I Love My Life!

Where do I begin? First off I am a married man! I married the love of my life on May 26th. It was a HUGE wedding and also the most beautiful wedding I have EVER been to! We had room for about 600 people and about 550 showed up.

My family all drove up from California. A 15 hour drive but my family did it, because they love me! Out of 5 uncles on my dads side and 1 aunt, and 1 uncle on my moms side and 1 aunt, Guess how many showed up? ZERO! And I should have expected that. You remember all those posts about my extended family not caring about me? Turns out they were all true. Surprisingly though, I could care less. it was more of a relief than anything. Now I know who my REAL family is so I don't have to try to be "familiar" with the extended family anymore. My duty is done and now I move on with my life.

My true family all showed up though. My buddy Jaime and his wife becky who helped immensely with everything, my buddy alejandro who came up from stockton on a 21 hour bus ride, My best man Luis and art who flew up from Sacramento, my buddies Paloma and Guera who flew up from the monterey area, my small group leaders/ premarital counselors nick and Leti from vacaville, and the pastor from my old church Rev John Gallegos. These people, they are my REAL family!

I moved in to a duplex with my baby. we bought a bed, couches and washer/dryer so we are all set. I look forward to living in this place for a while, working hard and then purchasing our own home.

I am happier than a person could be right now. I don't know what I could possibly do to deserve this amazing life. If anything I deserve the worst this life has to offer but instead God has blessed me with an amazing wife, an awesome family and a happy home. It's probably the first time you will ever hear me say something like this:  I love my life!

When I Was a Child...

I haven't written an honest post on this blog in months! My apologies to anybody who was still following my blog!
What Have I been up to the past few months? A lot! for the longest time I wanted to write but I had so much going on that I just didn't know where to start. And to be honest, i still don't so I will just jump in the thick of it.
I'm getting married in less than two weeks! Last night was my last weekend at my parents house as a single man. I have the rent paid for at the place that me and my wife will call our home for the next couple of years. I am two weeks away from Cabo with My love! It all seems unreal to me! When I started this blog i felt like such a little emo kid, like a  ittle boy. And as I write this entry I don't feel that way anymore. Any confusion I had about love, friendship, family and life has for the most part been cleared up.
Its funny but now that I am engaged i feel like my life makes sense. I don't mean this in the "This person makes me complete" mentality, but more like this is what I am meant to do. Living for my wife gives my life more purpose.  Responsibility is a good thing. In the past I simply lived for myself and that meant I could live frivolously. Now I have to live for my wife and myself and although it’s a bit nerve racking,  it will make me live a more responsible life. It’s like Mark Driscoll says, “men are like trucks, they will drive straighter if they are carrying a heavy load.”
So what have I been up to the past few months, I have been growing up. I pray and trust God. I complain less and work harder. I do ministry to the best of my ability. I live to put a smile on my fiancées face. And when I get an extra minute, I fish! Lol And I do it all to the Glory of God. If I could do these things for the rest of my life, then I will be happy.
I would like to take a moment to thank all of you who have been reading along for the past few years. You have helped me grow up through reading, commenting, encouraging and challenging me. You all mean the world to me. I know I am speaking with finality but this is only a new beginning!
I finish this blog with a quote from the apostle paul: “When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me.”

Embracing the Changes on Christmas...

O ne of the main things that I’m worried about after I get married is leaving my family for the holidays. It’s something I had not really thought about up until last year. I really started thinking about our family tradition which is the immediate family getting together, having dinner, joking, laughing, arguing, and just enjoying each other. My biggest concern about leaving the family is that there are only 6 of us, and if you take one away, it’s a huge difference. When I realized that I would have to leave on some holidays I felt bad. I didn’t feel bad because I was going to be with my future wifes family, but because I would be leaving the six.
Then we came to this year. I was looking forward to spending my last Christmas with the six as a single man. It started with my mom. In about October she started saying that she might go to El Salvador and I began telling her that this was my last Christmas with the family (as a single man). Well, she decided either way she was going to El Salvador for a month.
Then my sister started talking about going to Florida for the holidays. Up until last week she had told us that she had given up on going and last minute she decided that she was definitely going. So here I am worrying about leaving my family for the holidays and instead my family leaves me for the holidays. Haha.
And yet, it doesn’t make me upset, not at all. It just made me realize that it’s not the end of the world. When you have to do something else for the holidays, you just have to do it. No worries. I’m going to get married so things will automatically change. You can’t resist the change, you just have to go with it. So I’m not sure if I will be in cali or Washington next year for the holidays but I’m not worried about leaving the family anymore. You have to do what you have to do. Time to embrace the changes.

