Our First Christmas (Tree)!

(Kitty) - I know, I know, it's hard to believe. We started out sharing our Christmas holidays with family, then we were alone and broke, then we moved around a lot. Then this weekend John said, "I think we should get a Christmas tree." Just like that, out of the blue.

No, we haven't moved out of our 343 sq ft studio apartment. So I asked the obvious - "Where would we put it?" John suggested a tabletop tree to sit on the edge of our desks; the next day, there we were fighting the crowds at Target. Last night, we decorated our home with a Christmas tree complete with lights and bulbs (even 4 Happy Feet bulbs - thank you, Sean!) and a big red ribbon at the top. (Target didn't have any stars less than half the size of our entire tree!)

I love it! It's so festive! And we even have a small lighted nativity sitting next to the tree. I love it! Due to the joy of digital cameras - we took about 40 pictures of us until we got a good one for our Christmas photo stamps. Next weekend, we're taking pictures of ourselves with Santa hats sitting on John's motorcycle for our Christmas card photo! LOL! It'll be great!

Hope you're having a great week! Remember to thank God for the best Christmas gift ever! :)

(Kitty) - YESSS! I DID IT!! I wrote 52,415 words in 30 days! And because I was busy hanging out with my sister Bonnie, and then at our friend Doug's for Thanksgiving, I was seriously behind by last weekend. I wasn't sure I could make the final word count, but I decided not to give up. In the last 7 days, I wrote nearly 35,000 words!

Now, if you'll give me a few days to get caught up on bill-paying and other sundry details of life, I'll get some regular blogging in and let you know how our life is going out here.

We hope you're all well! God bless you!!
:)

So Much to Tell You - But Not Now

(Kitty) By the time we get thoroughly caught up with tell you all the interesting stuff that's going on in our lives (like John's birthday party!), it'll be Christmas. But hey! At least that means we'll start the new year with a clean slate! LOL!

So...just to let you know, I won't be posting anything all next week. One of my sisters is coming to town! Bonnie will be here for the North American Riding for the Handicapped Association 2007 National Conference. So I'm being kidnapped (yea!) for the week. We're going to visit San Bernadino where she was born, and hopefully get in a trail ride, and who knows what? :)

Meanwhile, if you're interested, I've written 8263 words in the first 8 days of National Novel Writing Month! Now, we're supposed to be done writing 15,000 words by the end of today to reach our month-long goal of 50,000 words. Yeah, I don't think I'll be writing 7000 words today! LOL! But I'll get caught up. Maybe if I type instead of eat over Thanksgiving weekend I won't gain any extra weight AND I'll get caught up in my word count. :)

Talk to you later! And have a lovely week!!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Found this picture online and thought it fit us perfectly. Happy Halloween everyone!

A New Job!

John-
Hi everyone! I'm sorry I have not written in a while. I just started a new job! About four weeks ago I gave my notice at my job. Kitty was getting worried about my mental and physical health working at Threshold Entertainment so we sat down and talked and prayed about it. We asked God to give me a solid sign on when to leave Threshold. Well, I got the definite sign four weeks ago today, so I gave my notice the next day.

I spent two weeks decompressing and getting my sanity back. Then about two weeks ago, on Tuesday, October 16th, I saw posting for Dreamworks looking for layout people. I thought I'd put a resume in there and check the web for other job postings. On another web site I found a posting for MotionBuilder people (that is a program I used at Threshold for manipulating motion capture information.) I saw that the company name was Lightstorm Entertainment, which is James Cameron's company (if you don't know who he is, do a web search for his name.) I sent my resume and a link to my on-line demo reel to the e-mail address listed. 10 MINUTES later I got a response asking if I could come in the next day for an interview. I said I'd be happy to come in! At the interview they told me that the project was AVATAR, which was the movie I was hoping to go to New Zealand to work on with Weta Digital (Peter Jackson's company.) The interview went so well they offered me the job at the end of the interview. A couple days of contract negotiations and I had a job by Friday, October 19th and started last Monday. Mr. Cameron will be in New Zealand until the end of the year filming a bunch of live action parts for the movie. He'll be back "in office" at the start of the year to do some work with the mocap.

We have discovered God works in wondrous and exciting ways when you have faith and trust your whole life to Him.

Happy Writing!

