Friday, May 09

Psalm 37: 4-7a Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the LORD; trust in him and he will do this: He will make your righteousness shine like the dawn, the justice of your cause like the noonday sun. Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him;

On Thursday, I went back to reschedule for class. It all happened so fast. But I consider that going back to school will benefit me on so many different levels. We as humans always second doubt ourselves, allowing Satan to drag us and tempt us. I always viewed myself as not good enough for entering into the music industry – after viewing Mark, from Casting Crowns’ testimony – I realized that that wasn’t the case. The reason why I never considered a Music major was the absence of trust in God. I’ve been very far from God for a very long time. I lived a life that had been so casual; trying to reassure myself that serving in the church can repay God back for my debts. Living a life without conviction is very tiresome. Trying to run away from God was my very motive. But in my heart I always knew that there was much to be done. Praise God and the Holy Spirit for mysterious wonders. For so long I have let the manacles of sin bind me down. But continue to pray for me as I seek for freedom in His will. So many miraculous things happened this week that I thought could only happen in a year, if not a month. I’m blessed to have such a supportive family and such supportive friends. Sarah has been God sent to me. I am so thankful that we have each other. Xai has been a true benefit. I love him so much; we have come to realize that if we want each other; we must put aside all our selfish ambitions and ask God for a sense of direction. I am relying on Psalm 37: 4-7, He will truly give me my hearts desires once I surrender my all to him. I belong to God and God only. He is truly wonderful. Not much is needed to say.

OLDER BLOG POST THAT I DON'T WANNA LOOSE!

Thursday, January 24th

Following information was collected at -http://www.wayoflife.org/fbns/suicide.htm
Over 25,000 Americans commit suicide each year. Over one million will try but only one out of fifteen will succeed. Suicide is the tenth highest killer in the U.S. More will die by suicide than by murder. There are over 5,000 suicides among teen-agers each year. Some 10,000 college students will attempt suicide in a year. Suicide is the second highest cause of death among young people aged 15-24 surpassed only by accidents. Thirteen young adults each day consider life not worth the living.

Suicides will continue to rise. The Bible declares that society is headed away from God. Godless society is bent on it’s own destruction. As these last days flow steadily toward those awful tribulation days, suicides will become more and more common. As the pressures of life mount, as society has rejected the only Anchor for their troubled souls suicides will become as common as accidents. The climax will be reached in the tribulation period where it is recorded (Rev. 9:6) that society will seek death and shall not find it; and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them. Evidently the only thing that keeps the mass of society from committing suicide in the tribulation is the sovereign, preventative power of God.


As some of you may have heard, we lost a youth member of ours about 2 Sundays ago. She decided to take her own life after experiencing a traumatic day. I remember her & her sisters; she comes from a big family. They weren't regular attendees at youth - but I remember they would stop in once in a long while. They were all very pretty - she was very quiet. You can sense an aura of humbleness & calm from her. Our youth services get pretty full sometimes; it’s easy to get lost in the crowd. Therefore it is easy to stay hidden, and unnoticed. I was a part of the welcoming team – our purpose was to keep our visitors interested and make them feel welcome. One Sunday I noticed them sitting in the back corner benches, closest to the door - as if when they walked right in, scurried to find the closest seats. The girls seemed well aquatinted with one another, as they talked and joked I approached them. They were all very timid when I began introducing myself – so after I got all their names, I pretended like I had somewhere else to go, not like I had anything else better to do. To reduce my feeling of awkwardness I simply left their area while I quickly said, "nice to meet you, come visit more often kay?." Not noticing my fake half hearted smile. I would see them on and off – here and there but I never took that 2nd chance to go talk to them. I said to myself, “Someone else will go talk to them…” Trying to excuse myself from an uneasy surrounding again. This was no more than 3 years ago. As I was telling Xai about this last night. So many questions flooded my mind as I cried to God. How could this have happened? What caused her such pain, what was going through her mind? What if I took that extra step every time I saw them, What if I never would have walked away? What if I just stayed? Those questions do not matter – trying to find an answer for her pass will not change anything besides my inner satisfaction of thinking 'Oh, what much of an impact could I have been to her?" Xai said something like this to me – This just shows how powerful God’s love is and how much it is still needed in the world. There are people who come from broken homes - the weak – the poor – Non believers. It’s our job to go out there and lend a hand to them. Show them God’s love through simple acts of kindness. - We know the truth; we know that Jesus died for our sins. We have Him to turn to when our world is falling apart. Judy didn’t have someone to run to at that moment when her existence became unclear – to her it seemed like the world and all the odds were running against her. She knew God - perhaps she never got the chance to have an intimate relationship with him. Or maybe the slight chance of that happening could have happened 3 years ago on a particular Sunday afternoon, at a particular youth service. She could have seen a small glimpse of God’s love– through a simple act of kindness. What if this could have sparked curiosity within her? Maybe she wouldn’t notice at all. Thank you Judy, I wish that I could have taken an extra step on those Sunday afternoons – but the matter of fact is that you have impacted me & people around the world more than I could ever imagine. You have shown me the importance of Jesus Christ in my life. You have inspired me to become someone that I thought I could never be. With all my heart, Thank you- you were a beautiful person.

