The Mark of the Beast

I've been studying with Diane since September of last year. She wrote in for Bible studies after having found a GLOW tract at her dad's door. Over the last few months, we've become good friends and she has grown alot. She has been a dream Bible study contact in a lot of ways. Because of my busy schedule, I didn't know how thing were going to work until she mentioned that she could only meet every other week, since she would spend a week at home and a week with her dad at his home. This gave me plenty of time between studies to prepare. She is always on time and always has her studies filled out. She is also a retired CPA, and has been filling me in on tips and encouragement as I'm undertaking the daunting task myself. But there are two things that have made this one of the more challenging things I've done in a while.
First, Diane is really struggling with her mother's recent passing. I'm not a counselor, and I haven't experienced grief to any kind of extent. I've mostly just tried to be there for her, but feeling a little inadequate in the process. Sometimes I wonder though, if she would be open to studying had her mother not passed away and was looking for something to meet her hearts need.
Secondly, she's Catholic. And her mother was Catholic. She was basically raised by nuns, went to see the pope when he came to LA a few years ago, and even has a picture of the pope in the flyleaf of her Bible. I knew this topic would be a major hurdle. Sure enough, when she studied our lesson on the Mark of the Beast, our usual email correspondence throughout the week went quiet. I expected the worst. Then her following email really got me worried. "There's too much Catholic bashing in this study. You're going to have to share something positive with me in the next study, because I stopped studying since I did the last lesson."
This past Friday morning, even though it's one of my three days in the week to sleep in, I got up early. I was nervous, not sure if I was going to blow it. This topic has got to be the hardest, scariest Bible study to give to a devout Catholic. I kept trying to stay encouraged, thinking to myself, "if we put ourselves out there, God makes himself responsible for our success right?"
Diane arrived on time as usual. Our study started at 10am and we weren't done until 2:30pm. Diane had so many questions and shed some tears in the process. But she didn't storm out, or throw something at me, or get completely confused which is what I was worried about. And the beautiful thing is, not only is she still open to studying and learning more, I have a clearer understanding of the topic myself, and it doesn't seem as scary anymore!
There's one more challenge I'm praying God works out. Diane needs a church home. Because of Teddy's work, we are constantly on the move each weekend. Today we are in San Diego, next weekend we'll be back in Riverside, but who knows about the following week? This is especially a busy time of the year with recruiting. And once the summer starts, we may be alternating churches in San Diego, Orange county and Loma Linda depending on where the teams are staying. Somehow, I need to integrate Diane into a loving church family that will embrace her, because I think she's ready.

On account of my new job...

I am extremely excited! It's official today: I will be leaving my job as Regional Sales Manager at Color Press and will be embarking on my new career path in two weeks! I was just hired as an accountant at the conference (Southeastern California Conference) and am just thrilled! Yesterday I saw this quote and I really felt like it summed up what I was feeling at the time:


"If you don't go after what you want, you'll never have it. If you don't ask, the answer is always no. If you don't step forward, you're always in the same place."
-Nora Roberts


Lately we've had alot to celebrate about. My husband (I'm so proud of him!) recently finished his degree and was promoted to Assistant Department Director on the spot. He's worked hard and it was gratifying to see him rewarded, not only for his degree but his contributions to the Evangelism Department as a whole.


Around the same time, we also found out of many applicants, I had made it on the short list for consideration in the Treasury department at the conference. Today it's official; I'm in! And I'm humbled and honored. Although I will be relinquishing my flexible, at-home work and schedule, I am looking forward to establishing my accounting career as I head towards fulfilling my dream of becoming a CPA. Those tests begin this summer, and I know they will be the hardest thing I've ever attempted, but for now I'm basking in the warmth of answered prayer and new opportunities. Thank you Jesus!

