Thrifting

Kevin and I have been severely disappointed by thrift stores around Pasadena thus far. This weekend we gave it a shot again. It was still pretty sad, but at least we can check off a few more stores as "not returning to." I would not even begin to pretend that this is a thrifting blog, but I thought one find yesterday was blog-worthy. Can you imagine showing up to a beach barbecue carrying this cooler?


look more closely



DOS = Date of Surgery
They obviously had to dump this cooler after someone not so smart wrote directly on the cooler instead of using some masking tape. But I should thank that person, because now I never want to buy a cooler at a thrift store.

How Do You Spell M-e-l-o-d-y?

Sometimes on Saturdays Kevin and I go out for coffee and breakfast at a place I can only describe as a holy union.


This Peet's Coffee and Noah's Bagels are right next to each other, and you can even walk between the two with a pass through in the wall they share. Kevin and I will sometimes split up, with him waiting for the coffee and me ordering bagels. I always love to see how people hear my name and write it down. This is especially out of control at Noah's. My name will come back as Melanie, Mandi, or Melodi. But today took the cake.



If you look closely, today my name is Melendy.

Meet Peep

My cell phone started majorly sucking a week ago (maybe longer) when I could no longer see the screen, and I was hearing that voicemails and text messages were not being received. On one day in particular, Kevin called me 5 times, and to look at my sad little phone you would think no one had called in days. So, we thought about our options- and we decided it was time for an upgrade. My iPhone is even better than the commercials make it out to be. I love it. I will refrain from listing the minutiae of why I love it so much, because I doubt you want to know about the timer, or my daily calendar. But if you do, call me! No, seriously, call me. I love talking on the phone now. If I were not smart I might actually post my phone number to force you to call me.

Our Friend Preston

Last Monday night a friend of ours, Preston Newby, was killed. Please feel free to learn more about this story here, here, and here. Kevin and I were classmates, co-workers, and fellow ministers with Preston. He and my brother Jonathan were co-youth pastors at their church, and Preston was one of Jonathan's very best friends. He is a man who changed the lives of everyone who knew him, and we both wanted to share a few of our favorite memories of Preston.

Kevin knew Preston before he knew me, and they both worked on the grounds crew at our college. Kevin said he would always see Preston driving around on this big green tractor, all over campus. Even driving it through the rain Preston was always smiling, and joking with his co-workers.

When my brother and Preston began working together at Lake Bible, I couldn't think of a better ministry situation for Jonathan. Jonathan and my sister-in-law Kristin were inseparable with Preston and his wife Tara. I could hardly ever think of J&K without P&T. When Kevin and I attended Lake Bible while living in Portland, we would visit my brother up in the youth room, and Preston was almost always the person to greet us, and ask how everything was.

After our wedding Kevin and I returned to Portland, and late one night we were shopping at Target. We had only been in town for one day, and Preston and Tara were the first people we saw when we ran into each other in Target. It was great seeing them that night, because we were excited for them as Tara was newly pregnant with their son Jacob, and they were excited for our new marriage.

We also shared a "kids" Thanksgiving with Preston and Tara, Jonathan and Kristin, and Matt and Stephanie. Some of the guys relaxed...


While the ladies worked....


Jonathan carved the Turkey...


While Preston and Tara waited patiently...


We have prayed non-stop for Tara since we received the news. Please pray for her, and also pray for Jonathan and Kristin as they have lost someone who was as close as a brother to them. Preston will be greatly missed in our lives and in the lives of the countless people he helped.

Tina Fey as Sarah Palin

Kevin and I stayed up just for this portion of SNL, watched the whole thing and somehow missed the BEST part!

Metrolink Crash

This afternoon there was a really horrible crash when a metrolink (light rail) train collided with a freight train. See one article here. One woman who lives close to the metrolink line ran to the scene, when an injured man walked to her, she described him dying in her arms. The families of these victims will need plenty of prayer. If you think of it, please pray.

Remember This?

Well, probably not. I never showed them to you.

Here is Kevin "packing" the boxes, so we posed it, so what?


The happy movers. We were happy at this point because we had spent a few days off the road and at my parent's house.


The car was even packed full. We may have needed a bigger truck.


And this was me at our old apartment. We replaced some blinds that had some slight burn/melt marks on them. I sat on the bed, then stood up to put a screw in the wall. When I stood up some sticky part of the new packaging had nestled itself into my- seat.


Well, we're doing it again. Are we simply gluttons for punishment, whose memories have conveniently blocked out how horrible moving is? Not really. We (I) just got really tired of having no outdoor space. And after spending some time in other studios we realized just how strange the layout of our current apartment is (poor use of space). Our lease is up on September 12 and we are moving on October 17 (2 days after our second anniversary).

This move will be considerably easier than our last since we are just moving up two floors. This means that we will no longer live on the ground floor in the center of our complex, this also means that as residents of the third floor we no longer have to deal with upstairs neighbors. We will still be living in a studio, but now we will have a balcony!!