i know . . . i know . . .

i know . . . i know . . . mag, my fans have been waiting. and i've been feeling bad if it makes you feel any better. (actually what makes me feel bad is that people don't leave comments if i don't provide any fodder for stimulation)

ok, so here's a run down of 'recent lara events' (for our fans)

> deb will be 37 weeks on monday and she's ready to get this kid out yesterday.
> i've been working on a new website for the church (when it's ready for the public, you'll be the first to know) running a lot, oh, and i got new "quality" shoes today. (asics, in case you were wondering)
> anna turned 6 and she's loving her new 'shuffle'.
> i think julia's starting to realize that she's not going to be the baby soon, she's been wanting to sleep in the crib every night.
> and danielle is just the cutest middle child on the edge of becoming a genius in preschool while getting lost in the day to day hustle and bustle.

that's about all i can spit out right now. i could make promises that i'll post everyday and never miss again but why would i want to do that to myself??

the great move & other stuff

as promised here's a picture of our "great move" a week ago. (all room names are of their new status)

we're still cleaning up from the whole ordeal. but all in all i think we like our new set up. and hopefully we'll keep it that way for a while (so i won't have to move it again).

click to read the "other stuff"

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so deb is back from her women's conference (thank goodness!). but during her absence i had an interesting experience - i watched "wwe's friday night Smackdown". i don't normally watch "professional wrestling" - grown men in underwear beat each other up. but i found myself inexplicably captivated and unable to look away. i had a pleathera of feelings during this time.

first, if the whole thing is staged then it certainly is a painful dance. and if it's not staged then these wrestlers truly are dumb. because usually one of them looks obviously more "ripped" than the other. i don't care how good the money is, why would the weaker/flabby-er guy get in the ring to get beat up week after week. on the rare occasion that they are equal in strength they fight until one of them is almost beaten and then all of a sudden he acquires some super strength in the final minutes as if he's possesed. and he's doing all these fancy trick moves to counter act his opponent's advances. my question is, "if he knew all these fancy moves why didn't he use them before he got beat up??" they must be stupid.

secondly i couldn't understand why i was so drawn to watching it. i don't consider myself to be a "guy's guy". i don't fix cars, i've never been hunting, i'm not one for manual labor, i've never driven a motorcycle, i've never been to a monster truck show, i don't watch any sport religiously, and so i certainly am not one to watch "professional wrestling". maybe it was because deb was gone i could watch for more than 3 seconds without changing the channel. maybe it was because when i was a kid i used to try to get interested in the WWF because all my friends were into "hulk holgan, 'the giant', and others." or maybe part of it was seeing how enthusiastic the crowd was during the whole spectacle. it reminded me of what days of the gladiators; with an arena full of people seeing to challengers duel to the death.

in any case, it was really wierd to find myself watching it.

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okay, my running is continuing but i need to up the pace a little. as stated on this post, i've set myself a goal of running 100 miles in 4 weeks using the nike+ sportkit to track my progress. this works out to a little bit more than 3.5 miles a day. as of this morning i'm about 2.5 miles behind my goal. the reason this is significant is because on my own i would be 'fine' if i exercised ~5 days a week with an average of 1-3 miles per workout. but now if i skip a day i'll fall even more behind in my distance goal. so in order to allow myself a day off or two a week, i'm gonna have to start running/walking 5-6 miles/week. i'll keep you posted on my progress. oh and if anyone who reads this has a nike+ system and would like to start a 'challenge' your welcome to email me. (click on my profile in the upper right for a link to email me)

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finally, the reality of the fact that we're gonna have a baby just hit me today.  what got me thinking of this is a sixth grader in my first period class.  she just came back today after a week vacation with her family to disneyland!  and it got me thinking that 6th grade is a perfect age to take a family vacation to disneyland.  i thought this mostly because they're old enough to have fun with their parents and be somewhat independent, but not old enough to think it's a drag to have to go on a vacation with their parents.  anyways it got me thinking, "if we go when anna (our oldest) is in 6th grade what grade will the others be?"  and then i had to keep thinking because there's another kid coming into the mix that i hadn't thought of before.  so if anna is in sixth grade; danielle in 4th; julia in 2nd; and the "new kid" in kindergarden!  wow, what a trip that will be.  or should we wait until julia's in 5th or 6th grade??

now we've promised "the girls" that we'll go to disneyland when we're 'out of debt' and anna for one is quick to remind us of that fact.  at our current pace we'll be out of debt when she's in 4th or 5th grade.  so we'll see when it all happens.

