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!!!!

Rush hour

That's right, this is what I experience every day--TWICE! Actually, the Lord has taught me a lot about myself and Himself as I spend an hour and a half (at least) every day sitting in stop-and-go traffic. For this reason, I am inspired to play 12 Blessings about Rush Hour Traffic! These are listed mostly in no particular order.


1. I have become more patient as I join in Rush Hour (let me add that I definitely have a LOT to learn in this area and I do indeed still have impatient moments, days, weeks...).
2. Rush Hour to work is good preparation as I can pray and/or listen to worship music in the 35-50 minutes I have alone.
3. Rush Hour home is a good time to unwind, again praying and/or listening to worship music.
4. Often times the Lord uses different experiences in Rush Hour to remind me of His attributes (sovereignty, faithfulness, protection and many more).
5. There have been several Rush Hour moments (mostly on my way home) where the Lord breaks me of sin and I can just think and pray about whatever He has shown me.
6. Rush Hour never fails to remind me that I am not the only person in the world who wants to get home after a long day.
7. Rush Hour is a good time of anticipating seeing my wonderful husband again at home :-D
8. Every so often Rush Hour serves as a time to catch up with friends and family on my cell phone--using an earpiece of course!
9. Rush Hour gives me a chance to listen to the news that I'd like to hear but don't always want to make the time for it.
10. Rush Hour reminds me that life is precious but fleeting, which causes me to ask myself how I will live each day in a way that is honoring to the Lord.
11. Rush Hour reminds me to pray for others, even if I don't know all the details of their lives and struggles, I can still pray for them.
12. Rush Hour provides hundreds, perhaps thousands, of people with jobs--the police officers pulling miscreants over, the construction workers seeking to widen the already massive freeways, the guys who do smog checks, the guys who pump gas at gas stations... Just think how many people benefit!

Ok, so I got a little desperate on that last one, but it is true!

On a more humorous note... this morning as I participated in Rush Hour I saw a guy in a convertible with the top down. Not an abnormal sight you might think, but I bet you have never seen a guy in a convertible with the top down--wearing a chicken hat! Yes, that's right, this guy had a chicken hat strapped onto his head. It looked like those chickens in the Muppet Babies. I nearly burst out laughing. I suppose people do strange things on Halloween. Oh yeah, and Happy Halloween! 

Our Apartment - Part II

It would seem that our blog has decided to stop accepting pictures for the day. My solution? To send you to our updated web albums! I will post the rest of our apartment pictures on there, although with much less commentary. Perhaps some will be glad for that... Anyway, enjoy and have a lovely Monday!

p.s. The office closes tomorrow at 3 pm for Halloween. Needless to say, I'm excited :-D

Our Apartment - Part I

Welcome to a tour of our first apartment! I made a really cool video too, but I'm totally unfamiliar with putting videos on our blog. If you'd like the video (even though it catches Happy belching into the camera) please email me.

To the right is the "dining room" area in our apartment. The door on the right side of the picture is the front door (if you couldn't guess) and you can somewhat see the entrance to the kitchen to the right of and perpendicular to the front door. As you can see, we've done a lot with decorating in this part of the apartment. And our hanging fruit baskets are empty (just as they usually are).

Here I'm standing in the doorway to the "dining room," looking into our living room. You can tell that those two five-shelf bookcases are pretty full, we have another three-shelf bookcase in our bedroom that is packed. Perhaps this is a better view of our empty fruit basket? Oh, I'd also like to say that I didn't exactly "tidy up" before taking all these pictures. I was mostly too excited about having my new camera!

To the right is one side of our lovely little kitchen. As you can see, we now have our refrigerator, complete with magnets. I even have a little rug for in front of the sink. You can see the large cabinets on the left also, which are WONDERFUL and packed full of food and anything I couldn't find a place for :-)

Ok, apparently I can't add more pictures to this post.... New post!

More to come...

I thought I'd just let you know that the pictures from today were just to whet your appetite for even more pictures to come. Perhaps they will be honeymoon pictures... apartment pictures......... silly pictures of Happy & Amy.................... who knows?!?

Pictures!!!

Yes, that's right, I finally brought the camera to work to test if I could get pictures onto the blog this way. SUCCESS!!! The only problem is Picasa is somewhat unreliable. Sooo.... I started a few web albums! Right now you'll find our jack-o-lanterns (also below), pictures of the car when we got hit (by the way, it's all fixed now :-D) and some other random pictures. Enjoy!

Jack-o-Lanterns!

Since this is apparently the only way I can post pictures on our blog, here are the pictures of our carved pumpkins. Guess which one I did and which one Happy did...

First, here are all the pumpkins in their glory:

A: Bat on small jack-o-lantern
B: Grim Reaper

C: The scared guy
 

My first pumpkin bread