We moved!  The first of many blessings in 2010 was having the opportunity to rent a little 2bd, 1 bth house in Culver City.  It was a LOT of work to get ready for us to move in (Alec spent hours and hours with some incredible friends painting & repairing this sweet 1938 home).  It’s in, what I consider to be, one of the best neighborhoods in LA.  I know I’m a little biased, but I’ve always wanted to live in this neighborhood and it was an unbelievable blessing when it came up through a friend.  We are in downtown Culver City right next to Culver Studios, where Wizard of Oz was filmed for MGM.  We are in a protected, quiet neighborhood, which is just blocks from twinklie light lined strip of boutiques, restaurants and a theatre.  There’s a school, police & fire station and post office all within blocks – it’s like a modern Main Street!  It pretty much feels like we are living on a studio… the houses across the street were used to film the original Little Rascals and there is so much history in this little city, which has been really fun to discover.  Did I mention there is a weekly Farmer’s Market and Trader Joes all within walking distance!?  Lovely.  We are still getting settled, so pics will come soon and I’m sure the next few months will be full of projects!

Alec’s work is thriving.  The Historical Tweets book comes out this month and he and our dear friend Alan (who also wrote the book) started a company to provide corporations with inventive, creative and humorous marketing and media.  You can read more about them at www.mcbeardmedia.com and Alec has a great blog on www.alecmcnayr.com about his work.  We are so excited to see the book out in stores and are anxiously awaiting the response… we have no idea what to expect!

This photo is in Alec’s new home office… now that we have a 2 bdrm, he could finally move his workspace out of the corner of the living room!

In March I worked on Songfest – the musical variety show at Pepperdine that I work on every year.  I’m in charge of creating choreography for the 6 student Hosts and I absolutely love it!  This year we had 8 numbers to finish in roughly 8 rehearsals, so it was a packed few months!!  The show ran to 6 sold out audiences, and I’m loving every minute of it.  I love that it’s a way for me to stay connected to Pepperdine, and continue being involved in theatre and dance.  I love being a part of this production!

The most exciting blessing of the year is that we are going to have a baby!  We are beyond thrilled and can’t wait to meet our little one.  I’m 17 weeks along and feel great!!  The biggest change is that I have been more tired – working on the show at Pepperdine (and getting to bed around 1am every night one week) brought a new meaning to the word exhausted for me… I have never been that tired in my life!  But, I got to catch up with some long hours of sleep and wouldn’t have done it any other way.  This kid will be exposed to creativity from the very beginning!  I think it’s already rubbing off because at our first ultrasound (only 10 weeks – see below) the baby was calm and still, then just shook all over… our doctor said we have an active one on our hands!  Oh boy.  Our friend Anthony said it was just because that’s Alec’s child and it saw a camera and had to show off!  Too funny…

Some common questions:
How are you feeling? Great!  Very tired and a little ‘off’ here and there, but so far, so good!  I feel so incredibly blessed to have such a smooth pregnancy so far.
When are you due? Around September 20.
Are you going to find out if it’s a boy or a girl? YES!  We find out on May 6th, with is also our wedding anniversary!
Do you have names picked out? We’ve been throwing some names around for the past year, but I’m sure we’ll get really into that when we find out the gender.  Right now we love: Asparagus (for a boy or girl), Pillar (obviously a boy) and Chandelier, or Chandie (for a girl).  KIDDING!  One of my favorite lines from Baby Mama is when they talk about a play date with “Wingspan and Banjo”….

Well, we’re hoping to update more often, but that’s the latest for now!

We found the Underwood Family Farms, in Moorpark, and enjoyed a really great day of pumpkins, pig races, a corn maze and fresh sweet potato chips.  It was like a little family day out with siblings and I’m looking forward to coming back next year!

We're excited to be there...

This guy was really cool...

pumpkins!

we spent more time coming up with corn puns that trying to find a way out...

We made it!

they ran out of sweet potatoes at the fresh chip booth and we weren't going to take no for an answer, so we went to the produce stand and bought our own...

They said yes! They were confused, but said they'd cut and fry our potatoes for us. Victory!

so yummy!

good day at the pumpkin patch...

