Almost There!

(Kitty) It's amazing how much work it is to move to another country. There are phone calls, problem solving, emails, brainstorming, phone calls, crisis management, more emails, and then a few more phone calls.

It's Monday night and we're staying up waiting to get confirmation that we have tickets to fly out on Wednesday night. (We're staying up because Monday night here is Tuesday afternoon in Sydney.)

While there is still several big things that need to be completed (getting the tickets, getting the motorcycles prepped for storage, figuring out how to get us and all of our stuff to the airport and then getting our car to a friend who will sell it for us, packing the last few things and weighing the suitcases for the last time), the bulk of it all is done.

And thank goodness for that... because my brain is almost totally fried!

We'll write again when we can find an Internet cafe in Sydney! Love to you all!

Traveling All Around

(Kitty) We've been traveling all around Michigan for the last month, with a couple quick trips to Ohio and Chicago. It's been a GREAT time - saying goodbye to people, seeing our favorite old haunts, and experiencing the wonderful Michigan weather - from lows in the 40s and raining to highs in the 90s with high humidity. Good thing we packed a little of every kind of clothing!

We've seen almost all of our family - which is awesome - and a lot of our friends and sights we wanted to see. It's been an adventure - sometimes not a good one, but mostly good - to be sleeping in a different bed/hotel what felt like every night. We had a wonderful motel on Mackinac Island! What a blessing it was to be able to fall asleep in the dark and quiet of an island that doesn't allow cars. We rode bikes all one day, trying to dodge the occasional piles of horse manure on the roads. And we walked a lot, sometimes in the rain. It was pretty wonderful.

The whole trip has been pretty wonderful, even though we're tired. There are still several things that need to be done in Los Angeles before we leave for Sydney, but God has blessed us with so much that it's pretty easy to believe everything else is going to turn out just fine. :)

AVATAR: The Game

Well folks, for all the time I've not been writing on the blog, I've been working on a movie. The movie, as many of you have already heard, is James Cameron's AVATAR. While I can't show you anything about the movie, this article shows you images from the game that will give you an idea of what is in the movie.

>>>>SPOILER ALERT<<<<
If you guys don't want to see anything about the movie, I would stay away from the article :)

>News of the game and screenshots<

Amazing Grace!

(Kitty) Our trip to the Bay Area was wonderful! I'm not sure how it could have gotten any better unless we stayed longer. The drive was long (about 7 hours) but not awful. We got to spend three days with Myk and Annie and Grace, and then we finally got to surprise Annie on the last day - when Jill and Dwight arrived for the day! (Jill and I are co-godmothers, and Dwight and John are co-godfathers.)

We all walked to the park to play and hang out for a while, had a barbecue on Myk's new grill, played some Guitar Hero, and thoroughly enjoyed catching up with each other. (We all used to be in the same Bible study and something happened there - we just became family.)

And our little Grace amazed us all with her incredible talents! She only just turned 13 months old and she says so many words so clearly that you can actually communicate with her! She knows some of her letters, lots of shapes/pictures of animals and bugs, and she dances to the theme music for "The Sopranos." (Yes, that last one is disturbing. LOL!)

Here she is:


And here are all of us together:

For the Love of Grace

(Kitty) So excited! Tomorrow morning we leave for the San Francisco Bay Area to visit our awesome friends Myk & Annie and our beautiful goddaughter, Grace! I can't wait. It's going to be a blast.

Things are going well with the moving - the movers have our stuff and have been paid, so it really will be in Sydney in a few months. LOL! We now are needing to sell our car, visit a ton of people, and try to relax despite the busy schedule. Altogether, God is very good!! :)

P.S. Anyone know of someone in the LA area who wants to buy a 2005 Dodge Neon?

Writing Retreats Rock!

(Kitty) My four-day writing retreat is over halfway done and I am soooo happy and relaxed! Ahhhh...

Going to see if we can get the DVD player connected to the TV here so we can all watch AUSTRALIA together. Woo-hooo!!

