Sunday, January 31, 2010
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
So Boss.
Paps sent us this email today. He is reading "A Praying Life". I think he doesn't know that I read it and gave it to mom over the summer...but that's ok. His email was a good reminder of the importance of prayer and why we pray. He ended it with this
"We pray because our worst enemy is ourselves; our tendency to want to be God in our own life. We pray to God to save us from us."
My dad is so boss.
"We pray because our worst enemy is ourselves; our tendency to want to be God in our own life. We pray to God to save us from us."
My dad is so boss.
Ps. 131: 1-2
O Lord, my heart is not lifted up;
My eyes are not raised too high.
I do not occupy myself with things
Too great and too marvelous for me.
But I have calmed and quieted my soul
Like a weaned child on its mother
Like a weaned child is my soul on me
O Lord, my heart is not lifted up;
My eyes are not raised too high.
I do not occupy myself with things
Too great and too marvelous for me.
But I have calmed and quieted my soul
Like a weaned child on its mother
Like a weaned child is my soul on me
Sunday, January 24, 2010
Day 23
Saturday night we had a party at our apartment. The idea came last quarter when one of my roommates decided that we needed to make use of the nook in our living room. She said it looked like a stage. Then, another one of my roommates started working as a barista. Both of these things gave birth to cafe night at our apartment. Live music and cocoa. It was so fun!
Elis Im and The Oceanographers
"Encore until the flippin cops come!!!"
We'll have another one sometime...not in the next 30 days though. If we get a noise complaint again we got to pay the po-po major moolahh.
Friday, January 22, 2010
God's grace made manifest through my family part 5: Paps
"Paps" is what my sisters and I (and now more recently other people) call my father. I forget how this name for him came about. I think Allison started it because she thought it was hilarious. Every time she would call him that we would all get grossed out because it reminded us of pap smear. Lovely, right? Well, now the name has caught on. Once, we tried calling him "Doctor" instead of "Dad". That stuck for a little while, but not like this name.
A lot of people say that I'm like Paps. I'm "Mini Don". Since birth I've looked like him, which I'm not sad about. Why should I be ashamed about looking like such a beautiful man? We have a similar laugh and similar humor. Amidst all the similarities, we're different. First, I am a girl. More seriously though, Paps knows what it means to care for the souls of others, to be compassionate and care for sheep.
These are things I desperately need to learn. Good thing I have him as an example to follow.
I listened to this sermon series on parenting a couple of weeks ago (for fun! not because I have any surprise news) and I got owned. In my interactions with others my attitude was bad and I only had to see those people once or twice a week. Being a parent though, you have to see your kids 24/7 and still have the same attitude, a winsome one, where loving Christ is the ultimate goal, your sole desire for those rugrats. I am glad I am not a parent yet. And I'm glad I'm not in some role where I have to care for the souls of a bunch of other people.
Paps does both. He's got all of us in the family to care for and also the church. It's pretty crazy. A couple of months ago, Paps had the opportunity to preach from the pulpit for the first time. I went home to hear it and show some moral support. My dad, man, he loves God. I know that winsome attitude that I learned about a couple of weeks ago is in Paps, maybe not 100% of the time (I mean...he's still sinful too), but it's seen both at home and in the church.
Dad knows he's a sinner. He's humble. He might own all the guys in the church fantasy football league and trash talk after (but that's all part of being a winner.) Paps can have a winsome attitude more often than me because he knows and remembers often what he has been saved from. The gospel applied to his life first forms how he interacts with others. I need that. A good dose of the reality of my own sin.
Here's my dad's sermon. He has some places where his words get confused (eg: when he quotes Luke 18:12 he says, "I fast twice a week; I pay thighs of all that I get." thighs instead of tithes. ahaha.) overall though, it was a good message.
Remember From Where You Have Been Raised
Paps and I. I think I told him to make the face he give us when we are in trouble. For some reason, it is more terrifying and convincing in real life. If I saw this when I was going to get disciplined, I would laugh. (actually, Kaity, Alli, Kim and I all have stories from when we were younger and we were getting lectured and we had to try really hard not to laugh......we are bad....)
A lot of people say that I'm like Paps. I'm "Mini Don". Since birth I've looked like him, which I'm not sad about. Why should I be ashamed about looking like such a beautiful man? We have a similar laugh and similar humor. Amidst all the similarities, we're different. First, I am a girl. More seriously though, Paps knows what it means to care for the souls of others, to be compassionate and care for sheep.
These are things I desperately need to learn. Good thing I have him as an example to follow.
