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	<title>Count Our Days &#187; Activities</title>
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	<link>http://thuongthaole.com/blog</link>
	<description>Counting God&#039;s blessing in our daily lives</description>
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		<title>He Who Gave His Son</title>
		<link>http://thuongthaole.com/blog/archives/1168</link>
		<comments>http://thuongthaole.com/blog/archives/1168#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 17 Dec 2010 09:15:03 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Thuong</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Christmas]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Faith]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Inspirational]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[God]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[John 3:16]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Joseph's Lullaby]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Mercy Me]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://thuongthaole.com/blog/?p=1168</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I am up late tonight preparing songs for the upcoming Christmas service. After picking strings and singing along couple times to the song Joseph&#8217;s Lullaby by Mercy Me, the song lyrics just hit me hard, I just busted in tears and couldn&#8217;t &#8230; <a href="http://thuongthaole.com/blog/archives/1168">Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">&#8594;</span></a>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<!-- RSPEAK_STOP --> <a href='http://wr.readspeaker.com/webreader/webreader.php?cid=470e643e029f563837b34c90a47f8e5d&t=wordpress_free&url=http://thuongthaole.com/blog/archives/1168&title=He Who Gave His Son' onclick='readpage(this.href, 1168); return false;'> <img src='http://www.thuongthaole.com/blog/img/listen_en_us.gif' border='0' alt='Listen with webReader'></a><div id='WR_1168'></div> <!-- RSPEAK_START --> <p>I am up late tonight preparing songs for the upcoming Christmas service. After picking strings and singing along couple times to the song <strong>Joseph&#8217;s Lullaby</strong> by <em>Mercy Me</em>, the song lyrics just hit me hard, I just busted in tears and couldn&#8217;t hold back. Knowing that this special Child will grow up and will DIE for the sins of human, Joseph just treasured the precious moment with baby Jesus sleeping in the manger now. There is just no sweeter moment than this, watching those tiny hands and feet, the silky soft skin of the child, eyes closed, in deep peaceful sleep.</p>
<p>Well, that was lovely but it was not why I teared up. It was the thought of &#8220;<strong>for God so loved the world that He gave his one and only Son</strong>&#8230;&#8221; It&#8217;s the well-known verse that I have read and come across countless of time now suddenly &#8216;spoke&#8217; to me. With God-given privilege of being a father, I understand more on the sacrifices God made.  I certainly cannot do what He did. Will not. Absolutely not.  I would not give up my children for anyone, for any reasons, even with getting all the money it the world. Never.</p>
<p>But He, who loved us so much, gave His one and only Son for us. That what brought me to tears. I just don&#8217;t know how else to react to that. It&#8217;s just too huge for me to think to comprehend what He did, all just because He so loved us. He gave His Son just so He can have the relationship with us. I&#8217;m just in shock for I&#8217;m not worthy of His love. I&#8217;m a sinner, and absolutely nothing in me that even worths His attention. Now He gave all He has for us, freely, how would we respond to His love? I don&#8217;t know about you, but I&#8217;m just humbly and accepting His love, His gift. I am in tears, but it is the tears of joy that God loved me that much.</p>
<p>I cannot look at the Nativity scene the same anymore. Seeing a baby in the manger, I see the love of a father who would gave his most prized possession to have me.</p>
<p>[There is a video that cannot be displayed in this feed. <a href="http://thuongthaole.com/blog/archives/1168">Visit the blog entry to see the video.]</a></p>
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		<title>In His Time</title>
		<link>http://thuongthaole.com/blog/archives/1158</link>
		<comments>http://thuongthaole.com/blog/archives/1158#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 16 Dec 2010 05:48:39 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Thuong</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Christmas]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Faith]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Inspirational]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[answer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[God's time]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Trust]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[unknown]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://thuongthaole.com/blog/?p=1158</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[On the way to work this morning, I heard this Bible verse on the radio and it got me thinking. &#8220;But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, &#8230; that &#8230; <a href="http://thuongthaole.com/blog/archives/1158">Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">&#8594;</span></a>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<!-- RSPEAK_STOP --> <a href='http://wr.readspeaker.com/webreader/webreader.php?cid=470e643e029f563837b34c90a47f8e5d&t=wordpress_free&url=http://thuongthaole.com/blog/archives/1158&title=In His Time' onclick='readpage(this.href, 1158); return false;'> <img src='http://www.thuongthaole.com/blog/img/listen_en_us.gif' border='0' alt='Listen with webReader'></a><div id='WR_1158'></div> <!-- RSPEAK_START --> <p>On the way to work this morning, I heard this Bible verse on the radio and it got me thinking.</p>
<blockquote><p><strong><em>&#8220;But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, &#8230; that we might receive the full rights of sons.&#8221; (Galatians 4:4-5 NIV)</em></strong></p></blockquote>
<p><a href="http://thuongthaole.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/Mechanical_Clock.jpg" rel="lightbox[1158]"><img class="size-medium wp-image-1160 alignleft" title="Mechanical Clock" src="http://thuongthaole.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/Mechanical_Clock-300x225.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="225" /></a></p>
<p>Even with our fancy Rolex couldn&#8217;t tell when God is about to do something. He operates on a completely different time set that ours. He allows things to happen at the right time when He sees it is good. Even in the event of God became man born in manger, has to wait until &#8220;<em>the time had fully come</em>&#8220;.  Why then was a good time? Why not when Israel was exiled to Egypt? Why not when they need a king? Or why not now?!</p>
<p>Though we might have a slightest idea of why, but one thing for sure, we don&#8217;t think like God does. <em>&#8220;For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,”</em><em><br />
</em><em> declares the LORD. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts</em>&#8221; (Isaiah 55:8) But we know that the end result, when the time come and God allows things to happen,  is always perfect and satisfying. It always works out at the end.</p>
<p>Some people might not like the idea of being kept in the dark for surprises. But aren&#8217;t surprise visit or Christmas gifts be more thrill and extra special when you are least expected? Especially, when it is someone very close to you and you haven&#8217;t seen for years, or e a present that you really want it. I think God just wants to make sure our joy be completed, exceed expectations, from joy to .. <em>overjoy</em>.</p>
<p>Aren&#8217;t we all the little children whom constantly bugging our Father with &#8220;<em>Are we there yet?</em>&#8221; question?! Follow God is a journey. There are things we are anxiously waiting, expecting, praying for so long, yet have come. There are things that just happened &#8216;for no reason.&#8217; We might not have the answer or understand why at the time. But, take His word: &#8220;<em>You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand.</em>&#8221; (John 13:7) We will understand. We will praise God for what He did.</p>
<p>I love this good oldie song, taken from Ecclesiastes 3:11, that I still often sing:</p>
<blockquote><p>In His time, in His time<br />
He makes all things beautiful, in His time.<br />
Lord, please show me everyday<br />
As You&#8217;re teaching me Your way,<br />
That You do just what You say<br />
In Your time.</p></blockquote>
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		<title>Good bye last year. Welcome 2010!!!</title>
		<link>http://thuongthaole.com/blog/archives/899</link>
