Caribbean Cruise 12/16-12/23

Here are some pictures from our cruise.  We had such an awesome time relaxing, eating tons of food (we gained 2-3 lbs each), trying out new activities (snorkeling, jet skiing, swimming with stingrays, climbing a water fall), and exploring beautiful countries.  We had 3 port days, and 4 days at sea.  The cruise included free food at any time of the day, 3 pools, jacuzzis, live entertainment, games, movies, a running track, and a gym.  There were also other services available (spa, hair salon, bingo, casinos, etc.) for an additional cost.
  

Day 1 (Miami, FL)

The first thing we did was eat lunch while enjoying this beautiful view of Miami.  

Then we explored the ship, and found this Serenity area; I love this big chair!

watching the sunset from our big chair.  

 Everyday, we had a new towel animal, they were so cute.  

Dinner time, I loved the desserts, they were so yummy.

 The ship at night.  

Day 2 (Fun Day at Sea)

We spent the day reading, eating, talking, walking, and swimming in the jacuzzi; I even had time to work out in the gym.  

For dinner, we had assigned seating at a fancy restaurant.  This night we were required to dress up, which I don't mind at all.  

 Tim made a request for an elephant (my favorite animal).

Day 3 (Cozumel, Mexico)

Here we are in front of our ship, ready to start a new adventure.

 We rented a scooter for the whole day to go around the island.  Two minutes after we left the rental office, it started to pour with rain.  We were completely soaked, but had lots of fun in the rain.  The sun came out 10 minutes later, and next thing you know we were dry and looking for a beach.  

 Since we wanted to stay away from all the tourists, we drove until we found this secluded beach 

Playa Bonita.

 Then we made a little shelter to protect ourselves from the sun 

and then just had fun!

 That's right, I've been working out :) 

The beaches in Cozumel were absolutely stunning.  

Dinner time

Enjoying some entertainment.  This night we had a family-friendly comedian.  

Day 4 (Fun day at Sea)

Spent the day mostly reading, tanning, swimming and just relaxing.  Tim and I joined a bean bag competition on this day, we didn't win :( but we did get fourth place out of 30+ teams.   

 Day 5 (Ochos Rios, Jamaica)

In Jamaica, we decided to visit Dunn's River Falls, or should I say climb it.  

After the falls we hung out at the beach close to our ship port.  We rented a jet ski and I got to ride it for the first time, I even drove it; I screamed the entire time, but truly enjoyed it.  

Now this is what I looked like when I was driving!

Then we did a little shopping.

Back on the ship, time for dinner.

Low-fat pumpkin pie, it was delicious.

 At 11PM they had a Mexican buffet open. I couldn't resist having a little piece of flan.  

 Day 6 (Grand Cayman)

 We decided to go on a sea excursion while in Grand Cayman.  For $25 each, we went swimming with stingrays and snorkeling, the boat ride and shuttle drive were all included.  This was such an awesome deal!

 In the middle of the sea somewhere, there was a big sand bar populated with hundreds of stingrays.  We also saw a dolphin swim right by, I was so excited to see one from so close :)  

 The water was just soo pretty here. 

 While I was waiting for Tim to get the camera, a big one came my way. Needless to say I was a little paranoid.  LOL

I know, I was a little scared.  I can't forget to mention that while all this was happening, Tim was just laughing, he thought it was soo funny. :)

This is how the bottom of the stingray looks like, no teeth.  It's funny how after the captain fed the stingray some squid, the ray became so docile and friendly.    

We all had the chance to hold the stingray, give it a kiss, and get a massage from it, some people even gave the stingray a french kiss (YUCK).  

Tim's turn, he did much better than me, well everyone did.

Kiss time

 Massage time

 I think that Tim was enjoying this a little too much, lol.

After the Sting Rays, we went to a deeper area to go snorkeling.  It was my first time ever, and I loved it! It's like another world down there, full of pretty fishes of many colors, shapes and sizes. God is just so creative, and I am so thankful for the opportunity to enjoy his awesome creation :)

On our way back we saw a couple of these guys.  They loved posing for pics.    

arghhh...

Back on the ship....

 some days were definitely windy.  

Fancy dinner night 

he's so handsome :)

The one Sting Ray I was not afraid of. 

It was so nice to have this camera with us.   

Day 7 (Fun Day at Sea)

We spent the last day either sitting, or laying down.  It was so windy and the ship was a bit rocky, we would get a little dizzy standing up, so we decided to sit down and watch White Christmas on the big screen.  And of course, we made time to eat lunch; there was a Mongolian Wok station on the cruise. 

Here is Tim's Szechwan beef dish and chocolate dessert.     

I was a little cold this day using towels and anything I could find to cover up, but not Tim, he decided that it was still a good day to tan.  

Day 8 (Miami)

After we left the ship to go to the airport, I found out that my family's flight to New York was at around the same time as our flight to Chicago.  My family had been spending the week with some friends in Orlando and Tampa.  So we met up and spent a couple hours hanging out.  

 love, love, love...

