Friday Photo

"Seek the Lord while He may be found;

call on Him while He is near.

Let the wicked forsake His way

and the evil man His thoughts.

Let him turn to the Lord, and He will have mercy on him,

and to our God, for He will freely pardon." Isaiah 55

Let Us Fix Our Eyes On Jesus

Why do so many bad things seem to be happening? Tornadoes, Nelly and Lesya in a car accident, Galina's grandpa in the hospital, David Wilkerson's death... and more. These past days I'm not sure what to do about it. Last night I didn't go to prayer because I felt like I needed some alone time with God in my bedroom, I read Hebrews 12... it says:

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame...


“My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline,

and do not lose heart when he rebukes you,

because the Lord disciplines those he loves,

and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son.”

Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father? If you are not disciplined (and everyone undergoes discipline), then you are illegitimate children and not true sons. Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of our spirits and live! Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.

Therefore, strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees. Make level paths for your feet, so that the lame may not be disabled, but rather healed.

To me this meant that through the hard times, God is doing it all according to His supreme purpose, not for our pain, but for our perfection. 

This is what David Wilkerson wrote on the day he died via his blog (yay he was a fellow blogger!) 

"To those going through the valley and shadow of death, hear this word: Weeping will last through some dark, awful nights, and in that darkness you will soon hear the Father whisper, 'I am with you. I cannot tell you why right now, but one day it will all make sense. You will see it was all part of my plan. It was no accident."

Amen. I'll miss that man of God, but he's in a better place now.

What Up?

So what's been going on with me recently? Nothing really! The weather has been looking better and everyone here in typical high school is wearing shorts and what not... here I am in jeans and a turtleneck.
So what's been on my mind? Lots of stuff! Scholarships, internships, ships. Haha ok, not ships.
How do I feel? My tummy feels weird right now... shouldn't have eaten that uncrustable for breakfast.
What am I listening to? Gungor! DUH! and the sound of typing computers here in the lab.
What's been stuck in my head? Mulan... Mister I'll make a man out of you
Any plans? Getting through these next 7 weeks... This weekend- having an awesome road trip to Mt. Zion. Hopefully it all works out!
What do I have to fess up? I'm still on spring break... it's thursday. The past two days I've been skipping. And I think I had too much cake this week. Take it away!

And I'm in the mood for a nap.
So there it is. That's whats up.
God help me with these next seven weeks!
Have a good day, kids :)

Counting Down... 7 Weeks

I can't get my mind off of ending this... this thing called "High School". I have 2 weeks until the AP Bio exam, and about 7 weeks until my Public Policy Presentation. That's just seven more Mondays waking up and wondering why on God's earth one would be up at such an insane hour. Today I told my teacher I would miss the last week of school.. so I have the present my Public Policy the week before. I'm going to Myrtle Beach! It's gonna be the best vacation ever... Olga, Nat, Tuna, Baby M. That's all I'm looking forward to at the moment. THANK YOU GOD! Give me patience.

Flashback.. McDonald's Days

When my family first came to America we indulged in the fancy, ever so present McDonald's that was located a short walk away. I can just see the cars driving down busy Spencerport Road, glancing at the FOB's walking in their strange brightly colored hats and coats in the middle of May, as if it were December. What? My mom liked to bundle us up! Skvaznak! Lol.

Anyway I remember eating the dollar menu hamburger and only eating half of it before I ran off to the play place.
On the top left picture, that's me. I was surprised when I saw this picture... "Whoa I actually look cute." I always got distracted by the end of the slide, especially when Mama was taking pictures, as you can see from the bottom left picture. That kid hit me in the back. Loser. I was just taking my time thinking about life when this kid had to hit me! Haha
On the top right is Tanya (right) and I (left). This is yet more proof to my case that I may have actually been semi-cute. The opposite of what my family reports.

And below that picture is just typical, older sister drowning little sister in sticky balls which I remember strangely, yet deliciously smelled of maple syrup.

What can I say? My sister and I were very close growing up, and we still are! Even though I may have been her personal slave (without my knowledge), she was still a good older sister who I wanted to grow up to be like. :) Love you Tuna Fish!

