Frost

That's right! There was frost on the roof of the "house" next to our apartment building (side note: the "house" is a display for 5 Star Homes... quiet neighbors indeed). Of course, I took a picture of it. Yesterday was the first morning that it has smelled cold when we went outside. It was WONDERFUL! Last night it smelled cold too. I just love it! I'm so glad there is at least a little weather change down here.

For those who don't like the cold--I'm very sorry. But at least it doesn't last all year :-) 

Thanksgiving pictures!

Yes, this is actually a picture of Happy with our FIRST CHRISTMAS TREE!!!! But there are many more pictures of this weekend in our Web Albums. If you'd like to go in order, I finally added a few pictures from our bike ride in Mile Square Park. Following that is the football game played on Thanksgiving morning. Then we got our first Christmas tree on Saturday when we came home.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!!

Even though Thanksgiving is technically tomorrow, I probably won't be thinking about posting on my blog because I'll be in Santa Clarita! Plus, I'm here at work and the phones have rung about a dozen times since I got here at 7 am. Needless to say, I'm hoping that we can all leave sooner than the originally planned 12:00 closing time. We'll see.

Soooo... HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!! I don't have pictures of any turkeys so I thought I'd post a picture of a sunset I saw from our apartment a few weeks ago. I'd just gotten my camera so I was pretty much taking pictures of anything, but this was especially beautiful. I don't see the sun set much during the week (particularly after the time change) since I leave work (driving north) just about when it's going down. Sunsets always make me think that heaven must be spectacularly breathtaking and God is the most magnificent Creator!

Last night Happy & I went to both the girls & boys high school basketball scrimmages. In light of the football games we had attended I wasn't expecting much. However, I was pleasantly surprised as the girls pulled ahead in the last minutes of the game to win by one point (I don't actually remember what the final score was :-) hehe... I'm such a girl)! The boys, on the other hand, absolutely crushed the other team and it was really fun to watch. I forget the score for their game as well, but perhaps my wonderful husband will leave a comment and fill in the missing information. I'm looking forward to the basketball season much more now than I was after the football season.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving and give thanks to the One who deserves all our praise!

Writer's block

I opened this post and have been staring at it for a good five minutes with nothing to type.

All I can think about right now is Christmas. In light of that, I'm going to make a list of my favorite Christmas traditions and the things I like about the Christmas season in general (in NO particular order):

1. Christmas music!!!
2. Baking Christmas cookies (Mom, I need your German recipes!)
3. Decorating with red & green, lights and sparkly things
4. Getting a Christmas tree to decorate
5. Wrapping paper & bows
6. Giving presents to people that you know they will love
7. Sending out Christmas cards
8. Christmas music!!!
9. Cold weather (not so apparent in southern CA, but still it's cooler than the rest of the year
10. Time spent with family
11. Hats, scarves, gloves, warm socks, sweaters
12. Those clay-mation TV movies for little kids--Frosty the Snowman, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, etc. (I LOVE them!)
13. Christmas music!!!
14. Watching A Christmas Story
15. Snuggling in a blanket by the fire (I'm not so sure this will happen very often anymore)
16. Playing in the snow (Again, I'm not so sure this will happen very often anymore)
17. Drinking hot chocolate or tea--especially after playing in the snow!
18. Christmas dinner... YUM!
19. Slippers & warm PJs
20. Christmas music!!!

The ironic thing about my preoccupation with Christmas today is the weather. It's supposed to be in the high 70s and possibly low 80s with sunny skies. So while I sit here gazing at the sun shining brightly, I'm daydreaming about snow falling, Christmas music and everything else I just listed.

But, since it seems I'll be living in CA for a while I think I need to get used to California's Christmas season, which is why I have a question for our Californian readers. What are your favorite Christmas traditions?

Fifty

When I returned from Israel in December of 2004, I brought back a new goal. That goal was to read 50 books every year. Last year was the first time I attempted it, and I came up short - I only read 44 books.

This year is a different story though. I am currently on my fiftieth book, They Call Me Coach, John Wooden's autobiography.

I realize this post is somewhat self-congratulatory, but I wanted to post it to maybe encourage you to read more or diversify your reading more, or to set (reachable) goals. My love for reading was fostered by parents that rejected our culture's disgusting addiction to TV, limited "Nintendo time," and encouraged self-education.

Here's the list, so far:

