I continued the weekly soccer on Thursday (1st). It was Labor Day weekend, so I did the paper route with my workplace on Friday (3rd). I then went home (St. Paul) the next day for the weekend, which I spent family quality time-including my annual time with family (only my mom) at the Minnesota State Fair.
Above is a stuff animal I won after hitting a plate after three throws in this carnival like-game.
I decided to go back to the cities the weekend after as I wanted to check out the Minnesota Renaissance Festival
I never been to this annual festival as I really didn't have interest when I was growing up until I got older (e.g. culturally appreciative). I invited a couple of friends of mine, which was their first time too.
Fall was coming soon, so I did some house projects (e.g. exterior window boundaries screws got tighten). Also got an oil change.
...I ended the month by going to dance my friend (Mark) personally invited me, which I brought Luciano along. We watched a preview of this adoption documentary video (e.g. He Came to Me) he's currently working on. Learning more about my friend's adoption story make me more appreciative of my own blessings (e.g. family). Hope you can check the video out and pray fully consider supporting him with prayer and a financial donation.
I started the first week of the month by working on my car (headlight bulb cover has been lose). On Tuesday (2nd), I was personally invited by a "facebook" friend to the local Morris Police Appreciation Picnic after all the "negative" (see "Netural Perspective: Law Enforcement-Police “Protect and to Serve?” in the news. We then had our weekly "Morris Pick-up Soccer/Futbol at Green River Park Thursday, which we would not miss at all this whole month. We had different people almost every week as not everybody was able to come the same time. My renter and his friend (from Kazakistan) was even able to come, which my co-worker (Oray) enjoyed meeting. It's been a great social community connection.
The 1st weekend of the month, I would go to the cities to attend my niece's birthday. I used the weekend to spend quality time with my parents too and celebrate my dad's birthday early since I couldn't come down here the 2nd weekend. I treated him out for his b-day by paying lunch for both him and my mom at Denny's-great wheat pancakes by the way!
My renter for 3-4+ years finally was moving, which took a longer start than he hoped for as finding a place in Mankato was challenging. He ended up moving out the 18th (compared to early July) while 2 friends he referred to already moved in (Saturday the 13th). We managed to all live together for 3-4 days as this has happened before.
One of my ESL students (Caio from Brazil) did a presentation about his country on the 10th (Wednesday) as our tradition in our classes before students leave. This gives the opportunity for the community to come and learn; however, it didn't workout for many people's schedule. Fortunately I was able to video tape it and I'm able to share it.
It was Stevens County Fair time, which I would go there only once due to busyness of two new renters moving the same weekend. I ended up taking both of them for lunch to get to know them on Saturday (13th). It was great weather and the only threat of severe weather the whole time was Wednesday night, but nothing much came out of the dark scary looking clouds that evening.
On Wednesday (17th), my workplace took our annual trip to Chanhassen Dinner Theatre, which I would drive the big bus again for 2 wheel chair clients to go the 2nd year in a row. It was great weather (foggy for awhile south of Willmar) , but there were a lot of road construction along the way that slowed us a bit, but not too bad.
We saw "Beauty & the Beast", which I had to comment on the great costume designs the characters wore. I wasn't able to watch it "fully" because I had my hands full with work.
The last weekend of the month, I would drive to the cities with a friend/ESL student from Brazil (Luciano) as he was willing to help my sister and her b/f move. It was kind of "last minute" (planned ahead) as my co-worker (John F.) volunteered to take my shift on Saturday (27th) the day prior. I called Luciano if it was ok to leave Friday (same day), so it worked out-Praise the Lord! It was an answer to prayer! We ended up going to the Minnesota State Fair that evening as a treat and some fun before moving the next day...
Luciano had so much fun that we ended up going back here on Sunday for 7-8 hours before driving back to Morris...
On Monday (29th), I had our quarterly Adult Basic Education Consortium Meeting in Alexandria, as part of my teaching English certificate qualification for the up-coming academic season. I then went to Menards to gather some landscaping supplies that I never had a chance to work on for the beginning of the summer because I just was slacking..hehe!
I continued my "early" Spring-cleaning with the beginning of the month by getting rid more of the "junk" in my house. I was able to find someone (friend on facebook) to take an "old" recliner that I was about to throw away. Thus, I was able to save some money (cost of getting rid of it at the local dump). The next day (Monday, March 2nd 2015), I went to a community fundraiser with my housemate/renter at the local Pizza Ranch, which part of the proceeds went to the local Community Ed (the place where I work-volunteer teaching at).
