Weekend Blurb

Last weekend was a busy time for me and my family. We spent the whole day shopping. We thought we would be done with all the shopping we need for Christmas gifts and the things we need for our trip to the Philippines in less than two months but we were not even halfway there. We ended up buying stuff that we didn't really plan on buying. I never planned to buy a pair of jeans and a Prada purse. We didn't plan to buy Paul a new Ipod and a dress shirt. I didn't even plan on buying Izzy a new rag doll and outfits. So what's up with all this? Well, that's what you get for going out shopping on a December Saturday. Sales were everywhere. You thought the stores are giving away stuff for free but really if you think about it, they are making more money to get you to shop on their big sale days. But anyway, it was fun! We closed that day watching the movie Prince Caspian.

Sunday, right after church, we checked out the World Buffet just 5 minutes away from us. We had heard of it a few times from friends before but we could not get ourselves excited about it because once upon a time we decided to say no to buffet restaurants. That's when Paul got a food poisoning after a buffet lunch in Moorhead. But somehow we went to World Buffet and saw that they have a whole lot of food variety. All the food looked yummy! So we decided to eat there. We even met two young Filipino guys who are working for NWA here for a 6-month period. It was fun talking to them. After lunch, I did more shopping while Paul and Izzy spent time together playing, reading and watching a football game on TV at home. When I came home from shopping, I started writing Christmas cards. I still have more to write. Off to do that...

Balikbayan Boxes

Yesterday, Isabelle and I filled two of our big balikbayan boxes for the Philippines with all kinds of fun stuff for our family and friends. We thought that someone from Forex would pick them up before lunch yesterday, so we worked hard on getting them ready for pick up. Only to find out later that nobody was available to come. Bummer. The Forex guy called and rescheduled the pick up for this morning. I got another call from him first thing this morning and he said he was outside our house and couldn't drive to our driveway because it's full of snow. My husband didn't have time to shovel or blow the snow aside because he was very busy with work. The heavy snowfall yesterday also slowed down the traffic in the main roads. Only his truck could get through our driveway. The small cars can get stuck in it. I am still examining myself why I couldn't get myself to go out and shovel... it definitely is not too hard of a job... plus, I would get a lot of exercise from it. I don't know... I can't! I just can't. But anyway, we reschedule the pick up again for tomorrow. I just hope that by the time the guy comes our driveway is cleared up with snow.

Sick

Isabelle and I have been under the weather lately. She had even had an on and off fever last week. Good thing when she's sick she still eats well. She asked me to make her favorite brown rice with butter and shrimp-broccoli soup. She had that food for her lunches last week. We ran out of shrimp yesterday so I had to make her fiesta chicken. It's easy to make. I only coated chicken breast tenders with crushed fiesta chips. It is hard to see her being lousy. She usually is a very active little girl. But it's also good to have a quieter home.

I woke up this morning with no voice... it disappeared into the phlegm in my lungs. I have been coughing for a couple days. My throat is sore. I try not to take antibiotics. I usually just wait until the cough disappears. But anyway, most of my friends are sick these days. I wonder why. There must be a some kind of epidemic going on around here. But I hope everybody's getting better.

Self- Examination

I've been doing a lot of self-searching. I just wanted to figure out and be able to trace how I get to be... kind of "untraditional". What I've discovered so far is that in my entire life I've been exposed to so many different cultures. Growing up, our family had to emerge in a different culture almost every couple years due to the nature of dad's job. Each culture has it's own set of customs and traditions. If I ever tried to adopt them all, I would have become a "zombie" now. Thank God for His grace though... He turned my multi-cultural background into something beautiful. I think it is helping me understand people of different cultures and eliminate ethnocentricity from my system. It has absolutely helped me and Paul live together harmoniously and with very minimized LQ's. There is no amount of words to describe how thankful I am to the Lord that being followers of Him, we have a standard culture to live by- the Christian culture. This Christian culture has become my yardstick. It helps me get focused on becoming more like Christ even if it means that I become different from the rest of the people. Don't get me wrong... I am not against customs and traditions but I need to filter them for not all of them are pleasing to God.

Batting Award

While Paul was watching the Vikings game against Chicago Bears on Sunday night at the metro dome, an awarding ceremony was held at our new church for the best softball players last summer. Paul got the best batter award of the team. Too bad he was not there to receive it. But we are so proud and happy for him. He really is quite a guy in sports- be it Baseball or Softball.

Guilty, Your Honor!