I listened to this sermon series on parenting a couple of weeks ago (for fun! not because I have any surprise news) and I got owned. In my interactions with others my attitude was bad and I only had to see those people once or twice a week. Being a parent though, you have to see your kids 24/7 and still have the same attitude, a winsome one, where loving Christ is the ultimate goal, your sole desire for those rugrats. I am glad I am not a parent yet. And I'm glad I'm not in some role where I have to care for the souls of a bunch of other people.
Paps does both. He's got all of us in the family to care for and also the church. It's pretty crazy. A couple of months ago, Paps had the opportunity to preach from the pulpit for the first time. I went home to hear it and show some moral support. My dad, man, he loves God. I know that winsome attitude that I learned about a couple of weeks ago is in Paps, maybe not 100% of the time (I mean...he's still sinful too), but it's seen both at home and in the church.
Dad knows he's a sinner. He's humble. He might own all the guys in the church fantasy football league and trash talk after (but that's all part of being a winner.) Paps can have a winsome attitude more often than me because he knows and remembers often what he has been saved from. The gospel applied to his life first forms how he interacts with others. I need that. A good dose of the reality of my own sin.
Here's my dad's sermon. He has some places where his words get confused (eg: when he quotes Luke 18:12 he says, "I fast twice a week; I pay thighs of all that I get." thighs instead of tithes. ahaha.) overall though, it was a good message.
Remember From Where You Have Been Raised
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Day 18/19
I haven't posted a picture in awhile. Because 1.) Most days I forget. and 2.) I don't do anything exciting to take a picture of. Especially not every day.
That being said, yesterday was an exciting day off. Mom and I went out to run some errands and hit a redbox when Dad called us to pick up the car from the airport. Late last month, at Snowtastic, the window on Mom's car broke. What was once a power window became a manual one. As in to roll it up you have to sandwich the window between your two hands and use your strength to force it up. The only way you can roll it down is if it drops suddenly by itself. This is what happened to Dad as he was trying to catch a flight out for a business trip. Except the window didn't just drop a little...this time it dropped all the way down. So, already kind of late for his flight he called us to go pick up the car. Mom and I left with some cardboard and duct tape to go retrieve the car.
When we got there Mom stuck her hand through the wide open window and unlocked the door and opened it. The the alarm went off. And we didn't have the right key to make it stop. See for some reason we have 2 keys for this car. One to lock/unlock and the other to start the engine. On the spare set however, we only have the one for the engine. Not the most brilliant thing. So here we are at the airport with the alarm of the car going off. I seriously thought that we were going to get arrested or something especially with all of the security breaches that have been happening lately. So I called Dad and tried to figure out a way to get his set of keys. The airport people were nice and passed them to me without Dad having to go out of the airport and go back through security. We got the keys. Taped up the car. And drove our pimp ride home.
That being said, yesterday was an exciting day off. Mom and I went out to run some errands and hit a redbox when Dad called us to pick up the car from the airport. Late last month, at Snowtastic, the window on Mom's car broke. What was once a power window became a manual one. As in to roll it up you have to sandwich the window between your two hands and use your strength to force it up. The only way you can roll it down is if it drops suddenly by itself. This is what happened to Dad as he was trying to catch a flight out for a business trip. Except the window didn't just drop a little...this time it dropped all the way down. So, already kind of late for his flight he called us to go pick up the car. Mom and I left with some cardboard and duct tape to go retrieve the car.
When we got there Mom stuck her hand through the wide open window and unlocked the door and opened it. The the alarm went off. And we didn't have the right key to make it stop. See for some reason we have 2 keys for this car. One to lock/unlock and the other to start the engine. On the spare set however, we only have the one for the engine. Not the most brilliant thing. So here we are at the airport with the alarm of the car going off. I seriously thought that we were going to get arrested or something especially with all of the security breaches that have been happening lately. So I called Dad and tried to figure out a way to get his set of keys. The airport people were nice and passed them to me without Dad having to go out of the airport and go back through security. We got the keys. Taped up the car. And drove our pimp ride home.
Here is Mom taping cardboard to the hole where the window should be. All we had was purple duct tape at home. We ran out of the hot pink roll.
Today, I have some pictures of the rain. I hate the rain. Almost everyone loves it. But not me. They love the gentle "pitter patter" that the rain makes as it hits their windows softly singing them to sleep. To me it sounds like gunfire... like some arsenal of firearms is being emptied. I don't like the rain.
The rain means everyone is out with umbrellas. Crowds with umbrellas is a terrifying thing and going to school with a largely asian population makes it even scarier. Everyone is short enough where their umbrellas are right at my eye level. One day, someone is going to gouge out my eye on accident and I will hate the rain even more.
