Beyond The Sea

Hello my friends,
 

I have realized that It has been far too long since an update.
So for the few who follow my blog and are interested in what my not-so-exciting self has been up to lately here you go:

My last update was when my Grandpa passed away. Since then It has been a crazy/emotional/healthy healing process. But I can say that I was able to deal with this death a lot better than the others I have had and I am grateful for that. 

This summer has gone by way to fast for me. I start Fall semester August 20th and I am not ready to go back at all. I still haven't gone to the Zoo and I promised my cousin Janice I would take her to the Santa Monica Pier. So I need to find the time to do this, stat! 

Saturday, July 28, 2012 the Cervantes Family had a well needed Family Picnic. It was awesome. Almost all of my cousins were there and it was beautiful. This was our first big planned family picnic since both my grandparents passed away. It was kinda put on in honor of them. To see what my grandparents started and who they raised. I am so blessed to have such a big family. And to even be apart of this family and just to call it my own. I could probably say that I've always taken my big family and our weird closeness for granted. It wasn't until I was talking to my good friend Claudia about our picnic and she had mentioned to me that her family doesn't do anything like what we do. ever. And to me, I thought that was thee most bizarre thing. Coming from a huge family, both sides, it is almost a regular thing for us to have little shindigs like this. So to hear that someone doesn't do that, made me think, how lucky I am to have such a big family. A family who makes it a point to all get together, catch up, have water balloon tosses, play volleyball, potato sack races, Bingo,play Softball, eat, laugh and enjoy each others company.  I can not imagine my life without it. And I thank God for that. Being surrounded by family is amazing. Yes, they can drive us all crazy some days but in the end, family is such a precious gift God has given us. Our family picnic was such an awesome God-sighting for me. 

Speaking of God-sighting, I've gotten this term from our VBS at church. For those who do not know what VBS is, it stands for Vacation Bible School. It is a Monday-Friday night event that takes place one week during the Summer, where tons of children come to church, they are put in little groups and leaders take them station to station and do activities and learn about Gods word. I was a crew leader to four super fun/cute kids all around the age of 7. I got to learn some little kid songs with some fun hand motions that went to the theme of our VBS, which was called Sky-High. We had clouds everywhere and crew leaders and assistant crew leaders were asked to wear blue and white. We got to play games with the kids, run around the church grounds to each station and just have fun with these kids and show them God's love. It was such a blessing to me. I haven't participated in my church's VBS in years and to get back into it was hard but in the end a blessing. I loved it.

                                                                  We all wore the same shirts for the Family Picnic. That is the Cervantes Crest♥

    Right now I would like to make a shout out to my "sister", Marilyn Cooperstein!

Because it was VBS week and I knew I would be running around like a mad women trying to keep up with my kids, My flats would not suffice. Therefore, I wore my vans. Now, I haven't actually worn shoes with laces in FOREVER, because well.... I'll show you.

 <--That happens! Every time I wear shoes my laces ALWAYS untie!!! drives me nuts.
I could not help but think of my Sister Marilyn. Because of this, she started calling me Laces. I didn't like it much but now, I miss hearing her call me that. And all week she was on my mind. It only made me miss her even more and It was a blessing in disguise because I used that opportunity to pray for her while she is in Australia. Our 5 Bible Points hit home. And I would like to share them with Marilyn and anyone else for that matter who is struggling or going through hard times. Yes, it is designed for kids but it hit home.
 Our main point we wanted the kids to get was to Trust God.
      Day 1: No matter who you are, God.
      Day 2: No matter how you feel, trust God.
      Day 3: No matter what people do, trust God,
      Day 4: No matter where you are, trust God.
      And Day 5: No matter what happens, trust God

We had key Bible verses also, but I can't remember all of them, which is a shame because I know they were good. But the last one of the week is my personal favorite and It is impossible for me to forget because the verse is on my class ring. So I will share it with you for my closing encouragement. 

It is:

Joshua 1:9 "Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go."

So this was a super short summary of what has been going on with me. I will try and update on a more regular basis. Thanks for reading. :)

P.S- The title of this post has no correlation to this post. I simply used the title of the song that started playing as I finished writing :) 

♥L