Wonderful Visitors

It was such a blessing to have both my mom and Grandma come visit us here in sunny San Diego during Easter time! I will cherish the memories we made together. Easter Sunday we went to church and then enjoyed a lovely lunch at the Chart House (as you can tell from previous blogs it's one of our favorite places to eat, the restaurant is right by the ocean, has great service and food). While they were here we saw many beautiful flowers and enjoyed the fresh air while taking several little visits to places including the Carlsbad flower fields, dinner cruise on the San Diego harbor, Welk resort, Wild Animal Park, and Del Mar beach. I thought I was on vacation! While Jose and I worked Mom and Grandma enjoyed sitting out in the sun by our apartment's pool area. My mom cooked a couple of times for me and had dinner ready after a long day at work. I loved having them around on my days off of work, especially while Jose was working one weekend. The day they left I was already missing their company. Thanks mom for taking your spring break to come visit and bringing Grandma along too!

Below are pictures of us at the flower fields in Carlsbad, we took a tractor ride throughout the fields, for more imformation check out the website http://visit.theflowerfields.com/.

Here also are pictures of our trip to the Welk Resort and Wild Animal Park. My Grandma is a listener to the Lawrence Welk show and had heard of the resort, so this was a highlight of the trip for her. We ate lunch at the restaurant there before heading to the Wild Animal Park.




More pictures of our adventures will be up on the side for your viewing soon. There are more details I could add, as you know I can make these blogs lengthy. I hope it won't be long until I'm able to spend more time with my family...I do miss them since I'm on the other side of the country. I thank God for the time we had together.

Lord, Thank you for reminding me of my need for you.

Today I was relaxing at Starbucks while sipping on a frappachino. I had my notebook with me and I began to write down all of these things I have been trying to do recently.... Read the bible daily, get to know my wife more, learning about Quickbooks and accounting, understanding how filing federal taxes works, attempting to learn about designing websites, thinking about turning our home into a vacation home, learning to read the bible in Greek, studying for a systematic theology class, working out and running, checking my fantasy baseball team, going to homegroup, couples bible study and one other bible study, analyzing my finances, eating healthier, praying more, working with the Navigators ministry team, desiring to be on vacation, looking forward to retiring, thinking about encouraging others more, reading more christian books, upgrading the condo, thinking about how to make it through seminary, thinking about how the Marine Corps needs christian insiders to share Christ with them, hoping to have children, desiring to learn how to be a communications leader for FEMA in case of local disasters, figuring everything out on my own, serving on the hospitality ministry at church....the list can go on and on. I want so much to be in control of my life. Being in control means I have a say on what goes on and gives me a sense of power and authority. I have attempted to solve every possible problem I have. I have constantly pushed and tried to be everything for everyone. I have been trying to be my own god. All of these things that I do and think about everyday do nothing. All of these things and thoughts are taking my worship away from God; I am stealing His glory for myself. I am not trusting Him with everything all the time. I have said in my heart that I will try to be my own god and as a result I have lost all joy. I have lost my joy because i have put my hope in something that is not able to provide; that something is myself. SURE....I did think that I was joyful when I was hoping in myself and everything was going right, but God has changed all that and now my joy in myself is being realized as a false sense of joy.

"Lord I pray that you would help me to trust you for everything. Help me to not put my trust in anyone or anything. Allow me to draw close to you so that I may experience TRUE joy. Keep me from thinking and acting as if I am in control. Lord, remind me of your Son's sacrifice for me and that I need nothing else. Remind me that every attempt I make at being in control is me denying you and your gift of Christ. Make my priorities to glorify you through communicating with you, communicating you to others, loving my wife and any children you might bless us with and loving my church which you ultimately sacrificed for. Lord, I am nothing but a man, please take over my life."

Jose

Saturday Fun

We enjoyed a beautiful Saturday with Jose's dad and grandparents going out to breakfast and to the Wild Animal Park. Our fun time included going on a ride around the park that lasted about 20 minutes, seeing the elephant show (our second time), going to the enclosed butterfly garden and mostly just spending time with the family. It was neat to see Jose's grandparent's reaction to seeing some of the animals that they haven't seen before up close. If anyone wants to come with us to the Wild Animal Park let us know.
Afterwards we went to Keith and Kristin Fowler's to hang out and watch the final four basketball games. Well, neither of the teams we wanted to win made it. I helped Jose fill out his bracket - and my guessing skills failed. Keith just had knee surgery for a torn ACL, so he's in pain and will be hanging out at home for some time. I'm thankful for the time to spend with friends, especially since work has somewhat removed me from some activities.
Today I took a telemetry test to become certified, which is needed for my job position. I didn't do as well as I wanted, however the teacher told me I didn't fail. I read the EKG strips correctly, but hadn't fully memorized the emergency protocols. So I will be writing down from memory the protocols and giving them to her, which is better than taking the test a second time. God is good and is helping me learn. I'm a slow learner so I have to remember to be patient with myself.
Hope you all have a wonderful day!