Don't just be a light in a well lit room...

I heard this quote from Kevin who is one of the guys in the Family Camp we are in right now. The general topic is how we as Christians need to reach out to the pre-believers (I like that term too instead of unbelievers). "Don't just be a light in a well lit room". What a profound statement. It got me thinking how I am living my life.

My wife and I have been so concerned about exposing ourselves and our kids to people who haven't come to faith in Jesus Christ, and we have tried so hard to surround ourselves with Christians friends and planned our daily life to revolve around being with other Christians as much as we can. We have lost sight of the fact that we are called to reach out to people who haven't known our Lord and Savior. Our main concern is that we might get influenced by the thoughts and actions of pre-believers that our minds and being will be corrupted. But instead of being concerned about this, we should be living our lives by trying to show everybody how wonderful our Savior is through our actions. We shouldn't worry about being corrupted if we do our due diligence on staying focused on His words and consistently going to His words every chance we can to strengthen our faith and understanding of Him. It doesn't mean that we forget about our brothers and sisters in faith. We do need each other. But there's a lot of dark places out there where our lights will be put to better use in a mighty way that will give Him glory and honor.

Moving on

This morning was the last time for me to play the drums at our church. For those of you who have been following my blog, we have moved to another city because of the house that we purchased. Weiwei and I feel strongly about getting connected in the community to establish our roots. We need to do this for the whole family so we are going to actively look for a church where we can start getting connected. It's for our growth. We want to have relationships established for each one of us and we always start by finding a church. It's the safest way to start new relationships. We want our kids to grow up with other kids around our area.

We are hoping that we can find a church where we can actively participate which will also allow us to continue attending Fair Oaks. So we are praying hard for that. We'll never know what God has planned for us.

I love our worship team at Fair Oaks and I wish them all the best. I will probably play every now and then when there is an urgent need for a drummer. To all of you at Fair Oaks, rock on in the name of the Lord...

Progress at last!!!

I am so tired but happy. I made good progress on my first project for our house - the built in entertainment center. I have been procrastinating since the first failed attempt. Well that's not entirely true. I have been so busy with a project I am working on right now at work. It's messy and it's really a long story.

But now, I can slowly see the fruits of my labor. I am down to the finishing trims to cover the exposed edges of the plywood, the doors for the bottom part and some more staining. I had a difficult time staining the side trims because of the grooves in the trim. The stain were pooling in the grooves and it was difficult to spread it out. I am thinking of sanding it a bit and then apply a final layer to hopefully even it out. But even with this setback, I must say that the whole thing looks pretty good. I can't wait to put on the finishing touches.


Here are pictures of the how the space looked before and how it looks right now (with the kids because they insist they want to be in the picture). After this project, my next one is the fireplace surround and then the crown molding. You can see the blue paint tape on the ceiling which marks the studs.

Sleep Apnea

Weiwei is sleeping tonight with this big gadget attached to her left arm. It's supposed to record or measure something to determine if she suffers from sleep apnea. You can google the technical description of this medical condition. But to me it simply means that somebody stops breathing repeatedly while asleep.

I was the one who told her to see our doctor about this. I have been noticing that she stops breathing repeatedly at night especially when she's lying on her back. And then she would wake up to catch her breath. Sometimes I would have to nudge her just to force her to breathe. And lately, she has been very tired and dozes off easily. At first I was thinking that this is just because of the work involved in taking care of the family. But, I am guessing that the lack of uninterrupted sleep might be causing this or contributing to it.

We'll find out the results on Friday when she returns the gadget to the hospital. I am praying hard that it's nothing to be concerned about. But it just makes me so nervous and concerned.

Father and Daughter Day

Cheryl and I went to the Father and Daughter Day event at Fair Oaks Church today. This is the 3rd year in a row and we had a lot of fun. Unfortunately, this time around we couldn't stay until the end of the event because I had to go to the bank and send money to my mom in the Philippines. Cheryl is a bit bummed out about it but she understands that my mom depends on me for financial support. Weiwei and Abby were around as well to watch the event.

We had a lot of fun with the different activities. There were 2 events that we did for the first time because Cheryl has moved on to the upper group. But we still did her favorite event which is the drip drop. This is where the dad has to lie down on a cot holding a cup over his forehead. Then the daughter stand on a balcony holding a pitcher of water right above where the dad is lying. The goal is for the daughter to fill the cup with water as fast as she can. Last year, I almost drowned because water was just pouring hard on my face and going in to my nose. This time around, I was smarter. I held a tarp over my face and it went better. Cheryl also did well this time around. She's more methodical now unlike last year where she just keeps pouring and pouring. I guess she was doing it intentionally because it was fun for her.

