.villoriadotus.

.as the deer.

August 15th, 2009

so i went for a much needed run this morning and saw many beautiful deer while i was running.  one of them was about 15 feet away from me.  i usually see them scurry away when i drive by them, but it was so peaceful seeing one up pretty close.  it reminded me of a couple things.  (1)  one of the favorite gcl songs while i was in grad school was “as the deer.”  it came from psalm 42:1 “as the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God.”  my friend som always requested that song.  good times.  (2)  when i was a more active runner in college at berry, it was quite common to see deer on my runs.  the campus (yes, it is the world’s largest campus) was so beautiful and always reminded me of God’s amazing creation.  praise God for allowing me to see His beautiful creation every day!

.15 hours in san fran.

June 11th, 2009

it was about 13 years ago when i last visited san francisco.  i went there on a nerdy trip in college with a chemistry friend to the american chemical society national conference.  since he was on student government, our funds were covered by the college.  oh, what memories!

now i sit at the tampa airport awaiting my long short trip.  long because it’s cross country–short because i’ll only be in san francisco for 15 hours, including sleep, shuttling to and from the airport, and doing the business i need to do.  tomorrow night i’ll take the red-eye back to tampa.  as a chemist, i travel moderately for business…usually chem geeks are couped up in a lab most of the year with the exception of a few critical conferences to attend.  this time around, i’ve been asked to talk face to face with some people at the vendor’s headquarters to get them to do what we need them to do!

things have been quite busy for us lately.  i started a sweet job a couple months ago so i’ve been pretty swamped.  we are transitioning our family from gainesville to the tampa bay area.  lots to do with selling our home, getting a new one, starting the job, getting ready for our church plant, etc.  more on this later, maybe, as i have time…

.face injury.

February 25th, 2009

so here’s the deal.  in case you see me the next few days, you’ll know the specifics.  the professional opinion (free of charge, ptl!) indicated that i have a very bruised septum, but my nose may not be broken.  if it’s broken, it may grow back a little deformed, but that’s ok with me.  my breathing through one nostril is slightly diminished, but that should get better with time as well.  the doctor recommended i get a facial expert to check it out, so i’ve got an appointment next week.  i’m surprised that i’m still in pain after this many days.  fortunately, through the grace of God, i was able to teach tonight (aok home group) without crying out too much in pain.  it’s fun to read the internet descriptions…”displacement of the nasal septum,” “bent cartilage,” “septal reconstruction.”  it still is true that i haven’t broken a bone in my body (a truth from a previous post), but i have definitely had stitches, bruises, a torn acl, and now a beat-up face.  my two black eyes will likely get worse before they get better and oleah gave me some lip balm for my cracked lips.  it’s funny…filipinos are known for having smaller or flat noses and it’s often been joked that they (we) must have run into a wall or hit with a frying pan on the face when younger to make the noses as flat as they are.  i never thought about what it might actually feel like to run face first into something, but now i’ve got a pretty good idea.  not fun.  i don’t recommend it.

.teaching, men’s retreat, and whack!.

February 24th, 2009

it’s been a busy past few days with some teaching and some travel.  thursday night i was invited to teach on creation at the tangent rhythm home group.  i do this about each semester and much like last semester, i was very pleased with the response of the group.  it’s always fascinating to hear people’s questions and gain new insight into the scientific study of our world being created rather than evolved.  yes, many people will undoubtedly disagree with this science, and most won’t even consider it science, but that is expected as the word so clearly illustrates in romans chapter 1 and in 1 peter and in many other places.  i’m excited about teaching again at aok, another home group, this wednesday night.

after the men’s retreat this weekend, i went up to live oak to be with my wife’s family as they watched our kids while oleah and i were both at our respective retreats.  the three kids always have such a great time there playing with their nana and papa and other cousins and relatives!  sunday i went to tallahassee to teach at our sister church that we planted last year.  it’s always fun to visit the fsu campus and see the church growing there.  it was my first visit since it was officially a church since last year.  it was great to meet the new folks and to teach on our identity in Christ.  i think that if each Christian would really grasp our identity in Christ, we would be less plagued and paralyzed by our own insecurities.

