So we are once again in fire season here in SoCal!  There are four fires around the area and the smoke is thick and not good for asthma!  I stayed home from church this morning due to the fact that I have asthma.  Yesterday when we were up in Pomona the 57 got closed and we had to take an alternate route home!  A trip that usually takes 30 min. took us an hour and 1/2.  There are so many fwy closures that all the traffic is on a few select fwys!  I took some pics of the sunset through the smoke!  

Okay so maybe it wasn’t as long as I would have liked, but I did have Monday off so that was nice!  On Saturday, James, Ruth, Mom, Dad, and I went to lunch, a movie, dinner, and downtown Disney!  It made for a busy but very fun family day!  We had Mexican food for lunch, and PF Chang’s for dinner!  It was nice to have Ruth with us for the whole weekend!  Mom and Dad left on Sunday morning before church.  Ruth went home around 2:30 on Sunday afternoon!  On Monday, I went shopping with Anna.  We had a great time!  She just moved to SoCal, because she just got married.  So we have a little bit in common!  We had a great time of fellowship and fun!  I am looking forward to going again soon!  I hope you all have a great week!

I am looking forward to this weekend!  James’ parents are on their way down from San Francisco right now and Ruth will be heading our direction shortly!  We are going to enjoy sending time with all of them and just hanging out!  We have not seen Mom and Dad since the beginning of October and Ruth hasn’t seen them since August!  I will write more later!  Hope you have a great weekend!

So we all now that Barak Obama has won and is now the President-Elect!  That is okay!  I know who sits on the throne in Heaven and I know who is still in control! I have also read the end of the book (the Bible) and I know who wins!  It is our job to be supportive and pray for our President or in this case our President-Elect.  The Bible says, “…Honor the King…”  in our case President!  The Bible also says, “The heart of the king is in the hand of the Lord and He turneth it withersoever He will!”  Why are we as Christians worried about the outcome of the election?  When did our focus get taken off the Lord?  Why are the results from last night making Christians fear?  President-Elect Obama has no control over God!  God is all powerful, all knowing, and I don’t think He quit being that way because President-Elect Obama won the election.  

It is times like this that I feel like Peter,  I am willing to get out of the boat, but I start to sink because I have taken my focus off the Lord!  Why do we think that just because we take our focus off the Lord He takes His focus off of us?  If He really did that then He would have been wrong when He said, “I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee…”  I don’t think He was giving us false hope!  He really meant it and if He meant it then is it not still true to day?  We need to keep our focus on the Lord!  ”Our circumstances aren’t our problem.”  Our problem is trust.  We seem to lose all trust in the Lord when we think that things didn’t go as He would have wanted, but i think it is when things don’t go how we want them to.  We all the sudden put the blame on God.  

I believe that this is going to be a very trying time for all Christians faith!  Not a problem caused by President-Elect Obama but a situation caused by un-trusting Christians.  My God is bigger then President-Elect Obama and He is still in control and He knows exactly what our country needs!  Who are we to question our Maker??  

Please pray for our President and our President-Elect!  Pray that God will help us show support to our President-Elect!  Pray for fellow Christians!  

BTW Prop 8 did pass in California and I am very happy about that.  We know that this is not the end of this issue, pray that we can continue to be a witness and a testimony in spite of the tolerance that may be pushed upon us!  

I love my Lord and Savior and know that He is the one who controls this world!

Well, I have been super busy this week!  I have subbed 3 days in a row for a K-4 class!  Two of those mornings I had only half an hour to get ready and therefore rushed through my usually lazy relaxed mornings!  It has been fun, but I would not want to teach K-4 full time!  Monday was the first day I was in there and one of the little boys cried all morning!  On Tuesday he cried until break and then he was fine!  Today he didn’t cry at all!  He was smiling and happy as can be!  I have really enjoyed being with K-4 kids all day, but enjoy the time I have with James in the evenings.  It is nice to talk to an adult! (:  One of the boys in the class is super hyper and has to really work at being good!  He did a great job today and even got a sticker!  He was proud as a peacock showing everybody his stickers!  As I am writing this I am sitting in James 5th grade classroom while he does lesson plans for next week!  We will stay here until church and then I get to go home and bake cupcakes for tomorrow!

