Merry Christmas
Merry Christmas!
I am sitting in my parents house, enjoy spending time with my family. There are nine of us here right now: my parents, John, Mary, Melissa, Daniel, Ruth, Renae and I. We have plans for the next couples days to go visit grandparents, take pictures, playing games, etc. I am so thankful for being able to spend time with my family. I would like to wish all of you a Merry Christmas. Let me know what you are doing for Christmas.
Dinner For Two
Sunday December 14 was Renae and my six month anniversary. We decided to go out for dinner but to wait until Monday night to do it. In the mail, earlier in November, we received a coupon to TGI Fridays that would give us a dinner for $30. The dinner for two would include two house salads, two entree's and a dessert to share. Beverages were extra. So we decided to go and use the coupon.
The salads were very good, it even came with a bread stick. For our entree's Renae orders the bar b que bacon cheddar sliders with fries, and I order the 12 oz. Champion New York Strip Steak (medium). We both enjoyed our meals thoroughly. Then came time for dessert... a sizzling apple pie a la mode. It came out on a hot iron skillet where the brown sugar glaze was sizzling, the ice cream atop the apple pie drizzled with caramel and just in case the was a bowl of caramel to add at any time. It was amazingly delicious. Renae and I devoured it, and will no doubt be back just to have the dessert again.
So if you are going to TGI Friday's and are wondering if you should get dessert. Don't think about it, just order the sizzling apple pie a la mode.
Christmas List
So I feel a little selfish posting a Christmas wish list. I'm understand Christmas is more than just receiving presents; it's more than just giving presents. Christmas is about redemption, it is a celebration of Jesus birth, who came to redeem humanity from sin.
However since an aspect of how we celebrate Christmas is exchanging gifts, and since some people have been asking what I would like; I feel that this is the easiest way to let others know what I would like.
1. Journal
2. Dress Shirts
3. T-shirts
4. iTunes Cards
5. Books by John Piper
6. Pocket Knife
7. BluRay DVD Player
I'm not really sure what else I should but on the list so this will be it for now.
If you comment on this post put something that you want for Christmas too; so I don't feel like the only one doing this.
34 days
It is 37 days 'till Christmas. 36 until I get to see my niece Melissa, oh yeah and John and Mary. In 34 days Renae and I will travel up to San Francisco to spend Christmas with my parents. I will be the first time in a while that we will spend Christmas together, and the first time since the wedding that we will all be together. My parents are excited, This last weekend my mom sent each of us a survey to fill out asking about favorite beverages, meal, christmas movies, songs, decorations, things to do, etc. In fact, Melissa was supposed to fill one out too, and she is only 1, I guess my sister taught her to read and write early. They are really looking forward to having everyone over; and all of the kids are looking forward to being with them. I know I am.
wanting to write…
i've been wanting to write a blog post for several days now, but i've been swamped doing all kinds of other stuff. i've been doing a lot of minor tweaking of things on my site some of which you might be able to notice other i'm sure you won't, the main purpose of what i was doing was trying to make my website more visible to search engines and therefore to people to find me and to read what i have to say.
teaching is going good. there are 7 days of school until parent teacher conferences and then it's thanksgiving. i'm looking forward to thanksgiving, renae and i are going to her parents, ruth (my sister) might be there as well. in 36ish days i'll be in san francisco, to spend christmas with my family.
oh, and be in prayer for my grandmother. my mom's mom recently found out she has lung cancer, she is starting chemo at 12:00 tomorrow. i know she would appriciate your prayer.
hold nothing back
hanging a shelf
well saturday, i decided to be productive while my wife was out enjoying herself with friends. i took it upon myself to a few chores around the house. i started with hanging a shelf below the large picture frame that is in our dining room. the task was very simple and had it done fairly quickly. then i cleaned the kitchen and move some things out to our car port storage. when my wife came home we went and got her alleregy shots, then came back home. when we got back i decided to cook some dinner. i made chicken and pasta with a garlic parmesean white sauce. it was really good. then renae and katie went to best buy to pick up a charger so made sugar cookies while they were gone. and that was pretty much my day, yesterday.
back to the rain forest
37 months ago renae and i began dating. for our first date renae and i went with our friends eli and lori to the rain forest cafe, we then went to the build-a-bear workshop, and topped the evening of with some coldstone ice cream. well a lot of things have gone on since then and many other dates have happened. tonight renae and i returned to the rain forest cafe and had dinner, it was really enjoyable to go out an do something special just becuase we can. the rain forest cafe we went to is located at downtown disney, about 3.5 miles from our house. after dinner we walked around for a little bit just enjoying each others company. now we are back hope and relaxing for a little bit before heading to bed.