 Mami with one of her childhood friends. 

 South Beach

 We couldn't leave Miami without eating some Cuban food, look at these portions!

Silly time :)

Haha

And that was the great end to our trip.  We look forward to going on another cruise someday, it was so much fun, relaxing, and inexpensive.  

Hope you enjoyed the pictures :) 

Merry Christmas!

Closing Chapters and Beginning New Ones

Finals week! Tim is taking his last final tomorrow and last Thursday I took my Addictions Counseling final exam, I am so happy to finally be done!  It has been a tough semester working full-time and going to school.  As many of you know, I am now only doing the Certificate in Christian Studies, which is a 24-credits degree.  As of this week, I have completed 23/24 credits to graduate, so I just have one more credit and I will be completely done with school.  I have the opportunity to take it this coming Spring, but instead I am going to wait for Tim's last semester to take my last class, so that I can walk/graduate with my husband.  It seems kind of silly to wait two years to take a one-credit class, but I just think that it would be sooo special to walk together since we're doing this journey together :) So until then, I get two years to enjoy some free time doing things I love, e.g., crafts, cooking, decorating, reading, and hanging out with friends, and of course spending time with my baby.

I'm looking forward to trying new recipes this coming year, I even made a recipe book to keep my favorites.

I wanted to share a little bit about my job.  I started working for IPC International this past September as a compliance representative.  Basically I make sure that the hundreds and hundreds of security guards we employ are in compliance with our company policies. This translates to a lot of communication with our mall directors, running backgrounds and checking drug test results; I also audit new hire applications, and do some work for the new properties we acquire. Some days are better than other, but all in all, I am happy to be there. I know that this job is temporary, so I'm just trying to make the most out of it while I'm there, and be grateful to be employed in such a horrible economy. God has blessed me with a great friend at work, her name is LaCoya; we share a common bond in Christ and it has been awesome getting to know each other within this short time. 

Here are some pictures of my office :) Everyone keeps telling me, "In all the years I've been here, you're the first compliance person to have an office." To that I answer, "all I did was ask and I received."  It makes me wonder about all the things we miss out on because we do not ask.  I'm so glad that I asked because I sure do enjoy the sunlight coming in through my window, and of course having some privacy.

The last thing I wanted to share about is my Trinity Wives small group.  I meet with these ladies every Monday night, and what a joy it is!  This Semester we went through a 10-week bible study called The Wisdom Of God by Nancy Guthrie.  I truly recommend this book, it has been so great seeing Jesus in Old Testament books, and gathering wisdom from these wonderful books.  My love for God's Word has truly been deepened by this bible study, and I hope you all take some time to go through it with a group or with a friend over coffee.  To culminate our bible study, last night Nancy came to Trinity and shared with us wives much needed encouraging words.  She talked about Hope as the anchor for our souls, and how the only true hope is Jesus Christ.  With tears in my eyes, I listened to Nancy's story about losing her 6-month old daughter named Hope, and then later loosing her baby boy to the same horrible disease. But through it all, she clung to Christ, the only through hope.  This of course didn't mean that she didn't ever question God or grieved her loss, she did both of these things, but she also chose to look at the cross and remember the perfect Son of God crucified for us.  She was such an inspiration to me last night, and I will treasure her words in my heart.  I'll leave you with some of the wise words she shared.  Four things that she has learned about anchoring our souls to Christ so that they don't drift away with the circumstances in our lives:

1.  Believing that God really loves me.  Choosing to look at the most significant demonstration of love: Jesus on the cross.
2.  Having confidence that God is in control of the world, and that nothing that happens in my life is purposeless or meaningless.
3.  Rejecting the lie that my suffering is God's punishment for my sin.  Someone already paid for that punishment! (This one really spoke to me).
4.  Remembering that this life is not all that there is and focusing on eternity.
I was truly blessed and encouraged last night, and I hope that you are encouraged as well.

*Here are some pictures of my TWF small group.  As another friend put it, "these are the future pastors' wives, and professors' wives of tomorrow." LOL

Blessings :)

Our Fall Project

So last Spring semester the library decided to get rid of some of their old chairs.  And when I saw them, I had a vision of what these chairs could look like with some TLC, so I decided to bring some home.  It was going to be my Summer project, but since we decided to go to Alaska, the Summer project became more like a Fall project.  Anyways, here is how it all happened:

This is the Before

1. Tim unscrewed the seats. 

2. We took the chairs outside and sanded the wood.  

     

3. We gave the chairs their first coating and waited a couple hours.  

Then a second coating and let them dry overnight. 

4. We bought pretty fabric from Jo-ann Fabric with a 50% off coupon, which we got from the JO-ANN Fabric app on our phones. LOL there is an app for everything nowadays, but I must say that I sure do like this one!      

5.  We stapled the fabric to the seats. 

6.  We screwed the seats back, and tadaaa... here's the final result.  

                    Before                                              After                     

We're very happy about how they turned out.  We're now thinking of going into the refurbishing business and making that our second occupation! :)

Here are some more pictures of our cute chairs:

*Of course I would like to give a shout out to my wonderful husband for his huge help!  

