Spiritual Battle

Already the last couple of days of '08! I'm actually really exciteddd that i'm getting to spend it with my second family: Agape fam. Retreat is from tomorrow till wednesdayy, and staying at church until New Year's Eve service.

Sometimes, it feels like every year, retreat is a ritual: orientation, posters, skits, crazy revival on the last night during prayer, everyone's on a spiritual high, and a few weeks after we're back, we're way down on rock bottom once again. But this year, i feel like i'm expecting a lot. i don't know.. but it just seems like God wants to restore all of us using this retreat as an opportunity. And i must admit, all of us were doing really well trying to devote ourselves and commit to Him to ready ourselves for retreat. The whole youth participated in the 21 days of devotion, which definitely... was a struggle; it wasn't easy. Praise team came out to mandatory morning prayer every morning at 5:00 AM a week in prior to retreat. Hmmm intensive Saturday practice for the first time in months went well toooo (: I'm actually gonna be a vocalist for this retreat, instead of playing the piano. Haah that's a change, so i'm exciteddd for that tooo. but, just aside all of this, i truly believe that He's gonna do great things the next 3 days and i'm ready for it.

Anyhows,
slept overr Jane's yesterday with the Hannah Shonster. oh and we watched Bedtime Storiesss. it was alright, but i'd rather have watched either 7lbs or yes man. sigh, they were all sold out :(

All for love a Father gave
For only love can make a way
All for love the heavens cried
For love was crucified

Oh how many times have i broken your heart
But still you forgive, if only i ask
And how many times have you heard me pray
Draw near to me

All for love Savior prayed
Abba Father have Your way
Though they know not what they do
Let the Cross draw man to You

hmm.. Tavis sang this for offering/tithe today, and i was so blessed.








i've been away for too long,
i need to get back up

Hair Dye

So, todayyyyy i decided to finally dye my hair. i've been wanting to dye it to ash brown (like the color of a cardboard box) for forever, but just never had the time to.

i bought the hair dye today and dyed my hair expecting the color to show up the way it showed on the cover. but after i rinsed my hair, i realized that the hair turns into an ash brown color when dying it on blonde hair. which means it darkens the blonde into the brown. so intead of my hair turning lighter into the ash brown, it made it darker.. into nearly a darkdark brown/jet black color. i hate it. i would dye over it with some other color, but i think my hair will turn out to be like a rough broomstick.

i think i'm gonna wait till spring break and try again :)

Before:

After:

sigh

WINTER BREAK

is finally freaking here!
it doesn't even feel like break though.. it seems like everything came so suddenly and abruptly.
it hasn't clicked to me yet that i dont have school for 3 weeeks! it feels like i have to go to school on monday, and that i should be starting my homework to get a head-start!

what a way to finish off my last day of school: i took the hardest test of my LIFE.120 questions on some detailed ass molecular genetics questions and a free response in 70 minutes. thats 2-3 questions per minute just to have 20 minutes for the free response. blehh i think the free response saved me though (: tehhehee

todayyyy was.. the Leadership party at Nick's houuuuse! We did the secret santa gift exchange and everyone got each other such cute heart-felt gifts, although some were prettyyy damn hilarious. hehehee jose got me a cute gift from Urban :] oh and we also had a secret santa gift exchange for volleyballl which was cute tooo.

junior skate nightttt was today tooo. but half of our L-ship class didn't go becusssssssss.. i dont know. hahaha but i went to the santa monica airport with my Red Cross Club to do some community service: packing food into boxes for the homeless for Christmas. my friend told me today that Christmas is the holiday that brings the most depression to Americans, and it made me sad. i realized there are some out there who dont have a family to retreat to, friends to celebrate with, or a home to keep themselves warm. it was actually really funnnnnn gathering with nearly 200-300 other kids from different schools as well as their parents to put together a little something for the less fortunate. & the organization was generous enough to bring us a DJ to crank up some music! :)

Anywayyys, this cold weather is actually prettyyy good of a change since we haven't had it this cold in a whileeeee. let's play this winter break and roast some marshmallows ! :]

Today is..

such a pretty day. i love the weatherr, the sun, the breeze, the green, the blue, everything! i'm home today, didn't go to schooool. for.. procrastination reasons, shhh*

:( this sucks; i really need to get back on track. i haven't really been trying in school, letting these past 3-4 months just pass by me like the fish in the sea. i need to discipline myself. blehh

but on the brighter side,
today's the banquet for my volleyball team. Season ended really successfully, not because of taking the city champ spot, but the process of it. We started off practice this summer with a bunch of new freshmen girls. but everyone shared a common interest: volleyball, and this helped to bond every girl in the team together. Everyone clasping hands dreading to run haunies, staying behind after games to pick up trash & to polish the gym, epic bus rides to away games singing spongebob songs to backstreet boys in unison, candid pictures, gahhhhhh i'm gonna miss it all.

i'm excited for tonight :) heeeheee semi-formal attire, 6:30 PM, in malibu. pictures to come later. i need to finish some homework and study, so LAAAAAAATER alligators.

-- edit --
Aw, the banquet was so much fun, and the location was beautiful. you can literally see the waves splashing from our tables, and the view of the city of malibu was amaaazing.

a couple of pictures:















my favorite was the FOOD & the dessert :) yummm.

SATURDAY

today's finally saturday!
winter break is only two weeks away and i am THANKING THE LORDDDD :)
this week went by reallyyy quicky though. i had unit exam after unit exam, with quizzes in between, every single day of the weeek = only 15 hours of sleep throughout all 5 days :(


heehehe anyways,
i baked a cookie for my bestie who took his SAT todayy





-- there are so many things going wrong, but as of now, i'm really happy