Thursday, May 26, 2005
Wednesday, May 25, 2005
Here come the details...
Ok, so this past weekend was nuts. Jeremy came in from Chicago on Saturday and stayed with us until Tuesday. So we all hung out and did stuff with him. We went to watch the Texas Rangers play against the Houston Astros on Sunday afternoon (freakin' hot weather!!!), and then went to watch Star Wars Episode III that night. Yeah, I've been waiting my whole life for this, so see Anakin turn into Darth Vader, among other things of course...it was awesome.
Monday evening our usual ACU gang and Jeremy met up with Steve and Renae Cates, old friends of ours back from ACU who now live in Irving. Renae and Jeremy are actually childhood friends. We decided to meet up for dinner at Texas Land and Cattle. Of all great and marvelous things, they had an 'eat-all-you-can smoked sirloin' for like $14.99. Talk about a good deal, and it's usually on Mondays only, so we hit the jackpot! I decided to go for it, and so did Zach, Jeremy, Steve and Adam. Well, when we were halfway through our 1st round, Jeremy and Adam decided to turn this into some kind of challenge because they saw how quickly I was going through my 1st helping of the sirloin. Jeremy couldn't believe how fast I ate. Well Jeremy, I've got a secret for you if you're reading this (I broke this to Zach and Adam last night too): I actually gave a piece of sirloin to Melissa and another to Josue in the beginning, so you guys actually thought I had gone through everything. I cheated!! I didn't want to break the news quite yet because I felt good 'winning'. Sorry buddy.
Monday evening our usual ACU gang and Jeremy met up with Steve and Renae Cates, old friends of ours back from ACU who now live in Irving. Renae and Jeremy are actually childhood friends. We decided to meet up for dinner at Texas Land and Cattle. Of all great and marvelous things, they had an 'eat-all-you-can smoked sirloin' for like $14.99. Talk about a good deal, and it's usually on Mondays only, so we hit the jackpot! I decided to go for it, and so did Zach, Jeremy, Steve and Adam. Well, when we were halfway through our 1st round, Jeremy and Adam decided to turn this into some kind of challenge because they saw how quickly I was going through my 1st helping of the sirloin. Jeremy couldn't believe how fast I ate. Well Jeremy, I've got a secret for you if you're reading this (I broke this to Zach and Adam last night too): I actually gave a piece of sirloin to Melissa and another to Josue in the beginning, so you guys actually thought I had gone through everything. I cheated!! I didn't want to break the news quite yet because I felt good 'winning'. Sorry buddy.
Monday, May 23, 2005
Still alive
I know, I know, I haven't blogged in forever. Our high speed connection was down for about 5 days since last week. That definitely disrupted our lives. Ugh. We've been busy all weekend with all kinds of things. Details later. For now, just bear with me until my next blog again. Go with God.
Monday, May 16, 2005
Saturday, May 14, 2005
Death...The Inevitable
Death usually doesn't come easy for many of us. We cringe at the thought of it, and we certainly don't want to expect death to come upon us or our friends and families, at least not too soon. In my own lifetime, I have encountered a number of times where I knew someone who died. It wasn't until my college years at ACU did death really affect me. While I was at ACU, I lost my grandmother in Malaysia whose funeral I wasn't able to attend. Then a few months later, I lost 5 Nigerian friends to an awful car wreck, 2 of whom I was very close to. And just right before graduation, Josue and I lost another friend named Rob who also passed away in a car wreck. Back then, I wasn't sure what to make of it all. Very confusing and heart-wrenching.
Fast forward to today. We just came to know of 2 deaths this week alone. Baby Noah passed away a few days ago, and even though we didn't know him personally, our hearts immediately went out to his parents. They had to see their child go before his time; the child who will never have the chance to experience life and to grow up learning all kinds of wonderful things through his living years on earth. Then remember in one of my last blogs I had talked about how the Friends Class was attending to this family whose family member was in ICU? She too passed away 2 days ago. And for this particular family, our hearts immediately went out to them as well. Not only were they the family of one of our visitors whom we have come to love dearly, but they had been going through a string of 'bad luck' (many would say) and this death of the relative was yet another pain they had to bear.
