奔跑不放棄

Went running with NN today... just the two of us.  She really excelled from the first time we ran a week ago. Such a precious time.  We were able to talk about her friends, competition and what I would call mindless chit-chat.

At the end of our run... as we were stretching and cooling down, I gave her a goal.  By the end of 5th grade, she'll be able to run a 10 minute mile.  That's actually pretty easy for a youngin.  But it's a goal.   And I shared with her... one of my Project 21 goals.  Together...as Father/Daughter, we can accomplish this together. 

醜婦終需見家翁

Friday night rolled around and we asked the Tat's... "What are you going to do?"  We've been avoiding it avoiding it avoiding it... and Hody finally said it, "People will stop by and ask why your kids not joining Arrow?  我哋好似夾埋. 離羣." 

Saturday - SW had a party so we showed up late.  Good.. I didn't have to deal with the initial awkwardness of our kids being in fellowship with us.  But after fellowship... that's when the questions started coming.  I got a few... I'm sure Joyce had to field the other ones. 

I don't know what I said... there were some truth to it.  Some stuff I didn't necessarily bring up.  Round and round... in the end I get the feeling that we won't be the last two families to take this step.  We shall see....

"What's the dream?"

After all these years, still one of my top Youtube moments... when Simon Cowell so famously asks, "Ok Susan Boyle, what's the dream?" 

Dream...
  to dream...
    to have a dream... 
      to have a dream come true...
        to have a dream come true but to never dream again...

Trying to relive the dream from 18 months ago.... but the inspiration just isn't there.  The focus is gone.  The ideas are dry.  The creativity is shot.  The dream is lost.  I want to, I really, really want to.  But I simply can't write another script again.

Exercise keeps you healthy

Nn has a cold.
Sw is running a fever.
I have a friggin canker sore.

Why????  Cuz we went running the other day!!  I pushed them too hard.  Their body wasn't use to it... and they physically collapsed, succumbing to the germs that's infested them since the Florida trip.

Lesson learned..? Yeah yeah...

Burn

Met with a mentee today and at the end of our meeting, I asked if he had any questions.

He said, "How's your new year's resolution going?"

(BURN!!!)

So with that... I took my kids out running tonight.  Started cramping after the 1st quarter mile.  It did not feel good.  NN had a hard time keeping up also... as expected, she's not very athletic.  SW outran all of us... and then some.

Maybe... just maybe... I can get back onto my pursuit of Project 21.  Unlikely to finish... but oughta give it a Boy Scout's Effort.

What is a covenant?

From: https://overviewbible.com/covenant/

When the Bible mentions a covenant, it’s referring to a strong, solemn agreement between two parties. However, biblical covenants are very different from the kinds of agreements we make nowadays:
1) Covenants make two into one
2) Covenants involve promises
3) Covenants involve families and bloodlines

4) Covenants are spiritually charged
5) Covenants are not easily broken

There are two main kinds of covenants in the Bible:
Covenants between man and man.
Covenants between God and man.

My editorial: There's the other covenant... that is between God and man and woman.  

Happy Anniversary Honey Bunny!!! 

I don’t mean to complain but…

Our hotel texted me while I was in line… obviously pissed cuz, well, I was waiting in line.  They asked how I wanted to rate them out of 10.  So I gave them my honest feedback… 8 out of 10.   They quickly texted back and asked why.  I tell them the real reasons... Two minor blemishes.  No biggie.  So out of consolation… they apologized and credited me….. $20!

That night… I had a question.  The front desk pulls up my file and asks, “Does this have anything to do with the complaint earlier?? We gave you $20 already.”  Oh geez…

Then when I checked out… the lady said, “And we already took care of the little incident.  And we credited you $20.”  Wow…

After checking out… I get another text, “We’re sorry things didn’t go well.  Hope you noticed we credited you $20.”  Hehehehe… comical. 

And now... I really do have something to complain about.  But I wait till after I leave so I don't have to deal with the slap in the face. Oh no... 

Tip Etiquette (Revisited)

Day 1 at Disney… we forget to tip the cleaning lady.  Oops!!  No harm no foul.  We were running off too early in the morning to notice.  Gotta get to Star Wars land! 

Day 2… left a two hole dollars.  Cuz…well, that’s what I leave for the Denver hotels.  Ouch! 

Night 2… our conscience hits us hard.  We looked online and see that general practice is $2….. PER PERSON!!!!!!!!!!!  For a higher end hotel…. It’s $5!!!!!  Gwwwwwarrrrssssshhhh!  Who wrote this website?  

Night 2… they only gave us 3 towels.  So we called and asked for another towel. The lady brought it for me…and stood outside obviously waiting for a tip.  Hehe… I wasn’t gonna tip!  They’re fault.  They knew we have four people, why give 3 towels?  Is it to make an extra buck??  Cuz they suspect that’s the only way to get something from us??   I didn’t have any cash.  So I grabbed the towels and shut the door.  Hehe… 

Day 3 and 4…. We decided to drop a $5.  Still too cheap??  I’m soooo blacklisted. 

A Family Moment

I love vacations. Cuz I love planning. I hate vacations. Cuz I love planning.

Hate it when people don’t do it my way.. the right way. Hrmph!!

 Today… got schooled when we come off Big Thunder Mountain on a last minute fastpass… just for Joyce to say, “Ok, we got Jungle Cruise.” And then we walked right past Pirates…with only a short 15 min Stand By after it just reopened. BOOM! BOOM!! BOOM!!!

 I can get use to enjoying vacations where I don’t plan at all. That’s a lot of faith which could lead to a lot of disappointment. But do I trust her?? I think 14 years ago, I said, “I do.”