Listening to music…
well right now i'm in the living room with renae listening to music and grading tests. i decided to take a break and write a post. not really sure what i should tell you about but we'll both see what comes out.
this last week renae has been sick, she went to the doctor on tuesday and he told her it was the beginning of strep, fortunately we caught it before it became much worse and he prescribed her some antibiotics which she has been taking. she was doing much better then on friday she lost her voice. she has rested it most of the weekend and still has almost no voice. she is feeling a lot better but wishes she still had her voice with her. i have looked all over at 'lost and founds' and am still unable to find her voice anywhere. if any of you know where we can rent a voice let me know, my friend jack used to have a few extra voices in his head, maybe he can spare one. okay now i'm just being silly.
wednesday renae and i will be driving to sacramento to participate in the GSACS teachers convention. we will spend wednesday night with my parents then be in sacramento thursday and friday, after the convention we will spend the weekend in san francisco with my parents then on sunday drive back to so cal.
well that's more than i thought i could come up with, so i hope you enjoyed it, let me know if you know where we can get renae a voice, thanks...
hold nothing back
Teaching and Baseball
Well, I am two weeks into teaching 5th grade, and am really enjoying it. It's kind of scary; that I'm enjoying this so much, but I guess it could be my genetics (my parents have both been teacher for almost 30 years now). Sorry mom and dad; if the makes you two sound old, you are not old. I have had a few tough days but it has been a really great learning experience. I have 14 students, 10 girls and 4 boys; it is a little lopped sided. The class is doing well, and getting along great. It is like I was given the most perfect and intelligent group of students in the school. All in all, I am really glad that God has given me the opportunity to educate this group of students.
Last Saturday, Renae and I decided we needed to go see the San Francisco Giants play a baseball game. Well, what helped was the fact that they were playing in San Diego. So we jumped on-line and purchased some day of game tickets. That afternoon we drove down to Petco Park and were able to watch an exciting game. Our seats were in the Upper Reserved by the right field foul pole. The stadium was really nice; it was the first time that I had gone to it. The best part about the game was that the Giants won 7 to 0. The picture Tim Lincecum pitched the complete game shutout. He is by far the Giants' best pitcher on the roster, going 17-3 so far this season with another game or two left for him to pitch.
On a side note, I was thinking about the baseball stadiums that I have been to...
PacBell Park, San Francisco (or whatever it is being called this year)
Candlestick Park, San Francisco (for us old-time Giants fans)
Comerica Park, Detroit
Dodger Stadium, Los Angeles (I was there to watch a Giants game)
Angel Stadium, Anaheim
Fenway Park, Boston
and now
Petco Park, San Diego
The funny thing is that in my 18 years that I lived in San Francisco I never have been to the Oakland Coliseum to watch a baseball game. So that is six of the MLB stadiums that I have been to, to watch games. I have a little bit of a list ahead of me to make it to every stadium. Who know if I'll ever be able to go to all of them. Oh, and a bummer that I'll never be able to make it to Yankee Stadium as this is the last year they are using it. It makes me wish that we actually had snuck out on my senior trip to go watch them play. (okay we had thought about it but the Yankees were out of town the 3 days we were in NYC, so there wasn't that opportunity). Anyways I look forward to many more baseball games in many more stadiums.
*[Disclaimer: Just becuase I am a teacher does not guarantee that my spelling and grammer is 100% accurate in my posts.]
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What I’m up to…
Well my summer school job is over and now I'm doing some tech stuff around the church and school this week. Next week will start in-service training for school, I will be teaching in the 5th grade of Bethel Baptist School. I'm very excited to see what God has in store for me this year as I start something completly new.
Renae and I are doing great! She is helping in several ways getting me ready for school and also will be working with the Kindergarten Class for a few hours each afternoon once school starts. Recently we have been spending our evenings working on a puzzle and of course watching the olympics.
Mom and Ruth were down here last weekend as Ruth was coming back to school. Mom stayed over for a few nights and Ruth spent one night becuase she had to be back to the college, but we enjoyed the time they were here and their help on the puzzle as well. So here you go some pictures of our puzzle.
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