Monday, July 31, 2006
Nehemiah
The Missionary Team I work on is doing a group Bible Study of Nehemiah, and it is awesome! We are only through 2 chapters, but God is teaching me SO much! Nehemiah received bad news, we are talking about the worst news he could have received at that time. What was his response? Was it to give up and question God? No. Was it to figure out what HE could do on his own? No. He wept, he mourned, he fasted and he PRAYED! First he praised God even through the hard times. Then, he confessed his sins, his family's sin, and his people's sin! Then, he found God's promises in the Bible and he praised God for them and claimed them. He didn't give up praying...He prayed for THREE months before God finally gave him the opportunity to sit before the king. Then when the opportunity arose, he prayed again! Every time he saw a prayer answered, he praised God and thanked him. Nehemiah was an everyday, ordinary man who had extraordinary faith! The king gave him permission to go to Jerusalem to rebuild the walls but not only did he have permission to rebuild the walls he also got funding! How awesome is our God? When he gives us a burden and a passion, he also provides the way if we trust Him and obey Him! Nehemiah could have prayed but not taken action when God opened the door to go to the king. What a lesson to learn from Nehemiah just from the first two chapters. When a problem arises, we pray, we trust completely, and we obey! Those are such easy words to say, but so often hard to really do. I pray that God would grow me to have faith and trust like Nehemiah did! I pray that I would go to God FIRST in my times of need and not try to handle things in my own way! I pray that I would keep a spirit of praise and confession at all times! I pray that I would have a spirit of obedience, even when what God is calling me to do is hard and scary! I know that there are many more lessons to be learned from Nehemiah...I am only on chapter 2!
Wednesday, July 19, 2006
The Iron Core Way
I am starting a new work out circut in the morning. About 6 months ago my husband started training with kettlebells and got me interested. After about 2 months of him working out with them and seeing some pretty awesome results, I ended up ordering the DVD, From Russia with Tough Love. It taught me all the fundamentals of kettlebell traning for women, but didn't give me good guidance for putting together a routine. Well, we found another DVD called The Iron Core Way and it came in a box from the States today! There is volume one and two. Volume one has a 46 minute circuit and volume two has an intense 40 minute work out. SO, now I have no excuse and tomorrow I will begin training with my kettlebells. For the first week I am using an 18 pound bell with ciruit one, but hope to be up to 26 pounds next week when I have had a week to do good form with light weight. In 4 to 6 weeks I am going to tackle volume two...hopefully with the 26 pounder. If I get to the point that I can do that, I would LOVE to try to swing a 35 pounder! I will let you know how it goes!
I am looking to train with kettlebells Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. I will continue to do body weight resistance training Monday, Wednesday, and Friday (I am doing the Fab Five from the book "Bony Scuplting Bodyweight Excercises for Women byt Eddie Baran). Sunday will be my day of rest. I am not looking to loose any more weight but to build strength, endurance, and muscle tone. It is always exciting to start a new training routine...I will post again soon to let you know how it is going!
By the way...I am getting there on the clutter battle in my bathroom. I have until the end of the week to finish (you will understand if you read my last blog). However, there has been a bit of a set back. I woke up this morning noticing that because of the humidity and heat mildew is showing up in all the corners of the apartment and all the books, movies and electronic equipment are in danger...so we have been doing damage control from moisture! UGH! But, the battle of clutter continues...we just took a small detour to battle the mildew too! I will keep you updated with my progress in that area too!
I am looking to train with kettlebells Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. I will continue to do body weight resistance training Monday, Wednesday, and Friday (I am doing the Fab Five from the book "Bony Scuplting Bodyweight Excercises for Women byt Eddie Baran). Sunday will be my day of rest. I am not looking to loose any more weight but to build strength, endurance, and muscle tone. It is always exciting to start a new training routine...I will post again soon to let you know how it is going!
By the way...I am getting there on the clutter battle in my bathroom. I have until the end of the week to finish (you will understand if you read my last blog). However, there has been a bit of a set back. I woke up this morning noticing that because of the humidity and heat mildew is showing up in all the corners of the apartment and all the books, movies and electronic equipment are in danger...so we have been doing damage control from moisture! UGH! But, the battle of clutter continues...we just took a small detour to battle the mildew too! I will keep you updated with my progress in that area too!