Driving in the rain is also the worst. This morning I was coming back to Irvine from Valencia and I seriously thought I was going to die. The rain makes everyone drive super slowly, which is good unless you are trying to make it back to school in time to take a quiz and on top of that you have to pee really badly because 1.) you didn't go before you left, thinking traffic wouldn't be that bad and you could hold it and 2.) because driving in the rain is just that frightening. It is scary. You could hydroplane. The idiot driving too fast in the lane next to you could hydroplane. The idiot behind you going to fast might not brake in time and smash into you. I hate it when the car next to you or on the other side of the freeway drives through some massive puddle and all that water is displaced onto your windshield leaving you blind until your wiper comes and tries to get rid of all that water plus the water falling from the sky off of your car. A million things could go wrong on the road because of the rain. The rain is evil.
Somewhere on the 405. This is another way things could go wrong on the road. Some idiot tries to take pictures while driving in a storm.
I also hate the rain because it makes the crazy people come out. Or maybe it makes the crazy come out of people. The most idiotic outfits and behaviours can be seen when it rains. There are the girls who think that because they wore their Ugg boots with their shorts it makes everything ok. Then there are the fools who think they look super cool standing in the middle of the flooded part on Ring Road not doing anything. Just standing there.
Or there is this stupid fool (who you can't really see because I was walking all fast since the rain was nuts and also because this guy was running. He's that fleshy colored blur at the top of the photo). This guy is running around with no shirt and no shoes...all he is wearing is shorts. The rain makes people stupid.
One other exciting thing happened aside from the rain. I ate buffalo jerky. Buffalo are not endangered so I didn't feel bad about it.
Painted my nails as an act of rebellion against the weather.
Saturday, January 9, 2010
Day 9
Lovey and I used to be best friends before. Now, she loves Kimberly. It sucks. My plan was to win back her love today by giving her a bath, but Kim gave her one on Wednesday. My plans were foiled. I settled for just brushing her. Too bad she hates that...and she still loves Kim more. Has she forgotten all the naps I used to take with her? All the times I used to let her in the house even though mom and dad super didn't want her to be inside??? Yes. She has. Now she loves Kim.
Kim sucks. (But thank you for doing my laundry, sister.)
Thursday, January 7, 2010
Day 7
I missed yesterday. First CCM of the quarter and Mel was the only one with her camera at Harbor House...it was weird...usually it's like paparazzi up in there.
It feels like Friday. But, it's Thursday, Thirsty Thursday. Tonight, I'm starting season two of 30 Rock and getting physics homework done. Exciting.
Duty and Piles of Duty.
The week is almost over and I can already feel myself adjusting to the new schedule and the monotony of life settling in. Did the reading for Bio 176. Took a quiz already in physics. Haven't really done too much for biochem...but my excuse is that my book hasn't come in yet. Just as my body and brain are becoming more conditioned to my schedule for this quarter, my heart has become conditioned too. Not disciplined. Conditioned.
I'm like one of Pavlov's dogs. I wake up, run (only if I've told Cathy that I'm running the night before...because I feel guilty when I don't), shower, then read. The vibration from the alarm on my phone under my pillow is like Pavlov's bell. I start salivating even though I'm not hungry. That's how it's been a couple of mornings. I'm not hungry for God's Word. I'm not reading because I love it. I'm not reading because I love Him. I'm reading because I have to. I'm reading because I want to put a check mark next to the date on my Bible reading plan.
I feel like at the beginning of a new year everyone talks about disciple both in christian and non christian circles. Everyone wants to improve somewhere and everyone knows it wont happen unless they discipline themselves to do so, whether it's losing weight, improving grades, reading the Bible more, praying more. We know we wont reach our goals unless we force ourselves to work toward them.
God is no magic genie and our hearts aren't readily obedient. Discipline is good. We need it. I need it because I know if I just waited for my heart to want to or to be ready to worship, ready to pray, ready to read, I would be waiting for forever. My whole heart might not be down with reading the Bible when I first start my mornings, but by forcing myself to sit and be in the Word, I hope and pray that my heart will follow.
I'm reading "The Great Gain of Godliness" by Watson (his commentary on Malachi 3:16-18). Have I mentioned that I love this guy???
In the book he says this:
The snow covers many a dunghill. A snowy white profession covers a foul heart.
It's easy to get into a pattern of doing things (if you do something for 3 weeks consistently it becomes a habit...or so they say). But to do things with the right motive, affections--the right heart, is so much more difficult.
I don't want the things that I am doing to be piles of poo. I want my heart to love God.
I'm like one of Pavlov's dogs. I wake up, run (only if I've told Cathy that I'm running the night before...because I feel guilty when I don't), shower, then read. The vibration from the alarm on my phone under my pillow is like Pavlov's bell. I start salivating even though I'm not hungry. That's how it's been a couple of mornings. I'm not hungry for God's Word. I'm not reading because I love it. I'm not reading because I love Him. I'm reading because I have to. I'm reading because I want to put a check mark next to the date on my Bible reading plan.