Update on Life - 9/20/11

For some reason I just can’t bring myself to write much anymore. I will open up blogger and drown in my lack of inspiration. Next thing you know I am closing the window for another week. So what’s new since the least time I was here… way too much!
Ladies and Gentleman…
I AM AN ENGAGED MAN!!!!

Yes it is true on August 27th 2011, I became engaged to the love of my life, Yajaira. I’m not gonna lie, it was an emotional experience. Not only because of what was going on, but also because I felt like our relationship was approved of, created by and blessed By God. He provided everything I needed to make my girlfriends proposal into EXACTLY what she wanted!
So that’s the main news. Other than that I am doing different things at work. Starting different groups and taking on different objectives. I’m pretty excited about it all.
Adopt a block has had tons of changes and it is becoming a bit different but I still love everything that God is doing through that ministry.
I’m not going to lie, I had a bit of a hiatus from my weekly worship service. I continued to attend small group throughout, but I know that wasn’t enough. I am now attending again and experiencing the benefits of a weekly corporate gathering.
I have been fishing a lot. Angling is an exciting sport for which I have regained passion. I try to make it out to a body of water every weekend. I love it!
The 2011 Football Season is in full swing. I’m excited to see the niners play and I hope that this will be the first time I see an actual game.
I’ve been hanging out with some of my chico buddies a lot lately and it has been pretty refreshing. I used to hang with these guys about once a year but so far this year I have hung out with them twice with them this year with more plans for hanging in the future. Its been good hanging with the Chico buddies, especially my buddy Lee.
That is all for now. Not sure if anybody will read this.
Love ya folks!!

Dismantle. Repair.

In life there are those who make plans and follow them through to completion. Then there are those that fail to make plans and just kind of cruise along with whatever life throws at them. Although the latter may seem freeing, it can be rather confining.

As time passes, the organized become the accomplished while the messy make a mess of things. The determined fight battles and see them through to the end and the procrastinators leave accomplishments at the wayside.

When you’re young, you figure that you are going to live forever. This immortality produces a feeling of invincibility. You honestly believe that you are better off than you really are. You believe that nobody and nothing can get you down. You pretend that you are doing great, that everything is fine. But then one day you reach a point of maturity, where realization and worry begin to set in place. Then when you look back at your life, you realize that you have wasted time, resources and potential, all in the name of having fun.
As you get older, time seems to move faster than it did when you were sitting in a high school classroom counting the seconds until the 7th period bell rang and you got to go home. Those eternal minutes now turn into precious seconds that you hang onto for dear life, only to slip away with ease.

As you get older, you realize that most of the thoughts of your youth were foolishness. But if you realize that you have made a mistake while you are still in life, you always have the option of starting over. That should be counted as a blessing.

So you stand there, staring at your mistakes. You stand there staring at the possibility of a bright future. There’s only one thing left to do, dismantle it all. The mentality that led you there, the lack of ambition, the laziness, the procrastination, everything. And when you are standing there looking at a blank canvas, you start over. You start over, and then you smile.

Getting Old!

Okay so last night i decided to go to the mid night showing of Fast 5 with my buddies. I had to work at 830 so i had a decision to make, i could either skip the movie and get a great nights rest, or go to the movie and get very little rest.

So i'm at the movie and i'm having fun. but at one point, i caught myself thinking, "this isn't worth it anymore!" before I would risk getting little to no sleep just to have fun with my buddies but this time was different. I found myself wishing I would have stayed home to sleep, because i knew i could have watched the movie some other time!

You must understand that for me, this is a huge deal. I NEVER pass up a good time, even if I regret it. This time was different. I did in fact regret it and even now, I wish that i had chosen a good night's sleep over hanging with my friends. I'm getting old, folks!

10 things that guys should stop doing after 30... i say 20!

According to Askmen.com here are 10 things that guys should stop doing when they are 30... I'd say 20! (I'll also add in how I am ranking on each of these in quotes)


#10.) EATING FAST FOOD. You’ll start feeling the effects once your metabolism slows down. And almost anything you make at home is better for you than fast food.
>> (I LOVE fast food but i understand that I need to give it a rest, especially right now that i am trying to lose weight)

#9.) DRIVING WRECKLESSLY. About a million people die from car accidents every year, and about 50 million more people are injured. And men tend to drive more aggressively than women do.
>>(I do drive aggressively when i have to but I don't drive wrecklessly unless I am in a wicked rush, so I would say I'm doing good with this one!)

