Tag: journal

James HoganLeave a comment

Ahhhh, I have so much homework tonight!!! We had an awesome time at Creekside large group tonight…but now I pay the price. Before I go, I leave you with this:

After eight days His disciples were again inside, and Thomas with them. Jesus came, the doors having been shut, and stood in their midst and said, “Peace be with you.” Then He said to Thomas, “Reach here with your finger, and see My hands; and reach here your hand and put it into My side; and do not be unbelieving, but believing.” Thomas answered and said to Him, “My Lord and my God!” Jesus said to him, “Because you have seen Me, have you believed? Blessed are they who did not see, and yet believed.”

James HoganLeave a comment

Hmm, I just upgraded to new Firefox and now livejournal looks really weird. I don’t know what to do. This shall require some research. And further on the livejournal front…I’ve been thinking it may be time I get a new theme. Any ideas??? If anyone does have any ideas and also has pictures/background that would be cool, let me know. Because I am the least artistically capable person ever!! Well, maybe not quite. But pretty close.

And right now(in case you can’t tell), I’m running a deficiency of sleep. You may all be wondering, “But why? The weekend just happened; you should have gotten plenty of sleep!” But noo…I am not always that smart about things as important as sleep. Or in other words, I just had way too much fun doing things when I was awake to remember my body likes sleep. Hence my body is quite upset with me right now.

And soon I’ll be getting ready to leave for the first Prayer and Praise of the year!!! I can’t wait because Prayer and Praise is awesome. And yeah. It’s pretty much just awesome. I probably shouldn’t go because I need to get homework done and also get SLEEEP but ah well. I know I won’t regret going…because I never do!

But as of this weekend…what all happened that kept me from sleeping, you ask?(Ok, maybe you didn’t ask, but let’s say you did for the sake of this entry) I’m trying to remember what all I did Friday night, but my memory is failing me. Aha, I remember now. We were just going to hang out and relax here at our place…so we started the night watching Galan playing God of War(it’s amazing how fun it can be just to WATCH someone play video games…) But eventually Bekah, Holly, and Melinda came over to chill with us so we got some pizza and all watched “The Village”. I thought it was going to be a pretty creepy movie, but it wasn’t really. Thankfully. After the movie, went over to Shari, Deanna and Amy’s house to drop Bekah over and I indulged in a bit of her Dove mint chocolate chip ice cream, which though delicious, has not unseated Breyers as the king of ice cream. We came back to our place and Holly wanted to go back to her place to pick up her roommate from a party. Rob, Galan and I went with her for “protection” and we had some interesting times finding her roommate. After that we chilled at Holly’s place for a while and played some Guitar Hero(at which I dominated at first…as long as it was set on Easy). By the time we got home, it was about 3am. That still wasn’t too late, until I remembered that me and Rob were going with Laurie and a friend to watch the sunrise at Cedar Key. And that we were leaving at 5.

Rob fell asleep while me, Galan and Holly watched a bunch of episodes from The Office and talked about random stuff that I’m sure made no sense since we were extremely sleep deprived. Finally around 5:30 or so, Rob, Laurie, her friend Marianne and I left for Cedar Key. Somehow I was still awake…somehow. The next few hours were just amazing. Stopping by the side of the road…staring at the stars in wonder at the awesomeness of God’s creation. Luxuriating in the cool morning air sitting on a pier watching the sun peek out at us as the earth slowly turned…walking around the sleepy little town of Cedar Key and eventually eating a massive breakfast…just talking and talking and enjoying quiet fellowship with each other and God. How good is our Lord!!!

Eventually we came back to Gainesville. And at long last..around 11:00am…I slept. And indeed it was glorious!!! I actually only got around 3 hours of sleep(because for some reason my body does not like sleeping when there’s sunshine outside!) but it felt so delicious. Before we headed over to the game, Rob and Galan and I played some disc golf with George and Mr. Lebo. And then…the Miami game!!! It was tense for a while, but we pulled it out in a 26-3 victory. Go Gators! Other stuff happened after that, but we finally made it back to Stoneridge around 1 or 2am. I can’t quite remember.