Mindful of Me

"What is man that You are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?" Hebrews 2:6

After reading this a few days ago, I can't stop thinking about it. It just overshadows everything that I do... I wash the dishes and think about it, I get annoyed by my mom and think about it, I talk to friends... still thinking about it. I have known this verse for a long time, and have sung the song "Who are You that You are mindful of me, that You love me when I fall?" But I have never, maybe in my entire life, had a Bible verse nag me so much. It says: What is man that You are mindful of him? Now that has got to be the ultimate of questions ever existing. Here we are, humans, doing every evil thing under the sun, spitting in God's face with each passing day, committing obscene sins which cannot be spoken of, the exact opposites of God, purposely doing what is wrong... We are disgusting creatures. But here is says that He is mindful of us. I never thought about the word "mindful" it is very interesting in fact... God's mind is full of us, if you think about it literally. Wait wait wait... God's mind is FULL of us? Haha He must be consumed in thoughts of revenge and disgust cuz we are so messed up, right? Well if you keep reading it says that He cares for us... Just dwell on this I beg you! He CARES for us! His mind is full of us because His thoughts towards us are thoughts of a Father loving His child with undeniably strong love. God is mindful of you, He cares for you. Ok so here is the omnipotent God of the universe, thinking about us constantly. His thoughts are aimed at His love for us! And here we are, little gross bugs that think they're all that, having a mindful of selfish desires. Something must be wrong with this picture. Can you see it? I do. I don't think about God enough. My prayer is to be consumed in thought of Him. So have a good day my 3-5 awesome readers! :)     

    <Keep your eyes on the cross>

Things I love!

Looking back at yesterdays post I feel like it was so negative. I don't enjoy being a Debbie Downer so let's cheer things up over here.
Things I love:
-Waking up to the sun streaming through your window.
-Falling asleep to the moonlight shining upon your bed.
-Warm bread from the oven with milk.
-Milk. My love. (What a sad miserable sad life for all the lactose-intolerant people)
-Making someone laugh.
-Getting a hand written letter in the mail or finding it in your Bible.
-Childhood birthdays. (Remember that excited feeling?)
-Playing Ninja and cracking all the Christmas ornaments.
-The smell of baby skin.
-Knowing you don't have school the next day.
-A surprise message from your close friend you haven't talked to in a while.
-Old Ukrainian photos.
-The feeling of walking on clouds the first time I came to meet Jesus.
-Deep conversations with your sister.
-The feeling of peace washing over you as you sing worship.
-The sensation of the sun on your face and a warm breeze on your skin.
-Awesome violin and piano music.
-Playing piano and not being able to keep hands still because it just sounds so beautiful that you can't believe your fingers are causing such a breathtaking melody!
-Rowdy family parties, complaining how loud they are, when we ourselves are exactly the same.
-Pushok after a bath, running in circles, making you laugh.
-Mama chasing Pushok around the table. 
-Inside jokes.
-Knowing a secret and keeping it.
-Taking a walk just to listen to God's voice.
-The feeling you have after you work out and go to the sauna. Endorphins!
-The smell of something specific that triggers a childhood memory.
-Knowing everything is in God's hands.
-Having a good shopping day.
-Walking along the beach early in the morning, picking up shells and taking to your mom.
-Listening and watching your dad act like a child.
-Getting compliments on your hair which took zero effort to put together.
-Light bulb moments.
-Reading a good book, getting half way, and being excited that you still have so much to read!
-The sound of raindrops and wind against your window.
-The bright sun shining upon the perfectly untouched and unblemished snow.
-Being angry, then making up. After that you feel closer than ever.
-People sending you a text message 12 am on your birthday morning.
-Watching cartoons on Saturday morning.
-The last day of school.
-Knowing you aced a test.
-Youth camp- being forced to get out of your comfort zone and make a play out of random props. Glue!
-Three on three volleyball. Relaxed and fun.
-Babushka coming over on a Sunday and eating lunch with her.
-Cherry wars.
-Picking apples, peaches, strawberries, currents, raspberries and cherries at the local farm.
-Having an organized closet.
-Shrimp. Cheese. Veggies. Fruits. Sour milk. I'll keep going on and on. So pretty much food makes me happy.
-Warm blanket when the house is chilly.
-Late night prayers.
-Laughing till you cry and can't breathe.
-Scented candles lit up as you study.
-Knowing my life is a blank book set before me, ready for me to begin my journey.
-Making plans that you are pretty sure will not work out, but planning and dreaming anyway.
-Babushka's tummy bouncing as she laughs.
-Mama always asking me what she should do, though she already knows what she wants to do.
-Andriy bringing home a squeaky toy for the dog and calling me the baby of the family.
-Vitaliy coming over for a sandwich.
-Tanya. Everything about her.
-The way Natalya's eyes smile and her face lights up as she laughs.
-The expression on Lesya's face as she describes her future classroom.
-The way my cousins get so freaked out by cops.
-Luda's crazy ideas such as asking for things that don't exist in a McDonald's drive thru.
-Yuliya's ever popular saying "I'm dieing" in order to get your attention.
-Vova's laugh when he thinks he said something smart.
-David saying he misses everyone in Rochester.
-Getting a late night message from Igor and sharing Bible verses with him.
-Making Dasha smile and laugh and say "Diana stop making me smile!"

