a recent iChat i had

AIM IM with Maggie Najera .
3:41 PM

Abraham Lara: so windows Vista is officially on sale for consumers this coming Tuesday. it's kinda funny to read the reactions of the press . . .

Abraham Lara: Windows Vista shines with improved search, security, reliability and visuals

Maggie Najera: what vista

Abraham Lara: London Free Press - Business - A padded room with a view

Abraham Lara: it's the name of the next version of windows

Maggie Najera: oh i see

Abraham Lara: windows 95, 98, ME, xp, Vista

Abraham Lara: they seem really excited to upgrade (sarcasm)

Maggie Najera: yeah they're almost as good as a mac. except still crash, etc

Abraham Lara: :-)

Just a friendly warning from a thankful Mac user since Feb. 13, 2006. now if you were considering getting the new Vista, consider the full cost of the OS, the cost of hardware to upgrade (or possibly a whole new computer), anti-virus protection, lost time fighting spyware, adware, malware, and the "blue screen of death". set yourself free, maybe this is the perfect time to 'get a mac.' afterall if you actually try it for a month and don't like it, then you can still resell it on craigslist or ebay, or anywhere else for almost as much as you paid for it. (you can just count the minimal cost that it depriciated the price of 'renting' a machine for a month) if this guy thought he should switch, maybe you should. i'd love to answer any questions you have. :-)

"Friends don’t let friends do Windows"

// today i'm thankful for:
1. being a Mac owner
2. having an iMac
3. and MacBook
4. a couple iPod flavors (30gb white, 2gb white Nano, and 512mb Shuffle)
5. having friends who are also Mac owners
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we're home!

(i'm sorry i didn't update this sooner, i just forgot to realize that people outside our 10 mile radius from our house read the blog and didn't hear first had the details of leaving the hospital) anyways, we made it home on thursday morning. julia was definitely feeling better on wednesday night. i could tell because she wasn't very tired and wanted to stay awake until late and she kept talking! she slept through the night without additional oxygen and her oxygen level was at 93% the next morning.

if you'd like to see her you can see the video on deb's blog - here.

in other news . . . i'm in the middle of finishing up a Grandview Assembly of God 2006 DVD, that includes all the pictures, videos, and other commercials from the year.


// today i'm thankful for:
1. being out of the hospital
2. sleeping in my own bed
3. getting our van fixed so quickly (thanks russ)
4. growing up with a father
5. memories of road trips to California
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the alien sisters

just after i published the last post these aliens walked in. they were so excited to see their sister up close. they weren't allowed in the ICU. they could only watch via the window.



// today i'm thankful for:
1. being an american
2. voting for the winning presidential candidate since i was 18
3. nice dr.s and nurses
4. 97% oxygen levels on 'just air'
5. going home tomorrow!!! :-)
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out of ICU

so we're out of ICU now, and i guess i was wrong about her oxygen level last night. the nurse had told me she dropped it down to nothing. but the dr. today said it was at .5 liters/min. still a big improvement from 3 liters/min. anyways the dr. said she was going to see how she did with nothing tonight. (i guess since your breathing slows when sleeping, that's the real test to know whether she's getting enough oxygen or not via 'just air'.) so we're here for another day.

she sure loves seeing her mom!



// today i'm thankful for:
1. a smiling kiddo
2. 'sick leave'
3. a new view (from the hospital window)
4. ichat
5. forcing myself to think of 5 things to be thankful for with every post
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some good news

this morning julia's oxygen intake was set at 3 liters (i think it's per minute but i'm not sure). anyways around lunch time the nurse whose been listening to her lungs said she sounded better so she dropped it down to 1.5 liters. and then at dinner time dropped it down to nothing (i.e. just air, no oxygen added). she has a little sensor on the outside of her toe that measures the amount of oxygen getting to her blood (yeah, her big toe?!?!) anyways the nurse was optimistic that if her blood oxygen level stayed around or above 95% that she'd have a good chance of going home tomorrow (wednesday)!