Well, the Memorial service went well yesterday!  We all cried a lot during the service, but had a great time with family and friends afterwards!  I took some pics at the house.  It was different not having Uncle Larry there teasing everyone!  It was good to see all of the cousins.  It was a very long day…James and I left our house at 9:00 am and did not get home until 10:50 pm.  I was extremely worn out from all of the crazy emotions this week!  I got a good nights sleep and am feeling great today!  We are having a lazy day at home enjoying the time together!  Thank you all of the many prayers!  We are doing good.  

I will be heading to Arizona as soon as we find out when Randy’s memorial service is!  It looks like it will be in a couple of weeks!  Please be in prayer for my family as we face this death!  

Here are a few pics from yesterday!  If you click on the photos tab you can look at the whole album!  Enjoy!

Last night Pastor Matt talked about singing!  Not just because we feel like it is the right thing to do at church, but because we need to!  He emphasized that we need to sing when there are trials in our lives!  

When things are going our way our song is one of praise, but when trials come we tend to stop singing all together.  We should continue singing!  Our song my change and be sad, but it should still be a song of praise!  I have found that through this difficult time singing has been hard, but also very healing for my soul!  

The Bible has 400 references and 50 commands about singing!  We should sing at church because it is a sign of unity.  When we sing as a group we are saying that we believe what we are saying to be true.  We are collectively praising the Lord!  It is one of the greatest things that we can do as a church!  

I love to sing, but his points gave me a whole new perspective and appreciation for singing.  I don’t want my praise to be half-hearted or “just because I have to”  I want to praise the Lord everyday for everything.  Sometimes that will be difficult, but God gives us the strength and the song.  I want to honor and glorify Him in my songs!

Well we know when the funeral will be for my dad’s uncle.  It will be on Friday at 11:00 am.  Please pray for our family through this difficult time!  On a different note, I got another phone call today!  This one was also from my brother and he told me that my dad’s cousin, Randy, had been found dead!  So on top of all the grief surrounding my dad’s uncle (which was his mother’s brother) we hear that his cousin (my dad’s brother’s son) has died also.  Please pray for our family through this very difficult time.  We don’t know the specifics surrounding the death of Randy.  I my be taking a trip to Arizona if that is where the funeral is for Randy!

Well, my Sunday started out fairly normal!  I went to church and came home.  While James and I were fixing lunch James’ phone rang.  He answered it and then handed it to me.  It was my brother, Tim.  He had stayed home from church because he wasn’t feeling well.  The home phone rang and he answered it.  It was my Aunt.  She was calling to let my parents know that my dad’s uncle, (my great uncle) had been killed this morning!  We don’t have all the facts, but we were told that he went out to clean his gun and it discharged killing him.  I will keep you all informed over the next few days as to what is going on!  Please pray for our family!  It was a very difficult afternoon and will only get harder before it gets better!  I talked to some of my cousins this afternoon and they are all doing as well as can be expected for the circumstances!  

We will be attending the services whenever they are and will be spending time with the family!

Last night James and I had some great fellowship with other young married couples.  We played some games and had lots of laughs.  We enjoyed getting to know the other couples on a more personal, friendly level.  We see them at church, but don’t really get to fellowship with them.  We are going to be getting together with them every other week.  Some weeks we will play games, others we will read through a book about spiritual growth, and others we will send the guys away to hang out and us ladies will enjoy the time to just talk!  

Among other things,  I am learning how to edit photos using photoshop.  I took pics of a couple and am enjoying doing the editing.  The pics turned out good and don’t really need much editing, but it still fun to play with them.  

We are now looking forward to November 7th-9th.  James parents are going to be coming to visit us!  we are going to have Ruth with us that weekend also!  Many fun times ahead!  hope you have a great week!