Talking about RECOVERY! Watch this...

Scenic Sunday

Como Park, St. Paul, Minnesota

Memorial Day

I lost my $20 bill in the morning before I went out shopping. So, no new dress for me! Sorry. I was shopping mainly for new dinner set. The one we were using everyday was chipped all over and I couldn't wait getting rid of them. After shopping, we went to the Como Park in St. Paul. Here are our snapshots...

Singin at our Church

I have started singing again at church a few months ago. On my first time up on stage, after about five years, was a little awkward. And I lost my voice after the second song. I am not sure if anybody noticed it but I felt like I had to force my voice out and I couldn't hear myself. I truly miss the days in the past when I felt like I was so good in singing... mainly because I received a lot of invitations to sing and even to do recording. Should I say, "those were the days", with a sigh? Oh, no. I am not a wimp. I just don't give up. But I'm taking it slow. I have to revive my voice slowly but surely. Good that I only sing at church up to twice a month. But yes, I am happy that I can use my voice in singing again for God's glory.



Friend Tricia and I and our shoes. No, we didn't plan to wear the same color of shoes...

Lazy Thinkers

Last Saturday was one of those days when Paul, Izzy and I would go out and look for a spot outdoors where there are people hanging out. This is one of our witnessing "regimen" this year.

We went to the park by the beach about 3 miles away from us for one reason, evangelize! This park is called Crystal Lake Park and is one of our family biking routes. When we got to there, we were like "what's going on here?" There was a big crowd of funky young guys hanging out. There were a few girls in skimpy sun dresses too. Then we noticed that 95% of the cars were very low to the ground with open hoods. Later on, we realized that it was a Honda car drivers meet. The drivers were mainly showing off the power of their car engines. We were excited to share the Gospel with the drivers and those who were there just to see the cars. We prayed first and then got out with our million dollar bill tracts. Izzy was excited. Yes, she knew were out for something very important. We walked around the lot and stopped at every car to examine the engine and start conversations with people. I didn't really talk that much because I had to watch Izzy. Paul was able to share the Gospel with many guys. One of them was the meet organizer, who rejected what Paul had to say. One of this organizer's friends though lingered in the conversation with Paul. And when Paul got to the point of sin and judgment, he asked me this question, "Does he always make you think like this?" Paul and I knew that he is thinking. My answer was, "Oh, yes." Then, he said, "I am a lazy thinker." And I said, "Well, there are so many things in life to think about. If we are lazy thinkers, then we should just think of the most important things in life such as what we are talking now." He agreed.

It was a happy day! You know how it is when you know that you are doing what God commanded you to do? People responded in many ways to Paul when he witnessed to them. And Paul has come to the point where he can handle a situation when the person he witnesses to neglects the Gospel. When evangelizing, it is important to keep in mind that the saving part is God's work, our part is mainly speaking to them the whole Gospel.

Paul witnessing to one of the guys...


Izzy Pooh holding one of our Gospel tracts, yes, that's a Gospel tract!


Got to enjoy the kids park and the sun!

Sleepless Weekend

Friday...

I tried to get our house ready for our guests on Sunday. I was also busying myself packing my scrapping tools, papers and embellishments for the all-night scrapbooking with one of my bff's. I think I have too much "scrapping scraps" than I need and it has always been a little more time-consuming getting ready when I have a "creative weekend" with my "creative bff". So, we left the house an hour after P got home from work. Krisha, (my bff) already made dinner for all of us. The drive was only about 40 minutes north of us. So it was not one of those long drives we don't like to take... yes, we prefer flying than driving! When we got to their house, Cy and Izzy officially started their own party!!! Laughing, jumping, hugging, running, pushing each other, hugging again, apologizing, grabbing each others toys... all in 30 minutes! And the grown ups had a wonderful dinner... Filipino and American food side by side on the table! It was Paul's first attempt to eat a bowl of Mongo beans with Ampalaya tops soup. It wasn't very successful! I ended up eating most of what he had in his bowl... plus my two bowls of it. Also, Krisha and I tried to have our husbands eat gizzards... and they did! And, of course, we didn't tell them what they were before they ate them.

After that big big supper, Krisha and I began working on our scrapbook pages while our hubbies cleaned up and baby sat our little ones. We scrapbooked until 4 am. It was Izzy's first time to go to bed without mommy on her side. The 7-hour scrapbooking time flew so fast! We didn't actually want to stop at that point but we had to get at least a few hours of sleep before we went shopping and more scrapping.

Saturday...
P and Krisha's hubby made breakfast. It was P's first time making banana pancakes... well, the first breakfast he made for me. So, that was sweet of him. Krisha and I ate our breakfast and off went shopping. We bought identical outfits for us. They're the second identical outfits we ever got for ourselves. Yeah, we think it's fun to wear the same outfits. We ended up wearing them for the whole day. When our husbands saw us dressed up the same, they went nuts. They couldn't stop laughing. The rest of the day was spent on scrapping and roasting marshmallows in their backyard. We didn't home until 10 pm.

Sunday...
I was teaching Sunday School for the pre-schoolers at our church in the morning, took a long nap in the afternoon and went with Izzy to P's softball game. We came home around 9:30pm and met our guests. They got to our place while we were in P's game. It's wonderful to meet the wife and son of one of the Mongolian consuls to the Americas, Middle East and Africa.

