Fenelon - Acceptance of God's Will

Bear all the annoyances of your present condition, which is full of inconveniences and discomfort, in a penitential spirit; these are the penances God assigns you, and far more useful than what you may choose for yourself. The best state to be in is that in which God's hand holds you; do not look beyond it; think only of accepting everything from moment to moment, in the spirit of self denial and self-renunciation. But this acquiescence should be full of trust in God, who loves you more the less he spares you.

Peace...

The Serenity Prayer

God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;

Courage to change the things I can;

And wisdom to know the difference.

Living one day at a time;
enjoying one moment at a time;
accepting hardships as the pathway to peace;

Taking, as He did, this sinful world
as it is, not as I would have it;
trusting that He will make all things right

If I surrender to His Will;
that I may be reasonably happy in this life
and supremely happy with Him
forever in the next.
Amen.

--- Reinhold Niebuhr (1892-1971)

Jumbo's Quote of the Day!

"Have you had a kindness shown? Pass it on; 'Twas not given for thee alone,... Let it travel down the years; Let it wipe another's tears, 'Till in Heaven the deed appears--Pass it on."

~Rev. Henry Burton~

While checking my mail....

I found one of the cutest munchkins with an incredible memory



Are you smarter than a 2 year old :)

Momsie

46 miles baby! :)

I went biking this past Monday 46 miles to the Azusa mountains with a group of friends and I'm still pumped about it!

It's the longest distance I have ever ridden on a bicycle :)


Now the fun part is going to be breaking the record, hopefully I'll get my chance this Sunday when (fingers crossed) we bike out to the beaches.


Anyway part of why the trip was so great was because of the fantastic weather and location, I could go on and on about how gorgeous the scenery and the ride was -- the mountains are definitely the place to go for a bike ride, everything is just so fresh and isolated...


The next time we bike to the Azusa mountains me and the gang are going to try and make it past the initial peaks of the hills and to this biking trail.


It's going to be an adventure :D I can't wait! Plus I heard that it is also extremely gorgeous so I'm really looking forward to seeing it.



One thing I learned from this trip is to be PREPARED. Even if you start the day thinking your only going to bike ten miles or something light like that it's always good to be safe and pack some energy bars and nut mixes and lots of water -- you never know when your going to need the energy.


This time around I was very lucky, one of my friends brought enough food with him to have several delectable picnics -- and we did hahaha :)


All in all, it was AWESOME and such a nice change from the mundane routines of homework, homework, homework...If you own a bike I strongly encourage you to take it out of your garage, closet, attic, or where ever your hiding it away and take it for a ride!
You will be so happy you did trust me, by the end of it you might even be feeling something like that biking warrior chick in the above picture, I know I did hehehe :)

xoxo
Olivia

Oh dear!

The winter semester is starting to get extremely hectic...this last test that I took today has me a little worried -- gulp!
I counted all the questions that I absolutely didn't understand, included a few I was unsure about, and then calculated what my total grade would be and the answer wasn't very pretty :( boo hoo!
It's a B or less if I calculated correctly.

Normally getting a B on a test wouldn't be such a bad thing because professors always drop the lowest grade but in the winter semester where you take 6 tests and the tests are worth 54% of your grade a B on a test can make or break your GPA.


On brighter news though, I did get an A on my first test so that's good :)
I just need to make sure that for the rest of the semester (4 weeks) I continue to push, and push, and push for those A's.

I knew there were a couple of things I wasn't completely sure about going into that test but there just wasn't enough time to study them with all the home work our teacher gave out.

So I have some delightful news aside from all the Winter Semester drama...

This Summer I plan on doing an engineering internship for undergraduate students at Cal State LA! Woo hoo! I'm totally excited!! I'm finally going to get to see a little bit of what Engineer students do after they graduate :D

I'm not exactly sure what I'm going to be doing but I will certainly keep you updated on the going-ons and how it all turns out...


In the meanwhile I am going to enjoy a nice little break and then get back to homework...
xoxo
Olivia

Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice, With Amazing Story Telling Skills!

The story of Jonah from Corinth Baptist Church on Vimeo.

Couple gives away entire $11.2M lottery jackpot

A Nova Scotia couple won $11.2 million from a lottery ticket in July and now every penny is gone.

But Allen and Violet Large of Lower Truro didn't spend any of it on themselves.

They say they decided to take care of family, organizations and institutions instead.

"What you've never had, you never miss," said Violet, 78.

Married since 1974, the couple does not live large. They don't travel, they don't gamble (beyond playing the lottery) and they don't buy what they don't need.

"We have an old house, but we're comfortable and we're happy in it," Violet said.

They spent 30 years in Ontario where Allen was a steel welder and Violet worked for cosmetics and chocolate companies. They retired in 1983 and returned to Nova Scotia.

"We were pretty well set, not millionaires, but comfortable," said Allen, 75.

So when they hit it big in Lotto 6-49's July 14 draw, they decided to give it all away.

All that money "was a big headache," Allen said.

Violet said she was concerned about "crooked people" who might try to take advantage of them.

But the big win came at a difficult time in their lives: Violet was undergoing treatment for cancer that doctors discovered in the spring.

"That money that we won was nothing," said Allen, choking back tears. "We have each other."

Violet has been through surgery and finished her last chemotherapy treatment a week ago.

After the win, the couple took about a week to work out the details before embarking on their $11,255,272 spending spree.

They took care of family first and then began delivering donations to the two pages' worth of groups they had decided on, including the local fire department, churches, cemeteries, the Red Cross, the Salvation Army, hospitals in Truro and Halifax, where Violet underwent her cancer treatment, and organizations that fight cancer, Alzheimer's and diabetes.

The list goes on and on.

The couple won't say how much they gave each group, but they've received plenty of phone calls, letters and plaques of gratitude. While they're thankful for each one, they didn't do it for the recognition.

"It made us feel good," said Violet. "And there's so much good being done with that money."

She and her husband said they feel privileged to be able to give back to the community, to help the firefighters, the doctors and nurses and the volunteers who have helped them.

"We're the lucky ones," Violet said. "I have no complaints."

A Day At The Beach

It was mostly gray that day we choose to chill by the beach.

We didn't worry much about sunburn.

Having enough sweaters and towels to keep yourself warm was more the issue.

All day I kept seeing these two same beach-bums (see above)! I think they were following me.

Here they are again! This time just hanging around... panhandling!? :)

A Modern U.S. President