That's My King!

He is Risen Indeed! Happy Easter, everyone!

Our church played a video of the sermon "That's My King!" by Dr. S.M. Lockridge this Easter, and we thought it was awesome!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwFU61WCrFA&feature=related

Birthdays in the Burg

We spent last Thursday-Sunday in Williamsburg, VA with the Jesters. Dan was on Spring Break, so it was a good time for us to pay a visit to our brand new nephew, Aaron Timothy! We also planned our trip around Dan's mom's birthday, since we hardly ever get to celebrate fun family events in person. We spent lots of time with the fam, including cousins Jon and Carrie Gibson and their sons, Dylan and Tucker. We enjoyed good music and desserts at First Fridays Cafe at Grace Covenant Presbyterian Church. And we celebrated Mom's birthday in style, with Chinese food for dinner, an amazing homemade chocolate fudge cake that sister-in-law Dawn made, and "Clean Comedy Night" in Colonial Williamsburg. It was a fun-filled visit!

Uncle Dan and Aunt Debby getting some cuddle time with sweet baby Aaron. He won't be this tiny for long!

Dan's cousins Jon and Carrie and their two boys, Dylan and Tucker, came to the Jester's house to hang out

Dylan, Nathan, and Benjamin loved riding the treadmill. Wild and crazy fun!

Benjamin and Nathan are showing Dan all the sights around the neighborhood

Batman and Batgirl are ready to save the world!

We got to celebrate Mom's birthday with the whole family!

She needed some serious help with those trick candles!

The original Jester clan at "Clean Comedy Night"

Big Bear Weekend

We spent last weekend in the mountains at Big Bear Lake & Village, which is about a 2.5 hour drive from San Diego. We rented a cabin with our friends Dave and Cynthia and their sweet Black Labrador, Daisy, and it was a blast! Dan and I got in super late on Friday night, but on Sat. morning, Cynthia cooked blueberry/chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast before we spent the day hiking, playing in the snow, picnicking, and enjoying the beautiful sunny day. That evening, we went to a little amusement park nearby where they had an alpine slide and inner tubes you could ride down a snowy hill. After dinner, we built a log fire in our cabin, made S'mores, and played games till midnight.

We were expecting to have a leisurely morning at the cabin before we checked out on Sun., but it started snowing early! So we checked out by 8:30 and got down the mountain before the roads got too bad. We love weekend getaways with our friends! We wish it was easier to coordinate schedules for stuff like this more often!

Our friends, Dave, Cynthia, and Daisy

We hiked around Big Bear Lake in front of Snow Summit ski resort

Daisy and I were fixing a picnic lunch in our cabin
(I had just eaten chocolate, and she thought I smelled goooood!!)

Dan says "Who needs a sled??"
I say "Who's going to have a wet butt for the rest of the hike??"

Daisy's first experience playing in snow. She loved it!

It's insanely hard to get a dog to look at a camera on a timer!

It was snowing and FREEZING on Sunday morning before we left!

My Husband, the Rock Star

A couple of months ago, Dan was asked to be the lead singer for a Christian band called "The Remnant," led by one of his co-workers. He's really enjoyed practicing with them and getting to know the musicians better. Last night they had their first concert, and they rocked out!! They sang at a church that hosts Friday night concerts, and it was a great time of worshiping God. Dan sounded AWESOME and jumped around stage like a crazy rock star, and I wish that I had a video camera so you could experience some of it. Let's just say that there were some students and teachers from his school there whose world may never be the same again. :) It was a great time, though, and really fun to see him in his artistic element. Here are a couple of pictures, and if I can ever get ahold of a video, I'll try to post some of it, too.

The Remnant, live and in concert Dan's signing an autograph for a fan while the paparazzi snaps pictures in the background. haha!

His and Hers Valentine's Day

Dan and I both had a long weekend off for Valentine's Day/President's Day weekend (thanks to the wonderful, holiday-happy school schedule!). We had a date night on Friday night to celebrate Valentine's day a little early, and Dan took me out for a delicious Chinese dinner and we saw "She's Just Not That Into You." (my pick, of course) It was such a fun, relaxing evening, and I'm always amazed at how much we enjoy talking and laughing and just being with each other no matter where we are! I'm such a blessed wife!

On Saturday morning, I woke up to find these waiting to greet me:


Aren't they beautiful? We spent Valentine's Day morning taking a walk on the beach and then ate brunch at one of our favorite breakfast places in our neighborhood.

On Sunday after church, it was Dan's turn. We went to lunch at Claim Jumper's on the way up to Anaheim, where we watched the Anaheim Ducks play the Atlanta Thrashers! Now that's Dan's idea of a romantic getaway! :)

Then to top off a perfect weekend, we both had Monday off to relax and get a few errands taken care of before going back to work.

An Ode to Spiders

So last night I was complaining to Dan about spiders. We find them trying to take up residence in our house pretty regularly (until we squash them like the bugs that they are), and ever since we moved away from Denver, I've had spiders living in my car. I hardly ever see them, but they like to weave intricate webs across my windshield. One time I gave them a week at it, just to see if I had a Charlotte's Web spider who was trying to spell something out that would forever change my life. I got nothing.

Anyway, yesterday morning my road buddies had woven their web across my driver's side door, probably just for laughs or as a frail attempt to keep me out of the car. Unfortunately, I didn't realize it until I got in and then spent the whole drive to work picking spider webs out of my hair and eyelashes. Blech. I've always hated pranks.

