HAPPY NEW YEAR 2015!!!

Happy New Year! 

I can't believe its already 2015! Hope you all have a wonderful day and an amazing new year!!!

Merry Christmas!

Mmmmmmmerrrrrrrry Christmas! And happy birthday Baby Jesus!!!!!!

Hope your Christmas is amazing and full of countless blessings!

Christmas Spirit

This is so true! I LOVE this quote!!! :)

Yay! Christmas is coming!!!! And it's almost here!!!!

I'm getting in the Christmas spirit!!! What about you?!?! I already put up the mini tree in my room, and we decorated our house! I just made my 2014 Christmas playlist, and I'm sitting here by the fire blogging and jamming to Christmas tunes! 

Hope you're all having a wonderful Advent season as we prepare for the coming of Christ:)

Happy Advent:)

Thanksgiving 2014

Happy Thanksgiving! and Happy Turkey-day....as my friend Tommy says:)

I know you're all busy doing family things, but I just wanted to let you know that I'm extremely thankful for all of you!!!!! 

Have a blessed day:)

All Saints Day 2014

Happy All Saints Day!

The Feast of the Assumption

Happy feast of the Assumption!!!! 

Hope you all have a lovely day!

4th of July 2014

Happy 4th of July! 

Right now, I'm at my cousin's lake house in Louisiana! We are having a blast playing games, doing water sports, hanging out and spending family time, and holding our first annual family olympics! A big family reunion on the Fourth of July is our family tradition, and is one of my favorite parts of the summer!

Hope you all have a wonderful day:)

Confirmation

On Friday, I was confirmed! Yay! It was totally awesome! I'm so happy to finally be filled with the Holy Spirit in such a special way! It was a wonderful day!

Me and Claire (One of my bestestestest friends ever!) at the Confirmation reception after we got Confirmed! Claire's Confirmation name is Claire Gabriel (after the archangel Gabriel)!!! ☺

My Confirmation name is Madison Clare! My Confirmation Saints are St. Clare and Bl. Chiara Luce Badano. I was able to get a "double package" because "Chiara" means "Clare" in Italian, so I kinda got to have two in one! ☺I will post their biographies below!

Ever since my Confirmation, I really feel like the Holy Spirit is helping me through my daily life. There are times when I would usually be upset about something (for instance, she Nick tries to annoy me), but somehow, I feel peaceful…which is not like me at all! lol! ☺

I also was blessed to have such an awesome sponsor! My old challenge team leader, Allie, was my sponsor! She is so holy, beautiful, funny, and altogether amazing! If you get a chance, please check out her blog! It's really cool! (Allie's Blog)

Ayways, here are my Confirmation Saint's biographies!

Bl. Chiara Luce Badano:

Feast Day: October 29

Beatified: September 25, 2010

Venerated: July 3, 2008

In 1971, after praying and hoping for a baby for more than 10 years, Ruggero and Teresa Badano family of Sassello, Italy, welcomed a little girl whom they named Chiara.

Even at the age of four, Chiara seemed aware of the needs of others. She would sort through her toys to give some to poor children, and would never give away just the old or broken ones, because that would be horrible for children who had no toys! She invited less fortunate people into the family’s home for holidays and visited the elderly at a retirement center. When other children were sick and confined to bed, Chiara visited them. She loved the stories of the gospel and loved to attend Mass.

When she was 9, Chiara became involved with the Focolare movement and its branch for young people. Focolare emphasizes brotherhood and unity among all people.

Chiara was very popular. She had a lot of friends, she played sports, and she loved to sing and dance. But when asked, she said she did not try to bring Jesus to her friends with words. She tried to bring Jesus to them with her example and how she lived her life.

When she was 17, Chiara learned she had a very serious form of bone cancer. Treatments were painful and unsuccessful. She became paralyzed. One day someone asked her if she hoped to walk again and her answer was no. When she suffered, she felt closer to Jesus. She even refused to take pain medication that would make her too sleepy to continue to live her life.

Despite her illness and being confined to bed, Chiara wrote letters and sent messages to other. She attended Focolare youth meetings. She inspired everyone who she encountered with her faith and love for others. She gave all her savings to a friends who was becoming a missionary in Africa. When her life was nearly at an end, she said, “I have nothing left, but I still have my heart, and with that I can always love.”

Chiara died in 1990. Within nine years, the bishop of her diocese began the work on her cause for canonization. Pope Benedict XVI declared her “Blessed” in 2010. “Only Love with a capital L gives true happiness,” and that’s what Chiara showed her family, her friends and her fellow members of the Focolare movement, the pope said.

She was a normal, everyday girl, and possibly a normal, everyday saint. Chiara’s brief life showed us how much one person can accomplish in God’s name

St. Clare of Assisi:

Clare was a beautiful Italian noblewoman who became the Foundress of an order of nuns now called "Poor Clares." When she heard St. Francis of Assisi preach, her heart burned with a great desire to imitate Francis and to live a poor humble life for Jesus. So one evening, she ran away from home, and in a little chapel outside Assisi, gave herself to God. St. Francis cut off her hair and gave her a rough brownhabit to wear, tied with a plain cord around her waist. Her parents tried in every way to make her return home, but Clare would not.

