Ilena_g_m's Xanga

I Asked The Lord That I Might Grow

Mon, 04 Feb 2008 04:18:15 GMT

Prayer answered by crosses by John Newton

I asked the Lord that I might grow

In faith, and love, and every grace;

Might more of His salvation know,

And seek, more earnestly, His face.

’Twas He who taught me thus to pray,

And He, I trust, has answered prayer!

But it has been in such a way,

As almost drove me to despair.

I hoped that in some favored hour,

At once He’d answer my request;

And by His love’s constraining pow’r,

Subdue my sins, and give me rest.

Instead of this, He made me feel

The hidden evils of my heart;

And let the angry pow’rs of hell

Assault my soul in every part.

Yea more, with His own hand He seemed

Intent to aggravate my woe;

Crossed all the fair designs I schemed,

Blasted my gourds, and laid me low.

Lord, why is this, I trembling cried,

Wilt thou pursue thy worm to death?

“’Tis in this way, the Lord replied,

I answer prayer for grace and faith.

These inward trials I employ,

From self, and pride, to set thee free;

And break thy schemes of earthly joy,

That thou may’st find thy all in Me.”

Retrieved from "http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/I_Asked_the_Lord_That_I_Might_Grow"

Flying Down Mountains!

Sun, 20 Jan 2008 00:28:19 GMT

So, recently in my class, we've been studying Flight and animals that God designed to fly. We've studied the Wright Brother's and their first attempts and then their successful first flight. My dad has been helping out- because he's really nice and he knows a lot about flying (he had his private pilot's liscense for many years). Recently Dad's been designing different gliders to test out for my class. He just finished designing one and wanted to try it out by launching it from the top of Rattlesnake Mountain, across the street from our house. We drove up and launched it 5 times- each was unsuccessful. The left wing was a bit heavier than the right and the nose "cannard" (the little wing on the front that produces lift and counter acts the tendancy for the wing to flip backwards) produced too much lift than desired, causing the main wing to stall. Basically, to not be too technical, the nose went up and the whole glider rotated to the left. Here's the video to see our trial #3.

When the last trial was finished, since I was the "retriever," I just decided to try and fly the plane down the mountain as far as I could. Well, on my way down, I found that someone else had been up there and had been doing a little bit of sledding with some left-over wood siding. "Hmmmm," I thought to myself, "wouldn't this be really fun?! I'll wait 'til Mom and Dad are down on the road below me and I'll slide down on this 'sled,' right to the truck door!" When they finally got on the road below me, I sat down and slid within 30 ft. of the truck. It was so much FUN! I really wanted to record it, but the batteries in my camera died. Not, to worry, I'm always up for a second chance at spontaneous fun! Up the hill with my new sledding partner in hand, I rearranged the batteries, hoping to trick them into giving me just one more chance at recording my adventure. I sat down, turned on the camera, and this is the result: (hope you enjoy!)

I kinda look like the uni-bomber with my hoodie up ;) I couldn't get the siding that I was sitting on to move at first because I was stuck on a rock. Obviously there isn't much snow left on the mountain because it hasn't snowed for 2 1/2 weeks or so. This snow, that you see, is only there because it is on the north side of the mountain and doesn't get much sun. Hope that all of you are enjoying your winter no matter if there is or isn't snow and no matter if you get the chance to be spontaneous or not- I would highly suggest safe spontanaity, though! It's tons of fun...try it sometime!

El Hombre.......;)

Sun, 21 Oct 2007 05:01:56 GMT

Yes, it has been a while since I've made an entry into this "web log." But, hey, I've been busy teaching and otherwise a bit distracted...hee,hee !

So, I know a number of you have wanted to see a picture of Vic, my boyfriend...hmmm, that's still a bit weird for me to say, even though it has been 3 months. Well, here are some pics of Vic (and I) at various functions:

The Family celebrating the summer birthdays! Can you find Vic?

Me and Vic eating hotdogs at an Oakland A's game a few months ago.

Us girls at the same game! Boy, I love baseball games! But it seems that every time I travel 4 hours, to the Bay Area, the game that we watch has always turned out to be only 2 hours long. A serious disappointment! We kept cheering for a tie so that we could watch extra innings. That is a long drive for only 2-2 1/2 hours of game time. But I guess the fun is the whole journey there, the game itself, and back again.