// today i'm thankful for:
1. a God who heals!
2. a break from the hospital
3. people who pray
4. getting to see my kids
5. getting to kiss my wife
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and now starting day 4

for those of you who know that deb and i are "24” fans should take note that i'm not talking about the show. and, no, we haven't finished watching season 5, so don't talk to us about season 6.

instead i'm talking about how many day julia's been in the hospital. i was able to talk to her 'family doctor' finally yesterday (she was on vacation or at a conference or something this past weekend.) she said that the length of time it takes to recover from RSV varies from kid to kid but i tried to extract a time frame from her so that deb and i could plan the rest of our week. she said to expect julia to be here "till the end of the week" like on friday, "could be longer or a 'bonus' if it's shorter".

so i guess i'm camping out here for a while. she actually slept really well last night. she only woke up around 1:00 when they came to give her abuterol treatment. we also had to change her diaper and bedding at that time. after the nurses were all done i hopped into bed with her under the tent and we slept. i actually woke up several times, not because she was fussy, but mostly because hospital beds aren't that comfortable. (esp. with two people in them, one of which has wires running everywhere) i woke up around 6.30am when her IV unit was beeping for some reason and it took the nurses a while to come in.

breakfast came around 7.00, right after changing julia's bedding (again). she didn't want any of her french toast. but she did want a few bites of eggs and the beef sausage i cooked in the microwave. it was after breakfast that the nurse and i discovered that one of her 'sensors' had come off. it had come off earlier and i had stuck it back on, but it came off again. but this time we noticed that there was like a burn on her skin. i kinda noticed that there was a spot before in the early morning, but it was dark. the gel under the sensor had come off and then she slept on the sensor, it caused the burn. the other owee was from a sensor that was on the whole time and the gel was still on correctly, but she got a blister anyways. the nurse decided to take all the sensors off and leave them off. she said she didn't care how much she got yelled at she wasn't going to put them back on if they were hurting julia.




// today i'm thankful for:
1. a shower
2. time with julia
3. having a 'hot dog' for her to eat
4. knowing God is in control
5. sick leave
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still in ICU

these first three pics were from yesterday, the last three from today.

they changed her bedding after a 'blowout' during her nose suction. it didn't help that they had her in size 3 diapers instead of 4. she was glad to get out of the bed for a while.

after the bed changing they brought her lunch and she was able to sit up in bed without 'the tent'. she really perked up.

she was so happy she was naming everything as 'hers'. "my cuppy, my table, my b'nana, my crackers, my bed!"

grandma washed her hair last night. and she was glad to get a treat of some arby's curly fries.

a nice pic with mom.

yesterday julia learned what the buttons on the side of the bed do. she's been haveing fun every once in a while giving herself and curious george rides. "up, down, up, down, up, down."

i didn't get here till about 3 and all indications are that they'll keep her here in ICU at least another day. she is improving though. here blood oxygen level is up to 95% consistantly so they've decreased the amount of pure oxygen they're giving her. thanks for your prayers. we'll keep you updated when things change. or catch me online


// today i'm thankful for:
1. the small joys
2. Photo Booth
3. our blog friends
4. getting to eat SO much on this diet (almost everynight i'm having to eat MORE calories.)
5. that feeling you get "after" exercising. :-)
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a quick julia update

she's still in ICU at the moment. she's had oxygen tubes and an oxygen tent over her for the past two days. i'll publish an updated post when i get to the hospital today. i'm thankful her grandma has been able to come down and spend the nights with her so deb and i have been able to be at home.

// today i'm thankful for:
1. grandma rebecca
2. grandma virginia
3. other's who've watched our kids
4. wifi at the hospital
5. getting to sleep in today
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my baby's in the hospital :(

julia's in the hospital today. she had a fever and shortness of breath all last night. so deb brought her in this morning and the doctors confirmed that she does have RSV and possibly pneumonia. (they'll be doing more tests to make sure)

please pray.




