Gifts

Christmas has come and gone. Decorations are starting to come down, wrapping paper has been thrown out, family has left, music is returning to everyday music, gifts are being played with, leftovers are being eaten.

After Christmas, what does everyone do? Play with and appreciate their presents. So why shouldn't we do the same for the best gift we received before we were even born - God's only Son, sent as a simple boy to be a light to our dark world and save us from our son. However, unlike the presents we all got this Christmas (which usually get forgotten and broken and disliked as the year finishes and the next one starts), THIS is a gift we get to appreciate ALL YEAR ROUND. And THAT's a great gift.

Anyway, I hope you all had a wonderful, happy, Christ-filled Christmas and I wish you a Happy New Year!! One of my resolutions will be to post on this blog more often.

Joyeux Noël en retard et une heureuse nouvelle année!

(Merry late Christmas and a Happy New Year!)

~Cupcake

Time Flies...

Hey guys. Sorry I haven't been on in FOREVER... blame finals!!

Anyway, I hope everyone's doing great this Christmas season - shopping, wrapping presents, seeing family, and my favorite, decorating! Maybe I'll post a picture of some of my house's decorations.

Also, I know my last post was about Christmas music, but that's, like, the BEST part of Christmas (besides the obvious fact that our Savior came to this earth). Anyway, some GREAT songs to look up are:

• Christmas Shoes - FM Static
• Peppermint Winter - Owl City
• His Favorite Christmas Story - Capital Lights
• Mary Did You Know - Kutless
• Evergreen - Switchfoot
• Angelic Proclamation - Barlow Girl
• Panis Angelicus - Barlow Girl
• Love Came Down at Christmas - Jars of Clay
• Carol of the Bells - August Burns Red

Just a few of my favorites. Enjoy!

Joyeux Noël!

~Cupcake

The Christmas Season is HERE!!

...Which means it's time for decorating, gifts, and... Christmas music.

Here's my all-time favorite Christmas, "Carol of the Bells / Sing We Now of Christmas" by BarlowGirl. <3

Read

Carol of the Bells / Sing We Now of Christmas Lyrics

here.

I hope you enjoy it as much as I do. :)
~Cupcake

My Hope is Found - Owl City

This is so amazing. Click here to listen/read for yourself.

I am so happy that we actually have celebrities (no matter how popular) that do love Jesus, and are OPEN about it! I've loved Owl City for a while now, but this confirms it. This is a BEAUTIFUL version of the song and it's awesome how emotional he is over it.

All I can say is.... Amen:)

~Cupcake

-- This link was taken from owlcityblog.com --

Devotions

Hey you! Yeah you! (I'm hyper and at my super duper uber close friend's house for her birthday haha) Anyway, I have a tip of the day for you.
Get a daily devotion started! Right now I'm going through Isaiah, a chapter a night. I just read throught the chapter and bring some English class skills in and basically annotate it - highlight something important or confusing and then write next to it what it means or why it's important. It works for me, but you really need to experiment on your own with what works for you. Bonne chase! (Good luck!)

~Cupcake

Tip for the day: ALWAYS check and make sure you have milk BEFORE you pour cereal. *sigh*

Random....

I haven't posted in a while, but I don't really have anything to say, so.........

I LIKE CAPTAIN CRUCH:) It's very crunchy and yummy:)

Enjoy the rest of the blog.

~Cupcake

Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween! I know it's late, so everyone's in for the night, but I hope you had fun and stayed safe:)

Oh, check out the new tab called "Me and My Life" for pictures from my family's 19th annual Pumpkin Carving Party!!! We had some great pumpkins this year.

~Cupcake

Tip of the day: Find something you like to do and get involved with it. Whether it be sports, clubs, hobbies, whatever, find something to do for fun! When you get involved in what you love to do, you'll feel more like yourself. It's an amazing feeling I can't describe, so go find out about it for yourself!! :)


à bientôt! (see you soon!)
~Cupcake

Cat talk

I don't have much today, so I'm going to give you random stuff I've been thinking about...

So, I hate cats, right? Well, I've discovered I'm a lot like them. (Note: I warned you this would be random.) I've "died" multiple times - not literally, of course; it's kind of a joke on my swim team that I die very easily. I've probably "died" about 18 times - so I guess I'm 2 cats put together? Anyway, the other reason I might be a cat at heart is that I hate getting wet - except in the pool, of course, but that's different. It was pouring rain today, and no thunderstorm is complete without constant loud thunder and spazzy lightning flashes. Anyway, I was in such a bad mood today because I kept getting wet. I really don't like rain - last time it rained out here (and it almost never rains where I live), I slipped and rolled my ankle. So it's not a totally pointless hatred. I have a little reason behind it.