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well that was sure a lot to write, and even more to comment about.  i guess that's what i get for being so lax in my writing recently . . .

Blogged with Flock

pony videos

everyone had fun (well maybe julia wasn't having the most fun)


and

having fun with PONIES!

this weekend is the prosser balloon rally. as part of the festivities the downtown streets are closed off to various vendors. one of them being "pony rides" so grandma called this afternoon to offer to take all the grandkids. the funny part is that the last time she took kids (3 years ago) it only cost $1 per kid. this year it cost $4 per kid x 6 grandkids. she negotiated down to $20 for all of them.

here's some pics of the event. i'll post videos, once they finish uploading to youtube.com. (it may be a while since i came without my laptop charger so i may have to wait till i go home).

(point to a picture to magnify it. click on any of them to see a bigger version)

we miss you mom!

anna came up to me asking if we could mail out a letter to mom. i told her that we couldn't mail it because it wouldn't get to her in time. but i suggested that we scan the picture and post it here for mom to see.

julia and danielle also started to color pictures. but as you can see danielle got a little distracted because soon it was time for Curious George to come on.

what is up with me???

basically i've been a real lazy bum or lacking in originality. deb left to a women's conference in the seattle area today. she'll be returning on saturday. so i'm on kid duty until then. i'm also trying to motivate myself to surprise deb by cleaning up the whole house before she get's back. as of 8.00pm on thursday, no luck yet.

i've really gotten into the nike+ system. currently i've set two goals for myself.

one is a distance goal:


the other is a frequency goal:


if anyone else out there is using the nike+ system and would like to set up some challenges for some added motivation email me.

as i've gotten more into it, the indicator down on the bottom telling me if i'm "ahead/behind or on target" has really motivated me to continue even when i don't want to. cuz it's better to be ahead or "on" target rather than trying to play "catch up" later.

i know it sounds like i'm ending mid post, but i'm really tired and i'm going to bed. perhaps i'll write more about the nike+ another day.

g'night!

the breakfast of champions

(this has been my typical breakfast recently)

i've really been into fruit lately. it started a few weeks ago when i was delivering pizza and i came to a house with a huge bag of pears on a chair near the front door. normally i wouldn't ask, but this day i was really hungry, and i like pears, plus i figured they wouldn't mind. so . . . i asked for a pear as i left.

to my surprise she offered me the whole bag. i didn't necessarily want the whole bag but she insisted that i take a lot. she went inside, grabbed an empty bag, and filled it up. (probably about 10 lbs. total). so i ate 1-2 pears a day for a whole week.

then deborah learned that she could get "coupons" from WIC to use at the 'farmer's market'. so we bought a bunch more pears, peaches, nectarines, and a whole box of Gala apples (my favorite). in addition to being able to meet my daily serving of fruit for the day, deb's also made me an apple pie! she also made one for my sister's birthday (but she lives in minnesota, so we took it to my mom's house to celebrate!)