Continue to pray for Judy's family and friends. Continue to pray for a generation that will pull through for Jesus. I hope that you all continue to take that extra step – you don’t know whose life you may just change. God has already prepared the future – he chose you as his servant. What are you gonna do?

-CICILYKONG

LANVIN
Designer: Alber Elbaz

His show consists of bright minis, feathered frocks, ruffles, fitted suits, and free flowing complimentary neutrals all with a light touch of sparkle! This season we see Lanvin emerging captivating glamour with a masculine gaze. For the lightness, sensible radiance, and pure compelling thrills Lanvin is my favorite OVERALL collection. In the dump of previously stating – I feel like Alber stepped into my dreams and stole my heart – painted a huge canvas of free flowing Masterpieces! His look work for women of all ages! That’s why I love his work so much!

DRIES VAN NOTEN
MASTER OF PRINTS
    
   
 



I was never a big fan of prints, ever. I died whenever I saw someone mixing different prints, ESPECIALLY DOUBLE FLORALS!! But I the moment I saw Dries Van Noten’s navy blue sequenced tunic – I couldn’t help but make out the rest of his collection. WHAT A GREAT CHOICE I MADE. He brings us lavishing floral and ethnic prints; massive emotions flood my body when his work reaches my eyeballs. EACH one of his pieces really captivated my soul. The women who wear his clothe come from all over the world. She’s the “I wonder where she shops” girl from LA -shopping the riches boutiques with a mango, peach smoothly in one hand and a cute Josh Harnet boyfriend in the other. She’s the struggling college student from Rhode Island getting ready for a Sunday brunch with the visiting relatives – wakes up and notices that she has 4 minutes till the brunch, quickly grabs the closes piece of chiffon – shatter and smash some paint and wild flowers into it and raps herself within the beautiful accident – runs out the door almost forgetting her sandals, knocking over 3 potted plants, all while waving a goodbye kiss to her delicate little parakeet. BEAUTIFUL accessories I might add; metallic and abstract.

ALBERTA FERRETTI

   
FIRST IMPRESSION: Romantic fairytale of the Princess who kissed the Prince FROG

Chiffon goddess minis and floor length gowns! Easy breezy beautiful clever girl.  Alberta is a very sophisticated and chic woman; her designs are always very feminine and soft. It’s almost as if she’s flirting with her audience through her collection saying. “You know I’m lovely, come and touch me – feel how silky and soft I am”. Extremely fairytale! I LOVE LOVE LOVE her Spring 2008. My thoughts and interpretations of the collection as a whole, the girl in the collection - Her father is the riches king in all the lands. Trying to find the right Prince for her daughter. The Princess has a mind of her own – a rebellious young girl who sees no significance in her beauty. To her- her outward appearance only portrays a timid part of who she really is. People drag her arms and feet draping beautiful chiffon gowns on her as she resists. What else does she have to wear? The hair signifies her carefree and imaginative spirit. She sneaks out of her lavishing castle when all is asleep, runs through the unknown forest to the lake bed and wishes on the stars for a way to escape her lifestyle. There she finds her Prince Charming – who is a froggie.  = )

GUCCI
Are you a Gucci Girl?

