March 2016

I started the month by accepting an invitation to check out the local Jehovah Witness service, which was actually "better" and "more interesting" than I expected. I still believe their philosophy (see notes) isn't "Christ" focus, but marveled about their presentation.

I felt led writing a "death" metal song that needed some drums, so I recorded various drum beats and spliced some of it this song I wrote..

Music: New Song-“Heal the Pain” (of my past)

On Monday (7th), I had my every other year physical exam, which I made my appointment before my bus license was about to expire. Well, I unfortunately didn't pass the "eye exam" part, which my personal doctor scheduled a last minute appointment to get an eye exam the next day. He was worried about my license about to expire soon. I learned not to do my physical exam to close to the expiration day next time. Well, I was worried and continued to fast more so I can improve my eye sight within 12 hours. I prayed and ask friends to pray while I researched online on what foods (e.g. high carbs or processed sugars->cereal, which I didn't eat and would later decrease my buying of this breakfast food) affect bad eye sight. Thank God for answering this prayer and concern, which my eye sight actually "improved" (went from 20/50 to 20/30!). Thus, I passed my eye exam the following morning.

After my physical exam on Monday, I rode my bike home quickly as my younger brother was making a stop-visit before going further northwest to Fargo. We ended-up going to Mi-Mexico..

It was Marcelo's first visit to Morris since he graduated back in 2001. The next day, one of my ESL students from China invited me and a friend of hers for supper. I didn't realize it was her birthday until that day, so I gave her a "last-minute" b-day card. She cooked some great authentic Chinese food and others!

I went to the cities on my birthday (18th) to spend time with family-friends during my monthly weekend visit. I would visit a high school buddy (Sean) as he hosted a birthday celebration part at his "crib". It was good to see "old" former high school friends there too. The next day, I attended the annual "Philippine Day" celebration, which was held at a new venue (Aldrich Arena) in Maplewood. It was great time hanging out with the family.

I was blessed by a "gift" on March 22nd (after my birthday) by a "resident" of Morris showing her appreciation of what I've been doing in the community. I'll just say, it was definitely a provision from God and I thank Him for it. Just like the story last month of reaping what one sows. :) So-called "Easter" weekend came early this year (last weekend of the month), but learned the actual Passover-Resurrection weekend is in April. I took advantage of the "holiday" (Monday 28th) by working on my photo-video project for Gary and went outside to play tennis to enjoy the "Spring" weather.

May 2015

I started the new month by heading out of town to St. Paul for my once a month visit. It took me awhile to get out of work (long story)..;)...I'm just thankful to get to the cities from Morris and back safely and sound each time. I decided to go to the cities this particular weekend because of the events going on. The first one was going to the annual "Festival of Nations" at St. Paul's River Center, which I brought my mom, niece, and nephew this year. I've appreciated the diverse cultures more and more after living in Morris each time...

It was such a beautiful sunny day too, which it was hard to be inside for 2 hours. We enjoyed walking to and from our car to this venue, which I took some great scenic pics along the way if you click on the photo above.

Then, I went to the UofM-TC campus for this birthday celebration of a former UMM faculty member. It was somewhat a UMM reunion too, which it was a blessing to see many familiar faces from different years I've been in Morris as a student and after..

I then had to leave early so I can attend the "BIG fight" that my younger bro was hosting at his family's house Saturday evening. I played some "night" basketball with some kids out in the back driveway to "kill some time" before the main event. It's always fun playing with the kids of my "other family"..

Manny Pacquiao vs. Floyd Mayweather 2015: Scorecard, Live Round By Round Coverage Of Fight

more.... Good News Sports

I worked out on Monday (4th) and felt great as I benched 185 lbs, which I haven't done this since my college days! However, the bar is "attached" to the machine, so it might not be as heavy as a "free weight" bench. On Thursday (7th), it was the annual "National Day of Prayer", which is always a blessing to join other churches in the Morris community. The next day, I continued this digging project, which I started earlier this Tuesday. I've been asked to do some digging projects by a particular friend after seeing my "solo digging project" I did around my house (front and back). It's a great side-job and workout!

On Saturday (9th), it was a beautiful sunny day and warm enough (not as windy as past years) for the UMM Graduation to be held outdoors on the Campus Mall...

It was great to see some friends graduate-including my housemate (Jin) from South Korea.

I wasn't able to be home for "Mother's Day" (Sunday 10th), but I made it up by celebrating the weekend before by buying pizza (Dominoes) online for my parents. It's always a good time to reflect how we are thankful for our mothers and to show that appreciation with this significant "holiday". However, we need to do this daily!

On Tuesday (12th), it was our last day of the "season" to go swimming with my workplace. This is one of the best parts of my job! :)

We had a huge "downpour" on Saturday (16th), which caused some minor flooding around town. However, not as bad as some past years. It was "somewhat" better than the tornados (southwest in Swift County) that touched down "not too far" from Morris. I'm just thankful for the big projects I did around my basement to prevent water "overflow". I remember, I would have a "lake" in my backyard, but all the landscaping I did paid off!

On Sunday (17th), it was a fun day at church and after as I was part of the worship team, which I enjoy doing! I then joined some friends (Matt, Nina, and Tony) at the Ranch House for their "noon buffet" (both breakfast and lunch)! It was the young couple's first time there as I wanted to treat them as they were moving and they both graduated, and it was a blessing to be in the worship team with both of them the past year and a half. I then played a short game of tennis with Matt at the Green River tennis courts, but we played like less than 30 minutes or so due to another wave of thunderstorms. I even started seeing lightning in a distance, so we quit before it started pouring.