On this side of 2010...

more worries have worked themselves out, more dreams have been realized, more goals achieved, more direction felt, more love shared, more love received, more good times with friends were had, more memories made, more money spent (ugh), more ups than downs, more good times than bad times where experienced, more places visited, than I could have imagined this same time last year. Praise the Lord for another amazing year of life. When you really have no complaints, what do you do? You just gotta sit still and praise Him. I've had that kind of a year.
Now, don't get me wrong. There's always something to gripe about right? ;-) Haha. Am I such a pessimist or what. Well, you have to admit being sick for the last 6 days of the year, first with the stomach flu then with strep throat, had to have been a bummer way to say farewell to a good year, wouldn't you say? In the last 2 weeks I've lost 8 pounds, since for 4 days I couldn't hold any food down, and the next week or so I was confined to soups and teas when I had strep. Unfortunately, I have a sneaking suspicion I managed to hold on to most of the fat and just lost muscle. Now why would the body do that? No fair. I need to get back to my P90X workouts ASAP. I feel like a pile of jelly. (except for my abs, they're feeling pretty good from the combined throwing up/coughing exercises they've been doing for the past couple weeks)
Well this year I'm doing something a little different. No New Years resolutions. Except, that is, of making an extra effort to making each and every day count, and treating every day as a new opportunity to start my life over again. 2011 watch out. Here I come. Here's to an amazing new year!!!

So...

yes it was torture, especially seeing the 7 year old and the 70 year old pass you...but we're hooked! Half marathon is coming up in February, and this time if we do it we're actually going to train for it!

As you can tell by our faces, it wasn't all a walk in the park literally. BUT after having a few days to think about it, it was totally worth it, and as I mentioned above we're actually thinking of going for the half.
On other news, life has been so busy I'm really looking forward to Thanksgiving. The only downer is, I'm not going to be 'home' to enjoy it with my sweet family. But I'll be in TN for Sara's graduation coming up in mid-December!!! Can you believe my little sister is a Nurse now!!! I'm am so proud of her. She has succeeded in breezing through nursing school without as much as shedding one drop of blood, sweat or tears. What can I say, we can't all be Sara's. =) Love you sis!

It's official!

We're running a 10k this Sunday!!!!!! 6.2 miles woohoo! Without working up to it, (we've been doing P90X, playing tennis, etc. but doing very little running) will we die or just nearly die? We shall soon see.

P90X

He believes that man's finest hour, the hour he holds most true and dear to heart, is the moment where he lies on the battlefield of life, exhausted, victorious.
-Vince Lombardi

St. Lucia, Niagara Falls, Cancun

The second leg of our trip couldn't have started any more different than our Aruba trip. While it seemed like everything went our way in Aruba, even just getting on our plane was a hassle on our way to St. Lucia. Unfortunately, our string of bad luck seemed to last well into the first couple days of our vacation in that tiny Island. If it wasn't almost missing our flight to NYC, even after having gotten there 2 hours before our flight (a Jet Blue mix-up) or getting security called on us because I started video-taping an encounter with a Jet Blue associate (long story), or arriving there and finding out that bums offering you drugs or asking you for a 'tip' where a dime a dozen, it was pretty disappointing. Finally, we went to church on Sabbath and there we met an amazing guy named John. Instantly our trip turned around.

This guy had the inside scoop on everything and everyone in St. Lucia! He drove us around later that afternoon and the following day, showing us the best places to snorkle, i.e. Jade Mountain resort hint: where the Bachelor filmed in St. Lucia (he also happens to be neighbors with the owners) get mud baths, hot springs, see caves, the botanical gardens, hike, get the best views, and relax. He also took us to a couple of mineral baths (one in particular) that many consider to be THE fountain of youth.

You instantly become 10-15 years younger, and lose as many pounds as you walk out of there. Hmmm...let's just say we're still waiting for the full effects. BUT it did leave our skin feeling amazing! St. Lucia will forever hold a warm place in our hearts.


From St. Lucia we took a short flight to NYC to catch our connecting flight to Rochester, NY. We spent the night there and enjoyed a full day the next day exploring Niagara Falls.


The Canadian side, it turns out, really does have the best view of the falls. In fact, don't even go there unless you can go to the Canadian side, from our experience. Thankfully we had our passports, which enabled us to do that. The falls are simply breathtaking! You can't help thinking about the guy who tight-roped walked/biked it. What in the world was he thinking??
Our trip just kept getting better and better. Cancun very well could have been the best part of our whole trip.

Our hotel was right on the strip, and every night turtles would swim in from the ocean, dig a nest, and lay their eggs.

