2017 Year in Reflection

January

"Shine your "light" through each of us"
https://youtu.be/v1oZtN7HBag

Sal w/fam at Afton Alps Snowboarding (Hastings, Minnesota) https://youtu.be/6VfZOqZ-SyU

I also went with my family to Mall of America to celebrate my younger brother's birthday. We went out to eat at Bubba Gump Shrimp Restaurant and walked a little around the mall. For work, we did our 2nd annual BINGO game with the kids at St. Mary's Elementary School. It was nice to see folks I work with mingle with the local kids. Great exposure for both sides of our diverse community.

February

I wore shorts on February 10th of 2017 as it was an unusual "above average" warm winter day. We had our annual "Valentine Dance" at Clinton, MN with my workplace. Usually, it's single digits or below zero each year during the dance.

"This Child is Yours" https://youtu.be/q8FCrCQwMME

March

I went to the cities on my birthday weekend to attend my older sister's future brother in -law's "Bachelor's Party". We did geocaching in Bloomington and did various activities in downtown Minneapolis. We had a unique encounter with a guy begging for money as we were heading to our car in the parking ramp...

"Satelite Guy" asking for money in streets of Downtown Minneapolis-What would you do?
https://youtu.be/R6ie5W0jg7M

Went to the annual "Philippine Day" at Aldrich Arena in Maplewood, Minnesota. This event grew out of the St. Paul Landmark Center, so they started this in a bigger venue at it's current location 2 years ago...

I saw a former college friend, Andre and a high school friend, Sean (no picture).

Music: New Song-“Deliverance”
https://youtu.be/uUNLVK9EuvY

April

The biggest highlight of the year was being part of my older sister's wedding with James in Chanhassen Dinner Thetre in Chanhassen, Minnesota..

Pictures are personal, so not posting it here. However, I'll post this selfie snapshot (click on pic for video) when I visited Prince's Paisley Park Studios in the same city.

I just wanted "thank God" for an awesome wedding and to see the whole family present, which was an answer to prayer!

Music: Karaoke-“Unforgiven” (originally by Metallica) by Crazy lil’ Sal creativemusicartsy.wordpress.com

May

The Minnesota Vikings (several current players) visited our town of Morris, Minnesota on May 3rd..

"MN Vikings @BigCatStadium -Kai Forbath Personal Interview

https://youtu.be/wPwug0MYMm8

"Stop F'n & Start Prayin' for the World" by Crazy lil' Sal youtube.com

June

I created a blog on installing a ceiling fan for the first time, which I hope viewers/readers can learn from some of my installing mistakes-> Home: Installing a Ceiling Fan Step by Step autohomeandgarden.wordpress.com

Praise the Lord, I won tickets to this annual family music concert festival. I never ever been to this annual event in Blaine, MN. I won a pair of tickets (via Minnesota Gospel Twin Cities that ministers and feeds the "poor"), so I even bought extra as a gift to some family members I took..

Joyful Noise 2017: "Life Challenge" to All by Nick Hall from youtube.com

Please prayfully consider donating, giving your time or blessings to the "poor" or the "least" amongst you throughout 2018 and beyond!

I took a day off from work to attend one of the 2 day Morris Local Flavors Celebration -Rural Arts & Culture Summit Conference hosted by my local college alma mater .

I visited my sister and her husband in Mahnomen and then we drove together to watch a baseball game in Fargo..

North Dakota: Fargo-Moorhead Redhawks vs Gary Railcats Baseball Game

https://youtu.be/T5tnLaFwAl8

Here is another Praise God report: We were walking to the ball park to buy tickets when a couple in a motorcycle (I saw this as a "symbol" and reminder of this book a college friend wrote called-"About Face", which was my first book to read in it's entirety in one setting!) came by offering their tickets for FREE! They said they weren't able to watch the game and just wanted to give it away! What a blessing from the Lord!

I would later doing my annual visit to the North Shore by going to Duluth, Two Harbors, and the surrounding area with some college students that one was my renter at the time...

Minnesota: Duluth-Lift Bridge Visit youtube.com

We visited this place called "Fitzgers Brewhouse, which we found via "google map" as my friend Wahid was looking particularly for "good root beer" (see foodsofallkinds.wordpress.com blog I wrote afterwards.

Minnesota: Jay Cooke State Park Visit-Drive https://youtu.be/NDdicRpP-KU

"Let Your Kingdom Fall"

July

Minneapolis: Boom Island Park-Bridge "Chillin'"
https://youtu.be/FrWFoSUB47E

I had a week off during July 4th, so I took advantage of that time spending with family down in St. Paul. We rode bikes around Minneapolis. Afterwards, we went to see fireworks at Maplewood Light It Up Fireworks

I then biked more by going towards the St. Paul Bike Trails (Battle Creek-Pigs Eye-Mounds Park), but they were closed by the Highway 61 underpass bridge.