All of us after the game. The A's were playing the Angel's by the way. The A's won, no homeruns, and hardly anyone made it past 1st base. A pretty boring game, but at least we got to sing "Take Me Out To The Ball Game" in the middle of the 7th. And, we were there, in person and weren't watching it on TV. By the way, has anyone been watching those great "come-back-kids" the Red Sox! Yeah! Go Sox! Beat those Indians!

Vic and I went to a friend's daughter's wedding up at Montreaux Golf Course. It was really pretty. They got married on one of the holes (I couldn't tell you which one). The cake was very cool! It looked like Alice in Wonderland. Here is a picture with a filter on it. I took it with Deana's camera. She has this neat function where if you choose one color, it will pick up only that color and everything else is black and white.

Here is the table setting. Could you tell that the bride REALLY liked PINK?

For my birthday, I requested a tea party. So, my kind sisters, family and Vic, made a whole HUGE spread of yummy tea food! This was the menu (we call our house, for tea parties: "The Little Round Tea House"!):

Sandwiches:

Caprese, Welsh Rabbit, Smoked Turkey, Cucumer and Mint, Radish with Chive Spread, and Deviled Eggs

Pastries:

Ginger Buttermilk Scones, Fruit Scones, Crumpets, P's-n-G's (yummy chocolate/almond tartlets; called P's-n-G's because Trina inserted pennies and quarters in the tops for 26 years!)

Spreads:

Lemon Curd, Honey Thyme Butter, Clotted Cream, Raspbery Jam

Dessert:

Lemon Mother Bars, Chocolate Brownies

And, A Selection of Fine Teas!

Man, if your mouth isn't watering by now, then I would assume that you've never been to a real tea house, or enjoyed the delights of a formal tea. (Or maybe, you just don't like tea:).

Finally, Vic invited me to the Navy Ball. So, my dear sister Trina made me a very gorgeous dress and I "got cleaned up right nice" and "sauntered on over to the Ball!"

So, that is all for now, on my Quarterly Update. Hope you enjoyed the synopsis!

P.S. I've always thought that a man looks- dare I say- hot (?) in a uniform

More Pictures of Costa Rica

Thu, 28 Jun 2007 04:31:20 GMT

If you'd like to see more pictures of our many adventures in Costa Rica, click on the link below:

http://picasaweb.google.com/christikng

The past week...

Sat, 23 Jun 2007 02:00:29 GMT

I just thought I'd update you on what we've been doing down south. This week has been a whirlwind of traveling, sun, fun and crazy roads! Sunday through Tuesday we were in Ponte Leona at the beach. It was beautiful! We really didn't do much more than sit on the beach, hike around the point, take pictures of crabs (they were very funny little things) and enjoyed relaxing.

We got back to Escazu on Tuesday evening and then left for Monteverde on Wednesday afternoon. The drive to Monteverde took about 5 hours. The first part of the ride (we went by bus/taxis sort of thing) was decent. The second part was terribly bumpy, full of pot holes, and not paved. It's the sort of bumbing that could result in an accident, if you had to use the restroom.

We stayed in cute little "cabinas" in the town of Santa Elena, which is near Monteverde. The next morning, Thursday, we got up early, had a yummy breakfast from the hotel and then got on the bus to go up higher into the mountain for the zip lines, "cloud forest" canapoy walk, and butterfly garden tour.

Let me just tell you...that zip line- which has 19 lines of varying lengths, heights and SPEEDS!- was SO MUCH FUN!!!!!! I could have done it 3 or 4 more times that same day...well, except for the fact that I was really tired afterward. It's a lot of work to keep straight and not twist around like a helicopter and the harnesses weren't super comfy. I have a better harness to climb in- it's padded! The "cloud forest" canopy walk was decent, with suspension bridges and pathways that meandered through the rainforest-which happened to NOT have rain, because it was a rare clear day. It would have been more fun and interesting if we would have had a guide. Then we ate, because we nearly had to drag ourselves out of the forest because our blood sugar level was so low, that all we could think of or care about was FOOD!