(Kitty) For all you writers out there, here's something you want to know about - or you may already know about it. November is National Novel Writing Month. Somebody came up with the idea that we should all try writing 50,000 words in a month - and do it together. So they created a web site and now nearly 100,000 people around the world are writing together every November!

So, many of my writer friends and I are planning our stories, our word count, where we're going to write, where we can write together, and how we can write nearly an entire book without also eating an entire grocery store aisle's worth of food (or worse, an aisle worth of Halloween candy). :)

Let me know if you're participating, too! I'll see you there!

We're Safe

(Kitty) Hi everyone! Sorry - I can't believe it's been three weeks since we posted!! So much is going on, and there's so much to tell you, but all that busyness is why we haven't posted!

Just wanted you all to know we're currently safe and well in regards to the fires. We found out in church Sunday morning, near the beginning of the disaster, that one of our sister churches, Malibu Presbyterian, had burned to the ground that morning. Very sad, but there is going to be such a swell of help and support that we'll see all kinds of blessings as people come together. As their pastor said, the Church is not a building.

Of course, I think it's far worse to lose your home, and so many people have. One of our friends is trying to keep us updated for prayer purposes - her home has not burned, but it's been in the line of fire for a couple days. Another friend sent out a prayer request for her family's house as they were being evacuated. Another friend is using their home as a "refugee camp for their family in San Diego."

I've been in Temecula, a part of Riverside county, this week, housesitting and writing. It's been disturbing to go out every day to the store or to get my friend's mail and see a new fire, more smoke, darker skies. Two fires popped up Tuesday about 30 miles away, and they've gotten worse, but truly aren't near me. Still, the situation is so sad for so many. I pray for safety for the firefighters and for those whose homes are near the fires, and I've also been praying that people's insurance is current! One friend said that her parents' house is uninsurable due to its proximity to the Northridge earthquake some years ago. Wow. Who knew you could own a home that couldn't be insured? (Not me.)

Anyway, John and I are safe and well. I'll be in touch as soon as I can to tell you all the interesting and wonderful things going on in our lives this past month. Sorry to keep you waiting so long. But know that we love you!! :)

Better Safe Than Sorry?

(Kitty) Just a little LA ranting here...for the last 20 years I've been driving a car. In that time, I think I've gotten one parking ticket, two "fix-it" tickets, and that's all. Every now and again I think, "You really shouldn't be so over-careful. There's almost no chance that someone is going to run that red light. (But people do!) There's almost no chance someone's going to whip around that blind corner." (But people do!) Etc., etc.

In the last week, I've almost been hit about three or four times! Now that isn't different from any other week in LA, but this week it just pissed me off. How come I'm the one being careful and "everybody else" thinks they can just do what they want? Tonight in a parking garage I slowed way down at a place where I was the only lane that had the right of way - if I hadn't, I would've been rammed by a 30-something cute guy in a big expensive car. He was looking down at the seat when he almost hit me. Then he looked up, stopped fast, smiled, and motioned for me to continue. As if!!

Buddy, you really better watch it. Someday I might recreate that scene from Fried Green Tomatoes when Kathy Bates rams a sports car with rich, hot young people in it - they steal her parking space and call out, "We're younger and faster." She punches the accelerator and repeatedly rams their car, then calls out, "I'm older and have more insurance!"

Series Premiere

(Kitty) We had such a great time last Monday. We watched our friend's Internet series - like a TV series, but with short episodes - at a Premiere party! The series is called Dirty Bomb Diaries and it's a cool kind of "War of the Worlds" thing on a smaller scale. Click on the link and watch an episode! Or all of them! :)

Change Is Comin'

(Kitty) Only God knows what's going to happen for sure, but changes are coming. John has an interview with a great company in the San Francisco area next week. Kitty is about to change positions with her local RWA (Romance Writers of America) chapter, and being in San Francisco could be good for her. More than anything, though, we want God to send us wherever He wants us to go. We'll let you know what happens!

Babies!!!

(Kitty) I've been meaning to post this for a month! But it's been a busy month! :) Turns out four sets of friends have "recently" found out they are pregnant - and one already has the new baby because it's taken me forever to get this up! LOL!

Mel & Andrew and Baby Turnham

Mel & Andrew are our great friends from Sydney, and we were thrilled to hear they became pregnant recently. Baby Turnham is due in February and plans on surprising his/her parents with his/her gender. Here is a picture of what he or she looked like last month. I plan to finish crocheting Baby T's baby blanket sometime in the next year or two.

