Gordon and Woody Be Blogged

Welp, I just got back from Portland, Oregon a week ago. I had such a great time and I remembered why I loved it so very much. Spring is in the air right now in good old Oregon and all the cherry blossoms have bloomed, the tulips & daffodils are at their peak and when it rains you now have sunshine with it and the air is fresh all around. Wow, I love that place!

My original plan to go up there was months ago, I was gonna go with my sister because Gordon had no time off, however I am kind of pissed off at my looser sister at the moment and I new if I took her with me that I would have to pay for everything and right now we don't have the income for that. Plus I ended up having a bad flu the first time it was planned so I was unable to go but it was definitely a good thing because of the reasons I just mentioned.

My mom & dad are thinking of putting the house up for sale on May 14th (I will believe it when I see it), they are needing to get the heck out of Cali because they are bad financially because my dad is retiring in awhile & they cant live off of social security down here in Cali. My mom has always wanted to live up in Oregon & since my sister & Caleb plan on moving up there because they are uneducated and my sister refuses to work on Caleb's little pay because she is a lazy leach that mooches off of people, they are moving up there to have some kind of life & so are Gordon & I in the next couple of years. So my mom would be down here with no kids, no money, & probably loose their home in the process. Again, I will believe it when I see the house actually up for sale, but they are planning on putting it up in two weeks and moving to the Portland area.

Well, after the pregnancy and all the stress I decided to take another chance at going on this trip and it was really on my heart to take my mom. Everyone tried to talk me out of it because they all know that I have little patience for my mom and she pushes all my buttons on she is kind of nutty these days (Not sure if it's the diabetes or the old age syndrome), either way sometimes I can only manage 10 minutes with the woman at a time and that is usually too much. But it was really on my heart and I had a real peace about taking her. I tried best I could to convince everyone that I felt like it was going to be fine, I think even Miki herself had a hard time believing it because she knows my patience with my mom also. So I asked my mom if she wanted to go and look at houses that the realtor up in Portland has been sending her and she said yes. My mom apparently told my Aunt Bonnie that we were going and Bonnie asked if she could join. Apparently it was just my mom & Bonnie's Aunt Evelyn's 90th birthday right before we were coming up and they both wanted to see her and also Bonnie had a friend in Madras she was going to spend most of her time with on the trip. So I was all for it because it would be cheap on gas & motel travel being split three ways.

So all three of us girls left on 04/12 and arrived on 04/13. I must say that the trip with my mom was really blessed and I really enjoyed myself, my mom only got on my nerves a little bit and I am sure I probably got on hers to though, its not good to be around one person like that too much. My mom & I drove around that whole week looking at houses and areas and my mom fell in love with one of the houses and so did I. She figures if it is God's will then the place will still be up for sale when she is ready to move and hopefully it will go down in price.

The great thing about the trip was that I asked the Lord to show my mom all that Oregon had to offer and He sure did. While we were there, and keep in mind its spring and mid April, it rained, thundered, sunshine, 80's, 70's, 60's, 50's & 40 degrees and then dropped to 30 & hailed twice! All in one week! It is very unusual for Portland to hail in spring. Then on the way to Madras to pick up my aunt we headed out East and then South and along the Eastern path we cut through Mt. Hood on the 26 East and it had just snowed right before we got there. It was so cold and completely white and just completely quiet and erie. Now I would be completely lying if I didn't say I was scared, I was petrified, it was my first time driving through snow when I was driving but Oregon is pretty good about keeping that road clear and salted and just went slow & steady and by no time we were in the high desert or Eastern Oregon.

All in all it was a great trip and I cannot wait to go up there again sometime. I really didn't take any pictures only a couple of Miki & I and her boyfriend. It was really great to see her and spend time with her again; I really miss my good friend. Unfortunately I was unable to see Tony & Jenny because of the busy non-stop schedule with my mom but maybe I will catch them again on the next trip up there.

I was so happy though to finally make it home to my hubby and doggies, I missed Gordon so much and I know he missed me too.