The first Halloween Alec and I lived in our apartment, I came home late evening on Halloween to a packed neighborhood.  I had almost forgotten it was Halloween, but was surprisingly nostalgic watching the kids (and dogs and parents) dressed to impress the candy dispensing adults who held the fate of their sugary future… Come to find out, our neighborhood is the Halloween mecca of Santa Monica!!  We’ve enjoyed the last few Halloweens cruising the neighborhood with my brother and sister-in-law and friends.  These people don’t mess around!  One street is so elaborately decorated that they have to hire security and block off a section of the street.  I assume some insanely creative (and wealthy) producer lives there – they host a full blown walk-through haunted house and there are ghostly scenes all over their corner lot including barbershop quartet dressed skeletons on a tandem bike and an open 50s convertible with a skeleton bride and groom – complete with a “just buried” sign and “Going to the Chapel” playing from the speakers (sounding so much more creepy that it used to!!)  I’ll take pictures next year!

These days Halloween looks like this: drool over the Martha Stewart magazine Halloween edition (preferable with Lisa Welch, who giggles as much as I do looking at it), watch Nightmare Before Christmas and Edward Scissorhands until the DVD starts skipping, dust off my Poe anthology and re-read all the greatest, and enjoy a really fun night with my family and friends.  I think we hit all the basics this year: enjoyed some ‘horror’ d’oeuvres – check.  Got scared by two 10 year olds hiding behind a tree – check.  Watched Thriller – check.  Fell asleep with a tummy full of candy – check.  Some things never change…

Also last week, Alec and his production partner, Bob, shot a new web show! I’m not sure how much I can and cannot say, but I saw some of the footage and it is hilarious! They shot it in our apartment, so the day before the shoot, I came home to a clean, minimalist apartment and realized it was missing all our decorative items! Posters, beer cans and half dead plants took their place and soon, I was living in someone else’s pad! I was impressed and thankful to come home to a very clean apartment the night they finished the shoot – Alec and Bob cleaned up after their crew perfectly. After seeing the footage, I appreciated this even more – those guys made a very realistic bachelor pad! I am so proud of all Alec is doing and love seeing his new projects… stay tuned!

I spent Friday visiting my dear friend Cass and her newborn son, Alex. He was an angel and I loved sitting on the couch holding him, watching Dan In Real Life and listening to the rain. It’s hard to believe Cass and I used to sit on that same couch watching movies in the rain… but that was almost 7 years ago and we were settling into our first ‘real’ jobs, living in our first apartment out of college. Times are a changing! Later, Alec and I joined up with Michelle, Thom and their sons Tommy and Erik for their Friday dinner at The Counter and were fully entertained by Tommy’s antics. We love those boys!

Saturday, we helped organize a Valentine’s couples dinner at the Odyssey in Granada Hills. Our good friends, Anthony and Bonnie, had the idea and called on a group of us to pull it together. It turned out to be a wonderful night and we really enjoyed it! We had dinner (with a great view), dancing, salsa lessons, amazing prizes to raffle off, an inspiring message from our Pastors Philip and Holly, and of course, formal photos….

The planning team!

As an atheist, I truly believe Africa needs God

“Now a confirmed atheist, I’ve become convinced of the enormous contribution that Christian evangelism makes in Africa: sharply distinct from the work of secular NGOs, government projects and international aid efforts. These alone will not do. Education and training alone will not do. In Africa Christianity changes people’s hearts. It brings a spiritual transformation. The rebirth is real. The change is good.”