A "praise report" to share that occurred on Wednesday (March 4th) with the timing of the UPS guy. In fact, this is the 2nd time of such kind that I can remember (1st was when I prayed with a former housemate of mine back in 2004 or so...We missed the UPS guy that was going to deliver a big package, but we weren't home. My former housemate was in need of this package "badly", so we prayed together that we will find the UPS driver. We drove around town and asking "God, is this the right street to turn on..". Well, He answered our prayer!..praise the Lord!). I ordered a bulk of soccer (a.k.a. footballs) balls to donate to a friend (pastor/missionary for "Outfitters for Adventure") that he was going to deliver on a mission trip to Kenya (see Good News Africa) . The email delivery notification said it wouldn't come till the day after my friend was leaving for Kenya. I was a little disappointed and did a quick prayer-"God if it's your will, please have these soccer balls come early". Well, I went upstairs just to check if they came early, and guess what? :)...yes, praise the Lord! :) I quickly drove to my friend's house and made it..actually, they postponed their departure from Morris till the next day. However, I was still thankful as it came earlier than expected. Plus, the soccer balls could've arrived after my friend left??...;)
I did more "spring cleaning" by doing more cleaning of one of my bedrooms upstairs on Thursday (5th) and then went to my last voice lessons (4 of 4) after work...thanks Kurtis! I did some more work in my garage by putting an extra shelf to be used for storage for my unnecessary stuff in my attic. I did more "spring cleaning" (Friday 6th) by putting wood polish on the wood materials upstairs (main floor).
During the 1st weekend of the month, I participated in our monthly "Toast to the Master" (speaking workshop) at my local church. We covered the book of Colossians (e.g. holy living). I was able to also get a workout by running a mile within 9 minutes on the treadmill, which is a sign of progress that my knee is getting better after my unfortunate knee accident (slammed on hard ice at a park) almost a year ago now.
A song I wrote and later uploaded on Monday, March 9th..
During the 2nd week of the month, I was challenged at my 2nd (part-time) job doing the overnight "awake" due to confidential work reasons. I never had to do an "awake' shift since the "early" group home days after college. It was touch, but eating healthy and scheduling when to sleep/nap and eat was critical . Fortunately, I just had to do 2 shifts of this and never had to do it while I worked my full-time day job. Despite the lack of "sleep", I was able to hangout with my renter/housemate (Jin from S. Korea) at Mi Mexico (2nd time to eat at the Morris location)...
Then I went to a "Men's Life" gathering early Saturday morning after less than an hour nap after "keeping awake" overnight! The next day was the same, which I took less than an hour "power nap" after my "awake" shift (11p-7am) and then went to church for worship practice before church service. I thank God for giving me the "physical strength" to get through this whole "awkward" weekend of less sleep and the change of my sleeping patterns. I would take a long nap Sunday afternoon and took advantage of the nice weather by laying on my patio chair as I listened to my Minnesota Twins on the radio out in my backyard :).
It was St. Patrick's Day on Tuesday (17th), which I wore green like many others even though I'm not Irish ;). I did more spring cleaning (attic) on Thursday (19th). I took a lot of totes to work this week to "recycle" the unnecessary "junk". Spring "officially" began on the 20th, which we already have had some nice spring-like weather prior already.
I went "home" (St. Paul) the 3rd weekend of March to celebrate my be-lated birthday and the annual Philippine Day. My parents treated me for lunch at a Cambodian restaurant (see dish). Then I would go to Philippine Day with my brother and his family. I had to leave after 2 hours because of a winter storm coming. Thankfully (praise God), I left in time before it got worst. However, I had to drive through the middle of it going from Alexandria to Morris. I just drove slow and made it safely!
The last weekend of the month, I went to Moose Lake to visit a friend as part of my every other month visit. We then went to my favorite restaurant in St. Cloud-N.Y. Gyro! Great middle eastern food! The following day, I went to church and saw a "friend" I've been praying for. It was cool to see him. The next day, I benched 185 lbs, which is the most I've done in years, probably since my college days! (join Good News Fitness!)
