A Welcomed Visit

A former Hickam coworker of mine was attending training in El Segundo for those contracting courses and it turned out to be a perfect opportunity for her to come visit me and Justin!  We knew this was a strong possibility before we moved here, so we were thrilled that the day had finally come to reconnect again!

Meet my friend, Debbie!

Bless her heart for driving through LA with traffic and aggressive drivers to come to Ventura!  We did some of my favorite things:  talk, eat, and shop! 

We went shopping at the Camarillo outlets and the Pacific View Mall...or I should say she watched and helped me get some Christmas shopping done.  She was looking for something specific and ended up not finding it, so she was very good and didn't spend a dime!  I wish I could say I do that all the time. :)

Justin joined us for dinner at Souplantation and it was a real treat on a cold night!  If you've never been to this chain restaurant, you should give it a try.  They have a huge soup/salad bar with farm fresh vegetables and make everything from scratch.  Pasta, breads, muffins, chocolate chip cookies, an ice cream machine are also some other things they have all at a very affordable price.  That place is always yummy!  When we first moved here, we ate here at least 3 times in a month.  I would go there every night if Justin let me. Haha!

Sunday morning we got to take her to church with us.  We've been visiting Community Bible Church of Ventura for a little over a month now and excited we got to share that experience with her!  It was encouraging to hear her say she enjoyed it for the same reasons that has been bringing us back every Sunday.

We dropped Justin off at a park near our home, since he wanted to watch some serious soccer players.  We got to watch Tyler (my cousin's older son) play soccer twice and it's been fun watching little 5 year-olds running around on the field.  So, since then Justin's been wanting to watch serious soccer, if you know what I mean. :)   While he watched these men play soccer Debbie and I went to have brunch at a cafe in Oxnard, Cafe Amri.  Another place that was yummy!  Their cinnamon rolls are to die for!!!  I mean they were so good, I couldn't stop thinking about it.  Of course we brought home all our leftovers for Justin to also enjoy.

This rounded up our time with Debbie.  It was so fun catching up and sharing stories on how much our work environments changed from when we worked together in Hawaii.  She's been such a good co-worker friend and I know that's hard to come by, always smiling and bubbly.  We cried and laughed together about life throughout the short 3 years we've known each other, even though it seems like I knew her longer.  We were grateful that we got to share with her a little bit of how our life here is in Ventura and welcome you too to come visit anytime!