Soon her sister, St. Agnes joined her, as well as other young women who wanted to be brides of Jesus, and live without any money. St. Clare and her sisters wore no shoes, ate no meat, lived in a poor house, and kept silent most of the time. Yet they were very happy, because Our Lord was close to them all the time. Once, He saved them from a great danger in answer to St. Clare's prayer. An army of rough soldiers came to attack Assisi and they planned to raid the convent first. Although very sick, St. Clare had herself carried to the wall and right there, where the enemies could see it, she had the Blessed Sacrament placed. Then on her knees, she begged God to save the Sisters.

"O Lord, protect these Sisters whom I cannot protect now," she prayed. A voice seemed to answer: "I willkeep them always in My care." At the same time a sudden fright struck the attackers and they fled asfast as they could. St. Clare was sick and suffered great pains for many years, but she said that no pain could trouble her. So great was her joy in serving the Lord that she once exclaimed: "They say that we are too poor, but can a heart which possesses the infinite God be truly called poor?" We should remember this miracle of the Blessed Sacrament when in Church. Then we will pray with great Faith toJesus in the Holy Eucharist: "Save me, O Lord, from every evil - of soul and body." Her feast day is August 11.

Anyways, Confirmation was awesome! Thank you Lord for such a huge blessing!

(The biography of Bl. Chiara Luce Badano is from Saints Recource)

(The biography of St. Clare of Assisi is from Catholic Online)

SUMMER!!!!!!!!!

Summer is FINALLY here!!!! I'm so excited! Yay!!!! 

At my co-op, they threw a "sending off" party for all the with graders!!! Can you believe that I'm going into high school?!?! I sure can't!!!!

My friends Gemma and Sally:) Goodbye junior high! Hello high school!

Thanks for such a fun party! Ya'll are the best!!!!! Have a great summer vacation! I'm gonna miss all of you!

Mother's Day 2014

Dear Mommy,

HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY!!! 

 I ♥ you SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO MUCH!!!!! Thanks for always being the bestestestestestest mom EVER!!!!! I don’t know what I’d do without you! 

Thanks for always being there for me... You’re my BEST FRIEND!!! I always wanna make you proud! You are the most brave, virtuous, and beautiful person I know! I want to be just like you!!! Thanks for all you do for me........... I couldn’t make it without you! Whenever I need a friend, I know I can always count on you! I’m so proud that I get to say that YOU are my mother!

I hope you feel better! I miss you!

Lots of ♥,

Madison-Bear☺

A Summary of the Past Few Weeks

As you all know, I've been REALLY bad at blogging for the past few weeks! I feel terrible! Hopefully some of you have been checking out my wordpress blog, because I update that more often with little bits of info on what I'm up to! If you haven't, here is the link:

http://typicalcatholicteenager.wordpress.com

Also, to explain why on earth I made a second blog, if I can't even keep up the first, check out one (or both) of these two posts:

#1. http://typicalcatholicteenager.wordpress.com/2014/04/16/updates-updates-updates/

#2. http://typicalcatholicteenager.blogspot.com/2014/04/wordpress-updates.html

Anyways, here's a summary of the past few weeks:

Welcome Baby Isaac!!!

My new baby brother, Isaac was born! He was born on March 29, at 7:06 am, and was 6 pounds and 4 ounces! He's such an adorable and sweet little man! 

He's such a handsome little man!!! 

April Fools Day!

On April Fools Day, me and my friends Claire and Roni (Veronica) made "brownies" for our teacher (at our once a week co-op)! We took brown construction paper and cut it into a bunch of letter "E's." Then, we put them into a pan and wrapped a ribbon around it! So basically, we made pre-cut (haha) "brown E's!!!" 

hahahahahahahahaha!!!!

Holy Week!

I had a very blessed Holy Week! I spent extra time praying and I also went to mass a few times! It was a great ending to Lent! I hope you all had a good and blessed Holy Week as well!

I also had to share this because I thought it was really cool:

Dear Jesus, thank you for suffering so much pain and dying to save us!!!

Easter Sunday!

Hoppy Easter!!! I hope you all had an egg-celent Easter! What an awesome day it is! Jesus is Risen!!! Yay! 

On Easter morning, the Nicholas, Savannah, and I got up and did our Easter tradition, which is looking for your Easter basket (they're always hidden), going through it, hunting easter eggs, and opening/emptying them out! Afterwards, we quickly got dressed and ready for 11:00 am Mass!!! We had a great time!!! We also dyed and decorated eggs the night before!!!

Easter Sunday was also a REALLY good day because I was finally able to listen to music and play games on my phone…….the two things that I gave up for Lent, which made me wonder whether or not I would survive until Easter!!! I know…..I sound like a baby….but 40 days is a lot of time to not be able to listen to music!!!! You have no idea how much music I listened to on Sunday….every chance I had, I put my ear buds in and listened to my awesome tunes!!!

