Tuesday, October 24, 2006

No denim allowed

Fun (albeit not so fun at all at the time) story about our day yesterday....

We were blessed with an inviation by a man in our church, Albert. Mike to gold and Isabella and I to hang out at the pool. But this wasn't just an oridinary invite... it was to the Hong Kong Golf Club... the ultra elite club of Hong Kong. Expensive meals, clothing requirements, you get the idea. Albert picks us up and suggests to Mike that he may want to change from his 'cargo' shorts into pants and so he runs upstairs. We pick up Tom (our guest speaker at church) and his family and head on our way to Fanling. Albert drops us off and tells us to head into the restaurant while he parks the car. No big deal... We walk into the restaurant and the man looks at me, points to me and says... 'No denim. Go put trousers on.' What? I didn't bring anything else with me! No I enter panic mode... I have to have something else on and the only place to buy something is the pro shop... and at the Hong Kong Golf Club... nothing is cheap! I was almost in tears of both embarrassement and fear of how much money I was about to spend. I looked for the cheapest thing possible and I still paid more than I have ever paid for a skirt in my life! But I also have to admit that it was the most comfortable skirt I have ever owned. It was the kind with the shorts underneath... why aren't all skirts made that way! I loved it. So sheepishly I walk back into the restaurant to find out that Tom was also told to 'tuck in his shirt' and that they checked Rob out to make sure his shirt was tucked in as well. It made me feel a little better. lol

So despite this event... we had a fabulous day. The weather was warm and the day just gorgeous. We spent time in the pool, chatted with a woman from England, played in the children's room, had a snack with Barbara, and Isabella even took a nap. I was so blessed by Alberts offer... days can get so repetitive for me (going to the same parks, stores, etc) and I loved the opportunity to hand out at a new place with lots of space for Izzy to run.

Isabella either played really hard or she's hitting a growth spurt because she slept until 9:30 this morning! I could hardly believe it. We had a rather lazy day today... the only attempt we made to get outside ended after Isabella had a moment and our stroller fell into the fountain. LOL

Well... I'm still working through my thoughts for my session at our retreat this weekend. I'm so nervous but excited about the chance to be involved. I'm speaking on how to treat Boys right so if anyone wants to share some ideas... I'd love to hear them!

Sunday, October 22, 2006

Full of excitement

Mike's busy watching Battlestar Galactica so I'm taking this opportunity to blog. (hehehe.... I love you!)

So anyway... today has been a crazy day for sure! Wow... I arrived at church a little before 9 but didn't sit down for the service until about 10:20 and it starts at 9:30! I was pleasantly surprised that Mike had taken the DVD player upstairs for Childrens Church but sad to learn that our carpet for the little ones had been taken... (who in the world would take a carpet?) So I pull out the toys and organize things a bit and learn that our CD's are missing as well. :( So I head down to Children's Church a bit discouraged to set things up for Matt and leave some info for him. No big deal... Everything's set and I have some time left so I go downstairs and look again for the CD's. No luck. I go back up to the hall, find Izzy and take her up to nursery and then run again upstairs to let Tracy know we have no CD's. She was very flexible and understanding but she also let me know that the offerring box was missing so I make another trip downstairs to look for the box. No luck. I do find a little bag that will work just fine though so I head back upstairs to catch a bit of the music to find out that one of our children is in the wrong classroom so I head up to the nursery to get him and take him up to the 2/3 room... and I forgot the little bag. lol I come back down for about 3 minutes before the children are dismissed for CC and I walk up with them to give Matt a few more details. I get up there to learn he needs a cd player so I run back down, grab the cd player and run back upstairs. Whew... I'm sweating and tired and I think I got in all my required exercise for the day. LOL Finally I'm able to go down to the hall and enjoy the service and I'm so glad that I was able to attend the adult service this morning.