• We spent New Year’s Day continuing with our tradition of lounging around all day with Luke and Jill. We did manage to get ourselves off the couch to have a really great dinner with some couples from church that I’ve known for over 6 years.
• Kirsti came into town for Cass’ baby shower (Afternoon Tea at The Peninsula Hotel) and we had a wonderful time.  Whitney and Brennon (who are currently living in Belfast) were also in town which made the celebration all the more special.
• We were both asked to be in weddings and couldn’t be more honored to support our dear friends Hayley and Cam and Patric and Kat. Thank God they aren’t getting married on the same day! )
• We said goodbye to a wonderful friend and Pepperdine administrator, Jim Brock. He will be so missed…
• We celebrated the historical inauguration of Barack Obama. We were both extremely moved watching history being made and seeing our new First Family come to the White House. I had a special appreciation of the peaceful and collaborative “change of power”, especially after recently being in Africa, where in many areas, that is certainly not the case. We are praying for the heavy tasks ahead of our new President.
• Alec’s production company, Space Shank Media, hosted their first New Media Brunch for professionals in the Los Angeles area at the Blu Jam Cafe.  They also welcomed a new addition to their team: a fancy schmancy camera with tripod (HVX 200, to be exact, as if I know the difference….). It is currently in its case, awaiting it’s coming out party.
• We hosted 2 baby showers and welcomed Alexander Lee Andriychenko (Jan. 26th) and Adam Elijah Wilson (Jan. 23rd). They both came within a few weeks of their showers!
• My boss, Holly, spoke at Saddleback Church for their “Girl’s Night Out”. I was thrilled to support Holly and since Saddleback is located in my hometown, I loved getting to spend time with my parents (and their dog, Abbie) and to have quality time with Becky, Norm, and my God-daughter Charlee.
• Alec’s site, Historical Tweets, got 150,000 views in January and was written up in the UK Telegraph and the Times of India, to name a few
• Alec and his mom, JoAnn, got to see our sister-in-law, Hannah, and our nephew, Sebastian, while they were visiting in San Diego. Sebastian is getting cuter by the minute!!

Since we love eating at new restaurants (and old favorites), here are some we visited:

• Monsoon (cheap happy hour with Pat and Kat)
• Library Alehouse (post holiday catch up – and SpaceShank brainstorm – with Bob)
• Casablanca (just the two of us…at the place where we had our rehearsal dinner)
• The Griddle Cafe (Sara and I shared a ridiculously big apple french toast before she went to work on the SAG awards)
• Santa Maria BBQ (Alec and Kenny chowed on awesome BBQ in Culver City, while perfecting their comedy genius, I’m sure)

And since times are tight, we also enjoyed meals at these fine dining establishments:

• Villa Ebeling (a true budget meal… we literally brought over what was in our fridge and made dinner with what we had between us. It was amazing.)
• The McNayr Chateau (with Amy and Jeremy)
• Casa de Hammond (Doro and Katie – cupcakes count, right?)
• and lots of Potluck gatherings!!!

It was a great first month of the year and we are looking forward to what’s ahead in 2009…

We spent two weeks throwing Christmas parties for the 2,000 orphans and mothers supported by the Watoto ministry in Kampala, Uganda.  For many of these children, this was the best party, and the only gift they’ve ever received in their lives.

Our eyes were opened to how Ugandans live their everyday lives, and the challenges they face in Africa (HIV/AIDS, 45% unemployment, 50% of the country is under age 15, 93% don’t have access to drinking water).

We were happy to do our part in inspire the Watoto children, who are being given great resources to grow and become the next leaders of Uganda and Africa.  In the same week, Katie and I met a baby rescued from a dumpster 3 days earlier and then saw a glimpse of that baby’s future when we met a University student about to graduate as an I.T. professional.

We sing this song at our church right now called “You’ll Come” and it goes like this:

Chains be Broken
Lives be Healed
Eyes be Opened
Christ is Revealed

That’s what happened.  God is moving in Africa.  He’s not just providing enough for mere survival, but he’s taking children who are literally thrown away like garbage and using them to lead the next generation.

Get ready to support us again, friends and family…. Oasis is sending another team to Uganda in October 2009…

(Photos and videos are coming soon: I took 3500 photos myself, which I won’t subject anyone to, not even Katie.)

Things I knew I’d pack for Uganda:

1. Lots of snacks and books for the 22 hours of flight time (not counting layovers!)
2. Gifts and supplies for the people we’ll be serving.
3. Comfortable shoes and sunscreen.

Things I did NOT know I would pack for Uganda:

1. a Santa suit.
   Yes, we have a Santa suit in our luggage to use for one of the Christmas parties for the kids. The even funnier part, Alec had to take out his TUX to fit the Santa suit. He was really looking forward to impressing the mum’s at the surprise dinner we are throwing for them… they are the backbone of the Watoto organization and have given their lives to raise orphans. We can’t wait to honor them. and of course, can’t wait to see our friend in a Santa suit in the middle of Africa.

See you in a few weeks – we look forward to sharing our experience with you. We’ll do our best to check in through the blog, but don’t know how possible that will be. We love you all!

alec and katie

Check out the photos online!