1. How the Irish Saved Civilization by Thomas Cahill
2. Loving God With All Your Mind: Thinking as a Christian in a Postmodern World by Gene Edward Veith, Jr.
3. The Third Option by Vince Flynn
4. Becoming Conversant With the Emerging Church: Understanding a Movement and Its Implications by D.A. Carson
5. Good Christians Good Husbands? Leaving a Legacy in Marriage & Ministry by Doreen Moore
6. The Autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini
7. Memories of a Catholic Girlhood by Mary McCarthy
8. Theology of the Reformers by Timothy George
9. Is The Reformation Over? by Mark Noll and Carolyn Nystrom
10. California: A History by Kevin Starr
11. Down and Out in Paris and London by George Orwell
12. Humility: True Greatness by C. J. Mahaney
13. Hard Questions, Real Answers by William Lane Craig
14. Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader by James Luceno
15. Separation of Power by Vince Flynn
16. Executive Power by Vince Flynn
17. Breaking the Da Vinci Code by Darrell L. Bock
18. Sacred Marriage by Gary Thomas
19. The Twelve Caesars by Suetonius
20. Ordained of the Lord: ? by ?
21. The Swarm War by Troy Denning
22. Intended for Pleasure by Ed Wheat
23. Evangelicalism Divided by Iain Murray
24. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
25. Memorial Day by Vince Flynn
26. Legacy of the Force: Betrayal by Aaron Allston
27. Jesus Among Other Gods by Ravi Zacharias
28. A Time to Kill by John Grisham
29. Thr3e by Ted Dekker
30. Six Days of War by Michael B. Oren
31. The Firm by John Grisham
32. Consent to Kill by Vince Flynn
33. Christianity and Liberalism by J. Gresham Machen
34. Atonement by Ian McEwan
35. The Pursuit of Holiness by Jerry Bridges
36. Bleachers by John Grisham
37. The Partner by John Grisham
38. Outbound Flight by Timothy Zahn
39. God at Work by Gene Edward Veith, Jr.
40. Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
41. Undaunted Courage by Stephen E. Ambrose
42. Blame It On The Brain? by Edward T. Welch
43. The Stranger by Albert Camus
44. Darth Bane: Path of Destruction by Drew Karpyshyn
45. Founding Brothers by Joseph J. Ellis
46. Teaching To Change Lives by Howard Hendricks
47. Twelve Extraordinary Women by John MacArthur
48. Bloodlines by Karen Traviss
49. Act of Treason by Vince Flynn

Non-Fiction - 28
Fiction - 21

You'll notice there are several series or similarities in my list.

1. Star Wars books - I've been a Star Wars junkie since 1995 (thanks Mike!)

2. John Grisham novels - Started reading them in the summer and like them.

3. Vince Flynn novels - Good counterterrorism.

4. History books - I can't put them down.

5. Theology and (for lack of a better term) Christian living books - "working out my salvation with fear and trembling."

One of my goals for 2007 is to read The Book of Mormon and the Quran.

Issues

That's right, I have issues. This photo was taken earlier this week (I forget which night) when I noticed I had a bug bite on my arm. I didn't scratch it at all but put some anti-itch cream on it. After a while, I looked at the bite and noticed I had another welt right next to it. Soon there was another, and another, and another, and another.... until my arm looked like this:

I have yet to figure out exactly what happened because I went to bed with my arm like this and woke up the next morning with all the welts pretty much gone. WEIRD. Anyway, I took a picture of it (of course) so I thought I'd share it with the readers of our blog.

With that, I'm going to get back to reading. Have a wonderful Thursday evening!

P.S. Abigail, Heather and Ruth came to visit this weekend! Check out the pictures here.

Overflowing with gratitude

Ever since Wednesday's Bible study I've been thinking a lot about what it means to be overflowing with gratitude. Our studies have been in the book of Colossians and last week we went over Chapter 2 verses 6-8:

Therefore as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, having been firmly rooted and now being built up in Him and established in your faith, just as you were instructed, and overflowing with gratitude. See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ.

From the start of the lesson we talked about different ways we can "walk in Him" as Christians. While many thoughtful and true examples came up, no one said anything about being thankful. I suppose that made it all the more impactful when Ron pointed out this short phrase at the end of verse 7. Why is it that gratitude should be so apparent in the lives of Christians?

My thoughts on the matter--I have someone to be thankful to. I know that there is a God and that He is the giver of all good gifts. I know that even "my" skills are from my Maker. He blesses me so abundantly, yet I gripe and complain because I don't have what I think I want. But He knows me better than anyone else. Psalm 139 tells me that He is "intimately acquainted with all my ways" and "in [His] book were all written the days that were ordained for me, when as yet there was not one of them."

I have so much to be grateful for which is why I ask myself what it means to be overflowing with gratitude. Must I always have a cheesy (sometimes fake) smile on my face because life is just peachy-keen? Should I shelter myself as much as possible from the suffering of this world so that I am blissful in my ignorance? I think that it means I must choose to see the good that God seeks to accomplish in and through every situation (cf. Rom. 8:28). I think it means that I choose to remember that God is good and sovereign--at the same time. I don't need to have all the answers. He has a plan, it is perfect, and if it seems bad or wrong to me I'm not seeing it from His perspective and I'm not thanking Him for what He is doing.

Of course much more can be (and has been more eloquently) written about this subject. I thought I'd share some of the things the Lord has been teaching me (this ties in wonderfully with what I've been reading in the book of Job). I'd love to hear/read any questions or comments this might bring up. Have a blessed week!

Trick-or-Treat!

Halloween. We had somewhere between 10-15 kids come to our apartment for candy. Needless to say, we have lots of candy left. I'm not sure if it's a good thing or a bad thing that we like the candy we bought. Perhaps a bit of both?

We also played Yahtzee and Cribbage last night. I won both games. I suppose this was a consolation after the disappointing trick-or-treater turnout. Oh well. There is always next year.

Happy read this morning that the Lakers won last night (we went to bed before the end of the game). He was pretty excited since both Kobe and Kwame weren't in the game. I'm guessing he'd have much more to say about the game--surprise surprise :-)

In other news, I got my first company shirt today! I am so cool. Here it is:


p.s. Happy Birthday Raphaelle!!!!