October In November

I celebrated a relatively significant milestone in life when I turned 35 in October and I realize I had not posted anything about it, so for those who have been waiting to see some pictures here you go.

After a really long day working (on my birthday), it was nice to have a friend like Jarron take me out to “celebrate.”  We hit up a new establishment that seemed to have a decent happy hour.  The food was good but in very small portions so we spent more money that we thought we would for a happy hour.

My birthday cake compliments of Lily – she made an delicious Chocolate Cake for me.  The Chens invited me over after my birthday to have a belated celebration.  Aik bought food from our favorite Indian restaurant Shamiana.  It was tasty!  I love these guys!  We didn’t keep track of time that night and by the time we were done catching up it was after 2 am!  We’re a little old for that these days.

Baby Alexis napping

Baby Alexis posing for the camera.  She has grown so much!

Miss Janelle picking out candles for me.  She asked how many I needed and I said two would be great :)

Aik and Janelle lighting the candles.

Janelle staring it down – the girl loves the chocolate frosting

Birthday boy with the Chen girls

I am so thankful to Jarron, the Chens and my family and all my friends who sent wishes and made my birthday week fun.  It wasn’t quite the way I had planned to start my 35th year, but I know God is in charge and it is going to be an amazing year and I am looking forward to it.

Here’s a random picture of the sunrise as I drove to church the Sunday after my birthday – we serve a incredible Creator!

Baby Alexis Chen

Congratulations Aik, Lily & big sis Janelle!

The Chen family welcomed baby Alexis Chen on July 31, 2009 around 5:30 am.  She was 7.5 lbs and 19.5 inches.  She is a very beautiful baby girl.  Lily is tired but doing great.  Aik is doing a great job being a husband and dad of 2 kids with minimal sleep.

Easter Weekend

Jesus is alive and Jesus is Lord!  What a great weekend of celebration!  I am a little wiped out but it was worthwhile.

Here are some highlights:

Community Easter Egg Hunt – Every year our church put together a Easter Egg Hunt for the Redmond Ridge community.  It is very exciting to be engaged with our community but it takes a lot of work and a lot of manpower.  Every year we also experience little miracles with regards to the weather.  Basically every year rain is forecasted for the egg hunt and every year it rains before and right after the egg hunt.  God answers our prayers and clears up the sky for the period of the outdoor egg hunt.  It is pretty amazing.

 

 

 

Janelle, Lily, Aik & Lindsey

 

 

 

 

 

The Chens and me

 

Opening up the eggs and keeping the candy.

Justin & Bree’s Wedding Reception – Later that evening I went to a wedding reception for my boss’s (Tim) stepdaughter’s wedding reception.  My co-worker Rick and I went together.  I have known Bree since she was a high school student and she worked with us just before she graduated high school.  I was also looking forward to see Adrian (Tim’s son) who has been living in Alaska the past few years.  I have seen Adrian grow up from a young boy to a young man today.  It was a fun evening of catching up.

 

 

 

 

 

Tim & Bree

 

 

 

 

The boys all decked out. (Rick, Adrian and me)

 

Easter Sunday – We had an awesome Sunday gathering.  We put together a really cool presentation using real stories, images, music, scripture and spoken word to illustrate the power of the resurrection and how our lives can be changed.

My good friends Marcelo and Elise invited me for Easter dinner later that evening.  I love these guys and it was a blast to hang out, eat and just chill.

Elise made a wonderful meal and I am thankful for the invitation to celebrate together.

That was my eventful weekend and now I am ready to crash and start a brand new day and new week.

Thank you Jesus for dying on the cross of my sin and life is different because You defeated death and rose again.

Celebrating 34

"Wow, that's fast!" said my mum, reacting to my turning 34 this week - that started my birthday week.  It has been a fun week celebrating my birthday.  Thanks to certain technology, I have heard from friends from all over the world and from people I didn't expect to hear from.  All I can say is I am blessed and very thankful for this life I have.  God is so good.