BIGGEST LOSER

(Kitty) We had the most delicious meal yesterday - big meaty sandwiches, micro-brewed beer, and later a brownie for dessert. Mmm...

Then we weighed ourselves this morning as we do every Monday. Eek!

So today we decided to have a weight loss competition! We are both going to try to lose 22 pounds by July 2, a little more than 2 pounds per week. Eek! The person who loses the most weight gets $50 to spend however they want. If the runner-up reaches at least 75% of their goal, they get $20.

I don't care that much about the money, it's the competition that is making this fun! All I can say is - the game is on!!

P.S. Vote for ME!!

37 Days and Trying Not to Count

(Kitty) Only 37 days till we'll be moving out of our apartment. EEK! Sooooo much to do. So I guess I'll get back to it.

Wish us luck!!! :)

Busy or Boring?

(Kitty) I have a reminder message that pops up twice a week reminding me to post here. Yet it's been five weeks without a post. Granted, we are SO BUSY getting ready to move. But maybe we just lead boring enough lives that I can't think of anything you'd be interested in knowing.

In fact, I don't know if anyone reads this at all! :) Most of our friends seem to have gravitated to Facebook and I've been caught up in that pull.

I don't know, but in my mind I still can't think of what you would find interesting to read. So I thought I'd post that thought here and let you know. Tell me if I'm wrong!

I Love Surprises!

(Kitty) Thursday John sent me an instant message asking if I wanted to pick him up for lunch on Friday. It's been weeks, maybe months, since he was able to leave during his lunch so I was happy to change my plans.

Friday morning we woke up early (as usual) and watched an episode of TV. I was watching the clock when it was about time for John to get ready for work - when he turned to me and said, "What if I told you I don't have to go to work today?"

I shrieked and starting kissing him dozens of times! LOL! What a GREAT day we had! And it ended with John's company treating the employees (and spouses!) to a night at the movies seeing WATCHMEN.

The day was so relaxing, such a great change from our normal life, that we both slept so great for the first time in weeks. Ahhhh... Thank you, God! :)

My Book Progress

(Kitty) Hi guys! I just found this awesome little graphic on the Writertopia site! Here is my current book progress for my brand new book. I'll try to keep this updated so that I can get encouragement and/or a kick in the pants from my friends! LOL!

An Update

These are some of the things Kitty has been doing lately:

• Spent 12 hours driving to San Diego, meeting with a Harlequin romance editor, getting encouragement, and driving home last Saturday
  
• Spent 4 1/2 months putting off sending my hero book to an author I'd won a critique from in October
  
• Spent 15 minutes writing an email and sending the book to the author yesterday
  
• Spent undocumented hours getting tax information together, drove it to accountant today
• Spent undocumented hours getting information for Australian immigration, not done yet
• Spent 5 hours Wednesday with writer friends brainstorming on our books and eating chocolate - the books are all the better for it
• Spent 5 minutes today trying to think of something funnier to write here

These are some of the things John has been doing lately besides working 12-14 hours a day, 7 days a week:

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Writing Opportunity

(Kitty) Tomorrow, Saturday, I am driving to Escondido to the Romance Writers of America San Diego chapter's monthly meeting. Mary Theresa Hussey, an Executive Editor at Harlequin/Silhouette Books, will be giving her feedback on what an editor sees when they read the first couple pages someone sends them.

The great part is that everyone attending the meeting has the opportunity to send in their first two pages for her to look at. So tomorrow maybe I'll hear something great about my work... like, "Hey, I like this, send us more!" LOL!!

Hey, a girl can hope...

Good People

(Kitty) Driving John to work this morning through the morning rain, suddenly our conversation was cut short when the car in front of us hit a pedestrian!

