God states the obvious. Are you listening?
Hans got me a new phone about a week ago. I think the news widget makes me read more news. Of course, any increase is better than zero. So far, I like the phone though it took a while to get used to. If I had to name one thing I don’t like about it might be that I can’t make a call without looking at it since there are no real buttons.
On Monday, I ate a viviparous tomato. I wish I took a picture of it because it was extremely bizarre. I did not eat the sprouts because I didn’t know if they would be safe to eat. If I find another one, I’ll take a picture.
I decided last night to read the Bible in its entirety and journal along with it. God’s been putting the desire for His Word in my heart, and it’s time to respond. I printed out a 90-day reading plan and will use it as guidance. I read pretty slow, so if it doesn’t happen in 90 days, I won’t be crushed. Just have to make sure every day sees progress. I was spurred on by a radio show, Haven Today. You can get the reading plan, too. Click here.
So I finally finished the blanket I started last winter for Hans. He likes it a lot, I think. =) The pattern was titled “For the Man” from my pattern book “50 Sensational Crochet Afghans & Throws”. I used Lion Brand Homespun yarn as specified on the pattern in color #320 Regency. The front post double crochet was a fun and very easy stitch. Though this project confirms my dislike for attaching squares together, it turned out okay.
Last year, Sinee and her roommate Emily came out to the botanic garden for my birthday. It was a fun time of looking around. Then, Sinee surprised me with a gift:
The daffodils were for me and the starflowers are for Sinee. Both ladies graciously came over a week or two later to help me plant all the bulbs. Last year’s bulbs were disappointing. Well, actually, the alliums grew, but the snowdrops didn’t do well at all. I have no problem blaming the poor drainage in some areas of our soil.
Hans and I also purchased two mum plants. They’re rusty orange and I failed to take care of them before winter hit. I hope I still have time in the spring and summer to tend to them before fall.
It’s the middle of winter and I’m eagerly anticipating the spring season!
We went to service at Lake Avenue Church. When we arrived, it was kind of Willow-Creek-ish because there was a large parking lot and the building was rather large. Inside, was not as large as Willow, which was nice, but it was still large. The service was 1.5 hours, but Hans and I were amazed at all the things they were able to fit into their service.
They had an instrumental prelude with an orchestra. They had child dedication for two families. Something different about this was that the parents did not write and read their own pledges. There were some worship songs with the worship band and the children were all in the choir area leading worship with the band. There were tons of children and after the worship set, they went to their classes. Scripture reading was done by an entire family even though only two of the five family members did the reading. Something that I liked was that during scripture reading, the entire congregation stands.
After scripture reading, Sung Choe, a doctor in the congregation, shared for the Letter of Life portion of their service. I gathered that this was basically a testimony of living for Jesus through a person’s life, preferably someone that people can relate to. His sharing was very well written and delivered and it was encouraging to hear about his faith in the workplace. This led into the pastor’s sermon, which was actually about the workplace and how we conduct ourselves at work through our actions as well as our attitudes.
The end of the service was also interesting in that it was a self-benediction. Instead of the pastor saying the benediction, the benediction and final prayer was projected on the overhead for everyone to read aloud together. I thought it was an interesting way to end the service and maybe it may help things stick better in some people’s minds and hearts.
Some impressions this church had on me was that it was huge, but absolutely not impersonal. They also had visitors stand to be acknowledged, and at the end of the service, at least three or four people came up to Hans and me to welcome us and introduce themselves. It was very family and intergenerationally oriented as shown by the various elements integrated into the service. There was even a glass (I assume sound-proof) wall at the back of the sanctuary for parents with crying children—that was very impressive to me. To think of and plan for something like that for the construction of a church building made me think that the leaders of this church really care for and love the congregation. If we’re in L.A. again, I wouldn’t mind visiting the same church again.
By the time service was over, Hans and I were starving since we didn’t have much of a breakfast. We rushed over to Lee’s Sandwiches to get food to fill our bellies. It was the first time we had tried Lee’s and we were pleased. The sandwiches were pretty large and good.