It was late in the season for them to be doing that, so other eggs where starting to hatch while we were there too. We were able to see the baby turtle migration to sea several times.

Since we had a rental car, we were able to drive to different places while we were there. One of our favorite things was just driving to a small, authentic little town away from the tourist traps and grab a bite to eat-for cheap. We felt pretty safe for the most part, especially since we had two other guys traveling with us most places. Playa del Carmen was amazing, looking back we would probably just stay there next time since it is more authentic.

On Sunday we drove to a couple ruins, Chichen Itza and Tulum.


It was fascinating to hear all about the ancient Mayan civilization. In Chichen Itza, we pretty much had the whole park to ourselves, which was a real treat. As many as 4,000 tourists can pass through there on any given day.
From beginning to end, with just some minor hiccups in between, our vacation this year was one of our favorite of all!

First Stop: Aruba

Vacation: finally here. This year we are taking a series of small trips again, including a couple of long weekends. The first leg of our vacation took us to Aruba. We arrived on Thursday and left Monday afternoon. I can't even believe how amazing our weekend was!! To begin, the more we travel the more we realize how the local people can really make it or break it for us. Going to Bermuda last year, we had a real distaste in our mouth after several experiences where people seem to see you as an inconvenience or worse. (when in reality they wouldn't have the economy they do without tourists) Even just a friendly "So how are you doing today?" in the bus would seem like you were bothering them. Forget about asking for directions or advice. So coming to Aruba was so refreshing, a total 180.
Stepping out of the airport, we are immediately hit by two things: the humidity and the beauty of the ocean. Those two things never changed over the course of our time there. The beaches (especially Eagle Beach which was right across the street from our hotel) were amazing, the best in the world in my humble opinion. We would wake up every morning and go for a nice long walk, jog and then swim to cool off.

Pictures don't even do it justice, and I know that phrase is over-used oftentimes, but in this case it's truer than ever.


The heavy Dutch influence was pretty apparent in a lot of their architecture.

The lizards were all over the place! Most likely their national animal. They varied in all kinds of sizes and colors.

This green kind was the most common one. We saw several run over on the road. =(


Ok, so don't think less of us now that you read this, but we just had to try the Ostrich egg omelet. This is Teddy with his egg ready to dive in:

This is Teddy a few bites in:

Ok and for the record, I only had two bites!! It wasn't that gross, but it wasn't great either. Once in a lifetime experience, really, no need to try it twice.
This old fort was pretty neat, right behind it (you can kinda see a car in the foreground) I locked the keys to our rental car inside. Ugh.
Even though everything is shut down on Sundays, our rental company sent a guy out to unlock it for us with their spare. And didn't charge a dime! Time and time again we were impressed with the kindness and yes, even generosity of the people there.
While there we happened to have a conversation with a local about the whole Natalee Holloway deal. It's really sad how one or two people can really ruin a country's reputation, it seems the locals have paid dearly for the actions of a couple crazy people.
One night we had this crazy loud thunder and lighting storm! I really miss those, living in California you're lucky to get a few days of rain here and there.

The thunder was so loud, cars' alarm systems would sound every time it went off because of the ground shaking. Pretty amazing.
Here is the beach at night. Calm, peaceful, and ooooh I just want to go back!

This restaurant by the beach was delightful. It was 100% outdoors, right on the white-sand beach with an amazing view.

One of these days we'll have to go back. So far, of all the beaches we've been to (sorry Hawaii, Maui, Bermuda, Mazatlan, California, Florida, etc.) this one takes the prize.

