The Happiest Place on Earth

So Thursday was the day...Disneyland day. My friend, Will, who had the free tickets, called me up and off we went. I've never been to the California Adventure park so we hit that park first. Wondered around until we found a roller coaster that made me feel sick to my stomach looking at it. Very fast, very steep and even a loop the loop. But this is about adventures so I bit the bullet and on we went. I HATE the feeling of falling...and there were lots of opportunities on this ride. I gritted my teeth (never been much of a screamer) and held on with white fists. And to my surprise I found myself laughing. Took me a little while to find my feet afterwards, so we wondered over to another ride called Soarin over California. You sit in a swing type contraption and it's a bit like a flight simulator where you feel like you are flying over the state of California...and they even pump through smells to make it a bit more authentic, like pine when you are going through the snow fields in the north, and oranges when you are going through the orange groves of Orange County. A pretty cool ride and you get to see lots of California. Next was lunchtime. And then we made the mistake of going back on the rollercoaster straight after. Our tummies had a more interesting ride than the rest of us. I tried to convince Will to go on a raging river ride with me, but he refused, saying he hates being wet...this coming from a surfer. So I called him a baby for the rest of the day and we were even stevens. We decided to pop over to Disneyland to have a look around. Went on the Indiana Jones ride, Pirates of the Caribbean (this was really just an excuse to be able to sit down for a while), and finished off by waiting in line for over an hour for Space Mountain. By this time we were so exhausted, our feet and legs were aching and because both of us have been to Disneyland multiple times, we decided to call it a day. It was Grad Night for a lot of high school students so the park was getting more and more busy. Off we trotted to the car and got some dinner on the way home. Was such a fun day. No pictures of me at Disneyland. There are a couple of lame ones below. I kept forgetting that my phone has a camera on it. As a side note...my favourite ride ended up being the scary rollercoaster. Lesson learned: sometimes the scariest things turn out to be your most favourite and exhilarating.

Yesterday Ilene was going to a friend's house to make baby shower invitations and asked me to come along and help. So off I went to put my craft skills to use. We finished all the invitations and then Ilene said that there was a pizza party at the Refinery at Saddleback Church (this is a building where the youth ministry is housed and has recreation and eating places). A new pizzeria has opened up so they were giving out free pizza. I'm always up for free food so off we went and I got to see Tom and Chaundel Holladay again, briefly. Ilene had a PEACE meeting with Bob and a potential missionary so we went over to the office where I was introduced to a few members of the PEACE team. I ended up talking to for quite a while to a guy called Matt. He loves travel and told me his story of how he came to follow Jesus less than a year ago and is now on paid staff on the PEACE team. An exciting story to hear. While I was waiting for Ilene to finish, Will called and said he was around the corner and did I want to hang out. I thought it was a better option than sitting around an office where everyone was trying to work, so we went off to the movies to watch Monsters University. It was a matinee and I felt very old in a cinema filled with primary school children. But the movie was a lot of fun. Dinner to follow and then we went and hung out at Starbucks where Will told me all about his upcoming trip to the Congo.

Today I am on piano receiving duties. Bob's mum has gone into a nursing home so they are clearing out her house. Ilene has always wanted a piano and Gogo's was up for grabs, so while Bob and Ilene are out at missions meetings this afternoon, I am waiting for the huge grand piano to arrive here.

And that's my life for the past couple of days. Feel free to email me what is happening in your lives: rosiekbryant@gmail.com
Photos: Will...happy waiting in line at the happiest place on earth, Walt Disney statue.

Visiting Grandmas

So yesterday I had a very authentic California experience of spending the majority of my day on LA freeways in traffic. You really are not experiencing LA if you don't get stuck in traffic. Ilene, Kari and I drove to the north of LA to where the grandparents live. Both of Lisa and Kari's grandmas live in the same nursing home and they even share the same room. It was fun to see where they live and how well looked after they are. It is a house that has been converted into a nursing home where they only take 6 patients at a time. All the staff are Christians and see it as their ministry and they take such good care of everyone. It was nice to visit a nursing home that smelled like a home and not like a hospital! We then drove back to Grandpa Hiepler's place where we had lunch with some cousins (FYI Lisa: Nicole, Natalie and Sarah and Aunt Doreen was there too). Ilene was spending the night there so she could spend some quality time with her sister and dad, so Kari and drove all the way home...a LOOONG 3.5 hours in bumper to bumper traffic.