So now I'll stop bothering you about how I might be a cat. Go sleep. I know I'm tired.
~Cupcake

Quick Update... Maybe, maybe not.

Okay, so I finally posted a link to my blog on my Facebook page. Hopefully some friends will check it out so I'm not constantly blogging to myself!!

Anyway, I was going to post an unofficial weekly update, but I could only think of one thing, so here it is:

My grandma is visiting us, and she's so much fun. My sisters and I have a lot of laughs and cookies when she's here and my parents are out of town working their butts off. Anyway, I know it sounds great, but sometimes we have patience issues. She wasn't raised with the same social standards that we were, so she doesn't always get why we do what we do. I hope I don't sound boastful when I say that I'm usually pretty good about carefully explaining things to her so that she can at least partially understand. Sometimes I feel like a bridge between two  different sets of social standards, with my grandma on one side and my sisters on the other. They'll try to cross to the other side, but it won't work, so I have to step in and explain things to both sides so they get it. Sometimes, though, it gets so worn, I break too and then we're really stuck. Anyway, I guess what I'm trying to say is to be patient. You'll run into people that disagree with you or don't understand you, but you need to be able to politely explain what you mean. How? PATIENCE. It takes practice, I know. If it didn't take practice, everyone would always be patient and I wouldn't have to be writing this post. Just something to think about.

Enjoy the upcoming week!
~Cupcake

I do not like the dentist. But then, I'm thankful our world is able to provide me with pretty, white, straight teeth:)

Tip for the day: get involved in your church! Once you get to know them, your leaders will always be there for you when you need them.

The Leaves are Changing Colors

... which means fall time is here, so I thought it might be appropriate to change the backround yet again.

Anyway, I'm proud to announce that I got blogger on my phone so now I can update this on the go:)

Now onto more important things...

1. Now that it's getting colder, people are probably inside more often (unless you like the cold... weirdos). Why not make it better with music? Either you can make your own playlist of all your favorite artists (that's what I do) or you can listen to Air1 at air1.com and click on the 'Listen Now' button in the upper-left. I think you need Flash player, but other than that it's free and amazing. The music is to DIE for, and the commentaries they make in between are so inspirational (Well, right now they're doing their money drive, so it's a little annoying.) Also, if you don't want to listen to it at home, listen to it in your car!! 90.1; I listen to it every day when I'm driving to school. It really starts my day off right with Jesus in my heart and in my head:)
2. Halloween is coming up! I would suggest not getting caught up in all the spooky-scary-ungodliness of it. It's fine to be something cute (I'm being a girl Frankenstein or a vampire), and I guess you could be some dead bloody creepy thing if you want, but that's no the point of this post. The point is not to get caught up in all the evil. Ugh, I'm doing a horrible job of getting my point across, so click here to view a cute page that has what I'm trying to say. (I'll put it on my links page too.)
3. This has NOTHING to do with the above two points, but that's okay, because it's my blog, right? Haha, just kidding. ANYWAY, get involved with your family. I know people who don't have a good relationship with their family whatsoever, and their life at home sucks. I'm happy (and thankful) that I have a good relationship with my family. Today, for example, my little sister was messing around with me, and I just played right back with her. It's good not to have to worry about her getting on my nerves. I don't know if that makes sense, but I felt like sharing.

So that's it for now.... Stop reading and get on with your lives. Just kidding:)

~Cupcake

When I'm lost... in God

"Take my life, all my plans, I lay everything in Your hands, I lay everything Jesus, If I had one prayer it would be to get lost in You, nothing else, when I'm lost in You" -Lost In You, The Museum on Let Love Win [Full lyrics here]


I love this song. Basically, it's saying that when I'm talking to God, I get so caught up in His love I get lost. But then, when I'm lost in God's love, that's where I find my true self. God's love is so great and powerful that's it's sometimes scary to think about. But at the same time, when I think about it, I feel comforted in knowing someone so much bigger than me and my problems is on my side, cheering me on every step of the way.


"But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." -Romans 5:8


Wow. Even though we are sinners - by default, not choice - God still loves us and sent us the best gift ever - His Son to die for our sins. I mean, we all love someone. Let's use your sister. Do you love your sister enough that you would live a life of pain, torture, and prosecution for them to live better? I know I wouldn't. Would you give up your life to save  hers - and by give up your life, I mean by the worst possible terms. Definitely not! This is what makes us sinners. This is what separates us from God. But don't worry! Jesus's self-sacrifice (literally) breaks that brick wall between us and God, allowing us a way into heaven and eternal life with our Father. Do I hear a HUGE amen??