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in other news . . . sunday we completely revamped our house. those who visit us regularly know that we rearrange our furniture often. like more often than most people. in the three years we've lived in our house our living room furniture has changed probably 10-15 times (i've lost count). we just get bored of the same ole, same ole so we change it. it's also a method to clean up a room.

on occasion we go beyond the living room. we've moved one or two bedrooms around every now and then.

but sunday . . . sunday just about everything got moved. nobody has the same bedroom as before. even the baby's nursery got moved to another room. and we added a "family" tv room. in fact, this time around the only room that didn't change was the living room. (technically the dinning room, kitchen, bathroom, and washer/dryer room also stayed the same but there's not really much you can do to change furniture in those rooms without serious remodeling)

p.s.  i'll add i diagram of the whole transition later.

anything to get bruce to stop looking

hey everyone,

i haven't forgotten about my blog, i promise to post later today and more often this week. oh and by the way i got my new NIKE+iPod thingy this weekend. more about that later.

on the honor system

ok here's someting just for fun and out of the ordinary.

without googling, how many bruce willis films can you name??

and to make it even "funner", how about only one film per comment. and each person can only comment once every 4 hours. ;-) have fun!!

about the letter "A"

anna is into her second week of kindergarten. (danielle will begin preschool tomorrow). so we're relaxing in our room after school and i call her in to ask about our day.

"how was your day at school today?" i began.

"good" she responded.

"so what did you learn today, anna?" i asked.

her reply was, "we learned about the letter 'A'."

with that simple answer deb and i busted up laughing. no really, lol. we were actually laughing out loud!

why was this so funny? it seems like a good thing for a kindergarten class to learn at the beginning of the school year. this is funny because it's like a college student learning to read dr. suess on the first day of literature class.

anna is just so far beyond the letter "a". she already knows A-Z, she can read most one syllable words, some multi-syllable words, and is learning more everyday. she is beginning basic math like adding and subtracting. she can write her alphabet and even some words on her own. in fact one of the funnest things for her is to be online and "chat" with me or other people we know. she'll be on one of the other computers and clicks on my name and then types in stuff like, "i love you dad" or "how are you?", etc. and she reads the responses.

anyways, perhaps we're (i'm) still slightly bitter that she didn't get into 1st grade because of her 'gross motor skills' (skipping, bouncing a ball, standing on one foot, etc.) but it absolutely made us laugh that anna has to learn the letter "A".

ssssoooooo . . . i'll be talking to the teacher soon asking her to give anna some more challenging homework. i'd also like to have her tested in her reading skills to see where she places.

anyhow, g'night for now!

part of a different generation

i'm going to be turning 30 this year. (3 mo. 6 days to be exact) with this milestone birthday comes a paradigm shift for me. maybe no one else will see me different but in my mind things will be different.

when i turned 20 i dressed in black all day as a way to symbolize my teenage years. i don't think i'll do the same for this decade. it was a great decade, but it seems kinda foolish to "mourn" for it. i don't really feel like i'm getting old, which is part of my recent soul searching. (it may also be a reason why i started a blog) because i don't really feel old but i don't think i'm gonna feel young either. so i kinda feel like i'm in this generational "purgatory".

click to read more [+/-]

this was accentuated last thursday at the FPU class that i lead. we were talking about balancing our check books and paying our bills. i mentioned that sometimes we don't even open our bank statement and rarely write checks by hand. the others in the group were kinda puzzled so i explained . . . i check our bank accounts online a couple times a week and pay all of our bills through auto-draft, a bank written check, or bill pay; all online.

they were somewhat alarmed that we would do such a thing. they were very wary of doing anything like that online for fear of identity theft. it was hard for them to understand that in the past 3 years since we've lived in grandview we've written maybe 10 checks. and half of those were because we had to send in an initial check to a company in order to set up auto-draft for that bill.

on top of being comfortable using the internet to manage my finances, i would also be categorized as an "alpha user" on the internet. (that's the term i've heard for it) i like to be one of the first people to try new things or see them or at least know they exist on the internet. i'm the guy people ask to find out "what's cool/new" on the internet?? (Baby Names, Leet Speak, Rasterbator, Armpit Fart, Rocketboom, and of course Apple)

so obviously i'm not part of the "older" generation . . .