I work part time for a company called Prairie Community Services, which I started full-time back in the summer of 1999 after graduating from the local university. I was asked to fill-in and work a weekend as they were short staff. It was probably my funnest time of my job as I got paid to supervise the "developmentally disabled clients" (young kids-teens-adults) at this annual camp they attend called Camp Confidence Learning Center in Brainerd, MN. Awesome place as a resort "escape away" for this particular population. Please consider donating your time and and money to see what this place is all about and how you can make a difference!

August

“Smiley Face” (originally “Poker Face” by Lady Gaga) by Crazy lil’ Sal

I went to the cities several times this month, which was the most of all year. I drove my renter a couple of different weekends to the UofM TC Campus looking for his new "home". I then went to the Minnesota State Fair with family, which we went to our favorite area-"Midway: Games"..

My parents rode the Sky Ride for the first time since we were "kids". I would also go to Red Lobster twice with the family to celebrate my dad's birthday and another time with just my parents...lots of seafood this month!

September

I started the month with my only softball game(s), which my friends from my former softball days decided to do a "last minute" weekend tournament. Unfortunately, we were double eliminated , which I felt very bad as I had a poor batting average (1-2 hits out of 10 or so???).

I then celebrated "Ramadan" with my renter and friends by going to Alexandria to a former ESL (English as a Second Language) student of mine.

I drove my work 15-passenger mini-bus to Chanhassen Dinner Theater to watch "Grease". It was great weather and the whole trip went well..thank God!

The Minnesota Twins baseball team were getting hot, so I wanted to watch as many games at Target Field..

First game was on 9.15.17

Second game was on 9.30.17 with a friend (Chris, who doesn't like pictures), which I left in the middle of UMM Coming Weekend (despite friends came all the way from Florida and St. Paul). This is how HUGE of Minnesota Twins fan I am.

Unfortunately, the Minnesota Twins didn't make it past the Wild Card (against the Yankees) :(, which I watched with some friends at the local bar in Morris, MN.

October

I went through a drawing streak during fall, which here is one of my favorites

I attended "Grandparents Day" with my parents at Capitol Hill in St. Paul, which my niece and nephew showed us around. It was nice to see the school where my younger brother went to when he was growing up.

November

For work (ft-job), I was asked to drive some clients to the annual regional Special Olympics Bowling tournament in Moorhead, MN. It was very windy driving back, which I'm thankful to God for getting us safely home!

“The Stand” (originally by Hillsong) by Crazy lil’ Sal


https://youtu.be/krtlwd17gPQ

I went home for Thanksgiving (every we should be thankful and grateful!) and did some "family time" (e.g. went out to eat at a Vietnamese restaurant, walking around Como Park/Lake, and "window shopping" at Rosedale Mall)..

During the weekend, my sister wanted to workout, so we decided to go to Maplewood Community Center..

Fitness: Plyometric-Jumping Exercise w/ "HealthFitnessLifeGuy"

*this is the launch of my youtube channel focusing on health, fitness, and lifer overall as my instagram account is named after-> #healthfitnesslifeguy

Fitness: Various Plyometric Training Exercises goodnewshealthandfitness.wordpress.com

December

Fitness: Warm-up Stretches while Standing Up to Psalm 33 Reading Pt. 1

I went with some friends "early" Saturday morning to watch "Star Wars: The Last Jedi"..

It was actually not that bad as I didn't bother to read/watch any reviews-> Movie: Star Wars -“The Last Jedi” Reflection goodnewseverybodycom.wordpress.com

But, a "better" movie I went to see later in the month down in the Twin Cities with my younger brother's family was...

Movie: “Jumanji-Welcome to the Jungle” Reflection goodnewseverybodycom.wordpress.com
This movie ended up beating Star Wars the 3rd week I believe??

Karaoke="Hark the Herald Angels" (originally by Charles Wesley)

This is just some of my reflections from 2017, how about yours? What were some of your highlights? What are you looking forward to in 2018?

more coming soon!

October 2015

It was the annual UMM Homecoming the first weekend of October. It was another year that a couple of friends came up to visit, which one of them didn't make it for the first time last year. It was good to see both of them again as we caught up on how each of us have been doing. I would "try" to meet all of them at the Tailgate Party by Big Cat Stadium, but they ended up coming late as I left. However, I would try to keep occupied and do some wall climbing...

..before I left. This year, my friend Shannon brought up his girlfriend, which was the first time for her to visit. We would take her to one of the newest restaurants in town-Mi Mexico...