On Tuesday (19th), I did close to 3 hours of yardwork, which Spring is a busy time of the year -especially with our frequent rain lately. It keeps the grass growing, which one has to mow their yard at least once a week for awhile.

I attended the annual "Women of Today" Prom Dance on Thursday 21st, which a lot of people from my workplace loves to go each year. I too myself as I love dancing. The next day, I helped my pastor (Pat) and his wife move to their "new" house and then I had to leave early to attend a school program my student (G.E.D.) invited me to her church/school that she teaches at. It was a pretty cool experience as I never went to a "Mennonite Church".

On Saturday (23rd), I started a "gutter" project, which was my first time to do for someone else. I've done a small one for my garage, but not for a house. It built my confidence to do more future similar house projects. The following day, I went to Don's Café with a couple of friends from church. It was packed, so it took a "little" longer to get our lunch (waited an hour or so). It was a great fellowship time! It was Memorial Weekend, so I had the next day off. I took advantage of this day to catch-up on "house projects". I even scanned some "old pics" from a photo album I found in my sister's room when I last visited family in St. Paul.

On the 27th (Wednesday), I had a surprise guest as I was about to head out to go for run at the UMM track as part of my long distance running exercise (cardio). I was running late as I was working on my "house refinancing" via online. I was somewhat frustrated it was taking long, but realize it was for something as my neighbor introduced me to a guy that wanted to come see my house. He was the first owner of my house and whose family build this house. I gave him (along with his daughter and daughter's husband-Severson) a tour of his "old" house (built in the 50's), which he gave a brief history (e.g the carpet in my attic was the same one when he lived there..lol).

The last weekend of the month was another "productive" one. I helped a friend (Paul) moved some furniture on a sporadic "last minute" call. Then I returned home doing some interesting research on mental illness, which has been "opening" my eyes on the controversy of "prescription medication" and the whole diagnosing. For the last day of the month, I continued more of my biking challenge as I'm trying to get as many miles before the summer ends. I end up riding my bike to the West Central Research Outreach Center, which I saw a deer unexpectedly. I have a video of it too, which I'll be uploading hopefully soon as time permits.

Gratitude: March 2011

This month is my birthday, so I would like to start of by saying I'm grateful for another year of life. Life is so precious and with all the "challenges" we see in the world right now, I'm just thankful for the life God has given me no matter the circumstances I'm challenged presently or in the future. My month started with some good "getting to know" more of my friends. I had some good times where friends opened-up (e.g. email, meeting at the local coffee shop, etc..) more about their life, which it has taken years as friends. I'm thankful for the friends God has put in my life as they have spoken words of encouragement to me.

I was also encouraged to keep doing what I'm doing (writing my on-going life story through websites like these to inspire or encourage others that may benefit from your life experiences) through an inspirational movie (e.g. Antwone Fisher-see Life: Adoption) and a visiting speaker during a post-movie discussion (see Native American)during the local campus's annual event (World Touch Cultural Heritage Week)in the last week of the month. Basically, we all got a story to share and it goes to waste if we don't tell about it...

"We need to learn from history to prevent it from repeating itself"

In order to know where we are going, we need to learn our past. Some people don't go far enough (e.g. family genealogy or family tree) in the past as they stop there. How far in history can you go? (see Creation story)

I also enjoyed the "nearing" Spring-like weather some days of the month despite the first day of Spring started the 20th of March. I had the opportunity to ride my bike, which I'm going to try to do more as it reached it's highest ever for a long-time today (Tuesday, April 5th 2011) at $3.63/gallon!! Crazy, huh? We need to find ways to conserve gas (e.g. walking or riding a bike-great health benefit too with all this exercise).

I can't leave sports out of this too as it was the month of "March Madness"! It was more basketball as a nearby local town (see Stevens County) h.s. girls basketball team went to the big State Tournament. They actually beat a #1 team in the first round, which was very exciting for my workplace. Several of my co-workers are from Hancock, so we followed (via radio at work for 2-days) their local team very closely during the end of the 3rd week. Unfortunately, the lost the 2nd round, which a win would've been a great birthday bonus. I'm very blessed with great co-workers as they gave me a great celebration (e.g. pies, cake, etc..) and I ended up bringing the pies back to the cities to share with family. My family blessed me with a lunch outing at Red Lobster-great seafood!

That same weekend I was in the cities was the annual "Philippine Day" (see GoodnewsMinnesota.info- Minnesota Filipino Community)..

24th Annual Philippine Day St. Paul, MN-Part 1 (March 20th 2011)



Other highlights included one "Snow Day" (saw the 2nd of the "Bourne Identity" trilogy series, which I would watch with a good friend the 3rd part later in the week -see Issues: "Low" Self-Esteem, -Image, -"ish", etc... as I wrote about finding one's own "identity" in life) of the month, which happened 3 days after the "first-official" day of Spring. Went to a couple of "fish fry" with Lent season as I did some fasting once a week during the month and will continue till Easter as I "try" to seek my Heavenly Father's "calling" in this season of my life. I went to an event to learn more about Judaism, a foundation of my Christian faith! I then had my faith built more during a local radio (see Music-Hymns, Praise, Worship, etc...) banquet I was invited (along with a couple of co-workers, friend, and others in the Praise FM listening area) to as faithful sponsor for many years. Lastly, I had a great time with several new students (from Brazil) of my weekly GED-ESL classes the last week as I showed them the "new" town!

During the state girls basketball tournament, there was an unfortunate deadly earthquake in Japan. Currently, as I write this today (Tuesday, April 5th 2011), they are still battling the radiation leak of their nuclear power plants (see Science: Chemistry). Please keep these folks in Japan and their national catastrophe in prayer!