I started the month with doing continuous house work. I cleaned and repaired my gutters that surround the north and south side of my roof. This is one of the key areas that has been giving water damage inside my house. I'll see what the results of how effective this work was next Spring. I had a good first week of the month in batting in softball, which I'll share more down below.
I played tennis for the 1st time in three years on Sunday, August 7th of 2011. What too so long? I don't know, probably been busy doing other sports (e.g. softball). I like the variety. I played tennis with some of my ESL students from Brazil because they never played before. I had to take it really easy at first until one of the students (Danillo) up his playing a bit. It was another great way to spend time outside in these beautiful summer days.
I was able to finally upload a video of a theatre performance from this past winter. I thought it was such a great performance I had to share it with everybody...
"Genesis The Story of Creation to the Call of Abram of Ur" Part 1
A cool thing happened at one of my work sites. We do some cleaning around the community and when we were doing our twice a week time at the local laundromat, it was a busy time because of the county fair in town. There were lots of "carnies" (carnival festival workers) doing their laundry. Well, the clients (developmentally challenged folks) love to talk and one of the workers seem to enjoy chatting with them (that's why I enjoy my job and been in this field since college graduation in 99')! This particular worker ended up giving my co-worker $40 dollar bill and specifically asked us to treat them. We thought this was so awesome that we ended up going to Dairy Queen after cleaning. Unfortunately, the DQ wasn't open early in the morning (not till 10:30am), so we ended up dividing the cash and gave it to the clients to spend whatever they freely want to. What a blessing! I tried to look for that guy when I went to the county fair, but never saw him to say THANK YOU again.
The big annual Stevens County Fair was during the 2nd week of the month, which I attended 3 of the 4 days it was going on. I was also involved with the 1st Annual Morris Soccer Invitational that occurred at the RFC Soccer Fields (by H20-Water Tower). I invited my 2 ESL students from Brazil, which they were only able to play 1 of the 3 days...
I ended-up playing the 3rd days because the team (UMM Team) didn't have enough players (Brazilian students chose to attend the Car Derby at the county fair). I tried to balance my time during the fun weekend by helping with my local church's fair booth. I had a great time meeting people there. I met this couple from Cannon Falls that was looking for a local church, which would be the same town our U.S. President Obama visited weeks later. I also had a great time meeting friends I haven't chatted for a long time despite we living in this same small rural town community. Also, I met several of the 80+ new international students from China that are attending the local university. The funny thing was that they asked if I was Chinese too? I had to laugh as I've never been speculated to be this particular nationality. I've been called all sorts of others (e.g. Italian, African-American, Indian, Native-American, and even a "terrorist" a couple of times). On the 2nd day I tabled, I spent some quality time with a young friend from church, which we haven't done for quite awhile. The second weekend of August was a fun-filled time!
This same weekend, I had to also share that I went to a co-worker's family's funeral. Like all funerals, I start reflecting what I've done all my life so far and want to "live it to the fullest". At this particular funeral service, they shared about how she positively impacted the people around her life until the age of 90 or so. Wow, that's long! This challenged me to live my fullest for my Heavenly Father and to make a "positive' impact as much as possible while He has me on earth as we have only 1 life! *see GoodnewsEverybody.com: Death- Grieving, Mourning, Reflection, etc..
I spent part of the mid-month cleaning and painting (special paint against mold) my basement. It was a very wet spring-summer, so I finally had a chance get my hasement dry for the first time since a long time. This was also due to some plumbing problems, which I finally got fixed by a local plumber. I thank God the amount was less than he estimated, which was a blessing financially when it came to some bills mid-month!
On Tuesday, August 16th I was able to play golf for the first time all summer. Geez, what took so long again for this too! Well, I'm not retired and old yet, so I don't play the 9 or 18-hole. I like going on the driving range. I did a small bucket ($5) at the local golf place here in Morris with a buddy of mine, which was a great time to chat one and one too in a nice summer afternoon after work.
Earlier this same week when I was playing soccer, I was playing defense (left) and tried to "head" a flying soccer ball. Well, I ended up getting my nose hit too, which hurt. This left a bruise in the upper part. Well, I would end-up getting hit in this area again playing softball..
..which caused a fracture after a homeplate "football-style" collision at home plate in attempting to just tag my opponent as I was playing catcher. Well, I'm still suffering the effects as I'm still getting over some occasional headaches. I'm praying there is no long-term damage. The best part of this is that I was able to hold on to the ball for the out and our team won to continue to advance in the playoffs. We would lose the 2nd game the following week, but it was our best finish as a softball team!