Monday, July 17, 2006
CLUTTER!!
Clutter, clutter everywhere! Well, it isn't THAT bad, but I don't know how one small family can acquire so much clutter in a matter of 4 years! When we first moved to Korea we had 12 suite cases and that was all...not nearly enough to fill a 3 bedroom apartment! However, in 4 years there is no way that all of our junk would fit into 12 suite cases...it barely fits in our 3 bedroom apartment!
SO, what am I going to do besides a beach ministry and our team prayer pages this summer?? I am going to declutter our apartment, one room at a time! Each week I am tackling a new room and I am throwing away anything that we haven't used in 3 months! I am throwing away anything that is over 3 years old that doesn't hold any sentimental value! I have bought 10 100 liter garbage bags and I am on a role! We move home in 5 months and I don't want to have to deal with all this junk then! So today, I wage WAR ON THE CLUTTER! By the end of the summer there will be NO more clutter in my apartment! Maybe I will do before and after pictures on the blog to keep me motivated!
My bathroom gets the first attack! So, I leave you and head off the the trenches to declutter my bathroom of 4 years of JUNK!
SO, what am I going to do besides a beach ministry and our team prayer pages this summer?? I am going to declutter our apartment, one room at a time! Each week I am tackling a new room and I am throwing away anything that we haven't used in 3 months! I am throwing away anything that is over 3 years old that doesn't hold any sentimental value! I have bought 10 100 liter garbage bags and I am on a role! We move home in 5 months and I don't want to have to deal with all this junk then! So today, I wage WAR ON THE CLUTTER! By the end of the summer there will be NO more clutter in my apartment! Maybe I will do before and after pictures on the blog to keep me motivated!
My bathroom gets the first attack! So, I leave you and head off the the trenches to declutter my bathroom of 4 years of JUNK!
Sunday, July 09, 2006
Home Sweet Home
OK! We are FINALLY home! I wrote out a LONG e-mail to my family and a few friends, so I thought I would just post it here with a few small additions that I forgot to add in the e-mail. Bear with me...this is LONG! We had a GREAT trip to the Philippines, but we it was certainly in true Mason Family form...VERY eventful!
WOW, 2 weeks is a LONG time! It feels like we have been gone FOREVER!! It was WONDERFUL to see our sweet little apartment! Melisa and Cali immediately tore off to the playroom to get in some toy time.
We flew out on June 25th and spent the night in Seoul Cali was sleeping next to me and at about 2:30 am I was woken by something really hot on my leg...it was Cali's foot. She was BURNING up. We have NO idea how hot she was, but I had never felt her little body that hot. She tossed and turned the whole night and Clark and I prayed and prayed about whether or not we should go on. We decided that it was better to head on where there were other missionaries who could help us than to be left in Korea with no help. SO, we flew out and at the airport found a thermometer...she was 40.3 Celcius which is 104.5! By the end of the night, we had it down and she was just really tired. She ran a low grade fever for the next day or so and then was back to normal. She never had any symptoms other than a fever so we don't know what was wrong. She had to stay out of her class the first day and a half, but then we tried to get her back in...unfortunately, she didn't stay...more of that to come soon!
Two days later, Melisa started running a fever and was really tired too. She never got as hot as Cali, but she was still pretty warm! She couldn't go to VBS that day or the next. She was heart broken, but she got better soon and was up and running for her last day of VBS.
Melisa had a GREAT week and LOVED her class and teachers. She even got to be queen for the day one day! Cali wasn't too crazy about her class. She would make it for 1 hour a day and then would cry so hard she would be about to make herself sick and they would call me to get her. The seperation anxiety was awful for her! But she was great in the adult sessions. She played on the floor or napped in the sling. Everyone loved playing with her during breaks. She was the youngest baby there...the next oldest was 2 1/2...so everyone loved giving her attention. Melisa learned all the VBS songs and loved doing the show. Unfortunately for security reasons, we couldn't take pictures of the show. Everyone came up to her afterwards and told her she was a natural performer and a great dancer! She was TOO cute!
On Sunday we only had a half a day, so after worship we jumped on the bus and went to the MALL! There are no malls in Korea and we had a GREAT time shopping. We bought Melisa her own snorkle, mask, fins! She was SO excited. Then, the whole family got new sandles and flops for the summer...they were SUPER CHEAP!! Clark went and bowled with some of the other men (I caught up and joined in on the last game too...what did you excpect???)!! While Clark was bowling, Melisa and I went out for a treat and got manicures and pedicures while Cali slept in the sling! It was a fun treat to get pampered together...I love having a little girl!
