"A friendship can weather most things and thrive in thin soil; but it needs a little mulch of letters and phone calls and small, silly presents every so often - just to save it from drying out completely.
Pam Brown"


Thanksgiving Break

Sadly my Thanksgiving break is coming to a close and finals are right around the corner. BOOO. Anyway, I had fun these past few days! On Thursday morning I woke up at 3am to go to Alcatraz for indigenous people's thanksgiving. They had Native Americans do this traditional ceremony thing, it was cool, but I wont be going again. LOL

Here are the pictures below!
The losers I went with (It was raining btw)
Uh, I'm always lost. haha
My glasses have dots on them :(

On the fairy!
On our way back waiting for the fairy... Look at my face hahaha
The girls


Later on that day I went to my Aunts house in Concord. Since I don't have a camera at the moment I took a few with my phone.
They are the cutest!

Rachel! Her dad says she walks like a telly tubby... I say little Buddha ,either isn't very nice huh?

Mommy and Rachel

I wish Jacob didn't have a look on his face like I did something to him. lol


:)
AND Black Friday shopping... Kind of. Hanna had stuff, I just had a scarf and two pairs of tights. I will not do Black Friday shopping again! She's lucky I love her. LOL Coco was our body guard for the night too. Did I mention she wanted Chicken nuggets at like 3:30 AM?
Penguin hand warmers!

Then I went to Global winter wonderland! It was SO pretty!

Karla, Dalia and I in front of an Aztec pyramid!


My castle!



Reminded me of Jen :)





My boyfriend








Finally a door my size :) heh heh

The Deceitfulness of Thanksgiving


Ladies and gentlemen I have breaking news. Although our society and family might want you to think that the Thanksgiving holiday is wonderful because of all the food and family gatherings, I am here to inform you it is all a deception.

Turkey has a chemical in it called Serotonin. Seratonin is also known as one of the "Happy Hormones". It contributes to our "well-being" as well as feelings of happiness (serotonin is also used as an antidepressant). So after your eating you get that "oooohhhhyeahh" feeling (and it also makes you sleepy).

Sorry to tell you my friends, but all the giddiness that surrounds Thanksgiving is because of the serotonin in the turkey! Don't be fooled!

I just have ONE question.
Does that mean turkeys are happy all the time... hmm? lol


Have a wonderful overeatingbeinglazyandwithyourfamily Day!

Viral Sin


You see this on the left?
<-------THIS?
This is the influenza virus. Influenza virus along with other viruses such as HIV and N.Gonorrhoae survive in your body due to a particular trick they have. They have antigenic variation.
Let me break it down for ya. When these viruses get into your body your body produces antibodies against these little invaders. Antibodies are there to protect your body against invaders, and are formed after you have been exposed to a virus and such. Anyway, what these three virus's do is that they change their surface antigens (just think about it as surface shape) about every week, so when your body finally produces antibodies against the virus, the virus has already changed shaped and antibodies are no longer effective. Then the cycle continues: the body produces antibodies but by the time they are produce virus changes shape and remains in the body to do damage.

I learned this in microbiology but this was brought into mind when I though about sin. We all know that sin attracts more sin, you can't just STOP. The more and longer you sin, or are simply away from God the harder it gets for God to penetrate your heart. Your heart no longer "looks" or "feels" the same like before, and things of God that used to cure you and defend your heart become less and less effective.

For example, there is a backslider who visits my church often and is usually moved by God rather easily. But this last time she went to church I could see that even though she was trying to pray, nothing was happening. Why? Because she kept going back to the sin, kept adding on the load. Her heart and soul were undergoing "antigenic variation". Sad isn't it? So true though.

Just something to chew on.

Look What The Lord Hath Done!

When I was 9 years of age my family and I moved to San Lorenzo California from Redwood City California. Since my mother was accustomed to attend church (any kind of church at least), she decided to look for a church in our new city. Conveniently, there was a church right next door named "Lighthouse Worship Center", a One-God-Apostolic-Jesus-Name church. I'm not sure about the time frame, but my mother eventually got baptized and received the holy ghost.

Now me, being 9 years old didn't care much for church and was busy being a "normal" kid in the world or what not. Since my father wasn't in church (and still isn't pray from him please :] ) I could pretty much do what I wanted. But since I am not heartless (regardless of what anybody says lol) the word of God impacted me and kept tugging at my heart until I made a decision.

On July 10, 2005 at 14 years of age, I accepted the Lord.... TOTALLY KIDDING (who are we to accept the Lord? pffft). ..I decided to give my life to the Lord and got baptized! Three months later I received the gift of the holy ghost.

At age 15/16, I changed my number so I could focus on God and not on my old friends. I needed to work on ME, and let God move things in my life and change me (This is how I learned how to pray, but that is a completely different story).

At age 16/17? I decided to learn the piano so I could help out at my church since we only had one piano player... which is funny now that I think about it.

In part, this whole piano thing is why I am writing as we "speak". Now that I can reflect back on my life at a younger age, I can see God's hand. He really does see the future.
I say this because I learned the piano so I could be a help, but God new that eventually our other piano player/'s would leave.
He chose me, the simple one, the one that didn't sing as well as the others, the one who didn't play as well as the others, me.

The simple fact that I am still in church (because the desire/strength comes from him and him alone) is enough for me to exalt his holy name! But it is just mesmerizing to me how things work out at the end. I sincerely consider it a privilege to use whatever little talent I have to worship him. An amazing voice or amazing piano skills will not save you, it is the heart behind that voice or instrument that God sees.

