Thursday, January 22, 2009

Isabella Ballerina

Long story made short.... Izzy is now taking Ballet lessons. She LOVES, LOVES, LOVES it. I'll share the story another day but I need to pack for THAILAND!!!!




Saturday, January 10, 2009

PUrPOSE





Sorry the pics are small... this is all blogger would allow for today. :)

Mike had to take public in to Awana today so I decided to stay home and catch up on a bit of sleep and relax a bit. It turned out to be a great day for me. I had some time alone with Isaiah which I love and time alone to myself as Isaiah took a great nap. I got a short nap but then was able to get caught up on my Bible reading as I was a few days behind. Many, many things stood out to me today that made me stop and think and pray and think some more. It was awesome to reflect on God's word and not worry about fitting it in-between things or what child would need me. :) Once Isaiah woke up, I decided to take some pictures and he was awesome! Then I waited for the family to get home and have dinner. Isaiah had a bad night last night so I'm hoping to get to bed fairly early and get a good nights sleep for tomorrow. I'm really excited to go to church.

I've been thinking/praying about my word for the year and as I sat down to read this afternoon, I began by praying and as I prayed it was like God stopped me to say, 'Please listen to your prayer. What you are asking... it all fits into one word, one that you've just said yourself... Purpose.'

So my word for the year is Purpose. I want my life to have purpose and all the things I do to have a purpose... and not just some random Purpose but to bring Glory to God and lead others into a deep, meaningful relationship with Him too.

Last year I lived in survival mode... just trying to make it each day and I refuse to live that way no matter what happens. I want to be used by God, I want to be doing what He wants me to do, I want to do things well not just because it needs to be done.

The word Purpose will remind me to pray, to seek God, to make wise decisions, to worship and glorify God all day in every way and to seek opportunities to introduce Jesus to those who don't know Him.

Friday, January 09, 2009

Bits and Pieces for a friday night



"Let's have a party!" says Isabella
"Okay, who's coming?" Mom asks
"Jesus, Eva, Gigi, and Mommy."

LOVE it that Jesus was at our party!




Isaiah found his feet on Tuesday. I always loved this with Izzy and it's just as much fun watching him grab onto them. He's very vocal these days too and I absolutely love listening to his little squeals.



One of my goals since Isaiah was born was to obviously get back into shape but I've always been a bit competitive with myself in my running. Always wanting to beat my time, run faster, longer, etc... I think I put so much pressure on myself that running was becoming a chore and giving me more stress than necessary. So my first race in Nov, I was determined to just enjoy myself... treat it as a normal run and enjoy the scenery.  I was successful and very proud of myself so my goal for 2009 was to enjoy running. To keep myself motivated by doing races but don't put pressure on times and speed, etc... especially since I am working on getting back in shape after having a baby.

My 1st race on the 1st was a good start but since then I've just not been motivated to get out because I know there's a distance I need to cover. I'm running a half-marathon on feb 8th and my long run this week needed to be at least 7 miles but I was aiming for 8. Then last night as I was re-reading about the Jeff Galloway (run/walk) method. Since realistically I know my time on the 8th will not be ideal and that I will not be as prepared as I should, I decided to try this method on a run today. Wow... what a difference! Mentally I felt great and physically too! I ran 8.8 miles and could have gone further if the treadmill I was on wasn't crazy (that's another story). So now I'm motivated and excited about running again and my 2009 running goal part 2 is to train for a marathon. I really want to run one while I'm home in the states this summer but so far, I haven't had any luck finding one so instead, I'll just begin preparing and as a last resort, I'll run the Macau Marathon in Dec.

So I have to laugh at this pic although it's not very clear. I somehow kick my ankles as I run without knowing it... to the point of causing myself to bleed. If you look closely on the left shoe, there's a nice patch of blood and on the right ankle the same.





Well... kids are in bed. Mike's still at work. I think I'll go read. Have a blessed day!

Wednesday, January 07, 2009

Blessed Today

I must admit that I dreaded today. Wednesday's is Mom Time (a group of Mom's that get together to build friendships via a bunch of fun activities) and while I absolutely love these ladies and spending time with them, I HATE the commute there. It literally drains me. But I was truly blessed in so many ways but packing up the kids and heading to Hung Hom. We only had 5 moms attend, most at least 20 minutes late and we ended up getting kicked out of the room on time (this has never happened so we were caught a bit off guard) but it was great. I had the chance to really chat with some of the Japanese moms who tend to keep to themselves because of their lack of English, we even had a new mom attend, and our discussion time gave everyone a chance to really be honest and share. I really like the small group but I will never, ever complain how God has made this group grow from 3 moms to a minimum of twenty. It's amazing to see... now I just continually pray that God will work in these women's lives and draw them to Himself.

And because we got kicked out on time, we made it back to Sai Kung at 4:30, just in time to miss our bus home. So I let Isabella play at the playground and 3 of my students were there playing as well. Isabella has been quite shy lately but today she was following them around so I encouraged her to ask them if she could play with them. She so politely asked me if I would, so I did and because these kids are so sweet they were all for her joining them. Isabella had a blast playing with them and almost cried when they headed off to soccer practice. In fact, Isabella asked if she could learn how to play soccer as well so that she could play with them more often. I told her I would look into it. :) Actually, I'm all for it because she doesn't have any playmates in this area. We have to commute quite a ways to get her playmates and it would be really nice to have some closer. Plus, I would love to meet some moms in the area as well. But now I'm rambling...