Pastor Ed's brother spoke this morning and he grabbed my attention immediately. He talked about how Devotion to God never guarantees bliss. That we often find ourselves experiencing demands that seem impossible to meet but how awesome is our God... He's here to meet our demands. He shared several amazing stories of how 'a little of something and God' allowed for some amazing things to happen... people making decisions to follow God, churches being established, etc... and it was so encouraging. I had to laugh though... he was talking about compassion and was about to tell us an illustration and went hunting in his Bible for the exact story and couldn't find it. After a few seconds he stopped and looked at us and said... 'Okay that was a test... some of you were thinking -I can't believe he wasn't prepared enough.- and others -were wanting to do anything they could to help me find my paper-. If you were thinking the latter... you were showing compassion... if you were thinking the first... maybe you need to work on compassion. It just really caught my attention and made me laugh to think about all the different thoughts running through the congregations mind. LOL I thought his presentation of the sermon was just fantastic too... his powerpoint was really powerful. It was simple but it really stuck out to me.

Sunday School was really fun too. I tried something new and all of us walked away understanding the first 6 chapters of Daniel a bit more and how we can apply the three major characteristics (Integrity, Wisdom, Courage) of these chapters in our own lives right now. I love taking the time (even if it means silence for a few minutes) to really think about how what the Bible says applies to us know. It's easy to understand the basics, it's easy to pull out themes, etc.. but it's not easy to think about what does this mean for me now... and not so much the typical SS answers (have more faith, be like Christ, Jesus... lol) but real answers like... when someone says something (like I want to take my child to the zoo to learn about the animals... since we came from them anyway) that I disagree with.. say so or don't shy away from the fact that I love God and am here in HK to share His love with others. And it was great to hear the girls open up and be honest about areas that they need to have more integrity, wisdom or courage. These girls rock! I just love'em.

Then we were blessed with an invitation from Betty to join her and Pastor Tom and family for dinner at our most favorite resturant ever! We had amazing food and enjoyed the fellowship as well. We came home about 3:30ish and all (well Mike tried anyway) took a 2hr nap! It was wonderful. Then we ran a few errands... gotta love the prices of toothbrushes here! The cool ones are about $1 US dollar!

Mike had a brief conference call about our Love Actually Retreat this weekend and while he chatted, I started reading Seeker Small Groups. Since moving, I've had a passion for starting a book/Bible study among the non-Christian moms in our area. It's been a slow process but over the past few months I've developed a few good relationships and am axious to reach out even more. This book just really motivated me to be more intentional in meeting people and got me thinking about a 'seekers group.' There are some amazing stories of how God worked and saved lives and I feel like a passion of mine has just been re-lit. I feel like I've been stuck in a rut lately but just the little I've read so far has put a spark, a glimmer of hope and excitement back into my (what seems stale) heart.

So first things first... meeting more ladies so I'm definitely going ahead with the Costume party on the 31st. I can think of about 6 ladies so far to invite and I'm hoping that they will bring some friends of their own. It would be so wonderful to connect with all of them and begin to build some more friendships and who knows what God will do. It's so exciting for me to think about! That's why I'm here in Hong Kong... that's why I'm here on earth... to share the love of Christ and introduce others to Him. Nothing makes me feel more fulfilled that when I'm doing what I know I'm here to do.

Now off do a bit more reading....

Have a wonderful Sunday! May you find yourself drawing closer to Him!

Friday, October 20, 2006

Mice in the Cinema....

How in the world did I forget to post about my movie adventure with Hannah on Wednesday night? Okay... so Dorie was sweet enough to give us two discounted movie tickets and Hannah and I decide to be brave. Not only did we chose a Canto movie (with English subtitles of course) we went to the cinema in Whampoa. Now the last time Mike and I went there... a few seats were not duct taped together... they were package taped together. LOL But it's close by and that's where we could use the tickets.