Shoes, Spring & Bleachers

I've been meaning to update this blog for a while now, but I always find something else to do.  I can't believe that we're already past the half-way point of the semester.  Next thing you know it'll be August and we'll be in AK! Well maybe I'm getting a little too ahead of myself because before that, we need to finish the semester, start our Youth small groups (in 2 weeks), take Summer classes, and go on a Mission's trip to Mexico in July.


Tim and I already had our Spring Break week, and let me tell you, it was not much of a vacation.  I had so much homework to do, including a book review and a New Testament project where I had bring Galilee to life.  Not to mention that we also led worship and had several youth gatherings.  I do have some things to be grateful for nonetheless: Tim was really sweet by helping with the dishes and making me yogurt parfaits, and in the midst of our hectic week we went to Target for groceries and ended up finding these cute, Yellow flats for $7.50 :)

     

More things to be grateful for: Spring is here! We have been blessed with wonderful weather for the past weeks, and I just love it! I haven't had a warm Spring since I left the Dominican Republic in 1997, so I'm really enjoying the sunshine, the flowers, the green grass, the breeze, the hammock, and walking in flip-flops again.  

 

We're so glad to finally use the huge, marital hammock we bought on our honeymoon :)

For the past weeks I've been going on walks with God, and our time together has just been awesome!  I love walking around the Sports fields on campus, and I've found my new favorite spot: the football bleachers.  Here I spend time thinking, journaling, hearing God speak through His Word, talking to Him, and worshipping Him through songs.  These walks are becoming my favorite part of the day.

These are the bleachers.

 

Classes, Walks and Small Groups

So much has happened in these past weeks.  

Yesterday, Tim and I had our Christian Ethics class which meets Friday 6-9P and Saturday 8:30-4P (thank God it's only one weekend every month).  We've been learning about abortion, Euthanasia and Christian decision making; this class has definitely been insightful, and will be very beneficial for ministry. After such longs hours of lecture, our brains were fried, so we went out for a walk on the snow (yes, it finally really snowed here).  It was great to get some fresh air and give our brains a break. Then we came home and watched a movie :) 

Today, Tim and I led worship at NFC and then had a "Meet the Lee's" lunch with parents and students from our church.  We had a great turnout, we're so glad to see so many parents wanting to get involved and offering their homes and other kind of help.  Tim and I are excited to start small groups next week, we don't know how many students will be there or what the outcome will be, we're just excited for what God is going to do.  Please keep us in your prayers this week as we balance school, ministry and personal time. 

*Here is a picture of us on one of our past study dates :)

  

A Jewish Synagogue Visit

I wanted to share a little bit about my Jewish synagogue experience. 2 weeks ago I visited a Reform Jewish synagogue as part of an assignment for my World Religions class.  As the awesome husband that he is, Tim accompanied me in this experience.  I was so nervous, I did not know what to wear, what to expect; I was a bit anxious in not knowing how I was going to be received or how awkward it was going to be.  I finally know what non-Christians feel like when they visit a Christian service.
The synagogue was really nice and big; the decor of the room where we met was really significant, for example the ceiling lights represented the Israelite constellation.  There were also many ritual items around the room, such as a ram's horn, a menorah and Torah scrolls.  When I first walked in, I was handed a Torah book and a prayer book.  The service consisted of worship songs and prayer readings; the songs were all in Hebrew and the readings were in English.  I had such a hard time following along because not only did I not understand Hebrew, but there were many times when the rabbi did not announce the page number.  Everyone else knew where we were at.  The service was definitely not visitor-sensitive, but catered towards the members.  After lots of singing, the rabbi read a prayer and asked the members to share their insights.  One lady shared how the prayer made her hopeful for the coming of the Messiah :(
More singing followed and then the Torah scrolls were taken out, the rabbi read from Exodus.  This was followed by family members going up and reading, while the congregation responded.  Then the Torah scrolls were carried around the room, people touched the scrolls with their prayer books and proceeded to kiss their books.  Afterwards, there was a time to remember those who had passed away.  Members rose and shouted out names of their deceased loved ones.
I had the opportunity to chat with one of the members afterwards, she was a really nice and friendly lady.  She told me about the differences between Orthodox and Reform Judaism.   First of all, I did not even know that there was a Reform denomination for Judaism, so it was interesting to learn more about it.  One of the main differences between Orthodox and Reform is that the Reform Jews pick which laws to follow.  Also, women are more participative and active in the Reform services.  When I asked her what Reform Jews think about Jesus, she replied that they believe Jesus was a prophet but nothing more.  They clearly reject Jesus.  This particular lady has visited many Christian churches and liked the "worship and production." She is still waiting for the Messiah to come and for the temple to be rebuilt.  I could not help but feel sad during the service and during my conversation with this lady.
*If you want to read more about my experience, let me know and I'll send you a copy of my complete observation paper.