// today i'm thankful for:
1. doctors
2. sunshine in winter
3. family living close by
4. being a two parent household
5. knowing "The Healer"
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the balancing act

i was responding to a post by holly asking where's the balance between ministry and vocational work. i'm not wanting to hijack her conversation here, but i'm not sure if everyone reads her blog and/or everyone's comments on a particular post. and so i quote myself here:

and now concerning balance. if you ask me, pastor jon, maggie or anyone else called to ministry that also works vocationally and you'll hear a similar response, "i struggle with finding the balance." i've found this church very understanding of it's leaders being bi-vocational. it's not the same at every church. personally, in talking with pastor jon he's stated that he understands that at this point the church isn't able to provide me with an adequate compensation to provide for my family and so he understands that at times work will out weigh ministry and that that's ok. my first priority is to provide for myself and my family.

pastor understands this obviously because he's also in the same boat. and especially you and maggie who don't draw a salary from the church. and even though the church may pay for costs connected with you going to a leadership/development conference (registration/gas/food/books/etc) it still isn't free since they aren't necessarily compensating for lost pay at the 'other' job.

and so this is a topic that reoccurs in my thoughts consistently. "if i'm truly called should i quit my 'other' job to devote more time to ministry and rely on God to supply for my every need?" or would that simply be foolish since this IS the means that God has chosen to provide for my needs while doing ministry? paul in the new testament was also a tent-maker after-all.

and then i also came to a point where i had to admit no matter how much time i was able to devote to ministry, "would it ever be enough?" the call seems so big how could it ever all get done? i had to sit back and give it to God and say, "it's in your hands Lord, i've done what i can, may your grace be sufficient in my weakness" (2 cor 12.9)

hope that helps.

it's a topic that fluctuates in my mind every so often. and then if you throw 'family' into the mix, the balancing act gets even trickier.

on one hand, i think i should have enough faith to only do ministry and trust God to provide for my family's needs? on the other hand, i think shouldn't i also see my 'secular' job as also a ministry, a place for me to shine God's light in the midst of a hurting world? and then on another hand (yes more hands than i actually have) i think it's the church's fault for not being able to pay their staff full time wages, "if they just gave more!". isn't there a verse somewhere about oxen and muzzling? but then again, i knew the size of the church and the compensation they were able to provide before choosing to come. and then on the other hand, i think if i were able to devote more time to ministry, then maybe the church would grow quicker, and then they'd be able to pay staff better. but then i'm reminded that that sounds a lot like taking the role of the Holy Spirit, i can't do one thing to 'grow the church' that's HIS job.

in the end i think the balance is more of a give and take. it isn't always a 30% of me goes to work, 30% goes to ministry, 30% goes to family, and the remaining 10% goes to eating, sleeping, and myself time. the fact is there's sometimes that a lot of my time is devoted to ministry because of an upcoming event or project. and then there's times that my family gets priority.

and then there's the whole other conversation of time spent not doing what you want to do, but have to do because it pays the bills. like i spend about 7 hours at school everyday. do i like it? ya it's ok. do i feel most productive there?? in a word, no. do i feel that i could be elsewhere most of the time? most of the time. why do i continue then? because it's the largest portion of our income, and it's relatively easy.

as i've said before, the kids used to ask me why i was going to school. i stopped answering a long time ago, "because that's where i work." i now say, "because they pay me to be there."

so lets do the math: 7 hours at school + 7 hours sleeping + 2 hours doing misc (getting ready, eating, driving, etc.) = that leaves 33% of my day to do 90% of what i care about. (family, ministry, exercise, and 'me' time)

as you can see and probably experience daily, it's quite a balancing act simply to stay SANE and keep relationships 'getting along'.

i'm thankful for 2 cor. 12.9, “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.”