now about the men’s retreat…it’s been awhile since we’ve done one.  lots of great teaching, lots of good discussion, and of course lots of competition.  my favorite was the basketball competition, but there was also wrestling, high jump, volleyball, sprints, frisbee throwing, and ultimate frisbee.  friday night we played a huge game of capture the flag.  now imagine over 40 grown men running around in a huge field in the middle of nowhere in the pitch black of night.  considering the darkness, a maximum sprint speed, and the competitive drive of young men, someone is bound to get hurt.  so, apparently one member (the wicked mr. g) of the opposing team was on our side sprinting towards the line and i wasn’t going to let him make it there.  and neither was brandon on my team.  so, brandon and i were sprinting from opposite directions unknowingly heading straight for each other.  of course, my face collided with the side of his.  i blacked out temporarily, and found myself enjoying the comfort of the cold grass.  i lay there for awhile, holding my nose, and noticing that my hands and arm were both getting more and more bloody.  i’m thankful that it wasn’t worse and that my teeth were not knocked out of my mouth.  and now, 3 days later, i have a swollen and sore nose (i don’t suspect it’s broken), i sound very nasal when i speak (my whole sunday sermon was given in this tone), and i have two black eyes and two bruised lips.  as long as i don’t smile too wide or eat anything too salty, the tears on my lips don’t feel too bad.  my home remedy for the next few days consists of zinc oxide (sunscreen) for the black eyes, ice for the nose, chapstick for the lips, and ibuprofen for the pain.  now as soon as you get your laughs out from getting the visual of all this, i’d love to know if any of you have any other suggestions.

.non-verbal communication.

February 12th, 2009

my love for my son is just exploding!  he is so cute and adorable!  today he turns 17 months old.  he is at that age where he can’t quite speak yet but he can communicate through grunts, word sounds, and hand gestures.  taking advantage of the last of the three, we have been teaching him sign language.  our first two kids did really great with this.  he can make the signs for please, eat, water, more, and just the other day, milk.  the “milk” sign is the cutest and most recent sign he learned.  the sign is made by placing your right hand in front of you and opening and closing your fingers, alternating between the “c” and “s” letters.  (think squeezing the udder of a cow for milk!)  he sticks his hand out and rubs his fingers together.  it’s precious.  i should get it on video soon.

.daddy one day.

February 3rd, 2009

i had a wonderful play time with my kids last night.  it involved throwing the football, kicking the soccer ball, wrestling, tickling and various body parts of the kids touching the ceiling.  in the middle of it, my eldest asked me a question that i will cherish for a long time.

“daddy, one day can you and me one day play basketball together, just you and me?”

my favorite sport and my precious daughter all in one.  i can’t wait!  now only if i had a cement truck to lay down my dream basketball court in the backyard…

.seven facts, seven blogs.

January 27th, 2009

i’m usually not one to participate in internet memes, but when my name is personally mentioned, i feel i must take part.  let’s see, in case you don’t read any other blogs, here are the rules for this silly thing:

1. Link to your original tagger(s) and list these rules in your post.
2. Share seven facts about yourself in the post.
3. Tag seven people at the end of your post by leaving their names and the links to their blogs.
4. Let them know they’ve been tagged.

so, to satisfy the first requirement, thanks jordan for mentioning me.  you gave me an excuse to post, which in this case is an easy way to list some random facts about myself. 