The 3rd was our last day of meetings when Melisa did her VBS show. After the show, we changed into our bathing suites and went down to the beach front for a cook out! There was a traditional Filipino dance and music show! It was AWESOME! Then the hotel staff sang good-bye to us through tears!! It was SO sweet! After the staff finished they gave out the awards for people leaving the field. They decided to wait and not give us ours because they are praying we will change our mind and stay...LOL! They said that if we don't change our mind they will give it to us at a special Korea meeting in November! Then Clark got quite the surprise...they brought out a cake and sang happy birthday to him! He got a big piece of carrot cake and sang to in 5 different languages (English, Korean, Tagalog and 2 other Filipino dialects). It was his coolest birthday since 2 years ago when we climbed the Great Wall on his birthday!
The 4th of July was our first day of vacation and we had a GREAT morning. Melisa's teacher from the week wanted to snorkle, so she went out with us and Clark and I got to go diving together for the first time ever! We had a BLAST! The water was BEAUTIFUL! It reminded me a lot of diving in the keys. They took us to a fish sanctuary and there were fish everywhere and beautiful coral. There was a drop off at the edge of the reef and we went down it and saw some HUGE fish. We had bread and fed them. It was TOO cool! Towards the end they would start getting our fingers and it was the strangest feeling. When we came up for our sit time Melisa's teacher went snorkling and Clark and I took turns going in with Melisa and taught her how to snorkle! She was TOO cute! She LOVED every minute of it! The boat was back in to dock by 12:30 and we spent the rest of the afternoon in the swimming pool. Then we went out to dinner in the city with another "M" family. We had fun and saw a bit of the city!
We got back and headed to the room for bed. Clark went and ordered us some water while i was getting the girls ready for bed. Cali climbed off the bed and then reached to get back up. She was too far away so I held her hands to get her to come a step forward. Well, she changed her mind and jerked away. I was afraid she was going to fall backwards and hit her head, so I held her hand and she jerked harder. Then I heard a POP...it was SOO loud it scared me to death. She immediately dropped to the floor screaming like I have never heard her scream. She wouldn't move her arm at all. I sent Misa down to get Clark and got Cali off the floor. Clark called our friends again and off we went to the ER while Melisa stayed with some other "M's". It was an hour car ride. Cali nursed and went to sleep, but she never once moved her arm. Every bump we hit would wake her up and make her cry. The roads in the Philippines are awful, so there were LOTS of bumps, it was a miserable drive! We got there and it took 30 more minutes to find parking! When we finally got in the door we went right to check in. However, everytime they needed to do something different they had to fill out more paper work and pay for it with cash before they would do it. We were in there for 2 hours before we finally went back for x-rays. While they were x-raying her arm they stretched her arm across her chest and put her hand on her other shoulder and it popped again. She screamed REALLY loud but started using her arm again. Within 10 minutes, she was calmed down and back to her normal self smiling and swatting at Clark with her hurt arm! The doctor looked at the x-rays and said there was no break for fracture, but it was Bi-Yang...or dislocated. SO, poor Cali got a dislocated shoulder in the Philippines. We just had to have a Filipino ER experience and make some fireworks of our own when there weren't any!! You know us!!
We got back to the hotel at about 12:30 and were all out by 1:00 am! UGH, what a night. We decided to take the rest of our vacation slow. The next day we went in the city and ate lunch with some other M's and then looked around the mall. We headed back to the hotel and after that we spent the next 2 1/2 days swimming in the pool and playing at the beach! With all that pool time, we are proud to announce that MELISA IS A SWIMMER!! She was going to start swim hagwon here in Korea, but she learned to swim and did the WHOLE length of the hotel swimming pool there and back! Then, I had fun teaching her how to do flips under the water! She is a little mermaid now! It was GREAT!! We couldn't be more proud of her! Cali like the pool time too, but she had more fun finding the rocks around the pool and throwing them in for Mommy, Daddy and Sissy to fetch! She also really liked sitting in the foot washing pool...we couldn't keep her out and it was SO gross! She is such a mess!!
