Hangin’ Out With The Kids

Ally (the wife’s sister-in-law and really close friend) and the kids (Maddie and Grant) were in town last night and decided to drop by. The wife was extremely excited to see them. Apparently she likes them quite a bit. I immediately had a concern because the Laker game was on and I was worried I couldn’t devote myself entirely to the game if the kids were going to be running around.

The wife came up with the idea to go for a walk with Ally and the kids so I could watch the game completely uninterrupted. Yes! Didn’t I say I hit the jackpot? Then I proceeded to watch my beloved Lakers get crushed by an inferior New Orleans team looking nothing like the champs they were last year with only nine games left in the regular season. I began to realize that it’s looking less and less likely they’re going to repeat as champions. I’m trying to prepare myself emotionally for this and have even started looking up counselors in the area.

When the wife, Ally and the kids returned the game was just about over. The kids were playing fetch with the dog, screaming, laughing and enjoying themselves immensely. As I was watching this I realized that Buddy is the perfect dog for kids. The dog is playful, gentle, and loves being around people. The wife and Ally were having their girl talk, I would tell you what they were talking about if I were paying attention. Ally would interject intermittingly giving the kids commands so they would play in an orderly fashion without getting hurt (Funny, when I was a kid “orderly” and “playing” were never put together). She also made sure they took turns playing fetch with the dog so that both would have equal playing time.

Initially you would think that’s just parenting. But it was the way she did it that amazed me. Ally did it with a perfect blend of a strong command presence and gentleness. The children responded to her redirections and happily played on. In the midst of all this I forgot about the current Laker peril. I didn’t think about the loss to an inferior New Orleans team or how they looked completely disinterested in playing. Watching the kids having fun with the dog under guided parenting by Ally made me realize there might be more important things in life than the Lakers. Maybe someday I could watch my wife do that with our own kids.

Of course twenty seconds later I realized that was non-sense. We’re talking about the Lakers!!! So to reach a happy medium with the wife, I offer that we will start having kids when Kobe retires. Done and done.

Right Wife, Healthy Life

Being single for several years was pretty frustrating to say the least. Coupled that with girls over-complicating the dating process and you feel stuck in “singleness purgatory.” But after pursuing my wife for several painfully slow years it was worth the wait. I knew the kind of person she was when I meant her and realized she was the one for me. Although I didn’t know the benefits extended to physical health it certainly was a pleasant surprise when I received the results of my latest cholesterol test.

Pre-Wife 2008 Cholesterol test results:

CHOL: 212
TRIG: 154
HDL: 40
LDL CALC: 141

Explanation:
CHOL is total cholesterol; normal is less than 200
TRIG is triglyceride; normal is less than 200
HDL is good cholesterol; normal is greater than 40
LDLCALC is bad cholesterol; normal is less than 130

Although I did decent in two categories (TRIG and HDL), I didn’t do so well on CHOL and LDL CALC. When I got the test results back in 2008 I was extremely surprised and told my doctor that I worked out like a beast. My doctor kindly replied, “It isn’t always about working out, although that helps of course.” He went on to ask, “What is your diet like?”

Much to my own astonishment, I didn’t know what my diet was. I mean, who keeps track? I was single and I ate whatever I wanted whenever I wanted. That was probably the problem. Then I realized my roommates saying things like, “Why don’t you cut down on those burgers?” Or “Did you realize you just ate an entire pizza by yourself?” Maybe there’s a connection here?

Well, a year after marriage and a lot of home cooked meals, salads, and drinking lots of water, I retook the cholesterol test.

Post-Wife 2010 Cholesterol test results:

CHOL: 186
TRIG: 105
HDL: 44
LDL CALC: 121

Explanation:
CHOL is total cholesterol; normal is less than 200
TRIG is triglyceride; normal is less than 200
HDL is good cholesterol; normal is greater than 40
LDLCALC is bad cholesterol; normal is less than 130

Wow, what a difference the right wife makes! This will most certainly lower my life insurance rate. Kudos to the wife for helping with a healthy life-style, without her I would probably be having a heart attack as we speak. Of course this makes me think about the other areas of my life, which she doesn’t allow me to partake in (e.g., online gambling, drinking, etc.). But we’ll talk about that later. For now lets celebrate with some Cheese Cake Factory.

Thursday Night Diary

Usually after work I head straight to the gym and get my workout on. After a full day of mind-numbing work with Elementary students I need to blow off some steam. Recently however, I was trying some new type of workout my buddy Dom showed me and ended up destroying my back. As a result, I haven’t been able to workout or play basketball for about a week now.

No one likes getting injured and being rendered inactive but if there were a time to get injured it would be during March Madness. Thursday night I had a chance to watch (5) Butler vs. (1) Syracuse, (1) Kentucky vs. (12) Cornell, and (2) Kansas State vs. (6) Xavier.

