"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