Goodbye, Summer. Hello, Fall.

I need to write more.  I log on here every day, yet I never write.  I don’t have a lot to write about during the week, but my weekends over the past month have been full of activity. I could easily write a few words to keep this thing up to date.  I lack motivation like no other right now though.  I struggle with feelings of rejections all the time it seems like.  I’m just wondering when things are going to pick up and get back to normal.  Supposedly the recession is over.  Not in my house.

Sooo… the past month… what’s been going on?

Jacob and I have found a new hobby.  Ocean kayaking!  Absolutely amazing!!!  Love it!!!  Too bad kayaks are so insanely expensive.  Luckily there is place on the wharf over in Santa Cruz that rents them out for $30 for 3 hours.  The first time we went was CRAZY fun.  I don’t think either of us stopped smiling the entire time we were out on the water.  It was a learning experience.  We learned to go against the wind/current when you first get in the water that way when you are done at the end of the afternoon you don’t have to fight the wind/current after you are completely exhausted.  There was a point where we got stuck in one spot it seemed like for a good 30 to 45 minutes because our arms were tired.  We would paddle, paddle, paddle like crazy, but then stop for a minute due to being tired and then end up being right back where we started.  We eventually worked it out though.

On our first kayaking trip, I’d have to say the best part was watching this fishing boat throwing huge chunks of fish into the water and watching the sea lions, pelicans, and sea gulls fight it out.  It was intense.  The next best thing was having the sea lions pop up right next to our kayaks when we were least expecting it.  I laughed so hard!  And then I will never forget when the sea lions started following Jacob in his kayak.  Classic!  It was a perfect day to say the least, and we are hooked on kayaking now.  So much so that we ended up going two weekends in a row.  It turned out that Jacob’s mom and sister came down the following weekend, so Jacob and I made Hannah go with us.  LOL  She wasn’t quite as enthusiastic about it as we were, but at the end of the day she was glad she went.  The second time we went we found the kelp forest where all the sea otters were.  It was AMAZING!  They are so cute!!!  I foresee that next spring and summer will be filled with weekends of kayaking.  =)

Me and Hannah with the Kayak rental dude.

Just getting in the water.

Heading under the wharf on a mission to find the kelp forest.

Hannah, Jacob, and I in the Pacific Ocean.

Last but not least… one of the sea otters that we saw.

I spent last weekend up in the Santa Cruz mountains at a women’s retreat.  It was really nice and relaxing.  I ended up staying in Jon and Judy’s cabin by myself since nobody else decided to go to retreat this year other than Jennifer and Denise.  They stayed in their big trailer thing though, so I had the whole cabin to myself.  It was wonderful!  And the retreat made me realize that I shouldn’t be feeling rejected right now.  I am accepted, precious, loved, and chosen by God.  Through it all, He is taking care of me.  So the next time I walk into a job interview, I’m going to keep in the back of my mind that while yes it would be good to get this job, it will also be okay if I don’t because I am going to be taken care of.

Oh yeah… did I mention that Jacob lost his job.  LMAO  Talk about PANIC MODE setting in.  Luckily the day that he lost his job, he got set up with an interview the following afternoon at another landscaping company.  The interview went well, and after running a background check on him, he was hired and started the following Tuesday.  He was out of work a whole whopping two days.  He’s a happy camper now too.  The company he is working for is a nationwide company.  They made him a landscape foreman, so he is in charge of a crew.  And he is now working onsite over at Cisco maintaining 14 of the buildings over there.  The job itself pays a dollar less than the last job, BUT it has benefits, so that’s great!  He ended up coming out on top with this one.  PTL!

This was the weekend that I was supposed to go on the backpacking trip down in Big Sur.  As you can see… I’m not there.  LOL  After all was said and done, I just wasn’t ready to take on the journey.  I don’t think Gina was ready either, but she went anyway with the rest of her friends.  Right now they are sleeping outside in the frigid coldness of the night, probably nursing sore muscles and trying stay warm.  I won’t know until Tuesday if she made it the whole 10.5 miles in and then back, or if she decided to only go part way.  Maybe I’ll go next year.  =

So instead of going backpacking today, we spent the day at the beach with people from church.  It was good times.  I checked the weather before we left this morning, and it said that it was going to be 64 degrees.  I figured that would be cool enough for a need to wear jeans and a light sweater.  What do you know… we get there and the sun is shining bright and it was perfectly warm.  DOH!  I figured it would be the last time this season that I would be able to go in the water, so I stole Jacob’s t-shirt, rolled up my jeans, and in I went.  There were sea lions and dolphins out right in front of us today, which was pretty cool.  You see sea lions all the time around here, but not always dolphins.  Gotta love it!  So in the water I go with Jacob.  I have the boogie board and catch a small wave, but nothing too exciting.  I turn and go back to catch another one, get situated, scope out the perfect sized wave, catch the wave, and as I get closer to shore, I feel my jeans following off.  LOL  Luckily Jacob was there to kind of help me.  I was laughing so hard, and I couldn’t get up.  The water kept rushing up over me, and I couldn’t get a hold of my pants well enough to pull them up all the way.  Thank goodness Jacob finally grabbed a hold of my belt loop and yanked them up f

or me.  That was the last wave of the season for me.  I spent the rest of the afternoon drying off in the sun, trying not to move around too much because it felt like I was wearing sandpaper for pants.  =)

It was a great way to send out the summer and head into fall.