		<comments>http://thuongthaole.com/blog/archives/899#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 08 Jan 2010 03:41:04 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Thuong</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Activities]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Christmas]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Family]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[New Year]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://thuongthaole.com/blog/?p=899</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Wow another year , and a busy yet wonderful season of Christmas have just passed. I meant to update the blog with what was happening, but just one thing after another and I just couldn&#8217;t keep up. Well, it looks &#8230; <a href="http://thuongthaole.com/blog/archives/899">Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">&#8594;</span></a>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<!-- RSPEAK_STOP --> <a href='http://wr.readspeaker.com/webreader/webreader.php?cid=470e643e029f563837b34c90a47f8e5d&t=wordpress_free&url=http://thuongthaole.com/blog/archives/899&title=Good bye last year. Welcome 2010!!!' onclick='readpage(this.href, 899); return false;'> <img src='http://www.thuongthaole.com/blog/img/listen_en_us.gif' border='0' alt='Listen with webReader'></a><div id='WR_899'></div> <!-- RSPEAK_START --> <p>Wow another year , and a busy yet wonderful season of Christmas have just passed. I meant to update the blog with what was happening, but just one thing after another and I just couldn&#8217;t keep up. Well, it looks like a series of events are just going to happen pretty soon, and I am very excited about. I don&#8217;t want to keep piling things up to write about, but I don&#8217;t have enough time to tell every detail. So I be brief.</p>
<p>Let&#8217;s started with Thanksgiving. We didn&#8217;t have a church retreat this year. For the whole long break, we hang out, stayed up late, played lots of Bomberman on Playstation 3. It was a lot of fun. We spent Thanksgiving day and eating dinner at Mom and Dad. It was great.</p>
<p>Then started Christmas. Grace was very excited and wanted to decorate the Christmas tree this year. She decorated it all by herself and did a wonderful job. Tis the season, our church had the annual Bible Memorization contest. This year it was only 8 verse in Psalm. That was quite fun.</p>
<p>Christmas is always a busy season at church as we prepared for the annual special Christmas program. This year, we did not just one drama as the main program. We had carols combined with worships, we have choir songs, children songs, duet,  trio, fun skit, sermon&#8230;  Due to the complication of choosing the location to held the Christmas program, we had the service early than previous year, on the 19th. I felt like Christmas came too soon, and we didn&#8217;t have enough time to practice. It seemed overwhelming, but all things came together at the end. We had 200+ attendees, and dinner was served afterward. It was great.</p>
<p>Since we had early Christmas celebration, we felt much relax on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. We went to Winter Wonderland, a Christmas Special at New Life Church. It was packed!! They had 3 services, back to back, and traffic was a mess. The attendance was 14000+ for 3 services. We hang out at home, open presents on Christmas Day, and have Christmas lunch at Mom and Dad. It was good time.</p>
<p>Before the year ended, the youth hang out and had dinner together at TGI Friday&#8217;s. The church also celebrated the birthday of everyone in 4th quarter. It was funny to see Benjamin lined up to receive his birthday card.</p>
<p>To celebrate the New Year, the youth hang out at Duc-Huyen&#8217;s house. We had foods, played gift exchange, and Anh Duc showed pictures of his trip in Iraq. It was quite funny that he mixed some quite disturbed pictures among the scenery pictures.</p>
<p>So&#8230; 2010 has started. I&#8217;m very excited for what&#8217;s ahead. There are goals, resolution to achieve, grace and blessings to come, lessons to learn. I am looking forward to all of it, and I want to document them all here, as much as I can. See you in 2010. Have wonderful New Year, you!</p>
<p>See pictures:<br />
<a href="http://thuongthaole.com/gallery/20091219_ChristmasProgram"><strong>Christmas Program at church</strong></a><strong><br />
</strong> <a href="http://thuongthaole.com/gallery/20091224_WinterWonderland"><strong>Winter Wonderland</strong></a><strong><br />
</strong> <a href="http://thuongthaole.com/gallery/20091225_ChristmasFamily"><strong>Christmas with Family</strong></a><strong><br />
</strong> <a href="http://thuongthaole.com/gallery/20091227_YearEnd"><strong>Year End</strong></a></p>
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		<title>Halloween Costumes</title>
		<link>http://thuongthaole.com/blog/archives/871</link>
		<comments>http://thuongthaole.com/blog/archives/871#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 01 Nov 2009 21:52:02 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Thuong</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Activities]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Benjamin]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Family]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Grace]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Halloween]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[costumes]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Pikes Peak]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://thuongthaole.com/blog/?p=871</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Here are our little superheroes dressed up for Halloween night. Grace is Blue Power Ranger (yeah, it&#8217;s her choice of color since they don&#8217;t have orange, and she prefers blue over red), and Benjamin is Superman.  Grace was excited walking &#8230; <a href="http://thuongthaole.com/blog/archives/871">Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">&#8594;</span></a>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<!-- RSPEAK_STOP --> <a href='http://wr.readspeaker.com/webreader/webreader.php?cid=470e643e029f563837b34c90a47f8e5d&t=wordpress_free&url=http://thuongthaole.com/blog/archives/871&title=Halloween Costumes' onclick='readpage(this.href, 871); return false;'> <img src='http://www.thuongthaole.com/blog/img/listen_en_us.gif' border='0' alt='Listen with webReader'></a><div id='WR_871'></div> <!-- RSPEAK_START --> <p><span>Here are our little superheroes dressed up for Halloween night. Grace is Blue Power Ranger (yeah, it&#8217;s her choice of color since they don&#8217;t have orange, and she prefers blue over red), and Benjamin is Superman.  Grace was excited walking block after block for trick-or-treating, while Ben preferred sitting in the stroller and being pushed around the block. Not so super, after all! </span></p>
<div class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 210px"><a href="http://thuongthaole.com/gallery/20091031_Halloween/images/img_06.jpg" rel="lightbox[871]"><img src="http://thuongthaole.com/gallery/20091031_Halloween/thumbs/img_06.jpg" alt="Our superheroes" width="200" height="150" /></a><p class="wp-caption-text">Our superheroes</p></div>
<p><strong><a href="http://thuongthaole.com/gallery/20091031_Halloween" target="_blank">See more pictures</a></strong></p>
<p><span style="background-color: #ffffff;">Also, beautiful sunset sky on Pikes Peak the night before Halloween.</span></p>
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<p><div class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 210px"><a href="http://thuongthaole.com/gallery/PikesPeak/images/PikesPeak_19.jpg" rel="lightbox[871]"><img src="http://thuongthaole.com/gallery/PikesPeak/thumbs/PikesPeak_19.jpg" alt="Pikes Peak" width="200" height="150" /></a><p class="wp-caption-text">Pikes Peak</p></div></td>
<td>
<p><div class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 210px"><a href="http://thuongthaole.com/gallery/PikesPeak/images/PikesPeak_20.jpg" rel="lightbox[871]"><img src="http://thuongthaole.com/gallery/PikesPeak/thumbs/PikesPeak_20.jpg" alt="Sunset" width="200" height="150" /></a><p class="wp-caption-text">Sunset</p></div></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p><strong><a href="http://thuongthaole.com/gallery/PikesPeak" target="_blank">See more Pikes Peak pictures</a></strong></p>
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		<title>Happy Birthday, Benjamin!</title>
		<link>http://thuongthaole.com/blog/archives/866</link>
		<comments>http://thuongthaole.com/blog/archives/866#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 30 Oct 2009 16:16:14 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Thuong</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Benjamin]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Birthday]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Family]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Foods]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[birthday]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://thuongthaole.com/blog/?p=866</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[&#8230;And then Benjamin turns 2! That was fast! It seems like he was just learning to walk yesterday. Asking him &#8220;How old are you, Ben?&#8221; and he would say two but spreading all of his five fingers because he can&#8217;t &#8230; <a href="http://thuongthaole.com/blog/archives/866">Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">&#8594;</span></a>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<!-- RSPEAK_STOP --> <a href='http://wr.readspeaker.com/webreader/webreader.php?cid=470e643e029f563837b34c90a47f8e5d&t=wordpress_free&url=http://thuongthaole.com/blog/archives/866&title=Happy Birthday, Benjamin!' onclick='readpage(this.href, 866); return false;'> <img src='http://www.thuongthaole.com/blog/img/listen_en_us.gif' border='0' alt='Listen with webReader'></a><div id='WR_866'></div> <!-- RSPEAK_START --> <p>&#8230;And then Benjamin turns 2! That was fast! It seems like he was just learning to walk yesterday. Asking him &#8220;How old are you, Ben?&#8221; and he would say two but spreading all of his five fingers because he can&#8217;t quite use the thumbs to hold down other fingers yet. Cute!</p>
