new site and rss feed (updated 7.30.08)

UPDATE: since writing this post i have decided to stop using iWeb and am now using Wordpress. the web address is still the same but the rss feed changed. i have updated the post with the new rss feed.

as mentioned in the previous post the new post is up and running. so if you're reading this post you either have:

the old site boomarked: http://abendeblara.blogspot.com
or
you have the old RSS feed: feed://abendeblara.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default
bookmarked in your feed reader (safari, firefox, google reader, etc)

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so it's time to update your bookmarks.

the new site is at: www.theacousticlife.com
and the new feed for the blog is: feed://theacousticlife.com/feed

there's more to the site than just that. and there will be more as time goes on. be sure to click on the link on the right to view our pics and video web gallery.



// today i'm thankful for:
1. ibuprofen
2. rss
3. making elia's day with a discount on this game
4. sunday naps
5. a clean living room!

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making a switch sometime

greetings readers!

i've recently gotten a .mac account and will be trying to transfer this blog over to iWeb. i'm not really sure how to go about this, since i'd like to transfer all existing blog posts over to it as well. so it may be a while or if i find a quick and easy fix it may be soon.

what this means is that you may or may not need to update your bookmark or rss feed (depending on how you read this site.) when the transition is complete the address will still be: www.theacousticlife.com

so if that's what you use to read the site nothing will change for you. if you're still using the old: www.abendeb.blogger.com it will bring you to this site and not to the site with the updated content. and as for the rss feed? i know that it will still have an rss feed, but i don't know if that feed url will be different or the same what it currently is.

i'll post one more time from this site just before i officially make the switch. just to let everyone know.


// today i'm thankful for:
1. cookies
2. fall weather
3. a car that runs
4. genius kids
5. a seven year old that's happy to have heelys (thanks elia)

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9/19/2007

Rev. Isaias Lara (1931-2007)

my father passed away this afternoon. he was a month shy of his 76th birthday. his condition has been frail for the last few years so it wasn't really a surprise. but as is the case with any death, it catches you off guard.

it's hard to describe what my feelings were when i first found out (by a call from my sister) or even in the hours afterward. i mean for the past 10 years or so there have been various times that i've thought about what my reaction should be when i first heard and now it's finally here.

i felt my heart sink. not because my father had died necessarily but because the time i knew had been on the horizon, was finally here and i would have to face all the feelings that come along with that in the days, weeks, and years to come.

i didn't really feel like breaking down and crying the moment i heard. in fact i don't think it really hit me what had happened until i had to explain it to some of the school staff as to why i was leaving early. it was actually saying the words out loud. "my father just passed away." i said those words and i felt my voice start to quiver. and a lump in my throat swell.

but i think my highest point of grief (thus far) came when we got to my dad's house. we were all in my parent's bedroom; my dad lying dead on his recliner chair. none of us were really sure what to say. besides our family some paramedics and a police officer were in the room. but there was a moment that deborah left the room and went to the piano and began playing the old hymn: "i'll fly away." and some other hymns like "it is well with my soul".

i started to cry, others in the room began to cry as well. it was very fitting.

we have family in southern california and minnesota that will be coming to the funeral. so it will probably be next week sometime.





// today i'm thankful for:
1. family
2. faith
3. memories
4. friends
5. my dad

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lifegroup, grouplife, and grouplink

if the title of this post confuses you hopefully i can sort it all out for you.

first of all grouplife is the overall name of our small groups ministry at grandview assembly of God. since last january my position at the church has shifted from youth pastor to associate pastor. as associate pastor my job description includes 1) media ministry and 2) small groups ministry.

lifegroup is the name of the individual small groups that will meet weekly in various homes and days. (okay so right now we actually have 2. one that will be meeting on sunday nights and the other on thursday nights.

and grouplink is the name of the event by which people who are interested in joining a lifegroup can get more information and then actually sign up for one.

anyways all that to say that today was our first grouplink. and we had 23 people there for most of it and then 1 more showed up towards the end of it. out of those 18 actually signed up for a lifegroup. so i'd say that was pretty good. there are actually a few more that told me they had to think about it a little bit more and would get back to me. and then there was a couple who told me in advance that they'd like to join but weren't going to be able to make it to the grouplink today.

so i'm glad this first phase is over and now am looking forward to the next few weeks and then months ahead to see what becomes of this whole grouplife stuff. i've spent the last 9 months preparing, studying, praying, and thinking about the launch of these groups and now that day is here.

the first group meets on thursday and the other one will start next sunday.