I can go on forever. God has blessed my life, and the thing I love the most out if everything is the fact that His love is undeserved but free for the taking. Who am I that He could be mindful of me? He has blessed me with a list of things so long that it could coil around the planet earth an infinite number of times. Thank You God not just for the things, but for You. Dwell on the things you love, and God's love, it is very encouraging to have this kind of mindset... Have a blessed Tuesday!

Pet Peeves

So I had this random idea yesterday to read my diary... From 2004. I was twelve years old. I can't believe the things that I wrote in there. BEYOND embarrassing. I'll share some quotes one day if I'm brave enough. Let's just say THANK YOU GOD that I'm not like that any more! Brain development must occur during the ages of 14-18. Haha. So last night I was thinking of something to post and I thought maybe you would like to know what my pet peeves are. You know, so you won't do them and maybe I'll end up liking you more! Lol, Besides that point I want to look back one day in the future and see if I still think the same way (and if the process of brain development continues after the age of 18) So these are some things that bother me in their own special little ways:
-When someone is late. They say "I'll be there in 5 minutes"... they stroll in 30 minutes later.
-Sending a text message to someone and not getting a reply until 2 hours later, I have to look back and remember what the heck I said first. Haha
-When someone writes "lol" when they obviously did not just laugh out loud. I do this alot.
-People texting in church. Ok... I know what your thinking- Dee does it all the time! Well yeah, I can do it, just not you! Forgive me for being so odd. I’m a hypocrite :/
-I don't like having the last word. For example if I say good night, you say good night and I don't say anything after that. Doing this makes me feel in control. When I text Igor, he ruins this for me :P
-Taking to someone and knowing they are not listening.
-Picking up dog poop. Gotta do it though.
-Drinking liquid medicine. I'd rather be sick than drink that foul substance!
-Repeating a conversation.
-People who are too competitive, it's just a game!
-Stinky breath. My greatest fear is to have this.
-Moist, limp hand shakes. *shiver* ew creepy.
-Hearing others complain.
-Lack of eye contact during a conversation.
-Drama.
-Knowing someone is using you.
-Toilet paper lip thing on the outside. It's supposed to be on the inside!! :)
-Mean jokes (racist jokes, drug jokes, handicapped people jokes)
-Girls (who are gorgeous, skinny sticks) saying they are fat and ugly. YOU ARE DROP DEAD GORGEOUS!! What’s wrong with you!?!?
-Snot.  -Stubbornness.
-People who want to know everything.

That’s quite a list. Forgive me if anything was offending! And you probably agree with me on most things! Hope you enjoyed my deep thoughts on things that annoy me, now memorize this list and refrain from doing these things around me! Just Kidding, I'm a victim of my own pet peeves, I need to work on not doing these things myself! Have a good Monday folks!

Refelction on Ecclesiastes

Yesterday a wise friend of mine suggested I read the book of Ecclesiastes in the Bible... so I did, and this morning I finished it up. Honestly, I was not super excited to read this book. I knew the drill with Ecclesiastes: "all is vanity"... And I have wondered about this book... Wasn't Solomon sucked into a life of idolatry because of his bazillion wives? Why should I listen to this guys advice?! Then I remembered something I learned in Sunday school: "The world of God is living and active." Hebrews 4:12. And Ecclesiastes proved not to disappoint. I learned that no matter what we do as humans, we are never satisfied. We want to work work work and get riches so Solomon compares that to a river having streams come into it, but never getting full. We are never satisfied. We even learned that in secular high school English... The human nature is to want the "America Dream", but it is not reachable.
So the conclusion of this book was awesome: It says "Remember your Creator in the days of your youth"... I'm eighteen and the years are flying by. Most people my age just want to go to college and party. It's a sad sight to see. I'm a minority, because when I was just twelve I accepted Jesus Christ and I repented! I want to soak in God right now more than ever, I have all the time in the world! I want to remember Him now because I know I will have less time later in life. I also know for a fact that my non-believing friends see that I'm strange in a way. Other than me being a FOB, I know they respect me because of my walk with God. And I pray for them and hope they will turn to Him one day!
This book also concluded with "Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is the whole duty of man." I have to say, it speaks for itself, so I recommend you read this book in the Bible, and see for yourself what it has to say about everyday life.
Have a nice Sunday!