The wife had Open House at her school and is required to attend. That means I’m on my own for dinner. This is where watching all those episodes of Man vs. Wild will come in handy as I burrow through the kitchen looking for anything to eat. I ended up ordering pizza . . . oh wait . . . actually, the wife ordered delivery pizza for me while she was at Open House. Did I hit the jackpot or what!?

(Side Note: For all you single people that are tired of hearing about God’s timing like I was, it’s true. God has perfect timing and knows exactly what you need.)

With the advent of streaming shows on the Internet, watching sports has never been easier. I was streaming the Kentucky/Cornell game, the Butler/Syracuse game, the Heat/Bulls game, while the TV in the living room had the Kansas State/Xavier game on. All of this and I would be surfing the net during the commercials. Who says men can’t multitask?

When the wife got home and wondered what I’ve been doing (other then eating my pizza) she saw all the games on. She said, “How can you keep track of all the games AND facebook in between?” I told her that it was a little difficult and it would be easier if I had multiple screens. She gave me that “H*ll no!” look. I thought to myself, “That’s not a problem, after my back heals up I’ll be working out like a beast again and playing basketball instead of merely watching it.” No need for multiple screens streaming multiple games at once, surfing the Internet between commercials, all while eating pizza. At least not until I get hurt again.

The Other Guys - Motion Poster

If Bryan and I were ever in an action movie I think it would look something close to this. Actually, Bryan was trying to convince me of doing a movie of our lives. I told him that only three people in the world would get our humor and we're two of them. He's still dreaming of a script of course.




The look on Will Ferrell's face while he's shooting the guns had me rolling.

Reflection Service

One of the things my church does periodically- that I have not experienced in other churches in the past- is hold a Reflection Service. A Reflection Service is where after several weeks of preaching through a book in the Bible or a series on a particular topic, the church dedicates an entire service to allow people from the congregation to share what the Lord is showing them personally.

Today’s Reflection Service was extremely encouraging. Hearing people’s stories, struggles, and victories and how God has provided comfort and transformation in the midst of suffering truly makes you feel like a part of the body of Christ. My personal struggles and difficult circumstances are not unique. There are amazing people at my church who provide real life examples of how to deal with difficult situations in a God- honoring way.

Furthermore, I believe that when you know people’s stories, you worship much better as a congregation. It provides a sense of feeling like we are in this fight for holiness together. The Reflection Service also emphasizes the belief in “the priesthood of all believers,” that it’s not just the paid staff members of the local church, but rather all of us, who play a role as ministers of the gospel.

You could follow Grace EV Free La Mirada on Facebook.

69 Days and Counting

Today represents exactly 69 school days left before I’m officially on summer vacation (yes, I count down everyday). One of the great things about being a teacher is that there is a beginning and an end to each year. We know exactly when that summer break will hit and we plan accordingly. Of course if I had a choice I would be a cop chasing down criminals and making my community feel safer. But being a teacher is not a bad consolation prize. You can’t beat the schedule or the time off. Furthermore, when you have a wife on the same schedule it works out quite well when it comes to spending time together.

On the other hand, during the school year has to be one of the most stressful jobs I could imagine. Meeting with difficult parents, dealing with under performing students, grading, and stressful staff meetings could drive anyone into depression. If it weren’t for the wife I would be a raging alcoholic by now.

Oddly, there is something that I didn’t anticipate, which has turned out to be a nice surprise. My students are actually making progress. You might think or come to expect that teachers come in each year with that very hope, and you would be right. However, you have to remember that I’m a jerk and really an “expect the worst but hope for the best” type of guy. Students are not only progressing and learning but they are also becoming better students- yes there is a difference between learning knowledge and becoming a good student.

On an introspective level, dealing with elementary students has made me less of a hard@$$. In elementary school, students are extremely frail emotionally so you have to treat them with care like precious cargo. This will in no doubt help me when I have children someday (I cringe just typing that). In case of the extremely stressful event of landing a daughter (cringing some more), I would need to be gentle and compassionate. At least that’s what I’m told a girl needs, compassionate, patience, affection, and constant affirmation. That sounds like a lot of work. Darn it! I could see my Lakers season tickets go up in smoke.

In short, I would rather chase criminals down an alley or get caught in a gunfight with gang members for a career instead of teaching. Considering God has not opened that door for whatever reason, I’ll count my blessings and make the most of what I currently have. It is a form of God’s provision, and nice little surprises in a situation, though far from my ideal, are extremely welcomed.

Tron in 3D

Now I haven't jumped on the 3D bandwagon just yet. I understand it seems to be the new "cool" thing for the movie-going experience. However, do I really want to have things thrown at my face for two and a half hours? I often read movie reviews of new releases and there has been a fair share of them that say certain movies in 3D have been distracting. My fear is that more movies will attempt to sell more on the visuals instead of the story because thanks to movies like Avatar, 3D has become a cash-cow. So why bother with a good story or have characters with any depth? Lets just work on something that looks cool on 3D.