// today i'm thankful for:
1. 3 month old babies (rachel)
2. a house of our own
3. fishtailing fun, while driving
4. a 'free' friday night
5. grapefruits
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"why do i feel rushed?"

so i've been reading this book: Off-Road Disciplines and we've also been going through somewhat of a forming/focusing of who we are, what our purpose is, and most importantly how we're to accomplish it all.

ok, stage thoroughly set. so i had this thought the other day and thought perhaps it was something others were feeling too*. specifically i was asking, "why do i feel like i'm rushing, through church?" i do the announcement time in our service and i constantly feel like i'm rushing through all of them. partly because sometimes there's so many things to announce, partly because i feel that the whole service is 'rushing', and partly because i feel everyone else that has a 'part' in the service is enduring my 'verbal church bulletin' in order to get to "their" part (which is the part that is important to them). rushing, rushing, rushing. the opening songs are rushing to get to the welcome/announcement time, the rest of worship rushes to dismiss the kids, which is rushed to get to the message time, and then (at least when i'm speaking) the message is rushed because i've got so much to say before church is 'supposed' to be over.

but mostly it's the announcement time, since that's what i'm doing and in charge of consistantly. when i was going to Northwest University one of my 'guest professors' once told us that when doing announcement time they should be done with purpose. that there should usually be very few announcements and not simply state "event 'x' is happening on 'x' date". but that there should be a why is "event 'x'" is happening, why is it important for our church, and why is it important for the people to be there.

so this is 'sorta' how i've tried to give the announcements. the problem is that people are constantly telling me 'other' things just before the servies begins that i need to announce. either because they're not in the bulletin or they don't feel they're getting much response from a bulletin 'blurb'. oh, i forgot to mention, i'm also the person that does the church bulletin. so personally i kinda know that no one really responds to a bulletin announcement. i don't even think that people respond that much more to a 'verbal' announcement from the mic.

and so i feel rushed to mention all these 'things' because otherwise someone will be upset that i forgot to mention their event. i think, and other leaders i've talked to agree, that the most effective means of 'advertising' (oh, deb and i are also the ones in charge of making 'video commercials' for various themes/events in our church) your event is face-to-face**.

so this got me to thinking . . . maybe the reason i'm feeling rushed is because I don't find the announcement time all that important to church life anymore. i mean in our world where we're overloaded with ads everywhere we go: tv, magazines, billboards, newspaper, internet, emails, junk mail, etc. do we really need anymore at church??

this in turn got me to thinking, what else at church do we do simply because it's what we've always known? how much else should we get rid of or rethink? what should we add to our services?

for the last few months of me being 'in charge' of the youth services we had more of a small group format that looked like this: met at my house, informal discussion about life, watched some random videos, or played a quick 'game' or icebreaker, no worship, no offering, no formal 'three point' message, no alter call. and yet more people came to that format than our 'traditional' service with a youthy-contemporary feel.

anyways that's about all for now, it's dinner time

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* it turns out at least in our church leadership they didn't feel rushed at all. i almost felt like they thought i was really weird for feeling this way in church. (they didn't say this out loud of course, but there's certain things you can 'tell' just by the facial expressions, tone of voice, and/or lack of feedback offered)

** and it also has to be something people actually need/want. otherwise no matter how much hype you throw at it, it's not going to make it great. can you say "Zune"! now compare that to the iPod which could stop advertising people would still talk about it and want it. see this video: CNN ridicules Micosoft Zune

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// today i'm thankful for:
1. laptops (that i can move around the house)
2. a clean house
3. unexpected company
4. video cameras
5. beef!
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is sunny mexico in your future??

yes, that's right, grandview assembly of God is looking for at least TEN people wanting to minister to the people of Mexico. this is a church-wide missions trip, not just for youth. so bring your parents with you!

you would be traveling to Guadalajara, Jalisco, MX from July 10-20th. the cost would be determined by how many people actually sign up for the trip. the more people that sign up the cost decreases, but it would be about $1100-$1400. the ministry that we are a part of would also depend on who goes. anything from medical clinics, construction crews, evangelism, leadership training, serving, children's ministry. it all depends on the talents, experience, abilities of those who sign up to go.

oh, and did i forget to mention . . . you'll be going to the same place where Jessika Babcock is!!

so here's what we need. we need at least 10 people committed to the trip with a minimum $150 deposit by Feb. 4th in order to proceed with the trip. talk to me if you have any more questions or you can email me.