Here are some highlights from my week:

Early Celebrations with the Chens

Aik baked me a cake with home made whip cream

Posing with Janelle - she loves that whip cream!

BFF - Aik showing me how to use my camera in black and white - a little blurry.

 

Celebrating the day of:

On our way to my birthday lunch with the guys from work.  We decided to have a little Thai food to celebrate.

Pen Thai Restaurant - good food here.

L to R - Tofu, Tim (my boss), Jireh, Jackson & Rick

Checking out my first gift - a mountable mini tambourine.  Thanks Paul!

Setting up my tambourine.

Checking out my next gift - Brazilian chocolate candy.  Yummy! Thanks Marcelo & Elise!

My life group members surprised me by organizing a little celebration.  It was really fun and it was much appreciated.

Here's me being goofy, posing with some flowers.

“Listen to advice and accept instruction, and in the end you will be wise. Many are the plans in a man's heart, but it is the LORD's purpose that prevails.”- Proverbs 19:20-21 - This passage spoke to me this week.  I am getting older and entering my mid-30s and I have experienced quite a bit in life but I was reminded that I have so much more to learn and experience and truly at the end of the day, the Lord's purpose is what I want in my life and what will prevail.

Thank you all for a great week!

Singapore's National Day - August 9

Last weekend, Singapore, my home country, celebrated its 43rd year of independence.  I have tried to celebrate the National Day each year in some way, more so after my friend Aik moved here.  Although I have lived here in the States for 13 years, I am still proud of my home country.  I have learnt to appreciate the freedoms both the US and Singapore have afforded us as citizens.  As the old saying goes, freedom doesn't come cheap.

Aerial view of the Singapore downtown skyline - you can also see the platform on the water where the parade and celebrations were held for Singapore's National Day.

As a start to our own celebrations here, the Chen family (Aik, Lily & Janelle) decided to get together starting on Friday night.  Not only were we celebrating National Day, we were also celebrating Aik's 35th birthday; and what better way to celebrate than to have Asian food, Indian food particularly, to start our weekend.  We decided we would go to Shamiana, an Indian restaurant in Kirkland, WA.  Aik and I used to live up the street from this restaurant and we would frequent it.  It had been a while since we went there so we were very excited.

Garlic Nan and yogurt dip - Yum!

It was so much fun hanging out and eating good food.

On Saturday, August 9, there was a little celebration party put together by a Singaporean group at Microsoft and an online social group.  The Chens and I went to this party to celebrate National Day with other Singaporeans living here.  I actually brought Paul with me as well.  Paul visited Singapore a few years back with me and so I thought it would be fun for him, plus he didn't have anything to do for a few hours.

Some of the people that came to the party.

Some of the folks were asked to cook some local Singaporean dishes and let me say that they were excellent.  It was quite a treat to have food from home.  After our meal, we all just hung out and the kids played in the park.

 

 

 

 

 

Aik, Paul & I (Paul seems huge compared to the "small" Asians)

 

 

Aik and I - friends since we were 2 or 3 years old.

Janelle and I posing with a Singapore flag.

Having a deep discussion, working out our plan to jump...

We did it!  Now comes the chasing...

Janelle is a cool kid and I look forward each time to spend time with her.  These kids grow up fast and it is fun to watch it unfold.

Aik suggested we gaze into the horizon - hmm...

After this celebration, I hooked up with Jarron and we headed to Seattle to find things to do.  The weather was not very co-operative but we managed to have fun.  Along the way, Lindsey joined us for dinner at Ivar's.

International Man of Mystery - Jarron Born

Well, after a long and fun filled day, Sunday rolled around early.  I had the morning off from leading worship but this is what I got to do instead...

Both our sound engineers were out of town this weekend, so I jumped in to "run" the sound for the gathering.  It was a little stressful since it was my first time on my own.  It came together.  The band, led by Aaron Crawford, did a good job leading worship.

That was my crazy weekend!  Fun times!