February 2014

I started the month by driving to St. Cloud to see my 9 yr-old niece (Alyssa) compete at a gymnastics tournament. I brought a cheering section with me from Morris to join with her favorite fans (family). She won a position (3rd) medal too in the individual floor competition! It was a blessing to hangout with family (bro and his family) and friends (housemates and another UMM college student from Japan).

The following day (Groundhog Day) was the Super Bowl, which some friends (Ed & Aisanne) invited my housemates and I over for a party. I stayed for only for the first half and half-time show (Bruno Mars!)as I had to do some other stuff at home and jump start (one of many times during this cold-winter season) my other housemate's (Jin's) vehicle.

On Monday morning during my overnight shift, I had some dispute with a particular individual. It started to get "unfriendly", but I kept praying for this individual despite my anger was building-up. I'm glad I've been asking God for patience, peace, etc.. (fruits of the spirit) over the years since I became a Christian. It paid off several days later...see story-> How to Overcome Offense (through forgiveness) .

The following day (4th), I went to Jane Adams with my housemate (Rai). During the 2nd weekend of the month, I went to visit family in the cities to celebrate my younger brother's be-lated birthday. We went to a Japanese-Chinese "buffet" restaurant in West St. Paul. I got my food "freshly" cooked (see shrimp-seafood imitation crab noodle dish) , which I've started to do this instead of going through the buffet lines. While I was in the cities, I took advantage of the automotive services, like getting an oil change at Firestone (great discount with coupon from the back of the receipt of Cub Foods).

I got a discount card (50% off) from my workplace for Pizza Ranch, so I treated (Buffalo Chicken) my housemates on Thursday (13th) with a large pizza there. The following day (Valentines Day, I celebrated a friend's (Ed) birthday with some friends by going bowling at Crystal Lanes.

During the 3rd weekend (February 15th), I walked two blocks with my housemates to Dairy Queen's annual "50% off everything Customer Appreciation" sale for lunch. Then I went back with the same housemate and joined another friend (Chris) for supper later (to avoid the "meal rush hour") in the evening and got two different sandwiches (e.g. fish & Chicken). On Sunday, a friend (Ed) and I played some football indoors. I made a youtube video of Ed making the "Longest Football Throw into Basketball Hoop..in Morris (as we know of yet.).... ".

Temperatures were the warmest (mid 30's) in months on President's Day (Monday, February 17th), so I took advantage of this time to continue my car project (replacing new headlight covers-just did my right-passenger side). It started to get cooler, so I went inside and cleaned more of my attic (going through all my totes of ESL stuff). On Wednesday (19th), my housemate (Yuu from Japan) joined me in my weekly ESL-GED classes, which we a great conversation with a couple of students (Cambodian and Ukrainian). The "nice" warmer weather lasted only several days, which was a nice break during this "long" colder than average winter season. We ended up having a blizzard on Thursday (20th), which wasn't too bad as we had only a 1-hour late start the next day.

On Saturday (22nd), I had a family (Michael, Kerri, and son) from my local church over to hangout with my housemate (Rai) and I for lunch (e.g. Willies' Jo Jo's). We shared videos (e.g. Germany) from youtube as our educational and fun entertainment. The following day, we had our annual guest speaker (Jim M. from City Hill in Eden Prairie) come from the Twin Cities to encourage us. He actually brought a challenging "reminder" message on "Who is your #1 passion?...Jesus? We (muah) get so busy in life that we fill our time with all these "things to do" and forget our Creator. This challenged me to analyze where and how I put my time each day.

I ended the shortest month of the year with the annual fish fry (with Yuu, Ed, and Aisanne) during the start of "Lent Season", which I'm currently challenging myself to "fast (eating healthier, prioritizing my time that's more "purposeful", and sustain from certain foods also to improve my eye sight for next month's eye exam for my every two year bus driver license certification) and pray" during the 40 days to seek my "Heavenly Father's heart" more (e.g. David in Psalms).