Remember that one time...

We went to Korea. And I finally made a photo book from Shutterfly (that I got for free- just had to pay shipping).
 

Click here to view this photo book larger

Create a gorgeous, high quality wedding photo album at Shutterfly.com.

Shin's bday pt 2

Americans celebrate with birthday cake... Koreans lurve seaweed soup. Shin's birthday dinner was a success. He said 'best miyeok guk EVER!' and I've been making it every year for three years. Felt pretty good to finally get it right. It's not my favorite dish, but I'm really glad it turned out tasty for him.

I also got him his favorite cupcakes from our favorite cupcake making friend. And his favorite lemonade from Chick-Fil-A. Basically everything I got him was perishable. But I believe the way to a man's heart is thro... Jk. I'm pretty sure there's more to Shin than his stomach. But he does like when I get him his favorite things.

Happy birthday week end :-D

A Time for Birthdays!

Today is my husband's 32nd birthday. We met at a Bible study on our college campus almost 5 years ago, and it's been a fantastic adventure ever since.

Neat thing: We met studying the book of Ecclesiastes. Everyday I try to read a little bit of the Bible using One Year Bible Online. Today's verses are the very beginning of Ecclesiates! (proof: http://www.oneyearbibleonline.com/september.asp?version=51&startmmdd=0101)

I think these verses are perfect for his birthday:

A Time for Everything
3 For everything there is a season, a time for every activity under heaven.
2 A time to be born and a time to die. A time to plant and a time to harvest.
3 A time to kill and a time to heal. A time to tear down and a time to build up.
4 A time to cry and a time to laugh. A time to grieve and a time to dance.
5 A time to scatter stones and a time to gather stones. A time to embrace and a time to turn away.
6 A time to search and a time to quit searching. A time to keep and a time to throw away.
7 A time to tear and a time to mend. A time to be quiet and a time to speak.
8 A time to love and a time to hate. A time for war and a time for peace.

We've gone through a lot of these 'times' and I look forward to many more years and birthdays together.

This is my blog post

August is almost over. Shin and I started another TOFEL class. I've been writing a grant for my church's after school tutoring program.

We went to Atlanta and visited my dad one weekend and went to GA aquarium. My friend from Atl visited me for the first time in Montgomery and we ate delicious red velvet cupcakes.

I have been tutoring and actually increased my hours even though I'd rather decrease. We've been driving across town, picking up 4 kids, bringing them to church, and taking them home every Wednesday. I'm now an AWANA scripture listener.

I cried at work at something because I have unreasonable expectations of myself and fears of being reprimanded. My boss is wonderful and I overreacted entirely. I am helping plan our upcoming staff retreat.

Our roommates moved out and our house is all ours again. We steam vacuumed the house and I love it being clean.

I started a Bible study with my friend an my sister. It's slow going. My sister moved VERY FAR AWAY to Montana.

God is good. I should write more focused posts more often. This has been too much.

SHIN TURNS 32 ON SUNDAY!!!!!

Awesome

I just read this in Ezra 8:

'21 And there by the Ahava Canal, I gave orders for all of us to fast and humble ourselves before our God. We prayed that He would give us a safe journey and protect us, our children, and our goods as we traveled. 22 For I was ashamed to ask the king for soldiers and horsemen to accompany us and protect us from enemies along the way. After all, we had told the king, “Our God’s hand of protection is on all who worship Him, but His fierce anger rages against those who abandon him.” 23 So we fasted and earnestly prayed that our God would take care of us, and He heard our prayer.'

This passage is so awesome to me. Do you see it? Re-read it if you need to. Ezra basically says 'I told the king that my God would protect us and kill the bad guys. And then the king actually believed me and He was gonna let us do what we asked. But then I was scared. I wanted the king's protection. But I couldn't go back and tell the king that, so I had to get everyone to for-real pray about it.'

...and here is the awesome part. God wasn't like 'WHAT?! Ezra?! You think you can talk so big about me and then not actually believe in me and still expect me to come through with it? No way, Jose. You didn't actually think I could do it, so you're on your own.'

Nope, not at all. It says, 'He heard our prayer.' Later on in verses 31 & 32 it says, 'We broke camp at the Ahava Canal on April 19 and started off to Jerusalem. And the gracious hand of our God protected us and saved us from enemies and bandits along the way. So we arrived safely in Jerusalem, where we rested for three days.'

God didn't see their rushed, desperate cry out to Him as an insult to His goodness or His power. He knew their doubt, but He saw it as an opportunity to reveal His gracious hand of protection and salvation. This is SO encouraging. Because it clearly shows that despite my initial intentions, God sees me and hears me and loves me.

Quite often I feel like I talk big or try to look spiritually strong, like Ezra, and then I think 'oh crap! How am I gonna prove that God can actually do it?!' I know, ridiculous. Because I'm not gonna prove God can do anything. All He wants is for me to seek Him and follow Him, and He is more than happy to surpass my wildest expectations for HIS glory, not mine.

So, I think the goal is to believe the big things you say you believe about God from the very beginning. But, just in case you don't, they're still true, and God is able to prove you right anyway.

