Coincidence.

Resolved 2011 via Russell

New Year's Day 2013 via Ian

Was looking at old pictures and came across these... Some things don't change? Kuya and Harvey. Happy Monday!

Dehydrated.

My dad is doing construction in our bathroom, so he turned off the water in the house. I had to shower at my aunts' house down the street. After my shower, I went to the kitchen to fill up a water container to bring back home and had small talk with one of my aunts, then I headed home. As I was going home, I realized that my aunts are professing believers, who I see spend time with God in prayer and reading His word. My aunts who I've known my whole life, have been blessed with a life of singleness and never have I seen or heard them complain about it; they could be two of the most content people I know.

Basically I just barely came to the conclusion that God has placed two Godly women in my life that have been in front of me the whole time, and that I should take advantage of it. I should not just see them as aunts, but as older sisters in-Christ and start talking to them more with Christ-centered conversations. Although we hold to different doctrine beliefs, and interpret certain areas of Scripture differently, the absence of fellowship doesn't bring unity in the family. Unity is scare right now, especially for my extended family, but that's a totally separate story. Anyways, I pray that I can build my relationship with my aunts, in a manner that exemplifies God's love for us.

Late night list
1. Praying for the Boston Marathon explosion. Shows us how fallen of a world we live in, and that this world is not our home.
2. As much as a Laker fan I am, Kobe's season ending injury is an example of why my hope isn't placed on anything but Christ. As talented as KB24 is, as a sinner he is prone to fail and Christ has already shown us that He is victorious.
3. But hey, the Lakers have a chance at taking the 7 spot.
4. I need to do a better job in managing my time.
5. I may not be the fastest, but I enjoy running. Always have.
6. I'm very happy that my group did all the experiments left in one day, so we don't have to go to physics anymore. Odd enough, physics is my favorite class this semester...
7. My laptop is working! For those that didn't know, it wasn't working for the past few months.
8. My car is working! For those that didn't know, it wasn't working for the past few months...

Music, Reading, Washing, Talking, Mercy.

After having this window on for a good five minutes or so, I finally found something to start this off and that was it...  Hmmm, due to the fact that I always blog late at night or really early in the morning, every time I write about my day, it's technically "yesterday"... Well "yesterday" I played the piano a lot, played my violin, did some reading, oh and got to wash my car! Since the tree where I normally park my car under is sapping at the moment with the combination of the strong winds we've been having along with the dirt from my front yard, my car looked like it went on an off road drive in the desert or something; and it wasn't that long ago that I washed my car last, I think it was only 3 weeks ago... whatever..

So since I've been playing the piano often lately, my parents (especially my mom) have been getting mad at me because the piano is located in the living room and my parents are ALWAYS watching tv in the living room. And so me and my mom got into a disagreement on the purpose of having a piano. I ended up borrowing my cousin Harvey's keyboard, now I can play in my room so my parents can watch tv in peace, I guess...

After loading the keyboard in my car, I had a good talk with my cousin ahaha. Got to catch up, even though we hung out Wednesday. It's always cool to see how the Lord is working in a brother in-Christ's life. I'm not saying that our conversation was good because Harvey shared things about his friends or whatnot, but it was good because our conversation was very Christ-centered. It is such a blessing to be able to talk to someone about how much we want to share the Gospel with a friend or how much our disciplines have changed! Like a couple of days ago, I got to talk to some of the few ladies at my church and we were able to share struggles and encourage one another, ahh I love it! Praise God for fellowship!

In the midst of my conversation with Harvey, I reminded myself about showing mercy to others (since we were talking about sharing the Gospel with other people). After listening to a sermon by CJ Mahaney two days ago, The Holy Spirit totally convicted me, when I heard Mahaney say, "Those who have received mercy should be quite eager to have mercy on someone who doubts." and I totally need to do a way better job in showing mercy to others. Seeing how sinful I am, and knowing the consequences for my sin, it's crazy knowing where I deserve to be... But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ--by grace you have been saved. (Ephesians 2:4-5) How can I not be able to show mercy to someone else, especially with the mercy God has shown me! Gahhh, cmon Ica! It is super frustrating to deal with my sinful self, but that's how I can find comfort in God, to know that I have a holy and blameless Lord who saved me from the punishment for my sin!