But then I realized how lucky Dan and I have been to live in cities with dry climates for the past 9 years, because there's a long list of insects that we grew up with back east that we never come in contact with now. And we don't miss them even a little bit.

So while we are not spider lovers, we realize that they do have their charms, such as:

• they just want a nice, quiet, dark corner in which to exist
• they work alone
• they are not interested in human food
• they do not make noise
• they often freeze when they sense danger (thus making them easier to capture/kill)

And here's the list of Insects We Would Be Happy to Never Meet Again (in order of offensiveness):

1. Mosquitoes - horrible disease-carrying blood-suckers
2. Flies - their favorite food is poop. And then they want to put their nasty fly feet all over your body and picnic food
3. Bees - if your shampoo or deodorant make you smell like a flower, they hover over you like the annoying sibling who holds his finger 1/8" from your nose and keeps saying "I'm not touching you!" And you're afraid to swat at them because you might get stung.
4. Chiggers - I bordered on self-mutilation as a kid, trying to get their bites to stop itching.
5. Cockroaches - synonymous with "dirty," and I've seen them grow big enough to tackle small mammals.
6. Ants - if you see one, you know you've got a big problem somewhere nearby.
7. Gnats - you're enjoying an innocent, pleasant stroll through the park, when suddenly you walk face-first into a gnat orgy!
8. Crickets - nothing that small should be that loud. If you've ever gotten one in your house, you know you're not sleeping until you find it and throw it back outside. (for the record, Dan likes crickets, but he's not writing this now is he?)

We probably won't stop complaining about spiders, but since our families are back east, we'll always have opportunities to visit our old bug friends and realize how much worse it could be!

Happy Holidays!

We had one of the most awesome, relaxing holidays this year. Since Dan's been working at schools he's had 2 weeks off for Christmas each year, but I'm usually scraping the bottom of my vacation-time barrel by then, so we're lucky to get a full week to spend with both our families. But I'm student teaching this year, which means school holidays for me!!!! It also meant doubling up on the school concerts and work parties we attended during December, so we had a pretty hectic couple of weeks before we flew out. But it was all fun stuff, so we didn't mind.

The day after school let out, we flew to Nashville to visit my family until Dec. 26th. We got to the airport in plenty of time, but our plane had to be repaired before they would let us board, so we were 3 hours late leaving San Diego (boo, American Airlines!). Not only did this make us miss our connection in Dallas/Ft. Worth (we had to sprint across DFW to the next gate and barely made it onto the very last flight to Nashville for the night!), but it also caused Dan to miss out on going to the Predators v. Islanders hockey game that night, which was going to be a surprise for him. If you have known Dan for any time at all, you know he's a rabid Islanders fan, and it SUCKED that he missed the game!! My dad and brothers went to the game without him and they taped it at home so Dan could at least watch it later. He says to make up for it, we'll have to spend a weekend in Long Island, NY sometime to catch a home game. :)

But after that first disappointing travel day, we had a really great time with my family. We went Christmas shopping, spent time with Nashville friends, visited my parents' church, and just enjoyed hanging out together at home. On Dec. 26th, we said goodbye to Paul and Steve (my brothers) and my parents joined us for the 11.5 hour drive to Williamsburg to visit Dan's family!

The Jesters took us to see cool historical sights, like Jamestown and Colonial Williamsburg, and introduced my parents to the Nintendo Wii. My parents headed back home on Dec. 30th, and Dan and I spent the rest of our visit hanging out and relaxing with his family. We got to spend time with some of their Williamsburg friends because Dan's parents had about 50 people over for a dinner party one night! And we got to see some of our friends from Colorado who were in Virginia for the holidays, too.

It was a blast to have 2 weeks to spend on the east coast this year! We'll have to figure out some way to keep that tradition alive!

All dressed up at my work party right before Christmas break!

My best friend since age 1, Melody, her sister, and mom came over to my parents' house in Nashville for a fun visit. From left to right in back row: Mrs. Anderson, Tiffanie, and Melody; from left to right in front row: Skyler (Mel's son), Gunnar and Jacob (Tiffanie's sons).

My best friend since the 6th grade, Michelle, and her son Brendon came over, too. Michelle is expecting another little boy in April!

Michelle, Melody, and I (the 3 of us roomed together in college)

I met my friend from college, Sarah, and her son, Aaron, at the mall for lunch while Dan and I were Christmas shopping. It was great to see her and meet her cute little boy!

The Campbell Clan: Dad, Mom, older brother Paul, me, Dan, and younger brother Steve.

All the Colonial Williamsburg buildings were decorated for Christmas with natural and homemade materials. It was beautiful!

One of the recreated ships (maybe the Godspeed?) at historical Jamestown

Me playing my mother-in-law in Wii boxing. She's really tough!

Dan playing the Leapster with our nephew, Benjamin

"Officer Nathan" trying on his policeman uniform after we opened presents

"Officer Benjamin" - watch out for him, he loves to give out tickets!

Dan with his brother, Tim, and sister, Robin

Dan and Mike Robert, one of our friends from Colorado who we met in VA

Me with Courtney Pickford, Kate Robert, and Charlotte (Mike and Kate's sweet daughter)

The Jester Family - top row: Dad, Tim, Dawn, me, Dan, and Robin; bottom row: Mom, Benjamin, and Nathan