"God, i pray for your blessing on each persons life as they take another step towards you by joining a lifegroup for authentic community and spiritual growth. thank you for all you've already done in people's lives and for the life change you will bring in the weeks and months to come. in Jesus name i pray, amen."

// today i'm thankful for:
1. grouplink
2. lifegroup
3. dried cranberries
4. our au pair
5. air conditioning

--------------------------

old and new news

well time for my monthly post.  :-)

let's see . . . since the last post my sister has gotten married.

we went to idaho. to visit our friends.

and school has begun for me. and i was greeted by deborah with this selection of pictures today.

oh and in case any of you can't read what it says . . . she was basically telling me that she's pregnant!


oh and school for the girls begins tomorrow. i don't have any pictures of this yet. but probably tomorrow. for those who don't know our kids will be doing school through achieveonline.org this year. so technically it's an online "public" school, but we'll get all their assignments online and we'll be the ones who make sure they have their assignments done. so we tell everyone we'll be homeschooling. but technically it's not. (oh and we got a used eMac for the kids to use)

oh and we hired an au pair! although she's not really foreign and she only stays the night with us 3 nights a week. her name is vernice and she's a young person that goes to our church. we had her babysit for us this past summer overnight when we were on our staff trip. she did such a great job with the kids, and cleaned the house, and our kids loved her too. so we decided to ask if she'd be willing to stay with us 3 nights a week. we can't afford to pay her that much considering all the help she is to us. but she was eager to do it and we love it. she started with us sept. 1st and is here sat, tues, and thur. nights. today deb and i went on a date to see "the bourne ultimatum" because we had 'built in babysitter!

anyways it's late now and i've got work tomorrow.



// today i'm thankful for:
1. new beginnings
2. an internet connection at home again
3. life groups launching at our church next week
4. grape nuts flakes
5. buffalo wings (deb's been craving them for like 3 weeks)

--------------------------

México!

aqui estamos! llegamos en méxico esta tarde. estamos muy cansados, pero estamos muy felizes. (sp?)

anyways, we made it here to mexico this afternoon. we're very tired but very happy to finally be here.

keep praying for us.  and i'll post more as time and internet connection allow.

// today i'm thankful for:
1.  knowing my wife loves me
2.  not experiencing a plane crash (we've been watching "Lost" lately)
3.  great mexican food
4.  being with danielle
5.  the thought of getting a new MacBook Pro sometime

--------------------------

22 days 21 hours and 21 minutes

well it's getting down to the last few days/weeks till our team heads to mexico. (for those who haven't heard a team from our church is connecting with a team from stone church to spend ten days with missionaries steve and amy shoop.)

it's finally sinking in that it's actually coming since we went up to yakima to have dinner with the team from stone church. basically to meet each other, talk about the trip, share a dinner, and pray for our trip. so now it seems really close.

plus the fact that this morning our team completed our "endurance climb" that i have every missions team do before we go on a trip. this is a chance for us to bond together, do something we thought we couldn't, but work together to accomplish something difficult. we have one team member that is severely overweight and on occasion has seizures so i've only asked her to make it about 1/3 of the way up the hill but everyone else made it all the way to the top. (some wanted to give up on the way, but i made them press through.)

so we're on our way. and then i had danielle and her cousin cathy (the kids pictured above) give my sister (who's in town visiting from minneapolis) go and give her the "picco chueqo"* (sp?? pronounced [pee-ko chweh-ko]- basically sad eyes, long face, and pouty bottom lip) in an effort to ask for support for the mexico misison trip. and IT WORKED!! she gave each of them $50 towards their trip. so then my other sister maggie (in the orange shirt) and i also gave elia the picco chueqo and she's such a softie that she gave us $50 each for our trip too!!

anyways, keep us in prayer and as out of the seven only 2 are completely paid off. and the rest of us have some balance left on our account.

and in case you'd like to donate to our trip you can contact me for more details using my email address: abelara [at] gmail.com (i purposely wrote it like that so as to not get a bunch of spam by online scam artist) or you can mail a check directly to the church. (you can find the mailing address at the bottom of the church website) with a memo in the check that it's for danielle and i's trip.

