I did more work on my basement by working on my staircase (e.g. priming and sheet rocking). I would do this on Monday through Wenesday of the first week. God provided more funding for this on-going basement project as I got called to fill-in on my part-time job. I did the over night shift, which works well! My workplace had a special Easter mean on Wednesday (4th) as we try to some special meal before the "big" holidays. I ended up going home (St. Paul) the following day with the 3-day holiday weekend. I had a yummy Gyro at the famous Clearwater stop along I-94 (between St. Cloud and the Twin Cities) before heading home. Not as good as Pappy's in East St. Paul, but still good!
On "Good Friday", we celebrated my mom's birthday. We went to the Hmong Village for lunch (e.g. great spring rolls). Then my brother took us to Chucky Cheese as we played endless games with my nephew and niece.
On Saturday, I took my mom with me to IKEA to get some stuff for my kitchen (sink cabinet), which we had a coupon for FREE breakfast (if you turn in your receipt, which I forgot :().. We continued our mom's birthday celebration by taking her to Great Moon Buffet. We were talking about the origins of mom's name, which Necita means "nice" when the American soldiers came to the Philippines. This name was given by my grand parents (mom's side) after the American soldiers told them this.
Then on Easter "Resurrection" Sunday, my niece and nephew watched some Bible videos online. My niece started talking about dinosaurs, so I went too look for a Bible-focus creation video on dinosaurs. She watched with interest! I believe it's important to teach children the other perspective or view from what they teach in the "liberal" public schools.
I had Monday off after Easter (the 1st since I can remember as we've had to make-up these days by working due to "snow-days" previous winters). I spent this day by doing my taxes as the deadline approaches, which I ended up applying to do it past the deadline with new data I had to put in since I became a landlord 2 years ago. I also did some painting in my basement to make it a productive day as part of this 4-day holiday weekend!
We had our usual Spring "freeze warning" as it was during the late night-early morning hours between the 10th and 12th. Some folks got to their gardens early with the early "warm Spring temps", so they had to cover their plants. On Wednesday, April 11th-we had another farewell party for one of our ESL students. He was from Harbin, China where they were famously known for their ice castles (just like St. Paul!).
The following day, I was able to finally donate blood after a year wait. I had a crazy accident at work last year involving with a lancit needle (see Gratitude: March 2011 )..
During the second week, I attended a special church service at Hossana Worship Center on prophecy. The speaker encouraged the local church to reach to the community. I wasn't able to go the service the next day as I was helping out at a friend's wedding and then went to this local community event at Common Cup spearheaded by Jane Adams..
I couldn't find someone to attend a play by local homeschoolers in Glenwood's Central Square, so I decided to attend a play on racism at the local campus. I ended-up meeting a fellow Filipina (from San Antonio, TX), who was part of the play and are "friends" on facebook.
I went to the cities for the second weekend this month to attend an annual conference my local church is a part of. I went to Menards in Alexandria first to order some carpet (with pad) and was able to make it to the end part of the worship of the Friday evening conference. It was actually encouraging as I got a word of encouragement that God is Immanuel (with me), which was a confirmation of encouragement as I feel I do lots of things on my own (just got to acknowledge I'm doing it for the Lord and He's with me). I would then come back to Eden Prairie for the Saturday morning session (about reaching out to our surrounding community and being equipped with the right tools-spiritual gifts) of the conference after sleeping at my mom's house Friday night. When I was home for awhile, I shared a site that was a tribute to Filipino soldiers involved in the Bataan Death March during World War II with my parents. It was good to do this! Later in the evening after the conference, a friend on facebook invited friends to come hear her share stories in an event called "" by Asian Christian Fellowship at Bethel Unviersity...
On Sunday morning before heading back to Morris, my mom was curious what I learned from the conference this past weekend. I shared with her and she was interested about more of the "speaking in tongues". Thus, I prayed with her for more of this!
We've had some great early "summer-like" weather this Spring, so our softball team had their first practice of the year on Tuesday, April 24th. It was great weather and I did pretty well hitting in batting practice as I've been practicing with a heavy practice bat during the off-season. During this last full-week of April, I did various house projects (e.g. ceiling tile, clean basement in preparation for the carpet, etc..)
As part of Asian Awareness month in April, I attended the famous local "Taste of Asia" (used to plan this as a college student back in the days)...
Taste of Asia 2012 album
..I like to show my support by attending as many of these events sponsored by the Asian Student Association.
I would attend a couple of more eating festivities as the month ended (e.g. my workplace's annual board-staff appreciation dinner and an end-of-the-year potluck in Jane Adam's first successful year).
Posts