..., which we decided "last minute" as we walked by the popular crowded "Don's Cafe". Unfortunately, they had to leave early Sunday morning, so they weren't able to attend some other events going on around town on Sunday (4th): I had my monthly worship team service and then I attended the annual "Options for Women" Banquet at the Morris Evangelical Free Church. There was a guest speaker that encouraged us supporters to not just wait for this annual banquet to support this organization, but we should try to support them all year round.

The following day (5th), I would get a chance to catch up with a married couple that I haven't seen for a long time (since their wedding earlier this year). We would meet at Common Cup, which I ended up doing a fundraiser video to encourage friends to come to their "spaghetti feed" (help cover medical expenses for his scoliosis) later this month while I'm at Hawaii. I then went to meet with my pastor to catch-up for a dinner at Old #1 before our weekly "Focus Prayer" (church prayer group).

I would take the day off on Friday (9th) from my ft-job, so I can get on the road to visit family in St. Paul before heading to Waseca for a friend's (former housemate/renter) wedding. Yuu just got back with his wife (coming to America for an American wedding after being married in Japan last year) from Japan a week or so ago. It was nice to explore some new towns I went through along the way as I was thankful to God for a beautiful drive.

I arrived around 1ish in time for the wedding rehearsals, which I would meet friend of both the groom and bride. It was such a great bonding time and I had the most fun with the wedding reception (karaoke party)!...

I ended up leaving right after the reception and would get home a little past midnight.

I woke up early Sunday (11th) morning in St. Paul to ride my bike along the newest open bridge trail (Warner to Shepherd road)...

Biking along the "newest" Warner-Shepherd Road Trail Bridge (Oct. 11th 2015)

...I've been waiting all summer long for this to open. I had a tight schedule, so I wasn't able to ride all the way to downtown like I wanted to. However, I got pretty far, which it was an hour round trip. I ended up meeting this "stranger" who would share about some interesting "sights" (e.g. deer carcass eating up to the bones-possible creature???) and stories of the caves nearby (Mounds Park).

I had about 5 days in Morris before heading back to the Twin Cities in preparation of my trip to Hawaii with family. I was able to visit a friend (Steve) who was somewhat going downhill health wise. I'm glad I took the time to see him as he would pass away 5 days or so later. I've learned to really take advantage of the time you have with family, friends, etc..-love ones period.

I got to St. Paul on the 17th (Saturday), so I can have some day of preparation before heading out of the state early next (Sunday 18th) morning (around 6ish). I was looking forward to a week-plus spending time with family and just enjoying this much to say vacation island destination. When I got to St. Paul, I went to visit my uncle at a senior living center. It seems like my work follows me. While visiting my uncle, I can hear one of his neighbors screaming. My uncle told me to not worry as she does this at times. I would find out later that she was screaming because she fell from her wheel chair. I felt bad as I could've helped her get back on. I could hear the commotion of some staff helping her up on her wheelchair. When I arrived home, I checked my luggage for additional items to pack. I went online to look-up surf videos as I wanted to find the cheapest way possible to learn before paying the expensive rates. The next morning, we got up early and were thankful to Khua's side of the family for taking us to the airport. Yes, my work continued to follow me as I went on the plane. I would meet this interesting lady that would share some of her interesting life story-> Flight Passenger Travel Stories: Round Trip Minneapolis-St. Paul to Seattle-Tacoma to Honolulu (my first blog on my travel adventures!). We had a 12 hour delay in Seattle along our flight to Hawaii from Minnesota. My brother and his wife already scheduled a rental car to drive around Seattle, which was a very beautiful city despite the rainy cloudy afternoon.

“Sleepless in Seattle” Downtown Visit 2015 smiletravelingblog.wordpress.com

We still had several hours to "kill", so we drove out of Seattle and looked for a popular attraction. Seattle is surrounded by many high mountain ranges and one of the closest popular one was Mount Rainier. Unfortunately, the cloudy weather prevented us seeing the mountain, but we did see the base.

It was getting close to departure, so we went back to the Seattle-Tacoma Int'l Airport and were anticipating for our 5-hour flight to Hawaii. We arrived in Honululu Int'l Airport around 11ish at night and had to drive an additional hour to our hotel in Laie (North Shore). We were all tired and I remember asking the lady in the front desk about the nearest place to surf. I would sleep pretty good in the room I shared with my parents. I would get up early and was excited to walk the town to see what we couldn't see in the dark last night. I walked to the nearest grocery store in Laie after googling. It was a humid-muggy morning already, which was nice! When I got back to the hotel with some grocery items (e.g. gallon of water since the hotel charged a-lot!), my brother shared about our road trip along the North Shore. It was a beautiful day for a scenic drive along the shore! We stopped by one of the beaches and I would just marvel the scenery..