Spring Break Here I Come!

Yesterday I finally got my camera back! So I have been taking some pics around the house, especially because we are getting the downstairs painted right now and in the future I want to compare the before and after pictures.

 This is just me. Interesting fact: I just started wearing mascara a few weeks ago. I'm a dork, I know. And the shirt I'm wearing is from the Guess outlet store and I bought it for $11! Ever since that deal, I've taken a liking to Guess :)

This picture is just typical: me playing with (torturing) my doggie Pushok. He doesn't look very happy here probably because he has other more important things to do. Oh... wow. Maybe I should crop this picture? Pushok is kinda... lol. Maybe I'll edit it later.

And this is Pushok again. Please don't hate on me because I take pictures of my dog. What do you expect? There are no children in this household! Who else could I take pictures of? Haha

Moving on... today I'm planning on going to an Easter play at a nearby church so I'm excited to get out of the house and experience something new. Well it is officially spring break! I have a schedule written out for things for me to do this week, because I'm not one to sit around and be lazy... I need to get things done! Woohoo. Most likely I will do something fun, but I'm not 100 percent sure yet because I don't want to get my hopes up too much and then end up being disappointed... We will see. Anyway tata for now!

More Good Times

Yesterday was full of fun! I was actually sitting on the bus today and I was thinking about yesterday’s events and laughed out loud like an creepy individual. It was quite embarrassing. Anyway, yesterday was the best day of the month... Open Door Mission day! Natalya was blonde and picked us up an hour early so we used our time to our best ability and tried to see the fire that was on Long Pond road, it was a fail so we just went to Tim Horton’s. When we finally made it to ODM we had to wear our very trendy hair nets which proved to provide us with very high fashion, silly cell phone pictures. (As you can see Tanya and Natalya with fierceness above) Haha. I love serving the food and singing there!

Afterwards we went to our cousin, Vova's house and had a cool camp fire in the back yard. We got to grill hot dogs and smores over the fire! Yummy! Alesya made buffalo chicken wing dip which was delicious, and I thought it was quite funny when Tanya was confused as to what kind of meat was in the dip... Umm... Chicken. Haha. Are we related? Just kidding I love that girl, she's my BFF. After one too many colas (blame the cola) we were very excited and started to take pictures on Alesya's computer. I have not laughed so hard in a while, and I was especially experiencing laughter pain on account of my 21 pushups and 40 sit ups in gym fitness testing. My favorite moment of yesterday was the quote "Good night folks" and my mother complaining that my hair smells like camp fire. Well I should get back to work; I'm actually in school right now. Have a blessed day!  

Recommendation

I know what has been bothering you... Yes, I completly understand. It has been absolutly killing you because you want to see some pictures of me and my friends! Well bad news- my camera is in Cali at the moment, so I recommend you check out my friends blog called "Blessed From Above" she has a superb writing style and just style overall I can say :) She recently posted some pictures of herself and her friends- which in fact are my friends, I'll pretend like she didn't steal them from me :) Hehe. Anyway I love this girl, we in fact are close friends with many similarities and differences... Maybe one day I'll make a post explaining our weird but not unlikely friendship which can be described as a "war head friendship".
 http://lesyaslane.blogspot.com/
So to the millions reading this- check out her blog right now! I may be her blogs number one fan (creepy?) I love reading her new posts and I'm sure you will too!

Text Message

What does a blog txt look like? Just testing it out... I'm off to volunteer to the hospital right now. I'm sure it's gonna be a terrific day with the Elders :)

If I Were Queen

Sometimes I day-dream about how life had I become a queen... Would I possess all the riches in the world? Oh yeah... That would be quite nice come to think of it. No more working for my family, or my friends, in fact no more working for my friends' families.. and their friends! That's alot of not working... That is pretty much my thought process, that and dreams of castles and islands and fun things to do and more castles...