If being counter-cultural is a crime in this modern era, then I would plead myself guilty beyond reasonable doubt and would willingly accept the judge's verdict. I am talking about being counter-cultural as to the celebrations that are overly commercialized like Easter, Halloween and Christmas. I have no problem celebrating Easter and Christmas. But like what I've said before, I have a bigggg problem celebrating Halloween. It just goes against my principles in life. With Easter in America, what disgusts me about the way it's being celebrated here is the presence of eggs, egg hunting and bunnies. It is so obvious that eggs and bunnies have nothing to do with the Resurrection of Jesus. It makes me sad that kids are thinking of candies-filled eggs and cute bunnies on Easter than on the importance of Jesus' resurrection.

With Christmas, I don't have a problem celebrating it if it is defined as the time we remember the incarnation of God in Jesus. But what I have against it is the presence of Santa Claus (and other little distractions), which, most of the time become the center of Christmas instead of Jesus. The worst scenario I've ever seen was the nativity next to the biggy Santa. Jesus is being remembered as a cute baby, while Santa is being remembered as the big guy who gives gives gives to us if we are good. What in the world!!! Hello, Jesus is no longer a baby. In fact, He is now seated on His throne as the King of kings and the Lord of lords!

As for Nativity. Here's what I can say... Imagine if it's your birthday and your guests are looking and adoring the baby picture of someone else because they thought it was you in it. You insist that it's not you in the photo but they still keep on saying that you look so cute in it. You'd think they're nuts, wouldn't you? I feel so bad that other people would even worship the nativity. Let's face it, the baby doll in the nativity isn't Jesus. It's not even a picture of him. The only thing it does to us is reminding us that more than 2,ooo years ago, Jesus was born in a manger. But the nativity doesn't have any power to save us. It doesn't have the power to transform us to be like Christ.

How about the Advent? It is defined as "coming" or "arrival". It is nonsense to observe Advent and define it as the time when we wait for Christmas (the birth of Jesus). He has already come. We must redefine it into a time that we spend waiting for the second coming of Jesus. I don't get it why we observe it before Christmas, unless we think He is coming back on the 25th of December.

Christmas Day, December 25 doesn't mean anything. Most of us know that Jesus wasn't really born on that day. I would celebrate Christmas Season and not the Christmas Day. There is no sentimental meaning in celebrating December 25.

Now... how about Christmas trees. Well, okay, it's just a decoration on Christmas. It's got no power over us. Has it? This test will see if you really are not attached to that tree... How about if you don't put one in your living room this year? Could you have Christmas without a tree? Or would that make you incompletely happy?

My husband and I decided to celebrate Christmas in our home in a different way this year. We won't have a Christmas tree. We still do gift-giving and have a special dinner. We will be singing- praising Jesus, pray and read the story of Jesus' birth. I will still bake cookies for our neighbors. This time, I will make them all in star shapes. That's the only shape that's mentioned in the account of the birth of Jesus in the Bible. I was thinking that if Christmas is really to celebrate the birth of Jesus then it is very biblical. Why not make it purely Bible-based and not be mixed in with worldly fad?

Winona, MN

My husband grew up in Winona, MN. It is about 2 hours worth of driving from where we are in the cities. Winona is a home of some 27,000 people. It is known by it's landmark up on a bluff, they call Sugar Loaf (Click on it to know why they call it a Sugar Loaf). It is also known for its pretty drive along the Mississippi River. The bluffs are dramatically beautiful as they change their colors through the seasons. I love driving to Winona, especially in the Fall, when the leaves are showing colors.

This is the house where Paul spent the first 2 decades in his life.

More photos of Winona (Click on the play button)

When I was taking BHW (Behind the wheel) course with my father-in-law, I got to see the old mansions in the downtown of Winona. My FIL would tell me fascinating stories about the people who own them. Here are a few of them... My favorite is the one on the third picture.

Last Saturday, Paul and I went a for a very short date before the Thanksgiving meal at his parents' house was served. We went driving around Winona and took some photos. Here are the photos...

In High School, Paul was kind of famous for his pitching skills in Baseball. Visiting his school last Saturday made me think that my husband is really not just an ordinary man. Inside his school, I spotted a plaque on a wall where a board displaying the Hall of Fame in that school is also hanged. The plaque says... "Paul B. Martens College Scholarship Award" And it's got all the names of the recipients of the said scholarship. This scholarship award was created by his coach back in High School in honor of Paul. His coach was convinced that all baseball pitchers in high school must aspire to pitch like Paul.