Saturday, August 27, 2011

Yes, I was ready for the trip to the beach!





I apologize for being slow to post this, but here is where I was one week ago today. Corona del Mar. I am having some life issues right now, so I don't know how soon I will be scrapbooking this photo and some others I took that day, although I'm looking forward to it. But the issues are really cutting into my mojo and my scrapbooking budget.


The financial issues almost kept us from going to the beach. We really didn't want to go unless we could carpool, but we were supposed to go. The top photo shows some of 202 people who were baptized by our church staff and ministry leaders in a cove at Corona del Mar. The church had asked other volunteers, including us and Alonzo, a young man who has befriended my husband, to help with showing others there for the baptism where to go. That meant we were supposed to get there half hour before everyone else so we could be familiarized with the setup. The three of us were among several volunteers, the rest able to get themselves there. Since the three of us needed to carpool de to financial issues, the church thought they had arranged one ride for Alonzo and another ride for Don and me. But both of our rides fell through, ours because of a miscommunication about what time we were supposed to meet our ride at a local mall, and Alonzo's because of the driver's illness. As our would-be-ride told us she was almost to the beach already, I was almost in tears. But as Don started to hang up with her, his cell phone beeped. It was Alonzo, explaining his situation, and asking if he and his roommate could ride with us. We know Alonzo and his roommate have financial issues too, so we asked them to come up with just $5. That would not cover even half the gas expense, but at least we would not have to fully fund our own trip. They did, and we went. We arrived, three hours after we were supposed to, but still in time to see most of the baptisms. And then to enjoy a fun day on the beach. Which is what I wanted. God is good.










Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Our trips to the beach


Photos of my stepdaughter and granddaughter at the beach - without us!

The dig your toes in the sand beach trip has to wait, at least for my husband and me. Before my stepdaughter made it to California, she uninvited Dad and me. We did see a beach again, Dockweiler Beach near LAX. We drove past it after missing the turn off the 110 Freeway for PCH a few miles east.

We did try to talk the kids into going onto the beach, but granddaughter's early bed time prevented this from being realistic. They instead went to a beach in Orange County on the last day of their trip, after parting ways with the parents.

We were uninvited because it seemed easier to my stepdaughter and son-in-law to fit their beach trip in while visiting my son-in-law's cousin, who already lives in the OC. And because the 405 Freeway in Los Angeles was closed that weekend, or at least when we had intended to go to the beach.

I have mixed feelings about it. I mean I really didn't want to do that whole jump in the ocean with nothing on but a bathing suit thing. I had the bathing suit on, under a shirt and shorts, at the pool party we had at my sister-in-law's house the day before the kids' beach party. I didn't get in the pool, nor did I take even the shirt off.

But, I did say on this blog I wanted to go to the beach. And whether I really meant I just wanted to get a little closer than we did to Dockweiler, or all the way down to the tide, that did not happen.