I dream of travel

So here I am about a month later?! Really...I admire those who can keep up with their blog. I really can't all that much since I don't have a home compter hooked up to the internet..oh well, se la vie (spelling?)

So much has happened. For one I turned 33 on April 21st! I'm movin' on up, to the sky...(think of the Jeffersons). It was a good birthday week! Yes, I say birthday week, because that's how I like to celebrate. A little bit before I turned 25, my dad and I decided to take a trip to go visit our family in Texas. We were gone for about a week and we arrived back on my birthday! So from that time forward, I decided to take at least a week off for my birthday. What a great tradition! I thought every year, I would go somewhere different, whether it be visiting friends or going with friends somewhere. Well, this year, I decided to stay in town and visit with friends or just hang out doing nothing!

My actual birthday, started off kind of weird because I expected to woken up by at least one of my parents (particulary the woman who gave me birth, my mother) wishing me happy birthday. 7 am passed, 8am the church bells rang (I live across from a catholic church), nothing, 9 am I popped out of bed wondering what happened...

So like the daughter I am, I called my parents wishing them "Good Morning and it's my birthday, yay!" message on their answering machine. After I left them that message, I sat on my bedroom floor pouting and asking God what happened, pout, pout and it was then that my daddy called! He wished me a happy birthday, reliving the day of my birth 32 years ago (I had to remind him I was now 33, which he exclaimed that he was getting old) and he assured me I was going to be okay at my age. I only thought that at my age he was already married and had 3 children. But it was soooo nice hearing from one of the most important people in my life. Then I talked to Hillary, which was so very wonderfu. It was nice catching up with her. Then from there, I received calls from friends here and there. One of the couple of calls that I received that I found to be funny and cute, was from my Auntie. She was watching Solomon (her grandchild) that day and the message she left along with Solomon was so cute, I had to keep it! She put her phone on speaker and sat at the piano with Solomon by her side and sang "Happy Birthday" to me. So cute!

Anyways, the day went on. I found a cute dress and a pair of shoes at Ross (for those who know me, "Of course!") and went out to Longboards in Pacific Beach for yummy fish tacos and drinks. Those fish tacos were DELICIOUS! The people who came included Jaime and Brenda (who is about to pop with a child, if she already hasn't), my sister, Jeanna, Valerie, and Cherry's boyfriend, Jeff. We had such a good time! Laughter filled the air and it came from our hearts, not the drinks, really *clearing throat*. Afterwards, Cherry, Jeff, and I walked to Coldstone to get ice cream. When we got there, it was not yet 10pm and the lady had closed the store. "Hellooo?" We stood there for less than a minute when lo and behold she came to the door and opened it for us. How cool!! So we got our ice creams, yipee!!

I went home fat and happy and had a great sleep!

The next day was going to include laundry. I don't think I got to that. But I did go down to Chula Vista to go to the library and then I called my friend Maria's brother to see if he was available to do a tattoo that I have been wanting to get. He said that he wasn't but we could set up a near future date. He said that he would e-mail me. Then I called Maria to see what she was up to. We ended up renting the most depressing movie but eating some good food. It was a good day/night.

I had asked my boss the day before if I could take another day off. He said, "Happy Birthday! Of course! Enjoy your time off!" And that I did. So with another day to go celebrating my birthday, I celebrated yet another birthday week!

So what's up with the title of the post you ask? Well, the traveling that I have dreamed of doing this year is coming true in parts. Even though the first two trips are for work, they are trips nonetheless. Because while I am not working I can do other things, like explore or go out to dinner with a friend. So I will be going to Maryland in about a week! And in June, I will be going to Atlanta! I always wanted to go to Atlanta and now I get to! Possibly, I will be going to Montana with Cheryl in August for a friend's wedding. It will probably be a bittersweet trip but nonetheless, good.

Okay, now I'm off for now until next time!

Colds and Comedy

I need a good laugh right now. A nice, deep within hearty laugh!

