4th of july BBQ - murrieta hot springs

The Calvary Chapel Conference Center hosted its first ever 4th of July BBQ.  It was a day of hot dogs, cotton candy, bounce houses, water slides, dunk tanks, live music, and even a pie-eating contest!  It was open to the public and there were about 1,500 people on our gorgeous 47 acre property.  It was awesome to see all of our staff come together to host this event.  The mayor of Murrieta and the Chief of Police were there to give their testimonies and share the gospel.  How amazing is that?  They are both Christians and have a huge heart for the community.  It was such a blessing to hear them speak.

We got to the conference center after naptime and jumped right into the fun.  Of course, Travis volunteered to get in the dunk tank.

I had to dunk him.  I even got to cut to the front of the line for this.

We got festive with my hair.  This 'do is a 1940's style called "victory rolls".  It was a little tricky to get the big curls just right, but it's a good thing I have a hairstylist available to me 24/7. 

My sweet little man enjoying the festivities.

He is pointing at Lyla in the bounce house.  Cody wasn't able to take part in all the activities like his big sis, but next year will be a different story.

Lyla did not hesitate to get right into her swimsuit to ride the water slide.

Then there was a pie-eating contest.  Travis stepped right up to participate.

...and Lyla helped eat the apple pie right off his face.

He did pretty good!  He did not place, but almost finished his pie.  He had apple pie in his nose for the rest of the night.

Lyla thought it looked like so much fun that she decided to try it out too.

4th of July love.

God bless America!  We love our country and enjoy any chance to celebrate this great nation.  I love this quote from George Washington: "It is impossible to govern the nation without God and the bible".  Well said by our first president!  I hope you all had a fantastic 4th of July.

new business cards

FRONT

BACK

boom.  mustache madness.

a quick break from work

I needed to take a brief break from the computer, so I stepped out of the office for a walk around the bible college grounds. I was again reminded of how blessed I am to work at the conference center. It was so beautiful... One of the many hot springs that you can take a dip in to relax and refresh.

The hot springs and a partial view of the building where the large swimming pool is.

The lake, dock, and small beach.

The idea of the conference center is to "refresh the saints", which is a concept taken from Philemon 7. It is the ideal place to visit on a retreat and leave feeling renewed and refreshed. You can't see it in the picture, but there is steam coming off the waterfall at the top. The water gets hotter the higher the elevation.

I like to call this Snow White's wishing well. Lyla loves to peer over the edge and sing "I'm wiiiiiishing...."

Calvary Chapel Conference Center

Last week I said goodbye to Archstone after 6 years of employment and I started my new job at Calvary Chapel Conference Center of Murrieta! I am the Accounts Payable/Admin Assistant to the Director. The conference center is located at the Calvary Chapel Bible College Campus. I am so excited to work at such a beautiful place. I did a little bit of online research on the Hot Springs and found the following:

"The history of Murrieta Hot Springs is as colorful as any you'll find in this area. The therapeutic value of the hot springs were known by American Indians for centuries before Europeans came to the valley. Community namesake Juan Murrieta washed his sheep in the springs. In the 1880s, a San Diego laundry business sent its clothes by train to Murrieta to be cleaned in the spring's invigorating waters. Fritz Guenther bought the 200-acre property in 1902 and established the successful resort. Guenther added many of the buildings and other facilities that made Murrieta Hot Springs famous. The resort attracted people from all over, including some of Hollywood's biggest stars, among them Jack Benny and his wife, Mary. The Guenther family ran the resort until they sold the property in 1970. That's when things got a little weird. Subsequent owners are said to have laundered money for the Teamsters Union through the resort. Teamsters President Jimmy Hoffa is reported to have been seen there shortly before disappearing in 1975. About that time, a self-proclaimed doctor of philosophy leased the hot springs and set up a clinic that promised to cure cancer using a diet of lemon juice and water. Desperate patients came from all over, as did the television show 60 Minutes which did an expose on the clinic that helped put it out of business. In the early 1980s, the 300-member group Alive Polarity bought the resort and turned it into a vegetarian commune. The commune lasted a few years. In 1995, Calvary Chapel of Costa Mesa bought the property for use as a Bible college."