GUCCI – I LOVE GUCCI. I want to be a GUCCI GIRL!  Frida Giannini taking over the business wasn’t such a bad idea. Many runway critics have given Frida Giannini, former Gucci creative designer, bad reviews. But I find it irresistible – at first glance I was like, AMETEUR. But I caught myself reviewing all the looks imagining it in a social scene. That’s when I discovered my love for Gucci! I wouldn’t personally wear some of the color blocked yellow sunflower dresses, but most of it YES! Totally editorial. A great balance between her clothing and accessories. I was SURE to see celebrities like Rhianna and Vanessa Hudgens in Gucci – but to my surprise MANY celebrities like Heidi Klum and leading actress in Will & Grace are wearing her.  Gucci getting lots of attention on the red carpet, so IN YOUR FACE CRITICS! And Gucci ads are EVERYWHERE – 2 billion dallors in revenue last year! Good job Gucci GiRL! No story for my Gucci girl, the song explains it all.

ICEBERG
Icy fierce – that’s what

COOL CALM AND COLLECTIVE.

CHLOE`

BALENCIAGA! – SHOES and Structured look, great prints
MARNI!

DONNA KARAN
MARIOS SCHWAB

Thank you for yesterday Xaithao! VALENTINE's WAS AMAZINGLY SPECTACULAR!

ICHIBAN
I'm gonna write a lot but this is for my own entertainment - so when I go back on my blogs I can smile and reminisce about our past haha. My phone was almost out of batteries and I forgot to stick the memory card into the camera. So Xai and I only have a FEW pictures. But We had bags of fun on Valentine’s. (Despite the bickers we had while driving on the crazy Minneapolis Streets and finding parking, which is a daily impulsive struggle for us haha! We secretly enjoy it though.) We celebrated on Friday, given that I had band practice on Thursday Night until 7. Wednesday we went to the Laker's game - It was fun. FRIDAY started off with Xaithao’s cute little self calling me. “Come open the door Pania.” Usually he just kinda knocks haha – He doesn’t know but I was watching him through the peep hole before I opened the door. He was all dressed up with a cute little tie, I love it when he wears his grandpa carnigans. Very handsome - I am very lucky. He's so sweet. I already saw the roses. Opened the door in surprise! THANKS little one – they were beautiful, and probably expensive = S. I love flowers, beautiful smelling flowers. Here is our line up!

1. Sculpture Garden
2. Walker Art Museum – Center for arts
3. Plan B Coffeehouse on Hennepin
4. Opening of the presents
5. Four Season’s Dance Studio
6. Ichiban – Japanese Steakhouse