#8.) PLAYING VIDEO GAMES ALL DAY. Playing games on your cell phone while you’re waiting in the doctor’s office is one thing. But if you’re always tethered to your PlayStation 3 . . . it’s time to grow up.
>>( I don't play video games anymore. I don't even have the current pop console! :)

#7.) LIVING IN A DORM ROOM. Not literally, but if you’re over 30, you shouldn’t have Grateful Dead posters on the wall, pizza boxes on the floor, and empty beer cans scattered all around your apartment.
>>( my room is very much plain but I'm not too creative with design. so I guess that's good)

#6.) GETTING A TATTOO. This one’s debatable, but AskMen.com makes a good point: If you get a BAD tattoo when you’re FORTY, you can’t really explain it away as something you did when you were young and stupid.
>>(I need to hurry up and get my tats! lol)

#5.) BINGE DRINKING. Again, when you’re 22, you can blame it on being young and crazy. But there’s a point where, if you’re binge drinking all the time, it starts to become an ILLNESS. And if you haven’t worried about it all yet, hitting 30 is a good time to start.
>> (i don't drink much so I'm good here)

#4.) LIVING PAYCHECK-TO-PAYCHECK. This one’s easier said than done. But once you’re in your 30′s, you need to figure out a way to save whatever you can each month and prepare for things like kids, layoffs, and health issues.
>> (now THIS is a tough one, I'm bad with money. I definitely need to work on this one!)

#3.) WORKING AT A DEAD-END JOB. If you’ve been at the same job for five years and they haven’t given you a promotion yet, they might NEVER give you one. So it might be time to look for a job where you can start climbing the ladder.
>> ( About to go to school for this one soon!)

#2.) KNOWING NOTHING ABOUT POLITICS. In American demographics, the term “youth vote” means voters between the ages of 18 and 29. So if you’re over 30, you’re an adult who should know something about how the world works.
>> (I know a little bit about politics but i need to brush up on them since we're coming close to an election here!)

#1.) DRESSING LIKE A SLOB. It doesn’t take much time, effort, or even money to dress like an adult. You just have to care about how you present yourself. And you have to realize that more is expected of you now than when you were 20.
(I don't know if i dress like a slob, I guess I should start trying to dress a little better:)

New Friends...

New friends…
This is taken from Donald Millers tips on growing up for those in their twenties.

“1. Lose your friends: If your friends aren’t ambitious, if they don’t have clear plans, you probably won’t either. This doesn’t mean to reject them, but it does mean if your friends want to lay around doing nothing all day, get some new friends. The single greatest influence playing on you is your friends. You will become like the people you hang around.”

So let me first clarify that this is not so much a “mad at my friends so I am talking crap” blog entry, this is actually about me. At some point I wanted to write an entry about “quarter life Crisis” and how my current situation had finally been diagnosed but apparently I was too lazy to do that. Well either way, I think my life is a living testament to that concept!
So for a while now I’ve been plagued with ideas about this concept or “condition” and my honest belief is that God is giving me a nudge in the direction that I am supposed to be heading. I am in the process of doing a few things that will change the direction of my life forever.
I have read a few articles about the masculinity crisis in the US. It seems that in the past the trajectory for a Male’s life has been going from boy to man. Apparently at some point being a “teenager” was accepted as another step in this path and now there is a new step called “extended adolecense.”
I think Mark Driscoll explained it best when he said:

“It’s just extended adolescence, where 20s, 30s, sometimes even in his 40s, he doesn’t really want to get married, doesn’t really want to have kids, doesn’t really want to pursue a career. He has a lot of hobbies, got a lot of buddies, watches a lot of porn, gambles, has a lot of fun, maybe plays in some band or is in a guild of World of Warcraft, or something ridiculous like that. And they’ve even got little [mottos] like, “It’s all good” and, “Bros before hos.” It’s just this whole adolescent, juvenile culture.”

And ladies and gentleman, I have allowed this description to lord over my life for way too long. So I am making changes. But what about the people that I hang out with?
Here is the truth: most of my friends are irresponsible, have REAL dead end jobs, are not going to school, are in no position to get married, even less to have kids, have a lot of hobbies, have no word as men, and play ridiculous amounts of time playing video games. These are the people that are hanging around me. And the truth of the matter is that:” birds of a feather flock together.” But “It’s difficult to soar with eagles when you are scratching with the turkeys”. My mom always used to tell me, “dime con quien andas y te dire quien eres” = “tell me who you hang out with and I will tell you who you are.”
And apparently this is true. I am my friends. And yet I want to be so much more than that! I am in the process of becoming the Man that God wants me to be and right now I feel that these guys are holding me back. I love them and I always will but they are dragging me down and right now I need to soar with eagles. so here's to growing up!