On California

Our California days look a lot like this:

 

 

Downtown Disney dates:

Marty built this gem at the Lego Store:)

Adventures:

You can see Salvation Mountain in the background. It's a "mountain" made out of clay, mud, sticks, and paint with a beautiful message.

Salton Sea. Saltier than the ocean, not as salty as The Great Salt Lake. Smelled a lot like home:)

where does the sky end and the sea start?

Things I don't get about California:

• When you're backing up people do not stop. They just fly past and try to beat you backing up
• People do not let you in when you're changing lanes. Since I've been here I've been trying to build up serious karma by letting everyone in and doing the "thank you" wave
• There are a billion donut shops here. Like probably more donut shops here than Mormon churches in Utah. Most of them are open 24 hours and sell the cheapest, most delicious donuts.
• Earthquakes. Scariest thing of my life.
• Most gas stations here aren't convienent stores. Like you know how in Utah every gas station you can fill your car up, go inside get a drink and a snack? Not here. Most of them don't even have an "inside." I hate it. I always used to get a soda while filling up. 
• No fry sauce. Don't get me wrong, I already knew there was no fry sauce long before moving here, but really. They put thousand island dressing every where fry sauce should go so I'm sure they would love it if they just tried it. I'm working on that.
• Motorcycles ride in between lanes here. Scariest shit right there.
• And many other things mostly relating to working in a hospital, differences in surgical techniques, nursing uniforms, double occupancy, etc.

Things I love about California:

• The beach. Oh how I love the beach.
• The weather. It's science that sunshine makes you happy, it sure makes me feel good
• The strict labor laws. You get paid overtime after 8 or 12 hours (depending on how you were hired) even if you haven't worked 40 hours that week=the best!
• Disneyland, of course!!
• New places to eat and adventure
• Recycling! You get paid 5-10 cents on every plastic bottle. Marty and I collect a ton, and then take it to the recycling place and get paid. 

 xoxo, Lace

Life has been so incredibly good to us! We've been here for a little over a month now but it still doesn't really feel real. What we've been up to:

• Marty and I found a non-denominational Christian Church that we loooove! It's called Eastside Christian Church. The pastor is one of the greatest men I've ever met and I KNOW God created this Church for me. That's how serious I am! We got baptized two weekends ago and it was amazing. 

 This picture ^ is me being soooo stoked about getting baptized.

• Marty got into both of the schools he applied to (Cal State Long Beach, Cal State Fullerton) so now he gets to choose:) He was originally denied to both schools because he didn't take ONE class, "critical thinking" so he's taking that online this semester and then we'll be in business. Literally all the big universities require that critical thinking course but none of them offer it. It's so strange. Plus Marty has his associates degree so it's weird to me. 

• I GOT A JOB! So I've been working temp stuff through my friends staffing company but it was office type stuff. I put books in an envelope to ship one day, removed staples from papers to scan another, and copied and pasted files another. I'm so grateful to have had that income but WAY glad to be done. I've applied to probably 80 jobs here in California but nothing was really happening. It was incredibly frustrating! I did get contacted by a staffing agency for nursing. I took 1 assignment on a medsurg floor in LA which was like a 3 hour drive round-trip. It was just disastrous all around, and again I'm so glad to be done. So FINALLY I had a call from Placentia-Linda Hospital and went in for the interview. It was great, it was more like a chat with a friend then being grilled at an interview. All the nurses on the floor told me the doctors were great. And nurses don't just say that about doctors unsolicited! So I believe them. I'm in the background/drug screen phase so I don't have a start date but again God has watched out for me and kept me on the line for this job. 

• We got Disney annual passes! We've gone at least once a week since we got them and I can't believe this is my life.  I wear my Mickey ears every time and we always have a blast.

And always get churros! MMMM

• We've still been going to the beach often. We are starting to acclimate and now want to get wet suits so we can still body surf! I love going to the beach and watching the sun set. It's beautiful!
  
  
   
  

  

  Sunset at Newport Beach

  
  

  

  Sunset at Hunington Beach. Taken by my friend Kim Chapman but really, beach sunsets are the best.

  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

• I ordered this painting in November because I knew I would miss my Boomer. It FINALLY arrived and every time I see it I squeal with delight like I do in real life!
  

  

  compliments of Bellstation via Etsy

  
  

•  We celebrated Valentine's! We went out to lunch since we knew it wouldn't be as crazy as dinner and then just ate spaghetti at home.

  

  The adorable spread for Marty. He got me tulips. I didn't take a picture of them..but they were pretty!

  
  I believe it was snowing at home the day I took this picture because I took it to say ha ha hahaha it's sunny today! :) #goodfriend
  
  

 So life is good and certainly only possible through Our Savior. We miss home, but love making this our new home!

Our California Life!

I made a lot of  dreams come true in 2013 and now I'm on to making even more come true in 2014! For as long as I can remember I've wanted to live in California. So since I graduated, I decided to ditch the snow and cold weather I've ALWAYS HATED and move to the land of the sun. I put together a little tour of our house since all of our family is out of town now.

Marty and I packed up all our stuff and moved to California!!!