Up next: St. Lucia

On being husbandless

Well, today my teacher let us out a whole hour and 15 min. early, isn't he a dear? So, instead of being 'productive' I decided to sit down and write a little blog update.
I am on day 6 of being husbandless, that is, of Teddy being away and off the grid. Whatever possessed me to let him plan an 11 day getaway so soon after the summer program, I can only imagine. I hope he is REALLY enjoying himself because I doubt I'm gonna let this happen again...fishing/canoeing/camping trip, to Canada, with no cell phone reception, WITHOUT ME! lol Yes I'm sounding like a bitter old wife, but in all honesty I'm actually just now starting to miss him. Seriously, I have had a house full of wonderful friends the last few days, and it's been so refreshing and entertaining I haven't had time to think about being alone. Not to mention having my sisters Diana and Sara over for close to a week, which was oodles of fun. Last night was girls sleepover night. I had three friends over and we hung out, made a couple Mediterranean Pizzas, (and ate them both) and watched an old movie. Needless to say I'm a little short on sleep. (I think Amy, Aleesa and Sara are probably in the same boat)
On other news, something really exciting is just around the corner: vacation!! This year's travel plans are SO exciting, I can hardly wait to get on that plane and fly off into the sunset. Let's just say this year, our trip will involve alot of beach time...alot of beach time. I need to wait until Teddy gets back to finalize the plan, so I can't spill the beans quite yet, but from the looks of it I'll be able to add a couple more countries to my list! Hooray for vacay! Lol
All this excitement is wearing me out, I think I'll head to an early bedtime. Nite nite.

Have you ever...

held a grudge for a very, very long time against someone that had caused you alot of pain? And a long time passes, and it still hurts, and you hope you never have to see them again. Yet, in the bottom of your heart, you know you're eventually going to see them?

But you don't want to. Because you are sure it will mean re-living all the pain, all the bad memories, all the hurt. For weeks before you know you're going to cross paths, you become more and more angry. Angry because this person has so much control over you still. Angry because you thought you were over it, but you're not. Angry because...anger is a secondary emotion, and really you know you have to face the music. Have you ever felt that way?

Finally the day comes. You see the person approach you. You exchange small talk. "Is this really happening?" You wonder. "Because I'm not feeling anything right now. I'm not feeling angry, or sad, or hurt, or any other emotion for that matter." As time passes, you realize they had become something in your head that was very far from reality. You actually sincerely feel absolutely nothing where there used to be pain. You're not angry at them anymore, because all of a sudden it hits you: you can't hate a person that you feel so utterly and completely sorry for.

It's amazingly liberating. Emancipating. Divine.

Fan or Fanatic?

Ok, so I have to admit, I'm an iPhone fanatic. Now, mind you, I wouldn't have admitted this last week, if you had asked me on Wednesday or even Thursday morning. I would have told you that I like iPhones, I may even have admitted that I loved them, and probably also would have admitted that I was a fan of iPhones, but I would have definitely argued having been labeled an iPhone fanatic. So why the change from last week to this week?
It all started when I saw the upcoming features and release date for the new iPhone4. Being due for an upgrade, I decided to sell my iPhone 3G and see if I could subsidize the hefty $200-300 price tag. On June 15, after believing I had pre-ordered my iPhone 4, I happily placed an ad on craigslist to see what I could get for my iPhone. It was sold by the following morning. I got $200 for it. Since I only paid $99 for it originally, I actually made money on my iPhone. Nice. I never had a phone be a good investment before. Apparently the guy who bought it was planning on jailbreaking it to use on another network, so I hope it works out for him.
So, having pre-ordered my iPhone4, and having sold my old iPhone to pay for my new one, I thought I was all set. I would just have to pick up my new phone the following Thursday.
A couple of days later, I heard news reports of all the glitches the pre-order system had, so I called in to make sure I was all set. Unfortunately, I got the bad news: my pre-order hadn't gone through. If I wanted an iPhone before mid-July, I'd have to wait in line to see if I could snag a phone. So began the longest day of my life.
Thursday morning, I arrived at the store at 4:30am, dismayed to find 250 people ahead of me in the non-preorder line. (Luckily for him, Teddy was in San Diego that night, otherwise I would have dragged him along with me!) The store opened at 7am and by 9am people from our line were getting let through. 3-4 every half hour, and I had 250 people in front of me, so you do the math. Because we were moving up every half hour or so, (3-5 ft and a time) it kept you thinking that the line was going to break through at any point. At 11am, the people in line around me and I were sure we'd be out by 2pm. I kept thinking, I can stay till then, but only until then. At 1:30, when I finally realized 2pm was never going to happen, we were calculating 5pm. I thought, "Ok, 5pm but that's it. I've come this far, why give up now? But I'll definitely have to leave by 5:30 so I can make it to class." Right. By 6pm, and still no phone, and about 15 ft. from the Apple Store entrance, I had to make the tough decision to- skip class. Those last 15 ft. took another 2 1/2 hours, when I finally made it inside the store. 16 hours of waiting in line, and I was now the weary, slightly bitter, but proud iPhone4 owner.
There can be no doubt in anyone's mind including my own; I am an iPhone fanatic.
Honestly though? I'm pretty sure it's going to take me about 2 years to want to try that again.