"'Cause Jesus was a friend and not a judge. He loved the sinners as much as he loved the little ones. That man was love and not an act." -Sacrilegious, NeverShoutNever on What is Love?


Sorry about quoting you to death today, but I'm in a quote-y mood. Anyway, this song is awesome. Even though these lyrics are simple, it's amazing because of who it comes from. NeverShoutNever is a guy who has a good voice and cute songs. However, most of them cuss a lot and have not-too-super meanings. I think the only reason I like his music is because of this song. It's the song where he comes out and admits his love for the Lord. How beautiful is that?!


Okay, I'm done. Peace! ;)


~Cupcake

Wow, I haven't been on in a while. Oh well, it's not like I didn't warn you. Haha.

Anyway, this past week or so has been fun. Last week all I did was swim and homework, so nothing really exciting there. But this weekend I competed in the 80th annual La Jolla Rough Water swim. It was awesome; I swam a mile in 33:44 and got 126th place!! I know, I know, not that great, but hey. It was my first time so I'm proud of myself :)

As I write (or type I guess) this, I'm getting an inspiration to share on people who other people don't like and exclude. For example, there's a girl at my high school named... Well I won't give you her real name so let's call her Sally. Nobody likes her, she has gross frizzy hair, she always chews on the same fingernail, she can be nosy a lot of the time, and she's been known to run out of classrooms screaming and crying when a teacher pulls a stupid "prank" on the class to get them to learn about indulgences in the Renaissance (Yes, I was there). Okay, so she has her "defects." It's not like you don't!! Everyone has weird quirks and bad habits and something gross about them. Just because there's that one person (in my case, Sally) who's a little weirder than you, doesn't mean you should be mean and rude and excluding. Think about your history class, for example. You probably felt bad for the slaves in the South who had to work endlessly, right? And it was all because of their skin color. If they were born white, they might have had the chance to have a totally different life. If Sally had been born with a few less quirks, she might not walk home crying everyday. If Sally had been born with our concept of "normal," she might actually have friends. Now I know it's hard to know what to do with those people. I know I'm not friends with Sally. I don't want to look weird trying to be her friend, and I hate that. I wish, just once, I could have the courage to walk up to her and start a friendly conversation; maybe try to let her know someone cares at least a little about her. So basically what I'm trying to say in this giant paragraph is that just because someone's different doesn't mean they have some contagious "weird disease" that you'll get sick from. Get to know them, let them know you're there, that someone cares about them, that they're not total loners in the world. It could make a lifetime of a difference.

Anyway... Have a great rest of the week, stay safe, make new friends, and strengthen your relationship with Christ Jesus. :)

~Cupcake

Day 2

Sorry it's so late, but I had to write a letter to my cousin. I love him so much. He's 11, and he sent me the sweetest letter ever a couple weeks ago. Over the summer he visited California and I taught him how to swim during his stay here. When he went back to Colorado, he was able to participate in all sorts of fun activities in Boy Scouts since he could swim. Not only that, but he competed in a 1-mile swim... Kind of. He got out after 18 laps, very frustrated and tired, but hey! I'm still proud of him! So I finally got around to writing a thank-you note for a thank-you note. Wow.

I actually got the chance to go to Wednesday night church for once! Thank you coaches for cancelling swim all week - it gives me a break from having no life. Anyway, tonight we had a guest speaker talking about homosexuality and what the Bible has to say about it. Long story short, homosexuality is a sin, but no worse than stealing or cheating or lying. They're no worse than us; we're all going to hell and would already be there - if Jesus hadn't died for our sins and forgiven us on the cross. It's the gory-est beauty I think I've ever experienced.

Well, I still have homework to do and I'm tired so...

Au revoir!

~Cupcake

Day 1

Ahh, the joys of being a Godly princess... High school, homework, chores, oh my. Sometimes I wonder if God hates me and thus sends me all this extra work and stress. The answer? No.

I believe these are like pop quizzes in our lives. You don't know when they're coming, or neessarily why, but if we've spent time studying (the Bible, yes, but I'm talking about quality time with our Teacher), we'll do fine. Amen, right?

I'm taking French as my language and it's got me thinking... How can I use this in my life? And how can I use it to praise God? After thinking for a loooong time, I snapped my fingers and nearly exploded into smiles. I could be a missionary in France! But then the machine gun of reality hit me - hard. How would I pay for it? Where would I go? What about a family and a job? And, of course, college? So now I'm praying about it. Just thought I'd let the world know why there's an Eiffel Tower as the backround of this blog.

Au revoir!

~Cupcake