Fourth Week of September!

This week was GREAT! God is so so awesome!

Giving Thanks
-Babysitting these four cuties for a wee bit :) They are a part of my church family and it was a joy to spend time with them reading, laughing, and dancing! awwww

-Hanging out with Sammie at 85 degrees, catching up, sharing life, and getting back into my pilates!

-A dinner night at chipotle with grace, catching up, sharing burdens, and encouragement in Christ! LOVE HER!

-A bible study to discuss city groups in the making! I was really really revived in the Word and my identity as family, slave, and temple of Christ! PRAISE The LORD!! He has answered my prayers and has helped me through these trials!

Prayer Requests
-For my family to believe the gospel
-For my sister to adjust well to her third year at UCI
-For Jose and I to communicate, love, and guard each other well!

Third Week of September!

What a refreshing week this has been for my soul! Truly truly, when my flesh has failed, God has been my portion!

Giving Thanks!
-I was SO HAPPY to hang out with KAT!!!! this girl is awesome and has been blessing me every day with sharing one reason why i am awesome and just because she wanted to encourage me! im lucky! we ate at applebees and got to know each other better!
-For Quality time with Jose and a date night in with pizza :) i have found a new way to study the bible and thatll help me to love the Lord more as He so much deserves! -Waited for an hour in DB for the kogi bbq truck with the fam! We had a good bonding time dealing with hungry stomachs haha
-Pamela and I went with our boys to the Bratcher house to eat and talk life! We discussed a book the gals are reading together and prayed for one another!
-I enjoyed time meeting joses cbu friends and getting to know a brother patrick! we were encouraged by one another and rejoiced in the gospel together at starbucks!
-I had a great time again with Ruby one on one talking, running errands, and eating froyo while the boys from the church were able to get together. I have sure been in eastvale a lot lately!God is blessing me with our friendship!
-I am happy for my rest day today! I wrote thank you cards, washed cars, ate pieology with my family, read books, and exercised! It was a sabbath time I needed!!!! God is good!

Prayer Requests
-For God to save my family
-For more time in prayer
-For me to work hard in glorifying God
-For peace and healing
-To be a better witness of the Christ

Second Week of September!

Giving Thanks:
-Monday I ate at Baskin Robins with Pamela and was able to do accountability with one another. Love that girl!
-Tuesday was a night of Zumba with Marika and Sammie and catch up at Starbucks with Danny and Marika! It was awesome!
-Wednesday, Tony and Kat had Jose, me, Aaron, and Pamela over for dinner and we shared life with one another! It was really an awesome time.
-Thursday was a game day for the fam playing CLUE! Then there was a good discussion between Jose, Danny, Sanchez, Sammie and I over church membership! We want clarity in it!
-Friday I ate Korean bbq with my fam :) Thanks for treating me! I enjoyed discussing the gospel and how we can share it through its power and purpose, and listening again to Jose's story of his family! After Sammie had me over for a sleepover with Marika :) We ate and talked til the wee hours!
-Saturday I woke up to my fav breakfast at the Zeeman house as they sang to me and we ate together! We headed to the park where I was SURPRISED by some of my family and friends!!!! It was SO AMAZING. My dearest Jose set it all up- food, games, people, and LOVE. So happy he did all this hard work to make me feel special! We had a major paint party but ended up getting more wet than anything! Loved seeing everyone meet one another and seeing 20 and 30 yr olds act like 10 year old kids again. Went to dinner at Umami Burger and had a game night later that evening. It was truly a blast and I couldn't be more thankful!

-Sunday was a great day at Crossview learning how to eat, speak, and sabbath well throughout the week with others and for God's glory! Also celebrated my birthday with undeserving gifts from my fam!
-On a side note, I had ten Crossview family members and two other sisters in Christ reach out to me this past week! They encouraged me as I was struggling with self esteem. Praise God for that!!!!

Prayer Requests:
-So, I had just found out yesterday that my friend Kevin had passed away this last week.... I am completely heart broken over it! He was always kind to me texted me almost every day good morning since we graduated UCR. Please pray for his family for healing and peace and faith through Christ.
-That I will have peace over hurt feelings in friendships.
-That God would save my family ASAP!
-That in my work, I will have the desire to work hard and with a thankful and cheerful heart.
-That I will eat, speak, and sabbath with gospel intentionality this week!

First Week of September!

It has been go go go since the Hawaii trip which I will hopefully update yall with this week :)

But in my one week return its been oodles of noodles of good things.

Giving Thanks:
-Jose kindly picked me up from LAX :) We had friends over at my house the next day for dinner to share life, encourage one another, and play games :) Twas fun and we hope to have more intentional times like those to be in the Word, listen, and speak truth to each other! The dinner was YUMMY. Garlic spread is like all I need for food my food ha.

-Wednesday Pamela and I drove ourselves over to Ruby's for dinner. BTW the first picture is the dinner we had two weeks prior! She is a legit chef and only learning! It gives me hope! haha. We discussed thoroughly the second chapter of a book we are reading and was given wisdom and prayer! I am really blessed by these meetings!

