A Few New Firsts

Yesterday was full of new firsts in my life. In the morning, for the first time in my life, I took a dog for a walk in the rain. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, you read that correctly. It actually rained in mostly cloudy Point Mugu. And, it rained just hard enough so that when I took Lucy for her morning walk, I had to wear a raincoat and proactively stash a clean towel by the front door so that I could dry Lucy off as soon as we entered the house. No wet dog smell in the house for us!

I am at that awkward stage of not really having a baby bump. This means that my normal clothes make me feel like a stuffed sausage but the maternity clothes that I've tried on look like bags. Thursday I did a little clothes shopping, and on the recommendation of a friend, I found a pair of low-rise cargo pants that feature a stretchy waistband like a pair of sweatpants. Perfect! Except for when I sit down one too many times...so, for the first time in my life, yesterday I raided Jason's side of the closet! I found a rather hip belt that works perfectly with my new pants. Yay for husbands who share : )

All this week, Jason has been back in Norfolk for some extra time in the simulators. He was able to stay with my parents and also visit our church on Wednesday night for the Biblestudy and see lots of our friends and catch up on the news. Since he was able to catch an earlier flight Friday morning, I drove down to LAX to pick him up Friday afternoon. The traffic was pretty horrible on the highway, so we opted to take the Pacific Coast Highway-1 back. This is the very scenic drive that hugs the coastline of California. The road is kind of carved into the bottom of the hills but is also just above the beach. It is fun because it is normally sunny and you can see all the surfers and check out the Malibu beach homes and the castles at the top of the hills and wonder which ones are homes to celebrities. Yesterday, however, it began to rain all over again once we got on the PCH and the beach was unusually empty. It was still a fun drive in the misty rain and curving road...until the other first in my life occurred. As with any road that is cut into the side of a hill or mountain, the PCH has periodic signs warning of rock slides. But, for the first time in my life, as Jason and I were driving home, our car got hit with falling rocks! I was driving and it really startled me. I think the rockslide's bark was worse than it's bite; although the noise of the rocks hitting the car were quite loud, it turns out they were mostly dirt clumps and did not leave behind any permanent damage.

But wait! The new firsts in my life aren't over! After we got home, Jason and I decided to go out for sushi. (Don't worry, I kept the baby safe and only ate the California rolls and vegetable rolls.) But, on the way home, we saw the most incredible rainbow. When I was studying aboard in Scotland a few years ago, I was amazed by the numerous rainbows I saw. It seemed as though I saw at least one a week. But, I don't think I've ever seen a full, completely arching rainbow. Yesterday evening, just as the sun was setting, for the first time in my life, we saw both ends and the very top of an enormous rainbow. The best part was that one of the bottom ends was so bright is was almost glowing...and then, right next to the glowing part, we saw part of a second rainbow.

We pulled over to snap a few photos. Of course, the pictures don't really capture how amazing the side-by-side rainbows looked, but you can see a little bit that one of the rainbows was intensely glowing.