So anyway... the movie starts and literally within just a few minutes I think to myself.... "I'm about to waste the next 99 minutes of my life." Never a good start. So I open my tortilla chips and cheese (I haven't seen these anywhere but in the cinema so every time we go I have to get them. lol) and munch away. All of a sudden a feel something soft slide by my foot. No it couldn't be, I thought to myself as I raised my feet and paniced as I realized that my purse may have been open. I totally blew it off... convinced myself that I was dreaming and focused on the movie. And then it happened.. I heard a little crackling noise and I look to my right where I had placed my half eaten chips and there it was .... a round, furry MOUSE/or rat.. I'm not totally sure what it was but eww! So I tell Hannah to move her legs because I'm moving and she's like... you're not serious... that didn't just happen. She didn't believe me but I didn't care.. I was not staying in that seat. Then about a minute later she leans over and says... 'I just heard it. How in the world did you stay so calm?' I think I was just so stunned that I didn't know what to do other than move. LOL So what an evening! Mike will never have to convince me to see a movie somewhere other than Whampoa. LOL

That's my fun story of the day!

Today on the other hand was rather discouraging. Nothing like knowing your child is unhappy but having NO IDEA how to fix it. She slept in until 8:30 so I was convinced we were going to have a great day. But nothing went our way... all of our plans fell thru and probably a good thing because Izzy fussed all day. She cried almost the whole way to meet Mike for lunch... and pretty much the whole way home. So I put her down for a nap that didn't last very long. So I took her outside to the park and all she wanted was to be carried so we walked back over to the church to pick up Mike's computer (mine's still in the shop and I feel so disconnected from the world) and she fussed some more. We came home and I tried to get her to eat something. After screaming for about 15 minutes she finally ate some fish and then I immediately put her in the tub for a bath. It just broke my heart all day. And I was blah too... I think it was a mix of it still being so hot and stuffy and still being disappointed that my trip was cancelled. I dunno... it was just a very long day.

So instead of moping around I'm gonna read my new Radiant magazine. Have a great day!

Thursday, October 19, 2006

Busy or Lazy?

I've been told by numerous people that I need to blog so here it goes... LOL you asked for it!

Life has been crazy over the past few weeks... lots of emotions, sickness, fun times, blessings galore, etc. If I go into detail about everything you'll be reading for days so I'll do my best to sum everything up.

I have been terribly discouraged and at the same time extrememly encouraged and sometimes both in the same day! LOL I have been discouraged about the 2/3 ministry over the past few weeks... I couldn't recruit any help, we had to switch rooms again, when I taught it was like mass chaos, etc... I just wanted to quit. At the same time, Mike was stressed out about the older Children's Church ministry... the organization, the materials, teachers, etc... To me... I thought the older kids were in great hands, had so much potential, and just needed a bit of re-grouping after the step down of the Children's Coordinator. My mind began racing with ideas but I felt like my hands were tied with the younger kids and I didn't want to take on more than I could handle.

So I began thinking and praying and pretty soon... I came up with what I thought would be a great answer to prayer for all of us. I would ask one of my current teachers to step up and take over coordinating the little ones and I would move up into the role of the older children. PTL she agreed! So I thought... whew all taken care of. I should've known better than that.

I met with Map on Sunday to go over a few things and WOW... I was so encouraged by our 5 minute talk! See our children's ministries all kinda run on their own. Everybody does their own thing and it doesn't really seem to flow very well... a lot of repetition between ministries. Anyway... she and I talked about how we wanted to sit down with everyone and get everyone on the same page and make these ministries flow and be more effective! So not only is she going to help me organize the little children... she's going to work alongside me to kinda re-vamp the children's ministries so that it's more effective in teaching our children about God and drawing them closer to Him. I am SO pumped about what's going to happen. She's also going to do a mini-seminar in 'storytelling to little children' that I think will benefit so many of our current teachers... including me. There's so much more to write but this is it in a nutshell... and the best thing is that this will lighten Mike's load so he can focus on some other areas that he's feels a bit stronger and more confident in!