On Friday Jan 3 we left Riverton, UT at 5:40 am. This was our view for the next 600+ miles

After about 13 hours of driving, we made it!

Welcome to our home!

 

Entryway

To the left is a coat closet (HA!) and to the right is the kitchen:

We looooooove the kitchen. It has waaaay more cabinet space than the old apartment. Some of them are empty still! Haha. To the left of the fridge is a pantry, and it is deep!

We are very lucky to have such a pretty kitchen with all the appliances because as we found out early on in our search, a looooot of apartments don’t come with a fridge!

The sink is really deep and the faucet doubles as a sprayer with two settings. It’s also an open plan so you can see the TV from the sink. Makes dishes really nice for Marty ;)

Straight ahead of the kitchen is the living room.Straight out the sliding doors is our patio.

Which has a view of this:

There’s a little water fall and a koi pond out here. It is soo relaxing to leave the door open and listen to the water.

This is our comfiest couch. Wink wink;)  

Entertainment center

I don’t know why the picture is crooked. But it’s Sunday, so of course football is on.

To the right of the living room, heading toward the bedroom is this cute little nook 

Straight ahead is the linen closet.

 

Again, I don’t know why some of these pictures are crooked. Whatever I’m not a photographer.

Anyway, inside the linen closet is our W/D which we are sooooo grateful to have because it is an extreme rarity to find in the OC.

 

I’m doing laundry as I write this so stop judging my over flowing laundry hamper. 

To the right of the linen closet is our bathroom.

With a tub to die for!

Taking baths is one of my favorite activities!

Across from the bathroom is the bedroom. And this built in desk!

The door to the right of the desk is the bedroom.

I love all the natural light! Outside that window you can see the little pond area so you can hear the waterfall from our bedroom too.

 And my favorite part: THE WALK-IN CLOSET!! 

Above all, we have been loving the weather! It is supposed to get up to 80 this week! It doesn’t feel like January at all! On our days off together we’ve been exploring the sunny beaches of California!

This is Heisler Park a reserve at Laguna Beach. It is the prettiest landscaping I’ve ever seen! We put our feet in the water but since it’s a reserve, you can’t swim or surf here.

Laguna is only about 15-20 miles from our house, so not bad at all.

 

However, we’d heard Venice Beach was kinda cool so we decided to make the hour trek yesterday.

It was definitely different being in LA vs the OC where we live. LA is a lot less nice. The beach itself is pretty, but the boardwalk is crazy. There are weed stores everywhere because medicinal marijuana is legal here. Anyway, I think Marty and I are going to adjust to being beach bums just fine! 

It feels like we’re on vacation because of the weather and we’ve both been home all week. Marty is going back to work tomorrow and I’m back to the job hunt! Usually Marty drives around but since he’s going back to work tomorrow I’m all on my own! I can drive to the grocery store and I know where the pool is at our house so I should be set!

We love and miss you all! 

WISH YOU WERE HERE!

 

 

On dreaming.

"If you can dream it, you can do it" -Walt Disney

AND I DID IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well, I graduated college, moved into my own apartment, and went on that cruise. I also landed a pretty sweet job as an RN :) I still do the giddy girl dance whenever I get to say "I'm Lacy and I'm going to be your nurse." What? It's over? It's finally over? PS, that means I PASSED THE NCLEX!!!

Since I was 8 years old I wanted to be a nurse. So I guess that means it's been a 15 year journey. Hell, that's quite a commitment. Actually motivates me to do ANYTHING! If I stuck with something for 15 years, imagine what else I could in the next 15?

I (kinda always have) totally believe in "dreams come true" because mine did! It's been so incredibly nice (and weird) to just sit on the couch and just be. I still come home and say "wow, I'm a nurse." It's not that I never thought it would happen, I dunno I always knew I could do it, I guess during the process I just never thought it would end.

And since I've accomplished that dream, it's on to newer, bigger dreams. I want to speak Spanish, play the piano, be referred to as "a good cook", catch up on scrapbooking my life from those said 15 years I missed chasing my dream, and ultimately become a travel nurse! Oh I neeeed to lose the extra 15-20 pounds I've gained being a couch potato studier. I started a 6 week book camp today and hopefully next time I blog I'll be screaming joyfully about my results.

Sigh.

growing up.

I scheduled the date of my licensing exam (NCLEX). May 29 at 2pm. I have basically felt nauseous since, but the only way out of this is taking the thing. I'm nervous, sure but extremely excited. I got this.

I graduate in 17 days.
Moving into my own apartment mid-June.
Going on a cruise a couple days after that.

So excited about this life that is mine that is happening!

Devastated.

I now know that I have never felt this emotion before in my life, until now. That emotion is devastation. I was too young to fully understand 9/11 or I bet I'd be devastated about that too. I'm still devastated about what happened 2 weeks ago in Connecticut. Are you kidding me? Little babies? My heart hurts, and my stomach is sick. I literally have not stopped thinking about this since I heard about it. I can't. I try, but I can't.

It occurred on the day I took my last final. A day I should have been celebrating, but that was the last thing I felt like doing. How could I celebrate anything in this ugly world again?

