It's Already Thursday!

I was up fairly early and the weather was nice and chilly.

I had coffee with flavor creamer... YUMMY! After fixing Mom Bea her blueberry pancake with whipped cream and chatting for a bit, Abby and I went to the thrift store. The sign I wanted to buy for Alden and Gina was gone... I did find a book for Mom Bea and another pair of cargo shorts for Alan. We went to the supermarket and bought several different flavors of creamer and came home.

Alden had gone to Chick-fi-lay and bought lunch which we all enjoyed. 

Abby and I went for our run at 3:48 and did an hour, which was just a little over 8K. The sidewalks are bumpy. The hills are gnarly and actually some parts are dangerous as there is no sidewalk.

We were home and we took out leftovers and spread everything on the counter and people just helped themselves. I fixed Mom Bea some salad as that was all she wanted. We had bought old fashioned donut holes which everyone had some.

Tonight Alan called Mom Bea again. Abby and Paige went to 'arcade' for the evening fun time!

Tomorrow will be our last full day here in San Diego... The time has flown by!

Daily Lovely Insight:

Seek Him First!

This Is April 2nd!

I forgot to press "publish" yesterday... I don't know what I was doing last night after I had finished blogging.

So, it was an early morning and I did not sleep well... 

After getting Mom Bea her breakfast and cleaning up, Abby and I went to the Thrift Store and bought 7US$ worth of books: 25cents for paperback and 1$ for hard cover. What a delight!

We were home by 12:15, as we had told Mom Bea that we'd go to Pancake House for lunch with Gina and Alden. What a huge platter of food the restaurants serve in America. We brought home plenty of leftovers!

We rested a bit and then Abby and I went for a short run-- only 8K. The hills around here are too gnarly!

We had dinner at home... actually, I was too full to eat. Paige came home and she and Abby went Line Dancing in Lakeside. They planned their week out: Wednesday and Friday nights for Line Dancing. Monday and Tuesday nights for church activities. Nothing for Thursday and we are leaving to head back up on Saturday!

Daily Lovely Insight:

Seek Him First!

Long Walk Today

I was up early and feeling still sore on my back! 

The weather was fantastic... raining... So we decided not to go to Pancake House. Instead, Abby and I went for a long walk after hanging out to chat in the morning with everyone. That was so nice!

We finally left at 11:53 and walked until 4pm, hitting 18,000 steps. We stopped at Dollar Tree (another one), Walmart, Grocery Outlet, Am Vet and Empire. We bought things for Abby, Alan, Isaiah and I. Nothing was too heavy, so we were able to walk back. And the rain had stopped when we headed out!

Tonight, Abby and Paige went to the Young Adults Fellowship and Mom Bea and I played Rummique!

Tomorrow, I might be able to run!

Daily Lovely Insight:

Seek Him First!

Monday at Home!

What a great day... 

My back was completely off... I don't know why. I didn't even run yesterday! 

The drizzle was just spectacular... Yes, I wanted to be out there running... but there are no parks and the roads here are terrible.

OK... I was up early... and enjoyed my coffee and time with Jesus!

Paige and Josh took off for work. Abby was up and we hung the shower curtain. Mom Bea was up and we did breakfast together. I had to take an ibuprofen and I never knew that one of them would make me sleepy. But I was fast asleep for about 45 minutes. I woke up ready for a walk in the rain and that was what Abby and I did!

We were back perfectly timed to get Mom Bea her lunch: two eggs and a slice of toast with butter. She doesn't eat much. I noticed that there were so many small containers in the fridge so I sorted through that and decided to make whatever can be concocted! Abby and I enjoyed our lunch as well.

We sat and chatted until around 3:30 and Mom Bea went for a rest and Abby and I took off to Dollar Tree which was just down the street. We spent 65US$! We are bringing everything back to Taiwan... YIPPY! And we made sure that everything we got was only 1.25 each! 

We got back and it was still quite early.

This evening, Abby went with Paige to the Young Adults Small Group. Mom Bea and I enjoyed dinner at home. She just had a bowl of soup and I had a salad!

I hope to run tomorrow! But I did hit my step goal! 

Daily Lovely Insight:

Seek Him First!

Sunday at Home

(This was for March 30th! I forgot to hit "publish"!)

I was up early and had a nice breakfast!

Mom Bea came out to the dining room table for her breakfast and she has the same thing every morning: oatmeal with half a banana and raisins. We watched the Shadow Mountain Morning Service. I had already watched HOP Service. 

When that finished, Abby, Paige and I decided to go for a quick walk and the weather was very delightful. When we got back, we just sat around and chatted until lunch time. 

Mom Bea has two scrambled eggs with a piece of toast.  I showed Mom Bea how to watch Billy Graham via YouTube and then she went to take a nap.

