May to the Wood.

I know I slack every now and then with this blog thing...so I'll give you a nice Jason Parks style post right now and hopefully it'll tide everyone over until next time. So here goes...

Work: Several people have asked me how work has been going and for the first time in a long time, I can truly say that I love my job. I feel so blessed to be working with the Cerritos College Foundation. It is a perfect blend of student and faculty interaction with a touch of administrative responsibilities. I was initially hired back in August as an hourly employee for several reasons - they needed someone to fill the position immediately and it gave me a leg up in the competition for the classified position. Well last week I interviewed for the classified position and I got it!! So now I have paid holidays, vacation and sick time, a great retirement plan, and great health insurance. I am so thankful that God led me down the road He did in order to get me where I am today! I love the people I work with and I love the responsibility that I have - I manage all 75+ scholarships. Last Thursday I was able to see my work over the past few months come to fruition at the Foundation's Board Meeting where 26 scholarships totaling about $18,000 were presented. Every student was so thankful and so deserving - I truly feel like I am making a difference in these students lives. So work is going wonderfully...

Family: My grandfather is doing well. We celebrated his 92nd birthday last month and he enjoyed his yearly gift of See's Candy. He will say over, over again how much he doesn't want anything but every year when he gets his See's Candy he just loves it. His health is good but at 92 years old, you just never know what could happen so I'm just enjoying every day I have with him. My mom was in town last week and she is also doing well. Her medical condition is still uncertain - but she's almost fully recovered from the mild stroke she had several months ago. She was uninsured at the time of the stroke so wasn't able to get all the medical care she needed, but she's insured now so she'll be going back for some follow up on the abnormal brain scan - of which the doctors suggested might be MS. She's not experiencing any symptoms so that's great news! When she was in town, we decided to have a yard sale!! We made a couple hundred dollars, but most importantly - got rid of a lot of JUNK!! And seriously...it was complete junk and yet people bought it. Go figure! My grandfather goes to the Cudahy swapmeet every Saturday and comes home with the most random stuff...it's pretty comical. How many insulated lunch bags can one person have?? Anyway, I truly hate the actual having of the yard sale...I like the before and after it's just the actual sale I hate. But it's over and I'm happy with the results. Quick story...as we were cleaning the house, my mom and I discovered a total of 4 additional microwaves!! My grandfather didn't want to sell them because they were "back ups" in case our current own broke down. We said it won't break - it's fairly new. He then said, what if my mom's microwave breaks? My mom lives in Oregon and I'm pretty sure won't be driving 1000 miles to pick up an old microwave. Then he said, "What if Linda's breaks?" So Linda, rest assured that you have a lovely 20 year old microwave in case yours stops working :-)

Church: I love Revolution Church! I have learned so much and feel like I'm following Jesus more now that I have in a long time. Attendance is growing and we're focusing on building genuine relationships with those folks that have been coming. It's great to see new people and the momentum we're gaining is wonderful! The children's ministry is going well. I have awesome volunteers and God has blessed us with enough of them that I don't have to miss church and the majority serve once a month so they're not missing either. God is so good and I can see how our faithfulness is being rewarded at Revolution Downey. If anyone is reading this that doesn't already go to Revolution....by all means...swing by! We'd love to have you visit - Columbus High at 11am.

New Orleans: Next month, I'll be joining 14 other revolutionaries on a missions trip to New Orleans, Louisana! We had out first meeting today after church and I am so excited to be a part of this team. We'll be working specifically with one family and rebuilding their home to the best of our ability. We'll be doing food drops at FEMA trailor cities, random acts of kindness, and gutting homes that haven't been touched since the hurricane. I'm excited to see what God is going to do with our team, the family we'll be helping, and every one else that we'll encounter on the trip.

Tithing: Last month, Revolution began a 3 month tithing challenge. I have always given part of my paycheck back to God but I must admit that it hasn't always been 10%. I would usually make it an even amount like $100 a paycheck even if that wasn't 10%. I make a decent salary but I basically live paycheck to paycheck - I have a small savings that I'm trying to grow but with my financial obligations it's tough sometimes and I am guilty of a few impulse buys (i.e. my boots!) I'm working on that but getting back to tithing...last month I committed to tithe a full 10% - however with the job transition I took an initial pay cut and my first check wasn't much and I would have to wait one whole month until my next paycheck. So after some internal struggle and debate, I decided to give 10% trusting that God would provide. I figured if worse came to worse, I have credit cards so I'd survive. What was amazing what that on Tuesday of that week, my grandfather decided to give me some money. Every now and then he'll give me $20 for gas or something but this time he gave me significantly more - just because. Then later that week I got a check from an old 401K that I didn't even know I had (from my days at ITT) - it wasn't much but again a couple hundred dollars that was completely unexpected. So fast forward to last Friday - it was payday (still at my hourly pay structure) and my check was about $200 more than I expected! I'm still not sure how I could have miscalculated that but it doesn't matter because I know that God is in control and when I make a decision that honors Him - He'll always provide. This Sunday I was able to joyfully give and I love that feeling!

New Car: I also said goodbye to my sweet, little Blair a few weeks ago. Blair was my Volvo. Yes...I name my cars. I've had several in my lifetime. Big Blue, Jack (after Nicholson), I can't remember the Accord's name, and Blair. Blair was a little pricey for me and I had been wanting to get something a little less expensive so I decided to head to a dealership and do some test driving. I ended up getting an amazing deal on an 2007 Chrysler Sebring with just 3600 miles on it. My favorite feature...one year of free Sirius Satelite Radio. I'm already addicted to the broadway station :-) And in case anyone is wondering...her name is Celeste.

Well my goodness...that is one long post! And I didn't even touch on the fact that Hillary Clinton's aides planted questions at a recent town hall. Or that the founder of the Weather Channel called Global Warming a scam. Or that Maywood recently elected some new people to City Council who believe that a red light camera is bad for the community and unfairly targets immigrant families. Seriously...a camera that deters folks from running red lights and possibly hurting or even killing someone is a bad thing. Thanks Maywood voters...all 750 something of you.