one month later...

gee, i wish it was something exciting, but it's really just another month.



i have been on my bike a lot lately. since i started riding instead of driving most places, i have clocked almost eighty miles. yeah. eight - zero.



we cut our car gas bill by more than half of what we had been spending on average. that was super exciting. the tough rides are getting easier. the only thing that sucks is my pants are not getting any smaller yet...we'll see...



we have also been swimming a lot more recently. our complex has a pool and we (which would be hannah and i) try to go out a few times a week. i am really sad that i have missed out on getting hannah into swimming lessons this summer. (i may have a last minute chance, but am not holding my breath.) she's doing great in the water, not swimming on her own, but feeling safe and getting more comfortable.



today, we rode 12 miles...5 total to church and home this morning and 7 total to some friends' house for a fellowship dinner this afternoon/evening. hannah fell asleep in the trailer on the way home tonight. she was so exausted! we had a really good time with some new friends and some friends we don't get to spend a whole lot of time with.

here's the girl...practising one of her new skills, winking. this photo's from a few weeks ago, she's gotten quite proficient at it since then. although, it's still really funny

we went camping up in idllwild a few weeks ago with lots of families from our church. here are a few shots...nothing too grizzled, but for the kid's first trip, not too bad.

walking with dad

stopping for a shade break and posing with the friends.

our last morning. she actually cried after i woke her up and told her we were going home that day...that's my girl...

"operation grow tomatoes so hannah will like to eat them" has been deemed a huge success. maybe it should only be a partial success, since i haven't tried to get her to eat any tomatoes besides the ones from our plant. but she inhales the ones we've grown like i just sat her down with a bag of sugar and turned my back on her. it's really cute.

so, maybe our month has been pretty exciting. i just don't notice it while it's happening.

oh, my aching bones...

...well, muscles really.



yesterday, i biked almost 8 miles with hannah in tow. it was a great ride.



we rode up to the house of some friends for our first summer playgroup. there were pools to play in things, to climb on, lots of friends, and some shade. the kids had a picnic lunch, well, we all did... and played some more.. then they did a quick-popsicle-stick-picture-frame-craft for father's day.



the trip up was a little grueling. it took me about 40 minutes. it was uphill. the whole way. by the time we reached the last street, i was seriously contemplating getting off and walking. but i pushed through, literally, and we made it there. my bike was in some little gears and i was spinning my way up the last hill. but i felt great. when i was done!

here's a picture of hannah from january...it's my new wallpaper...

nutella is sooooo tasty!!

here's a shot of our grape tomatoes. our first batch, harvest? there are probably abround forty or fifty green ones still on the vines and three or four bunches of flowers.

here's a close-up or the tomatoes that hannah picked from our plant. she ate them like candy.

operation: "grow our own tomatoes so hannah will eat them" is a success, so far...

this one's a bit harder to see, it's the first flowers on one of our bell pepper plants. there are three... i wish there were a LOT more because we go through bell peppers like nobody's business. they make for some good snacking.

this plant is supposed to produce purple peppers. i am a bit excited to see them all grown up and ready to be eaten by me.

the new pad...

well, they are not super great, and won't give you the best idea of the amount of space, but here are some photos of the townhouse...

the place where i do laundry, it's inside. did i mention it's inside?

the two sinks where we brush our teeth. there are two of them, and we can actually use them at the same time. there's space...

the kitchen, where i cook. and just look at the counters, because there is more than one. oh, and the pantry, where i don't have to use half of my cupbaord space for food storage...

our front door. the big window actually looks into the garage. (that's mike's favourite spot, the garage.)

so, incase you didn't know our previous residence was just under 650 square feet. the new place is just over double that. it's has been quite an adjustment for me, the space. it's great. but there is so much more to do now.

we have been so very blessed by our Lord to be where we are now. i am really looking forward to seeing how He helps me to use this blessing to bless others...

mike did take a video of a walkthrough he did before we moved into the new place. if you enjoy listening to him talk, you should check it out. (it's like five minutes long!) i'll find out where you can view it and post a link.

oh, yeah, don't worry. it's not the year 2212 yet. our camera date was just off.

crazy mustaches...

today, we biked a bit over 7 1/2 miles (round trip) to take dinner to some friends who just had a baby girl. it was a great ride. i "made" a salad for them, since they had been eating out a lot in the past week. i was able to fit all of the parts into hannah's trailer.

i really need to get a lock so that i can ride to some more places...i am really enjoying this.

oh, and here's some pictures of the kid...

crazy face at the san diego zoo...

pizza crust mustache...

bikes and birthdays...

well, we've been in our new place for just over a month. i still do not have pictures to show because i have not yet found my camera-computer cord.

we are getting fairly settled and i am fighting more and more each day the thoughts of how much stuff i "need" to fill this empty space. it helps a lot that there is not a lot of disposible income to be devoted to those "needs".

hannah is three now. she's growing every day and really misses her cousin...even though she won't talk to him for the video camera.

one of my favourite things about our new location is that we are just a few miles from the things we do most often...mike's work, our church, a huge majority of our friends...so i have been trying to ride my bike more and drive less. so far, i've only made trips to church and friends houses. i don't yet have a lock for the bike and trailer, so public places are off limits still.

yesterday i biked over (with hannah in tow) to meet up with some friends and watch the cherry festival parade. it was a lot of fun and a really nice, easy ride.

this morning, we all biked to church together. (it was nice to ride all together.) then we biked to the house of some friends and had lunch. then back home. later this evening, we biked a few miles to mike's folks' place for an early father's day dinner. our route home was disrupted by a stopped train, so we ended up riding a few more miles out of the way to get home. it was way longer than i was planning, so i am pretty wiped out tonight. all totalled up, today i biked just over 14 1/2 miles...not bad.

and i am saving on gas. well, not really saving, prices are going up, up, up...but streching out our tank.

feels good.

oh, yeah...i turned 30 a week ago.

hannah is lame...

sorry debra, i can not get her to talk to nehemiah on the video. she wants to watch him over and over but will not make him a message. i think i need to get her used to being taped, i dont do it nearly as much as you do. anyway, i am working on it. and i will try to get some pictures up next week. keep bugging me.

one month later...

i have been thinking i needed to post for a while now, and every time i remember it's really not convenient or i feel like i need to post some pictures and i don't have any new ones loaded to the computer yet...

so, tomorrow will be one week since we moved in. it's so nice to be done with the moving part. the settling in part is a whole different journey. especially since i didn't do any of the packing. finding things is quite a busy job. but i am really making it out to be more difficult than it is. most everything is actually put away, although not in it's permanent spot. our bedrooms and the kitchen are fairly situated, as are the kitchen and living room. there are still things to go through in the garage...we have a garage! which we park our car in, something i have NEVER had in my almost thirty years (the being able to park in part, not the actual garage itself...anyway)

it's really nice. i feel like i am living in a hotel. it's so much bigger and newer than our old place. it will take me a while to detach myself from barbour street. it was where we became a family (hannah's first, and only so far, residence) and where all of her "firsts" happened. a nice little space, for all of the complaining. but there are so many new things to come here on allegheny avenue. God has truly blessed us witht this new season and we look forward to what he has in store for us.

what adventures will unfold for us here?....

we eagerly await them.

...pictures to come.