today is 9/11; so naturally people's thoughts are remembering the events of 2001. i also work at a middle school and began thinking at how old the students were. this year's 6th graders were just starting the 1st grade; hardly able to fully understand what was going on. my oldest daughter wasn't even a year old. and this year's graduating seniors (class of 2007) never lived in america with president reagan, they never knew micheal jackson used to be black, and they all have a "myspace". but mostly i don't feel young anymore because i own a minivan, we're about to have our fourth child, and my kids call me "dad".

so i don't really feel as part of the younger generation. i feel like part of a different generation. i've heard that 40 is the new 30. my peers (in general) are taking longer to get married, longer to settle into a career, still play video games; but at the same time . . . have their own families, buying new homes, and are beginning to pay their own bills without asking mom or dad to help them out.

this is my generation. i'll probably discuss this again a couple months after my 30th birthday has come and passed.

"is that a wrinkle??"

getting back to "flock"

i've used flock (a new web browser based on firefox) off and on for a while now. and i think it's finally growing on me.

there is something you should know about me . . . i like aesthetics.

aesthetic: (adj.) concerned with beauty or the appreciation of beauty // New Oxford American Dictionary

it's one of the main reasons i "Switched" to a Mac and Apple products in general. not only does their hardware look good but so does the software. it works seemlessly and both the OS and software looks pleasing to the eyes.

click to read more [+/-]

i like things that are aesthetcally pleasing to the point that i no longer use firefox on my mac, because it doesn't look mac-ish enough. i used/use it exclusively when i'm on a Windows machine because it's so much more "powerful and versitile" than internet explorer. on the macs i usually use "safari" or occasionally "camino" (which is a mac-esque version of firefox, but not as versatile).

so now we get to "flock" . . . some things i like include: 1) the integrated picture upload to your account at either flickr or photobucket. (i use photobucket.) 2) you can also post to your blog at many of the more popular sites. 3) it also includes an RSS reader. 4) and it allows you to change the defualt search engine when searching from the toolbar. 5) another neat feature is called "snippets" which lets you drag "things" you want to reference later in a blog post to special 'holding' place.

it does look better than firefox does on a mac, although safari still feels a bit "snappier" than flock. which may be because safari is the defualt browser for the  mac (made by apple) or that may be because i've used safari more and the cache is built up so pages i visit often are just updating new stuff. and it doesn't look as macish as safari does. (when i say look macish it also includes how software interacts. it's hard to explain if you don't own a mac, but you can tell if an application is built for mac or simply ported over from a windows version)

all that said what i like the most is that i'm able to "blog" whether connected online or not.  which is good since my school internet blocks access to any blog sites.  this way i'm able to write my post, it saves it on my notebook, and then publish it when i get home.

well, i've said a mouthful.  check out flock if you wish, there is a windows version.  enjoy!

i like bbq chips now

deb and i have recently been on a "movie" kick for a couple of reasons. 1) it's really easy to just sit and veg after we’ve put the kids to bed. and 2) there's nothing good on TV (have you heard that before?)

anyways we grabbed our munchies in the middle of the movie and happened to grab some bbq chips. i bought these because i know deb likes them but caught myself grabbing some and enjoying it. the thing is i used to hate bbq chips when growing up. i'm not sure why, it was just one of those things - that i didn't like 'em. so it got me thinking . . . what other views have changed from my childhood.

i also like salad now. it's no surprise that most kids don't like salad, so maybe that one doesn't count.

i used to think that all dogs were boys and cats were girls. now it's obvious.

i used to like "Pops" cereal, now not so much (too much sugar). i like grape nuts flakes!

i used to think i'd never stop wetting my bed. (i'm happy to report, i stopped!) :-)

i used to want to marry Teri Hatcher. (i remember her from "Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman" (1993) not from "Desperate Housewives.") now as you know, i wouldn't trade my wife for anything!

i used to want a 1987 chevy camaro z28, because it was the coolest car in the world. it was also special to me because it's the only "hot wheels" type car i remember owning. now i'd like a mini cooper or nissan Z or chrysler crossfire standard - black.

a lot of things have changed as i've grown up but some things are still the same. but i'll save those for another post . . .