We are looking forward to next year. And I promised Cheryl that I will clear my schedule so we can stay until the end of the event. And also, no mommy and Abby around. Just me and her.

Back on the Drums and a Wonderful Baby News!!!

After being gone from the worship team for 2 weeks, I was back in the practice this past Tuesday. I was a bit off and struggling to get my groove back. My limb coordination was not at its best and my speed and dexterity needed work. I haven’t touched drumsticks just for 2 weeks. I can only imagine the condition I will be in if I stop for an extended time. Anyway, I am so happy to be back and get my artistic juices flowing again.

Now about the baby news…. I got the confirmation from Eric our worship leader that he is indeed expecting a baby. Jason our sound guy who I went out camping with told us about it already but it’s great to hear it straight from the future dad. He looked so happy and excited about the pregnancy and I am so happy for him and Yvette. I know the feeling and I won’t ever forget that feeling. And I am so sure that the baby well be so loved and blessed to have Eric and Yvette as the parents.

It's Camping Season Again

We had our first camping this year over the weekend. We went to our favorite camping place which is near where we live. It's the Del Valle Park located in Livermore, CA.

We had to dust off the cobwebs on our camping gears. Finding our stuff and organizing them has been the challenging part of this trip. This is because of the fact that we moved to our house late last year and we haven't really finished unpacking boxes and organizing our items. So we had to look for everything that we need. Luckily most of them are in the garage. Setting up camp went much much better than our previous camping trips. We have a better sense of what we need to do and who does what. There is definitely less screaming, shouting and piercing looks.

The young Leong family came with us on this trip - Jason, Jessica, Andrew and their little one Seth. They had a pretty rough time the first night because they didn't have their sleeping bags with them. And the nights were very cold. I am actually amazed how they survived the first night. Jason bought a sleeping bag for the following night and I am guessing that the second night went much better at least for Jessica and Seth.

The kids as usual had lots of fun running around, riding their scooters and bikes, playing in the creek and just exploring the place and goofing around. As for me, I always find it relaxing to be outdoors. Although my allergies acted up quite a bit. My eyes were teary sometimes and had to wrestle with sneezing every now and then. But I didn't really mind.

We didn't renew our Disney annual pass this year. We decided that we are going to do a lot of camping and outdoor activities in nature. We already have 3 more camping schedule until August. We will be going back to Del Valle with another family friend who came with us last year, then we will go with the Cihonski's for 2 camping trips - one on a floating campsite and the other one in Yosemite. We might plan for camping quickies in between.

Here are some pics courtesy of Jason. I got it from his facebook photo album.

Happy Bday Cheryl!!!

Cheryl, one of my princesses, celebrated her birthday this month. She had a party at Jungle and several of her close friends came to celebrate her birthday with her. She was so happy about how the party went and she couldn't wait to tell me all about it.

I wasn't around on her birthday and she was so sad and upset with me about it. I had to attend a conference in San Diego so I couldn't be around on her birthday. This was her first birthday that I wasn't around and I was hoping that the Jungle party would cheer her up. I also took the family out for a special dinner in one of the restaurants near our place before I left for the conference.

What can I say....time really flies....My daughter is now 9 years old. She has grown up so fast and I feel a tinge of panic in my heart especially when I was in San Diego. I feel like I am running out of time and pretty soon she'll be off on her own in a blink of an eye. I don't think I will be ready for that. I really like the commercial for an insurance company where it starts with a little girl talking to her dad and asking for permission to use the car because she's going out with her friends and a boy friend. The dad finally agreed and the little girl was ecstatic. But, I was wondering why would you let a little girl drive your car? Then the girl picked up the car key from the desk and when the camera focused on her agai, she is not the little girl anymore but a young lady wearing the same dress. And that really captured how I see Cheryl. It was genius.

I think the only thing I can do is to try as much as I can to spend as much time as I can possibly spend with them so I won't have any regrets later on. I was actually asked by my boss who I also consider as my best friend at work if I am interested in a position that will make us peers. And without blinking an eye and no hesitation at all, I told him I have no aspirations. I would rather spend time with my family than take a higher position which would take away precious time from my family. I felt proud doing that. He was quite surprised when he heard me say that but he understood why I didn't want to go there. He respected me for it and then I told him, that maybe later on when my kids are all grown up, then I would probably consider. I am very contented with earning enough to support my family and spend quality and quantity time with them.