Our long-awaited move-in date arrived last week as the building is almost complete! Trees are appearing, final electrical and carpeting work is being done, and blacktopping is scheduled for the near future!
Remember that clicking on any of these blog photos will take you to the full photo size, but you can also click on this posting title to see my photo album of the construction progress since I accepted my job in October.
Renata's birthday was made special by David & Lori's visit, so it was neat to have lunch with them and a group from church at Mimi's before they left. After a longer than usual Sunday nap, we visited Jack and Carolyn who opened a wonderful bottle of champagne for the occasion.
Since the next day was Martin Luther King Day we got to sleep in and have a lazy morning. We spent the afternoon enjoying a photography exhibit as well as the wonderful permanent collection at the Norton Simon Museum. (This is a reflection of Imogen Cunningham's photos reflected in Ansel Adams' Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico.)
We drove back to Ventura for a sushi dinner and it wasn't until the next day that I realized I hadn't had my traditional sushi lunch and birthday walk on the beach. It had been much colder (record-breaking lows) and windier than most mid-Januarys but it calmed down a bit and I took a very short walk on Hueneme Beach during my dinner break the next day. Maybe our weather is changing since it actually rained on the first January 14th in memory last year.
We were so pleased to have David and Lori Persons stay with us the weekend they came to Ventura and Santa Barbara. We would have loved to have spent more time and done more things with them, but they are on their six-month national tour of churches that support them and their ministries in Mulungwishi, DRC, and they needed to spend time at our church and then move on. 
It was a special Sunday to have them visit and David preach. A few of us wore the shirts that had been sent to us from Mulungwishi and a few more were able to have lunch together before David & Lori had to pack up and move to the next stop.
To learn more about Mulungwishi and what the Persons are doing, read their Congo Missions - Mulungwishi blog.
New Year's Eve and New Year's Day were thoroughly enjoyable as usual. This year Craig and Renee came up and after a great dinner at home, the four of us joined Richard and Nancy who had just returned from Hawaii.
More goodies, champagne, and games kept us up until midnight, and after a lazy morning, we once again enjoyed Craig's traditional Huevos Rancheros for brunch!
Since we spent Christmas with Sam, we drove to Costa Mesa for a December 30th Christmas celebration with the SoCal family members. We met at Ruby's in South Coast Plaza in order to have dinner together and catch April on her break from Macy's. 