Back to school

I can't believe I'm writing that. Really? Back to school? It feels like I just got done...but it's actually been almost four months since I finished my last class. After getting my BS in Business Management, I've been doing some research as to what to do for graduate school. I had seriously given up on the whole idea of it, since it is just so expensive, at least the major I wanted (Masters in Accounting). Well, God has opened some serious doors, and I'm just walking right through them. I'm actually not doing my masters, that's been ruled out. Instead, I've decided to take a few extra classes in order to sit for the CPA exam. I didn't have enough accounting credits with my degree, so after I take about 6 1/2 classes or so, I'll be able to do that. My first 4 credit class starts tonight, (can't believe they let me register a day before class started) and I have another one starting next Wednesday. Because all the classes I need are available at night, it won't be affecting my work schedule hardly. I'm so thrilled! And the place I'll be taking my classes at, University of CA-Riverside (UCR) is only 2 miles from my house! Right next to one of my favorite frozen yogurt places in the world! ;o) I'm scared in a way, because I know it's back to no free evenings or weekends, back to a more messy house, backlogged laundry, and a myriad of other things that crop up when I'm focused on school, but I hope to be finished by the end of this year. After that I think it'd take me a few months to pass all 4 sections of the exam, but overall I'm excited about the new direction in my life. Wish me luck!

Help Needed

Does anyone have a suggestion for what I should do with my sliding glass door and kitchen window? Preferably I'd like them to match or coordinate somehow, and the only thing I've ruled out for the sliding glass door is vertical blinds! I'm at my wits end though, with these two. We've been in our house for almost two years now and I just can't figure out what I want to do with these! And it's not just a looks issue, it's a privacy/safety issue too! I don't like that anyone can look in our house at any time of the day or especially night. All suggestions welcome!

Happy Sabbath!

It's been a long time since I've written, and I have no real excuse. Well, I might have a small one. A couple of weeks after the superbowl I decided to go on an all out media fast. I mean no radio, no music, no TV, movies, internet (unless it was work-related like emails) and no facebook or blogging either. I feel like I gained alot from it. I don't know exactly how to put it into words, exactly what I may have gained, but it had something to do with clarity, peace and more time on my hands. Alot more time. The hardest thing, believe it or not, was when I was in the car. I always listen to music or NPR, always! So instead I took the time to listen to the Bible on audio or pray aloud.

After it was over, I've been out of habit with FB and this blog, so it seems. Or maybe not too many interesting things are going on? Life keeps ho-humming along, work, work and some play, and then more work. I love my job(s). I love my husband. I love spending time with him. That time will get more scarce as the summer comes along. One thing that is coming up is gardening. Yay! Although our tiny plot is nothing to brag about, I do look forward to the meager provisions that will be springing forth soon.

This time, we aren't planting one single tomato plant! They were a real disappointment last summer, and they were 90% of our crop. This time we're going to stick with what really worked, corn and green beans. And maybe lettuce and onions. We didn't really eat the beets... :-/

Disappointment

I can't believe it's really over. We had so many possibilities, so much hope for the future, life was exciting and things couldn't look brighter just last week. And now it's all gonna end like this? Thankfully, I'm not talking about anything of 'real' importance. I'm only talking about my super duper football team, the Chargers. I know, who really cares, right? It's all a make-believe world, where we humans affix some sort of significance or meaning to a bunch of guys throwing a piece of leather around. But it's exciting! And hey, for what it's worth, I think it's one of the fairer sports out there, because of the salary cap. And the game is pretty complicated, so you're at least stimulating some brain cells. The only draw-backs are the high cost of the tickets, the time-consuming nature of being an avid fan, and ofcourse a hoarse voice now and again. (mostly if you're lucky enough to go to a live game)

Well I was pretty down yesterday, I really thought we could go all the way. We have a bunch of talent on the team, and they played like they were out for a walk in the park. Boy was I angry at 'em.