Death is part of the cycle of life that God created. But when it 'disrupts' the cycle of life or when it comes when you least expect it, or when it hits before someone's time, or when it takes a precious and innocent life without much of a reason...that's when we really start thinking about it. And then we immediately ask God "Why?". I personally have no answers to these questions. In fact, I'm still mostly confused and my heart is still wrenching like how it was back at ACU. This will be one of the many topics of conversation that I plan to have with my Lord in heaven some day. I do know that Baby Noah's, our friend's relative's, my grandmother's and my ACU friends' sufferings on earth are over, and that they are in a far better place than where I am right now. Most of all, they are with God. Naive thinking without further questioning? Perhaps, but this is a good enough answer for me right now.
Fast forward to today. We just came to know of 2 deaths this week alone. Baby Noah passed away a few days ago, and even though we didn't know him personally, our hearts immediately went out to his parents. They had to see their child go before his time; the child who will never have the chance to experience life and to grow up learning all kinds of wonderful things through his living years on earth. Then remember in one of my last blogs I had talked about how the Friends Class was attending to this family whose family member was in ICU? She too passed away 2 days ago. And for this particular family, our hearts immediately went out to them as well. Not only were they the family of one of our visitors whom we have come to love dearly, but they had been going through a string of 'bad luck' (many would say) and this death of the relative was yet another pain they had to bear.
Death is part of the cycle of life that God created. But when it 'disrupts' the cycle of life or when it comes when you least expect it, or when it hits before someone's time, or when it takes a precious and innocent life without much of a reason...that's when we really start thinking about it. And then we immediately ask God "Why?". I personally have no answers to these questions. In fact, I'm still mostly confused and my heart is still wrenching like how it was back at ACU. This will be one of the many topics of conversation that I plan to have with my Lord in heaven some day. I do know that Baby Noah's, our friend's relative's, my grandmother's and my ACU friends' sufferings on earth are over, and that they are in a far better place than where I am right now. Most of all, they are with God. Naive thinking without further questioning? Perhaps, but this is a good enough answer for me right now.
Wednesday, May 11, 2005
Baby Noah Whaley
Many of you have been keeping up with Baby Ira Hay's situation. And if you have been reading his dad Joe's blog, you would have also come across the occasional news on another baby name Noah Whaley in Houston. He, too, had been struggling physically since the moment he was born. Sad to say now, Baby Noah passed away this evening. He is now home with the Lord. Although this is in some way comforting, we still need to pray for Noah's families, especially for his parents Ethan and Julie. Our hearts go out to them.
http://noahwhaley.blogspot.com
http://noahwhaley.blogspot.com
Whatta TND!!!!
Monday, May 09, 2005
A Tribute to the Friends Class
This blog entry is a tribute that I want to give to some wonderful people. I would just like to say how much I honor and love my church family, especially the young people's group called the Friends Class who meet every Sunday morning, and every other free time that they can get together. We had received news this morning that one of our regular visitor was going through a particular crisis that resulted in her extended family members having to be at Parkland Hospital to attend to another family member warded at ICU. I was approached by Lisa (who has been the one who fervently brings this regular visitor to Skillman) to help organize meal deliveries/hospital visits for the rest of the week. Since this was such short notice, I wasn't sure if we could successfully pull this, especially for tonight's meal delivery. With a few 'magical' phone calls and emails, I had immediate responses from people who offered to bring food and drinks and more. In just about an hour or so, I had received enough feedback to help cover the rest of the week! This might sound mundane to some people, but I was personally so touched by the love that my spiritual family had for strangers (among many others); people whom we weren't even directly linked to and who weren't even asking for help. They saw it as the perfect immediate opportunity to serve and to be witnesses of Christ to this family. This isn't the first time that such a thing has happened, they have continued to do this time and time again. Josue and I truly feel blessed to be a part of this family. We are inspired by them to be more and more like Christ every day. Praise God for them!
Sunday, May 08, 2005
The Weekend
I'm missing my mommy...=( Yea, yea, it's Mothers' Day today and thus a special day to honor your wonderful mothers. For me, I've been gone from home for the last 6 Mother's Days, and haven't been close enough to where I could just make it up to my mom, say like visiting her or doing something for her the next weekend or something. I haven't had that privillege in a LONG time. Distance really makes the heart grow fonder and I know I truly miss both my parents at ALL times, not just the special days. So don't just honor your mom (and your dad, of course) on this one particular day, but love her and respect her everyday like as if it was your last opportunity to do so. (Have you called your mom today??)
