Back to Gainesville, FL


For my winter break I got the opportunity to go back and visit Gainesville, FL, while Matt was at a conference in San Diego. It was just as I had remembered it. Driving around town, seeing everyone again and visiting the school I used to teach at brought back such great memories and happy times. It was awesome to be back. By the way in the center of the collage is a picture of me with a statue of Tim Tebow. Outside of a restaurant they made this wooden statue of Tebow. I thought it was hilarious and had to take a pciture with him.

My first night in town we went to dinner at Las Margaritas. Nothing like some good Mexican and mariachi! David and Donna joined us and Chauncey stopped by too. It was old times just like I remembered.

The next day I visited Brentwood, the school I used to teach at. It was great to be back with the kids and staff. I felt like a rock star with the kids. They loved on me so much and wanted me to be back teaching them again. Afterwards I met Lisa and we went for a run on campus. We were shooting for a 3 miler, but somehow I got my distances confused and we ended up running 6 miles. Oops. It was still awesome to run on campus, one of my favorite things to do. Thursday night Emily and Caleb hosted an ice cream and game night with everyone from family group. It was so much fun see everyone and catch up. I can't believe that Matt and I have been gone for 7 months.

Lisa took Friday off of work. We slept in and went out to coffee in the morning. Later on we met Bob for lunch at Moe's. He shared his exciting news with Lisa about matching for his internship. We are so proud of you Bob!

After lunch, Lisa and I walked through the stadium. Go Gators!

Friday night there was a UF women's gymnastics meet against Alabama. Since I still have my Gator-One I was able to get in for free. Kim, Jennifer and I went out to dinner at Crisper's before the meet.




After the gymnastics meet we went out to Dairy Queen as part of our normal tradition. Peanut butter cup flurry. Some things don't ever change!
On Saturday we spent most of the day at the Family Church participating in the Global Impact Celebration (celebration of missions local and foreign). I got to see Karl and Jenny and Sarah. Later on that night Dustyn and Lucy came over to Bob and Lisa's house for a pre-race pasta dinner. Lucy was so sweet and brought Lisa and I flowers.


Bright and early Sunday morning Lisa, Lucy and I ran the Gainesville Half Marathon. The weather was beautiful and the company was fantastic. It was fun to run through Gainesville and reminisce. It was Lucy's first half marathon and we were so proud of her. After the race we went to breakfast at Cracker Barrel. Here we are enjoying our breakfast and medals. Three hours after breakfast I was on a plane (7 hours) headed back to California. Matt and I hope to visit Gainesville again soon. We are grateful for our time in Gainesville and the awesome friends and memories we made. We will always look back on our time there with happy hearts.

A Visit with the Friesens

We were blessed to be able to visit with Paul and Virginia Friesen. They came to speak at our church, Peninsula Covenant. It was great to be able to catch up with them. Paul and Virginia were our connection to PCC when we first moved to Menlo Park. Our first year being married, back in 2003, Paul and Virginia had Gary and Anne speak at a marriage conference that we attended. It is neat to have come full circle and be attending PCC and have Paul and Virginia speak.

Miss Silvia

Dear Miss Silvia,

We waited a long time for you to arrive. It was so nice when you finally came. You were very shiny and clean although if you don’t mind us saying you could have lost a few pounds. I think that we were willing to forgive this and accept you as you were. After all, we had heard so many great things about you. You had quite a reputation to live up to, and we believed in you. We were confident that it wasn’t just a bunch of hype, but that you could truly be all that you were created to be…

The first week was rough (we aren’t going to lie). There was a lot of wasted coffee grounds, burnt milk, hurt feelings, and unmet expectations. This was just as much our shortcomings as yours. We just thought you would solve all of our problems and meet all of our needs. We forgot that you might have some needs too. So we tried to be a little more understanding. We tried everything…giving you plenty of time to warm up and stretch, feeding you only the finest and most expensive coffee grounds, and keeping you clean and polished. We even brought some of our friends over and talked about how great you were (we tried to talk loud enough so you could hear us). Nothing worked Miss Silvia!!!

