It's Been Too Long

I know I have been seriously lacking in my upkeep of my Xanga site. It has been so busy these last few months. I've been blogging occassionally on our singles blog http://single-focus.blogspot.com and just re-started my old blog at http://lana-victoria.blogspot.com as well.

Life has had it's ups and downs since I last posted, but God has been faithful through it all! I'm not exactly praying for a flood of hardships to come upon me, but I see that each trial and difficulty that the Lord brings me through becomes a little sweeter every time and I see why we are to count our trials as "joy". How great is our God!

Contending For The Gospel

This past weekend I went to a conference in Orlando called Contending. It was a series done by Brent Detwiler on how we should contend for the Gospel. We had two sessions Friday night and four on Saturday. I was overwhelmed at how much knowledge was presented. but loved every minute of it. I was convicted as I thought about how our faith and relationship with God is the most important thing in our lives and should be studied and known more than anything else we pursue. I was challenged afresh to love God not only with my heart and soul, but my mind as well.

Charles Spurgeon commented on Eph 3:17 that, "Beyond measure it is desirable that we, as believers, should have the person of Jesus constantly before us, to inflame our love toward Him, and to increase our knowledge of Him. I would that my readers were all entered as diligent scholars in Jesus' college, students of Corpus Christi, or the body of Christ, resolved to attain to a good degree in the learning of the cross. But to have Jesus always near, the heart must be full of Him, welling up with His love, even to overrunning; hence the apostle prays that Christ may dwell in your hearts. See how near he would have Jesus be! You cannot get a subject closer to you than to have it in the heart itself...not  in your thoughts alone, but in your affections; not merely in the mind's meditations, but in the heart's emotions."

Spurgeon speaks of having knowledge of God and emotions. We cannot love what we do not know and we cannot know if we do not strive to learn more of. How amazing that God has given us so many resources to learn more about him. I know it will be a life long process, but I hope to more diligently pursue learning about Him.

GO GATORS!!!

So today the Gators play the Ohio State Buckeyes in the BCS National Championship game! I'm not gonna go on about all the stats and who's who, but I will say that you all need to watch the game! On Fox at 8pm EST. So put on any orange and blue that you have and get some good food because well every football party has to have good food and cheer like crazy for Florida!

Good Times

  Ah yet another fun post on family and friends visiting. The Alcantar's came and visited about mid December and then my sis and other brotha came a few days later! It was such and blast to have them here.

"Alcantar Time"

Friday night Landon and I took the kiddos (ourselves included) to Five Guys. A very yummy hamburger place. Double meat patties and more fries than you can eat. Perfect! Then back to our house for Tri-Bond!

Saturday both our families went to the great outdoor mall and then headed over to the beach where we staged a impromptu' photo shoot. After that we went and saw a live nativity and life size replica of the city where Jesus was born. BBQ was the bookend to the day.

"The Beach"

Sunday we had church of course. Lunch at Clark's Fish Camp! Lol that was so fun and funny. especially Em. Then back to our house for a very competitive game of Pit while listening to radio Disney and then dancing to the cha-cha song! Good times.

It was great seeing our second family and we miss them dearly!

"Some of my favorite peoples"

I was so happy to have my sister and bro-in-law here for Christmas! It was a blast and we made lots of great memories. I don't want to make this post too long so I'll just tell you the gist of things.

Saturday: Family breakfast. Mall outing. The Nativity movie. Five Guys. Late night.

Sunday: Christmas Eve morning service. Extended Jacksonville and Palatka family lunch. Family gathering at Aunt & Uncle's (dock sitting, fishing (Josue caught his fist fish!) laughing, and lots more). Traditional Puerto Rican dinner in Palatka with dad's side of the family. Movie watching til 3.