<p>Thao prepared the Vietnamese noodle for dinner, and family and couple friends, with short notice, came over to celebrate. Ben dressed in his Halloween costume as Superman, though he was confused and kept saying &#8220;Batman&#8221;&#8230; hahaha. We lighted up the candles on the cake for Ben to blow out, and he was very excited and wanted to do it again and again.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s a joy being parents and watching our kids growing up. It&#8217;s really is! It&#8217;s busy having kids for sure, and definitely tiredness is part of the equation. But on the bright side, seeing them laugh, learn, play, walk, talk with full of energy and curiosity, it&#8217;s priceless! Oh how we love our kids!</p>
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<p><div class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 210px"><a href="http://thuongthaole.com/gallery/20091027_BenBirthday/images/img_05.jpg" rel="lightbox[866]"><img src="http://thuongthaole.com/gallery/20091027_BenBirthday/thumbs/img_05.jpg" alt="Blow out candles" width="200" height="150" /></a><p class="wp-caption-text">Blow out candles</p></div></td>
<td>
<p><div class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 210px"><a href="http://thuongthaole.com/gallery/20091027_BenBirthday/images/img_09.jpg" rel="lightbox[866]"><img src="http://thuongthaole.com/gallery/20091027_BenBirthday/thumbs/img_09.jpg" alt="Grace and Ben" width="200" height="150" /></a><p class="wp-caption-text">Grace and Ben</p></div></td>
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<p><div class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 210px"><a href="http://thuongthaole.com/gallery/20091027_BenBirthday/images/img_12.jpg" rel="lightbox[866]"><img src="http://thuongthaole.com/gallery/20091027_BenBirthday/thumbs/img_12.jpg" alt="Family and Friends" width="200" height="150" /></a><p class="wp-caption-text">Family and Friends</p></div></td>
<td>
<p><div class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 210px"><a href="http://thuongthaole.com/gallery/20091027_BenBirthday/images/img_23.jpg" rel="lightbox[866]"><img src="http://thuongthaole.com/gallery/20091027_BenBirthday/thumbs/img_23.jpg" alt="Vietnamese noodle" width="200" height="150" /></a><p class="wp-caption-text">Vietnamese noodle</p></div></td>
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<p><strong><a href="http://thuongthaole.com/gallery/20091027_BenBirthday" target="_blank">See more pictures</a></strong></p>
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		<title>Labor&#8217;s Day Weekend</title>
		<link>http://thuongthaole.com/blog/archives/792</link>
		<comments>http://thuongthaole.com/blog/archives/792#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 10 Sep 2009 18:57:56 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Thuong</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Activities]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Family]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Outdoor]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Youth group]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[crawfishing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Labor's Day]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[State Fair]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://thuongthaole.com/blog/?p=792</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I took Grace and Ben to the playground at Memorial Park on Saturday. Grace had fun feeding bread to the ducks, but Ben was terrified of them. They two are so opposite. Grace loves animals, but hates bugs, flies, bees.  Ben &#8230; <a href="http://thuongthaole.com/blog/archives/792">Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">&#8594;</span></a>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<!-- RSPEAK_STOP --> <a href='http://wr.readspeaker.com/webreader/webreader.php?cid=470e643e029f563837b34c90a47f8e5d&t=wordpress_free&url=http://thuongthaole.com/blog/archives/792&title=Labor&#8217;s Day Weekend' onclick='readpage(this.href, 792); return false;'> <img src='http://www.thuongthaole.com/blog/img/listen_en_us.gif' border='0' alt='Listen with webReader'></a><div id='WR_792'></div> <!-- RSPEAK_START --> <p>I took Grace and Ben to the playground at Memorial Park on Saturday. Grace had fun feeding bread to the ducks, but Ben was terrified of them. They two are so opposite. Grace loves animals, but hates bugs, flies, bees.  Ben has no problem with insects, but he clings on me like a magnet when it comes to animals,  whether it&#8217;s a dog or chipmunk. Or duck!</p>
<p>We went crawfishing again on Sunday night. This time we had 22 people. It was a blast. It was raining in the late afternoon, so the water rose high which made it harder to catch crawfish. So I thought we didn&#8217;t have enough crawfish for everyone, but turned out we had plenty.  Dien and Lan were great host, and their crawfish recipe was awesome. We finished eating around 2AM and even brought extra food home.</p>
<p>We all had Monday off, so the youth groups want to hang out and we don&#8217;t have anything else to do, so we decided to go to the State Fair. My co-worker, and friends who have been to the State Fair before don&#8217;t have good things to say about State Fair. You know, when someone warns us not to do something, aren&#8217;t we all a little curious to wonder why and attempt to find out, then regret the decision and wish that we should have listen? This is the case for us with State Fair on Labor&#8217;s Day.</p>
<p>Well, everything about the State Fair was just pretty much as people had <em>forewarned </em>us.  It was a 45-minute drive, very hot, crowded, farm animal stinks, expensive foods, boring, etc&#8230; Hahaha. It was still fun we get to hang out together. I was looking for the local food favorite, the steak-on-the-stick, that we had at the Territory Day back in May. We walked the whole area, and found only one place that had steak-on-the-stick, however it wasn&#8217;t the same. We stopped by the carnival rides area before we headed home. Grace and I went on couple rides together. I was afraid she would be terrified, but she really enjoyed it. She insisted going on roller coaster ride, but she is too short for it. Kids and dizziness, not sure why it is fun for them??!!</p>
<p>We got home in the afternoon, chillaxing, played some Sequences games, and then had springrolls for dinner. It has been a while since I last had springrolls, and it was so good!!! We wanted to play volleyball afterward, but when we got the the park, all lights were shut off.  We ended up rent a movie and watched together to conclude our long weekend break. It was fun hanging out.</p>
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		<title>Long Updates to Make Up for Lack Of Posts</title>
		<link>http://thuongthaole.com/blog/archives/780</link>
		<comments>http://thuongthaole.com/blog/archives/780#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 01 Sep 2009 23:46:22 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Thuong</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Activities]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Benjamin]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Faith]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Family]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Foods]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Grace]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Guitar Progress]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Youth group]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Church]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[concert]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Famous Dave BBQ]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[John Morgan]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Lincoln Brewster]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[New Life Church]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Rush of Fools]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[youth]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://thuongthaole.com/blog/?p=780</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[My apology for the lack of posts lately , and my typical excuse would be &#8221;I&#8217;ve been busy&#8220;. However the truth is rather I&#8217;m been lazy.  Also somehow I couldn&#8217;t stay up late like I used to anymore. Usually after my evening devotion time, I would &#8230; <a href="http://thuongthaole.com/blog/archives/780">Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">&#8594;</span></a>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<!-- RSPEAK_STOP --> <a href='http://wr.readspeaker.com/webreader/webreader.php?cid=470e643e029f563837b34c90a47f8e5d&t=wordpress_free&url=http://thuongthaole.com/blog/archives/780&title=Long Updates to Make Up for Lack Of Posts' onclick='readpage(this.href, 780); return false;'> <img src='http://www.thuongthaole.com/blog/img/listen_en_us.gif' border='0' alt='Listen with webReader'></a><div id='WR_780'></div> <!-- RSPEAK_START --> <p>My apology for the lack of posts lately , and my typical excuse would be &#8221;<em>I&#8217;ve been busy</em>&#8220;. However the truth is rather I&#8217;m been lazy.  Also somehow I couldn&#8217;t stay up late like I used to anymore. Usually after my evening devotion time, I would grab my laptop and browse, or write blog,  or find something to watch on the TV until 1AM before I hit the bed. Now, I could hardly open my eyes after I finish my evening prayer.  Sign of old age, I know!</p>