Sorry, no structure whatsoever to this... like that's new. Okay, goodnight!

Sunburnt

From my sister's graduation., then sunburnt again from today's yard sale. It's a good thing I really LIKE the smell of of sunblock (:I think by the end of this holiday weekend I'm going to have a sunglasses tan on my face especially after Memorial Day at the park this upcoming Monday. I am truly grateful that it's summer and for all the free time I have; I just pray that I may use this time wisely and do things that are pleasing to God.

Also I am truly thankful that I passed all my classes this semester! Wooo praise the Lord! 3 MORE SEMESTERS, 3 MORE SEMESTERS! (Lord willing) Then I can lock myself in a 20° C laboratory and have some real fun with my personal timeline that I made for myself for the decade or so that Mimi knows about... (I know you'll read this eventually) and we all know how accurate those always are... hahaha. Still excited for the future nonetheless!

I'd like to write more, but I can't do everything I wanted to do tonight. I also wanted to do some late night thinking to myself before I fall asleep, but my eye-bags are filled with exhaustion and just want to call it a day/night. Super tired from today, goodnight!

Happy Mothers Day!

Hey, it's the most recent picture of my family, okay? Haha

Even Nanay's physical body made it in this picture... hahaha, anyways... Happy Mothers Day to my momma! Although we don't have the closest relationship in the house, we still have one and I'm grateful for it! One thing I have to work on, is showing her how grateful I am.

Anti-Huntintin VL domain - 3LRG

Currently working on my protein structure report, it's pretty much the only thing I worked on today, (I didn't even read the Bible, convicted much?), well I tidied up my bedroom... Yeah anyways, I pretty much started today, and I wanted to finish by tonight. Although it's due on Monday, me being the person I am I wanted to get it over with so I can work on my journalism paper and have less things to worry about on Sunday night after my baptism! I never really liked working in groups for school assignments, but I'm really grateful that for this report we work with partners; which is the reason why I think I can finish this assignment in one day.  However, God has humbled me by not being able to finish tonight hahaha.

There's only one more week of classes left, then it's finals week! Which means, Summer is right around the corner! Ahh quite excited, I am. I just have a few more things to finish up then I can actually start studying for my finals. I'll list them at the end of this.

Had an interesting phone conversation with my dad a few hours ago, haha. So excited for his arrival! I like how the first thing he says after saying hi and how are you, was if I got the item that he sent me, from my cousin who just came back from Philippines a week ago. I think it's funny how I still haven't gotten it, and how I think I would be getting it faster if he just brought it with him here when he arrives. Then the subject of marriage came up and my dad literally said, "I'm gonna bring a shotgun to your marriage." AHAHAHAHAHA, with my dad being a fob I believe that by saying "marriage" he meant wedding. Oh man that was seriously hilarious. Then he started talking about marriages today and I told him that's why they're supposed to be Christ-centered, I mean marriage is suppose to reflect Christ's love for the Church (Ephesians 5), and I can tell you that most marriages today don't. Anyways, then he basically said he knows and just doesn't want us (me, my brother and sister) to end up in a marriage like those. I pray that he really does know and wasn't just saying that. Being unsure about the status of my dad's salvation I just want to be a good witness and share Scripture with him to have him be able to grow a relationship with God. We continued our conversation and awkward questions came up ahahaha, but I was surprised with how much Scripture came out of my mouth, without even having it open, shows how much knowledge the Holy Spirit has allowed me to understand. Even if it isn't God's will that I get married, I have no choice but to submit to His will, and to be content with being blessed to be able to spend even more time studying Scripture. Yeah... and that was my conversation with my dad haha.

Man, why is it so easy to write on a blog, than it is for me to write my protein report... S'all good though. I totally don't know where I am going with this blog, so I'm just gonna end it after doing my list.