which reminds me i should get back to you some time on all those things i've said so far were "for another post" . . .

good times with grandpa

my mom is visiting her sister in california this week so my sister is on "dad duty". she describe's her week so far on her blog.

and i'm here to show some pictures of his foot. apparently this morning he woke up early and wanted to go to his chair (a lazy boy type chair) in the the living room. then maggie went to work, by the time his caretaker, filipe, came my dad had managed to get his foot stuck between the chair and the foot rest. his foot was so swollen that filipe feared it might be broken or at the least spranged (sp?). anyways, they wrapped his foot and another dr had to look at the xrays tomorrow to determine what's wrong. although it's still a little swollen, he seems to be doing okay. and was very glad to see the grandkids.

the "wife of my youth"

i've got a wonderful wife . . . and my kids have a wonderful mother. i can not express how good she is to me. with all my faults and mistakes she still sticks by my side. she supports me, stands by me, and yes, lovingly corrects me when needed. she loves to leave me surprises at various times and places. (most often when i least expect it.) a small note, a batch of cookies, an extra long kiss when i get home from work, or even a flirting look with her eyes that lets me know "she's all the woman i'll ever need." ;-)

she works tirelessly to care for our children, clean our home, and make time to present herself as beautiful as possible to me. she loves our children and works at being a good mother. she reads bedtime stories not as a tiresome duty at the end of a long day, but as an honorable privilege to impart their royal heritage as princesses. she leads her little princesses the best she knows how. (and may i add, they're turning out splendid)

now don't get me wrong, i'm not blind to her shortcomings. she does have her moments of temper, impatience, mood swings, and general "womanhood".

but nonetheless she is the wife of my youth. i choose not to dwell on the latter traits. i choose to recall the first two paragraphs and "think on these things."

so . . . i will love her as the mother of my children. i will love her as my faithful companion. and i will love her as the only woman for me. babe consider this my second wedding vows.

you are forever my lover, forever my companion, forever beautiful in my sight, forever my partner in ministry. you are forever my friend.

love,

abraham lara

// kids, this is the love between your father and your mother. never forget it. //

forced to write

i don't remember where i heard this but i remember hearing someone say that the way to overcome writer's block is simply to tell your mind to write. to force yourself to write. that's the place i find myself today.

i've been encouraged in the comments to write more on my thoughts and views rather than just a recap of day to day events. so because i have an "inner determination" to write something on this blog everyday, here i am. it's normally a challenge to try to think of something to write, but especially today when i haven't written about anything serious since friday.

do you remember in college or high schooll that feeling you have the day before a big term paper is due? i have the feeling that that day is everyday!
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on a different note . . . i've been faithfully listening to the RELEVANT Podcast for about a year or so. it's very, very funny and sometimes even informative, insightful, and thought provoking. i will tell you it is usually about 45-60 min. long so it's not something that you can usally sit down at your computer and listen to in one sitting. but you can easily listen to it while doing other things especially if you've got an iPod.

anyways, one of the things they are always making reference to is "segways". so i've been trying to think of clever segways in my writing and in my conversations.
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so for lack of a better segway . . . deb mentioned to me the other day during lunch that with her new perspective on life (see the pensive princess) she could for the first time see herself as a "sr. pastor's wife." now just to let everyone know i/we have no plans on becoming sr. pastors, we're very content with our current position. it's just that she never felt before that if i became a sr. pastor that she would feel like a sr. pastor's wife. but now she does.
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well the movie's over and we're going to bed. (i did take some pauses while writing - so i guess i didn't force myself too hard) (it also takes work to find and put in all the links that there are above, so that took some time too.) :-)

update:: i realized that i never mentioned "the movie" on this post, but rather on this one. (phantom of the opera)

i've been looking for this for a while

i added a stat counter when i first started the blog. and weekly they've been sending me updates of how many people visit the site, how many are returning visitors, how long they stay, which browser they use, even the resolution size of their screen. but the other thing it shows is an ip address which gives an 'approximate' location of where the computer physically is that is being used to visit the site. (approximate, because sometimes the ip address location is for where your isp office is located. like my ip address shows up as Yakima, WA because that's where Charter Cable's office is, i guess). anyways, there's people from all over the world logging into the site. some intentionally and some because they're just "blog browsing" by clicking the "next blog" link up in the corner and blogger randomly chooses one. but over the past few weeks i've noticed someone from in or near winter park, florida logging in to this site and the reallife site.

