4th of July weekend

This weekend was filled with cleaning and relaxation. James was out of town for most of the weekend working on a film. Luckily he got home Sat. afternoon. We decided to have an early meal and grilled a nice steak dinner with artichokes and corn on the cob. James could barely keep his eyes open during the meal. He was of course exhausted from long days/nights of shooting but after an afternoon nap he was ready to go see fireworks.

We decided to do a short hike at Griffith park to a lookout peak we had not been to. This peak took us higher than the Observatory where we had seen the fireworks last year. And this year we had an amazing parking spot too so we were happy. It was an easy trail, although I did have to take a few breaks since it was all uphill and of course I was wearing flip-flops. (I really don't know what I was thinking!) But it was a gorgeous and sunny day. When we got to the top we found a small group of other people who decided to do the same thing. People even brought their horses. We had an excellent spot overlooking all of LA and this time we could see most of the valley too. It is an amazing perspective to see all these fireworks, going off all over the town. Some of the shows were quite impressive.

As it grew later it became cold and we had to hike back down in the dark. We weren't planning ahead and so we had no flashlight. Although we did have a nice almost full moon. I was a little nervous about seeing coyotes since people had spotted one following them on the way up to the lookout peak. But much to James' dismay we didn't see any coyotes. It was a nice to spend another holiday together enjoying our city. Here are some pics from our 4th of July hike.

A Merry Christmas in LA

This year James and I decided to stay in LA due to the price of plane tickets, recently moving and having no time to settle our things, and well... just being all stressed out.  My mom offered to buy us plane tickets home, and it almost worked out but in the end we decided to stay here, though I was so sad about not being able to see everyone. James and I had also decided to buy our families webcams for christmas. Well...my dad had the same idea! So we're still doing some christmas shopping for my mom, brother, and sister in-law. But the good news is that we were able to hook the webcams up and spend part of Christmas together! I've been able to chat and laugh with my mom, and see the animals as we talked to them from the computer.  On Christams my mom had my aunt, uncle, and grandparents over and I was able to see everyone and have a little bit of Christmas with them in Michigan. It was great to see and chat with everyone, it felt like I was right there! I miss them all a bunch! Another great thing was that we were able to open our presents with our family online so they got to see us open them. It was so neat! We also chatted with James' family on Christmas so we were able to see everyone one the east coase too! It was a very merry Christmas indeed!

Another fun thing that happened this Christmas was that James and the rest of my family kept a great secret and surprised me on Christmas..... strangely enough at chruch the week before Christmas there was a skit forshadowing the whole event...

On the 23rd James picked me up from work. He was really excited about his new hand held video recorder present from Brad and Nicole. He was taping me as I walked to the car. He kept holding it up in my face, while I'm somewhat used to this it was still quite distracting! I got in the car and he was still taping. I reminded him that could "turn the camera off now" as I thought there was nothing very exciting about filming two people sitting in a car. As I'm saying this I'm reaching for my seat belt, which I was having a hard time finding....all the sudden I feel a hand on my shoulder. I'm still trying to get my seat belt on...so I began to tell James to get his hand off of me, when I realized it wasn't his hand. He had both up front... one on the steering wheel and one on his camera. I began to ask just who was behind me, not exactly knowing what to expect. That's when my dad popped his head from the back seat! It was a great surprise!!!! Thanks to all of you who helped to keep it :) 

Here is the video James captured of the surprise....

Christmas Surprise from James Kanka on Vimeo.

What you get for your money in LA

These past two weeks James and I have been moving into our new apartment. I like to think of our place as our little cottage, because that's exactly how it feels. Apartments in LA just aren't the same as they are on the east coast, or probably anywhere else. We're happy with our find. To to have a refridgerator and a washer and dryer in the unit is big deal out here! James and I are also excited to put more of our money in savings as our cottage apt. will assist us in doing just that. Luckily our friends have been a huge help in getting us situated. While we still have piles of boxes to get through and two more rooms to paint...without the help from our friends we wouldn't have been able to move and get things as far along as they are. 

Work has been incredibly busy for both James and I so we've only had the weekend to really get things settled. We've made many trips to Lowes, and are about 60% done with getting everything unpacked. Ughhh....so much left to do....Well anyway here are the first batch of pics of moving in.