<p>Anyway, here is a long updates with what&#8217;s going on last few weeks.</p>
<p><strong>Kids</strong></p>
<p>Grace is doing fine in 1st grade and has fun at school. We get the hang of managing homework thing every night now.  Grace is also reading everyday, and I&#8217;m very impressed with her developing skill in phonetically pronouncing unknown words by breaking out letters and sounding them.  It&#8217;s amazing! I don&#8217;t know why this skill was never taught when I learned English back in the day in Vietnam.</p>
<p>Benjamin is into cars, or anything with wheels. Anywhere he goes, he brings a car toy with him. He&#8217;s still learning to talk, slowly. Ben goes to sleep by himself without mom or dad laying next to him. Though many occasions, he quietly sneaked out of bed, laying down on the carpet on top of the stair, observing us while we were cleaning in the kitchen.  When he heard me calling him out , &#8220;<em>Benjamin! Go to bed, now!</em>&#8221; he quickly ran back in the room,  climbed onto bed, closed his eyes and pretend he was sleeping. It&#8217;s kinda cute!!</p>
<p><strong>Work</strong></p>
<p>God has been great to us. We are still blessed for having our daily job.  Our company&#8217;s client cuts back, our company has to follow as well. It&#8217;s sad to see co-worker being laid off, or cut back in working hours.  It&#8217;s the ugly sight of this downturn slow economy. Though our hope is still in the Lord, who knows our future, and carries us in the palm of His hand.</p>
<p><strong>Church</strong></p>
<p>Our family&#8217;s been attending New Life Church morning service for about a month now. I&#8217;ve been going with friends before, but now Thao and the kids are joining me, which make me extremely happy. The messages past several months were on Proverbs, and they were so good. I certainly learn a lot, and these series of messages are meaningful, lifechanging to me.  God&#8217;s Words brings conviction, yet refreshing, and certainly makes my life, my family, my marriage happier.  I challenge you to listen or watch these sermons online at the New Life Church website, <a href="http://newlifechurch.org"><strong>http://newlifechurch.org</strong></a>. Your time won&#8217;t be wasted.</p>
<p>After morning service at New Life Church, we usually go out for lunch. Then we rush home to get ready to attend our main church service, the Vietnamese Baptist Church in the afternoon. Thao is still teaching Vietnamese to the kids prior service time. I am still playing guitar for worship. It&#8217;s a long busy Sunday for us, but we are in it for the Lord, to worship Him. Last week message was great, too. That also reminds me to continually praying for my dad for great insight and teaching to bring transformation, revival for the congregation. Dad is also a guest speaker for the convention for the northern states and Canada this Labor&#8217;s Day weekend.</p>
<p><strong>Guitar</strong></p>
<p>Talking about guitar earlier reminds me that I want to tell you I have changed to a different guitar teacher for 5 weeks now. Yeah, I kept saying I will write all about this but that laziness got to me,  you see&#8230;.  I really like this new tearcher, and absolutely learn a whole lot from him. He not only taught me guitar skills, but gave lots of insights in praising and worship.  It&#8217;s pretty awesome. I&#8217;ll talk more about that in another post.</p>
<p><strong> Concerts</strong></p>
<p>Two weeks ago, I went to the Chapel Service at Forcus on the Family with Rush of Fools lead the worship, and John Morgan was the guest speaker.  I wasn&#8217;t planned to go, but I heard of it on the radio on the way to work, and decided to take 2 hours off from work to come. My sisters and two other friends also went.  Without prior information, we probably would be fooled thinking the President George Bush was there. John Morgan not only impersonated the president well, he looked just like the president.  At first I was troubled by the idea of impersonating the president and sharing Gospel message, like how do you make fun of someone and talk about God at the same time. But it actually wasn&#8217;t a comedian showto make fun of the president.  With all the jokes aside, he presented the characteristic of the president that people don&#8217;t see. John&#8217;s message and the testimony were actually quite entertaining, funny yet inspirational.  You should check out his website: <strong><a href="http://www.georgebushimpersonator.com">http://www.georgebushimpersonator.com</a> .</strong></p>
<p>Last week we also went to the Lincoln Brewster concert event hosted by our local Christian Radio. It was pretty awesome as well. I knew about Lincoln and his music, but did not know about his background.  It wasn&#8217;t like typical concert with music after music. He took breaks, joked around, played secular song requests. He introduced his family, talked about his kids, his wife. He gave the testimony about his life, his step-father&#8230;. There was calling and there were people accepting Christ on that night.  It was great. Lincoln is such a talented guitarist, and the praise and worship session was splendid.</p>
<p><strong>Youth</strong></p>
<p>Several youths go to New Life Church with us in the morning. It&#8217;s always fun going with the whole group, and hang out more. Lately, we are hooked on Sequence board game and played that a lot. We still play volleyball after our afternoon church service ends. Last Saturday, we went to Youth Fellowship event in Denver to hang around with other youths. It was been a long time since we last had such event.</p>
<p><strong>Photo</strong></p>
<p>I haven&#8217;t taken any pictures with my camera lately, or I might have and forgot to off load them onto computer. Last week at the Youth Fellowship event, I left my camera at the church and forgot to bring it home, so a friend is holding it for me. There won&#8217;t be any pictures anytime soon until I get my camera back.</p>
<p>But while waiting, enjoy some pictures I took with my phone at the Famous Dave BBQ restaurant last Sunday. I like my new phone, did I tell you that?!</p>
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<p><div class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 210px"><a href="http://thuongthaole.com/gallery/20090830_FamousDave/images/img_1.jpg" rel="lightbox[780]"><img src="http://thuongthaole.com/gallery/20090830_FamousDave/thumbs/img_1.jpg" alt="Moose head" width="200" height="150" /></a><p class="wp-caption-text">Moose head</p></div></td>
<td>
<p><div class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 210px"><a href="http://thuongthaole.com/gallery/20090830_FamousDave/images/img_8.jpg" rel="lightbox[780]"><img src="http://thuongthaole.com/gallery/20090830_FamousDave/thumbs/img_8.jpg" alt="BBQ" width="200" height="150" /></a><p class="wp-caption-text">BBQ</p></div></td>
</tr>
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<td>
<p><div class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 210px"><a href="http://thuongthaole.com/gallery/20090830_FamousDave/images/img_4.jpg" rel="lightbox[780]"><img src="http://thuongthaole.com/gallery/20090830_FamousDave/thumbs/img_4.jpg" alt="Grace" width="200" height="150" /></a><p class="wp-caption-text">Grace</p></div></td>
<td>
<p><div class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 210px"><a href="http://thuongthaole.com/gallery/20090830_FamousDave/images/img_9.jpg" rel="lightbox[780]"><img src="http://thuongthaole.com/gallery/20090830_FamousDave/thumbs/img_9.jpg" alt="Benjamin" width="200" height="150" /></a><p class="wp-caption-text">Benjamin</p></div></td>
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</tbody>
</table>
<p><strong><a href="http://thuongthaole.com/gallery/20090830_FamousDave" target="_blank">See more pictures</a></strong></p>
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		<title>Crawfishing</title>
		<link>http://thuongthaole.com/blog/archives/774</link>