I presently have a cold, that I thought was going away. It's now going on two weeks. Right now I'm on Dayquil Cold and Flu and it seems to be helping me currently. That's a good thing but what I need is a laugh. Too bad you can't buy those :)

In high school I did a research paper on the effects of laughter and Norman Cousins was a great resource that I used. He did a study on himself of the effect of laughter on an illness. He himself suffered from heart disease and a form of arthritis. According to his study he found laughter to be a form of anethesia and he was pain free for at least two hours. (info found on Wikipedia) It's something about endorphins. God knew what he was doing.

For those of you who know me, I love to laugh. And I have a pretty loud laugh too. I've been know to bust people's eardrums out...okay not that bad, but I knew I had an effect everytime my sisters would cover their ears, whine at me to stop, and give me an ugly look or when people who were sitting by me would jump. (That puts a smile on my face just thinking about it!)

So here I am sick and it would so easy for me to have a bad attitude, which does not help one get better by the way, it just makes them feel worst. It's amazing how for granted I take breathing out of both nostrils. As it is I'm freely breathing from one, thank goodness; so I'll be happy for that.

I'm going to look for something to laugh at today even it's something I envision in my head. You know laughter really does do a body good!

Why ask "why"?

This is not going to be a deep post but it's been awhile since I've written, so I thought I should. I had a super long post about my date with the Marine, Dwight that is, but that post is still on hold. Another story for another day.

Anyhow. Have you ever gone through times of questionings, endless analysis and afterwards you may feel better or you may not and the cycle starts over again. Well where do we start and where do we end?

All in all, I know that God is in control and things will work out the way they are suppose to but way too many times, I imagine how those things will work out- kind of like going ahead of Him and figuring it out, like someone who can't wait for surprises and just wants to know what gift their loved on has for them.

Example: When I was a teenager, our youth pastor or youth pastors would say things like, "God has that ONE person for you." When you say blank statements like that you create fear, especially when you are talking to teens who are trying to figure out life and wonder what it holds for them and what God would have them to do with their life, etc.

So on that note, I thought, "Oh my gosh, what if I miss the opportunity of meeting that guy? How will I know if he's "the one"? On top of that when I got to be in my early 20's, I went through this phase of buying dating books like, "I Kissed Dating Goodbye" by Joshua Harris, "Boy Meets Girl" by the same author (I liked both books), "Passion and Purity" by Elizabeth ElliotT (which made my teeth grit sometimes) and other books by several authors. I was told by some "friends" that my standards were too high and I just needed to give so and so "a chance". I was told that if I would just focus on God and what He had for me [to do] then "Wow!" it would happen. Well, I read the books, I went out with so and so and so and so. I gave so and so a chance. I surrendered my desire to God, I grabbed it back, I gave Him a time table, I acted out of my rebellion by dating guys I had no business dating, I repented, grateful and amazed at His forgiveness. Sometimes, I'm at a good place mentally when it comes to this part of my life and most other times I'm not and wonder where the balance is.

Sometimes I have seen God as being impatient with me, rolling His eyes and being like, "Really April just trust me, stop thinking about this" etc. Other times, I've rolled eyes at myself (I guess try looking in the mirror). I've tried to be okay about my singleness and I think I am. But I have my more than one moment, especially when another person I know is engaged or having a baby. One of my goals before I turned 30 (the age that I thought I would have it all together), was that if I was still single, I had hoped that I wouldn't be a pitiful 30 year old; I wouldn't pine over a man or of being single. Oh the pride...My thoughts when I've seen other single women were like, "I hope I'm not like that when I get older and I'm still single, I hope I'm not restless but settled okay with just being with myself if I don't get married." And on it goes.

And this blog posting could get all very long with my thoughts, some that probably should be left in my journal. So with that, I ask not for some magical wand to be twirled over my head and everything would be "okay" or that God would make my wanderings (or wonderings) go away but my hope is that I would grow more into the woman He made to be and be the woman He saved me to be.