The third Sunday of the month, my local church celebrated the oldest and longest marriage (50 years) couple's Wedding Anniversary. I'm hoping to interview them and get some notes on how they've reach this successful feat sometime in the future.
My Heavenly Father answered one of my prayers right before I took a week vacation (my workplace takes 2 weeks off during the summer months-1st during July 4th-Independence Day and last week of August before Labor Day) to end the summer. My former housemate moved out mid-June and never advertised of the need of another housemate, except by word of mouth. My local church pastor even referred this guy from Alexandria, but that never worked out. I got a call from this UMM international student in a need of a place to stay. I don't even remember telling him of my rental basement as it hasn't been finished yet. However, he was open to move to the spare 2nd bedroom and "decided" to come move in (physically moved the following day) the same day he looked at it. I felt it was great timing as I was already planning to head to the cities several days later.
I spent the last week of the month in the Twin Cities. I was supposed to take my mom to the UofM-Twin Cities Campus' Dental Clinic for mouth surgery, but my mom wasn't able to get an appointment the week before the break. My younger brother invited me to go on a road-trip with his family to the East Coast (e.g. Washington D.C., North Carolina, etc..), so I was about to look up flights for a one-way back to Minnesota because I didn't want to be in North Carolina that whole last weekend. I wanted to spend some time in St. Paul before my week plus vacation ended before going back to Morris. Well, on my way to St. Paul from Morris, my mom calls and tells me "good news".."I was able to get a dental appointment on Monday". This was the original plan, so I decided to not for go the East Coast road trip as I thought was the "sign" to stay in St. Paul. I was hesitant going with the forecast hurricane (Irene->see weather) coming and recent rare earthquake. I was a little disappointed, but saw it was God's plan for me to spend quality time with my parents (e.g. River Boat Ride along the Mississippi River, State Fair, etc..) and sister (e.g. tennis). I would later find out it was a good reason to stay in St. Paul with my car problems (spent $500 on new tires because of poor brakes that I should've gotten fix long time ago. Then additional $400+ for wheel bearings. Could've spent $200 extra to fix the brakes and rotors, but watched a video online and had my friend oversee my work to fix it ourselves!=> see GoodnewsEverybody.com Financial: Automobiles, Auto, Cars, Trucks, Vehicles, etc...)). Isn't God good? We sometimes wonder why our plans don't work the way we planned or desire, but it's for our own good. During my last day of my vacation, I was driving to church and was running late. I love the praise and worship (music) part and it was in the beginning of the service. As I was just 2 blocks away, I got caught speeding..doh! :)...I was going 44 on a 30 when the police officer asked me if I knew how fast I was going. Well, he told me I was going 41..wew, I'll take that! Well, I had my mom with me and she was praying during the whole traffic stop (e.g. showing my license, registration, etc..). It seem the prayer worked as the police officer decided to just give me a warning because I had a "good' record (haven't been stopped or anything since 97'). Thank God! I told the officer then that I was in hurry to get to church and he lectured back to me-"Well, don't rush to God as God will wait for you". My mom then told the officer-"God bless you sir"-as we drove off to church "later". I arrived at church praising Him more! As I was heading back to Morris the day before Labor Day (Holiday), I had an opportunity to "share" with a "homeless guy" on the streets along an entry ramp to Interstate 94 (see "Another "Street Sign"- Homeless Guy Story: What can we do to help them?", Goodnewseverybodycom's Weblog)...
We've been having some great weather the past several days, which I wanted to take advantage of it after work this afternoon-evening. I called a buddy (Eric B.) of mine if he wanted to go out and play soccer (e.g. taking turns kicking the ball to an open net, dribbling, keeping the ball in the air, etc...). Both of love spending time on the computer, which I told him that we need to get out. Eric and I spent a good 1/2 hour playing soccer. We used this time to catch-up on what we've been doing lately. This is another great way to catch-up instead of calling on the cell phone, chatting online, etc... Here you get some good exercise, absorb some Vitamin D, etc... Eric had to leave, but I ended-up staying longer to enjoy the weather and get some exercise!
Nike Soccer Commercial - Good vs. Evil
"This is a commercial for nike where the good guys (the allstar players of Europe) take on devil figures and beast them. "
Q: What are some great ways to exercise while socializing with a friend?
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