On the way home we stopped off at Kari's grandfather's old ranch in Malibu. It was sold after he passed away but Kari wanted to have a little look to see what had been done to the place. She knows the owner so it wasn't too creepy of us to snoop around. The house looks great with a fresh coat of paint. We went out the back to check out the horse stables and were treated to a pony show. The owner is in the midst of training Sammy, a little pony, to do some tricks. Was very cute.

We then went on to Dana Point where I met up with Will to hang out while Kari caught up with her best friends who she hadn't seen since her return. An evening of mexican food and Point Break. A classic that Will, James, Amy and myself used to watch a lot of when Amy and Will lived in Perth for a year. Good memories.

Tuesday I had a relaxing day of reading etc. In the evening we decided to take our dinner and go and visit Isaac, the adopted son of Bob and Ilene, who lives in Laguna Beach. His front porch has an amazing view of the ocean so we hijacked the table and he was able to join us for a bit before he went off to dinner with his girlfriend. Was lovely watching the sunset and some crazy people swimming in the cold night air.

Crazy Bird

Insanity: doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.
This bird for the past 3 weeks has constantly been flying into the window, headbutting it. Birds in Cali are crazy!

Life in Sunny So Cal

It's been a fun week since I posted last, catching up with Bob and Kari who returned from Rwanda. It's been interesting hearing from Bob and Ilene of all the work that Saddleback Church has put into the restoration of Rwanda. It has taken a long time to get to the point where the country is moving forward. It's hopeful to see something so broken, now moving past the past and into the future. Ilene said that the preschool they have been helping out have talked to the local school and they are a little concerned that the preschool kids will get bored when they get to Year 1 as they seem to be getting such a great education at the preschool.

I've been able to hang out at the beach a bit. I go with my friend who is a surfer and sit on the beach and read, or watch the other surfers. It was almost warm enough to go in the water today but unfortunately the beach with the good surf is covered with large rocks. The surfers tentatively walk out very slowly until it's deep enough to swim, and honestly I'm not that desperate to go in the cold water. It's lovely just to relax and see the horizon and get some fresh air.

Yesterday I thought I'd go for a walk on some of the horse trails around the house where I am living at the moment. I got completely lost but had my phone with GPS on it so it told me where I needed to go. Much more interesting that just walking around the streets. My hips, which have been bothering me since Hawaii, seem to be behaving themselves too. I googled my problem and the internet seems to think that the biggest problem is the way I walk, so I've been concentrating on my gait and it seems to have helped.

This weekend was Father's Day in the US so we celebrated it on Saturday as Bob, Ilene and Kari were away for a family wedding for the rest of the weekend. We had waffles for brunch and it was nice to sit outside on the back patio and enjoy the cool morning. This meant I was on horse-sitting duty, making sure the horses in the backyard were fed. I was also supposed to go hiking this weekend, but my hips were bothering me, after a long walk to the beach the day before, and my friend who I was going with cut his foot open while surfing. So us walking wounded ended up not doing much at all.

So my life here is not necessarily that exciting but it's been good to reconnect with people and just catch up on what others are doing and learning. Lots of down time and I feel very much in holiday mode. I wonder if it's going to be very hard to go back to work at the end of 4 months. Who knows where or what that will be. For now I'm enjoying the ride.
Picture: Me at the beach today and the backyard I get to hang out in....when I am talking with people I get so engrossed in the conversation that I forget to take photos of people. Sorry, I'll try to remember.

Problem solved!

For many years I have complained about never finding pants or jeans long enough to fit me in Australia. My brother has found a solution to my problem. Climb up something you're not supposed to at work and fall, pulling metal down on top of you, breaking your leg. Before the doctors fixed his leg it turns out it was 3" shorter. So problem solved for me. Break my legs, I'll be shorter and then pants/jeans will fit.
No worries!

Taco Tuesday

Today I was thinking about my nomadic life and how displaced I feel at the moment. Even at home I don't feel like I totally belong and I have a restlessness of searching for where my place is. I was reading Psalm 84 and it was comforting to know that I probably won't ever find my true place of belonging until I step into Heaven and enter the courts of the Lord. My mum sent me verse 5 the other day which says: What joy for those whose strength comes from the Lord, who have set their minds on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem.
I'm not on a literal pilgrimage to Jerusalem (although I might pop over and have a look during Sept), but I am on a journey to find where I'm supposed to belong temporarily for the next stage of life. It's exciting!

