Friday, June 29, 2007

Mondays...

Well... this post was started on Friday, but isn't actually getting posted until today.

Fridays are usually full of fun and excitement... preparing for the weekend... anxiously awaiting that last minute at work.... All of that held true today!! Here I sit... anxiously awaiting that last minute before I clock out!!! I was also greatly surprised this morning. I can't share about it quite yet... just know that I'm very happy about it. =) Now that the weekend is over, it's wait until July 4th for another break!!!

It's been over a week since I left my parent's house, then later that day my brother's house. That was a week that went entirely too fast... Jon and Heather's wedding, all the traveling.... I have to say though, this week has seemed no less speedy. The days just keep rolling on, barreling forward, one day into the next as time speeds ahead.

The weekend will offer no hint of slowing down either. I was getting ready for an uneventful Saturday, planning on settling down on my couch to watch a movie or two, but then I got a call... and it appears we will be having a good ol' Bar-B Q! Should be fun!! Then Sunday after church we will be having a going away party for Ede, which I imagine will take up the entire day. So we should have a good time.

Now that it is Monday, I can say that we did indeed have a fun time. I think by the end of it all were were all kind of tired. With all the swimming, and playing, and hussel and bussel of the day. So that night I left a little bit earlier than normal... and actually managed about 7.5 hours of sleep. (more than I've been getting). Still I will be looking forward to Wednesday when I will be able to sleep in. =)
So everybody have some fun. Remember to pray for Ede tomorrow as she fly's out at 9:15am, for almost a full day of traveling (somewhere around 13 or 14 hours just from L.A. to Taipei.) So until next time.....later!

James 5:16-18 "Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. Elijah was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months. And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit."

Tuesday, June 19, 2007

The Wonder of the Pool


Oh yes... I have been doing a lot of swimming... out there 3 times yesterday alone. I really really like swimming!

So, our day started out with my brother and I going for a bike ride, which we did again this morning. Yesterday it was 4.5 miles, today it was 5. The most fun part of it was going on trails in the woods. I learned how to successfully tree climb, I picked that up quickly, as I didn't really want to fall again when going over trees, a thing which I managed to do the first 2 times I attempted it. (end up on the ground) Immediately after returning, I laid on the garage floor for a few minutes waiting for my breath to come back to me. Then to the pool it was.

All in all it was a very fun day, and we're looking forward to some more today!


Mark 12:30 "And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all they heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment."

Sunday, June 17, 2007

24 hours

Well I find myself with a little bit of free time. It's just a little after 11pm here, here being at my brother's house in PA. I arrived this morning at around 8:40. At that time I hadn't quite been up for 24 hours, but I did not go straight to bed when I got here. I got showered up and headed off to the morning service at my brother's church. My plan had been to sleep tonight... unfortunately that didn't work out though. After Church we had some lunch and I was going to go down stairs to grab my swim suit, and instead fell to the bed, and slept for quite a while, and I'm sure I won't have too much trouble sleeping tonight either.

Yesterday was a really fun day though, besides all the driving. We started out by going to the nursing home, which, in my opinion, other then a couple off the wall things, went really really well. Merrol was a little late, so Ede played a little more than usual, and we played an extra song together. We then started singing, and when we were done singing Merrol arrived to take over. Ede and I played another couple songs after that, and then Merrol brought the message.

After the nursing home we all headed over to Chuck E. Cheese's. The pizza was pretty good, and I think everyone had a blast on all of the games. I ended up staying until everyone left, which was at about 7:30, and began my drive to PA. I was kept awake by some great chocolate chip cookies!! =) I stopped a couple times for gas, a couple times for water, and once for breakfast. Then, finally, 13 hours later, I arrived.


So here I am for the week. Thursday will be another busy day for me, and I will be driving another couple hours Wednesday night or early Thursday morning to go up to NY, to prepare for Jon and Heather's wedding. Thank you everybody for your prayers on the grueling trip.=)
OH, and we can't forget, to all fathers out there, especially mine..... HAPPY FATHERS DAY!!!!!

Proverbs 17:6 "Children's children are the crown of old men; and the glory of children are their fathers."

Monday, June 11, 2007

Here We Go Again...

Monday evening... at the end of a day at work. I felt this morning like I never wanted to get up... I just wanted to sleep, and sleep, and sleep... unfortunately I couldn't though. I guess it was from a combination of too many late nights, and being out in the hot sun for such a long time on Saturday, still though, I wouldn't trade it...

Saturday we had the family fun day at Yamaha. I didn't win anything =( but that's OK, I did have a lot of fun. I managed to take quite a few pictures that day of the kids playing games, as well as the BMX show they had setup there. This was a new thing this year, and I must admit, it was pretty cool!

Sunday came along, and with it Sunday school, and morning and evening services. The real excitement was just before leaving for the evening service. I was trying, notice I said trying, to show Ede about cleaning her new Digital Rebel XT, I was not being successful because for some reason the lens cleaning fluid was not coming out of the bottle... So... I squeezed a little harder... and suddenly....POP.... an explosion of fluid all over the place, and worst of all, in my eye!!! OWWWWW.... It wasn't really that dangerous, just water and some detergent were the ingredients... but wow, it stung. I left my contacts out today for the chance to let my eye feel a little better without the extra stress of having a piece of plastic in it, and it's feeling pretty normal now.



So was your weekend as exciting as mine, my Carnival prize winning, BMXing, Ent viewing, eye squirting, bottle exploding, ice cream and brownie eating, weekend?!?! It was GRRRRREAT!!!