Also this past week we went to the E! holiday party. It was wild! It was held at LA Live an outdoor club in the middle of downtown. The sceen inside was a wide range of activity: pool tables, rock band video game, patio area, 2 open bars, dancing, platforms, etc. It was fun to meet more of James' co-workers. But the whole thing reminded me of a more tasteful version of spring break :) James and I had fun dancing! This week is my office holiday party and it will be pretty great if I do say so myself! 

Labor Day Weekend Pictures!!!!

Thanks friends for all of the fun! To see the pictures on a larger scale or for any friends who would like prints just double click on the image and it will take you to our Picassa web album where you can view, download, and print the pictures. Enjoy!!!

Shaky Ground

Well the earthquake hit while I was at work. There was a noise and a sudden movement feeling like a bus or truck hit the building. But the building didn't stop moving, it began to sway more. I looked out the window and the trees were moving. Everyone stood up and kind of looked at each other torn between the decision to bolt out the door or wait around and see what kind of an earthquake it was. What a strange feeling....it didn't last long and it wasn't very violent. Nothing crashed or fell down. Afterwards I felt a little weird, kinda sick. Other people in the office felt sick too. I'm told this is due to gravity and your equilibrium (or whatever that thing is), apparently it makes you feel like you have motion sickness after an earthquake. I guess our bodies aren't used to the counter movement of the earth. I found out a few people in our building ran outside once the ground started moving. These are the same people who were around in 1994 when an earthquake devastated the LA area, including the flattening of the mall and office buildings in which our building is located. Since then our building has been re-built with state of the art earthquake stuff, hence the swaying feeling of the building in the earthquake. I can't help but wonder what being in the world trade center must have felt like on 911. To feel the building move underneath you with you inside, knowing it could collapse at any minute. It must have been strange and scary. I now know that when an earthquake hits you are supposed to hide under a door frame or a desk, though I think I would probably want to run outside too. James thought the earthquake was really neat, he was at work too when it happened.

Along with earthquakes, I feel like in life right now I've been on shaky ground too. Being new at work I'm constantly trying to figure out my role, and what that means. I hate being new and having to sift through everything. I love it when I can get down to business and cross things off my list. I know this comes with time so I'm just praying that as I continue to plow ahead, that I'm able to meet the expectations laid out before me by others and myself. I also pray that I would continue to adapt well in my new surroundings. James and I are also still getting used to the LA area and learning our way around. We don't have the friend base here that we had in VA to turn to for help, or our families to assist us in close proximity. There is something to be said for knowing your local area and where to go to for what. I hate googling everything, but I love that technology has made getting to know a new area easier. All in all we're making our way through doing the best that we can with adapting to life in southern CA. So far there have been some shaky times, but we're diggin in and learning a lot in the process. I can't wait for everything to feel like an old hat!

Today James fixed our car, so its currently running again yay!!!

All of the earthquake news reminds me of how important foundations are:
Matthew 7:24-25
24"Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. 26But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. 27The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash."

James' pics from LA

Here are some of the pics from James' LA trip enjoy!!!

http://blog.jameskanka.com/2008/02/la-visit-on-quick.html#links

Visit to LA

James is going on a visit to LA next weekend! He is so excited and I'm excited for him to...wish I was going! We decided to save some money and due to the large conference that I am involved with planning at work, I decided it probably wouldn't be a good time for me to go. So James is going to go visit our friends Joel and Amy and get a taste for what LA is really like. He has plans to meet up with some people he's been networking with and get insight into film making. So please pray for him and for safe travels. Also pray for me I'll be lonely here without him!

I've been incredibly busy with work lately....I'm counting down the days till the end of this big conference. The only downside is that after this conference is over, another one is right on its heals. For Valentines day James and I decided to just make a nice meal and have some champagne. Our present to each other was to clean the neglected apartment which was in dire need of attention....it was really bad! So now its beautiful again and we're happy to have our dining table and kitchen sink back for their intended purposes. I need a vacation myself.... I'm really looking forward to that cruise that my Dad is taking us all on at the end of May beginning of April!!! So other than my work life there hasn't been a whole lot going on, or maybe there has and I've just been working, who knows! :) James has been working a lot too so I think this trip to LA will be a nice relaxer. I'll make sure to post some of his pictures when he gets back!!! Hopefully I'll have some time to post before then.... not to mention a better report of news and what we've been up to.