Monday: Christmas! Sleeping in =) Cinnamon Rolls! Pajamas! Scripture reading. Telling of what we're grateful for. Presents. Pajamas! Rain, tornado warnings and power outage just as dinner was going in the oven. Apples to Apples. Pajamas! Power again. Movie watching. Pajamas! Apples to Apples. Late night. Pajamas! ;)

Tuesday: Early morning drive to Universal Studios! Fun filled day. And exhausting. Late night.

ok this picture needs some explaining! We were going on the ride Men In Black and well they require you to check any loose items in a locker. We had already done that once for The Mummy ride and didn't want to do it again, sooo, I suggested that my dad turn his backpack around and pull his windbreaker over it. Instant belly and no stops at the locker. Josue had his curious george baby idol and so he decided to do the same. I was delighted, but this resulted in two not so happy wifies who would not even stand with their husbands and some strange looks from people. I don't know if I've ever laughed so hard!

We had a great time and I love my family even more every year! God is good.

Jenn's Visit!!!

  Ok so it's been awhile...it's been crazy busy here! Anyway I thought I'd do a post on Jenn's visit! Yea!!!

Day 1. Well she got in LATE Friday night and well we came back to the house, talked for a good while and then went off to sleep. (I know not very exciting but hey it was late.)

Day 2. We slept in. Then that afternoon I took her to my aunt and uncle's dock behind their house and we had a picnic lunch. Talked. Fished (lol that was funny. For all you who know Jeffer she was not very happy about "hurting" the fish.=) Talked some more and just caught up on 5 months worth of little things.

K so later that night some of my friends had a bonfire in a backyard so we went to that. Lots of fun and Jenn was able to see some of the people she had met at NA and meet the ones she hadn't gotten to yet. (O also it was freezing the whole time Jenn was here. Sorry Jenn!)

Day 3. We had church! And then lunch with my fam and a couple guys from the church at a Maxican restaurant. Ha ha yeah I'm sure Jenn really wanted to eat more Mexican food.  Later that night we went to hear my friend Annsley play downtown in orchestra. There was a very cool Star Wars piece! After that we went and walk out by the river which is huge!!! Ask Jenn and she'll tell you. And we ate a place down there. We also had a little entertainment by means of a intoxicated man dancing downstairs to every song that came on. Lol

This is on our way downtown.

Day 4. Monday was...Disney World! We left early and got there around 10 maybe? It was a blast but there is way too much to write about so I'll just let you see the pics.

Day 5. Well unfortunately I had to work in the morning, but I got off at 1:30 and then Jenn and I headed off to the beach to meet up with my friend Stephen who's from Gainesville, but just happened to be in Jax. We picked the coldest day to go to the beach of course! But we had fun walking on the pier, going to Dairy Queen, driving around for a while to find a bowling place, giving up and going to eat sea food (we told Jenn she had to eat it at least once while she was here), and going back to the beach for one last walk.

Day 6. After I got off work we went to this little place called Panera and had soup! Yum and talked about...well we talked about "good" stuff. So after that we went home got ready again and went to the Cheesecake Factory to enjoy our birthday night out! It was very fun and was a very meaningful time. (Thanks again for my BEAUTIFUL necklace!)

This pic was taken at Panera. I think the ones taken at CF are on Jenn's camera?

Day 7. Thanksgiving! We went to a lil town called Palatka where most of my family live and joined them for the afternoon. It was good to all be together and yea for lots of food! =)

K and now you know what time it is! Time for my random list of favorite moments.

The first hug after 5 months.

Fishies!

Chocolate covered strawbabies.

London bridge singing.

S'mores...how can I have some more if I haven't had anything yet?

Singing bday cards lol

The pouty face after the turtle went back under the water b4 you could take a pic.

Staying up late talking.

Crying together.

Getting you to open your eyes the whole time on space mountain! victory =)

Mickey's 3D lol

Being on 3rd St. but not so much.

Beach walking.

Singing

The cha-cha dance in the parking lot.

8 waiters cleaning up a water spill

Mayo in the ear.

Being thankful that some things don't change.