Then my thought process comes to a hault and I determine: "Wow, what a selfish person I am!" How could I be dreaming of luxury while ignoring those hungry chidren in Africa and homeless families in the big cities and the sick people in the hospital? The list goes on and on for those who are in need.

People only thinking of their own selfish desires is what corrupts a government, and here I am dreaming of following those same footsteps. Oh miserable person that I am! If I were Queen, I'd try to give the job to someone more deserving. Then I would make a list of things to change in the world starting with things like:
-Hunger is forever abolished!-Health care is universal and free-Missionaries are fully funded to spread the gospel to all corners of the earth!-Food we eat must be natural and healthy but yummy-People have a limit on time wasting machienes (tv, computer)-Environmentally friendly cars for everyone-No more coral reef bleaching or poluttion allowed

And then yet another thought comes to mind... This Queen stuff is giving me a headache, I should get back to doing my homework. I already have the ability to change the world- it starts here. I have to take it little by little, step by step...

Sunday School

I never thought I would enjoy teaching Sunday school so much... Today I taught the kids about telling their friends about Jesus and honestly I was nervous for some reason. But things went well because I prayed and brought candy to help them stay on task! It was great. At the end of the lesson I had the kids make cards for their friends to evangelize to them :) I smiled when I saw this cutie make this card for her friend. I love teaching Sunday school! Well I'm off to Chinese buffet for my grandmas birthday :) Yay!

Good Times

I'm not ashamed to say I went to the movies yesterday and I absolutely loved it! "Tangled" is hilarious and I have a small feeling that my sister, Tanya and I enjoyed it the most out of all our friends. Haha it's probably because we laugh at the same (sometimes stupid) stuff. I liked that Rapunzel was one strong chick, and one friend commented during the movie "She's teaching little girls to be strong and rebel." I enjoyed seeing a movie that teaches of opposite of what we have heard growing up. Rapunzel didn't need a hero, she needed help of course but she was strong-willed and was able to be her own heroine! Awesome job Disney on making a movie that has a good meaning and is quite entertaining to a group of young adults! :)

   

We proceeded to Great Northern Pizza Kitchen and I was excited to see the sign that said "Buy one slice get one free for college students." Woohoo! I love saving money unexpectedly! One slice could be around $2-$4 so the free slice was greatly appreciated.

We still had energy so we stopped by DSW because Tanya had two ten dollar off coupons. I was not too excited to go there to be honest... because I'm not a shoe-crazy kind of girl (unlike some of my friends tehehe). I like shoes, but for me, they are not a big deal. But I looked into the clearance section (I'm not shy, I go to that section first!) Haha, and I was not looking to buy anything but I was wearing skinny jeans so I took off my sneakers and put on the first shoes I saw, because I felt like seeing how skinny jeans + heels look. Turned out they were $28 and after the coupon $18. Yay! My sister, who has a kind heart, payed for me by the way :) It was very nice of her. Anyway I'm off to enjoy the nice weather and play some tennis! Bye Bye for now! 

Stop Procrastinating Dee!

I have a problem. I keep procrastinating and I need help! I hate starting my work the day before it's due because I end up staying up late and hardly getting any sleep. It stinks, a lot. I need a new system. I need to just start things early and having them done instead of laying around and waiting for the last minute to do them. I guess that's my new weakness! :) Now I need to stop procrastinating and get ready for church!

Reality Check

After these past few days... today feels like the heavy anchor pulling me down. It's okay though, I don't want to sail into the blue too much, so having a reality check is not bad at all! This weekend was full of fun and great times and getting to know Gods goodness more as each day passed, so I was expecting another amazingly great day because I serve an amazingly great God! Well He does not change, but I constantly do change, and that's totally normal. How did this reality check come about, you ask? Well I had some friends open up to me about their situations at home, their present and past struggles. After hearing about sicknesses, family problems, spiritual matters, and emotional tension going on inside themselves and at home I just feel compassion for them. I want to give them advice and help them somehow! But what can I do? I feel like I'm only capable of joking around, encouraging them and giving them food... But deep inside I know that my prayers will be focused on them. I need to show them Gods love above all, because without that love, there is no point. Another reality check was that I have a good life, though at times I feel like I don't, I in fact, am blessed beyond my comprehension! My life is very normal and healthy compared to my friend's lives. So I am thankful because God has opened my eyes to how hard it can be for some people. God brings us through tough times in order to teach us, discipline us, rain His mercy upon us, and most of all to show His love towards us. So thank You God!