Finding Joy

I really enjoyed Sacrament meeting this past Sunday. One of the talks was about finding joy, or making the most of your circumstances. This idea really stuck with me, probably because I haven't really taken the time to appreciate what I have out here in California. I often find myself feeling homesick or just miss calling some place home, although California is getting close. So I have been thinking a lot about what I enjoy about California instead of what is missing.

First I have a job that has and is providing wonderful opportunities, not many people can say they supervise/run a department at my age (just in case you were wondering I am the microbiology supervisor for a laboratory). Second, there is so much beauty to be found in the mountains and the surrounding hills, I love watching them as they change between the wet and dry seasons, not to mention the ocean, and the mostly wonderful weather. Lastly I love that so many of Tucker's co-workers have citrus trees in their yards. Last week Tucker brought home 2 lemons the first we used to make lemonade the second I used to make 2 Lemon-Meringue Pies (my favorite actually I can't think of a pie I don't like). Yes one lemon, produced 1 whole cup of juice more than enough for 2 pies.


This is not me trying to make a lemon look larger than it is, I am just trying to put the lemon's size into perspective. My pies also look beautiful so far there has not been any weeping from the meringue, but I have to wait until to tomorrow to see if they taste as good as they look.


So all in all I am trying to make California feel more like home by just finding and doing what makes me happy.

Catching Up

So it has been awhile, mainly because nothing exciting has happening in the last couple of weeks. Now that Tucker has Mondays off it is a little harder to find time to blog on my days off and during the week I am usually to tired to even turn on the computer. The last couple of Mondays Tucker and I have been exploring the mountains that surround us. First we checked out the Cleveland National Forest and did some hiking below are some of the pictures we took.


The following week we stayed closer to home and hiked through the San Gabriel mountains, back towards Eaton Falls (pictured below). This hike was more adventurous we were continually walking back and forth across the creek. It started out as a dry bed but by the end we had to cross by stepping on the dry rocks. At one point I missed a rock and ended up with my leg in the water so I spent the rest of the hike when my pant leg wet up to my knee. I was freezing by the time we reached the falls it was only like 65 degrees outside.