// today i'm thankful for:
1. days off
2. ichat
3. cell phones
4. furnace filters
5. good candles
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i'm almost done

i find life kinda amazing. it doesn't really ever stops. i can stop. but if i do it only means that more stuff is waiting for me when i decide to resume my life. the problem being that the rest of the world doesn't stop at the same time as i do. go figure!

the problem is that no matter how many things i check off and complete on my 'to do' list, there's always another one waiting for me tomorrow (whether i actually write it out or not, it's there!) so i find myself 'almost' done with so many things, or 'almost' gonna start/finish stuff. such as:

i'm almost gonna clean my desk,
i'm almost gonna finish reading "Off-Road Disciplines" (okay, i'm only half way done with that),
i'm almost gonna finish making the dvd movie of rachel's birth,
i'm almost gonna spend more time with my kids,
i'm almost gonna go on consistent 'date nights' with my wife,
i'm almost gonna clean the leaves in the backyard,
i'm almost gonna pray as often as i'd like,
i'm almost gonna connect with friends like i should,
i'm almost gonna write about the 6 (and growing) topics i've written notes to blog about,
i'm almost gonna go through my 'unplayed' podcasts i have on my ipod (currently 40!, it was down to '0' ten days ago),
i'm almost gonna finish reading EVERYTHING on the internet (ha! did that make you laugh?),
i'm almost gonna pay off our school loans (ok, so we haven't started yet, but we'll be done with credit cards in march!),
i'm almost gonna do our taxes,
i'm almost gonna . . .
i'm almost gonna . . .
i'm almost gonna . . . be the "perfect guy."

have you ever felt this way? or is just me? now, i could make excuses and write a list about why none of that stuff is done in my life; but that's' neither gonna fix my situation (to sit and complain), nor would it be very great reading since the list would be rather long (because perhaps i'm the only one, but i don't like to always take responsibility for my own faults, i'd much rather blame others).

so that's how i'm feeling today. the irony of all of this is that i slept in until around 8.30a . . . didn't get around to starting this post until 9.21a . . . at 10.19a when i was about to publish the post my browser froze so i had to eventually quit and retype it all . . . and now it's 11.16 and i'm 'almost done' writing this post. ;-) to follow up on that, today is a completely 'unplanned' saturday. it's been a while since we've had one of these but we don't have any appointments, places to be, or 'pressing' things to do.

so i think i'll take the day off! (finally at


// today i'm thankful for:
1. saturdays
2. beef sausages
3. water
4. warm blankets
5. sugar free jello

p.s. in case you didn't know i started the Prism Weight Loss Programs at our church this week, that's why 3 out of 5 things on the list are related to stuff that i can eat! :-)
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roundtables and squaretables

a little preview commercial for church tomorrow.


// today i'm thankful for:
1. seahawks won!
2. new changes
3. technology
4. wonderful children
5. a smiling baby

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"the new Blogger"

well it's 2007! (wow, what an original opener for a new year post)

well i've been busy relaxing for the past week and a half or so. deb and i had a wonder vacation at the Cozy Rose. i highly recommend a stay there if you're ever in the area.

i also had a blast at the reallife New Year's Party. you can see pics and video here and here.

A A R R G G G H H H H ! ! ! i just got candle wax spilt all over my new office. (i had one candle balancing on two pencils over another candle in order to melt the wax. -- i like the smell. and then anna came over asking why i was doing that, bumped the pencils and then the top one fell over everything.)

anyways, i'm not sure what i was going to say in this post. but i'm not in the mood now after cleaning all this up.

// today i'm thankful for:
1. razor blades
2. great candles
3. earl creps
4. google video
5. macworld SF (4 days!)
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