When our appetites were satisfied, we drove to Shou Liang’s house and hung out with his family for a while. They have a wonderful yard with all sorts of fruit trees along the perimeter. I was amazed. They even had the fruit that I had in China, which I learned are called wax apples! Yes, I was super excited to learn the name of a fruit.
Their sons, Sean and Ian, were very fun to play with. Ian liked playing a game of Bowser in their back yard! It was so exhausting but fun to run around throwing balls at Bowser (Hans) and escaping any balls he might throw back. After a while, Shou Liang took us to visit Shou-Chin. We found him at his house slow smoking a turkey. Hans was jealous. (Well, maybe he wasn’t, but I like to think he was.) He also showed us the golf course that he plays at which is part of his subdivision. It was rather pretty and peaceful.
Shou-Chin and Shou Liang took us out to dinner at a Taiwanese restaurant, Chef Chen. The food was delicious. It kind of made me want to visit Taiwan more. It was nice chatting with them over dinner. There was so much food, it was too bad we couldn’t take a little bit back with us. There was no microwave in the hotel room.
After dinner, I was pooped, but we drove all the way up a mountain to visit Shou Tzih and his family. Annie and Eric were so much taller and older than the last time we saw them. We chatted for a while, about life and school and stuff. It was nice to catch up. Then Shou Tzih pulled out a telescope when Hans mentioned that we wanted to go to the observatory. We looked at the moon for a while and Annie and I tried to take a picture of the moon through the scope lens. It was funny and I had a great time.
Shou Tzih then wanted to drive us around to see views from the mountain. Eric came with and we saw the beachfront from a lookout point and some other things. They showed us the house they used to live in, which had a better view, but we couldn’t get back there. It was very dark and stars were out, so some things we could see better than others. After driving around, it was time to go home. We went back to say thank you and good night. It was a very good day.
We did as much packing as we could last night and slept as early as possible. We had to wake up at 2:00 a.m. the latest! We had half an hour to get ready and drive to the hotel and catch a shuttle to take us to the airport. It was so dark out, but surprisingly, I think I was doing okay. Maybe it was the excitement of getting away and spending time with Hans. Another surprising thing was that there were a good number of other people waiting for the shuttle. I guess a lot of people take red-eye flights.
The plane stopped over at Phoenix and we hopped on another plane to L.A. It was amazing. I think we arrived at L.A. around 9 a.m. So early that we couldn’t even go check in our hotel. So we had to find things to do before doing that. First off, Hans was hungry. (Is that surprising?) I was still full from the McD’s breakfast we had, but nevertheless, we made our first stop at the Chinatown in L.A. He found a pho place on Yelp, but they weren’t open yet, so we went to get bao . . . only to go straight back to the pho place to eat. Hans had pho and I had a vegetarian crepe, which actually was quite good.
After stomachs were satisfied, we ended up going to Descanso Gardens. It was beautiful there. Many of the camellia trees were blooming. There was pink and some white, and they smelled wonderful. Apparently, the leaves are used for tea.
There was a sweet olive out in the ground in the garden outside of the Boddy House. The house itself had pretty cool architecture. I found the curved hallway to be visually appealing and very inviting, piquing curiosity for the room on the other end. The docent on duty explained that hot-shot interior designers all redid the place recently, so the wall papers, colors, etc, were probably not original. I do have to say they did a bang-up job. Sadly enough, only the first level was open to the public. Upstairs was off limits.
Some rooms had historical information about Manchester Boddy, other rooms had factual information about the camellia trees and flowers. Scattered around some rooms were framed photographs by Christine Burrill, which Hans and I both thought were wonderful. We were both very tempted to purchase her art.
We actually went to the gardens because we couldn’t check into our hotel until 3 p.m. Tired after walking around all day, we headed to the hotel to check in and chill for a while. I unpacked and we settled down in the room and watched TV until dinner. Wendy was available for dinner, which was exciting. We met up with her at Tasty Garden in Alhambra. The food was yummy and the desserts were delicious and pretty!
