From Riches to Rags

Sometimes, for me at least, the best situations in life are the ones where life absolutely sucks. It's all relative I guess. The vast majority of the world has it worse than Katie and I. But let me give you some examples. Katie is still jobless, bored and has regressed from playing solitare on the computer to using real cards. It's currently 85 degrees in our house because we don't want to spend money on A/C. Katie is considering a 3 week trip to Blaine, Wa because it is the only place to find a stinking job.(she'll look for one down here while she's in Wa...possibly) The worst...I have a small credit card debt. Not much, but enough to make me angry that I can't take care of it with savings.(which isn't much anymore, ha ha) I mismanaged my money for the first time in my life dang it. To qualify, I'm not looking for sympathy or help at all. So please don't. I just want to be real about our situation and life for what it is. More importantly, we knew it was going to be a bumpy few months and I am going to stand by statements I made before we left Spokane. We were excited to come down here and knew God was, and is, in control of the whole situation. That being said this is the perfect situation for Him to glorify Himself. Thats what I said and now we wait...and wait...and wait. The cool part will come when He responds and I get to share that with everyone. I say this with full confidence.

This is a picture of the campus church building. It's beautiful, especially at this time of night. I've decided I want to live my life like this picture below. It's an old church in Africa. I want to be a doctor and drive a 1972 Ford Pickup with rust on it to work. I want to pay off someone elses debt someday.(Maybe after mine) I want to provide and not expect a return. Katie is good at this. With my profession she will be a good partner to fulfill these desires.

School is going well though. That is an answer to prayer. That one had to be immediate otherwise we'd be back in Washington right now. I get a 92.8% on the written and a 95% on the lab practical. Man, it was hard this week. I studied so much but it was less intense. I got a Frisbee this week and managed to snag 5-6 students to throw in between the dense study sessions. My legs are sore which is good cause exercise is hard schedule in during anatomy. Katie joins us and has improved 1000% since I first threw with her a few years back.

Tomorrow we are going to the beach. Joel, Kaleb and Joels family are in town. It will be good to see them. Ill post pics soon.

I think we lost two students today. I don't think they made it. We all knew they were in a tough spot and the look on their face wouldn't have been able to convince us otherwise. Today's written test was rough. I'm glad I didn't look past the stuff I didn't think mattered cause that was pretty much the whole test. I don't know how I did yet. It's still early in the day. I know I passed which keeps me positive.
I decided this week that next year I am going to try to be a T.A. I was turned off by the idea because it left little time for myself in between quarters. (if you are a TA you get absolutely no break from 1st year and 2nd.) But I found out that I can take time off. So if I still am pursuing it in a few months then I'll take two weeks off or something. Seriously, what else am I going to do. I'll sit at home and wait for school to start again.
It has been cooler here during the days. On Wednesday we had a picnic outside for the P.T. students. My lab partner who's from the desert just east of here looked up in the sky and said, "it's gonna rain." I looked up to one small puffy cloud surrounded by blue sky. But hey, it sprinkled later, barely, but it did. You can't really call that rain so it still hasn't rained since we've been here. When it does im going to go outside and lay on the ground and enjoy it.
No pictures this week cause i lived in the library when I wasn't in class. Only three weeks left of Anatomy. Then I start-manual muscle testing, kinesiology, medical terminology and world religions.
We'll take pictures this weekend and get them up before monday.

