how i almost died....well...maybe not "died"...

ok...so our girls seminary bible study had a fun get together dinner with the husbands last night. everything started off great! great food...great friends...great conversation....and then it happened....the clouds rolled away (literally) and the sun came out. then the Matthews (it was their house we were at) told us to take the paddle boat out on the lake. They have this really pretty lake right in their backyard that about 30 houses all back up against. so anyways...back to my almost dying....

so Angela says "Hey Evonne, lets go on the paddle boat!" so Angela is WAYYYY more adventurous than I am. I had no desire to jump in a tiny paddle boat and float out in the middle of a lake....but.....i was encouraged to try the paddle boat. (thanks jb) so Ryan and Jason get in the front of it, and Angela and I get in the back. that's when i noticed that the water level was SUPER high. like we were almost taking on water already....so i didn't really say much b/c they seemed to think we were going to be ok. so....we start off.

Ryan and Jason are pedaling away. Well...the steering mechanism wasn't working very well. We got super close to the fountains. And then ducks started floating over to us...and Angela HATES ducks. so while she was trying to distract me with a story I was trying to distract her from the ducks (I put my hand in front of her eyes...I don't think it worked very well).

so as we're about in the middle of the lake I notice a little bit of water coming into the boat...at my feet. Then Angela yells that water is coming in at her feet. so the boys leaned forward and headed to shore. they were doing a good job....but since the steering mechanism wasn't working, it was taking a long time. and it's hard to pedal when you're leaning forward trying to stop the flow of water into the paddle boat. so they leaned back to pedal better.

and then it happened. water FLEW into the boat on Angela's side and she got super wet. from the waist down. she yells "WE'RE SINKING!!!!" and then my hubby ripped off his shirt and ran into the water to save us. :) ha ha ha Of course he wasn't wearing a swimming suit. and neither were any of us in the paddle boat. So he grabbed the boat and pulled us to shore! Isn't he great!? MY HERO!!!!!! :-D

(side note: Cindy Matthews saw us in the middle of lake and said to her husband Gary, "Gary, the boat is WAY too low in the water! it's going to sink!" maybe it was good that we didn't know....oh and the reason we almost sank....it was raining and I guess the inside part of the boat we couldn't see filled with water. Oooppss)

continuation of california vaca...

ok...so i left off on Sunday morning. we drove to church (The Bridge) and got to see a bunch of fun people! Not enough time to talk of course! :) But I'm glad we got to see some people!

so after church we had lunch (late of course) with my grandparents b/c it was father's day. took a bunch of pictures to hopefully use for christmas cards this year....not sure if any of them turned out so great....but...anyways...around dinner time Jill and Meredith (friends from high school) came over and we all drove to Temecula. Pat and Oscars baby!!! One of my favorite places to eat. They have the greatest bread sticks EVER! (too bad I didn't get to eat any...) we met up with Keri and her hubby Rich, Donna, Raylene and her hubby Tim. Had WAY too much fun! we were there from 6-9:30pm. We all had to catch up on each others lives! Then we drove home and had to say goodbye to Jill and Meredith.

Monday we had breakfast with Gregg and Jorden! Again...WAY too much fun! Then Trisha came over with her 7 week old baby! Trisha...has a baby...she's a mom! wowzer! :) so we talked for several hours. Then my dad got home and him, my mom, jb and i went to sushi...Dono Sushi that is...and we got a picture of my dad eating SUSHI!!!! no way!!!! ha ha ha he LIKED it! really....he did!!!! so anyways. then we walked around these cool new shops in Chino Hills. They're called "The Shoppes" and it was super fun. It was a nice night to walk around.

Tuesday we got up and packed everything up. We ran to the New Balance Oulet. I got a pair of really nice running shoes (even though I NEVER run!) for $12.00. Normally $89.99!!! What a deal huh? :) The we had lunch at Costco. Yummy hot dogs and coke. then we had to go back home and did random stuff before we packed up everything in the Pilot and drove to the airport. it sucked! GRRRRR. it felt like we had been there for 10 minutes. and the next time i get to go back....is christmas. perfect.....