This morning was a nice early one…accompanied by my classic Sunday breakfast of bacon and coffee, yeah! Church was, as always, supremely refreshing. Afterward, we had a big lunch at Moe’s and now…I’m here. And Amy just called so it is time to prayer and praise it up! Farewell all!! Major props for reading all of this!

And if anyone has livejournal theme ideas, tell me please!!!

James HoganLeave a comment

I just realized that I never said on here that yes, I am back in Gainesville. Even though it should have been inferred from my earlier posts. Anyways, for one more year. One final year. One last year at the University of Florida. It’s shocking to realize that four years ago I was finishing high school. And here I am finishing college. I want to write a more profound post later(but will I?), but not now. Mostly because my rice has finished cooking and I want to eat it. Yes, I realize it’s almost midnight. I’m still hungry. Food time now – farewell!!

James HoganLeave a comment

I really should go to bed now and should not be writing this…but just wanted to say that the past few weeks have been AWESOME. This past weekend in particular. Went to the first Gators game of the year and watched us smash Hawaii(56-10) from the 88th row(got a nasty downpour in the beginning of the game…but hey, it is the Swamp, after all). Rob and I went to Plant City to visit his aunt and cousin…third year in a row I’ve been there and it was sweet times. Had good times relaxing, getting some work done(like moving massive pieces of furniture), watching insane movies(I don’t know if I’d recommend it, but Death Race was just ridiculously crazy-fun), and playing some classic Nightfire late at night…good times indeed.

And then today we drove back from Plant City straight to the Moningers for our annual Labor day lake party!! I loved just being outside all day long…throwing the frisbee, throwing people into the lake(ok, I spent some quality time in the lake too…), and then just floating on a giant tube out on the lake as the sun went down…enjoying being with friends. God is such a good God!!!

And as the night wound down, we had a Stoneridge ice cream party…me, Galan, Andrew, Rob, Shari, Amy, and Deanna ate yummy ice cream(mint chocolate chip!!!!) and watched Transformers. Or tried to, since the PS2 kept freezing on us. Still…I felt so relaxed and happy.

And I have talked much more than I meant to. All I really wanted to get across was that God is awesome. And so I praise Him and thank Him, day by day. The end.

James HoganLeave a comment

It’s good to be home!! Houston was pretty fun, but being back home with my family…I love it. Enjoying good food, good conversations, and just relaxin’ as I get to be with my parents and sisters…I appreciate it even more now than ever, after being hundreds of miles away!! We got to have a nice spaghetti dinner this afternoon after church and then later this afternoon and evening, went to youth group. So fun seeing everyone and enjoying playing games. Especially some classic football at the end…been so long since I played so I know I’m gonna be sore tomorrow. But it was worth it!

Now I’m quite tired…but think we’re gonna watch a little more of the Olympics before I go off to bed. Farewell all!!

James HoganLeave a comment

I am overwhelmed by the goodness of the Lord
and of his faithfulness to his chosen ones.
There is truly no One greater than He who
provides so richly for his children and
puts His hand of protection upon
all those who seek His face.

How great is His lovingkindness!
Higher than the heavens and
wider than the east is from the west
is the love of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Oh, I am so undeservedly blessed
by the love of our most Holy Father.

Truly…those words are from my heart because today I’ve felt a flood of emotions. While I’m quite excited(!!) to be coming back to Florida soon, I’ve realized how much I’ve been blessed this summer. I remember getting ready to come to Texas and having no idea what this summer would be like. And indeed, I was a little nervous coming to Houston and not knowing anyone at all. I wondered if I’d be able to find a good church and good friends. But really, why did I doubt?? Where was my faith?? Because God is a good Father, He has blessed me so much more than I could have thought or imagined. He has given me a good church(Bethel w000t!)in which to worship and be blessed by the preaching of the Word. He has given me friends whom I could both encourage and be encouraged by. He has given me people who have welcomed me into their homes and ministered to me every Sunday. He has given me so much.