Posted by Kung Fu Joe at 11:26 PM | Permalink | Comments  

I haven’t been able to sleep for awhile; I have had a bad spout of insomnia, which isn’t too unusual for me. But the last time I had it was when we lived in Oregon. You are tired but you cannot sleep and your mind is active and keeps going and going. If you go through it for days then sometimes the things you daydream start getting confused with reality, at least kind of. Now and again I will get some good sleep and think the spout is over with but then that next night your up again. So obviously you do a lot of thinking when you’re laying there trying to go to sleep which I have been doing for several weeks now.

I’ve had this deep concern lately about people I hold very close and dear to my heart that do not know the Lord. You can say it has really been bothering me to think that someone actually doesn’t believe in Him. I don’t think I have ever gone a day in my life without believing that God existed. I know there are millions that don’t believe but I cannot for a second fathom the idea of waking up every morning not knowing that there is a God who loves me and wants to protect me. I cannot fathom this for a second, but there are people out there and people I know that think this. I have known a lot of these people for years and they know my love and devotion to the Lord and I have never been one to preach because I know that I am not the best example out there to be one to preach but I have shared and my friends have seen the joy within me and questioned me on this joy and a lot of them have come to know Christ through questioning me on what makes me tick and what I believe but a lot haven’t because I have never preached.

As many of you know I almost lost my life a year ago from a bad pregnancy which was very dangerous and not caught on time. Recently I had another one and the miracle of it was that it was caught way early. It really got me thinking about death and what waits for me on the other side. I have to admit, at first I was scared thinking, what if I was wrong? But night after night I have been sitting here thinking about what if I didn’t know Him, who would I be? And the answer is hopeless. Because to wake up without knowing Him gives no hope in my life. And thinking this has sparked such a fire in my soul… I remember the verse in Jeremiah chapter 20 that says, “But His word was in my heart like a burning fire Shut up in my bones; I was weary of holding it back, And I could not.” That is exactly how I feel right now too. I can’t hold back any longer.

John 15:13Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.
Today was Good Friday, the day that Christ died a gruesome death on the cross and what many people don’t know is why He died. Yeah they hear all the time that Jesus died for our sins but what does that really mean? That doesn’t mean anything to anyone usually; sometimes it really doesn’t mean anything to me, at least being put like that. But lets all stand back for a minute and take a look at our lives… think of all the lies I have told, the people I have hurt (even unintentionally) all the emotional roller coasters of hatred, lust, fighting, bickering… even though these are normal every day reactions in a humans life that sometimes we just cannot help or control it proves right away that we are not perfect and that we are sinners, we are sinners for just simply being human beings. God created us to have hearts, mind & souls of our own. People often say if I was God I would have just created people to believe in me, but would that have really been genuine love, is to love someone because they tell you to? No. I would want someone to love me because they wanted to love me. And I thank God that He gave me that choice. I went to a Christian school for several years and it almost destroyed my belief in Christ, that school expected us to all be little good robot soldiers for Christ and we were not allowed to be individuals. And I know that a lot of people have experienced that in their life and it has turned them off to hear anything about what is to be told about God. But trust me that I learned for myself that there is freedom in Christ Jesus our Lord, there is freedom and He loves us just the way we are… all our baggage, all our sins, all the lifestyles that we choose to live for ourselves, He loves us no matter what. I don’t care who you are or what you have done or even how you choose to live your life, that is between you and God, all I know is that without a shadow of a doubt that Jesus loves you and He was nailed upon the cross for you because we are the one’s that deserved to be up there but He took our place and bore the sins of this world upon His shoulders so we would not have to perish with this baggage. I truly believe that even if you don’t believe in Him or know who Jesus Christ is, He still took your sin for you if you like to believe it or not. The only thing He ever asks from us is not to be perfect and He doesn’t expect us to walk that straight and narrow line because He knows for damn sure that we are incapable… all He asks is that we believe in Him and that we learn who He is and I guarantee you when you start to learn who He is you will start to love Him after you find out who He is and then its up to you how you want to show your love towards Him. It’s not up to your piers or a pastor or a TV evangelist how you want to show your love to Him, it is up to you, this is your personal relationship with the Maker and Creator of this world.

Some of my friends may think that I am preaching, maybe I was, but I don’t want to ever leave this world like I almost have twice not ever at least trying to tell people who I know God is.

Posted by Kung Fu Joe at 3:41 AM | Permalink | Comments