		<comments>http://thuongthaole.com/blog/archives/774#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 21 Aug 2009 03:43:04 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Thuong</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Activities]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Foods]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Outdoor]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Youth group]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[crawfish]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[food]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://thuongthaole.com/blog/?p=774</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Yesterday, I was invited to go crawfishing afterwork. Crawfishing on the weekday?Absurb, yet somehow I couldn&#8217;t refuse. Actually, I haven&#8217;t gone crawfishing since last year so this should be fun. After checking with Thao that she&#8217;s OK keeping the kids and put &#8230; <a href="http://thuongthaole.com/blog/archives/774">Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">&#8594;</span></a>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<!-- RSPEAK_STOP --> <a href='http://wr.readspeaker.com/webreader/webreader.php?cid=470e643e029f563837b34c90a47f8e5d&t=wordpress_free&url=http://thuongthaole.com/blog/archives/774&title=Crawfishing' onclick='readpage(this.href, 774); return false;'> <img src='http://www.thuongthaole.com/blog/img/listen_en_us.gif' border='0' alt='Listen with webReader'></a><div id='WR_774'></div> <!-- RSPEAK_START --> <p>Yesterday, I was invited to go crawfishing afterwork. Crawfishing on the weekday?Absurb, yet somehow I couldn&#8217;t refuse. Actually, I haven&#8217;t gone crawfishing since last year so this should be fun. After checking with Thao that she&#8217;s OK keeping the kids and put them into bed, I headed to the lake with my fellow friends whom have already prepared cooler, buckets, strings, and baits.</p>
<p>After 2.5 hours of  hard manual labor, our dinner was filling up the cooler, to the top. We still wanted to catch some more, but it was almost midnight already and we needed to get home to cook them. You don&#8217;t want to eat crawfish the next day or later. Gotta eat them while they are still fresh. So, we gathered at Dien-Lan&#8217;s house,  washed the crawfish, and cooked them. Actually, I deserved no credit in the preparation part (yeah, shame on me!)  While waiting for the crawfish to cook, we were <span style="text-decoration: line-through;">tortured</span> entertained by Nhan&#8217;s karaoke singing. After a loooong hour later, crawfish was ready!! Dien-Lan wonderfully prepared the crawfish Louisianna&#8217;s style. It was very flavorful, and the corn was great addition. We finished eating around 3:00AM. I soon headed home after that to rest and to wake up at 7h30 to begin my work day.</p>
<p>Strange but I did not feel sleepy at work today. Must be the crawfish.</p>
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<p><div class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 210px"><a href="http://thuongthaole.com/gallery/20090819_Crawfishing/images/img_01.jpg" rel="lightbox[774]"><img src="http://thuongthaole.com/gallery/20090819_Crawfishing/thumbs/img_01.jpg" alt="Cooking" width="200" height="150" /></a><p class="wp-caption-text">Cooking</p></div></td>
<td>
<p><div class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 210px"><a href="http://thuongthaole.com/gallery/20090819_Crawfishing/images/img_07.jpg" rel="lightbox[774]"><img src="http://thuongthaole.com/gallery/20090819_Crawfishing/thumbs/img_07.jpg" alt="Dinner is ready" width="200" height="150" /></a><p class="wp-caption-text">Dinner is ready</p></div></td>
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<p><div class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 210px"><a href="http://thuongthaole.com/gallery/20090819_Crawfishing/images/img_03.jpg" rel="lightbox[774]"><img src="http://thuongthaole.com/gallery/20090819_Crawfishing/thumbs/img_03.jpg" alt="Crawfishers" width="200" height="150" /></a><p class="wp-caption-text">Crawfishers</p></div></td>
<td>
<p><div class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 210px"><a href="http://thuongthaole.com/gallery/20090819_Crawfishing/images/img_05.jpg" rel="lightbox[774]"><img src="http://thuongthaole.com/gallery/20090819_Crawfishing/thumbs/img_05.jpg" alt="Chefs" width="200" height="150" /></a><p class="wp-caption-text">Chefs</p></div></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p><strong><a href="http://thuongthaole.com/gallery/20090819_Crawfishing" target="_blank">See more pictures</a></strong>. Sorry for the low-res pictures. I didn&#8217;t have the camera with me so I used my cell phone.</p>
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		<title>School Starts</title>
		<link>http://thuongthaole.com/blog/archives/726</link>
		<comments>http://thuongthaole.com/blog/archives/726#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 05 Aug 2009 16:56:28 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Thuong</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[School]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[elementary]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Grace]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[school]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://thuongthaole.com/blog/?p=726</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Backpack, check! Supplies, check! Lunch money, check! Grace is going to 1st grade this year, and today marks her first day of school. A school year has begun! This school district has 2 weeks of Fall Break and and 2 &#8230; <a href="http://thuongthaole.com/blog/archives/726">Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">&#8594;</span></a>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<!-- RSPEAK_STOP --> <a href='http://wr.readspeaker.com/webreader/webreader.php?cid=470e643e029f563837b34c90a47f8e5d&t=wordpress_free&url=http://thuongthaole.com/blog/archives/726&title=School Starts' onclick='readpage(this.href, 726); return false;'> <img src='http://www.thuongthaole.com/blog/img/listen_en_us.gif' border='0' alt='Listen with webReader'></a><div id='WR_726'></div> <!-- RSPEAK_START --> <div id="attachment_727" class="wp-caption alignleft" style="width: 210px"><a href="http://thuongthaole.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/Grace_1stGrade.jpg" rel="lightbox[726]"><img class="size-full wp-image-727" title="Grace 1st Grade" src="http://thuongthaole.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/Grace_1stGrade.jpg" alt="Grace 1st Grade" width="200" height="150" /></a><p class="wp-caption-text">First day of school</p></div>
<p>Backpack, check! Supplies, check! Lunch money, check! Grace is going to 1st grade this year, and today marks her first day of school. A school year has begun! This school district has 2 weeks of Fall Break and and 2 weeks of Springs Break, hence their school year begins earlier and ends later than other schools.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Grace doesn&#8217;t seem to mind going to school though. She catches up with her friends, and stats chit chat right away while lining up. This year she will experiences full day schedule, and eat lunch in cafeteria for the first time. Somehow I have a feeling it&#8217;s going to be a long day for her. But she&#8217;ll be alright.</p>
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		<title>Attended the Vietnamese Southern Baptist 25th Convention</title>
		<link>http://thuongthaole.com/blog/archives/678</link>
		<comments>http://thuongthaole.com/blog/archives/678#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 07 Jul 2009 06:14:34 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Thuong</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Activities]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Faith]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Family]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Grace]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Traveling]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Convention]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Dai Hoi Baptit]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Dallas]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[witnessing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Youtube]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://thuongthaole.com/blog/?p=678</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[We just got back from the Vietnamese Southern Baptist 25th Convention in Dallas, Texas.  There were about 1400 registered attendees, and 1500+ came to Sunday service. The weather was crazy hot, 100 Fahrenheit, but most of the time, we were indoor in the hotel where the air &#8230; <a href="http://thuongthaole.com/blog/archives/678">Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">&#8594;</span></a>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<!-- RSPEAK_STOP --> <a href='http://wr.readspeaker.com/webreader/webreader.php?cid=470e643e029f563837b34c90a47f8e5d&t=wordpress_free&url=http://thuongthaole.com/blog/archives/678&title=Attended the Vietnamese Southern Baptist 25th Convention' onclick='readpage(this.href, 678); return false;'> <img src='http://www.thuongthaole.com/blog/img/listen_en_us.gif' border='0' alt='Listen with webReader'></a><div id='WR_678'></div> <!-- RSPEAK_START --> <p>We just got back from the Vietnamese Southern Baptist 25th Convention in Dallas, Texas.  There were about 1400 registered attendees, and 1500+ came to Sunday service. The weather was crazy hot, 100 Fahrenheit, but most of the time, we were indoor in the hotel where the air conditioner was running full time. I brought a netbook along and thought I might write the journal recap of the 4-day events (beside using it as entertainment mean to keep the kids occupied while waiting at airport of on an air plane.) As it turn out, wi-fi wasn&#8217;t available at the air port, and internet wasn&#8217;t free (wasn&#8217;t cheap either) at the hotel.  There is a business center at the hotel, but I was too lazy to take elevator down there to spend time in that isolated room anyway.</p>
