California for Stefani

I am currently writing this blog sitting in the leather chair at our front window.  The laptop is appropriately in my… lap.  I love having a front window that looks out onto the street.  I missed that.  Our new place is great and we are loving it here.  The people downstairs are a little… well… young, so that is an adjusting situation with that.  Considering we managed a condo complex full of these kids, I think we can handle 2 of them.  Minnie is sitting in her favourite spot on a Coca Cola bean bag chair in the spare room.  She loves lying there and looking out the window and watching the birds.  Doug is playing a video game called Mass Effect.  This is what we do for excitement on a friday night.  Considering Doug is usually working on a friday night, I am quite happy about the evening off.  Two cars just drove by… I love my front window that looks out into the world.

We decided to cancel our Caribbean cruise for next January and book 6 nights at Disney World at our timeshare at Animal Kingdom.  Then we will do a 3 night Bahamas cruise on the Disney Dream.  Yup, exciting times are ahead.   We also have our California trip to look forward to this September.  We sure are enjoying our Disney timeshare.  

Couple of thoughts in my head these days…

I sure find that I “grow” up as I get older.  I know that I have never considered the “gay” relationship much of an issue, but I do know that I used to think of it as a sin.   So my saying was that all sin is the same in God’s eyes… lying, gossiping, being gay… it was all the same and regardless of the sin, we are still accepted by God.  So I have never discriminated against gay’s, but I did think it was a sin.  That thinking process began to change about 10ish years ago when I met my friends Gail and Jill.  They were a gay couple that we cruised with.  We have never connected with 2 people like we connected with them.   All 6 of us got along so well (my parents included) and we did so much talking about life with them.  We are still friends with Gail and her new wife Sheri.  It is amazing how one changes their point of view when you sit down and talk to people about their life.  It was then that we started to look at being gay as just another lifestyle.  I don’t see it as a sin anymore.  If two people are committed to each other, then why do I have the right to say anything about it.  I believe in marriage, or being committed to each other.   I don’t think it matters if you are gay, or straight.    I guess being a Christian means I should consider being gay a sin, but I am hoping that God/Jesus is ok if I don’t consider it that way.  I will discuss that with them when I get to heaven and we can hash it out then.  I think some of these odd views is probably why we don’t go to church anymore.  I don’t like how people look down on gay’s.  Granted I hate how people in church are so good at judging others so easily.    We have no right to judge others… we are all sinners and personally, we should just keep our mouth shut, live our life as a Christian as we see fit and leave other’s live their life as a Christian how they see fit.  God/Jesus knows how to talk to his people and if he sees ways that they need correcting, then he will deal with it. 

Another thought in my head….

I have been listening to the Christian radio station and some of the songs kind of bug me.  They talk about how God does things to us to make us closer to him.  Now, that is a concept that I have a bit of trouble with.  God sends his son Jesus to earth… he dies on the cross for us (our sins) so that we can be spotless in front of God… then ignores all this and causes us pain?  Really?  Who buys into this stuff?  Honestly…the truth is that living on this earth is awful.  It is filled with sin and there is no way around it.    Jesus died for us and our sins… he made us clean in front of God, so why would God be causing us pain if we are spotless?   Yes we sin, but we are also forgiven.  Things happen to us because LIFE SUCKS!!!  God/Jesus takes care of us so that we can manage through it.  That is the promise.  I will not think that God/Jesus does things to us so we can be closer to him.   What a great relationship that would be… I wonder how that would work as a husband/wife, wife/wife, husband/husband relationship.   Now, my relationship with Jesus might be a little unique… I feel that I have been a Christian all my life and my first thoughts that I can remember where about my faith in Jesus.  So maybe I don’t understand that concept of needing negativity in ones life to become more positive.  I am ok with not needing that though.  I am fine with knowing that my Jesus died for me and that he takes care of me.  It is living in a world of sin that makes the bad things happen.  It is Jesus that gives me the peace to not kill myself over it.  My relationship with Jesus is amazing… not because of the crap he has done to me, but because I know that he is the reason I am surviving this life and even enjoying parts of it (Mickey Mouse).  I don’t need crap to know that Jesus takes care of me.   Maybe we need to be reminded on why we were created (without sin).  I strive to be that person that he created.  God/Jesus created me so I can be with him in the garden… that garden disappeared when sin came into this world, but I don’t think the original reason disappeared with it.  So my life is surrounded by his creation… by his love… and I will talk to him all the time, appreciate what he has done for me, ask for help when I need it, ask for forgiveness when I sin, thank him for everything he has done and just be what he wants me to be.  We all have different purposes in life and I hope to fulfill his purpose.  I go where he wants me to go and if God/Jesus sees fit to send me to church, then I will embrace it with open arms.  Right now our bible study group is enough.

On the note of our bible study group… we have two couples having babies.   Seems so weird to me to be starting this again.  I remember about 20 years ago when our friends then where just having babies and now we are doing it again.  I think it help us keep feeling young (here is hoping). 