The reason we celebrate

On Friday Katie and I went up to the San Bernardino National Forest. There are four National Forests in the area and this was our first visit. This was literally the only photo I took. The area isn't very attractive this time of year. It's hot and over populated. We actually ran into one of my classmates and his wife. We know like 10 people in southern cal and we run into them...funny. Friday evening we were invited to go to a 4th of July celebration with Holly (far right) and her family. Notice Tim (white shirt) in the pic. He was in an earlier posting at dinner with us. Him and Holly hooked up the first week of school and I called it. HA!! Her mom is the secretary of the church we're petty much set on going to. She loved Katie and is going to put in a good word for her for a ministry position that Katie is interested in. It is good to have some familiar faces at church. Plus they have a pool and said we can come over anytime.
Taking fireworks pictures is new to me and I wanted to try it out. I took 200 horrible ones and two good ones. The two best were my first two. Thats what I love about digital photography, you can take a bunch of pics and delete the bad ones.
Brian and Christina Foster: two of my Ohio friends. I got to know them individually before their marriage, be in their wedding and continue a friendship with them now, along with Katie. They are vacationing in Huntington Beach, Ca. and we met up with them at Christina's aunt's and uncle's house.
Smiles have been frequent. We are really enjoying our weekends and try to do something new on each and every one of them. It is a good break from my program. Aunt Mo and Uncle John have a pool and hot tub. We took advantage of it. We could tell they loved hosting people so we accepted there offer to crash in the spare bedroom in order to soak up every moment with our distant friends. I take every opportunity to promote the Buckeyes down here in So. Cal. Uncle John is a usc (uncapitalized) fan so I brought along my Buckeye gear to start a ruckus. We went frisbee golfing on Saturday morning. It started in California. This is the second oldest course in the U.S. I forgot how much fun it was.
Katie improved 300% from hole 1 to 18. I think she even got a few par's. She was definately the best looking one on the coarse. (no offense Brian)
I was told to visit this tavern in Newport Beach from some locals in Loma Linda. We went in the afternoon which made it more appealing. I guess it gets overwhelming at night. The neat part about this place was the atmosphere and it had 300 beers on tap.
The ladies talked the whole time but we managed to get them to play one game of shuffle board with us. Brian and I played pool as well.
Here's the selection.
Katie and Christina still talking... now at the pool.
It was a great 4th of July, full of activities and adventure. Though this was the case I had other thoughts at the forefront of my mind. To our servicemen who are currently oversees especially David, my brother. I had clenched teeth saturday night when the four of us walked downtown Huntington. Drunk rich kids celebrating a holiday they know nothing about. Sure one might argue i'm clueless about the holiday myself. But this year I celebrated with a loved one acting on the very reason we celebrate. I've always thought of the 4th as my favorite holiday but after being directly touched by it, I have a different reason for believing so.

4 weeks left of school

It's 5pm on Thursday. Holy crap that was a hard week. My average this week was an 87%. Passing is 81% so i'll take a deep breath and relax. Tonight begins a 3 and a half day weekend that is needed for Katie and I. We don't know all the contents of it but we'll update soon. Below is a gift we recieved from my Aunt Annie and Aunt Mary Beth. Funny enough I was in the front of the house looking for plants to transplant to the backyard and a van pulls up and delivers four perrennials.(sp?) Katie with three girls in the PT program with me. From left, Leretta, Stephanie, and Janice. We call Janice the "Black widow" because she went and shot pool with us and she's asian.(Most women pro pool players are asian.) If I haven't told everyone yet my program is very diverse and may speak five languages before I graduate.

Some of the fellas. Sorry for the poor lighting. Im in it so I didn't take it. Left: Tim, one of the best basketball players in southern cal in high school. He's like 6'8". Ken is the bald guy. He's 5'6" and carries a pocketknife. He's columbian and has made it his goal to teach me spanish. Karthick is Indian, that's why you can't see him. He's probably the nicest guy in the program.

This weekend we are going to the beach for a reunion with my good friend Brian Foster. Brian is a teacher in Green, Ohio. It will be good to see him and pick up where we left off. His wife, Christina and Katie get along great so it should be a wonderful time.

It is still hot here. I don't mind it at all. It makes exercising outside hard to do though. That's ok, we can exercise outside in the dead of winter this year. Well, I've gotta run.

Happy Friday

I said we went to Dodger's stadium so here are some pictures. It's not a very pretty park so this is all i'll show you. This pic is from the upper deck...well that's where our seats were. There weren't that many people at the game so we sat in the lower deck in the shade.

I wore my Buckeye's hat for all to see and usc (uncapitalized) fans avoided me like the plague in fear of their predicted beating come September.

Today I wrapped up my second week of Anatomy. I just got my grades...lab test-98%, lecture 90%. I was surprised I got a 98%. I don't normally pull out 98's. That being said, I know I can do it. I work my butt off every night and if it produces these results, i'll keep doing it. Katie and I are getting along great. We bicker less and spend more time laughing with each other. (that's probably cause she only sees me 3 days a week) I haven't had to worry about anything but school. She packs my lunch and makes dinner every night. My laundry is always done and put away before I even know it's dirty and she covers all the financial aid and student paperwork stuff. I hate that stuff! She is still applying to places for employment. Your prayers for that would be appreciated. We want her to do something she enjoys but we need her to have a job soon. We have a meeting with the director of the Drayson Center (University fitness center) on Tuesday for a potential personal training job for Katie. I say, "we" cause he wants me to be there for some reason. We'll keep you updated.