Then, we had a nice time in the butterfly garden. The guide was good and the tour was very intesting. The butterflies were bright and beautiful.

That night we were so tired that Deana, Karina and Christi went to bed at 8:00pm. I went to sleep at 9:15pm because I was reading a good book- a book I might read with my students this next year: The Bronze Bow. We didn't get up the next morning until 7:30ish- that's 10-11 hours of sleep. Too much, really because we were all rather lathargic the whole day. We ate a leisurely breakfast and then went to the "Serpentarium" where we saw snakes and frogs and turtles. It was a decent museum/zoo-thing, and probably would have been better if we would have waited the hour and a half for the professional tour: but we didn't want to.

Next, we walked across town, which happens to be quite small, to the "Frog Pond." This was a better and more interesting tour because we had a tour guide. My favorite was the poison dart frogs. Their brilliant color was so interesting to look at and they were active in the daytime, which is nice when you've come to see frogs move about. All of the other frogs were nocturnal, so they didn't move much.

The ride up the mountain had been rough and long but the ride down the mountain was rougher and much longer. And all I can say is "Whew! I'm glad I'm not in a bumping car right now!"

Oh, yeah, one more thing, I forgot that we watched a few of the surfers out in the waves when we went to Jaco for fish tacos (which were amazingly good and yummy!). The waves weren't great, but there sure were a lot of surfers. I took some video and pictures of them. The day was very cloudy, so they didn't turn out very well. Hopefully we will have more pictures up soon so that you all can see them.

This has been a long week, with a lot of fun and exhausting things to do. But, hey, no worries, there is still more to come!

Ciao for now!

Mr. Toad's Wild Ride!

Sun, 17 Jun 2007 01:16:53 GMT

Driving in Costa Rica has been an adventure...so say the least- a white knuckle ride, to be more specific. Mind you, I'm not the one doing the driving, my sister Deana is- and boy is she brave!

Imagine driving downhill, in an old Isuzu Trooper, deep ruts gouging the sides of the road, pedestrians occupying 1/4 of the driving space (meandering slowly and seemingly nonchalently to their various destinations). Other cars are zooming up hill, or down hill- depending- within inches of the left side of the vehicle. On the right side is, normally, a delivery truck filling at least 1/3 of the roadway- we normally slip past them with about 4 inches to spare. Bikers, without helmets, brave the onslaught of chaos as if they were taking a nice mountain biking escapade.

This craziness causes me to not only grip the door handle next to me and hold my breath and pray, but also to remember back to when I was young, oh, about 7 or 8, and my family went to Disneyland. My mother, sister Karina and I went on the ride, "Mr. Toad's Wild Ride." I don't know if any of you have ever been on this ride, but when I was 8, and unable to drive, it was very scary! My mother and I ended up in the same car together, and I was in the driver's seat, thinking that I could handle this ride. What I didn't realize what that this ride, like all rides, is on a track, a loose track, but none the less, a track. As I began to conduct the car towards the first wall (which was a false wall) I started to yell in panic for my mom to drive. I was frantic, I didn't know what way to go and the breaks wouldn't work. I knew we were going to crash! I was so utterly frightened that I was panicking and yelling, "Mom, mom, help me! I can't drive! Mom, you take the wheel! It won't stop!...HELP!...." and so on and so forth. Mom, I think was cracking up, because she knew it was a fake wall and that I didn't even need to conduct this car anywhere. She just sat there and laughed and coaxed me on with kind words like: "You can do it...turn it a little more....look its fake, we're not going to crash...no, turn this way a bit more...its ok, try a little harder to turn it... etc." Then, of course the wall would lift or slide aside, etc. and the whole ordeal would begin again, as the next wall would come closer, or, amazingly, without my approval, our vehicle would turn towards the next obstacle.

I remember, after discovering that I really had no control over the car and that we really weren't going to die right then, I was mad and confused and still had that tight panicky feeling in my stomach. Mom still cracks up at that memory, and yes, I'm amused with it too.

That ride, and the Indian Jones ride at Disneyland is what driving in Costa Rica feels like: panic, controlled chaos, prayers, shouting- or at least some tense quiet "lookout for that man (biker, motorcycle, pedestrian, car, dog, etc.)."

