CJ and Jenn in Jose Olé

What a long, strange trip it's been...
Where do I start this post? Let's just say that we've been moving in since we got here and we're still a long ways from it! Two days after we got down here my mom and dad were supposed to drive my truck down and it was doing great... until it saw California in the distance. Six miles from the state line it decided to overheat and the transmission decided that it was done. My truck is still in Ashland, Oregon. I guess moving down here wasn't expensive enough so now I had to pay almost $1,500 more to get this truck fixed. Thank God I don't have to go up there and bring it down. Rob, Christina, and Jesi Law are going to come down and visit us next weekend and they are going to pick up my truck and drive it down. God has blessed us with so many awesome people in our lives... we just can't complain about anything. He is totally working for us being down here!

As we sold our furniture in Washington (my old bachelor pad, futon furniture) we had to go out and buy new stuff and after telling us it would take two weeks to get it delivered it was delivered 4 days after ordering it- we even ordered it with custom colors! Jennifer loves it and I got to barter with the person who was selling it so I'm happy. We also bought a bed down here because of the bedroom set Jim (Jenn's dad) made for us but little did we know that in California a REGULAR king size mattress is special order. They don't even have them in stock so we're staying in the guest room until this weekend when it is supposed to show up. It has been very wierd spending money with no real money coming it yet (I'm still getting paid from my district in Bremerton but that's coming to a close soon).

We're getting pretty savvy with the roads here. We're going out and trying to find someplace new everyday in another part of the city. Unlike your cities in Washington it is really spread out. California cities seem to be that way. We're intentionally getting lost often and trying to meander our way around and find our way home... "it's for fun."

Luna seems to be taking this pretty hard. She's okay with the heat and all but she just seems wierd, like we're going to leave her or something. She freaks out when we leave the house and when she's with us she seems all nervous. Last night we took her to a movie in the park and she just sat on our laps the whole time, she wasn't interested in all the people running around or anything. It wasn't like her at all. Hopefully she'll get better as we're here longer. Today we went to Petsmart and brought her and she got to meet some local puppies so she was pretty happy today.

My school is under this major remodel and I can't set up my classroom yet. IF the contractors finish on Monday like they are supposed to the movers will be in to move my stuff on Tuesday and maybe I'll be able to start setting up Wednesday... night after my 8 hours of training that I have to go to each day next week. Jennifer's school starts this weekend and I'm going to try to start planning my curriculum (though I was told if I teach nothing at all but keep the kids from killing each other I'll do better than the teacher in my place last year). I'm excited about starting school but though the SJUSD was voted the 5th best district to work in I think it is because of all the money it gets. Last year my principal said she got over $250,000 in Title 1 funds and she seemed like she couldn't spend it fast enough. I've got 3 new Mac's in my classroom as well as my own ibook (mine and renewable every two years). I've got my own boxlight and a bunch of other stuff I'll have to learn how to use with it! The issue is going to be the lives of the students. This is an inner-city school. 76% of the students speak Spanish at home and half of my class is reading 2 whole grade levels behind before they start school this fall. I hope I am up to the task of being the type of teacher these students need to succeed. Lord knows I'll give it all I've got.

All in all we're settling in down here. We're off to find a home church this weekend and we're really hoping to get involved right away. It's hard when we so loved the church we were at when we were in Bremerton, but we're viewing this as a mission trip and one we'll hopefully return home with a lot of knowledge and some real experiances to help make us better Christians and better able to serve our church there (We miss you MCC!).

I've posted a picture and will post more after a fine dinner of steak fajitas that my loving wife has prepared for me. God Bless and know that we are praying for you often!