I have to keep on reminding myself or being reminded that I am Beloved.

Things to look forward to

These past couple of days, I haven't been feeling too good. One of the thoughts that came to my mind as I was laying in the bed groaning yesterday, clutching my pillow was, "If morning sickness is like this for pregnant women, I don't know about that." Ugh!

Yesterday, I got some weird stomach sickness, it could have been a number of things, a) eating days old pizza that has been in my refrigerator (I thought it was still good), b) the burning smell of sage incense that my insensitive neighbor decided to burn at 3 something in the a.m. and I thought our building was on fire, or c) my nerves and irritation with b. Ack!

Granted I feel a little better and a little lighter now. My body aches just a little bit. But I hope to get better soon because there are several things that I'm looking forward to.

Let's see, my dear Hill is coming to visit. When she gets into town, we will then go and visit Jen, who is also visiting with her husband and child, and Kristen who lives in town. She will be here for the whole weekend! Yipee! And then on Sunday, after church, I will be taken out by a Marine I met last weekend. I talked to him last night, while I was having a reprieve from a naseous stomach. It was a good conversation. Some things about him is, he is the baby of the family, he is a Marine, and he is quite the adventurous spirit. He's been to several places (outside of his post in the Marines) and he would like to travel elsewhere including Antarctica. I told him he'll be my travel wikipedia in the future.

It will be a short, but fun weekend and those are some of the things that I am looking forward to!

Dreams for this year

I really don't like New Years resolutions but I do like New Years dreams.

My biggest New Years dream has TRAVEL written all over it. I would love to go to different countries even different parts of the United States. Now that I have friends or even friends of friends spread all over this world, I would really like to take advantage/the opportunity to go to some of these places.


These are on my list- In country, Phoenix (where I am at right now) to visit Chris, Becky, and chilren; Jacksonville to visit Jen, Clay, and Cayden; San Fran to visit Hill, Dan, and Russell; maybe I can go to Oregon to hi to Alysun and her family; Montana; Colorado to visit a long "lost" cousin; Texas to see my cousin. Out of country- Hawaii to visit Cassandra; Ireland; Scotland; Spain; South Africa (or Malawi); Uganda to visit Tad and Christy; Estonia (okay I just put that out there cause who knows, I may get to live there; for shock factor I e-mailed HQ to express my interest if they happen to open an office there. They sent out an e-mail to see who would be interested...and I sent one back say YES!). Just think of the countries I could visit around there *sigh*)

So I know there's ALOT of money involved with traveling and it even sounds selfish...but one step at a time...I should say Lord willing though. So Lord willing!

Have you ever looked at your fingerprints?

I was sitting here thinking (I do a lot of that), so instead of being stuck in my head, I thought I would share my thoughts.



Have you taken the time to look at your fingerprints? As you probably know by now, they are your very own..no one else shares your prints. They are your and yours alone! All the curves, waves, circles...all the patterns are yours. Part of your personal identification! Do you know how amazing that is? Have you considered how awesome that is? Your basic anatomy is the same as everyone else's. Guys are guys and girls are girls. But your fingerprints....



God gave you your very own fingerprints! Aside from your prints, have you considered how your wonderful God made you? Have you considered the inner workings of your body, how everything works together?



I took Anatomy (which was my ultimate favorite class in college) and Physiology and I asked myself, how after seeing all this complexity can anyone think that we just blew up into space, that we crawled out of some mucky-mush, or that we took a painful journey from being apes to men and women. What?!



I know that we don't think about this necessarily (unless we are in pain or some part of our body is not working right) but think about it for a little bit and be amazed with God.



I am so amazed! All I can say is, "COOL!"

Praise God

So many different things wracking my brain...all very self-centered of course..like, what smart thing am I going to say, can I have an intellectual conversation with someone, maybe I need to go to school, what can I do to make myself feel better, oh, so and so needs to hear this, I wonder if he will call me, ooo I get to get my hair done tonight, I want to watch American Idol and the rambling continues.