<p>The program was all right; there were goods and bads. We got to see our friends and familiar faces from all over the States. Some workshops were interesting. Out of all the things to complain, I have to say it&#8217;s the foods, which were really bad. For this huge number of attendees, it is understandable that the food wouldn&#8217;t be great, but it wasn&#8217;t even decent. We wasn&#8217;t planned to tour Dallas, thus we didn&#8217;t rent a car. Otherwise, we would have eating out for lunch and dinner.  Benjamin didn&#8217;t eat much for the 4-day event there. There wasn&#8217;t a fridge in the room either, so we had to go to the restaurant downstair to purchase milk  every breakfast, lunch and dinner. Sometime they gave us for free, other time they charged $1.50 each. It was weird.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>But anyway, not to get caught up in my silly little whining rant,  I actually had a great time. The highlight of the trip for me was to participate in the Evangelism Explosion workshop, and hand-on experience by going out to the Vietnamese market and witnessing the next day. After the workshop, I spent sometime in prayers and asked God to prepare me for the witnessing trip. There were many things to hold me back: fear, lazy, sports event that I want to go to, etc&#8230; but after the pray, I felt ready and made up my mind about coming to the witnessing trip. I prayed for 5 people whom God will prepare for me to listen to the Good News.</p>
<p>On the day of the event, we were dividing into groups of 3 or 4 people, and being dropped off at several Vietnamese markets or shopping mall. My group was assigned to the strip mall, not the actual mall that has indoor shops. It was very hot outside at 2:00 PM, in100F.  I&#8217;m not used to this kind of heat, and my vampire skin hasn&#8217;t been exposed to such sunlight for extended period of time, so I was a little nervous walking around in this weather. But I believe that God has prepared the 5 people I prayed about, right here, in this strip mall, so I shouldn&#8217;t focus on my own confort right now.  It was interesting though, and our God is great. Somehow the electric in these shops was out, so the AC wasn&#8217;t running.  People closed their business and stood outside the door waiting for the electric to turn back on. I&#8217;m not sure when the electric was out, but I just noticed it after our group finished witnessing to the first person. There, you see, it must be His amazing work. So, opportunity just presented itself to us. There stood this big man with tatoos all over his 2 arms in front of his shop. His look was definitely intimidating, but for some reason my legs were approaching him, and my mouth started asking his name, and witnessing the Gospel to him.  God just gave me a nudge, a courage that I normally don&#8217;t have. Few minutes later, this man wanted me to pray for him to accept Christ and the gift of heaven. It was amazing! His name is Tien (I don&#8217;t know the last name, forgot to ask)&#8230;  And of course, God is faithful, more so than we ever know, and He gave abundantly. We have talked to 7 people, and 3 people came to Christ. The others received the message and hopefully the seed has sown in their heart and it will grow one day. Oh yeah, the shop of same man that I witnessed to was selling beverages, so he just gave us couple icy cold water bottles for free. Certainly great to  beat the heat! It was awesome! There was one drunk Mexican man came on a bike, and he came chatting with us for a while. Lots of things he said we didn&#8217;t understand, but he did mention something fixing the roof for $300&#8230; hahaha.  We thanked for his time, and gave him a cold bottle of water, and he seemed very appreciated it. Anyway, that was a great experience for me, and hopefully it inspires you in some way.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Grace really wanted to swim in the swimming pool, and she kept asking us to go. It was way too hot during the day and so crowded in the afternoon, so we didn&#8217;t want her to go. But eventually, Thao took Grace and Benjamin to the swimming pool to cool off in one of the afternoon. They had a blast. Grace  also had fun in the children class. They were taught to sing and dance to the song &#8220;You Are Holy&#8221; by Planet Shakers. They performed it on Sunday in the last service. It was also the only chance I used my camera that I brought along the trip.  Here is the video uploaded to Youtube.</p>
<p>[There is a video that cannot be displayed in this feed. <a href="http://thuongthaole.com/blog/archives/678">Visit the blog entry to see the video.]</a></p>
<p> </p>
<p>Now the Convention is over. You know what worry me? Next year 26th Convention is in Denver. Here, in Colorado. There are a lot of works ahead of us. Scary!</p>
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		<title>Celebrating Father&#8217;s Day</title>
		<link>http://thuongthaole.com/blog/archives/655</link>
		<comments>http://thuongthaole.com/blog/archives/655#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 24 Jun 2009 23:05:31 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Thuong</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Activities]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Church Activities]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Family]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Father's Day]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Foods]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Outdoor]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[food]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[park]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[song]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Youtube]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://thuongthaole.com/blog/?p=655</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[It sort of becomes a church tradition that we celebrate Mother&#8217;s Day and Father&#8217;s Day in the park.  Within the past few years, we have been to most of the public parks in Colorado Springs. This year, we celebrated the Father&#8217;s &#8230; <a href="http://thuongthaole.com/blog/archives/655">Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">&#8594;</span></a>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<!-- RSPEAK_STOP --> <a href='http://wr.readspeaker.com/webreader/webreader.php?cid=470e643e029f563837b34c90a47f8e5d&t=wordpress_free&url=http://thuongthaole.com/blog/archives/655&title=Celebrating Father&#8217;s Day' onclick='readpage(this.href, 655); return false;'> <img src='http://www.thuongthaole.com/blog/img/listen_en_us.gif' border='0' alt='Listen with webReader'></a><div id='WR_655'></div> <!-- RSPEAK_START --> <p>It sort of becomes a church tradition that we celebrate Mother&#8217;s Day and Father&#8217;s Day in the park.  Within the past few years, we have been to most of the public parks in Colorado Springs. This year, we celebrated the Father&#8217;s Day in the <strong>America the Beautiful Park</strong>, which we haven&#8217;t been to before. What makes this park special is its water fountain, which has a structural O-shape that spins around and a water wall showers down from it. I don&#8217;t know the significance symbolic meaning of it but it looks cool nonetheless.  I was a little surprised to see the water fountain was running. I heard due to state budget cutback, the water fountain was going to be out of service for the summer, but apparently some lady donated money to keep it running.</p>
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<td><a href="http://thuongthaole.com/gallery/20090621_FathersDay/images/img_002.jpg" rel="lightbox[655]"><img class=" " src="http://thuongthaole.com/gallery/20090621_FathersDay/thumbs/img_002.jpg" alt="America the Beautiful park" width="150" height="120" /></a></td>
<td><a href="http://thuongthaole.com/gallery/20090621_FathersDay/images/img_006.jpg" rel="lightbox[655]"><img class=" " src="http://thuongthaole.com/gallery/20090621_FathersDay/thumbs/img_006.jpg" alt="Pavillion" width="150" height="120" /></a></td>
<td><a href="http://thuongthaole.com/gallery/20090621_FathersDay/images/img_010.jpg" rel="lightbox[655]"><img class=" " src="http://thuongthaole.com/gallery/20090621_FathersDay/thumbs/img_010.jpg" alt="Getting ready" width="150" height="120" /></a></td>
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<p>There was only one pavilion in the park, and we reserved it for the service. We began service around 10:30AM. My brother, Bao lead the program and he did a great job. There were several tributes, poems, and thoughts dedicates to Fathers besides the message from our pastor.  Bao also shared his very emotional testimony, about how much love Dad has treated him that has much to do in turning his life around. I&#8217;m very glad to see the transformation God did in his life. It&#8217;s truly made possible by God, but no doubt with countless of prayers and love from Mom and Dad.</p>
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<td><a href="http://thuongthaole.com/gallery/20090621_FathersDay/images/img_007.jpg" rel="lightbox[655]"><img class=" " src="http://thuongthaole.com/gallery/20090621_FathersDay/thumbs/img_007.jpg" alt="Poem" width="150" height="120" /></a></td>