We flew into Korea last night but because of an air traffic delay of 50 minutes, we missed our flight to Jeju and had to spend the night in Seoul. We were told we wouldn't make it home today because of a Typhoon, but it shifted and hit Pusan (our old city) instead...so we made it home today. Unfortunately, Chin Goo will have to stay in the vet one more day because it is closed on Sundays! It was a fun trip, but we are SOO glad to be home! Now we are gearing up for beach ministry...it starts in 9 days!!
Another side note is that we had a tradition every evening we were in the Philippines. We would make sure we were in the room by 8:00 and have the girls ready for bed 8:30. Then we would all cuddle together on one bed and watch an episode of the latest survivor. We downloaded the last season off from itunes.com and had a BLAST watching it every night together! However, we were VERY disappointed that Terry didn't win! LOL!
Anyway, we had a GREAT trip! If you made it this far through all my ramblings about the trip you are a TRUE friend! LOL!!
If you want to see pictures from the trip there are a 3 1/2 pages on the girls website. If you need the password, let me know and I will get it to you. :-) ENJOY!!
WOW, 2 weeks is a LONG time! It feels like we have been gone FOREVER!! It was WONDERFUL to see our sweet little apartment! Melisa and Cali immediately tore off to the playroom to get in some toy time.
We flew out on June 25th and spent the night in Seoul Cali was sleeping next to me and at about 2:30 am I was woken by something really hot on my leg...it was Cali's foot. She was BURNING up. We have NO idea how hot she was, but I had never felt her little body that hot. She tossed and turned the whole night and Clark and I prayed and prayed about whether or not we should go on. We decided that it was better to head on where there were other missionaries who could help us than to be left in Korea with no help. SO, we flew out and at the airport found a thermometer...she was 40.3 Celcius which is 104.5! By the end of the night, we had it down and she was just really tired. She ran a low grade fever for the next day or so and then was back to normal. She never had any symptoms other than a fever so we don't know what was wrong. She had to stay out of her class the first day and a half, but then we tried to get her back in...unfortunately, she didn't stay...more of that to come soon!
Two days later, Melisa started running a fever and was really tired too. She never got as hot as Cali, but she was still pretty warm! She couldn't go to VBS that day or the next. She was heart broken, but she got better soon and was up and running for her last day of VBS.
Melisa had a GREAT week and LOVED her class and teachers. She even got to be queen for the day one day! Cali wasn't too crazy about her class. She would make it for 1 hour a day and then would cry so hard she would be about to make herself sick and they would call me to get her. The seperation anxiety was awful for her! But she was great in the adult sessions. She played on the floor or napped in the sling. Everyone loved playing with her during breaks. She was the youngest baby there...the next oldest was 2 1/2...so everyone loved giving her attention. Melisa learned all the VBS songs and loved doing the show. Unfortunately for security reasons, we couldn't take pictures of the show. Everyone came up to her afterwards and told her she was a natural performer and a great dancer! She was TOO cute!
On Sunday we only had a half a day, so after worship we jumped on the bus and went to the MALL! There are no malls in Korea and we had a GREAT time shopping. We bought Melisa her own snorkle, mask, fins! She was SO excited. Then, the whole family got new sandles and flops for the summer...they were SUPER CHEAP!! Clark went and bowled with some of the other men (I caught up and joined in on the last game too...what did you excpect???)!! While Clark was bowling, Melisa and I went out for a treat and got manicures and pedicures while Cali slept in the sling! It was a fun treat to get pampered together...I love having a little girl!
The 3rd was our last day of meetings when Melisa did her VBS show. After the show, we changed into our bathing suites and went down to the beach front for a cook out! There was a traditional Filipino dance and music show! It was AWESOME! Then the hotel staff sang good-bye to us through tears!! It was SO sweet! After the staff finished they gave out the awards for people leaving the field. They decided to wait and not give us ours because they are praying we will change our mind and stay...LOL! They said that if we don't change our mind they will give it to us at a special Korea meeting in November! Then Clark got quite the surprise...they brought out a cake and sang happy birthday to him! He got a big piece of carrot cake and sang to in 5 different languages (English, Korean, Tagalog and 2 other Filipino dialects). It was his coolest birthday since 2 years ago when we climbed the Great Wall on his birthday!