So much for my sappy moment. We returned from our overnight trip to Abilene last night. We had a great visit with my brother and sis-in-law whom we don't see often. We also went there for ACU's graduation, particularly for our friend Erica. Well, we showed up for the reception (skipped the long ceremony), met up with some other friends of ours who were graduating, but didn't even get to see Erica all day! She apparently disappeared right after the ceremony and wasn't even around for the reception afterwards. Josue and I couldn't believe it; we were there mainly because of her, even had a graduation present in my hand ready to give to her. But no sight of Erica, and she wasn't answering her cell phone either. What's up with that?! So we left rather confused and disappointed. It was nice to meet up with other friends, but we had prepared ourselves that it was going to be all about Erica and her special day! Sigh...Didn't know what the deal was with all that mess, so we just left after failing to find her, picked up Ernesto and drove back to Dallas. Ha, it so happened that she left a message on my phone while at church this morning, saying that she was actually in the DFW area and was wanting to meet up either today or tomorrow. We're gonna have to find out from her personally the source to her unexpected disappearance! Aiya...
Hey, at least the Mavs won last night. Woo hoo!!!!!
So much for my sappy moment. We returned from our overnight trip to Abilene last night. We had a great visit with my brother and sis-in-law whom we don't see often. We also went there for ACU's graduation, particularly for our friend Erica. Well, we showed up for the reception (skipped the long ceremony), met up with some other friends of ours who were graduating, but didn't even get to see Erica all day! She apparently disappeared right after the ceremony and wasn't even around for the reception afterwards. Josue and I couldn't believe it; we were there mainly because of her, even had a graduation present in my hand ready to give to her. But no sight of Erica, and she wasn't answering her cell phone either. What's up with that?! So we left rather confused and disappointed. It was nice to meet up with other friends, but we had prepared ourselves that it was going to be all about Erica and her special day! Sigh...Didn't know what the deal was with all that mess, so we just left after failing to find her, picked up Ernesto and drove back to Dallas. Ha, it so happened that she left a message on my phone while at church this morning, saying that she was actually in the DFW area and was wanting to meet up either today or tomorrow. We're gonna have to find out from her personally the source to her unexpected disappearance! Aiya...
Hey, at least the Mavs won last night. Woo hoo!!!!!
Thursday, May 05, 2005
Happy Cinco de Mayo!!!
I guess I'm supposed to greet everyone Happy Cinco de Mayo! Hehe...Out of the blue this morning my hubby suggested we have an impromptu CDM party at our place tonight with our usual 'gang'. Afterall, the Mavs and the Rockets are also playing against each other this evening and the guys will definitely be watching the game. I'm usually not a huge fan of last-minute plans or decisions, but I think this will be fun. We plan to have 'fajitas' as the main course. Yum!
Tomorrow morning Josue and I will leave for Abilene to attend our friend Erica's (among many others') graduation at ACU on Saturday afternoon. And we'll get to visit my brother Aaron and sis-in-law Elizabeth for a short while. We will have to travel back sometime Saturday evening with Ernesto (Josue's younger brother from ACU) and get back on time to meet up with Josue's grandparents from Brownsville. They will be spending Saturday and Sunday night at our apartment. Yea, this has been making me somewhat nervous. I don't know why. I've been cleaning our apartment all day like a crazy woman, making sure that everything is spick and span for them.
I received yet another shower invitation in the mail today. I'm losing count of the number of people we know who are getting married this summer. Don't get me wrong, it's wonderful and all, but there's this and that bridal shower, this and that bachelorette party, this and that wedding etc. I can't keep up! And I don't know about you all, but our pocket book also hurts with us during this time. I love and enjoy giving gifts to my friends who are getting married, but it can take a financial toil at times, especially when they come all at once. This is merely an 'observation' of mine, and am in no way complaining. Our friends mean the world to us and we are absolutely thrilled about their weddings and the commitments that they are making with their significant others. Josue and I were truly blessed when we were showered with gifts, prayers and tons of help during our wedding, so we would want to render the same kindness and happiness to our friends. I just need pinch myself in the face and remind myself of that from time to time!