Today was spent doing some shopping with Ilene...a Costco run which is always good for free food samples, and buying anything in ridiculously large sizes. I also got to catch up with our old family friends, Tom and Chaundel Holladay, who started Saddleback with Rick and Kay Warren and are still serving there. Was such a special time spent catching up with them for their family's Taco Tuesday dinner.
Grateful for many years of sharing the journey together (in this instance 22 years).

Ilene thought that she was picking up Bob and Kari tonight from the airport but after waiting and waiting for Bob to come and him never eventuating, it became clear that they are coming home tomorrow night. Will be good when they finally arrive.

What have I been up to?

These past few days have been a lot of fun in small ways.
On Friday I got a call from my friend, Will, to say that there was a massive swell that had come in and that the waves at Wedge were at 20'+. So off we went to Newport Beach to check them out. These waves were huge and when they hit the earth shook. I don't think I've ever seen waves that big before in person. The beach was lined with onlookers as we watched the craziest of the crazy body surf the waves and get pounded. The life guards were on high alert. It was fun to watch. Then we got some mexican deliciousness on the way home. Ilene (Lisa's mum) arrived home that night from a 17 day mission trip to Rwanda. Was so good to see her and hear about the pre-school they were helping in Rwanda.

Saturday was a bit of a blob day and catch up day with Ilene. In the afternoon I caught up with a friend when we went to get dinner (mexican again...Wahoos is pretty amazing!) and then a movie - The Internship. Was pretty funny with a lot of laugh out loud moments.

Sunday Ilene and I went to church at Saddleback. It's been quite a while since I have been to a service there and so much has changed since I was working there 14 years ago. I doubt I could find my way around the campus. It's so huge with so many new buildings and carparks. It's always an experience when you have to catch a shuttle bus to get from the carpark to the actual church building. Mark Driscoll from Mars Hill church in Seattle was the speaker while Rick Warren is on sabatical. Was a good reminder on what it means to follow Jesus and what being 'born again' really means. One thing I love about the Saddleback auditorium is that there is so many windows and natural light coming in. I like worshipping God when I can at least see some of his creation.
The sun was shining so we decided to take a drive down to Fallbrook (about an hour south) to where Ilene's parents own a couple of houses. She wanted to check them out to make sure they were being looked after as they are rentals. Was a lovely day to drive down the coast with the sun sparkling off the water. The houses both looked spic and span so Ilene was encouraged by that. On the way home we stopped in at the outlet mall and bought a few things each (although you can't buy much when you have to lug it around the world for 4 months...good incentive to save money). Then I got a call from my friend, Will who had just finished surfing and wanted to know what I was up to. So we met up with him at Starbucks and Ilene went on home while Will and I went for a drive to Laguna Beach.
It's a great little beachy town with a lot of upscale shops and restaurants, and a lot of art galleries. We found a more deserted part of the beach and did a bit of adventuring, climbing over rocks and around tide pools. At one stage we got caught in a tiny cove and a large wave came in...no way out in a hurry so we both got soaked up to the knees. Pretty hilarious. Will is a bit of a delicate flower and decided he didn't want to be cold and wet (as he had been in the water all day) so we climbed out and back up to his car for him to get changed into dry jeans. I on the other hand am a tough Aussie so stayed in wet jeans and enjoyed the sunset with freezing cold legs and feet. And then home again where I made myself some dinner.

Today (Monday) was spent running some errands at a few different shops. I met Ilene and her friend at a restaurant for a tasty lunch. On Monday afternoons Ilene has 2 small children come over to give riding lessons to. They are around 4 & 5 years old and the little girl LOVES horses. She even has pink cowboy boots. So cute. Was fun watching the kids fight over who's turn it was to feed Enzo carrots. Tonight I caught up with my good friend Tammy at the Irvine Spectrum. We ate dinner at a vegan restaurant. I figured if I can eat bats in Indonesia, I can give vegan food a whirl. Wasn't half bad. I had a 'chicken' burger. I have no idea what it was actually made of but it tasted pretty good to me. Was good to catch up with her. We met 14 years ago when I first arrived to volunteer at Saddleback. I was fresh off the plane when James asked me to help out at a huge youth event the church held. Tammy and I were both assigned to the photo booth at the event and we've been friends ever since.

So that's what I have been up to so far. Lots of little things to make my day interesting.
A special shout out to my big brother Alan, who is currently in surgery getting his broken leg repaired from a serious fall at work yesterday. Praying for you mate!
Rosie