<td><a href="http://thuongthaole.com/gallery/20090621_FathersDay/images/img_020.jpg" rel="lightbox[655]"><img class=" " src="http://thuongthaole.com/gallery/20090621_FathersDay/thumbs/img_020.jpg" alt="Song" width="150" height="120" /></a></td>
<td><a href="http://thuongthaole.com/gallery/20090621_FathersDay/images/img_023.jpg" rel="lightbox[655]"><img class=" " src="http://thuongthaole.com/gallery/20090621_FathersDay/thumbs/img_023.jpg" alt="Tribute" width="150" height="120" /></a></td>
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<td><a href="http://thuongthaole.com/gallery/20090621_FathersDay/images/img_059.jpg" rel="lightbox[655]"><img class=" " src="http://thuongthaole.com/gallery/20090621_FathersDay/thumbs/img_059.jpg" alt="Sermon" width="150" height="120" /></a></td>
<td><a href="http://thuongthaole.com/gallery/20090621_FathersDay/images/img_080.jpg" rel="lightbox[655]"><img class=" " src="http://thuongthaole.com/gallery/20090621_FathersDay/thumbs/img_080.jpg" alt="Gifts" width="150" height="120" /></a></td>
<td><a href="http://thuongthaole.com/gallery/20090621_FathersDay/images/img_114.jpg" rel="lightbox[655]"><img class=" " src="http://thuongthaole.com/gallery/20090621_FathersDay/thumbs/img_114.jpg" alt="Thank" width="150" height="120" /></a></td>
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<p>A highlight of the event for me was a chance to sing with Grace, my daughter. Actually, it wasn&#8217;t planned. Earlier in the week, I wanted to sing the song &#8220;<strong>Your Favorite Name is Father</strong>&#8221; by Newsong, but I haven&#8217;t be able to play the guitar for the song yet. Fortunately, I found a sheet music for it, and started practice on Saturday. Grace heard me sang it couple times when I was practicing. On Sunday morning, when we were on the way to the park, I was singing and hear Grace was singing along the chorus part.  So I then asked her to sing with me.  She echoed what I  sang in the verse, and sang the chorus together with me. I think she did beautifully. It is such a wonderful song and meaningful lyric, but it has become even more meaningful when Grace sang it with me.</p>
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<td><a href="http://thuongthaole.com/gallery/20090621_FathersDay/images/img_041.jpg" rel="lightbox[655]"><img class=" " src="http://thuongthaole.com/gallery/20090621_FathersDay/thumbs/img_041.jpg" alt="Grace and I" width="150" height="120" /></a></td>
<td><a href="http://thuongthaole.com/gallery/20090621_FathersDay/images/img_044.jpg" rel="lightbox[655]"><img class=" " src="http://thuongthaole.com/gallery/20090621_FathersDay/thumbs/img_044.jpg" alt="Tribute" width="120" height="150" /></a></td>
<td><a href="http://thuongthaole.com/gallery/20090621_FathersDay/images/img_051.jpg" rel="lightbox[655]"><img class=" " src="http://thuongthaole.com/gallery/20090621_FathersDay/thumbs/img_051.jpg" alt="Singing with Grace" width="150" height="120" /></a></td>
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<td><a href="http://thuongthaole.com/gallery/20090621_FathersDay/images/img_022.jpg" rel="lightbox[655]"><img class=" " src="http://thuongthaole.com/gallery/20090621_FathersDay/thumbs/img_022.jpg" alt="Grace" width="150" height="120" /></a></td>
<td><a href="http://thuongthaole.com/gallery/20090621_FathersDay/images/img_033.jpg" rel="lightbox[655]"><img class=" " src="http://thuongthaole.com/gallery/20090621_FathersDay/thumbs/img_033.jpg" alt="Benjamin" width="150" height="120" /></a></td>
<td><a href="http://thuongthaole.com/gallery/20090621_FathersDay/images/img_037.jpg" rel="lightbox[655]"><img class=" " src="http://thuongthaole.com/gallery/20090621_FathersDay/thumbs/img_037.jpg" alt="Thank" width="150" height="120" /></a></td>
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<td><a href="http://thuongthaole.com/gallery/20090621_FathersDay/images/img_070.jpg" rel="lightbox[655]"><img class=" " src="http://thuongthaole.com/gallery/20090621_FathersDay/thumbs/img_070.jpg" alt="Youth" width="150" height="120" /></a></td>
<td><a href="http://thuongthaole.com/gallery/20090621_FathersDay/images/img_098.jpg" rel="lightbox[655]"><img class=" " src="http://thuongthaole.com/gallery/20090621_FathersDay/thumbs/img_098.jpg" alt="Jahmal" width="150" height="120" /></a></td>
<td><a href="http://thuongthaole.com/gallery/20090621_FathersDay/images/img_105.jpg" rel="lightbox[655]"><img class=" " src="http://thuongthaole.com/gallery/20090621_FathersDay/thumbs/img_105.jpg" alt="Joseph" width="150" height="120" /></a></td>
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<p>If you are unfamiliar with the song, check it out on this YouTube video.</p>
<p>[There is a video that cannot be displayed in this feed. <a href="http://thuongthaole.com/blog/archives/655">Visit the blog entry to see the video.]</a></p>
<p>With many tributes and messages from the Fathers, our program stretched a bit passed 12:30pm. After presenting gifts for all the Fathers, we ended our service with closing prayer. I was very hungry, but fortunately, the  ladies in the church had already prepared wonderful lunch for us, readily in boxes.  Don&#8217;t they look awesome? There were several dessert dishes too, but I was too busy eating and forgot to take  pictures.</p>
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<td><a href="http://thuongthaole.com/gallery/20090621_FathersDay/images/img_129.jpg" rel="lightbox[655]"><img class=" " src="http://thuongthaole.com/gallery/20090621_FathersDay/thumbs/img_129.jpg" alt="Food boxes" width="150" height="120" /></a></td>
<td><a href="http://thuongthaole.com/gallery/20090621_FathersDay/images/img_134.jpg" rel="lightbox[655]"><img class=" " src="http://thuongthaole.com/gallery/20090621_FathersDay/thumbs/img_134.jpg" alt="Lunch" width="150" height="120" /></a></td>
<td><a href="http://thuongthaole.com/gallery/20090621_FathersDay/images/img_135.jpg" rel="lightbox[655]"><img class=" " src="http://thuongthaole.com/gallery/20090621_FathersDay/thumbs/img_135.jpg" alt="Shrimps" width="150" height="120" /></a></td>
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<p>After lunch, we took several group pictures, hang around a bit. Many people came to the park now, and it just got way warmer.  We brought volleybal net but apparently they don&#8217;t allow us to set it up the field, so we decided to play volleyball in a different park where we used to play.  We cleaned up and headed home.</p>
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<td><a href="http://thuongthaole.com/gallery/20090621_FathersDay/images/img_140.jpg" rel="lightbox[655]"><img class=" " src="http://thuongthaole.com/gallery/20090621_FathersDay/thumbs/img_140.jpg" alt="Group Picture " width="150" height="120" /></a></td>
<td><a href="http://thuongthaole.com/gallery/20090621_FathersDay/images/img_141.jpg" rel="lightbox[655]"><img class=" " src="http://thuongthaole.com/gallery/20090621_FathersDay/thumbs/img_141.jpg" alt="Group Picture 2" width="150" height="120" /></a></td>
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<td><a href="http://thuongthaole.com/gallery/20090621_FathersDay/images/img_142.jpg" rel="lightbox[655]"><img class=" " src="http://thuongthaole.com/gallery/20090621_FathersDay/thumbs/img_142.jpg" alt="Group Picture 3" width="150" height="120" /></a></td>
<td><a href="http://thuongthaole.com/gallery/20090621_FathersDay/images/img_143.jpg" rel="lightbox[655]"><img class=" " src="http://thuongthaole.com/gallery/20090621_FathersDay/thumbs/img_143.jpg" alt="Group Picture 4" width="150" height="120" /></a></td>
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<p>We and couple friends just hung out, watched soccer game, and the pictures from Linh and Peter&#8217;s Vietnam trip, then played some board game.  My sisters, Linh and Nguyen, prepared the chicken wings and steaks. We had a sit-down BBQ for dinner, in the backyard, and it was great. Lots of fun and foods.</p>
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<td><a href="http://thuongthaole.com/gallery/20090621_FathersDayDinner/images/img_01.jpg" rel="lightbox[655]"><img class=" " src="http://thuongthaole.com/gallery/20090621_FathersDayDinner/thumbs/img_01.jpg" alt="Thao" width="150" height="120" /></a></td>
<td><a href="http://thuongthaole.com/gallery/20090621_FathersDayDinner/images/img_02.jpg" rel="lightbox[655]"><img class=" " src="http://thuongthaole.com/gallery/20090621_FathersDayDinner/thumbs/img_02.jpg" alt="Peter cooks juicy ribeye steak" width="150" height="120" /></a></td>
<td><a href="http://thuongthaole.com/gallery/20090621_FathersDayDinner/images/img_14.jpg" rel="lightbox[655]"><img class=" " src="http://thuongthaole.com/gallery/20090621_FathersDayDinner/thumbs/img_14.jpg" alt="Peter and Linh" width="150" height="120" /></a></td>
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<td><a href="http://thuongthaole.com/gallery/20090621_FathersDayDinner/images/img_15.jpg" rel="lightbox[655]"><img class=" " src="http://thuongthaole.com/gallery/20090621_FathersDayDinner/thumbs/img_15.jpg" alt="Mom and Dad" width="150" height="120" /></a></td>
<td><a href="http://thuongthaole.com/gallery/20090621_FathersDayDinner/images/img_21.jpg" rel="lightbox[655]"><img class=" " src="http://thuongthaole.com/gallery/20090621_FathersDayDinner/thumbs/img_21.jpg" alt="Thuong and Thao" width="150" height="120" /></a></td>
<td><a href="http://thuongthaole.com/gallery/20090621_FathersDayDinner/images/img_28.jpg" rel="lightbox[655]"><img class=" " src="http://thuongthaole.com/gallery/20090621_FathersDayDinner/thumbs/img_28.jpg" alt="Nguyen, Damon, Destiny and Jahmal" width="150" height="120" /></a></td>