I guess I just wanted to share what God has done in my life, or at least how it started because in reality I can't list ALL that he has done. But truth be said- The Lord uses those that are nothing to exalt himself.


"Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up."

James 4:10

Confessions of a Church Piano Player

1. It is really hard not to crack up sometimes because I can see everything from the platform. So if something funny happens, I definitely see it.

2. Because I DO see everything it can be a little saddening when you see the congregation isn't quite praying like they usually do, or they aren't praying with a visitor, ect...

3. I rather not sing at church conferences because of the fact that I always sing at my home church.

4. Being a young "leader" isn't the easiest for many reasons.

5. I appreciate alter calls at other churches greatly (because I'm not playing).

6. It is very convenient to learn how to play a couple of songs with your eyes closed lol (just in case your really need to pray).

7. Singing/playing gets transformed to your own way of worshiping. Suddenly the way I feel I want to express in a song.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Putting that to the side, yesterday we had a visitor who was broken before God. It had been a while since we had one of those visitors, you know the ones that are REALLY hungry for God? It just touched me deeply, it reminded me what we are really here for. All of a sudden I felt selfish not sure why yet, but he reminded me that there are more people like him out there. Just thought I'd post about it, just because.

Also, the year is almost over! you know what that means?!
1. No more blogging (my year is almost up)
2. My birthday :D
3. Caramel brulee latte at Starbucks
4. End of the school year!

The Burden of The Valley of Vision

Last week there was a night I just felt... well, downish, vexed, you know? I just felt more human than other days.

I decided to grab my bible and open it so see if the Lord could speak to me, and he did. I ended up with this.

I ended up in the book of Isaiah 22:1 "The burden of the valley of vision. What aileth thee now, that thou art wholly gone up to the housetops?"
But as I kept repeating it, what stood out to me was "The burden of the valley of vision". The burden of the valley of vision...

I decided to look up the definition for burden and valley, and the first two definitions according to dictionary.com where these:
"Burden:
1.that which is carried; load
2.that which is borne with difficulty; obligation; onus
Valley:
1.a low point or interval in any process, representation, or situation
2.any place, period, or situation that is filled with fear, gloom, foreboding, or the like: the valley of despair."

Okay so now knowing the definitions may I try to interpret this verse in my own way and current understanding? yes? Thank you.

If we pay attention to how the sentence is worded, it almost seems the burden belongs to the the valley of vision - " The burden of the valley of vision" - or, as I like to interpret it, there is a burden that can arise from having a vision, and when our efforts to make this vision into reality remain fruitless, we then find ourselves in the valley of vision.

This really spoke to me because I have always thought of myself as a person of vision. Meaning, I see more than what is in front of me, I see a difficult situation as a possibility, I see a troubled person as potential- get the picture? and this.. this vision, this hope I guess you can call it, becomes a "Valley" in a sense, when my efforts don't seem to change anything, and then this starts to blur my vision of the "more", my vision of the "better" and I get discouraged... If that makes sense?

But then noticed these moments of discouragements are there for a reason. As I kept reading verse 5 caught my attention, and it says this "For it is a day of trouble, and of treading down, and of perplexity by the Lord GOD of hosts in the valley of vision, breaking down the walls, and of crying to the mountains."

When we are in the valley of vision (the low point when our efforts to make things that seem impossible possible fail, the point where we don't want to try anymore), we find ourselves in a place where we are perplexed - where God tears down walls.
God tears down walls in order to mold us and make us able bodied individuals who can make our vision, and his vision come to pass...

Let's face it, not everything in life goes as planned, and there are people who don't care. Don't care where they go in life, what happens in life, or if they leave a footprint.

Then there are people like me, and maybe you, who can't just leave a failed effort be. We can't just let something that needs work alone. It's almost like the most difficult situations call our name. If you are like this, bravo to you!

This world needs people who have a vision, and although it can be a drag at times, people with a vision are needed because if this world didn't have at least one person of vision everything would just stay the same.

In conclusion:
Don't get discouraged when you find yourself in the valley of vision. Use this opportunity to stop and reflect, think and collect. Meditate on what God wants to do, and plan for the next effort- hopefully a successful one!
:)

Does anybody ready this?

I kind of want to delete this blog too.

Who reads this thing anyway!

But I told myself I would keep it for a year, so woopty do.

Kaleo and Bryan''s Wedding!



I have to say that it was a beautiful wedding and I feel honored to have been able to share this one in a life time moment with my friend. Kaleo and Bryan are wonderful examples that love can endure, and there is no doubt in my mind that as a couple they will follow Gods will.

Anyway, I finally uploaded the pictures from my camera but some of the pictures were lost. I don't know what happened but the pictures of Starbucks were erased when I uploaded them, yes we went to Starbucks after the wedding. The whole bridal part did, that's how cool (addicted) we all are!

***Please take note that the pictures are not in chronological order and that I stole a couple from somebody's facebook. lol

Enjoy!



Coco and I

Kaleo and Bro. Curry



The bridal party.












This pictures cracks me up. Lol




I was able to take this picture before I was forced to go into the crowd of desperate ladies. haah


Diana and George

Hanna and Brandon






Kaleo :D








Pastor Rushing dancing down the aisle. LOL






By the way Kaleo..... FREEEEDOM, FREEEEDOM. hahaha