This was my last Sunday at church and I don’t really get emotional that often, but I felt that way today. Knowing it would be a long time(if even in this life) that I saw all of these people again…I think if I were the crying sort, I would have cried. I’m just so thankful to the God who despite all my wickedness and sinfulness and rebellion…who chooses to bless me as a beloved son. I am indeed blessed. Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!!

James HoganLeave a comment

Just had a lovely breakfast of bacon and coffee. Mmm, nothing better!! I love lazy Saturday mornings, even if my work schedule has trained my body well enough that I can’t sleep past 8:30! I had a great morning relaxing and reading the Word while I enjoyed breakfast(by the way…Galatians is pretty awesome!! Freedom in Christ forevah!!) Now I think I’ll take a walk and maybe stop by Target or Best Buy…it’s pretty awesome that they’re only a five minute walk away!(Of course, I do have to cross under a major freeway and all…but shh, that’s a secret)

I still can’t believe I only have two more weeks of work left…and then it’s back to Florida! While this summer has been pretty sweet, I am looking forward to coming back to my family and all my friends and getting ready for my SENIOR YEAR at UF!! Whoa, that’s just craziness. I’ve realized that four years ago(as I started this livejournal), I was getting ready to start my senior year at Gaither. How I have changed…mostly for the better, I do believe!

But before it gets too hot outside(hmm, may be too late for that), I’m off for my mid-morning walk! From Houston…signing off. Go forth and conquer!

James HoganLeave a comment

Wow, today has been a LONG day! I actually woke up today around 4:45(AM!!). Ridiculous, huh? It was because my sunday school class at my church(Bethel) was helping put a garage sale on. Anyway, I was pretty tired when I first woke up, but after my shower and some awesome bacon and coffee, I was raring to go. Well, mostly! The garage sale was lots of fun, partly because it’s always fun to help someone else out and partly because it was fun hanging out with the people here…whom I’m finally getting to know now, so it’s good times! A lot of the time, when nothing was happening with the sale, I would just be talking to one person or another…and I really enjoyed that. It’s been a while since I’ve had Christian fellowship like that. After the sale was over, I was pretty exhausted but Sibi(my co-intern) and I had planned to go to “The Galleria”, a huge mall here in Houston. I was wondering how big a mall could be, but this mall definitely was the biggest mall I’ve ever been in. It had 3 levels and multiple huge buildings…and an ice skating rink in the middle of the food court. Yeah, pretty awesome. It was so fun walking through the mall and exploring all the stores and having no idea where anything was and seeing so many people!!! And I actually “shopped” at the mall…i.e., I bought clothes there, which I never do, so I was a little shocked at myself. After some harrowing moments trying to get back to our hotel, finally got back here and now I am ready to crash. Been doing laundry and just took a shower and I am ready for a good night’s sleep!!! Hope everyone is having great times wherever you are…and I am going, going, gone. G’night, all!

James HoganLeave a comment

Today has been a sweeeeet day. Got up nice and early around 9(hey, that’s early for a Saturday!) and walked to Wal-Mart to pick up some creamer and sugar. Then got back to my place and made a breakfast of awesomeness!! Fried up some bacon and made some gooood coffee out of the beans Shari, Deanna and Amy gave me. I love bacon and I love coffee. And bacon and coffee together? Amazing.

The rest of the day was spent relaxin’ and chilling here…and enjoying not having to work for a day. Even though work did go awesome this week! I’m really starting to enjoy it. And right now, I just finished some dishes as I wait for my pork chops to finish baking. That’s right – pork chops. I fried up pork chops, potatoes and green beans and now they’re all baking and I can’t wait to eat it…since it’s one of my favorite meals! That’s the one fun thing about living by myself; I’m learning how to make all my most favorite meals!

Wow, this week has been great…good times at work, good times today making great food, and good times coming up tomorrow as I get ready for church. God is indeed an awesome God!!