Things I need to work on
1. Finish my protein structure report
2. Journalism paper
3. Literature paper
4. Time management
5. Self-control. Be angry and do not sin! Ephesians 4:26
6. Killing my pride.
7. Reading disciplines
8. Starting my experiment for research lab
9. Wash my car...
10. Sleeping earlier.

Second day, second month, second semester.

I'm warning you guys now, the probability of this post being all over the place is really high. In other words I don't think this post will have some kind of structure haha.

D'awww, thanks Pops! Love you too, see you in May!

So my dad went to the Philippines today, nothing out of the normal for us. Found out he was leaving for the Philippines on Sunday! Haha sure it was a surprise to find out he's leaving 5 days before he actually leaves, but the thing is, it's not a surprise that it's a surprise. One time we found out he was coming home when he called us and was at his stopover! That's my dad for ya. Not even gonna lie though, when I came home and saw his note on my desk, I got all giggly (not sure if I used the correct term for this one, but I'm not good at explaining how I feel hahaha). Anyways, when I saw it the first thing I said was "Aw, my dad's sweet." So odd, but yeah if you know my family we're not really an affectionate family haah. I mean we love each other, but we don't really express it vocally.. or at all haha. However, I like this one, good job Pops!

Oh, so I have a confession to make... I'm excited... for a number of things actually. A couple of them are school-related. Whaaaaa? Me excited about something dealing with school?!! I know right? Hah. The Lord has allowed me to see that through His providence He has blessed me with a college education. Yes this college education that I'm always complaining about, complaining as if I deserve more than what's been freely given to me, so selfish Ica. Anyways I'm excited for this semester, even though it has already started; I'm liking my classes especially my Chemistry classes. Not so much with my capstone classes, I actually have to write an essay this semester... I haven't written one since like... Freshman year haha, s'all good in the hood though! I'm also am excited for doing undergraduate research! Wooo, tomorrow should be the official first day. Going to school on a Friday and having no class on Fridays, you would think someone would be bitter about it, haha but noooope! I was suppose to sleep at 11.. but I've been saying that this whole week... hasn't happened..

Another thing I am excited about is discipleship! God has answered one of my prayers by blessing me with a discipler! Ahhh, the opportunity to deepen my knowledge for the Lord through a godly woman at such a personal level! Why shouldn't I be excited? Oh and LABTS for the semester started today and starting to serve in ministries at church, ahhh so many things going on, so excited!

With all these things going on, I pray and ask that you also can pray that I can be disciplined in my time management. That I not allow any of these things to take away my personal time with His Word and my time in prayer to Him.

Happy Birthday Pops!

Totally need a recent picture with my dad

Praise God for blessing my dad with another year! Gotta admit it's good to have him here on his birthday, I don't think we've celebrated his birthday with him for like 3 years! I believe 2008 was the last time he was actually in America for his birthday, cause he's been in Philippines during this time for the past 3 years ha. So I'm excited to spend Christmas with him as well. Having a dad be in and out of the United States and Philippines pretty often isn't the easiest thing but God has blessed me with a wonderful Dad.

Sooo to avoid the corniness... I PASSED OCHEM THIS SEMESTER! Whoooo, praise the Lord; only by His grace. No seriously. I was at the point where I was 110% sure I had to retake it, however through His sovereignty He proved me wrong once again. It was one of those it's impossible for me to pass the class, however as it says in Ephesians 3:20, "Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think..." His work isn't limited to anything! I don't feel like saying all of the details on here, so ask me in person! Haha.

What a Friday
1. Totally mind-blown after finding out my grades for the semester.
2. Helped Dad with the gate.
3. Ran errands with little cousins.
4. Hung out with family at home.
5. Adopted by Jason and Ann for the night along with Cj.
6. KBBQ with brothers and sisters in Christ to celebrate Fred's birthday.
7. Chilled at Jason and Ann's house.
8. Harvey and Paolo are in my room as I type this.
9. Christmas eve is tomorrow!