Admittedly, I've always been naive and a little bit optimistic. Unlike my parents, I believe there are good in people. That there is good in this world. That there are people who will return my purse and not take anything if I leave it at a mall. That neighbors will bring me meals in time of need. And that people are good.You can imagine how much this event struck me to my core. No one can go into a school of little kids, little babies and shoot them point blank just because. But he did.

As one my good friend always says about the death of her little boy, not from the shooting, from stupid cancer! "You can't make sense out of nonsense." And you can't. What happened is sick. It's crazy. It's nonsense and I'll never be able to understand it.

I don't understand mental illness. I don't. Not like I should at least. But what I DO know, is there is nothing that makes me madder than hell than people arguing about this. DO YOU NOT SEE? Anger, and hate created this! This kid was so mad, and so angry, and so sick. And you are acting like him by fighting with some lady on Facebook about gun control. And how horrible of a president Obama is (which I don't see how this has anything to do with what happened, by the way). That doesn't even matter. What matters is there are 20 little kids, little babies, and 6 of the best human beings on this planet who didn't deserve to die and you idiots don't want to do anything about it. You want to fight online with strangers about something you know nothing about.

This isn't a political issue. This isn't a gun issue. This is a mental health issue. I pray for a better world and take comfort that Jesus is my Savior and their Savior too. And those sweet sweet babies are in the best place imaginable. And I pray they help me and Jesus, make this place better because humans have so much more potential than what we're showing right now.

PS. I heard this poem on KBUL 93 a few days after the shooting and I had to share. Also, I'm sorry for being Debbie Downer during the holiday season, but I just HAD to say something. 

Twas' 11 days before Christmas, around 9:38,

when 20 beautiful children stormed through heaven's gate.

Their smiles were contagious, their laughter filled the air.

They could hardly believe all the beauty they saw there.

They were filled with such joy, they didn't know what to say.......

They remembered nothing of what had happened earlier that day.

"Where are we?" asked a little girl, as quiet as a mouse.

"This is heaven." declared a small boy.

"We're spending Christmas at God's house."

When what to their wondering eyes did appear,

but Jesus, their savior, the children gathered near.

He looked at them and smiled, and they smiled just the same.

Then He opened His arms and He called them by name.

And in that moment was joy, that only heaven can bring.

Those children all flew into the arms of their King.

And as they lingered in the warmth of His embrace,

one small girl turned and looked at Jesus' face.

And as if He could read all the questions she had,

He gently whispered to her, "I'll take care of mom and dad."

Then He looked down on earth, the world far below

He saw all of the hurt, the sorrow, and woe.

Then He closed His eyes and He outstretched His hand,

"Let My power and presence re-enter this land!"

"May this country be delivered from the hands of fools"

"I'm taking back my nation. I'm taking back my schools!"

Then He and the children stood up without a sound;

"Come now my children, let me show you around."

Excitement filled the space, some skipped and some ran;

All displaying enthusiasm that only a small child can.

And I heard Him proclaim as He walked out of sight,

"In the midst of this darkness, I AM STILL THE LIGHT."

So I went to Moab

My friend Dominique from school and her little sister live in Sugarhouse but they're originally from Nevada. Last year during the height of all the divorce drama in my household I spent Thanksgiving in Reno with her and her family. For the first time in 6 years I had black Friday off so we decided to make a little vacation out of Thanksgiving and spend it in MOAB. All I can say is I can't believe I've never been there! We saw cars from New York and South Carolina and we drove like 4 hours east and made it. We are blessed to live next to so many beautiful places people!

Since Dommy and Danielle have traveled Europe they wanted to stay in a hostel in Moab. Oh ho ho boy. What a different experience. It was quite old and I was thoroughly grossed out by every object in that place. I tried to stop being a brat about it and decided to just settle in to the idea. Dom made deeelicious Thanksgiving dinner in the kitchen and we chatted with some dude who told us about cool hikes. We decided to do the hike to delicate arch at sunrise. Don't ask me how we all got out of bed and in the car by 6am because I don't know.

It. Was. Beautiful! And can I just mention how cool it is that my hips allowed me to do this. I do have sucky hips but there are many many people out there who couldn't even think about hiking to Delicate Arch. Thank you God.We went around saying things we were grateful for on our hike up and it was really, really neat. It's so easy to grumble about what we don't have, but shoot, I have everything I need.

we think we're being clever. an arch in an arch

Since we were up so early that day felt sooo long. There is nothing I wanted more than to hot tub and watch a movie. Our hostel didn't have a hot tub and it sure as heck didn't have a DVD player or a TV that worked. I was reallly disappointed. We threw around the idea of a hotel and I immediately began calling places. It was Friday night and literally every motel was booked. I found one place that was $100/night. Sad thing is, I was desperate enough to pay it. The moving was a bit chaotic as we had 4 bikes to pack back up but once we got settled we spent the night in the hot tub and it was worth the $100!!!! All three of us said "I feel so much better" after our hot tub/shower session.

We also spent some time bike riding and went into Canyonlands as well but I don't have pictures of that because my camera died.

It was such a nice trip. It felt good being out of the city on Black Friday when everyone in the city was being moronic and barbaric.