It was FREEZING when we got to the Sculpture Garden! I packed a fleece blanket, a scarf and some mittens for Xaithao – but that did not keep out the wind out! So we left, we did not dare step foot onto the garden! We then went to the Walker Art Museum – it was so sheek and contemporary! I love art galleries, this one was very clean & upscale- some pieces came from private collections and local artist. But we came on a bad day because they were having an opening for a special gallery that didn’t start until 9PM-12AM. We tried walking around the building like we knew what we were doing – even though NOONE was there haha! We strolled around walked up 104732 flights of stairs – decided to take the elevator back down, then finally figured that UMM – I think it’s back where we started. As we were going to head toward the galleries we were stopped by one of the workers. He sent us to the front desk for additional information – the lady gave us 2 free passes to the art galleries for another day! That was a plus – but what were we gonna do until 7PM? I had a surprise for Xai. At 7PM a Dance studio in Minneapolis holds classes for beginning Salsa! Only $15.00 a couple and $10.00 singles. I do not dance at all – even if my LIFE DEPENDED ON IT! I thought that we could try something NEW, It sounded like a lot of fun. We tried killing some time in a coffee shop. We ended up at Plan B Coffeehouse. We walked in and the customer service was horrible! Xai was really getting irritated. It was really cozy and hip but it seemed like everyone who walked in and out of that café’ had a connection with one another – maybe it was an exclusive café? Who knows? But we tried enjoying ourselves anyways with pictures and card playing and opening of the gifts. Haha. I got Xai this REALLY REALLY HOTT BLINGED out diamond crusted belt buckle. Loved it to death! It was SO HIM.


 

We got into some quarreling about finding the Dance Studio – it was hidden in a dark alley next to a FANCY Restaurant (Lucrat). When we walked in the entry way – we stood before a door with Latin music coming from it. The lessons started at 7PM but we got there at 7:10PM because of the parking dilemma. We just stared at each other and kind of giggled, “What are we about to get ourselves into?” Xai peeked in, “What do you see?” He said it was just couples dancing. URGH* we gave into the curiosity and walked in. Th lady at the admission desk was very friendly! She said that if we hopped in right now we’d be able to keep up with the lesson. The male instructor was very popular – she said that the classes usually don’t get this full. There were no more than 20 couples there. Xai and I paid or $15 and quickly but quietly stepped into the back corner. The lady instructor came to us and introduced herself, she was about 50 years old but you can tell that she was very talented. As the group went on with the male instructor she took time to teach us the basics of salsa, the steps were very simple but I kept stepping offbeat because I was trying to make it as sexy as her haha! JK. After she taught us she went back to the middle dance floor to join the male instructor. He was really good – You can tell he really knew what he was doing! Xai and I just kind of looked at each other like little 6th graders – shrugging our shoulders and squinting haha It was really cute. We started off with some basic steps and then tried learning the turn – HAHAH BOY was that something! Xai was REALLY REALLY REALLY getting interested in it. He was MORE into it than I was; though he was the one that was nervous and iffy about the whole idea at first. Haha It was so cute watching him think about the steps. So fun! But Xai and I did not have salsa chemistry at all, lol! Maybe because we had no salsa experience. I kept telling him how to lead and He kept telling me how to follow – it got a little crazy haha. Finally the male instructor walked up to us and danced with us individually – He knew how to teach! He was a top notcher. It was adorable watching Xai dance with him; you can tell that he was really passionate about it. It only seemed like 10 minutes had passed – our one hour lesson was already over! It was SO MUCH fun though! I really encourage you couples to try it!! After we left I asked Xai if he wanted to come back sometime – he was like, “we’ll see.” But we all know he wants to haha.

We were then on our way to ICHIBANS! Another restaurant like Benihana’s; a Japanese steakhouse – where the chef cooks your dish in front of you with cool tricks and masterful samurai skills! We enjoyed Ichiban more than Benihana’s the moment we stepped in. It’s a more romantic setting – dim lights, felt like we were in Japan. Our chef was a female, her food was very delicious – but she was a new chef so her show wasn’t as impressing as the others. There was this one part when she lit the whole burning top on fire it was awesome! I have pictures on Xai’s phone but I don’t know how to transfer them. He ordered the lobster (super ecstatic about his lobster) I ordered the superior dinner. The food was SO GOOD. Each table seats about 8-10 people, so if you’re going with a party of 2 then expect to sit with strangers. The atmosphere and customer service was so great, but the bill was slightly on the expensive side. Don’t expect to pay any less than $80 for two. Valentine’s is over rated – but I’m glad that Xai and I took that opportunity to celebrate our love! It was really fun and I recommend Salsa dancing – MESSAGE ME IF YOU WANNA GO, because I know I DO!