Now, as if this experience isn't difficult and exilerating enough, try doing it in the rain, when you can hardly see out the front windshield. The ruts on the side of the road then become a torrent of muddy/sewagey water, the pedestrians become 12 times harder to see and the pot holes (oh, yes, I forgot to mention the pot holes- they're huge! and frequent and made worse with each deluge- which happens every evening), as I was saying, the pot holes get deeper and sometimes the inside of the windows fog up. When the windows become as moist as the outside air, it is then that I reach behind the seat, dig around for the paper towels and start to mop up the moisture as Deana continues to drive. (Yes, Karina and Christi have delegated me as the navigator/co-pilot- and I don't believe it has anything to do with my skills or ability to help the driver. They have refused to sit where they can clearly see all of this craziness coming straight at them!)

We are very thankful for the grace that God has given Deana these past 2 years concerning her safety as she drives, and are also thankful for the safety that we've had for the past few days. We are going on a short trip to the Pacific Coast, so we will continue to ask for God's grace and safety as we travel there too.

Costa Rica Vacation

Thu, 14 Jun 2007 20:56:15 GMT

Karina, Christi and I are on vacation in Costa Rica right now. We are having a great time visiting my sister Deana. If you would like to see pictures of what we've done so far, click on the link below.

http://picasaweb.google.com/christikng

Fantasy Baseball

Sun, 15 Apr 2007 22:26:39 GMT

Hi, yeah, so, don't expect much out of me in terms of blogging. I've discovered that I really stink at it. But, hey, I guess you can be satisfied with knowing I'm still alive and kickin' ;)

So, I joined a Fantasy Baseball League with a few guys from church. The name of my team is the Giant Red Sox- so, could you, maybe, guess who I normally cheer for? I'm not very good at it, I'm always in the bottom of the league in points, but I'm getting the hang of it. See, I don't really care to check up on how things are going every day, because, mostly, I have more important things to do...like teach and grade papers...and watch actual baseball games. But, I have some good players- Johnny Damon, Matt Cain, Roger Clemens (although he isn't on a team right now...I wish he'd get with it...I could really use some points!), Travis Hafner, and Mark Texiera (or however you spell his last name). I'm hoping some of these players will get hot soon and I'll be doing better. But, really if I cared that much, I'd spend more time on it...but, like I said, I have other things to do.

On another note, my sister Trina and her family, now have a puppy! He is so cute! His name is "Hank 'squishy' they-cow-dog Taylor". Yeah, I know its a long name, but they all fit. We just call him "Hank" or sometimes, "Hanky"- no, not like what you blow your nose on or what gangsters try to look cool wearing or what cowboys wear...just an affectionate name, you know? I'll post a picture and maybe a video, if I can figure out how to do that, later.

7 more weeks 'til school's out and I get to go to Costa Rica with Karina and Christi! Yeah! I can't wait!

Ok, that is all for now :0)

Hello, I'm back!

Sun, 21 Jan 2007 03:12:12 GMT

"Where did you go?" you ask. Well, I've just been here ...since (ponder this deep thought)...you can never be there...you are always here.

I just thought maybe you'd like to see something new on this very boring blog of mine. I will try to make this interesting.

Since I've last updated this, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years and Christi Ng's birthday have all gone past (happy belated birthday, Christi!).

So, I will just give you some pictures with a few captions, since that is all that I have time for right now (I'm supposed to be writing a Simple Machines Test right now ;)

Thanksgiving:

I spent a nice weekend with my family. I don't remember if anything exciting happened...it was a long time ago, or so it seems. We ate good food and enjoyed the company of family. This year we ate Thanksgiving at Trina and Scott's house here in Fallon.

This is the first time- besides being in Israel one year- that I've ever eaten Thanksgiving outside of our own or my Grandma's home.