I've been teaching the Sr. High girls Sunday School class and again I was discouraged. We've had some good discussion but I was beginning to question why I was trying to teach them the Bible (like an overview of the books) when they didn't seem very interested in it. I felt like maybe I should focus more on topics that related to them now and so a few times we would pick out something specific (in the book we were discussing) and focus on that but they knew all the right answers. That's not what I was looking for... I wanted honesty, discussion, I wanted them to know I'll love them no matter what and I wanted to help them to love God more. And then we hit Isaiah and BAM... they totally opened up. We discussed why they struggle reading the Bible, why they have a hard time trusting God, why going to a Christian school can put a damper on the Bible, etc... it was amazing. I was so blessed by their honesty. I challenged them in a few ways and I'm anxious to hear how their week was. My only prayer is that they'll continue to be honest and willing to discover God in new ways.


I spent a week sick... sinus infection. Nothing major but I was really uncomfortable and tired... things you never want to be as a SAHM. I managed to get out one day with Adelina and Kalya and that was wonderful but poor Isabella. I'm sure she's very thankful that I'm feeling better. LOL


As I already mentioned, we spent a day with Adelina and Kalya exploring a new park. It was a beautiful park with lots of playgrounds and the girls just had a blast climbing everywhere. The bus ride was about 45 minutes long and it was great because it gave us tons of time to chat. This was the first time that I felt we really went beyond surface level conversation and it was wonderful! We decided to try and explore at least once every 2 weeks so I'm looking forward to spending more time with them.


We had Scott over for dinner twice and that was fun... he even let me try a new recipe out on him. He and Mike are so funny because they're mac-oholics and they can talk all night about computers. Reminds me of his conversations with Dave in AL. :) Scotts a youth intern with our friends Tim and Cindy.

Speaking of Tim and Cindy... they're little girl turned 1! I can hardly belive it... I remember visiting her in the hospital and now the girls just smile and giggle when they see each other. Agh... it will be so fun to watch them grow together.

We've had dinner with Dan and Geeta as well. Dan came over one night while Geeta was away and before he left, I told Isabella... 'Now go give Uncle Dan a kiss.' I couldn't believe my eyes as she walked right up to him and puckered up! I think it totally caught him off gaurd too! Precious... we had dinner with them both tonight and Isabella gave them both tons of kisses. Too cute... she even passed on Daddy holding her so Uncle Dan would.

Today we went to the playroom with Shateki and Mousumi. It was fun there were a lot of little kids running around so while Isabella did her share of running and screaming, she did a lot of observing too. We hadn't seem them in a couple of weeks so it was good to connect again.

As I mentioned in my previous post... Isabella refuses to keep her shoes on when outside so I decided to try a trick. They have these squeaky shoes here and she loves them. Mike and I refused to buy them but I needed to try something. So I bought these precious chinese style (they look like the CHinese dresses) squeaky shoes... only to have them break one day after wearing them. Grr... I'm actually thinking of taking them back (don't normally do this at a market) but since it's only been a day.. I'm hoping they'll remember me.

I've decided to try and organize a little 'costume' party for the little kids I know.. in hopes of getting all these mom's I've met together and maybe meeting for a playdate every couple of weeks. I'm actually pretty excited about this opportunity and am just praying for how to oppropriately go about this. It's actually quite a blessing in itself because my trip to the states has been cancelled. The quote on ticket price didn't include Isabella and her cost just makes the ticket a little out of price range. I'm totally bummed as I had just spent the day planning all the things I wanted to do with Isabella there but it's okay. Hopefully in Jan or Feb I can go. Instead I will focus on the cool things I can do here in hopefully cool weather. I'm considering a trip to Disney, the beach, a couple of parks, etc... we'll be creative while Daddy's at his conference.

Well... this is totally random in how I posted things. Sorry if it's confusing I just had to get some thoughts down. I'm not even going to spell check... too tired. lol

Have a blessed Thursday!