However, there are movies that would sell you on the visuals anyway so 3D doesn't really matter. Like the up coming release (Dec 17, 2010) of Tron Legacy. I have to admit the trailer got me pretty excited. No, I haven't seen a movie in 3D yet. But if I'm going to try it once, why not Tron Legacy?

As a kid growing up I loved the original. I played the game at my mom's 7-Eleven everyday after school. Now a sequel is coming out with all the advances in special effects. Holy Cow!!! How do I NOT watch this movie in 3D?! I'm not entirely sure if the wife is on board but in any case, I'm watching this thing because it's one of few good childhood memories that I have. Anything that makes me feel like a kid again, you could count me in.

Here's the original 1982 trailer for kicks:


Here's the latest Tron Legacy trailer:


For more information on this movie click here.

Just One of Those Days

If you’ve been following my blog for any length of time you know that I’m not a morning person. This morning I had to let the dog out to do his business, but I didn’t notice the squirrel across the street. Of course the dog takes off like he’s been shot out of a cannon. I had to go chase him, and mind you it’s the morning and I’m not really in the mood to be chasing anything.

As soon as I thought I had the dog in my grasp there was another person walking their dog. My dog thought it was necessary to go and interact with the other dog in an aggressive manner. This didn’t sit well with the other dog or it’s owner. After finally catching my dog I had to drag him back to the house. Not a fun way to start the day.

This Saturday morning I also had to get up early to attend a seminar for teachers at Cal State Dominguez Hills. These seminars really don’t add any type of insight into the teaching profession. It’s more like group therapy where teachers get together and complain about everything wrong with the education system. Admittedly, there are plenty of things wrong with the educational system so there are plenty of things to complain about. However, I have to endure this for several hours on a Saturday, the day I usually get to sleep in and play basketball for hours.

After the seminar mercifully comes to an end, I get back to my car and notice broken glass around it and knew immediately that it was broken into. Sure enough my radio was stolen and broken glass covered every inch of the interior. It took me the next twenty minutes or so to clean the glass out of the car as best I could. The whole time I was thinking to myself that I needed a drink. I prayed for the individual(s) who stole my radio- that God would save his soul or have him get hit by a semi. Or both.




Dejected I arrive home and I thought I would get my mind off of the whole ordeal and decided to rent a movie off itunes. As the movie is downloading, I get a message from my computer saying that there is an “error” in the file and the movie cannot be downloaded despite the fact that I already paid for it. Wonderful.

Days like this one I would call a “wash,” go to bed and start over the next day. But the wife wants to go out because she recently had knee surgery and has been stuck inside for a few days. At this point I’m thinking two things (1) if we do go out, considering how the day is going, what are the odds of me choking on the food I order? 5 to 1, 3 to 1? Or (2) we could go out to our favorite spot,Cheesecake Factory, and I could medicate myself on a few pieces of cheesecake and maybe even rub some of the whip cream on my hair. Fun times. I think we’ll go with door number 2. Let’s pray that number 1 doesn’t happen because I haven’t updated my life insurance policy yet.

Devotional - 030510

As my church continues to preach through the book of Isaiah, this week the passage is Isaiah 9:8-10:34. The interest part about this particular section is the themes of judgment and preservation are intertwined. The Lord continues to bring judgment, not only to Israel, but also on Assyria. In 9:8-10:4, J. Alec Motyer offers this outline:

1. National disaster (8-12)
2. Political collapse (13-17)
3. Social anarchy (18-21)
4. Moral perversion (10:1-4)

These are the issues that Israel faced. Would Israel/Judah accept and live by the word of the Lord? The whole logic of Isaiah’s social analysis stems from this question. As we so often do not recognize that national and international consequences are preceded by spiritual causes.

The Judgment (10:5-15)

The Lord will use Assyria as His instrument of judgment, which emphasizes the relationship between heaven and earth and that the Lord has absolute sovereignty over both kingdoms.

The Remnant (10:16-34)

In the end, the Lord will bring security for the people of Zion (10:24-26) and destroy the Assyrian threat (10:27-34). Isaiah fleshes this out on a large scale in chapters 13-27. Ultimately, the purpose of judgment is restoration. The key passage is in 10:20, which says, “Now in that day the remnant of Israel, and those of the house of Jacob who have escaped, will never again rely on the one who struck them, but will truly rely on the Lord, the Holy One of Israel” (NASB – emphasis added).

In spite of all the sin and misplaced trust at the end of chapter 9 and at the beginning of chapter 10, “…His hand is still stretched out” (9:21b). When I read this section in the book of Isaiah, a host of New Testament passages and ideas come to mind. First, the burden of the transgressions of His people was taken away by Christ’s work on the cross so that “where sin abounds, grace abounded all the more.”

In God’s eternal patience, and purpose, He provided redemption “which He carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord,” “so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus,” “because, as sin reigned in death (throughout human history), even so grace would reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

So then, the passage in Isaiah is a beautiful picture of grace in the Old Testament. And as we read throughout human history, God’s eternal purpose unfolds and reveals itself until its ultimate expression comes in the glorious grace and the beauty of Christ.