// today i'm thankful for:
1. budgets
2. summer vacation
3. deborah
4. having a guest room
5. my engaged sister!

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if this helps any here's my "picco chueqo":

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* in spanish it literally means: "crooked beak"

shameless plug and a promise (updated)

[UPDATE: added a sentence of clarification at the end of my 'shameless plug' and i put my "promise" in bold since it wasn't clear to deb what my promise was.
----------

as if it wasn't super obvious . . . yes, i've become a christianbook.com 'affiliate' member. which basically mean's i'll be posting links to items i've been reading, listening to, or viewing, and/or using lately that is sold on Christianbook.com. if you've never heard of the site, it's basically the "Christian" equivalent to amazon.com. they truly do have lots of great stuff at great prices. in fact i recently orderd the 'creating community' book listed as well as other materials. and it was even cheaper than ordering it directly from the North Point Store, even though i had a 10% off promotion code for the northpoint store. (northpoint ministries is the creator of the material!)

and now if you click on the links or start a search from my site instead of their site directly then i get an "affiliate" commission. so order away, or even better get your church to order it's materials via my link! (oh and in case you're wondering, it doesn't add to the price of your order in order for me to receive my commission, they just give it to me if the order is initiated by the links at the right. okay, enough of the shameless promotion and advertising!

and now the promise.

i've been thinking a lot recently and have lots more to write about but it's already very late and deb's already called me from home (after her play performance) so i should get going, but i'll definately write more tomorrow.

oh and then deb's final performance is on saturday (i'm taking the girls that day)!!! yipeee!!!! i get my wife back!! the kids get their mom back in the evenings!!! it's a win-win for everyone!

oh and, you guys write a lot! i mean i know i used to check a lot of blogs, but since i'm not reading any of them anymore i just see the "unread" posts tally just keep going up. i hope you're not writing to me specifically or hoping i'll leave a comment on some post. because i'm not reading them. you'll have to just directly email me "abelara {at} gmail {dot} com" or actually talk to me! :)

i guess i've got a lot of reading to do come june. :-)


// today i'm thankful for:
1. spring break
2. palm sunday
3. easter sunday
4. cousin camp
5. my sexy wife (the nun)!

--------------------------

better late than never??

ok, so it's taken longer than i anticipated, but it's finally here; my review of Off-Road Disciplines by Earl Creps.

----------
i was interested in this book because of having heard the author speak before in various settings. what kept me reading past the first pages was the same "examine-your-life" thought provoking challenges intermixed with down-to-earth witty humor that i was used to in his speaking.

what struck me most as an "X'er" associate pastor of a small town local church in the midst of change was something that wasn't explicitly stated in the book. the idea: "am i promoting 'churchianity' more than "Christianity". the book also gave me a fresh perspective on examining who i am, my motives for being in ministry, and the authenticity of my personal faith.

i did find that portions of the book seemed to be written by two "different earls". on one hand, there's the coffee drinkin, blog writing, 'hip' earl that purposely hangs out with "X'ers" and can be found at the Mudhouse. this part of the book is easy to read, filled with witty humor, and real life stories of people practicing what he's trying to convey.

on the other hand, there's the 'card carrying Boomer', seminary teaching, ministry experienced earl that has to purposely hang out with "X'ers" instead of fitting in naturally and can instead be found here. these parts of the book were very deep and insightful; but also 'heady', required more focused reading, and seemed to contain concepts written more towards people in ministry than the average Christian.

that part may be more a fault of my own than one of the book. i approached the book as if it 'remixed version' of the 'on road' disciplines i had grown up learning. to me the'on road' disciplines (bible reading, prayer, journaling, simplicity, etc., etc.) were written more towards Christians in general (newly converted or not) as a means of deepening their personal Christian walk. these 'off road' disciplines seem written more for ministry leaders as a challenge to rethink the motives and methods of ministering, both personally and as the 'Church', to people in today's culture.