Friday, October 06, 2006

Radomness

We had a wonderful day at Stanley as a family on Tuesday. We ate at one of our favorite places for lunch and ran into Jo (a very outgoing, friendly girl from another youth group) again... same girl we ran into at the same place the last time we were at Stanely with Mike's parents. LOL And then we did a bit of shopping. I picked up a few things for Isabella as the cooler weather should (I'm praying really hard about this) be approaching, Mike actually found a pair of shorts, and I found a pair of JCrew jeans for less than $10! Some things like that are hard to pass up knowing how much you pay for them in the states. LOL The best purchase was a bag that I found. I don't know what it is about it but I fell in love with it the second I saw it but couldn't justify the price. (I'm all about deals and honestly probably don't buy much of anything that isn't on sale... at least for myself) So I just drooled over it while we shopped. Before we left, I went over to the shop and asked the lady for a discount and surprisingly (they don't really bargain much at Stanely) she gave me one... enough for me to feel okay buying it. I was so excited and it has turned out to be wonderful! It's big enough to carry all of Izzy's things and my things and look a big stylish (versus my little backpack). I'm just tickled pink that I got it and have carried it everywhere already... even if I didn't need to. :)

I called Hannah on Wed and asked if she wanted to come with me to get my ear pierced. I've been thinking about doing this for awhile now and since Brett knows of a cheap place I decided to go for it. Piercing (at least ears) is really cheap here... less than $2 an ear and since I just wanted a stud in the top part of my ear it was hard to pass up. I had a piercing there before but my mom made me take it out because of my Ear Dr. telling us a story about a surgery he had done on a teen who didn't care for theirs. Anyway... I feel responsible enough (lol) to take care of it and watch for infection. Plus it was just a random, fun evening for Hannah and I to share... especially as we searched for both the store and a hair salon. (wink wink Hannah) I must admit though... the piercing set-up was so funny to me. It wasn't anything like a piercing store in the states. Here the lady pulled out the gun, a step stool, and said... "Have a seat." You never would have known you could get pierced there unless someone told you. (And yes it is safe.)

I kept Isabella busy yesterday. We went to the indoor playroom where she ran like crazy again. Although she did rest for a few minutes as she insisted on keeping her shoes on. (not allowed to have shoes in the room) Then we stopped at the park on our way home where she insisted on taking her shoes off! This girl is confusing! LOL I put her down for a nap and got a phone call from Adelina saying she was across the street at the park so Izzy got up and we played their for a bit. It was great to see them and hear about their trip to Shanghai. In the evening, we had Ebennezers with Hannah and Geeta. Afterwards Mike, Isabella and I walked along the TST promenade for a bit. We went into this section of the mall that had all these huge sales and as I was walking along the toy section and girl came right up to Isabella and took her out of the stroller! When things like this happen... I'm just stunned and don't do anything because I just can't believe it happened.

Today was Mid-Autumn Festival and to be perfectly honest... I got all my days confused and totally forgot about it! I planned on taking Isabella out with her lantern and eat dinner under the moon but I forgot. :( I was so bummed when I heard all the little kids outside but didn't have the heart to wake her. We had another busy day... went to HK park with Cindy and Lillian and she was just exhausted. She fell asleep in my arms... I will ALWAYS cherish those moments!

Mike brought me the most incredible treat home from work.... LOST! We had fun watching it together and trying to figure out what was going to happen this season. The comment about 'the next 2 weeks won't be very pleasant' has us wondering if that's going to be the entire season. lol

Well... that's quite an update on not a whole lot. LOL Off to bed~

Monday, October 02, 2006

here and there

This will be short because I'm tired and have got the worlds biggest headache...

Yesterday was a fun filled day with the youth... we went bowling! It's been a long time since I've been bowling and man did it show! I stunk... course I wasn't really trying either but oh well... it was all for fun. Isabella had a blast just roaming everywhere and playing on the computer. Yes there are computers in the bowling alley and all of our students spent time chatting with their friends or checking their emails.

