Mar 15, 2003 - 8.36PM

My grandmother passed away on Saturday. I found out after bible study when my brother called me. Shocking cannot even begin to describe the feeling. It's been a rough couple of weeks for my family. I think this one has hit the family harder because it was so unexpected. My grandmother's health was always great. She's had no problems what so ever.

I've enjoyed listening to childhood stories these past couple of weeks. I don't remember most of the stories that my family has brought up, but it gives me a warm feeling in my heart to hear them.

One thing I'm scared of is what will happen to the family now. Visiting grandma and grandpa was always a good reason for the family to get together. Now that they are gone I can just see that being so much more difficult because of everyones busy schedules. Makes me sad when I think about it. I hope that doesn't happen.

This year is already turning out the be a roller coaster ride. Starting from the joys of planning the wedding to the hardship of the past couple of weeks. I know that the wedding will be a wonderful day... but it will bittersweet as well now that my grandparents won't be there. I only have one grandparent left and I can't help but feel like I want to hold onto her tightly and not let go. I already told her that we're going to throw her a big birthday party on her 100th birthday.

Sigh... I guess one of the worst feelings is knowing that although I feel as badly as I do, my mom and dad (along with his siblings) are feeling worse. I can't even begin to imagine what that feels like to lose both you parents in the span of two weeks. I mean... it's hard enough to lose two grandparents in that time span.

Pray for me; that I can be an encouragement to my family during this time.

Mar 8, 2003 - 2.28PM

Got back from San Jose last night. I've was only gone for a little more than 3 days and yet it feels like I've been gone away for awhile. Despite the fact that the trip in itself was sad because of the funeral, I really am thankful for the amount of time I had to spend with my family. Maybe it was all the emotions from the funeral and such... but I really enjoyed being around my family and spending time with them. One thing that I will always treasure is the fact that my family is close with one another and that we genuinely love each other. It's times of hanging out like this that makes me a bit sad that we only get so many chances to be get together as a family.

I finished reading Moneyball and The Da Vinci Code. Give a thumbs up to both of them. If you like reading any books about baseball, then you'll probably like Moneyball. I don't think it's the all in all of how to put together a winning team, but I think there's a lot of good concepts. I found The Da Vinci Code to be a well written mystery. I thought it was really good. The concern that I have though is that those who aren't Christian or maybe even those who are Christian will take what is a fictional book and think the conspiracies found inside are facts.

Here's a sermon from a Pastor at Scottsdale Bible Church in Arizona talking about the book and the conspiracies that is in it. It's a large file so... it will take a while to download on the page.

Been working out again the past couple of weeks. I think I have more energy when I'm working out consistantly... though the first couple of evenings after I started working out I was pretty tired.