7 facts:

1. if you’ve been reading my posts, you know that i just returned from an amazing trip to the philippines.  the first half i was doing mission work, the second half i was seeing relatives and visiting a child that i’ve sponsored for over 10 years.  it’s a little odd that i went to a country with some of the best beaches in the world and didn’t once step foot on one of them this time around.  i may blog about the trip more, but for now, suffice it to say that it was awesome!
2. i learned to juggle on a tennis court in yorba linda one summer.  my brother and i were playing tennis, and with all those balls around, we did more than just play tennis.  my favorite and most challenging juggling trick is the shower, in which all balls rotate through my hands counterclockwise instead of the standard criss-cross pattern.
3. i don’t know if this is uncommon, but i still can recite the names of every teacher i had in grade school.  one uncommon thing that i still memorize is the mcdonald’s menu from 1986.  (the whole menu was made into a song, and yep, i still know it.)
4. i learned how to whistle in first grade, right after i took a drink from a water fountain in mrs. land’s class.
5. on my phil trip, i was on 12 different flights, a boat, pedicabs, tricycles, countless taxis, a public bus, jeepneys, cars, and trucks.  the planes i flew on ranged from large 747’s to smaller propeller planes, yet the small prop planes were not the smallest i’ve ever flown in.  those would be those two cessna’s that i jumped out of with a backpack strapped to my body. 
6. i attempt to live my life in a manner that pleases God.  sure, i fail many times, but i’m working on it.
7. i may be a little biased, just maybe, but i think i have the three most adorable kids on the planet.  they are so precious.

7 people:

1. guitarman - i enjoy reading his blogs, even though they sometimes are laced with computer jargon that is just beyond me.  we share a common love for mission work and i appreciate the work he and his wife are doing to reach unreached people groups.
2. terrible speller - a college friend and a home school mom of three with very colorful blog posts and who, btw, i’ve never caught misspelling a word.
3. holly - i would expect that she will be most likely to break the trend because, as of her latest post, is now 40 weeks pregnant!
4. jemma - a fellow gator fan who’s very talented in photography.  check out her amazing pics!
5. d. lindy - i mentored him for four years and he’s been a wonderful encouragement.  plus, he hasn’t blogged in a while, so maybe this will get him back into it.
6. jen mc - i love reading her deep insightful posts.  her physicist husband and i walked in the same doc graduation ceremony.
7. jocy - gcl alum and newlywed who needs to update her blog more often!

.inauguration.

January 20th, 2009

it’s kinda eerie being in another country while my president is being inaugurated.

.philippine travel update.

January 19th, 2009

so my trip here is not going quite as planned.  but it’s all good.  god had a plan for me not to go to butuan right away to meet my sponsored child.  there were some crazy travel experiences that i’ll have to talk about at some point.  i felt like matthew perry on fools rush in…”donde esta tamazula?  trambia. tamazula? trambia. what is a trambia? dat bus over there.” or tom hanks being stuck at the airport in “the terminal.”  anyway, i finally was able to connect with my parents in cebu after a plane ride in first class (they didn’t have any other seats and i certainly wasn’t going to wait anymore) and a 2 hour boat ride in the evening.  i enjoyed seeing them and some other families.  there was a huge parade going on, the biggest party of the year.  i was so glad happy to join my cousin kristine at her church for the beginning of a soul-winning conference at her bible baptist church.  it was interesting to hear american missionaries preach to the crowd of filipinos.  i was just doing that last week.  i rebooked my flight for tomorrow and will be able to visit my sponsored child.  i’m glad my dad will be joining me.  i’m sure it will be a great experience for both of us.  for those that are praying, please continue to pray for good weather, safety, and for the trip to be a blessing to all.

.travel adventures in the philippines.

January 17th, 2009

limited time at the manila airport.  the flight yesterday to butuan was cancelled due to bad weather in butuan so I rebooked for today.  the flight today was cancelled again for the same reason.  rather than spending another day in manila, I have (after much hassle with other options) decided to fly to tagbilaran, bohol, then take a ferry to cebu.  long story, but I waited as a standby passenger for Cebu, but the likelihood of me getting on one of the six fully booked (at 110%) flights was getting smaller as hours passed.  Anyway, I will spend some time in Cebu then try to go to Butuan later in the week when the weather is nicer.  oooh, they’re boarding now.  see ya.

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