Then I hear it..someone whistling a familiar song...I'm trying to make it out...someone in my office whistling this song...noooo... then I hear it!

Praise God from whom all blessings flow

Praise Him all creatures here below

Praise Him above ye heavenly hosts

Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost

That's when God says, "HERE I AM!" You need to focus on me. All that other stuff will fall by the wayside or fall into place...look at Me. Praise me.

A lot of times I don't hear Him cause I'm caught up in myself and then...the light comes on and my brain feels lighter..if only for a moment...Praise God

I lost it all!!!

I can't believe it! As I was doing the finishing touches on my last post, updating you on Christmas Eve, Christmas, and New Years somehow I accidently erased it all~SO SAD!!! Waaaaaah~ If I fell motivated I will start another post on the above events. Until then...HAPPY 2009!! *MWAH*

Tis the Year...

Merry Christmas!!

My life this year was quite the journey, from babysitting two precious boys for a great couple, to house sitting/dog sitting for a couple of families, to being a hair model, to helping students from different countries practice their English through conversation, to taking a class called Encountering the World of Islam at CABC, to catering for a local company, to dating and to visiting friends in both Virginia (in that trip I got to also visit North Carolina) and San Francisco, to just living life. I’ve had my ups and downs but all in all I see how God has been faithful and I’m thankful for that!

Whatever your year has looked like this past year, I hope that you are able to take time and enjoy your family and/or friends. I also hope that you are able to look back and see God's handiwork in your lives.

God is awesome and 2008 was great, life is fine, now on to 2009!

Love, April

Looking forward to...

Yes, it is that time of year again and the song in my head right now is a mixture of Charlie Brown's Christmas and Mercy Me's Christmas C.D....honestly. Let me put on the Mercy Me music right now..there.

I have been typing with a bandaged left middle finger. Better typing then using it for something else, right? I felt like a gimp at first but now I'm use to it. It will be coming off in a little bit though. You are probably wondering why I have it..well you know when that skin around your cuticle decides to peel from your fingers? Well there was an area that I decided to pick at and Viola! blood! Ouch..

Okay, so that is not the reason for this post...

I have a couple of things to look forward to, like staying at the Hotel del Corornado with my mum and sisters (remember Hillary?) tomorrow night through Saturday- that will be so much fun; I get to house sit/dog sit for a co-worker and his family starting Christmas Eve (I am so looking forward to that, though one of the dogs is hyperactive until she calms down..oh poor Gwen, short for Gwendolyn..and then there is Sparty, short for Spartacus); then there is Christmas with family (yipeee!); and then the President saw it fit to give us government workers the day after off (you go, Mr. President!).

My motto or saying for now is, “God is awesome and 2008 was great, my life is fine, now on to 2009!"

So I hope that you all have a great rest of your week and Christmas with your family!

Until next post...

Oh before I go, you know the post before about listing at least 5 things to be grateful for each day (things that happened on that day)..it's working. I know that there is no magic to getting yourself out of a slump but when you think about the things that you are blessed with, about what God did, it really opens your eyes and eventually makes your heart thankful and lighter. At first it may feel like an arm that has been in a cast for awhile and has atrophied and it's hard to use it at first. (And when it is your heart that has been deflated, one of your most important muscles..have mercy..) But as you start to use that muscle, you start to find your strength again. And thank You Lord for that!

Psalm 121: 1 I look up to the mountains—
does my help come from there?
2 My help comes from the Lord,
who made heaven and earth!
3 He will not let you stumble;
the one who watches over you will not slumber.
4 Indeed, he who watches over Israel
never slumbers or sleeps.
5 The Lord himself watches over you!
The Lord stands beside you as your protective shade.
6 The sun will not harm you by day,
nor the moon at night.
7 The Lord keeps you from all harm
and watches over your life.
8 The Lord keeps watch over you as you come and go,
both now and forever.