The only bad part... I think I was skipped about a gazillion times in Phase 10!!!!!!!!!! LOL That's OK though, I find myself caring less about winning, and more about enjoying the time I can spend with friends. =)

Romans 11:33-36 "O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out! For who hath known the mind of the Lord? Or who hath been His counselor? Or who hath first given to Him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again? For of Him, and through Him, and to Him, are all things: to whom be glory forever. Amen."

Thursday, June 7, 2007

Again?!?

Ken and I went over to Wal-Mart today, and once again got denied when trying to pick up some pictures... What in the world?! Fortunately there was a manager there that had some sense this time. =) Last time, I was told that no matter what I did, I wouldn't be getting those pictures (consequentially they accidentally gave them to me this week with another order I had.) LOL. This time though, I was told that as long as I brought my camera in, and it didn't look like I had just scanned them in, that I could get them. So we went back and did just that, and surprise surprise, they gave them to us. Yay!!! Go Wal-Mart!!

So, in either case, not a whole lot out of the norm happening recently, just very busy. We did recently find out that Ede will be heading to Taiwan in very early July. This was a bit surprising to all of us as you can imagine, as the original plan was for mid to late August or September. So, things have only gotten busier. In fact, tonight, in special preparation for the trip, we will be playing cards. =)

My last few posts have been pictureless, and just maybe by next post, I will have some pictures to put up, unfortunately none for tonight though, just my rambling thoughts. This Saturday will be the family fun day at Yamaha, it lasts until about 3 o'clock, and afterwards we will be heading back to my house for Ede to have her first experience at blogging, so be looking for posts to be arriving there shortly. Through_Ede's_Eyes

I guess the one big thing I've been doing is working on my latest paintball gun. It's an A.G.D. Automag. I don't care what anybody says, it may be older, but it's still the best marker out there. It is absolutely unbeatable in accuracy. Newer guns may be accurate, but all of you electro gunners, don't know a thing about accuracy till you've shot a good Automag. So, part of my work on it is done, I have some of it coated in it's new color, and will be coating some other parts very soon. Before finishing all of the coatings though, I will be milling out parts of the trigger frame, as well as the rail. This is so I can put in a new trigger. It will be a long, yet fun job.

To another area, I've recently finished several books. "Christy" I finished on Saturday, and that same Saturday I got another book named "Passion and Purity," and read it all on Sunday. It was an excellent book by Elizabeth Elliott. Mainly it follows her story with her husband Jim Elliott. Throughout the book she describes, and gives advice on certain situations that those considering a future involving marriage can run across. She talks about ways to go about a proper courtship, and in her story shows some of the ways that can be very detrimental if the correct timing is not followed. One of the most important points she talks about is giving our all to God, even our very feelings. Since she went through 5 years of waiting for Jim Elliott, she knew a good deal about this. She talked about some of the letters she had received where people would say that they have prayed that either God would take their feelings away, or give them an answer about the other person. When written about this, her response was, that might not be how God works. He allows things to come into our lives for a reason, anything really, money, things, and feelings too. As with everything else, we need to give it right back to God, and say, God you allowed this to be in my life, I may not know the purpose you have for it right now, but Lord, I realize that whatever happens, it is for my best, and to glorify you. She talks about how daily she had to put her thoughts of Jim on God's altar, how no matter what, her feeling were going to be there, but if God chose for them not to be together, that she would still glorify Him. I can only imagine how she would have felt had Jim's answer been different, but, fortunately it worked out for her, and after 5 years of waiting, they were finally married.

One thing she talked about was very good advice for any guy out there, and really girls too. It's natural for us to have "feelings" for others, that was the first institute God made, a marriage between Adam and Eve. But, we need to deal with them in a God honoring way. She told of how Jim told her of his great love for her, and that if he got married, it would be to her, but God might be calling him to a life of celibacy. This was a very bad idea. As she she says later on, and she quotes someone else one this, "A man should never tell a woman that he loves her, unless he's ready to marry her, and he should never ask her to marry him without telling her he loves her." She points out, that if all guys actually did this, it would save so much heartache and trouble. So what really happened is that he expressed how he felt before both of them were in a place where they could consider marriage, and because of that, it created a distraction from God, for which he later apologized.

So, you may say, "if he never said anything, he may have lost her." I say, if it was God's will, and those were the two people he chose to be together, though he would have suffered through having to hold his feelings in until God showed him clearly that they were both ready to pursue a marriage, they both would have been able to serve God more effectively, and God still would have worked so that they would be together. You see... I don't believe there there just a pool of fellow Christians out there that it's just O.K. if we choose one of them, I believe that if God has marriage in your future, He knows, and has picked out that one person, just for you. I have to say too, for those that are married already, remember that, the person that you are with, how special they are, because God chose them just for you!!! There may be rough times, but that's just God's way of working to draw you closer to Him, and if you are both getting closer to Him, you will also be getting closer to each other. It's also His way of helping you grow, remember, if you love the Lord, everything in your life will be working out for your good!

Maybe after all of that you might tell me, "you dream, the real world doesn't work like that, either go get, or you won't get anything." Well... so be it, call me a dreamer!! I think I'll trust God on this one, He knows a lot more than me, and He already knows from the beginning to the end of my story, and I'll let Him be in control of it. And I'm not saying that a guy should never "go after" a girl, cause sitting around being lazy, yeah, someone's not just going to drop into your lap, and say OK lets get married, I'm just more of an advocate of waiting on God's timing for both people involved. I also believe that when done the right way, and in the right time, God will honor and bless no matter what the outcome, who knows God may have a blessed life of singleness for some of us, and an equally blessed life of marriage for others, we just need to trust that in every situation life can present, God is in control, and He has a masterpiece of a story worked out for each of us.

So in either case... I'd recomend this book without hesitation.

Isaiah 55:8, 9 "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts."