Playing Catch-up

So, it's been a busy few weeks! I've been typing this catch-up post off and on for quite a while...

Here are some highlights:

- January ended, and Valentine's Day plotting has begun. Better watch out, Josh... mwa ha ha ha!
- We went to see the Queen Mary with Nick, Stacy, and Kairi. (Free admission for CA residents in January!)
- We helped Scott and Michele move, but not too far.
- Geneil made skirts and headbands with the young women for a Wednesday night activity, and taught several Sunday lessons.
- Josh has gotten into the thick of his winter quarter of school—it's gonna be a doozy.
- Geneil has started building a portfolio blog.
- Brooke and Mitch came to see us for a weekend, and we were so glad to have them! We went on a fun adventure to San Diego. (That was the week that Stacy and I saw three cruise ships head out to open sea; after the first two, we told Josh and Nick that we'd better be on the next one, but we weren't. I guess it wasn't really fair, though, because the second and third ships left one right after the other, from the same dock.) :-D
- Geneil co-hosted a baby shower for Michele and the Babyroo. It was so fun!

And, sadly...
- The company that Geneil works for, which has been facing some bad economic difficulties for the past 6 months, closed three stores last week. And laid Geneil off.

Luckily, we knew that this was a possibility; I didn't expect it to happen so soon, but they did reduce my hours a few weeks ago, so I've been looking at options. Some freelance opportunities have come up that are very exciting! I'll be submitting some applications for other full-time work, too, probably. But in the meantime, I got to go with Josh to an early-evening College Night out at a high school on Monday, which I couldn't have done before!

- Hmm, do lots of these have to do with Geneil? It's because Josh has been working his tail off for work and class and with his church work. He just keeps on going, the diligent boy. He is absolutely amazing.

So yeah, we're doing okay—it's been an eventful few weeks, but things could be much worse. :-)

This is what the grass looked outside after the hailstorm that woke us up at 1 a.m. a couple of weeks ago. (I didn't get up at first—my sleepy brain just thought, "Man, that rain is loud." But then Josh got up, so I knew it must be something different.) We took these pictures the next morning; it looked cool outside at 1, bouncing slushy hail, but it was too dark to get a good picture.

Here's the pile that was left on the porch in the morning. (Our neighbors have a cute holiday wreath, no?)

I've been trying to get a good picture of Venus and the moon while they "hang out" together; we've been able to see them off of our front porch for the last few months, and they look so cool. But our little point-and-shoot camera can't quite get it.

Here's Josh, down in the engine of the Queen Mary. That's one heck of a big boat.

And here we are in front of the Midway. Notice Josh's happy face—big boat with cool airplanes, cute girl, enjoying the beautiful San Diego weather with good friends—what more could a guy want? ;-)