Hawaii Visit: Oahu’s North Shore Drive Tour smiletravelingblog.wordpress.com

January 2015

Happy 2015 all! How was 2014 overall for you? Got any goals for the new year? I've asked this question ("Made a new year resolutions?) to many people and the common reply is, "I didn't make one because every time I do one, I never do it". I think many people are afraid to make a "commitment". Are you? I started the new year with day off from my full-time job, but worked the overnight from my part-time job. I didn't mind since it was holiday pay. I took advantage of the time by working on a wedding video I made the previous day. It was too cold outside the first weekend of the year, so I did a lot of indoor "stuff" (e.g. watched MacGyver"). On Sunday (4th), temps got as cold as -39 F (wind chills)!

The next day, I had my evaluation at work and it was good overall. Looking forward to our new Executive Director (Charlie). The cold played a factor to no students on the 7th (Wednesday), which Rollie and I had a great discussion on Philosophy.

On Thursday, I went to see my dermatologist, which I haven't seen for 2+ years as I didn't see any reason. I'm glad I did as he found a growing biopsy mole, which I had it surgically removed right away. I would later get stitches 2 weeks later during MLK! I then went to a co-worker/volunteer from DAC's house to set-up her new flat screen TV. She is a "more mature lady", which she hasn't been much knowledgeable of the new hi technology. I would later go to her house next week as she had some technical troubleshooting issues.

On Saturday (10th), a friend/co-worker invited me to join some friends from his workplace to watch the movie "Hobbit: Battle of the 5 Armies", which inspired and "re" motivated me on the vision of "unity" (Jesus' prayer-> John 17).

I continued my "singing" for the Lord by being inspired this new year to "sing" the "red letters" (words of Jesus) of the Gospel. Here is the 1st of more to come as I plan to do one at a time as time permits..

We had a better turnout of students (ESL & GED) at the local elementary school on the 2nd week (Wednesday 14th) of the year. The weather (20's F) helped a lot compared to last week!

On the 15th (Thursday), it was the first day of fasting as church body for the team we sent out to India. This was the first day I've fasted for a "full-day" in months! I feel bad as I wished I did this more (I've fasted like 3 meals, but not within a day-weekly instead)., which I would end up seeing the "fruits"/good results/blessings (e.g. "breakthrough" that a sister in Christ (Vicki R.) prophecied/encouraged our local church body the following Sunday (18th)! I would hear some "positive" news at the end of the month (27th) at work, which was actually a "break through" (answer to a long prayer). This encouraged me to keep persevering in many of my other long prayers...so, don't give up!

On Monday (19th)-Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday, I had my 1st MLK holiday off for the first time at my workplace. I didn't want to make this day as a "vacation", but a "day of service" that the local campus is encouraging the folks in Morris community to do. I decided to "volunteer" and participate during this annual event-> MLK Day of Service. It was a great time to serve with UMM college students (many from St. Paul) and the rest of the community.

The following day, I joined other "prayer warriors" as we intercede for the team to India and other community requests. After we prayed, one of my brothers in Christ shared about how he thought I was an angel, which I though was a compliment :)-> story

On Wednesday (21st), the Twin Winter Caravan (thanks Oray for taking these pics) came to the local school in Morris, which was the first time since 2 years ago. Last year was cancelled due to a winter storm (Snow Day), so it was good to see my co-worker bring some friends from our workplace. Later in the afternoon, I met with a couple of friends about starting a auto-mechanic business.

The next day (22nd), I went to a one-act play (Sally Wingert, lead actress in ROSE) that I saw "last minute" in the community "Friday Facts". I thought it would be very interesting and it was!I learned more about the history of Israel becoming a state hood and the personal story of one survivor of the Holocaust. I learned something new too, which was the British mandate somehow postponed the formation of the Jewish state. Jews tried to go to Palestine, but were turned down and sent back according to the play.

I did my once a month visit to the Cities on Friday (23rd) since it was my weekend off from my pt-overnight job. I had a great time spending with family (e.g. shopping with my mom, watching my nephew at swim practice, cheering my niece in her gymnastic competition in Rockford, MN, and celebrating my younger brother's early birthday at Buca's-first time here: Spaghetti Meatball Dish for 2-more like 4! ).

On the 28th (Wednesday), we celebrated the last day of class for one of our students (Coco) from China. She was here for 6 months and will be transferring to Waseca, Minnesota to continue her student-work agriculture program. We had a great party (e.g. Chinese food-> dumplings.

Since I had to work (every other weekend) at my other job the last weekend of the month, I went to Moose Lake for my every other month visit. It was a beautiful day for travel across Minnesota!