The 4th of July was our first day of vacation and we had a GREAT morning. Melisa's teacher from the week wanted to snorkle, so she went out with us and Clark and I got to go diving together for the first time ever! We had a BLAST! The water was BEAUTIFUL! It reminded me a lot of diving in the keys. They took us to a fish sanctuary and there were fish everywhere and beautiful coral. There was a drop off at the edge of the reef and we went down it and saw some HUGE fish. We had bread and fed them. It was TOO cool! Towards the end they would start getting our fingers and it was the strangest feeling. When we came up for our sit time Melisa's teacher went snorkling and Clark and I took turns going in with Melisa and taught her how to snorkle! She was TOO cute! She LOVED every minute of it! The boat was back in to dock by 12:30 and we spent the rest of the afternoon in the swimming pool. Then we went out to dinner in the city with another "M" family. We had fun and saw a bit of the city!
We got back and headed to the room for bed. Clark went and ordered us some water while i was getting the girls ready for bed. Cali climbed off the bed and then reached to get back up. She was too far away so I held her hands to get her to come a step forward. Well, she changed her mind and jerked away. I was afraid she was going to fall backwards and hit her head, so I held her hand and she jerked harder. Then I heard a POP...it was SOO loud it scared me to death. She immediately dropped to the floor screaming like I have never heard her scream. She wouldn't move her arm at all. I sent Misa down to get Clark and got Cali off the floor. Clark called our friends again and off we went to the ER while Melisa stayed with some other "M's". It was an hour car ride. Cali nursed and went to sleep, but she never once moved her arm. Every bump we hit would wake her up and make her cry. The roads in the Philippines are awful, so there were LOTS of bumps, it was a miserable drive! We got there and it took 30 more minutes to find parking! When we finally got in the door we went right to check in. However, everytime they needed to do something different they had to fill out more paper work and pay for it with cash before they would do it. We were in there for 2 hours before we finally went back for x-rays. While they were x-raying her arm they stretched her arm across her chest and put her hand on her other shoulder and it popped again. She screamed REALLY loud but started using her arm again. Within 10 minutes, she was calmed down and back to her normal self smiling and swatting at Clark with her hurt arm! The doctor looked at the x-rays and said there was no break for fracture, but it was Bi-Yang...or dislocated. SO, poor Cali got a dislocated shoulder in the Philippines. We just had to have a Filipino ER experience and make some fireworks of our own when there weren't any!! You know us!!
We got back to the hotel at about 12:30 and were all out by 1:00 am! UGH, what a night. We decided to take the rest of our vacation slow. The next day we went in the city and ate lunch with some other M's and then looked around the mall. We headed back to the hotel and after that we spent the next 2 1/2 days swimming in the pool and playing at the beach! With all that pool time, we are proud to announce that MELISA IS A SWIMMER!! She was going to start swim hagwon here in Korea, but she learned to swim and did the WHOLE length of the hotel swimming pool there and back! Then, I had fun teaching her how to do flips under the water! She is a little mermaid now! It was GREAT!! We couldn't be more proud of her! Cali like the pool time too, but she had more fun finding the rocks around the pool and throwing them in for Mommy, Daddy and Sissy to fetch! She also really liked sitting in the foot washing pool...we couldn't keep her out and it was SO gross! She is such a mess!!
We flew into Korea last night but because of an air traffic delay of 50 minutes, we missed our flight to Jeju and had to spend the night in Seoul. We were told we wouldn't make it home today because of a Typhoon, but it shifted and hit Pusan (our old city) instead...so we made it home today. Unfortunately, Chin Goo will have to stay in the vet one more day because it is closed on Sundays! It was a fun trip, but we are SOO glad to be home! Now we are gearing up for beach ministry...it starts in 9 days!!
Another side note is that we had a tradition every evening we were in the Philippines. We would make sure we were in the room by 8:00 and have the girls ready for bed 8:30. Then we would all cuddle together on one bed and watch an episode of the latest survivor. We downloaded the last season off from itunes.com and had a BLAST watching it every night together! However, we were VERY disappointed that Terry didn't win! LOL!
Anyway, we had a GREAT trip! If you made it this far through all my ramblings about the trip you are a TRUE friend! LOL!!
If you want to see pictures from the trip there are a 3 1/2 pages on the girls website. If you need the password, let me know and I will get it to you. :-) ENJOY!!