And then it dawned on us, you were lonely. While we treated you well, we realized that each day we would get up, start our day with you (and we worked you so hard so early in the morning), and then quickly leave for work, leaving you alone at home sitting on our cold tile kitchen counter without a friend to talk to (we realize now that our rice cooker and crock pot really aren’t the best company). We didn’t even give you a view of the lovely park outside our kitchen window. How horrible of us! Essentially we were using you and you were getting nothing in return.

Well, we are turning a new leaf. We are starting fresh, forgetting the past! Miss Silvia, meet Rocky. Rocky, meet Miss Silvia. We know you two will be great friends. You will make a perfect team, working in tandem to produce only the finest. We can’t wait to see all the wonderful things the two of you will accomplish. So Miss Silvia, we realize our beginnings have been rough, but we think the future is bright. So here’s to a future of finely ground coffee, perfect 25 second shots, 30lb tamps everytime, and frothy milk at exactly 150 degrees.

Your loving owners,

Matt and Christen

Happy Valentine's Day!
On Valentine's Day we both slept in, which was a miracle. We enjoyed a relaxing morning with cappuccino and eggs with avacado. I surprised Matt and got him the Garmin Forerunner 405 for Valentine's and early birthday present. He was so excited and spent half the morning playing around with it.



Matt had made reservations for dinner at Sam's Chowder House in Half Moon Bay. Neither of us had been there, but Matt had heard great things. The food and the live music were fantastic. We topped off the night with a movie and peppermint ice cream back at home.
Matt surprised me and sent these beautiful roses with an amazing note to my school on Friday!

I will miss you Grammy!
On January 6, 2009 my grandmother passed away. I have so many amazing memories of Grammy. She loved all of her grandchildren so much. Gram used to tell me that I was her favorite granddaughter, in Reading. She was always baking us things from criss cross to blueberry muffins, angel food cake, Christmas cookies. She loved to listen to classical music. Gram used to spend weeks before Christmas making gingerbread houses for the grandchildren to decorate. She would spend hours picking out just the right candy. Grammy was so proud of her Hungarian and German history. Her and Grampy used to babysit for Patrick and I when my parents would go out. They used to take us to Putnam Pantry for ice cream sundeas. Grammy loved supporting us and came to all our sporting events. I will miss her so much, but have many wonderful memories that I will always remember.

Grammy's funeral was a time to remember her. My dad read words that Grammy had written in the Bible that she used, which was Grampy's. Lisa did the eulogy and we had some great memories to cry over. Grammy had wanted a classical Hungarian song played during the funeral and I envisioned Gram baking in her kitchen. Then there was a time when we could share memories that we had of her. The grandkids all shared something and it was a special time.

During the funeral weekend it snowed a lot. I got the privelege of shoveling. It was a great workout and I enjoyed it just this once knowing that I would soon be going back to sunny California.



I also got to see Sharona, Karen, Jennifer and Morgan, who came out for Grammy's funeral. One night the girls went to a movie together. Auntie Lee Lee bought us all ice cream too. It was fun to see my cousins since I don't get to see them all that often.

New Friends!

Yeah for new

San Diego, CA
I went to San Diego for a conference in January and Matt came along. We had a ton of fun. The hotel was in the harbor with a great view of the city. During the day Matt worked from the hotel room, while I went to the conference sessions.
If you look closely you can see a rainbow coming out of the city.



Each night we went to a different part of San Diego for dinner. One night we went to Old Town for some great Mexican food, nothing like homemade chips, guacamole and a daiquiri. Matt was excited to share his home town with Jamie, another teacher who attended the conference with me. We also ate the Gas Lamp district one night at a Thai restaurant.

When the conference ended Matt and I rented a car and drove to Temecula to see Matt and Becca Ellis. Along the way we stopped off and bought a Matt a bib for the Carlsbad half marathon. Matt had always wanted to run this race and we just happened to be in town the weekend of it. In addition, Matt Ellis was also running it too.

The night before the race Becca took us to a frozen yogurt place. I was in my glory. They had so many different flavors of yogurt and you got to make your own as well as put your own topping on. I definately sampled all the flavors before choosing.


Thanks Becca for taking here!

The morning of the race Becca and I saw the guys off at the start of the race and then headed off for some coffee. We met back up with the guys at the finish. They completed the race in 1 hour and 39 minutes. Way to go Matt and Matt!