Andrea & Brady and Baby Justin Nasfell

Andrea and Brady are long-time friends in the LA area. Justin was born on August 26 (my own mother's birthday!). We saw him at church this past Sunday and wow! I forget how tiny 3-week-old babies can be! His parents look tired, but happy. His big sister Emma was all smiles. Here he is right after he was born.

Dave & Ann Marie and Baby Barndt

Few babies have so many loving prayers lifted up to our Heavenly Father before their birth as little Baby Barndt. He or she is a little fighter, tenacious and determined. He/she already has two fantastic big brothers who are helping Mom and Dad out while Mom rests. Another ten weeks or so and Baby Barndt will be big enough to be born if he/she insists on it. Please pray mother and child continue strong and healthy, and that God's unsurpassing peace enfolds the whole family while they wait.

John & Karine and Baby Woldhuis

John and Karine are also wonderful friends from our church back in Sydney. They are currently missionaries in Loja, Ecuador along with their little angel girl, Evie. Karine is just a few months pregnant and is going to have their baby in Quito, Ecuador. The pictures of the country are beautiful, but I'm sure the pictures of the new baby will be even more beautiful.

Duke

I'm sorry, but I can't resist! You all know that I go mushy in the knees quicker over puppies than babies. :) My sister Bonnie's dog, Mooch, died a few months ago after 15 years of working with Bonnie and her therapeutic riding program (using horses to give physical therapy, see http://chumtherapy.net/). On her birthday, August 27, friends gave Bonnie a new puppy named Duke - because he was born on John Wayne's birthday. He's a 3-month-old black and white border collie. Bonnie says he's quiet, smart, loving and already attached to her side. I'm sure he and all the horses and kids are going to be very good friends. Isn't he just precious?

John's Birthday Invitation!

(Kitty) Hi guys! Sorry it's been so long since we've posted. I was out of town for two weeks, then the last week has been crazy busy. But part of what's keeping us busy is planning John's 40th birthday party. Check out the invitation! (Ignore the fact that the picture color is off. It looks a lot better printed. :) )

Amazing Biking Trip!

(Kitty) On Sunday, we were so tired of life and the day had dawned so beautifully that we made an instant decision - play hookey from church and go on a bike ride!

We'd never really been south much before, so we headed that direction. Since we weren't trying to get someplace, we kept veering west whenever we could so we could stay close to the ocean. Great decision! We saw so many cute little "downtowns" in a bunch of beach towns. We recognized some of the names - Manhattan Beach, Hermosa Beach, Redondo Beach. But many were cute names that I've never seen on a map.

Two things stuck in our minds - one, we drove past the Trump National Golf Course and both of us were thinking, "Hey, this is the place that was on 'The Apprentice' TV show!" And the second thing was a part of the road called Portuguese Bend. It's a curvy bit of road (and there's a subdivision there with, apparently, the same name) with warning signs to drive 10-15 miles per hour because the land for the next mile is constantly moving! Isn't that wild?! Explains the new blacktop - they probably have to repave it every time the road cracks away. The shape of the road is very weird - curves around back and forth, and also has a lot of deep dips, hence the slow speed limit. It was a strange mile to ride.

The whole trip was about 75 miles and took us about 3 hours including a 20-minute break for food and gas - and to let our behinds get the feeling back! By 10am, we were back home - and it was already 82 degrees! We stayed inside for the rest of the day with the A/C on! LOL!

Now we can't wait for the next opportunity to drive some more. We're thinking maybe we'll go farther south and spend the day at the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach. Or not. Who knows? All I know for sure is that neither of us is keen to get on the freeway yet, so we're just going to enjoy driving slow for a while longer. :)

Cute Picture of the Future

(Kitty) I finally pulled this off our camera today. Here is John with Spike, the mascot from Animation Mentor. We met Spike when we were at Siggraph two weeks ago, along with the very nice Admissions lady, Victoria. If John ends up enrolling in A.M. for the January term, you'll hear A LOT more about it, so I'll just stop typing now and leave you with the picture. I will say, they are all so nice!

Hope you're having a great day! :)

Too Hot!!!

(Kitty) That's all I've got to say. It's just too freakin' hot! In May and June, I was so blissful with the Santa Monica weather - which made me suspicious. So I went to weather.com and looked at the monthly averages. Sure enough, August and September are supposed to be the hot months here.