Tomorrow morning Josue and I will leave for Abilene to attend our friend Erica's (among many others') graduation at ACU on Saturday afternoon. And we'll get to visit my brother Aaron and sis-in-law Elizabeth for a short while. We will have to travel back sometime Saturday evening with Ernesto (Josue's younger brother from ACU) and get back on time to meet up with Josue's grandparents from Brownsville. They will be spending Saturday and Sunday night at our apartment. Yea, this has been making me somewhat nervous. I don't know why. I've been cleaning our apartment all day like a crazy woman, making sure that everything is spick and span for them.
I received yet another shower invitation in the mail today. I'm losing count of the number of people we know who are getting married this summer. Don't get me wrong, it's wonderful and all, but there's this and that bridal shower, this and that bachelorette party, this and that wedding etc. I can't keep up! And I don't know about you all, but our pocket book also hurts with us during this time. I love and enjoy giving gifts to my friends who are getting married, but it can take a financial toil at times, especially when they come all at once. This is merely an 'observation' of mine, and am in no way complaining. Our friends mean the world to us and we are absolutely thrilled about their weddings and the commitments that they are making with their significant others. Josue and I were truly blessed when we were showered with gifts, prayers and tons of help during our wedding, so we would want to render the same kindness and happiness to our friends. I just need pinch myself in the face and remind myself of that from time to time!
Monday, May 02, 2005
One more thing...
This and That
The Awards Banquet was quite a blast on Thursday night. I personally didn't go with high expectations except for the opportunity to meet some of Josue's colleagues on the field. Needless to say, I left the banquet with greater and higher respect for my man's work and business. It was held at the Prestonwood Country Club--very lovely overall and the food was actually really good. We sat at a table with 2 other married couples who weren't that much older than us, in their 30's with children of their own. The husbands started their careers with Farmers Insurance about 2 or 3 months ahead of Josue, but because Josue caught up before too long, he ended joining the same courses and classes with them. So 3 of them have been somewhat a gang from the start, and are rather close-knit because Josue treats them like his mentors. They were really fun to hang around with, and their wives were equally hilarious. Our table was probably the loudest one among all because we kept cracking up jokes and were being totally 'unmodest'. Ha! Then there was the presentation of awards, mostly to the seniors who have been doing this business for YEARS. Seriously though, I imagine Josue to be the next one on that stage not too long from now. He is young, hardworking and already way ahead of his peers, I believe he will make it big. Even looking at it now, we see that the Lord has really blessed the business within this span of 2 and a half years. And Lord willing he will continue to make a bang in this business. I am already so proud of him!
Yesterday we had the chance to meet up with Laura Rich. She had been in the DFW area all weekend, and dropped by our part of the 'hood' yesterday. It was wonderful to see her. She joined us for Bible Class and worship at Skillman in the morning, and then she went with a bunch of us from church to have lunch at Genghis Grill. It was amazing because she actually knew a few people at Skillman apart from the usual gang from ACU. Laura seems to know people everywhere she goes! Afterwards, she gave her Arbonne (Swiss skin care company) demonstration at our apartment for a group of girls. It was really fun and educating. So anybody who needs any Arbonne products, contact Laura! =) She is really good at it. She plans to be with us again for TND (Tuesday Night Dinner) a week from now when she is back in Dallas again.
Yesterday we had the chance to meet up with Laura Rich. She had been in the DFW area all weekend, and dropped by our part of the 'hood' yesterday. It was wonderful to see her. She joined us for Bible Class and worship at Skillman in the morning, and then she went with a bunch of us from church to have lunch at Genghis Grill. It was amazing because she actually knew a few people at Skillman apart from the usual gang from ACU. Laura seems to know people everywhere she goes! Afterwards, she gave her Arbonne (Swiss skin care company) demonstration at our apartment for a group of girls. It was really fun and educating. So anybody who needs any Arbonne products, contact Laura! =) She is really good at it. She plans to be with us again for TND (Tuesday Night Dinner) a week from now when she is back in Dallas again.
About me
- I'm Malaysian Debster
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