in fact the whole book, seemed to be written more specifically to ministry leaders in the "Boomer" generation (which is logical since those would be the author's peers). as a just recently 'turned 30' year old, i enjoyed a lot of the material and was personally challenged as i mentioned before. but i just didn't feel he was writing to me specifically, it was more for an older generation to hear, "no one else is coming, so get ready to pass the baton!" (ch. 11)

so all in all would i recommend the book?? an emphatic "YES!" not just for "boomer" ministry leaders, but for any believer (we're all called to be a ministers) wanting to be more effective, purposeful, and authentic in their ministry efforts.

so go grab yourself a copy, read it with a teachable heart, and then go hang out with some of "the sought"!




// today i'm thankful for:
1. Nitro3
2. a date night with Deb
3. "theacousticlife.com" is working!
4. "Spring Break" is coming
5. it's FRIDAY!!!
--------------------------

quick update

i bought the domain name "theacousticlife.com" and so if you click on any of the 'previous post' links, or click on one of the "recent chatter" links it will take you to a "parked site by godaddy.com". (at least as of 8.10pm, wed. 3/14/07).

if i followed all the directions correctly then it should all be working within 48 hours from 3/13/07. so hopefully by thursday, certainly friday all should be well.

sorry for any inconvenience this causes. if it's not working by friday, i'll be sure to try to sort things out.



// today i'm thankful for:
1. rubik's cube
2. comfy couches
3. a great team
4. premium albacore tuna
5. quadrille ruled paper
--------------------------

the acoustic life

and so it begins . . . for the next 3 months (90 days) the lara family will be living 'the acoustic life'.

for the next 90 days we will be living life mostly unplugged. that's right- no tv, no movies, no INTERNET, no podcasts, etc. in our home for the next 90 days! i say "mostly" because i will be on the computer for 'work' related tasks. (after-all i do manage our church's website, sermon and video podcasts, and shoot and edit our production videos)

so i'm not really sure how often i'll be checking email or even how often i'll be writing to this post (i've still got to talk to deb more). but one thing is for sure 'i WILL be writing'. in fact that is one of the things i'm looking forward to during this 3 month adventure; being able to have time to do all the things i put off doing. so i may write to and read comments from this blog on a semi-regular basis or i may not write at all until june. (in which case i'll probably have a novel ready to publish) what do ya think . . . is blogging 'work' related?

so we've taken the plunge. this morning i cancelled our cable tv and internet services and went and bought the whole family new pens/pencils and notebooks. so why in the world are we doing this?? well it started out as my idea. one day i was thinking that if i was going to have a family with fond memories of growing together it was going to have to be me as the dad that was going to have to create some of those memories.

so i sat down and started thinking of experiences and times of relating to one another in order to 'create' those memories. AND if any of this was actually going to take place then it was going to have to be 'on purpose' and put on the calendar.

i decided that each year we needed 4 "GRAND" events. these would be things that our family looked forward to every year and would be remember for years to come. this is what i came up with:
1/ "the Laras Winter Weekend" (every year over MLK Jr weekend) - a time to get away and either have fun in the snow or fun in the sun.
2/ "Cousin Camp" (yearly the beginning of the first week of april - 4days & 3nights) - this is an extended time for all the cousins to spend the night at our house. including games, outings, and complete 'snack shack'.
3/ "Single Mom & Dad Days" (3rd week in July) - for the first half of the week one of the parents stays home and plans 'special' times with the kids while the other parent gets to have a few days alone wherever they want! (budget permitting) then on wednesday we come back as a family and then the second half of the week the parents reverse. this not only gives the kids special memories they'll remember as the time "just with mom" or "just with dad", but also give each parent a yearly time to look forward to uninterrupted time alone!
4/ "Dinner & a Movie Week" (1st week in October) - for one whole week we will go out to eat EVERY night of the week and then watch a movie together; rented or in the theater.

