PRAYER

Last night and this morning I have been reflecting on prayer. I know many of us at one point in our lives have felt like our prayers were not being heard. My thoughts go to David as he wrote Psalm 28:1-2;

"To you I call, O'Lord my Rock; do not turn a deaf ear to me.
For if you remain silent, I will be like those who have gone down to the pit.
Hear my cry for mercy as I call to you for help, as I lift up my hands toward your most holy place."

I feel as though this verse has been my hearts cry over the past eight months! Where are you God? Do you hear me? I will worship him regardless of him answering my prayers, and he has answered my prayers, but maybe just not the way I had hoped he would. His thoughts are not my thoughts, neither are my ways his ways, but as the heavens are higher than the earth so are HIS ways higher than my ways and his thoughts than my thoughts! It comes down to this, God knows what is best for his children and he surely does bless all of us far beyond all we could think or imagine!!

I think it would be great to start praying for one another daily! I know this may sound cheesy, but what if over the next 30 days we would commit to pray for each other's needs every single day! I will make that commitment to each one of you reading my blog today. If you want to post a comment with your need I will promise to pray every day for that need. If your request is personal than I will just pray that God would meet the needs that you have b/c HE knows all of our requests before we even ask! The amazing part of this will be that we can all celebrate and praise God together when those requests have been answered!!

"Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands in not quickly broken." Ecclesiastes 4:12

"If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all-how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?"
Romans 8:31-32

Denver Pictures

Here are some of my pictures from our trip to Colorado. I will post more on my facebook & myspace account later.

These are the Alvino girl's. Becky, Abby, Lisa, and Andrea (and Andrea's dog Lucy).

The Alvino Family

This is a picture from the train.

This is us on the Cog train on our way up Pike's Peak.

This is Rick and I on Pike's Peak. I think I am squinting in every picture b/c I am not used to it being so sunny. I live in Seattle now so I have been used to gray skies!

Beautiful Colorado Scenery!

Denver

Our trip to Denver was amazing!! I feel so refreshed and rested!! I am really bummed b/c last night I downloaded all of our pictures to a CD (I thought) so that I could bring them to work and upload them to my blog. Well I downloaded them on to a blank DVD instead of a CD so they won't open at my work computer!! :( I will try and post the pictures tonight on my home computer. As for our trip here is a brief summary:

Thursday: Flew out from Seattle to Denver at 7:00 pm. We landed in Denver at 11:00 pm and after we got our bags and our rental car we headed to a very beautiful hotel. We arrived at the hotel at about 1:00 am and we were both exhausted and excited all at the same time so we stayed up another hour and a half and watched TV in bed together.

Friday: We went over to Pastor Gene and Rhonda Roncone's home. They took us out to lunch at PF Chang's (my favorite!!). After lunch we went sight seeing and shopping around town. In the evening we went to see my second family in Denver...the Alvino's. It's funny most of my second families in life have been Italian. The Elton's and the Alvino's. :) We had fun at Andrea's house who is now not an Alvino anymore, she is Andrea Kissler. It was so wonderful to see everyone!

Saturday: We planned on heading to Breckenridge for the day, but due to some really heavy snow fall the night before most of the roads were not safe to drive on in the mountains. Instead we went to Park Meadows mall with Pastor Gene and Rhonda and did some Christmas shopping. That evening Rick and I went out for a nice dinner and then headed to the theaters to see the movie August Rush, which by the way was an incredible movie!! It's a must see!!

Sunday: It was time to see everyone at the church I where I used to be Outreach Pastor. It was a fun reunion with lots of old friends!! It felt like I had never left Denver. Oh, how I miss those days!! That afternoon we had lunch with some friends and then headed over to the Alvino's to watch the Bears and the Broncos both get beat! Not a good day in the NFL for either of us!

Monday: Our day in the mountains. We headed to Pike's Peak in the morning to ride the Cog Rail up to the top. Unfortunately, we only made it 12,500 feet above sea level b/c once again there was too much snow and wind at the top. I think it is 14,000 feet at the top. Anyway...it was still a gorgeous train ride. After Pike's Peak we headed to Breckenridge to eat dinner and do some shopping. Breckenridge was breathtaking!! I can't wait to post my pictures. There was lots of snow and Christmas lights everywhere! It looked like a painting I would hang on my wall!

Tuesday: We headed to the airport to fly back to Seattle. I dreaded this day! I didn't want to leave. I love Denver and I hope someday before the end of my life I can live there again!!

That's our trip in a nutshell. Now we are getting ready to leave in two weeks for Chicago. I am really excited to see all of my family and friends over Christmas!

We Are Off!!

We are off to Denver for a MUCH NEEDED vacation!! We leave at 4:30 this afternoon. I will be away from the internet for a few days, but I will be sure and give you an update on our trip when we return on Tuesday.

My Weekend

It's Monday morning and I am back at work! I wish we had four day weekends more often! Rick and I had a wonderful time at my brother's house for Thanksgiving! I made my first ever homemade pumpkin pie and I am happy to say that it actually tasted good! Friday morning at 6:30 am my sister in law and my two nieces headed out to the black Friday sales. I wasn't as impressed this year as I have in years past. Although, I must say I did find some good bargains at Old Navy and Macy's. The hard part for me about black Friday sales is that I want to shop for me and I know that I should be Christmas shopping for other people. I allowed myself $30 and the rest of my money went to other people. I do love shopping for family and friends, but you know how it is when you see a sweater or a pair of pants that you want and the price is drastically reduced! I had to spoil myself a little bit!!

Okay, so I must say that I am officially sick of football!! I never thought those words would come out of my mouth, but Rick literally watched almost every pro and college game that was on T.V.! Last night after the Bears won due to Devin Hester making some incredible plays; I finally got Rick to agree to watch the colored version (he doesn't watch black and white movies) of Miracle on 34th Street. At one point during the movie he asked if he could just check the score of the Eagles and Patriots game and I reluctantly said okay. That checking the score for a minute request turned into watching the whole 4th quarter of the game! All I am saying is that I would be doing great if I didn't watch football for the next week!!

I am really excited b/c Rick and I leave for our get away to Denver Colorado on Thursday! We are going to have so much fun!! The nice part is that this will be another shorter work week for both Rick and I. YEAH!!

Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!! I hope all of you have a wonderful time with your family and friends! I am so thankful for each one of you!

BEARS GAME

My wonderful brother Paul got four free tickets to the Seahawks vs. Bears game for this Sunday! He asked Rick and I to go with him and his wife Liz. I am super excited!! The last Bears game I went to was three years ago in Dallas. I'm pretty sure the Bears lost that game, but hopefully they will win Sunday's game. I will post pictures of us at the game on Monday. If you watch the game look for Rick and I - we will try to find a way to get the cameras to look our direction (without breaking the law of course!-ha!).