-Thursday I was exhausted but again Jose blew me away with his act of service in cleaning my house. I am kind of prideful and feel lazy when I plan to do something then someone else does it for me. I was humbled of this and was so grateful for him. We went out to dinner at Olive Garden where we shared good convos and ate endless pasta, soup, and salad! It's one of our favorites!

-Friday I took the day off for my birthday holiday (Yes, God is kind to me!!!!) so I slept in 2 hours then headed to Sammie's for tv, smoothie, sweet bread, and awesome catch up time! I got to see me some engagement pictures which my two wonderful friends look lovely in!!!
I then proceeded to Irvine with my sister to see what weve been waiting for so long- THE BACKSTREET BOYS!!!!!!!! It was a bit uncomfortable and honestly I was a bit angry with all the waiting beforehand in the hot hot sun and being separated from Kelli for 4 hours. However, I prayed, blew off the steam, thanked God for time with her and seeing my favorite band. They were absolutely fantastic. I was so pumped, was like OMG OMG #1 FAN. haha. & Jesse McCartney was their leading act and was a great performer! So good! Loved singing along to every song with Kel and reliving my childhood!

-Saturday, we helped move in my sister to her new apt. I praise God this was my exercise for the day HA. Her apt was on the second floor and BOY was I tired. Jose kindly helped and got to spend more time with my family. We ate in and out afterwards and were filled up!
-Then after a couple years of being apart I was able to finally have coffee with Kimberly :) Was blessed for the catch up and that she was interested in coming to Crossview to visit and encourage one another in the good fight.
-I headed to USC for the game against Washington. Let's just say.... loved the people, NOT THE GAME. It was an awful display of football out there. EEK. haha We went to Noodleworld afterwards for our starving stomachs and enjoyed each other!

Sunday was a great day at Crossview learning how to bless and listen better to our church and others this week in order to display the gospel. I loved seeing my brothers and sisters again. COWBOYS BEAT THE GIANTS THANK YOU VERY MUCH.

After the game, Jose and I headed to SBUX to read a book called Church by Mark Dever with Danny and Fiona :) We were encouraged in how a church should look like and the best part is Danny owed me a drink cause of the game. BAHA.

Prayer Requests:
-Please pray for my identity to be rooted, growing, endured in the gospel. I am having low confidence issues- not thinking I am good enough, wise enough, pretty enough, kind enough, for anything lately. I can't shake it even though I know the truth and gospel in my head.
-That God saves my family and that I witness to them and am not idle around them
-That I will BLESS AND LISTEN to others better and more intentionally this week.

Hawaii 2013

Twas my shortest trip but it was just right :) Ill break up all my book reading blogs with my summary of Hawaii!

I flew there Saturday morning with my pops and that evening we had a bbq with my mom's side of the fam at my grandparents house. I miss them both so much, it hurts! It was good playing with the boys who grow rapidly and being a kid jumping rope, flying into couch cushions, and updating my uncles and aunties!

Sunday, just the four of us flew into Maui! We stayed there until Friday morning! We saw my Moms bff and her family and we ate at a beautiful park among green mountains, trees, and a stream!

Monday was finally a day of sleeping in til 9!!! OMG it felt wonderful! Kel and I did an aqua zumba class which was SO FUN. we look funny when youre watching from above but it is tough stuff! We went out to eat at a local burger place in Lahaina then walked around the area :) We then conquered the pool!

Tuesday we woke up at 145 am to drive 2 hours (which I slept the entire time) to Haleakala! It is a volcano that has the most incredible view! We picked up Zippys, then waited outside in the FREEZING COLD until the breathtaking sun came up! It was so bright!!!!! I absolutely loved it! My dad bbq-ed for us and we ate on the beach!

Wednesday we hit a local beach and I tanned while my family caught sand crabs! We ate leftovers and local food on the beach outside of our hotel again!

Thursday we ate at a place called The Gazebo for a yummy bfast! We hung out at the beach there- totally hung out with sea turtles and made new friends! We ate dinner at a local place in Lahaina again for dinner. All in all we ate A LOT- gelato, mochi, shaved ice, ice cream were the main desserts over and over again!

Friday we flew back to Maui and that night we ate at Todais (was one of my childhood fav places because of the unlimited crepes!!!) with my dads family :) We saw fam friends and shared life with one another! OH all this time btw, I had been really allergic to the COLD from haleakala! so yeah i left a plate full of used napkins from my nose! yuck!
Saturday my dads side of the fam came over and we relaxed, played games, all night, and my popo cooked a delicious feast for us all to eat together!

Sunday was unfortunately my last day but we visited the rice festival where they were creating the largest spam musubi ever! We visited Kara and Christ at their new house (wah I miss her living in CA :() then headed to the oh so awesome Sunday Dinner. We saw my dads side of extended family :) I absolutely love them and was good catching up, laughing, sharing updates, eating, and taking pictures :)

I miss Hawaii but it was a vaca I very much enjoyed!