Road Trip!

Hubby and I just took a wonderful road trip to California and the Grand Canyon. :)

The vacation itself was an interesting story. I had requested the time off for my brother's wedding, but my Grandmother passed away three months ago and my brother postponed the wedding out of respect to the deceased (a Chinese tradition). I was going to cancel the time off, but Hubby wanted to go to an air show near where my sister-in-law lived in California the weekend before my scheduled time off. So we made it into a vacation. Hubby would drive out to California first for his air show and time with sister, before I finished up the semester at work and joined in for the rest of the trip.

So 6,000 miles, five states, 8,000-feet elevation, over 40-degree difference in temperatures, 1,000+ photos, about a dozen patches (Hubby collects those) and 50 postcards (I collect those) later, we have had a fantastic time exploring places between the Pacific coast and the heart of Texas. As we go through the photos, here are some of the many wonderful memories from the trip, chronologically:

Coming in sister-in-law's place to Hubby's hello message made of coke cans

Visiting with family and friends (and their children and pets), sleeping on their floor/couch/air mattress and getting fed by their wonderful cooking

Having dinner at the Santa Monica Pier

Cruising along the Pacific Coast Highway and looking out to the gorgeous Pacific Ocean

Eating authentic Chinese food in the San Francisco Chinatown

Enjoying ice-cream while strolling along small-town Sausalito (just outside of San Francisco)

Straddling the Nevada and Arizona state lines at the Hoover Dam

Seeing the rainbow at the Yosemite National Park

Hiking on a sea of snow at Yosemite

Watching the sun set at the Grand Canyon

Looking up to a clear sky full of stars at the Grand Canyon

Camping at Yosemite and the Grand Canyon

Pictures to come!

TV

About a month ago, our 10-plus-year-old TV stopped working. It went out for the first time last Summer and Hubby had it fixed. But this time, we got a new TV. We had moved from a tube (that would take two strong guys to move) to one of those fancy flat screen, HDTVs. We had jumped from a 27-inch TV to a 40-inch TV.

I must say it is very nice to have a much lighter TV and the quality is quite an upgrade. I will also admit that I look forward to watching tennis on it later this month. :) 

However, I was actually not as excited about the new TV as I thought I would be. I had watched tennis matches or movies on those fancy screens at other peoples' homes before; and occasionally, I had thought that it might be cool for Hubby and me to have a TV just like that. But our TV was fine so we had no justification for the purchase. Now that we have such a TV sitting in our house, I have been fairly calm about this. In fact, I have not used the TV in the past four days (Hubby's been out of town).

This TV experience reminded me of the time we bought our house. A few years before we bought our house, we had considered buying a house in our previous town, so we looked at some model homes, which gave me ideas. In my head, I had a list of things that I thought would be nice to have in our future home, including a library, rounded corners and a flat glass stove top. When we bought our house, these features happened to be part of the house. I must say I was - and still am - exited about the loft which we use as a library, but I also realized that I would have no problem living in a house without the loft, the rounded corners or a flat glass stove top. 

Perhaps this is God's sense of humor, or it is simply His way of teaching me to be a good steward of the things that He gives me so generously. If I keep wanting things, maybe He will just withhold them until I learn not to be preoccupied with, or even controlled by, those things - whether it be a house, a vehicle, electronics, or whatever that might be, tangible or otherwise.

I still have my silly wants, like a smart phone, but I also understand the monetary costs that come with owning such a phone. Do I really need a smart phone? No. It would be something nice to have (I can text faster, I can get online faster, I can have more storage space for photos, whatever the rationale might be), but, a few occasional glitches aside, my current phone is working just fine. I have not completely gotten rid of my want for a smart phone, but I have lately become much more appreciative of my phone.

I read this somewhere not too long ago -

Contentment is not having what you want, it is wanting what you have.

 The Apostle Paul also said in the book of Philippians -

I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. - Philippians 4: 12

 Well said.

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to my mom, my mother-in-law and all the moms!

Thank you for nurturing us while we were in your womb, for enduring birth pains, for feeding us, changing our diapers, picking up after us, taking us to school, picking us up from school, teaching us, guiding us, developing us, disciplining us, helping us pursue God's plans for us, sharing our ups and downs, being there for us, and loving us with the kind of love only mothers can give.

Enjoy your special day!