I went for another short walk and hit 12,000 steps. It was soon dinner time. I'm not sure how the day flew by so quickly.

Daily Lovely Insight:

Seek Him First!

March 29th

Another great day... God sustained me!

I was up early and then after having a great breakfast that Annie made for me from fresh eggs laid from her chickens, I went out for a run. I wanted to go longer, but I didn't have time to go for 17K. I went 11 and finished the week with 54K. 

I took a quick shower and Annie took me over to the condo. The remodeling is great but there is a lot of work to organize and clean! I told her that I needed 10 days to really help get things done and that won't happen until after our mom has passed. Then I have the freedom to be in the States for 10 days or longer. It was so much work to arrange everything just for this short visit. So... I will have to store things at the condo until I can really have the time to get things organized.

Abby and I left at 11:55 to head down to San Diego, first stopping to visit with Jamie, Daniel and Clara and then go to see Mom Bea. The traffic was so bad. We didn't get to Jamie's until 3:10. At 5:23 we had to leave to go to Alden's as Abby was planning to attend the Saturday service. I stayed with Mom Bea.

Alden had her dinner ready and we also played four games of Rummique. She won two and I won two. We also used nail polish and Sharpees to color in the numbers.

We tried to talk to Alan but he had to leave to go and pick up Isaiah and Fenny. Mom Bea wanted to get things updated from Skype to Google Meet! We will do that later this week.

Again, the LORD sustained me because I was so exhausted while driving down to San Diego. I thought I was going to fall asleep. Thankfully, I had Abby!

Daily Lovely Insight:

Seek Him First!

March 28th

Well... what a day!

I arrived last night and Annie picked me up and the LAX was its usual 'self' -- congested and crowded! I walked to 7E-F to wait for Annie instead of waiting at Bradley! We were home by 10:45. Abby woke up to greet me.

We did not work on unpacking, but chatted and finally went to bed by 12:15 or so.

I was up early... and the day flew by.

Annie had things for me to look at and while working on that, I wanted to get a mug of coffee and thought it would be so nice to have some flavored creamer. To Annie's utter surprise, three bags of groceries showed up at her door. Inside were eggs and other groceries... but there were also two bottles of lactose free milk and... ONE BOTTLE OF STARBUCKS CARAMEL MACCHIATO CREAMER! What?? I opened it and used it for my coffee and headed down to work on sorting. The doorbell rang and the neighbor down the street said that it was her groceries delivered to the wrong house. Well... I felt so bad as I had opened the creamer. She insisted that we keep it and that we don't pay for it and one full bottle of the lactose free milk. What a miracle!

At 9am, we went to Chase Bank. We needed a document notarized and to close my account. It turned out that we needed to come back again in the afternoon. So, we went home and I headed to Bill Jones' Memorial Celebration. 

I had to drive and what a miracle again that we arrived early! What a delight to see everyone and to chat and catch up and share the many wonderful memories we all have with Bill.  And another miracle: some of Sue's friends are from First Chinese Baptist Church where I came to know Christ. We knew so many of the same people. And they used to live on Bartlett!

At 2:15 I had to drag myself away as we had an appointment at 3pm and those who are reading this, you know how I drive. And another miracle happened: Annie forgot that she had a MRI appointment so the notary public appointment had to be moved to 4pm. We got home at 2:57 and Abby and I went for a 5k run! I paced it faster than my usual so that we can be finished within 32 minutes and we did! Annie arrived just as we arrived! Another miracle. And we headed out!

We were finished and went to get Tacos for dinner! I was still so full from lunch which was at the Celebration Service!

Abby, Corinna and Kurtis headed out for Line Dancing. I finished sorting through everything and started packing up one suitcase!

I am quite alert still... but I did not have time to go over to see the newly remodeled condo.

In Taiwan... MIRACLES: Kathryn, a dear friend and sister in Christ, was able to get me a train ticket to Taitung as I wanted to go and cheer on the HOP "TEAM". Isaiah tried and didn't get it. Because of the Challenge Taiwan Event, tickets are sold out in less than 10 minutes! They wanted to go on Friday morning and couldn't get the tickets so they will have to go a day ahead. I wanted the late evening train which will arrive in Taitung at 12:15am on 4/26, the day of the competition. They can't do that as they need some rest as the event starts at 5am! 

More miracles: The "old" house painting was completed. The helper came and got Mom up and off to the Day Care Center. Alan fixed the closet and put everything back in place. And I drove without getting lost! And God sustained me. Tonight KR and Annie and I ended the day with prayer together. KR said, "Thirty years ago I would have never imagined having prayer together like this!" 

Miracles... after miracles... after miracles!

Daily Lovely Insight:

This was the opening passage from this morning's celebration! Grandpa Bill loved to sing and he is now in the presence of God, singing and shouting aloud to the Rock of Salvation in pure adoration!

Seek Him First!