1 Peter 4:7-11 (HCSB)
Now the end of all things is near; therefore, be clear-headed and disciplined for prayer. Above all, keep your love for one another at full strength, since love covers a multitude of sins. Be hospitable to one another without complaining. Based on the gift they have received, everyone should use it to serve others, as good managers of the varied grace of God. If anyone speaks, [his speech should be] like the oracles of God; if anyone serves, [his service should be] from the strength God provides, so that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To Him belong the glory and the power forever and ever. Amen.
Going along with all the fruits of the spirit that we recently learned about, today’s devotional reiterates that we should use our gifts to the fullest for the glory of God. But before even that is mentioned, we are given an exhortation to pray. Pray and love. I wonder, if an observational study was conducted, what percentage of time each day do most people spend in prayer? I pray that my desire to spend time with God only ever increases.
I can’t believe how much of the year has passed already. This has been such a hard year so far and my brain is so fried. I praise God for Hans because I would not be able to do it without him. I shouldn’t even be writing this right now because I should be doing homework. Oh, homework. Well, so a little update since I’m already procrastinating.
I’m disappointed that I didn’t throw a nicer shindig for Hans’ birthday this year, but we went out for dinner and he found a Japanese place he loves now. We also went shopping if not just so we could walk around together for a little while. It was a nice evening. Then all of a sudden, my birthday rolled around and Hans forced me to go to the Botanic Garden to walk around and get some fresh air (not that I was unwilling). It was a good excuse to get away from my computer and not do homework. Then of course, our anniversary passed rather uneventfully as well.
I’ve got a little over a month left in this quarter and then two more classes. I should be done June (July?) of 2010. Praise God! I cannot wait to be done. Maybe I’ll be able to make up for this year’s drabness and lack of relationship-building next year. It is rather exciting to see what the next year holds—especially when I know it’s going to be so different from the past year and a half.
This past weekend, we went camping at the Indiana Dunes with our church fellowship groups. A little under 100 people were there, about half children, half adults. Hans and I had one of the smallest tents there. The weather was nice and cool, good for long pants and light jacket. There were fewer mosquitoes than last year and I definitely got fewer bites!
Friday evening, the children had an outdoor movie experience watching Horton Hears a Who. I found the movie to be rather enjoyable as well. Saturday was a packed day for Hans and me. After breakfast, the group went for a hike out to the Nature Center. It was pretty cool there. I read about the Indiana Dunes history and saw some live hummingbirds. The hike felt longer than the hike to the beach we’d done previous years. The funny thing was that the Nature Center was actually very close to the campsite. I couldn’t believe how close it was going back on a different path.
After lunch, Hans and I hiked back out to the beach and tried to fly our kites. The ladybug made it all the way up (as was expected). However, the larger kite had much difficulties. It never got too far off the ground. We tried to attach it to the ladybug to see if that would help it up, but to no avail. It was still fun nonetheless. Hiking back revealed how out of shape I am. I had to stop so many times to catch my breath when going back up the dune. It was so exhausting.
When we finally got back to camp, some people were just leaving for blueberry picking. I wanted to go since I had never done it before. We went and it was fun. Hans and I picked about 1.5 pounds of blueberries and it was only $2. The cost of blueberries in the stores must be mostly for labor, not the fruit itself.
It was lunch time when we got back. I think I was overly exhausted by this time because I could barely stand. It hit me like a brick, but Hans said my blood sugar must have been too low. After eating, I was feeling better. The evening program was a talent show. Many of the children had prepared a short performance and I had so much fun watching them! They did everything from synchronized choreographed dance, magic tricks, ballet, break dancing, yoga, singing, and what else? It was highly entertaining and great to see how these children are growing up.
After the talent show, we sang some songs and had a campfire for the children to make smores. It was my bedtime around 10:30, funny because I think some children stayed up longer than I did. Sunday morning, we had breakfast, then a short service. Bruce read a passage and some children acted out the scene. It was a creative way to illustrate scripture. We sang some worship songs afterward. Praise the Lord that we can worship without walls!
Some of us had a Wendy’s lunch on the way back home. It was a good, restful weekend. Thank you, Lord, for the time to enjoy your creation. I had to watch a three-hour lecture when I got home, but after a weekend of much activity, I didn’t feel as bad having to sit still for so long.