I feel like at the beginning of a new year everyone talks about disciple both in christian and non christian circles. Everyone wants to improve somewhere and everyone knows it wont happen unless they discipline themselves to do so, whether it's losing weight, improving grades, reading the Bible more, praying more. We know we wont reach our goals unless we force ourselves to work toward them.
God is no magic genie and our hearts aren't readily obedient. Discipline is good. We need it. I need it because I know if I just waited for my heart to want to or to be ready to worship, ready to pray, ready to read, I would be waiting for forever. My whole heart might not be down with reading the Bible when I first start my mornings, but by forcing myself to sit and be in the Word, I hope and pray that my heart will follow.
I'm reading "The Great Gain of Godliness" by Watson (his commentary on Malachi 3:16-18). Have I mentioned that I love this guy???
In the book he says this:
The snow covers many a dunghill. A snowy white profession covers a foul heart.
It's easy to get into a pattern of doing things (if you do something for 3 weeks consistently it becomes a habit...or so they say). But to do things with the right motive, affections--the right heart, is so much more difficult.
I don't want the things that I am doing to be piles of poo. I want my heart to love God.
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
Day 4
We are a Mac apartment. Today, we had an apartment dinner (minus Kathy...). Had California Fish Grill and we made up stories about the other patron's lives. I think some of them caught us staring at them...After we came home and lounged around the apartment on our macs while watching some weird shows on VH1. Jasmine went to take a shower and then Karina baited her to come out with her macbook and we got a picture of her. Haha. We are the worst.
Praying for opportunities to share with my apartment friends.
Praying for opportunities to share with my apartment friends.Sunday, January 3, 2010
Day 2/3
Day 2 Photo:
Had too much fun yesterday and didn't have time to post a picture. Here are some photos from brunch with Elyse and Stephanie. I asked Elyse and Steph the night before we met what time and where we were meeting. Steph told me to ask Elyse and so I automatically assumed they were going to try and pull a prank on me and show up at my house and make me cook them breakfast. I called them out but then Elyse said we were meeting at 10:30 at Mimi's Cafe. I felt all bad for assuming they were going to be evil.
However, the next morning, super early, my mother came into my room to wake me up and make sure I was wearing appropriate pajamas (...that is a story for another day...) My wonderful friends were going to try and prank me! I knew it! I set my alarm early so that I could catch them (also because I needed to take a shower...). Elyse crept in and I scared her. Steph was late because she was still sleeping. Their plan was to invade my home and sit in my living room acting like they had been waiting for ages because I was super late while sitting in bathrobes.
They have planned and wanted to attempt that prank since back in the day. It's hilarious how we haven't changed since freshman year in high school and awesome that we can still be friends.
We really did end up eating brunch at 10:30 at Eggs and Things...not Egg Plantation.
Day 3 Photo:
Tomorrow will be the start of a new quarter with many things to look forward to. No more stats! No more ochem! New Bible! and small group! I'm genuinely excited for this coming year. (My hands look weird...)
Had too much fun yesterday and didn't have time to post a picture. Here are some photos from brunch with Elyse and Stephanie. I asked Elyse and Steph the night before we met what time and where we were meeting. Steph told me to ask Elyse and so I automatically assumed they were going to try and pull a prank on me and show up at my house and make me cook them breakfast. I called them out but then Elyse said we were meeting at 10:30 at Mimi's Cafe. I felt all bad for assuming they were going to be evil.
However, the next morning, super early, my mother came into my room to wake me up and make sure I was wearing appropriate pajamas (...that is a story for another day...) My wonderful friends were going to try and prank me! I knew it! I set my alarm early so that I could catch them (also because I needed to take a shower...). Elyse crept in and I scared her. Steph was late because she was still sleeping. Their plan was to invade my home and sit in my living room acting like they had been waiting for ages because I was super late while sitting in bathrobes.
They have planned and wanted to attempt that prank since back in the day. It's hilarious how we haven't changed since freshman year in high school and awesome that we can still be friends.
We really did end up eating brunch at 10:30 at Eggs and Things...not Egg Plantation.
Day 3 Photo:
Tomorrow will be the start of a new quarter with many things to look forward to. No more stats! No more ochem! New Bible! and small group! I'm genuinely excited for this coming year. (My hands look weird...)
Friday, January 1, 2010
365 Days of photo!
Freak. I am barely going to make it in time/ I might not make it. For now here is a picture of Kim brushing her teeth in the hallway until I get the other one up! ahh.
And here we all are bothering Kaity.
And here we all are bothering Kaity.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)