Huntington Beach

hello! so we're back from California. We got in an hour later than we thought we were and my parents picked us up with IN-N-OUT!!!! YES! soooo good! especially b/c we had hardly anything on the plane. then once we got home at 12:30am we woke up my sister and looked in on my sleeping niece Aubrey. She is super huge! she's started to pull herself up and walk around the tables.

So we got in bed around 1:30am after talking to my fam. we got up on Thursday morning and drank coffee and talked for a while before JB and I went to get our hair done! YES!!!! soooo great. Not only did we get to talk and hang out with Jodie (our amazing hair stylist) and her daughter Meghan, but we also got our hair cut and now I'm several shades lighter too! Wooo Hooo! I LOVE my hair!

So after our hair we headed over to my dentist of 23 years. The ladies in that office are so fun! I was super excited to see and talk with them. We got our teeth cleaned, mine were pretty bad...my teeth haven't been cleaned for over a year! not a good thing....I need to floss MUCH more! :)

After the dentist we packed up our crap again and headed out to Huntington Beach! My brother-in-laws family has a beach house about a block from the beach...can you believe it! WOW! Here's a couple pictures of the beach...

So on Friday we all went to the farmers market. Walked around the little downtown area and had coffee. Had dinner and JB and I walked to the beach to get some pictures of the sunset. Saturday we had a big breakfast, then JB and I laid out at the beach. We got tan!!! Then got ready and went out to dinner at a Brewery in Huntington. great fun! After that we hung out and of course went to bed late....just like every other night!! :) We got up early to get to church in Chino.....
....to be continued! :-D

countdown....to beautiful weather!!!!

yes....i will be in sunny non-humid california in two days. i can barely contain myself. I almost started packing a week ago, but thought that jb would kill me if i started any earlier than Saturday. so i waited. but now i'm ready and waiting impatiently. In almost a year here in Holland Michigan I now fully understand why sooooo many people live in California. :) Paying double for rent in California is totally worth it!!!!! And to make some extra money so we can someday move back to California....I've decided to have babies and sell them. What? What's wrong with that????? ;-)

Another beautiful picture of the mountains in Southern California!

so excited!

I can't believe that in a week I'll be in sunny wonderful California! I can't wait! Especially since the weather here is so sucky! It's like 70 degrees here but it rained like crazy this morning! I wish the sun would come out and the humidity would go away....

(This is an amazing picture of the beautiful mountains back at home! I can't wait to see them!)

This past weekend

Hello everyone! (everyone is jb stephanie rachel and sam) This week was fun. On Friday jb and i went out to the Kirby Grill in Grand Haven with Heidi and her boyfriend Kyle. It was super fun. on the second story they have 4 pool tables and they serve just pizza up there. downstairs they have dueling piano's on thursday-saturday. they were really good, but then they started singing and playing little known songs. so we left. it was pretty late anyways. i ended up getting a super bad sore throat. i almost choked on the flem half they night.

saturday the sore throat was even worse. can't really remember what i did on saturday. probably just watched movies....

sunday jb and i went to Manna for our church service. it's on 9th street in downtown Holland. The service started at 10am and we got out of there at noon.....yes....a 2 hour service....can you believe it? singing took 45 mins, then they told us to take some time and visit with other people, and then the pastor spoke for an hour. it was more like a bible study/class like setting. oh....and no one came up to us and introduced themselves. and in a church that small everyone should have known that we have never been there before. so that was kind of disappointing. but my throat hurt so bad during the service i drank an entire water bottle of water! i never do that! ha ha ha

after the service we ate lunch and then went over to the seminary owned yellow house down the street and planted some seeds! we are not expecting anything to grow, so if it does we'll be super excited! :) ha ha ha

so that was my weekend. still trying to get over the cold thing i have. monday it turned from a sore throat into a runny nose. not fun! but i did make banana bread on monday and it came our really good! yum! :)