best summer yet

Packing swiftly for the move-in tomorrow...and I look back and realize this summer has been the most exciting, memorable, laughable, unique, and inspiring summers I've had. Family time was great; celebrating friendships, weddings, farewells, and seeing God's hand over the different aspects of life.

Light on a Hill events were amazing. Our goal was to reach our community, and it looks like we did. May this only be the beginning. Our last one was kinda dreary cuz it rained us in, and so community members didn't come out. So I was kinda down about that. Softball was fun this season. Though I dunno if I improved that much in the outfield. I felt more comfortable and confident at bat...had some chances to hit it over ppl's heads...and made it nicely into the outfield. Gonna miss the exhibitition games tomorrow, goes to show we still like to play together and have fun with other teams even though we're not in the playoffs.

Karen and Kelvin's wedding day came and went. I'll let the pictures speak. Got kinda misty-eyed when Kelvin sang a song he wrote for my sister during the ceremony. Reception went smoothly, no boring, awkward, inappropriate moments, just lots of laughs, stories, food and loved ones.

Mariah concert was entertaining. She sounds even better live! Though I've been to better concerts where the band/singer really knows how to interact with crowds and get close and personal with the fans. But if anyone's allowed to act like a diva, it's her.

P+R spoke at our Aletheia fellowship retreat. I forget which year's retreat it was, but Roger spoke 3 messages, one on the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Even though most of our members grew up in the church, many found that they needed to personally know and experience all three Persons of our triune God. That was really cool, and it generated lots of discussion and prayer in our small groups. Really glad to have been at this retreat, and to have P+R so well received in the church fellowship. :o)

Monty-Python's Spamalot was hilarious! lol...I think there are 17 new wrinkles on my face, but I don't care! It was a musical ripoff of King Arthur, his round-table (turns out to be a casino), and the quest for the Holy Grail (I never knew 'grail' was cup). Flying cows, and killer rabbits, this musical had it all. My family knew we were in for a good time, when the show began with the house lights dimming, and the narrator comes on to tell the audience in a kind voice that cells need not be turned off, and are allowed to ring freely. However, in such a case, the knight standing closest to you will indeed drag you out the theatre to be impailed. lol. The Canon theatre was so beautiful.

Here's a forwarded article I got from this week's Newsweek. It's on Billy Graham. Check it out. :) http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14204483/

Too tired for a real post. Stories and pix coming soon!

breakaway...

summer's wrapping up nicely, and ending off great. Three weeks left before I head back to L-dot, and lots to do till then. Very busy, but the good kind. hehe. :o) Looking forward to mariah concert, Spamalot for mom's b-day, church summer camp with P+R as our speakers (yay!), last weeks of work and volunteer, and my sister's wedding in 4 days. (double yay!) What's funny is that my mom tells me the other day..."you have to stop eating fried foods and chocolate, cuz you're breaking out and you'll look blotchy for K+K's wedding"...I'm like, "good! I'm doing it as a service for my dear sister. The worse I look, the better she will." haha. thanks for the comeback jojo!

Art's sermon this sunday was good. Not that it usually isn't, but this one stuck with me. The message was about how Jesus addresses anger, and a really good point made was how we love to hold onto our anger, feeling as if we had a right to, entitled to the pain, hurt and negative emotions from being wronged in some way. (matt 5:21-16) Jesus speaks severely of our anger towards others (calling someone 'Raca' which translates to fool, idiot, moron, even the f-word endangers us to the fires of hell). The tongue is so evil, we praise God with it, and use it also to curse man. When we demoralize another person by name-calling, we strip them of dignity, and ridicule God's image. Anger is so hard to get rid of though...cuz pain is remembered most vividly in our brain. Try to think back to happy memories...it's extremely fuzzy for me, as I tend to forget most things. But pain, and anger can be recalled and brought back so incredibly fast. I can think of the ppl that have hurt me, and remember the emotions still. If we are reconciled with God, we have to be reconciled with those around. My family was able to do that with each other this week. As the 5 of us piled onto lunch together one last time, with Grace at the wheel (starting to learn to drive with G1), I'm not scared to allow myself be driven by someone who mixes up the brake and gas pedal...cuz I've made my peace! haha.

soo hotttt...fully baked.

record temperatures set in T.O. yesterday. My mom still refuses to install a/c. We used to have it, but when we moved, she didn't think we need it due to the mild Canadian summers. This week was something else. I used to get heat rashes sleeping through hot nights, luckily I can sense them coming on...and have woken up in time for a 3:30 am shower to cool down a bit before trying to sleep. Leaves me so groggy and out of it at work the next day, which isn't a good idea, since I'm supposed to be uppity for vbs worship. The answer so far has been caffeine. Hope that next week temp. will fall back down to normal levels. Or else the wedding guests staying over will seriously suffer heat exhaustion if they're used to a/c.

VBS trail mix have been very successful so far. It's fun and amusing to be surrounded by kids again. I'm trying to stick with a 5 year old girl who knows little english but speaks mandarin. So I'm trying to get practice off her. I had a really good mandarin conversation about her coke and my coffee yesterday. Kids are great. ;P