The Arrival

I know I am lame because it is taking me forever to get the rest of our road trip up, but we have been going non-stop since we got to California. The morning we left Vegas we were able to spend a few hours with our friend Doug before we hit the road. He is in the air force and was there for a few weeks when we passed through. It was great getting to hang out one last time. He took us around to some casinos we weren't able to see the night before.....crazy beautiful. Again, it is unbelievable how much money goes into these things. From there, we left for Pasadena, which may be the coolest city ever. I LOVED Pasadena! Old Town is such a quaint place with the best shopping and food you could hope for. We ate some great Mexican and spent the next day walking around Old Town and hanging out. The first thing I noticed was how absolutely incredible the weather is in California. It is cool in the evenings and early mornings and completely comfortable during the day. I loved the fact that we didn't have any sand gnats attacking us either. We spent the day looking at places to live, but Pasadena is a tad outrageous.....even for California.

Until yesterday, we have spent most all our time here looking for places to live. We were prepared for it to be more expensive, be we didn't realize how expensive things really are out here. It was more than a full-time job. We would leave first thing in the morning and look all day until just before dinner. After dinner, we would get online and look for places to check out the next day. We would come home discouraged most every night. We both spent ample time praying that God would make the decision an easy one. We prayed for wisdom and clarity...and it came. Without making this story any longer than it already is, we found a great studio on CCV's classifieds page online. The front house is owned and occupied by a young couple in the church and they have a brand new studio behind the house. Although it is small (and we haven't figured out if we will be able to fit all of our furniture in it), it is extremely affordable and our rent includes all of our utilities, cable, internet and the rest. It was a God-send. Yeah! We will be moving in on Friday....can't wait.