John jumped out immediately to help the woman, while I turned on our hazard lights and reached for my phone. I noticed the driver was already out and on the phone, so I started praying for God to be with us and help the woman. I remembered we had a thick beach blanket in the trunk, so I grabbed it and wrapped it around her. Another pedestrian had already stopped and was holding the woman's head in her lap so she wasn't lying on the cold wet pavement. Another pedestrian helped find the husband's number in the woman's Blackberry. Yet another stranger stopped with a medical kit and started examining the woman while we waited for the ambulance.

I looked around and noticed the woman's belongings were scattered around the sidewalk so I gathered them up, turned her umbrella inside right, and moved to hold it over people. John was holding another umbrella, and another woman stopped and held her umbrella. When the EMTs showed up soon after, they saw a rainbow of people colors and umbrella colors working together to help protect a stranger.

When we were back in the car and on our way to John's work, all I could think about was how awesome God made people. Given the need, more of them are likely to step up and help, than not. And that is a really wonderful thing!

Fun Times

(Kitty) Some days just make me laugh more than others. Today I was washing the dishes and a commercial was playing on TV. I was thinking, funny, that guy sounds like my friend Haynes Brook. Just as the commercial ended, I looked and - hey, that looks like Haynes! The second best part about having DirecTV is being able to rewind live TV - so I did. And it was Haynes!

Same thing happened during the Super Bowl. Our friend Richard Clarke Larsen from church was on the (Nextel?) commercial - "if Roadies ran airports." Richard is the pilot if you ever see it. Very funny! And then we started talking with Cristine Rose at church who is in Heroes, so I enjoyed the funny Heroes commercial that played during the Super Bowl, too.

Seeing people you know on TV is one of the fun things about living in LA. :)

We Did It!

(Kitty) Two days later, and we're still pretty darn tired but on Sunday, February 1, 2009, John and I ran our first Half Marathon! Yea!!! We ran the Surf City (Half) Marathon in Huntington Beach, CA. It was a beautiful day, cold and foggy in the early morning (much more comfortable for running!) and then clearing up with a light breeze later in the morning.

There were something like 15,000+ runners between the full marathon, the half marathon, and the 5K Fun Run! John was sick with the flu for three days before the race, so he was sweet enough to choose to run with me for the first 9.5 miles. But his knees were hurting from running "so slow" and I told him to go stretch his legs. :) John finished in 2 hours, 58 minutes, and I finished in 3 hours, 9 minutes. Slow, but John was getting over being sick and had been working so much overtime he had hardly any training in the last several weeks. For me, though, that was my best long-run time! I was VERY happy! And this is the longest run we've ever done, longer than any of our training (which topped out at 11 miles a couple of times).

Still tired, still craving meat (protein rebuilds the muscles), but I'm already getting excited for the next race - the Pasadena Half Marathon on March 22! Woo-hooo!!!

A Little Earthquake

(Kitty) We had a little earthquake last night. Pretty cool. Apparently the epicenter was only 1-2 miles from our home, so here it felt HUGE but it was only a 3-point-something on the Richter scale. Like our friend Ray said - it felt like a huge dump truck fell from the sky into our yard!

I LOVE WRITING!!

(Kitty) I am on a writing retreat this week with my friend Shonna, and I AM GETTING SO MUCH DONE!! I am sooo happy!!! I have a fun idea, a solid outline, and pretty soon I'll be seeing the snowball effect of pages piling up! Wooo-hoooo!!!

I hope you're having a great week doing something that gives you joy, too! :)

Finally of Age?

(Kitty) Can't help it, gotta say it - today is the 21st anniversary of the day John and I met! I know, mostly only girls care about this sort of thing, but still, I think it's pretty cool. :) John says he thinks it's weird that I think he's better than ever. But secretly, I think he loves it! ;)

Ignore This Story!

(Kitty) When you're looking at your calendar and monitoring the airfare from the United States to Sydney, and trying to decide when you're going to come visit us, don't go looking for stories like this. You just don't want to know. Come visit us anyway. Really, it's safe. (Maybe consider life insurance and be sure to say your prayers first, but... come visit us anyway.)

Click here if you just can't help yourself. But don't say I didn't warn you!