Today, I can definitely feel it!!! Thank God for air conditioning!

Our First Bike Night!

(Kitty) John found out that there is a "Bike Night" every Tuesday up at Universal CityWalk. It's sponsored by the Saddleback Restaurant, which ropes off a huge area in front of the restaurant for the motorcycles to park (FREE parking, I might add, which is HUGE in LA) as well as a 20% discount off food and drinks for the bike riders.

We rode up there last night to check it out. Inexplicably, the traffic was awful. Yes, that is sarcasm. But it was still a nice ride. Took us over an hour to get up there, and about 50 minutes to get home. That's because we still don't ride on the freeways. Which is fine. We took some streets we normally don't drive, saw some things we normally don't see when we're driving a car, talked at the red lights. It was fun. :)

Anyway, so we got up there and we were in the 50% of bikes that were nice but not special. Then we walked around and looked at the other bikes (like everyone else at Universal CityWalk was doing). Some had interesting colored lighting, some had amazing paint jobs, some were part of a club or whatever with the club name painted on all the bikes. One was even some kind of 3-wheeler with 2 wheels in front and 1 wheel in the center in the back, and it had two bucket seats side-by-side. Sort of reminded me of a dune buggy, but I have no idea what it was. Had a great paint job, though!

So we parked, immediately took off our riding jackets because it's August and still hot after dark, and walked around the shops. Then we meandered back to the restaurant for a surprisingly pleasant dining experience. By some fluke, we were seated in a dark corner in front of two TVs - one playing baseball highlights and one playing music videos. Between the two TVs, the kissing, the two guitarists who came by and played "Peaceful, Easy Feeling" by The Eagles for us, the great waiter named Lake, and the FABULOUS breaded mushrooms - we had a great night! I think our biggest problem at this point might be finding the will power not to go up every Tuesday night and blow our "dining out" budget! LOL!

New Plans

(Kitty) Hi everyone! If you're wondering why I'm posting all the time and not John, it's because he has to work 60 hours a week. Since he doesn't like the idea of working weekends, he tries to get all his hours in Monday through Friday. That means he's exhausted by Saturday and has no interest in typing. :)

So...here I am trying to update you. We went to Siggraph, the annual visual effects convention, on Tuesday of this week. Very cool! I've never been to it and I thought it was so interesting, especially the emerging technology! I wanted to drop everything and become a research assistant! LOL!

John talked to a lot of people and gave away more than a dozen resumes and demo reels. (We put together a very cool package to hand out.) A couple places seemed particularly interested in talking to John further, so on the way home we tried to come up with a plan. We came up with a kind of A, B or C plan.

Our apartment lease ends November 15. If we renew for another year, but John gets a job outside the area, we have to pay the balance of the lease until and unless they re-rent the unit. So we're building the plans partially around that. Plan A is - Weta calls between now and Christmas and offers John a job - we move to New Zealand. (Yea!) Plan B is - a good company in San Francisco, or perhaps one in another city, calls and offers John a job - we move to that city. (From what we can glean, there aren't many companies in our local area that are going to be doing what John does between now and the end of the year.) Plan C is - no one offers John any long-term work between now and Christmas - we move to our friend Doug's near Temecula, CA, and I get a job and John goes to animation school for 18 months.

So...one way or another, it looks like we're moving in November. We just don't know where. John is totally committed now to this school he's been researching; he met with the admissions director at Siggraph, and is ready to change from being in motion capture to being in animation itself. If he gets a good job by the end of the year, we'll just keep saving while he works that job, then he'll start school when that job ends and we won't have to borrow as much in student loans. If instead he starts school in January, he's that much closer to his dream job. Either way, it looks like a win-win situation.

Now we simply have to wait and see what happens. We'll keep you updated! God bless you!
Love, Kitty & John :)

Some Firsts

(Kitty) Couple interesting firsts lately, one for a friend of mine, one for us. :) My friend Janice just sold her first book! Hurray!! You can check it out at Capstone Fiction. Janice and I are in the same writing group, so this is very exciting for us and our friends! She used to be a police officer, and now she's a novelist - writing about a police officer and her K-9 partner. Very enjoyable book!