Well LT (my fav player on the team) pretty much sums it up with this picture.

Good-bye Chargers' season. Hello life-without-football-for-the-next-eight-months.

It's been a while

I can hardly believe it’s been almost 10 months since I last wrote here. That’s how depressed I was from turning 25. Haha. Actually, that just happened to be my last blog post…I’m pretty sure. But I must say, since I’m a couple of months shy of another birthday, 25 has really turned out to be a pretty nice age to be so far. But really, I don't know what happened. Seems like just yesterday I was writing about the lack of things to look forward too. Now, life has gotten pretty interesting. The last few months have felt like someone stuck their finger on the fast forward button and forgot to let go. I can’t complain though. I tell you, I love living in California (yay for 75 degree weather in January!) I love the fast-paced lifestyle, I love being busy, and I love having a gigantic to-do list. Can that be considered an addicition? Do I need to seek help? I don’t know, but I know it would be hard to give up. There’s something about having 101 things to do that day that gives you something of an adrenaline rush. It wakes you up bright-eyed and full of energy, just to keep one step ahead of the game. Sadly, I’m going to have less of that busyness now. I just finished my B.S. in Business Management this month, and I’m beginning to plan how I’m going to fill my time now that my no. 2 time-stealer is gone. Surprising how much free time one can really have. Of course, not wanting too much down time, I’ve taken the liberty to write myself a list of things I will be accomplishing with my new-found free time.

#1. Clean out and organize each of the six closets. #2. Start teaching and taking piano lessons again.

#3. Paint the house room by room, beginning with the guest rooms/upstairs and ending downstairs.

#4. Join Fitness for Life (a wellness promotion program at work where you get incentives for miles) and log a minimum of 116 miles a month.

#5. Landscape the backyard.

#6. Do a thorough study of several of my favorite Bible topics.

Of course, the list above is not to be confused with my New Years resolutions. Among them, I mean to 1. Live a consistently GLOWing lifestyle (ask me if you don't know what that is) 2. make friends a higher priority 3. make it through 6 weeks of the "Eat to Live" food plan (if you haven't read that book, I highly recommend it) 4. keep my blog updated 5. send out Christmas cards this year! 6. decide if I want to get my Masters, and if I do get started on it.

I have a feeling I'm not going to be bored this year...

A nice bird and I hanging out in Oceanside earlier this week

So why does turning 25 stink?

Ok so now, I'm not hitting some kind of quasi mid-life crisis or anything, just feeling a little down since my birthday. It's like, from the time you can remember, you're really looking forward to your next birthday, when you're 12, oh yay, I'll be a teenager next birthday! Then you're looking forward to 14/15 because then you can get your permit! And then ofcourse, 16 is so magical right, your drivers license, etc. You know how it was, when we were 15 1/2 we wouldn't say "I'm 15 1/2" you say "I'm almost 16". Then the big 18, that was one of my favorite ages to turn, you're an adult now!! And then my 20th birthday was pretty cool, no longer a teenager sounded so grown up. But my total favorite was 21, now I was really an adult! And life was so exciting, I was looking forward to dating, and marriage, and all that good stuff! The next couple of birthdays were tolerable. Then 25. Well, now I can rent a car and pay no extra fees. Yay, sounds great.

But now, the future looks long and monotone. The biggest thing I see in the future right now, seems like age 60 when I can start getting those senior discounts, and maybe retire! ugh. Just thinking about being that old makes me even more depressed. So, anyways I am just rambling right now, but I am beginning to understand why so many middle age women begin hiding their age and stay stuck at 21. Well I would definitely appreciate advice on how to age gracefully. Seems like I need help with that right now. Oh, and one other thing. I guess the one stop between 25 and retirement would be having babies. That might add some excitement from here to there. So I'm thinking I should probably wait quite a while more, don't want to use up the last great thing to look forward to between now and 60...