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<td><a href="http://thuongthaole.com/gallery/20090621_FathersDayDinner/images/img_08.jpg" rel="lightbox[655]"><img class=" " src="http://thuongthaole.com/gallery/20090621_FathersDayDinner/thumbs/img_08.jpg" alt="Grace" width="150" height="120" /></a></td>
<td><a href="http://thuongthaole.com/gallery/20090621_FathersDayDinner/images/img_19.jpg" rel="lightbox[655]"><img class=" " src="http://thuongthaole.com/gallery/20090621_FathersDayDinner/thumbs/img_19.jpg" alt="Benjamin" width="150" height="120" /></a></td>
<td><a href="http://thuongthaole.com/gallery/20090621_FathersDayDinner/images/img_20.jpg" rel="lightbox[655]"><img class=" " src="http://thuongthaole.com/gallery/20090621_FathersDayDinner/thumbs/img_20.jpg" alt="Bao" width="150" height="120" /></a></td>
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<td><a href="http://thuongthaole.com/gallery/20090621_FathersDayDinner/images/img_07.jpg" rel="lightbox[655]"><img class=" " src="http://thuongthaole.com/gallery/20090621_FathersDayDinner/thumbs/img_07.jpg" alt="Family and friends" width="150" height="120" /></a></td>
<td><a href="http://thuongthaole.com/gallery/20090621_FathersDayDinner/images/img_03.jpg" rel="lightbox[655]"><img class=" " src="http://thuongthaole.com/gallery/20090621_FathersDayDinner/thumbs/img_03.jpg" alt="Family and Friends" width="150" height="120" /></a></td>
<td><a href="http://thuongthaole.com/gallery/20090621_FathersDayDinner/images/img_05.jpg" rel="lightbox[655]"><img class=" " src="http://thuongthaole.com/gallery/20090621_FathersDayDinner/thumbs/img_05.jpg" alt="Vegetables" width="150" height="120" /></a></td>
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<td><a href="http://thuongthaole.com/gallery/20090621_FathersDayDinner/images/img_06.jpg" rel="lightbox[655]"><img class=" " src="http://thuongthaole.com/gallery/20090621_FathersDayDinner/thumbs/img_06.jpg" alt="Fried sweet potatoes" width="150" height="120" /></a></td>
<td><a href="http://thuongthaole.com/gallery/20090621_FathersDayDinner/images/img_24.jpg" rel="lightbox[655]"><img class=" " src="http://thuongthaole.com/gallery/20090621_FathersDayDinner/thumbs/img_24.jpg" alt="Medium rare" width="150" height="120" /></a></td>
<td><a href="http://thuongthaole.com/gallery/20090621_FathersDayDinner/images/img_26.jpg" rel="lightbox[655]"><img class=" " src="http://thuongthaole.com/gallery/20090621_FathersDayDinner/thumbs/img_26.jpg" alt="Full plate" width="150" height="120" /></a></td>
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<p>Around 8:30pm, we head to the park and played some volleyball until 11:00pm. Ah, not to be surprised but we play volleyball this late all the time, after church service, every summer. That concludes a long, eventful, and memorable Father&#8217;s Day for me.</p>
<p>See all Father&#8217;s Day  pictures <strong><a href="http://thuongthaole.com/gallery/20090621_FathersDay" target="_blank">here</a></strong> and <a href="http://thuongthaole.com/gallery/20090621_FathersDayDinner" target="_blank"><strong>here</strong> </a></p>
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		<title>Summer Activities</title>
		<link>http://thuongthaole.com/blog/archives/646</link>
		<comments>http://thuongthaole.com/blog/archives/646#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 17 Jun 2009 19:28:52 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Thuong</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Activities]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Benjamin]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Entertainment]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Family]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Grace]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Outdoor]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[summer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[swimming]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://thuongthaole.com/blog/?p=646</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[My kids are looking forward to summer break. I know I used to when I once was (or still am ??! hmmm&#8230;)  They can go to bed late, and don&#8217;t have to wake up early. They look forward to summer vacation, &#8230; <a href="http://thuongthaole.com/blog/archives/646">Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">&#8594;</span></a>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<!-- RSPEAK_STOP --> <a href='http://wr.readspeaker.com/webreader/webreader.php?cid=470e643e029f563837b34c90a47f8e5d&t=wordpress_free&url=http://thuongthaole.com/blog/archives/646&title=Summer Activities' onclick='readpage(this.href, 646); return false;'> <img src='http://www.thuongthaole.com/blog/img/listen_en_us.gif' border='0' alt='Listen with webReader'></a><div id='WR_646'></div> <!-- RSPEAK_START --> <p>My kids are looking forward to summer break. I know I used to when I once was (or still am ??! hmmm&#8230;)  They can go to bed late, and don&#8217;t have to wake up early. They look forward to summer vacation, outdoor activities, fun things to do&#8230; It will be a very long and boring summer if there is nothing to do.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Grace has been asking me to set up the pool in the backyard. We did that last year and maybe used it once or twice. But this year, the weather hasn&#8217;t been hot enough and it rains every afternoon.  So, we think she probably would enjoy  swimming lesson by now. Last year, we wanted to sign her up for swimming lesson, but she did not want to go.  I don&#8217;t know what change this year, but apparently she is very excited and tells everyone about her swimming class.  Grace starts at the very beginning level, because we want her to feel comfortable with the water. She&#8217;s somewhat afraid of being under the water, so there is no reason to skip ahead, then scare and scar the kid for life. Thao switches role with me to take Grace to swimming class in the morning, while I take care of Benjamin (showering, changing, feeding&#8230;  you know, all that jazz) before dropping him off at daycare.  The swimming class will last 2 weeks. Grace  has had couple classes, and she really enjoyed it. It&#8217;s funny! She does not ask us to stay up late anymore knowing she has swimming lesson in the morning. Also, she gets up quickly now, no snoozing.   She tells me all about the 3 seconds submarine, the pencil body formation, the hand shovel, not fork to dig the water, and &#8230; her friend Cody in swimming class.  LOL!  I am really glad that she likes it, more comfortable in the water, and of course, will know how to swim very soon.</p>
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<p><div class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 160px"><a href="http://www.thuongthaole.com/gallery/20090615_GraceSwimming/images/img_01.jpg" rel="lightbox[646]"><img src="http://www.thuongthaole.com/gallery/20090615_GraceSwimming/thumbs/img_01.jpg" alt="" width="150" height="200" /></a><p class="wp-caption-text">Get ready..</p></div></td>
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<p><div class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 210px"><a href="http://thuongthaole.com/gallery/20090615_GraceSwimming/images/img_09.jpg" rel="lightbox[646]"><img src="http://thuongthaole.com/gallery/20090615_GraceSwimming/thumbs/img_09.jpg" alt="" width="200" height="150" /></a><p class="wp-caption-text">Get in the water</p></div></td>
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<div><strong><a href="http://thuongthaole.com/gallery/20090615_GraceSwimming" target=" _">more pictures</a></strong></div>
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<p>Nothing fun planned for Benjamin yet, or maybe he doesn&#8217;t know the difference anyway! We just don&#8217;t know what activities would fit for him yet, but whatever they are, definitely one of us has to be involved.  We usually take Ben and Grace to the park in the late afternoon, after picking them up from daycare. They swing, slide, climb&#8230;. you know, be a kid!  Unfortunately, there is no plan for summer vacation this year. With the blurry future of the economy, we probably should stick with Stay-cation instead. Bring vacation home!! Though, this July, we will be in Texas for the Vietnamese Baptist Convention. It&#8217;s not really a vacation, but definitely a  short break from our normal routine. To the kids, staying in hotels is like vacation to them.  Then, Summer Bible Vacation will start pretty soon in July.</p>
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<p>We were talking about camping recently. We haven&#8217;t done that for years.  I love camping and I want the kids to experience it, too.  All the tent setup, sleeping bags, campfire, roasted marshmallow, jokes, songs &#8230; all of that&#8230; and no bear! But I don&#8217;t know when that will become reality. There are still rollerblade, and teach Grace to ride bicycle without the assistant wheels.</p>
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<p>So what&#8217;s fun for daddy and mommy? None! Just working! &#8230; but there&#8217;s always volleybal!!! hahaha &#8230; We haven&#8217;t played much due to bad weather, but I am ready to hit few balls  every week.</p>
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