One day, around Thanksgiving time, I decided that it was time to put the pool away for the summer (ironic, huh?). So, the only problem was that the pool still had some water in it and some brave soul needed to, somehow, empty the pool before it could be stored. Well, that job landed on me- self-appointed, I can assure you! I was so sick of looking at the dirty water in the pool and- as an added bonus- I wanted to try out my new "rain and mud boots". So, after a workout at the gym, one day, I put on my beany and my boots and got to work. Here is a photo of the process; the picture can speak for itself. But, do notice the color of the water :)

Christine's Wedding:

Karina and I traveled down to the LA area to enjoy attending (me) and being a part of (Karina) Christine (Hughes) Lee's Wedding. It was a wonderful time!

Here is a picture of the yummy Korean BBQ that Christi took me to. We went with some of her ESL students. It was soooooooooooooo good! I'm sure the pictures speak for themselves.

This is a collage of Christine and her (now) husband Shane (I took these photos while the "real" photographer was posing them and doing his "thing"):

Christmas:

Boy, was this a needed vacation! Wow, I slept in every day and didn't get any school work done! Now, I'm paying the price of those decisions, with lots of work cramed into little time (hence the reason for me being at school right now, on a Saturday night, trying to get some work done. And yet, I'm updating my blog...sigh).

Christmas Morning:

The picture on the left is of me and Karina kissin' our neice on the way to a "Fallon City Ballet" (pretentious sounding isn't it!) performance of the Nutcracker. The picture in the middle is of my youngest nephew hard at work, constructing one of his new toys from Christmas (he was quite satisfied with his trucks. We had to drag him away from that toy so that he could open the rest of his presents!) The last picture is of my dad and sister Deana holding up my oldest nephew (not pictured) in his new room hammock/swing that Deana got him in Costa Rica.

New Years:

Yes, New Years is always celebrated the same way at my house: sitting on the couch watching Dick Clark's Rockin' Eve or at the table playing dominoes. Since Mr. Clark wasn't really "Rockin" this year, we played dominoes and then toasted the New Year at 9pm Pacific Time, so that the kids could toast it with us. Then, we went outside to set off some "poppers," since firecrackers are illegal in the dry state of Nevada.

The (not so big) Pour!

No, we haven't finished our house yet, but we did make a small addition: the much needed addition of the front sidewalk! A lot of hard work went in to this sidewalk because the stinkin' cement supplier brought an old order of concrete for us to use- it was probably the leftover of some foundation that had been poured earlier that morning somewhere else in the valley. Boo! The concrete was so hard to work with; it was dry and lumpy and obnoxious to try to make look pretty or at least decent! But, with much Madraso determination and elbow grease, we now have a new front sidewalk! Yeah!

Well, that update should last all of you (4) readers for about two months now;) Hope you are satisfied and have enjoyed the Abridged version of my life. Ciao!

What's in a Name?

Tue, 21 Nov 2006 00:45:33 GMT

I've always believed my name to be very unique. I've never met anyone with my name before, and every one that I've ever met has never heard my name. You, know, I really felt special (note the past tense of "feel"). That is until I typed "Ilena" into Google. Well, there was my first mistake. Boo, Hoo! What did I find, to my complete astonishment and horror? That there are tons of women with my name! Yeah, go figure. (I bet they don't pronounce it the same, though. They probably slaughter it in some awful way- like "E-Lane-A". Eww!) Then, I clicked on some of the links (that was my second mistake) and saw some of the faces of those that also (gulp) share my name. Boy, I wish I hadn't done that. Not that they are ugly or plain, they just aren't...me.

After perusing, in disbelief, for sometime, I found that in Africa, in Madagascar, to be exact, there is a town named "Ilena"! Crazy huh?! If you don't believe me, click here and you can check the weather there yourself! Now, I don't mind having a town with the same name as me...but other people...well, this is a very new experience, and I'm not so sure I like it! I mean, everyone else, with less original names, somehow will come into contact with someone else with the same name: at grade school, a new job, college- hey, they might even marry someone with the same name (Kelly and Kellie, or Jamie and Jamie, etc.). But, me, this is so strange, so new. I don't think I like Google as a search engine anymore! (Sob, sob, sob) My bubble has burst, I'm no longer unique! My ego has shrunk, I've been humbled- I guess that is a good thing (sniff, sniff).Oh, well, I bet those other "Ilena's" don't have the last name "Madraso". Now, that, I know is a rare last name. Ok, my head has been reinflated again, I'm ok now .