I'm sitting in the airport, waiting for my turn to board. I'm heading to Tennessee for the weekend to see my wonderful family. My friend dropped me off a little bit early, so I get a little me time. Yay! It sure feels nice to sit down for a little bit and just have nothing better to do than get online, and not have to feel guilty about it! =) So we had two Bible workers staying at our house for the last 10-11 weeks. The last one is leaving tomorrow, so it's going to be strange to have our house to ourself again! Although I feel bad, because Teddy and I didn't get to spend alot of time with them since we are gone all the time, I will miss having them here. Now you all peeps out there need to come visit, because there's alot of extra room now!

So I promised a picture of our piano, so here it is. I can't figure out what to do with the rest of this room yet, so it's pretty empty. Just the piano and our formal dining table. No pictures, nothing. Hmmm...need some inspiration, and some time!

Does anyone have any sheet music of semi-classical music they wouldn't mind passing along? I need to start practicing my music reading again, all I've been doing is playing what I've remembered over the years, and hymns. But I wouldn't mind something cool to learn.
This past weekend Teddy and I spent some time on our garden. We are installing a border to help keep the beds level and, since they're raised beds, from falling.

I'm so happy that our little tomato plants are growing quickly! 10 tomato plants, that will be so nice!
I don't know why I'm so excited about the tomato plants particularly, maybe because I remember that little old lady at church when I was young. She would always bring her delicious, homegrown tomatoes to potluck, and even after we'd had our fill she'd go around asking us, "Yun's wan a 'mater?" lol Can you hear the S. IL accent? By the way, did you know the difference between a Texan accent and a Southern accent? Texans say 'ya'll' and Southerners say 'yun's'! Well my turns coming up here pretty soon, so I should sign off. Yes, I get to see my family in 6 1/2 hours!!

So I'm just sitting here, waiting for our piano to arrive. Finally, I still can't believe we found one we could afford! Craigslist, I tell you, it just doesn't seem to let me down too often. =) I love it! This gentleman bought this baby grand new in 2003, and it has just sat in his livingroom because his kids never wanted to learn. So now we get a great deal on a nice, black baby grand. I'm so excited, I wonder if I'll have time to play it? Uh-oh, that's another story. Well I'll have to make time, because the other day in church after everyone went to potluck I decided to play for a while. Well, I could hardly play anymore. So yes, I need to make time, I don't want my six years of lessons to go down the drain!! Our conference president really inspired me on Monday, he played a few songs for worship that almost blew our socks off. Whew!! One day I'll be that good...maybe. Well I hope to post some pictures soon, my blogs have been pretty boring lately. =D Anyways, here's to having a little time to get on here and share and, to everyone who posts and reads, I do read your blogs and enjoy them and I hope you can bear with my monthly posts and check back so often because I know things will start getting pretty rough in the new few months with the summer coming on us! I will be a program head this summer again, and Teddy is running and program and a half this summer, instead of just one. It will be another adventure in the art of organization and time management and faith! Until next time...

Wow it's almost been two months since I've posted on my blog. No excuses, but really it's hard to get online just for fun these days when we don't have internet at home. Teddy and I made that decision so we would have less distractions at home and more time for 'us-let's-sit-down-and-talk-about-our-day' time. But, once I'm at the office where there is internet, well the pressures of school and work and deadlines take over and usually the last thing I can think of is getting onto blogspot or myspace! So that is my catch-22, my dilemma. We like not having internet or cable at home, yet it brings with it other unwanted complications.

So where do I start?? Christmas vacation? In short, we went to Solvang for a short while on our way to GYC in San Jose, followed by a trip to Lake Tahoe with friends and a couple days of skiing. For me, it was a refresher course since it has been forever since I skiied. When we got back it was straight back to work, and then more skiing that weekend. Teddy and I found some killer deals on skis and a snowboard (for him) so now we'll be going more often! Anybody up for a day at the slopes?

Besides a little fun here and there, I've been hard at work, we usually leave the house by 6:30 or thereabouts and hit the gym, then head to work at 9am. I have a couple of hours in the middle of the day to study, then back to work until 9pm. We usually aren't back home until 9:30 or later. Weekends are blessed times I'll tell you what!

So I'm so excited I am looking for a piano now! We feel like we can finally afford one, so I'm hitting up craigslist with ferocious energy. I really want a black baby grand, but we'll see...

God has been doing some awesome things in my life, but that is for another time.
Until next time!