The other first is that John and I FINALLY got to see the Tigers play!! Hurray!! We asked a couple friends of ours, Ray and Jessica, if they wanted to go. (Our friend Doug originally told us about it because he was going to the Saturday game - to root for the Angels! Little devil! But there were no more tickets left, so we went to the Sunday game.) The good part is that we've now finally seen the Detroit Tigers in person. Yea! The bad news is that they LOST 4-14 in a nearly sold out game!! (Don't laugh, Doug, or we'll have to hurt you!) There were a lot of Tigers fans there, and we were all sorely disappointed.

So now we've seen the Tigers (baseball), the Red Wings (hockey) and the Lions (football). We just need to see the Pistons (basketball) sometime and we'll be all set! :) Below are some pictures of us with Ray and Jessica. (Ray's co-worker Kara who is also from Michigan came with us, but wasn't able to get seats with us.) John's wearing his Tigers cap that his mom mailed to Austraila last year. Enjoy!

Too Much Fun!

(Kitty) We already showed you how cool John looks on his new motorcycle. But we haven't told you what I think of the whole thing. Well, last month John decided he was comfortable enough to try having a passenger. We tooled up and down the alley the first time and I was pretty okay with it. That is, until one of our neighbors stopped to chat (motorcycle owners/lovers are very chatty with each other) and told me about the girl he'd seen the day before on the freeway. I won't go into details, but it certainly tamped down my enthusiasm for the day!

The next time we went out, we drove down residential streets for about 20-30 minutes. That was scarier, though I wasn't scared of riding - I was afraid of falling off! So we decided to buy a backrest (aka, sissy bar - but I hate that name! LOL!) for the rear seat so I could relax. (I'd been holding on so tight to John that both my legs and my arms/neck/shoulders were tense as could be!) The first time we drove with the backrest, we rode for about an hour and a half! (We saw a lot of Santa Monica that we'd never seen before, including a canal that's a nature preserve.) John kept asking me if I was okay, but I was having a great time. Later, he said he was a little worried because I no longer had a death grip on him. LOL! This past Saturday we even rode on the PCH - Pacific Coast Highway - for an hour. Riding 45-55 mph is a little scarier than the 35-45 on surface streets, but I was game for it. We finally turned around because I couldn't feel my bum anymore. LOL!

Now that we have the backrest, and I finally found some good boots that fit (Kevlar lined, can you believe it?), and yesterday I bought a great jacket that fits and looks good on me, we'll be riding a lot more. John found out about a restaurant that has "bike night" every Tuesday night - free parking for motorcycles and all you can eat ribs for $19.95. I can't wait to go! Plus, he's going to ride to church on his bike one Sunday coming up to make sure he's comfortable with the streets (we're not riding on the freeway yet), then we can ride it to church. They even have motorcycle parking there! We already ride it to the movie theatre, and for the first time, we don't have to circle for parking! It's awesome!

I'll post more pictures of me in my new jacket later, but here are some pics of us after brunch last Sunday. I was so happy, but you can't see my huge smile! It was too hot to ride in our black leather jackets, so we went home afterward. (We usually ride from 7-9am on Saturdays and Sundays.)

Wake Up! We're Back!

(Kitty) Holy cow! Until my friend Teri pointed it out, I had no idea it'd been 2 1/2 months since we last posted! Yikes! Sorry about that. All I can say is that we find life back in the States a bit more boring than in Aussie Land. :) Or at least it seems more boring to us. For the most part, we see our life as day after day of waiting, waiting, waiting. Still no "real" word about when we'll know about John's next job, but it seems as if it will be the autumn. (Meanwhile, he carries on at his current job in Santa Monica.)

Of course, once I decided I needed to think of something interesting to post here, stuff seemed to start happening! So I'll try to post once or twice a week and let you know some of the interesting stuff and show you any pictures we can take. For today, we'll share some great news about one of our dear friends!

Our friend Don Coleman graduated from Princeton Seminary and was ordained at our church, Bel Air Presbyterian, last Sunday. That was a great day! We got to see him for an hour or so, and his wife Bridgette and son Brennan we'll be able to see tomorrow for several hours. (Don had to go back to work at the church they're at now in Ohio.) We're proud and happy for Don - seems the church they're at now is full of great people - but I'm particularly happy for Bridgette because now she can be a full-time writer! Well, as much as a full-time mom can be! LOL! So I've been spending a little time every day this week thinking of things she needs to know, books she needs to read, people she needs to meet! Hopefully, I won't overwhelm her!

Below are pictures of Don's ordination. More catch-up stories coming up!