San Antonio

I returned from my trip to San Antonio exhausted but happy. After 5 days with 13 youth from church at the ELCA Youth Gathering there was a lot to tell! We stayed at the Hotel Contessa on the Riverwalk and enjoyed an awesome tour by riverboat. We toured the Alamo and viewed much of downtown San Antonio. But the best was, of course, the conference. We heard from speakers such as Tony Campolo, Donald Miller, and Rev. Jim Wallis. We learned the stories of such survivors as Francis Bok, who was abducted by slave traders at the age of 7 in Sudan, and Yessenia Vazquez, who ran away from her abusive home in Guatemala at the age of 15 to cross the US border by herself. And we danced and worshipped to the music of Hawk Nelson, Krystal Meyers, newsboys, and Agape. And on the last day, we communed with 25,000 Christians who had listened and learned and loved with us the whole time. The theme of the Gathering was "Cruzando" or Crossing. We learned to cross borders that we would otherwise find uncomfortable to cross--we found the courage and the strength to move outside of ourselves just as Jesus did on the ultimate cross. I wish you all could have been there--I carried you all in my heart with me.

**Pic 1 is the sitting room in my suite at the Hotel Contessa.
**Pic 2 is our view of Riverwalk right outside our lobby!
**Pic 3 is The Alamo-amazing to be where so few Americans stood so strong against so many...
**Pic 4 is the plaque that hangs outside the doors to the Alamo-no photography allowed.

Our New House

Well, we did it. We are moved into our new home. After three weeks in a hotel and just about everything going wrong, we are in and just about set up. Here's what happened...

At the beginning of June, our apartment managers called to say that they needed to enter our apartment to check for "moisture" damage. About that time I noticed that there were mushrooms growing in our kitchen. Well, they wanted us to move out, couldn't wait three weeks for our escrow to close, and had us go to a hotel. So within 48 hours we put all our stuff in storage and moved the three of us and our three cats to an extended stay hotel. Wow. The whole time we were without cable, internet, laundry, full kitchen and basic living space. I called it glamour camping.

But escrow went without a hitch, our new house is adorable, and once we got everything hooked up (another unnecessarily long process) it's all perfect!

**Pic 1 is the view of Simi Valley from the pool.

**Pic 2 is the view of the back of our building from the pool.

**Pic 3 is the pool! We've been spending a lot of time there!

**Pic 4 is our actual Unit.

**Pic 5 is our Patio. Small but pleasant--no grass to cut:)

**Pic 6 is the front of our building--so cute!