Anyway, I was really blessed and encouraged by today. To top all that off, Isabella went to bed like a champ tonight. Not one word from her after leaving her room which is something that has not happened in a LONG time. So instead of enjoying some time to myself by doing anything I like... I'm headed to bed. Oh wait... that's something I LOVE to do too!

Good night!

Monday, January 05, 2009

A trip to the Consulate and rat alley



Surprisingly it only took us a few pictures to get the perfect passport photo for Isaiah. It was much easier than our attempts with Isabella. This is the final shot but we got some really cute photos alongside this one. And these were done about 10pm... we sure do have a happy go lucky guy on our hands. It will be really fun watching him grow and seeing how he responds to Isabella.

Getting his passport was simple and didn't take too long so Mike and I decided to have dinner at our favorite Malaysian restaurant in rat alley. It's this little restaurant among 2/3 others... all serving the same type of food, you're all squished together in this little alleyway and most of the seating is outside. It's a fun atmosphere and the food at Co Co (the restaurant we usually eat at) is great.. and oh yeah they cook roti (Indian bread) right in front of you. So we went to Co Co's but it wasn't open yet so we stopped by PCC to feed Isaiah and pass some time. We head back to rat alley and Co Co's is still not open. By this time we're (well I guess I) was quite hungry and didn't want to wait too much longer to eat. We didn't see anyone at the restaurant to ask when they'd open so we just decided to try one of the other's. We figured how bad could they be... they're always busy and they all serve the same type of food. Wrong!!!! When the food came out, I thought we made a bad decision. And then we tried our food and well... let's just say we're quick eaters but I think today we by far beat our time. But the best part was in the midst of our 5 minute meal... the cats above us start fighting. I was just waiting for one to fall dead next to our table.

So to restore our terrible dinner, we stopped by Oliver's (a fancy grocery store that carries quite a bit of western items though at a price) and picked up some lime tortilla's, some cheesy salsa and some nutter butter bites... and oh yeah NErDS!!!! So all in all it was a good day and unique experience.

Friday, January 02, 2009

And the bug remains...

We had intentions of spending the day at Disney with some new friends but we're still not feeling 100%. So I spent the day playing games, barbie's, building things, singing, etc.. with Isabella. It is so much fun watching her imagination run wild and to be able to join her. Buddy had a rough day but he's not feeling 100% either so hopefully we'll all get a good night's sleep tonight.

I'm thankful today that Mike worked from Starbucks today in Sai Kung and got home earlier than normal because as he got home there was a small fire, from the charcoal yesterday, brewing in our back yard. With the lack of rain we've had... it could have been pretty bad but Mike was able to stop it. So I'm thankful for God's protection.

Our Sr Pastor challenged the congregation to read through the Bible this coming year and Mike and I made a commitment to do so. I'm excited to see what God will teach me and what He will do in our congregation through this challenge. I expect 2009 to be an exciting year for our church and my prayer is that God will soften, teach, mold, etc.. me so that I can be used by Him. We've got almost 25 moms interested in our Mom Time and I want to take every opportunity to introduce them to the love of Christ.

How do you see God using you this year?

Thursday, January 01, 2009

Happy 2009!!!!

I wanted a memorable way to begin 2009 ...




so at 6:30 I put on my running clothes and Mike and I raced in the Pacers Shatin New Year's run. It was a 10K. We've been battling a stomach bug in the house and it keeps lingering between Mike and I. That and very little sleep the night before... made for the worst feeling run ever. Mike did great and my time actually wasn't so bad but I felt miserable and almost puked 3/4ths into the race. But I finished and wasn't last and that's what I was going for, considering how I felt.

And now I'm on to preparing for the Standard Chartered Half-Marathon thanks to Sarah! I actually missed the deadline but Sarah gave me an entry for Christmas so I'm really excited about it. It feels so good to be getting back in shape after having Isaiah and I'm proud to say that I've run 2 10K's and he's only 4 months! :)

But alas... we spent the rest of the day celebrating with the aff (alliance filipino fellowship) ladies at our home. I think there was a total of about 30 of us here and lots of laughter. It was fun to see them all relaxed and having a great time.

I've got several goals for 2009 (I'll post those another day) but one is to be more consistent with my blogging this year. I feel like I've forgotten a lot of great things/blessings/etc about last year because I didn't write them down so my goal is to at least blog a little about each day so I'm constantly aware and looking for what God is doing and being thankful for each day.

As for today, I'm thankful for the New Year and another chance to grow, learn and challenge myself in new ways. I was reading another blog that talked about choosing one word for the year ahead. She makes jewelry and was selling your 'word' hand stamped on a necklace. What a great reminder to have throughout the year but I thought the idea of one word was really great so I'm praying that God will give me that one word for what He would have for me to focus on this year ahead. Could you summarize the year ahead in one word?