I might write again this weekend. We'll take pictures and get them to you guys. Thanks for looking and keeping up with us. I had no idea how many people looked at this thing.

Scott

Adventures and Challenges

This is Scott. You're only going to hear from me once a week. If there are more postings then they will most likely be from Katie. I just finished the most intense week of my whole life. I was in class from 8am-5pm Monday through thursday and friday I had two exams from 8am-Noon. At 5 I went home grabbed a 45min dinner and headed back to the lab or library until 1030-11pm. Luckily my grades reflected my study habits as I took home A's on both exams. This will set the tone for the rest of the summer quarter(seven weeks) and hopefully my time here. I now know that I can succeed at this level. The sacrifices are many and the most important one, Katie time, is handling things very well. She is totally supportive of me and my 50+ hour work weeks. I'll come home for a quick dinner and it will be ready for me when I get there.(Im sure this will change when she gets a job.) I feel absolutely no pressure from her. Luckily the weekends are mostly free.
A fellow classmate and his girlfriend, Katie and I went to Dodgers stadium yesterday and watched the Cleveland Indians play. Great game. C.C. Sabathia pitched for Cleveland and hit a homerun.(When a pitcher hits a homerun you've experienced something most people don't.) The tribe won 7-2 in 11 innings. It was good to see the park and get a win for the good guys.
We are starting to establish ourselves in the neighborhood. There are three mexican boys in the area that ride there scooters and bikes around the streets. They look about 10 years old. I was sweeping the driveway yesterday and they came up to me and asked me if we were moving in and my name. Do you remember the Taco Bell Dog? That's the accent. It's great. They've now claimed our driveway as it has great "jumps" at the end. We look out the kitchen window and there goes a chunky boy zipping by on a scooter from the garage to the end. Maybe they can teach me spanish.
It is hot here everyday. We went from winter in Spokane to Summer in Loma Linda. Friday was the hottest day I'd ever experienced...and it's only June. I saw 108F. Ever year I've been alive people, including me complain about the winters, down here they complain about the summers. It will be nice when it's a high of 70 on New Year's day and we're camping somewhere.
I think that's it. We are enjoying ourselves and the challenges that we face. It's fun to reach new levels, get through them and tackle greater ones. Thanks for everyones support. We are grateful for you. I've met people this week in my program that don't have what we have, no family or friends, just drive for success. We'll have to change that.

Our two week adventure

May 31 we start our "adventure" driving from Spokane to Idaho Falls, ID on I-15, then another stop at St. George, UT, and finally ariving in Loma Linda on the 2nd of June sometime in the afternoon.

All of our belongings, believe it or not, fit into this tiny u-haul (from Akron, OH--Scott's hometown) along with 6 bikes in the back of the truck.


Being on the road can make you feel a little crazy after awhile... (this is Jay, Katie's dad)

Our house at 11192 Rosarita Dr. Loma Linda, CA 92354 ... not ready yet for us to move into at this point... we unloaded all of our belongings into the garage until the painting, cleaning, and refinishing the hardwood floors are completed. The neighborhood is very safe and our neighbors are friendly--at the least the wives we've met that stay home with the kiddos while the husbands are in school. That seems to be the trend here.

Panera Bread--where we've enjoyed breakfast and internet since we've been in Loma Linda.

Anxiously waiting to see if we have seats on the flight to Mexico...after enjoying a relaxing day in Newport beach the day before...

We obviously made it... this is the balcony in front of our room at Sotavento Beach Resort (which was actually more like a hotel than a resort)

A day in the sweltering heat and humidity called for refreshment...and tacos!

Katie bartering for fresh fruit at the market and finally figuring out the peso.

We were in Zihuatanejo during their down season, little did we realize. This is the season that the locals come and enjoy the beach... lots of Mexican families with cute Mexican kids. We're still saying "hola!" and "gracias!" out of habit.

We are back in Loma Linda, sitting at Panera Bread, waiting till this afternoon when we get to transfer all of our belongings from the garage to the newly remodeled house (finally!). Scott begins his program on Monday the 16th, and Katie will continue her job search then as well.