feels like it's been a while since we've been home - so we're just so excited for this visit. We'll, of course, split the time between my fam in Harrisburg and Deb's in Pittsburgh. But we're just planning to relax and enjoy time with the people we love. Perhaps we'll get a chance to see some of you. If we don't - so sorry. But you can ALWAYS come visit us out here!

This week, I'm proud to say, I recorded my commercial voiceover demo reel! My producer, Cynthia, my engineer, Chuck, and I cranked it out on Thursday evening. I can't believe how fast we did it. I was in and out in less than two hours (voiceover is nice like that because the only instrument you need is your voice). Now it's in Chuck's hands to engineer the whole thing. The demo will be 1 to 2 minutes in length with about 10 different voice samples. He'll string them together seamlessly AND insert sound tracks behind each sample. So it will sound like a bunch of actual commercials. I can't wait. I'm very confident that this will open the door for me to start getting work! Next step, after Christmas, is to begin producing my animation reel. I'm excited for this one because it will be all character based so I can capture as many of my funny voices as possible! Of course you'll be able to listen to them when they are ready!

Well - that's it for now. Hope this advent season is a joyous time for all of you and that you find yourselves in a loving community in which to share it!

blessings,
Timmy (and Deb)

ps - if you're interested in buying a Honda Scooter, let me know. We're looking to sell ours.

A Very Merry Thanksgiving!

Ok - I'm STILL full. No joke. I suppose I've been eating a bit less for the past 4 months so Thursday, being thanksgiving of course, was my excuse to go CRAZY. We ate allll day. ALL day folks. We had a FANTASTIC Thanksgiving. We spent it with our good friends Chris and Rachel Hall. We have so much fun with them that we actually had them over on Wednesday night for a sleep over. There's something so much more fun about having a more prolonged celebration - even if they do only live one mile north of us. Wednesday night we went out to see Australia (fantastic film) and had fish tacos at Rubios - one of our very faves.

Thursday morning, Deb and I actually got up early for a little bike ride in a meager attempt to make some extra room for food. When we got back, Chris and Rachel had the parade on and the thankfulness BEGAN! We began cooking our 14 pound bird (way too much meat for 4 people) around 11. I was in charge of basting - something I tend to pretty much rule at. You won't find a better baster. Dinner was ready at 3 and we had turkey, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, corn casserole or bread or whatever, crescent rolls, and stuffing! It was all VERY good! After cleaning up we decided to take a little walk to help digestion and then we came back to watch one of our all time favorite movies - Love Actually! If you haven't seen it - see it. We have so much to be thankful for and this Holiday with friends only reinforced that.

Friday Deb worked and I hung out with my new friend Jacob! I began a mentorship program through a local organization called the Lake Avenue Foundation. It's linked to our Church and does work with families in a less privileged part of Pasadena. One of their programs is mentoring - so I applied and they matched me up with Jacob. He's 8 years old. I was given free tickets to the LA car show - so we went. We had a GREAT time together. He is a sweet, fun little guy. We just went from car to car - getting in any of the ones that were open and pretending to speed away! I'm excited about this. I'm excited to get to know Jacob more and I'm excited to get to know his family more. They are wonderful people! It's so easy and natural to hang out with people that pretty much look just like us - so I'm excited for the opportunity to connect with people that come from completely different backgrounds and even speak another language (spanish)!

So there's our last couple of days. Now - I'm going to sleep. Happy Sunday.