It was Chinese National Day so they had the awesome fireworks but Izzy went to bed pretty early so we watched them on TV. Man the Chinese really know how to do fireworks! We could hear all the booming in our flat.

We were total bums today except for this evening. We had dinner with Mousumi, Pardo and Shateki. Honestly we were a bit nervous... I mean we don't really know them and we'd never met her husband but it was a fun evening. We had some great Indian food and the little ones just climbed all over the place. Pardo lived in MN for 2yrs and the states in general for 4 so we enjoyed talking American likes/dislikes, etc... Plus they shared some Indian culture with us and I really enjoyed learning more about them. Their marriage was arranged and I just love hearing their views/opinions of this. It's so not what we as Americans think it is!

Since the Red day was on Sunday... everyone got today off. But since Mike's day off is Monday... he gets tomorrow off too! I'm really excited. We'll probably hit Stanley... show Hannah around a bit... maybe do a bit of shopping. I have two little girls and 1 boy to buy for some I'm a little excited. :)

I'm so happy that it's October... means cooler weather is almost here. Isabella and I went swimming on Friday, probably for the last time (well outdoors) this summer. The water was freezing! I really thought we'd stay for like 15 minutes but after the initial shock, Isabella had the best time ever! She finally realized that her inner-tube helps her float and she hung off the edge of it and floated around. She even got the guards to come in and play with her... too cute. We stayed for about 45 minutes when Izzys lips turned blue. LOL We walked downstairs and the inside guard pointed to the smaller indoor pool which is pretty warm and said.... 'Go there to warm up.' So we did and Isabella continued to have a blast splashing around.

Sorry for all the randomness.... that's all I got for today... I'm beat.

here and there

This will be short because I'm tired and have got the worlds biggest headache...

Yesterday was a fun filled day with the youth... we went bowling! It's been a long time since I've been bowling and man did it show! I stunk... course I wasn't really trying either but oh well... it was all for fun. Isabella had a blast just roaming everywhere and playing on the computer. Yes there are computers in the bowling alley and all of our students spent time chatting with their friends or checking their emails.

It was Chinese National Day so they had the awesome fireworks but Izzy went to bed pretty early so we watched them on TV. Man the Chinese really know how to do fireworks! We could hear all the booming in our flat.

We were total bums today except for this evening. We had dinner with Mousumi, Pardo and Shateki. Honestly we were a bit nervous... I mean we don't really know them and we'd never met her husband but it was a fun evening. We had some great Indian food and the little ones just climbed all over the place. Pardo lived in MN for 2yrs and the states in general for 4 so we enjoyed talking American likes/dislikes, etc... Plus they shared some Indian culture with us and I really enjoyed learning more about them. Their marriage was arranged and I just love hearing their views/opinions of this. It's so not what we as Americans think it is!

Since the Red day was on Sunday... everyone got today off. But since Mike's day off is Monday... he gets tomorrow off too! I'm really excited. We'll probably hit Stanley... show Hannah around a bit... maybe do a bit of shopping. I have two little girls and 1 boy to buy for some I'm a little excited. :)

I'm so happy that it's October... means cooler weather is almost here. Isabella and I went swimming on Friday, probably for the last time (well outdoors) this summer. The water was freezing! I really thought we'd stay for like 15 minutes but after the initial shock, Isabella had the best time ever! She finally realized that her inner-tube helps her float and she hung off the edge of it and floated around. She even got the guards to come in and play with her... too cute. We stayed for about 45 minutes when Izzys lips turned blue. LOL We walked downstairs and the inside guard pointed to the smaller indoor pool which is pretty warm and said.... 'Go there to warm up.' So we did and Isabella continued to have a blast splashing around.

Sorry for all the randomness.... that's all I got for today... I'm beat.