so i've been interested to know who it is that actually reads this besides the few who've left comments of whom i know.

so the click the map below or i'll also stick a link in the sidebar to add yourself and find out where everyone lives, and who they are.

i'm in a quandary

so i've completed the first week of school and here's my dilemma . . .

i've been working at the school for 3 years (i'm starting my 4th year) and have enjoyed the interaction with the students every year. yes, some moments have been more trying on my patience than others, but overall a good job. at times though i've felt 'underwhelmed' in my job duties. what i mean is that i thought to myself, "here i am a college graduate, and i'm earning a living by making photocopies of math dittos." or "aarrggghhh, these kids are so dumb, why don't they get it?? why can't they remember to bring a pencil to school!!!???" or "aaarrrggghhh, these teachers are so dumb, i could teach better than them, they can't control their class, why don't they give me something to do??" basically, my patience runs thin for stupid people.
click to read more [+/-]

it's that last one that really has bored me with this job ". . . why don't they give me something to do?" there have been times that i just sit in a class watching the students, or reading a book, or surfing the internet. (in fact i'm writing this post in a text file while in class) because the teacher would be teaching, or the kids would be doing a test or assignment where i couldn't help them. yes, i'd walk around see if i could help but sometimes there'd be nothing to do. i wouldn't be correcting papers, or running copies, or helping students, there was just nothing for me to do.

i would come home for lunch since we live so close. and when it was time for me to go back my daughters would ask me where i was going and i'd reply, "i'm going to work." but after a while i wouldn't say that anymore; i'd just say, "i'm going to school." "why?" they'd ask. "because they pay me to be there," i'd say. there were times in years past that i was struggling mentally about whether to come back the next year or not.

so far this year is different though. first of all, i only have one class where i feel like i'm baby-sitting a student. i also have three classes where i'm helping in math (which is my forte). but what i like most about this year is my second period class. second period is the AVID class. i'm not exactly sure what AVID stands for, but basically it's pretty smart kids that i'll be helping/tutoring to be even more excellent students. the emphasis is to help prepare them for college. a major component of the class is to help teach organization. (don't we all need that a little more!)

so, basically i'm saying i like the classes i have this year. the problem i have though is that this past summer i applied to work at the walmart distribution center in town. it's a lot harder work than at the school but more hours and pay. the reason i decided to do this is because we've been working to get out of debt. right now with over $40k in debt (39k in school loans) and an 'adjusted gross income' for 2005 of $22k it's gonna take a long time to pay all that off. even with our aggressive plan and listening to dave ramsey, we're still looking at about 5 years or so. but with a new job at walmart and still aggressively paying down our debt, we see our freedom in about 2, maybe 2.5 years.

so my problem is that i reapplied at walmart the day before school started because i'm determined to get the job. my plan was to try to get hired on the weekday day shift (which is actually the hardest shift to get, but my brother-in-law has been putting in a good word for me) and then quit the school job. but now, i like my job at the school. (if you're reading jorge, i'm still strongly committed to working at the DC) but i almost want to maybe get the weekday evening shift which is from 3.30pm? till like 1am, so that i can still wake up and work at the school from 7.15am to 2.15pm.

it would be even more income than what i had anticipated and we could be out of debt even sooner. on the other hand it would be a lot of work and possibly even too demanding of a schedule. so maybe i should just still seek the weekday day shift and part ways with the school???

hmmmmm, keep me in prayer over this decision. who knows, perhaps i won't even have to make it. maybe walmart won't even want me . . .

in His hands,