A Magic Moment

Disney has many things… pricey pretzels… insane serpentine lines… the cleaniest of clean… and of course, the one Disney Moment. Is it the magic? Is because you paid an arm and a leg and suddenly the ice cream tastes sweeter. The jokes are funnier. The princesses are prettier? Haven’t found our Disney moment yet… 

But what came close was certainly watching a young man get down on his knee to pop that one question. To which the lucky lady’s answer was… “What?! Did you know about this??” (see was asking her parents… who were smiling ear to ear). I think she was buying her time… who doesn’t live for a moment like this?

But what came close was... riding on Big Thunder Mountain... and the grandma sitting behind us was cackling and laughing with her granddaughter like she was a kid again.

But what came close was... the end of Fantasmic when Mickey rode out as steamboat Willie with a full cast of Disney characters on top of what was a fiery lake moments ago. 

Or perhaps... Disney World is so big and commericialized, the Magic Moment got lost in between those dozens and dozens of Disney Tram rides. 

Tolls

Read an article that in a few years, all Bay Area bridge tolls will be purely autopay. With technology where it is, it makes sense, especially in the Silicon Valley. And they save on paying the attendants’ salaries.

Here in Florida… they also took a step forward into the future but two steps back #SMH. They removed the attendant. Ok… but they only accept cash in a little basket (who carries cash!?!?!) And they charge $0.75!?!? Who carries exact change? Throw a dollar bill into the basket, maybe? Tried it in DC… didn’t work. Sigh… what to do? What to do?

18th Anniversary of 9/11.  "We Remember."

P-A-S-S-I-O-N

Flew down to Florida with the family and the entire organization for our annual offsite. Two and a half days of non-stop small-talk, fake laughs and complaining about the Florida weather. One of the biggest highlights is catching up with the gang at the hotel bar for Monday Night Football. Those Michoud guys sure have passion. A simple penalty and the entire Nahwlins gang screamed like someone killed their pets. Geez…. Take it easy!! Life is too short to have that much passion over some meaningless ball game…. Wait a second....

Consumerism Christianity

Had a chance to sit down with Pastor Ted tonight over coffee while shooting the breeze.  Never really get to talk to him other than the 2 minutes of "hi" and "bye."

We talked about raising young teens.. we talked about 2nd languages... and we talked about church development.  How the future generation is expecting something very different from us... different from the previous.  He struggles with it... but at least he's opened to embracing it.

Then we talked about visiting churches.  How the first thing we do is go online and look at their websites.  Long gone are the "Doctrine of Faith" because all churches use the same set of bible verses.  But in fact... we look to see if their worship is Traditional or Modern.  We see if they have a guitar, drum and keyboard vs a pipe organ.  Next thing... we check to see if their church has a children ministry program.  If they don't fit our "wishes", we move onto the next church.

"It comes down to marketing."  So true... so so true.

I can't wait till the day...when I hear someone say, "I went to their website and found they lack in XXXXXXX. So I decided to go to their church and help them build up their XXXXXXXX. "

Will that day ever come?? Or rather... will that be me??  Should that be me??? 

When stars misaligned

This may have happened 1 other time in my entire life.  I was peeing today... and all of a sudden, I needed to sneeze!  It was a blur after.  I don't know what I ended up doing.  I was in the middle of a phat piss... so you can't just stop, like a water faucet.  If it flows...it goes.  So I tried to sneeze as gentle as possible... to exert as little force as possible to not disrupt the lower body.  I think I stopped peeing momentarily to ready myself for the sudden gush of air out of my nose.  But when you sneeze, your abdomen naturally flexes and pushes things outward... and things start coming out of any and all orifices.  Now that I think about it.. I'm kinda glad that pee didn't come out of my nose.

Hmm... I wonder if other people have blogged about this.  Maybe there's a name to this phenomenon.  Sneeze + pee = "snpeeze."    Pee + sneeze = "pneeze."  I'll work on it...

So tell me what you want what you really want...

"So tell me what you want what you really really want..."
"I'll tell you want I want what I really really want.."
Awana... Awana...
"I wanna really, really, really wanna zigazig ah..."

2 weeks into Awana... and the kids are flourishing.  They WANT to finish their "TNT Assignments" and they're absolutely blowing me away with the memory verses.  It takes them an hour...if not minutes.. to memorize a bible verse.  And it's taking me an entire week.  Sigh... but I'm doing it!! 

My memory isn't what it use to be... but with enough practice and determination... I'm reclaiming what I missed out when I was a kid. 

Praise God!! 

Major Failure and Major Triumph

I've been so moody and loopy lately... I'm appalled at myself.

For some small and petty reason... I got really mad at SW.  To a point where I threatened to delete his Pokemon account.  He knows Bah-B very well... so he challenged me.  Saying I won't do it.  I really wasn't... and wouldn't... but because he challenged me, I didn't back down.  So I went all outs to make him think I deleted it.  It shattered him for the rest of the night... I broke my baby's heart.  And I wasn't about to give in....

After 30 minutes... NN came in and pleaded for her brother.  I stood pat and wasn't going to relent.  She said, "Ok.. .then you can delete my account too."

WOW!!!  Go Nui nui!!!  有骨氣!

She was just as sad.... to a point where, as I was putting her to bed... she said, "You deleted the app, but can we have our login? So we can play on mommy's phone." 

I said, "No.  You asked for it to be deleted, so I deleted." 

She said, "yeah... but I can't go through life enjoying the game knowing SW is miserable.  It doesn't make me happy, but it's the right thing to do."  (She was in tears.) 

My Nui-nui... so selfless.  She cares for her baby brother so much. 

I failed. She triumphed.   I need to learn from my daughter.