happy birthday to...

...my Dad. He's a hard-working, super awesome, very intelligent, generous, God-fearing, wise, strong man who is so good at handling hard situations. I'm so blessed to have him, and so is my family. He's away today because he's working, working so that we can have a roof over our head, great food everyday, lots of unnecessary luxuries as well as all the necessary things, clothes, pets and each other. Happy birthday, Dad, you're really the best.
It also happens to be the birthday of my wonderful older sister, Perrin. She's a professional chef, a determined, beautiful, smart, honest, talented (in so many ways...), able-to-do-a-lot-of-things-I-could-never-understand-how-to-do-myself person. Someone who got up and went to work today, even though she was sick. And today, she is eighteen. So, happy birthday to the most lovely 18 year old sis I could have asked for, and to my awesome Dad who deserves a lot more then the credit I've given him. :)
Wanna see pictures of these two birthday people? Just look on the 'My Family' page.

^On a special day like this...there's no such thing as too many sprinkles. (Image photographed and edited by me.)

don't give up

^ via

"What now?" she asked in a voice that quivered a little, her lightly freckled face still smeared with a few tears that had fallen not so long ago.

He turned to her. "I can't tell you what now. I can't tell what you should do. But do you know what you're not going to do? You aren't going to give up. There might me a lot of mountains that need climbing in the future, but I know you can do it."

He set his gaze on her, and she looked into the deep blue eyes that made her feel comforted.
"Promise me you'll never ever, ever, give up."

She lifted her face and managed a smile. "I'll do my best."

***

Don't ever give up. Things work out better when you don't. There are some situations where we aren't allowed to give up, and some where we choose to give up or not. Choose to not. Just don't give in. Failure will follow you if you do - he'll haunt you for the rest of your days. Sometimes it's a light case of failure, but it's still there. So, just keep going. You can do this. God didn't make you a quitter. He knows that with His help, you can persevere.

chasing rainbows

when I was young

I tried to catch a rainbow

I ran as fast as I could

but I never got to it

so I stood and watched

the beauty fade instead

the rainbow was like

brush strokes in the sky

so perfectly painted

I knew there could only be One

who was the artist

I wasn't after the pot of gold

though that would have been nice

I just wanted to touch the rainbow

the rainbow that made me believe

there was something else out there

so I chased it

I wanted to ask it

what it would be like in the end

I thought that maybe it would know

but I couldn't catch it

so I stood and watched

the colors fade

but I never forgot

the day

when I chased that rainbow

and I had to let it go

Just one of my early childhood memories...

2 blogging tips of the day

^ These tempting roses made me feel as if I had to take a photo of them in all their glory...so I did.

Hi there. It's so nice to be sitting down and typing this blog post.
Apart from starting in a home schooling choir, starting art lessons (I'll post some of the stuff I've been doing there), getting my dreaded maths and other school (the other school not dreaded like maths) done, taking photos for fun (no important or really good photos at the moment...), putting together a poem in my head and doing necessary things that are needed for breeding guinea pigs, I've been working on my blog. I've recently discovered that I like programming and web designing, so I've been getting into that as well.
Anyway, this was meant to be a post on two small blogging tips that you might like to know about, not exactly and update on my life. Oh well.
You know that really annoying thing that sometimes pops up on other peoples' blogs when you're trying to comment, the thing that wants you to prove you're not a robot? Unless you've already turned it off on your blog, or know how to, or have decided not to, you're probably not aware that other people have to go through that to comment on your own blog. Even if you are aware, here's how to turn it off.

1. Go to your blogger dashboard.
2. Go to 'Settings'.
3. From there go to 'Posts and comments.'
4. Look for 'Show word verification' (so that's what the annoying thing is called...).
5. Select 'No.'

Click save settings and you're done!
Also, here's another little tip that might just help. To turn on comment moderation (you'll get all comments in your blogger dashboard before they're published), follow up the directions up till 3. Next, look for 'Comment Moderation'. You can choose 'Always', 'Sometimes', or 'Never'. You can also change the amount of posts shown on your blog on the same 'Settings' > 'Posts and comments' page. Though most of you probably already know those two. But in the beginning of my blogger experience, I didn't know about them.
I hope you have a brilliant Sunday...I'm planning to.