these would supplemented by 'smaller' events such as:
1/ "one-on-ones" (various times throughout the year) - dates with mommy and daddy (at least 2 per year per kid per parent; so a total of 16 dates in the lara house with kids).
2/ "no electricity days" (1 every feb/may/aug/nov) - times to just have fun doing stuff that doesn't include electricity. i.e. live life like "little house on the prarie" (within reason, i mean we're not taking cold showers!)
3/ "media fast weeks" (every march/june/sept/dec) - a time to just clear our minds and not 'be conformed to this world'.

in addition to this we also planned in 3 times a year to have an overnight stay away from the kids for at least one night. this will happen in april/august/ and december. (in december it will be a couple nights since it's around our anniversary celebration) oh, and these are in addition to our 'regular' date nights, and 'family meetings'; each every other week.

oh, and we've put our money where out mouth is. we reworked our whole budget so that we are setting aside funds each month towards funding our wild and crazy fun. so when it comes time for 'cousin camp' we already have funds to cover the fun. and when it comes time for a "weekend together"; we have the funds to cover it. and so forth, and so forth.

so it all started as my idea for creating 'family memories' on purpose. but my idea was to only have it for one week every couple of months. but as deb and i talked more recently we felt that our whole family needed some "spring cleaning" in our hearts and minds. we were allowing tv, movies, the internet, computer games, etc to take up so much of our time. and on top of wasting time it was making us more irritable with each other and ourselves. so in true "Lara" fashion we decided to go all out and just take the plunge for 90 days!!!

feel free to call us, email (although you may not get a response very quickly via email), or 'send us a card' (what a novel idea).

we'll plug back in June 11th. until then, good night!

ps. be sure to tell us if the world ends! :-)


//today i'm thankful for:
1. paper
2. pens
3. books
4. words
5. life
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PRISM results!

well it's finally the end of phase 1 of PRISM. it's been 6 weeks since i've had any white flour products, potatos, bread, sugar, desserts, or "comfort" snack foods like popcorn or chips. for the last six weeks i've limited my calories to 1300-1500 a day, or 1600-1800 if i'd exercised for 4 days of the week. i've also had to write down and turn in every thing i consumed and it's calorie amount.

my family's been great about helping me out. they would feel "bad" about eating things i wasn't allowed to in front of me. and danielle's been promising to make me cakes, chocolate chip cookies, and everything else chocolate when i'm done with prism and can eat it. she's so sweet.

was it the most difficult test of 'will-power' i've ever had to face? actually, no. it was the longest, but not the most difficult. actually the toughest was when in college once i worked at 'Boston Market' and i decided to do a complete fast (except for water). that was tougher. this was acutally just annoying. annoying because i think i went into the program with the wrong mindset. the program is promoted as mainly a 'weight loss' program, which it is. but it also goes on to teach healthy eating and what foods are good for your health, bad for your health, etc., etc. but the main part of the program was limiting calories. calories taken in vs. calories used equals weight gain or loss. which makes sense, and i can agree with that part. but i wanted to be able to make the choice about whether my calories came from healthy food or junk food.

but i obliged by all the rules and have gotten to this point. and i have to admit the results are good.

at the beginning of the program they had me weigh myself, take a picture, and take my measurements on various places on my body. (bicep, forearm, chest, bust, waist, belly, thigh, calf, and more, even down to the finger) so all in all here's what's happened to me.

weight dropped from 215lbs to 198lbs for a total of 17lbs of weight loss!!
and i lost a total of 17 3/8ths inches from my whole body.

here's the pics:
before:


after:


well there's 3 or 4 more phases of the actual PRISM cirruculm, but i'm not planning on continuing with the course. it actually gets better after the first phase, from what i've heard. it reintroduces the foods that it limited so drastically in the first phase. i'll continue my weight loss journey (i'm planning on dropping another 20-25lbs or so); but i'll do it through limiting my calorie intake and increasing my exercise, not by limiting my food choices.

(i have allowed myself one day (tomorrow: tuesday 2/20/07) of total 'indulgence' without regard for calories. i'll resume to a 1500ish calorie intake on wednesday)


// today i'm thankful for:
1. completing what i started
2. enjoying looking good
3. the taste of potato chips
4. connecting with my family
5. "cousin camp" coming up the first week of April
--------------------------

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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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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