The First Month Highlights

Well, Steve and I have been here in the Bay Area for almost 6 weeks.  In that time, a lot has happened!  Here's a quick rundown of old news... (I can't remember whom I've told what, so it's all here!)

- We requested an apartment to be provided by Steve's company, but no such luck yet.  So in the meantime we are living it up at the hotel and enjoying daily maid service and breakfast, and four-times weekly dinner, too!  The food isn't always the greatest but it's free!

- I have been job searching and found a few promising leads, but I am finding that for most jobs that would be most suitable for my temporary stay, I'm overqualified.  So I haven't gotten any call-backs yet.  Not even from Starbucks, my dream job! ;)  Just trusting God for a job in His timing!

-  Another area of growing in patience for us is waiting on the Lord to sell our condo.  We have a buyer and it's in the short sale process, which as most Michiganders know by now thanks to the local real estate market, is a long process.  We are eager to sell that thing and not have to continue making payments!

- While Steve is working 12 hours a day to bring home the bacon (thank you, Steve!) I am trying to stay busy with meaningful things... that can be hard because it's all too tempting just to sit in front of the television or computer or play games or... well, you get the idea!  So I'm trying to spend more time than ever studying the Bible and praying because this may well be the most time I ever have to do so in my whole life to come!  But you would not believe how many distractions threaten this time that I want to set aside and my multi-tasking, easily distracted mind likes to follow the path of whatever whim strikes its fancy! 

- However, BSF is going well and is so helpful to encourage me toward a pattern of daily study.  And I am enjoying being a member in a new group and class.  I feel very blessed that there is a Young Adult class only about 30 minutes away from us!  The group of ladies that I get to discuss our weekly lessons with are really wonderful and encouraging and it's so wonderful to have real discussion with them about how the Bible applies to our lives.  I am so thankful for that! 

- We also feel so blessed to have found a wonderful, Bible-teaching church in the area.  We church hunted for a couple of weeks using some of Steve's "trusted websites" and our friend from Cornerstone, Jason, who gave us some recommendations.  We visited Trinity Bible Church one Sunday evening and could tell right away that this church was a good fit for us.  It's a little bit far from where we are (40 minutes) but we think it's well worth it and are eager to get plugged in there!

- Other things I'm up to include trying to work out (again, no excuses…), discovering new California produce (pomegranates, persimmons, etc), writing thank you notes that attempt to convey the gratitude we have to all who attended our wedding and showered us with love and gifts, watching too much Law & Order, House, NCIS, and Burn Notice, and dabbling in cooking/baking new things.

This is the fruit of the pomegranate, which I just learned how to eat!  The seeds are the edible part, which have to be carefully extracted because they stain like crazy.  A couple from church gave us these from their backyard harvest!

And this is the pear and fontina galette I made last week (for fun!):

Well folks, that is a quick overview of what's been going on!  I'm sure I'll have a chance to expand on these areas of life as more develops, but by now you must be done with that cup of coffee of yours!