Back in Session

The Fall quarter started this past Monday (Noel's 9th quarter out of 11 or 12...we're not sure yet). As always, it's a bit of a struggle adjusting back to the rigorous schedule and the academic demands Noel faces. Noel's taking Homiletics, Foundations for Youth Ministry, and Beginning Hebrew this quarter as well as serving as an intern at our church. Noel attended his first Hebrew class on Monday and started on his homework Tuesday afternoon. I was quietly working at my desk when he suddenly broke out into song, making noises that didn't even sound human to me. I asked, "What are you even saying?" He replied, "The Hebrew alphabet!" He sang the song so many times that I think I know the Hebrew alphabet now, too! Wednesday morning, he woke up early with me to continue working on his homework. Once again, he started making strange "noises". This time he was sounding out Hebrew words (mostly people in the Bible). Some of the words sound similar to English, so we kind of ended up playing MadGab (for those of you who are familiar with that game). Noel would sound it out, and I would say who I thought it was (unless he beat me to it). I tried to capture a bit of him sounding out words on video, but I'm not sure how well it turned out. Plus, it was much funnier before he knew I was taping. Hopefully you get the picture. I think we're in for an interesting quarter!

Living Stones Welcome Night

We are the community coordinators for our apartment building, Living Stones. Each community starts the new year with a Welcome Night, which usually consists of dinner and fellowship time. It's a great way to start the new school year, welcome new residents, and introduce them to residents who have been around longer. We love being the community coordinators and love all the people in our community. We decided to have a progressive dinner for our activity. Our friends, Dani and Michelle, hosted appetizers, we hosted the main dish, and Jill and Henry hosted dessert. It was a huge success! Everyone who came brought really yummy food and we all had a great time.

Disneyland!

We finally made it to Disneyland last Thursday! We've had tickets hanging on our bulletin board for 2 years, but have been unable to find the time (or energy) to go. I'm so glad we finally made the trek to Anaheim to spend a really fun day riding the rides and feeling like we didn't have a care in the world. We even went on the Teacups and managed to not get sick! Space Mountain was Heidi's favorite and Noel thoroughly enjoyed the Buzz Lightyear ride.

Happy Birthday, Noel!

We celebrated Noel's 27th birthday yesterday. He requested a meal of flank steak, cheesy mashed potatoes, asparagus, and a carrot cake for dessert. I decided to add some baked crab rangoons to the menu for an appetizer. He thought we were just having a couple of friends over for dinner (John and Amanda), but he didn't know that I invited a few more friends over to surprise him and enjoy his birthday cake. People started showing up at 8:30 and Noel was so confused. It was really fun to watch his expression and see him surprised! Everyone that showed up for cake brought Noel and single bottle of beer to wish him a happy birthday. Don't worry, he didn't drink it all in one night...he didn't even drink any of it yet. We had a really fun night hanging out with many friends.

Griffith Park

Sometimes the city really gets to us. Saturday was one of those days. We both just kept saying, "We've got to get out of here!" We couldn't decide where to go, didn't know if it was worth fighting the traffic, but finally decided we had no choice. To Griffith Park we went! We tried going in a new entrance and discovered the cutest cafe where we sat and shared a soy latte and a piece of pear ginger cake topped with ice cream. It was quite a treat considering that we weren't out looking for food!

It truly is amazing what a difference it makes to get out into the wilderness (well, almost) and surround yourself with trees instead of buses, helicopters, screaming children, and LOUD motorcycles.

Hollywood!

We went to Hollywood last Friday (Heidi's first time seeing the theaters and stars). We figured that after living with it 15 minutes down the road for 2 years, we ought to get out and see it before we move (not that we have definite moving plans yet; that's in another year). Of course, once you get there you realize there is really nothing special about Hollywood as a city, but it's still fun to go and see what all the hype is about.