Two years in California

Today marks 730 days since I left the motherland. Two full years have passed since I left everything I called home. Life looks a lot different than expected. 

But that is the beauty of stepping out in faith, and living life on the edge.

Living in constant sunshine is indeed living in Paradise. I see palm trees outside my bedroom window. I work a few steps from the beach. There is a coffee shop around every corner. Mexican food, where have you been all my life? IKEA started selling Marabou chocolate again. Thank You God!

But..

I miss the rain. It barely ever rains here in Orange County, and when it does, it "sprinkles".

I miss the different seasons. Fall coloured leaves, a blooming spring and a green summer. 

I miss the food and real candy! 

I miss family and friends.

56 more days until our Sweden trip. I hope you are ready for us ;) 

Happy Tuesday & Happy Heart

This day has been great from start to finish. First off, I managed to wake up earlier than my "normal time", which was a hit ;) (My sweet husband sets an alarm before leaving for work, without telling me, to help me get up.. that's true love ;) ) 
After reading a little in my latest edition to the reading list, I went to babysit two adorable kids from church! Home again, I made turkey meatballs for dinner.. but to be honest both me and Ryan were more interested in the pasta than anything else :D
Later on it was time for Leadership Vision Night at Newport Church. It was a great night, with great people! And to top it off Ryan and I went to Yogurtland :) 
Outside we saw a homeless man digging through the trash, eating left overs. We've seen him before and I've wanted to buy him a cup but just never did. 
But tonight we finally made it happen. And we wanted to not just buy him anything, so we walked up to him and asked what flavor and toppings he liked.  
Vanilla flavored yogurt with red "fish eggs" and fruit. 
That's what he got. 
So easy to help, but so easy to just walk by. 
My heart breaks every time I see homeless people, my stomach aches and sometimes I actually need to cry. I'm not used to it and neither do I want to grow familiar to seeing it.
I pray to God that He would not only keep my heart ache for them, but also to help me stop hiding behind excuses and fears instead of doing something. 

 

Hallelujah we are free to struggle, we're not struggling to be free

 

Hallelujah death is overcome and we are breathing

Hallelujah our stone hearts become flesh that's beating

Hallelujah chains have been undone and we are singing

Hallelujah the fire has begun, can you feel it? 

 

Just another terrific Thursday

Today turned out to be a great day! When Ryan got off work I had already prepared a chicken salad to eat in the car, cause we would be stuck in traffic for a while. I drove us to Guitar Center and then all the way up to Irvine. ( Need to practice before I take the drivers test ;) ) We went to a rad couple from church to get Ry's guitar fixed, which was awesome cause I got to hang out with the beautiful wifey! 

After that we went to Men's Warehouse to get Ryan fitted for his tuxedo, for his brothers wedding. Just next door to that place was Bed Bath & Beyond and World Market! 

Pretty glorious.. ;)  (I just wanted to go since this store is in the movie Click)

 

And here's some Swedish goodies we saw at the World Market! 

We bought Daim, Malteser's and After Eight. I'm gonna make an After Eight Cake.. ;)

 

Some late blurry pictures..

Hi family and friends, how's it hanging?  ;) Promised you pictures, unfortunately they always turn out blurry! :( But here's a few..

  

 My Angels cap from Ry.. but I have yet to watch a game ;)

 

I was chopping peppers and yeah.. this piece turned out to be a great stache ;)

 

Life Group at the beach. Bonfire, friends, smores, cookies.. and smoke.

 

Last Sunday night in church. This is at our Santa Monica campus.

Great venue, amazing people!

Hot Jalapeño

Oh, I totally forgot to tell you about the day I was gonna make my own home made salsa and ended up with burning fingers for 7 hours straight. Yes this is a true story.. ;)

Salsa recipe  (for those of you who dare to try! it turned out really tasty btw.)

Ingredients:

• 3 tablespoons finely chopped onion
• 2 small cloves garlic, minced
• 3 large ripe tomatoes, peeled and seeds removed, chopped
• 2 hot chile peppers, Serrano or Jalapeno, finely chopped
• 2 to 3 tablespoons minced cilantro
• 1 1/2 to 2 tablespoons lime juice
• salt and pepper

Preparation:

Put chopped onion and garlic in a strainer; pour 2 cups boiling water over them then let drain throughly. Discard water. Cool.
Combine onions and garlic with chopped tomatoes, peppers, cilantro, lime juice, salt, and pepper. Refrigerate for 2 to 4 hours to blend flavors.


"That sounds easy!". I started chopping everything, pretty excited about having home made salsa again (tried Laura Stevenson's and it was delicious!). When I came to the jalapenos I didn't even think about what harm they could cause my sensitive fingertips. Before I was done with the salsa I noticed the burn.. but it was still rather mild so I didn't pay much attention. Right after that I threw together a cookie dough. Now the burn was getting worse. But working with my hands gave some type of relief. It was when I cooked the ground beef that it became unbearable. The heat from the stove made it so much worse! After dinner I asked Ryan to look online for tips to get rid of this ridiculous pain. It felt like a chemical burn. Like my skin was melting. 
I tried everything I could while he kept looking around for new tips. Here's a few:

• Wash hands in hot water and scrub with soap, then cover them with olive oil. Repeat (This was torture and only made it worse!!!)
• Wipe hands with alcohol swab (A few seconds of relief)
• Drench hands in hand sanitizer
• Cover hands in butter (only helped a little while the butter was still cold)
• Drench hands in milk
• Drench hands in yogurt
• Cover hands in mustard until it dries, then repeat
• Cover hands with baking soda 
• Drench hands in fresh lime or lemon juice
• Drench hands in aloe vera gel 
• Scrub hands with sugar
• Cover hands with honey

Unfortunately, nothing of this worked for me. The only thing that really gave me relief was holding ice cubes to keep my hands cool. So this I did, for 7 hours straight until the pain was finally gone! So my tip to you is to wear gloves and be careful with those jalapenos ;)