Mother's Day Weekend

Saturday...
I was sneezing like crazy! For some reason, my spring allergy has not stopped bugging me. It's been going on for 3 weeks. I'm not one to seek a doctor's prescription when I have issues like this, so there I tried not to complain about my constant sneezing. We went to Dennis for a big breakfast. It's Izzy's third day of eggless diet, so I was careful not to order anything with egg for her. It seems like it's really working on Izzy's skin. Her skin has shown a lot of improvement since I stopped giving her eggs. Anyway, at Dennis, I tried hard not to sneeze... but it didn't work so we ate our breakfast as fast as we could and off to do food shopping for the big party at our house later that day.

P's family started to arrive at around 3pm. By that time, I already took a day cold medicine and an Ibuprofen. My issue with sneezing has improved and I was able to make the meaty pasta bake and other food for the whole family. Interestingly, I was feeling good the whole time everyone was around. So that was a treat.




Sunday...
P's parents stayed overnight at our place. They went to church with us and we had a chance to celebrate Mother's Day with them that day. We went to World Buffet after church and P's brother and his family also joined us. We had lots of food! P handed Mom our card for her and he gave me the card he wrote for me. I already told him that I didn't want any present for Mother's Day. So to get that card from him was very special. My husband is quite a sweet and creative writer. I love the letters he gave me. The messages are so touching! Anyway, after lunch we went home and Izzy and I took a long nap, while P played his first game in softball in this season. We planned that Izzy and I would not go with him to his game because it was not warm enough for us. After our nap, we had a lot of mommy and baby time... we played, watched tv and took photos.

Fifteen Minutes in North Dakota

We were able to squeeze in a chance to visit Fargo, North Dakota when were waiting for Orgil's graduation time. Fargo is right next to Moorhead so it only took us a few minutes to actually cross the boundary of Minnesota and North Dakota. The few minutes we had was mainly spent on sightseeing the flooded area by what looked like a very nice park.

Weekend Snapshots

A weekend trip to Moorhead, Minnesota for Orgil's graduation day.

She found a high staircase outside the college cafeteria and thought it was fun to go up and down it... her dad didn't think so!


She decided the hat was too big and said, "I monna buy a smaller one for myself!"


Posing with the college president... I mean to say, former president!


Going after Izzy on the staircase...


Izzy and her famous Uncle Orgil


Looks like every one of Orgil's friends wanted to take a picture with our Izzy Pooh!

Orgil's Big Day!

It definitely was a big day for our smarty Mongolian boy! For one, he is the only foreigner on the list of students with highest honors in Concordia College this year. Magna Cum Laude at that! We are so happy and so proud of him. Oh, and did you know I was his teacher back in Mongolia? LOL! Kind of like a glory-to-me thing! Forgive me. Seriously, God has really blessed him. He has put everything in place for him to come this far and finish his undergraduate studies. Not to forget that he got a decent job at one of the most reputable and biggest internet companies in the US even before he actually graduated from college. Such a blessing!

We are so glad that we could be there as a family for him. He also really appreciated P's parents to be willing to take the trip to Moorhead to be at his graduation. Too bad his parents could not come from Mongolia to witness that important occasion in their oldest son's life. But Orgil handled it well.

Hours B4 Orgil's Graduation Day

We drove to Moorhead from our hotel in Fergus Falls around 8:30 am. We had a simple but good-enough breakfast at the hotel's cafeteria earlier that morning. The drive was about 45 minutes. We attended the Baccalaureate service when we got to Orgil's college. The auditorium was already packed with people when we got there but we were not late. We were looking for Orgil but could not find him. Later, we learned that he was late so he was not able to participate the service. Good it wasn't the actual graduation yet... funny! But we enjoyed the music at the service. They have excellent band and choir. If we were blessed by the message? Well, unfortunately, not. Honestly, we could not understand what the preacher was talking about. He was saying how the center of the gospel is transparency. Odd! No idea what he meant by that. There were other things he mentioned that were so vague. I could tell he loves poetry because he asked someone to read three different poetry in between his sermon. Anyway, we decided not to be bothered by the sermon... we were there mainly for our love for Orgil.

After the service, Paul's parents, Orgil and us, went to the college cafeteria for lunch. It's huge, very clean and has got a lot of variety of food. It was a nice time for P's parents to have a good conversation with Orgil over great food. Isabelle, on the other hand, enjoyed her ice cone! :)

Weekend up North!

Saturday afternoon... we drove up north with P's parents for our Mongolian boy's graduation on the following day, Sunday, at Concordia College, Moorhead. It was a 3.5-hour of driving all the way, but we had to stop and stay overnight at Comfort Inn hotel in Fergus Falls, which is about 60 miles on the way to where the college is. It was because when we tried to book a hotel accommodation in Moorhead and Fargo area there wasn't any available room for us. It so happened that some famous star had a concert in Fargo the night before Orgil's graduation. It worked well though coz it almost was too much of driving for Izzy. It was not our first time driving up there... Paul, Izzy and I have been to Moorhead, specifically to Orgil's college, it was our third time. But for Paul's parents, it was a first time. We kind of joke about it being that both of them are born and raised in Minnesota.

Fergus Falls is supposedly the home of some 15,000 population but we were surprised to see a busy little city... it definitely looked like it's got more inhabitants than what is reported. It even has got shopping centers like Target, Wallmart, Herbergers and etc.. We even ate at Applebees... see, they have the known restaurants around... yes, they have Perkins too and other family-owned restaurants. Anything more interesting than what I've mentioned? Well, I wish we had a chance to drive around the city to see more of it but we decided to do swimming instead, we had to get some exercise. ;)

Some photos I took inside our room at Comfort Inn...