Our life is good…yes there is crap going on in our lives, but that is just a part of living in a world of sin.  We will look beyond the crap and see the good in the other aspects of our lives. 
Here is to heaven looking like a Disney theme park (my words of wisdom for the day LOL)

Doug and I were married in 1988 (yes we are coming up to 24 years of marriage) and since then have had a number of homes.  Each with interesting stories and how they came about to be in our lives.  We owned a house in Chilliwack in the mid 90’s and really enjoyed the house but no so much the half acre of yard maintenance.  Due to some illnesses and stupid decisions, we sold the place at a loss and owe my parents far too much money.  So let’s not dwell on the negative because I still can’t talk about all that yet… still sits heavy on my heart.  Let’s start with when we moved to Surrey in 1997…

Our first place here was a basement suite.  We went from a full house to ourselves, to living in a basement.  The landlords where nice and it actually went pretty good for the most part… we had a nice pink spare bedroom which my poor nephew had to sleep in every so often.  We parted from that place on bad terms with our landlords (no real idea why though) and moved to one of our most unique place as of yet.  Here our landlord Dee was an older lady who had family that walked all over her.  We lived in the bottom part of the duplex below her.   We would have her over for dinner and get her to join us in a few family events.  She was a very unique lady and we tried very hard to help her out whenever we could.  She had no money to fix the place up, so we landed up doing a lot of stuff.  We totally redid the bathroom when Doug fell through the outside wall (not completely through, but just about).  We also had to redo a part of the floor because it turns out the wood had cat pee on it and the only way to get rid of the smell was pull the floor out.  It was a weird lay out but turned out to be very useful when our ever so young cousin Naomi came to live with us.  This was a start of a long and wonderful friendship with the Barg side of our family.  We loved this place and if it wasn’t for one of Dee’s tenants coming to our door step drunk and threatening us, we would not have moved.

Our next place was with Andy… and this house had an amazing view of the fraser river and we could even see the fireworks in New West.  We loved this place… great view, nice yard and nicely renovated inside.  Andy was also the owner of a car lot at the time, and he got us our Tercel at cost.  He knew our credit wasn’t that great (Doug had to go bankrupt due to illness) but still gave us a loan.  He has since helped us get our next two cars since then… yup he is the reason we have the Mustang.  We landed up moving because the downstairs people refused to stop smoking in the house and so we had to move because the smell would come through the vents.  Our next place was short lived though as when we moved we were told the landlord wouldn’t sell and tear down the house… turns out he lied and 9 months later we were moving again.  Oh the joy.   Eventually we landed up moving to the Whalley area of Surrey.  We loved being so close to the skytrain, but eventually we got tired of the crime and all the crap going on there and so we decided to move up in the world… we moved to WHITE ROCK/S. SURREY

So here begins our adventure in the beautiful oceanside town which we love so much.  We landed up being in a few places while being here for the last 6 years due to landlords wanting to have their place back, paying too much in rent, ect.   We love living here and love the environment.  It is a much more layed back lifestyle than the main city of Surrey.   Our last place was right on the beach… this was our dream life… a condo on the beach and a convertible Mustang… really what more does a person need?  Then a bunch of this came crashing down early this year when Doug lost his good paying job, was unemployed for 2 months and now works part-time at minimum wage.  It was time to move somewhere cheaper.  We thought we would have to live in some basement suite back in the main city of Surrey… we were not looking forward to this, but God had other plans…

Ocean Park…what a cute little area in South Surrey (borders White Rock).  I saw this ad in Craigslist for a top floor of a fourplex… it was in our price range, but they didn’t allow pets.  I was told by a friend to ask anyway, so I emailed and said what a good cat Minnie was and if they would reconsider the pet policy.  After meeting us, they reconsidered… how amazing is God right?  We always have believed the right people will come into our lives without us having to force things.  Our landlords really liked us and even reduced the rent if we were ok with the old carpeting.  We were game and so on May 12, 2012 our new adventure began away from our beach hut in White Rock.  It was really hard to leave the area (which is only 7 minutes away) but we knew we had to do this to get our finances in order again.  

We are all moved in now… everything is where it is supposed to be and it actually feels like we have been here forever.  It is so nice that God gives us peace even when the world feels like it is trying to push us under.   I keep telling people this place is cozy (not in a small way), but in a warm blanket around a person way.  Maybe it was all the prayers of our friends, or just that God has given us such peace about this decision, but it feels cozy… we love it here and we are still close to Crescent Beach (only a 15 min walk and 190 steps down).    We still have our Mustang and we will be setting up the hot tub soon.  Life can change in a moments notice and we learned many years ago (when Doug had his stroke) that never take it all for granted.  Enjoy today and all the little things.  We have loved every place we have lived in and have made it our own even if it was a dump.   God expects us to take pride in the little things and the things we have… we have to take care of it and he will bless us with better.  Even if it doesn’t seem better, he gives us peace to make us think it is better.    We have been blessed with great landlords for a number of our places we have rented and that should never be taken for granted.   Thanks goes out to all those landlords that treat their tenants with respect!

So here we are… starting our new adventure in Ocean Park… I am looking forward to seeing how this part of our life pans out.   I still see ourselves in California someday, but who knows…we don’t know the future.  God will take care of no matter where we are and right now I am so grateful that he is taking care of us in a cute little suburb called Ocean Park in Surrey.  We are blessed and God is great!!  By the way, we had our first gathering at our place yesterday (that didn’t involve any moving) with our bible study group.  It felt to so good to be able to have people over and have such pride for our wonderful new home.