Olympics 2012

YAAAY!!! The Olympics are here!!! So the opening ceremony was kind of weird to me, but anything featuring Kenneth Branagh is weird. I still got all weepy when I watched the all the volunteers perform. I'm a sap for any event that looks like tons of hard work went into choreographed movement and scripted talent (Russian Folk Dancing Performance, Fiddler on the Roof, Mamma Mia, Nanta). My favorite part was definitely Mr. Bean, the petal torches folding up into a massive torch, and Paul McCartney's close. I also teared up when I watched the Parade of Nations. Not the whole parade, but occasional feelings of awe and pride wash over me when I see tiny teams from tiny countries who are just SO EXCITED to be there. I waved back at Barack and Michelle when they were waving at the team. They probably didn't see me.

I'm really looking forward to this afternoon's swimming matches. I was a bit crushed when I woke up this morning to learn that Park Taehwan was DQed in his 400m. But, I've just learned that he's back in the race, so I'm very excited to see who's going to win!

*Update- Park Taehwan won silver!!!
The only thing is that the Olympics makes me miss my friends and family who love to watch it. Go here to watch all the events LIVE!

Just One of Those Days

This is an incredibly true story...

I woke up and went to work Wednesday morning, with one clear goal. I wanted to use a one-day only Old Navy coupon to get some discount capris and a cute, free tote.

I got to take my lunch early in the morning, go check the mail, and head on over to Old Navy. As I left the post office, I realized I didn't have my wallet ($ & DL). I called Shin, he looked around the house and couldn't find it. I headed home - NOT on the way to Old Navy. Looked around for my wallet. I couldn't find it as my lunch hour slowly ticked away. I called my work and asked my boss to look in my desk- it was there. Also NOT on the way to Old Navy.

Well, I grabbed my old wallet from home that had my temporary *paper* license and my Old Navy credit card in it. I asked Shin which way he thought would be fastest to get to Old Navy, he suggested a main thoroughfare and not a backroad. I left and took the backroad- I thought it would be fastest due to less traffic.

I rounded the corner on my way to the store and a police officer came out of the woods on a motorcycle. I slowed down to let him go catch the car in front of me that he was clearly racing after. I was wrong. He pointed at me and directed me to the curb. I was definitely speeding as I had already wasted 10 minutes on the wallet. Unfortunately, I didn't have my DL with me! I explained to him that I only had the temporary one as I was going back to work to get my real one. Thankfully, he accepted it and was patient with me while I searched through every single piece of paper in the glovebox until I came to the last scrap of paper that was my insurance. He quickly wrote me a ticket for going 21 mph over the speed limit.

I drove off in shame to my stupid Old Navy capris. I called Shin to let him know what had happened and he reminded me that I hadn't obeyed his advice. Fortunately, I have an awesome husband who wasn't mad at me, he just liked informing me that he was right. As I approached Old Navy, Shin asked me where his keys were. I looked in the seat next to me to realize I had both sets of keys. He was stranded at home (late for work) until I could get his keys back to him.

Now I had to race into Old Navy and rush back to the house all before my lunch hour was up! I only had 30 minutes left to get the pants, checkout, run home, and get back to work. The capris had been moved around since the last time I was in the store, but I was able to find them, find my size, and jump in line. The checkout took MUCH longer than I wanted, but I still got out of there with just enough time to get home.

I called Shin on my way home and asked him to grab me a nectarine out of the fridge and meet me in the driveway to exchange for his keys. He kindly agreed and was standing outside when I pulled up.

***Let's step away from this scene for a moment and rewind a couple hours earlier in the morning. At work, we all were just given pepper spray by my Executive Director (for our safety as independent women out and about). I decided to test my pepper spray so I could feel comfortable with it when I put it on my keychain. It was fairly anticlimactic. The pepper spray shot off like it was supposed to. The only problem was that it drizzled down my hand as I let up off the trigger. I went inside and washed my hands a couple times. There was still a bit of a tingle, but no major problems. Now, back to the story.***

I drove off from the house towards my work and was actually going to make it on time- miracle! As I pulled out of the neighborhood, I thoughtlessly rubbed at a slight discomfort in my left eye. My eye immediately burst into flames and exploded out of my face.

As tears streamed from my eye, I attempted to see, keep driving, and look at the clock, I really needed relief. I knew it would take just as long to turn around and go back home as it would to keep going to my work. I didn't have any water, eyedrops, or ice near me. I grabbed the chilled nectarine next to me and shoved it in my eyeball, continuing on to work. I wear glasses, by the way. No simple trick to drive straight, keep the right lens on the eye, and keep a nectarine on the left eye. I laughed out loud the whole way back to the office as I tried not to rear-end anyone in front of me.

I pulled into the parking lot all crazy-lady style and parked my car diagonally like those people nobody likes. I ran out of the vehicle, nectarine on eye, liquid (tears? juice?) running down face, with cute tote holding capris, phone, and keys. I got into my office, ran to the bathroom to wash my eyeball, and had to explain everything to my boss who watched me stumble into the building... she also took the picture below. Oh, I made it on time and I did get eyeball relief after a thorough washing.

So, several morals to my lengthy story: 1. Keep your wallet with you when you go out. 2. Only take your keys with you. 3. Listen to your husband's driving instructions. 3. Don't speed. 4. Don't touch your face after using pepper spray, no matter how well you washed your hands. 5. Thank God for this crazy life, and that this doesn't happen every day.

P.S. I learned from my cop neighbor that I can probably go to traffic school and it will keep my very first speeding ticket off my record and from increasing my insurance.