-Images of America: Murrieta Hot Springs

This is the lake that is just steps away from my new office. There are huge catfish in here! I look forward to being able to take a break from my work and take a walk around this beautiful lake.
Here is the main lobby for the conference center. My office is just down the stairs to the left of the entrance.
The Overflowing Cup coffee house is about 30 steps away from my office! I have to admit that I plan to frequent this establishment and spend many hard-earned dollars here. They have a delicious white mocha! I am trying to get the manager to bring back the lavender flavor that they used to offer but discontinued because not enough people liked it. I used to love having a lavender steamer. So yummy!
A view of the Bible College campus. It definitely feels like a resort. What a beautiful place to study the word of God!

behind this t-shirt is a winner

Here I am at a company event last week. We do a quarterly awards ceremony where all the communities in the SD area come together to recognize certain individuals for their performance. It's a nice change because usually we don't see employees from other communities throughout the year unless it's at a funtion like this. Everyone was so surprised by my big belly! So many people ask me if I am carrying twins or ask how "close" I am to my due date. I am 24 weeks along and have 4 months to go, people!

Me and some of my co-workers. We have an office staff of 4 and a maintenance staff of 4. Having a small office is kind of nice when you get along with everyone you work with. We have a great team. Our team color for the day was gray. I was not stoked to have such a blah color. We are all wearing shirts that say: "Behind this t-shirt is a winner". Funny that none of us won anything that day. Maybe next time!

He did it!

Travis passed the state board exam and is now a licensed hairstylist. He will continue to work at Bella D'Ora, where he has been training for almost two years. He already has a great clientele and hopes his business will just take off from here. I am so proud of my dear husband for all the hard work and dedication he has shown in his career path. Congratulations, Trav!

Movin' on up

I officially accepted a promotion to an Assistant Manager position at an Archstone apartment community in Escondido. It is in north-east San Diego county. I am really excited about this opportunity for growth with my company. As a working mom, I get so many awesome benefits working in apartment management...discounts on rent, health insurance, and most importantly a schedule that works for my awesome babysitter (thanks Mom!).

We are very excited to be moving back to Encinitas, which is the city where we met while working for Nixon. We have so many amazing friends in that area that we will be very happy to live close to again. However, I will miss the friends that I have made during my last 15 months here in Mission Viejo. I truly value the friendship that I have formed with my co-worker, Diana. I have officially given her the title of my professional family photographer. She is amazing with her camera! She has been so fun to work with and get to know on a personal level. It is also such a bummer that our friends Claudia and Chris just recently moved near us and now we are moving away! We will make our way back to the OC on a regular basis!

October 1st

is the big day.  Travis takes his state board exam on thursday, the first of October.  We will be heading to LA for a full day of cosmetology testing.  I have volunteered myself as his model.  Goodbye, long hair!  Hello, cute short cut!  Please pray that all his hard work for the past couple years will pay off and he will get his license to cut hair.   

Circle of Excellence

Today we had one of our quarterly work awards ceremonies.  It never sucks to get paid to be at the beach.  Here are some pics of a team contest of building sand castles.  We built the luxor...or was it an aztec temples...or an egyptian pyramid?  We never decided.  We got third place for creativity.  

Archstone Summerfest

We had a resident appreciation BBQ at our community pool over the weekend.  Although I had to "work" at it, making snow cones by the pool beats sitting in the office any day!  Lyla and Travis made it too because we never pass on poolside fun.

Patiently waiting...

for the Cosmetology State Board exam date.  Travis officially submitted the request on Thursday when he completed his 3200 hours of school and salon hours.  It has been a long haul (over two years) and we are finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.  More postings to come when we find out the date!  

She works hard for her money

i've been back to work since jan 9th. can you tell that we work really hard in our office? well, we do. we were taking a cupcake break. i have some awesome co-workers at my mission viejo community.

don't mind my ugly bangs. i am so growing them out! also a bummer that my charlie's angel "gun" was cut out of the picture. it was a good one.