Anyways, I had awesome Easter! I hope you did too!

Here are some pictures!!!

Me, decorating my eggs.

I painted some of them with my favorite color…..GLITTER!!!!

Gifts from Mom and Dad….cuz what says Easter more than a unicycle?!?!

All of us with our Easter baskets!!! 

Little Mr. Isaac…..he looks so adorable in his Easter basket!!!

Nick and Savannah, looking for eggs!

Me, who by the way looks awful because I had just woken up… :), on top of the rock waterfall in our pool….that bunny sure knows how to hide eggs;)

What a blessed Easter we had! Thank you, Lord, for rising from the dead!

I'm 14!

I'm 14 today! YAY YAY YAY YAY!!!! hehe! 

Oh yes it is!

So far, its been an AWESOME birthday! My amazing parents (I love you mommy and daddy☺!!!) got me my first cellular device (aka a cell phone!)!!!!! I'm sooooooo excited!

hahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha! this made me laugh.....☺

Happy New Years!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It's 2014!!!!!! Yay!!!! Hap-Hap-Happy New Years!!!!!!!

Happy 1st Birthday to My Blog!!!! And Happy New Years Eve Too!!!!!

I bet you'll never guess what today is! No.....not New Years Eve.........well yeah I guess it is, but thats not what I'm so super excited about!!! So guess! Go on......guess...................ok I'll just tell you! Today is my blog's 1st birthday! I can't believe that I've officially been blogging for a YEAR now!!!!!!!! Let me just say that it's been an AWESOME year of blogging! I don't know what I would have done with all of my spare time if I hadn't been blogging!!!!

I also wanted to tell all of my readers and followers (private followers too!) that I truly appreciate you and don't know what I'd do without you! You guys ROCK!!!! Thanks for always reading my random thoughts, even when they're really really random!!!!!! lol!

Anywho, Happy Birthday to My Blog!!!!

And Happy New Years Eve too!!!!!!!

(awww......isn't that so cute?!?! I thought it was totally adorable!)

Merry Christmas!!!

Merrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrry Christmas!!!!!

I hope your Christmas was absolutely holly jolly!!! Did you get some super awesome stuff?!?! Me too!!! Did you go somewhere awesome, or did you stay home?!?! I stayed home, which really isn't a bad thing! I actually really enjoyed it being home!!! I had an awesome Christmas and I hope all of you did too!!!! 

So, before I get to carried away talking about presents, food, family, friends, vacations and such, I wanna take a moment to wish Jesus a Hap-Hap-Happy Birthday!!!! After all, thats what Christmas is all about! There wouldn't be a Christmas without Him! Jesus is the reason for the season!!!!

Happy Birthday to You!!!

Happy Birthday to You!!!

Happy Birthday Baby Jesus!!!

Happy Birthday to YOU!!!!!

YAAAAAAAY!!!!!!

We can't forget that it's Jesus' special day! It's not all about opening presents, and Santa, hot chocolate, family, friends, hot chocolate, vacation, hot chocolate, picking out/decorating trees, hot chocolate, shopping, hot chocolate, giving gifts, hot chocolate, christmas parties, hot chocolate, and last but definitely not least, hot chocolate (did I mention that already?!?!)!!!!!

We can't forget that even though everything is CRAZY around Christmas, we have to celebrate our Lord's birthday!!! Lot's of people probably don't even think about Jesus during Christmas, and you gotta feel bad for Him! I mean, think about it.....Christmas is the celebration of GOD coming down to EARTH and becoming HUMAN!!!!! That's a big deal!!! 

So tonight, say a special prayer, and even sing Happy Birthday to the Savior of the world!

Hope you all had a lovely Christmas!!!

Happy Birthday Baby Jesus!!!

Christmas is Coming!

I can't wait for Christmas! It's almost here! I'm sooooooooooooo excited! Did I mention that Christmas is coming and that I can't wait?!?!?!? I did? Well, then I bet you can't guess what else I'm excited about....... ☺ I'm excited that Christmas is coming and that it's almost here! AHHHHHHHHH!!!!! EXCITEMENT!!!!!!! YAY!!!!! 

ok.........take a deep breath Madi.......thats it.......nice and slow........shhhhhh calm down.........OMGOSH!!!! CHRISTMAS IS COMING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!! YAY! YAY! YAY! YAY! YAY! YAY! YAY! YYYYYYYYYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!!

This is what I look like when I'M SUPER EXCITED FOR CHRISTMAS!!!!!

Don't I look super adorable?!?!? Of course I do!!! Just kidding.....but I am pretty adorable! How can you say no to that adorable face on that lovely head that's wearing SANTA'S HAT!?!?!?!? Speaking of santa's hat well......I guess its more of a replica....its not really Santa's......but it looks like it! Works for me!!!!!! Anyways, speaking of Santa, guess what........CHRISTMAS IS COMING!!!!! Only two days, 10 and 1/2 hours, 12 seconds, and 23 milli-seconds!!!!! YAY!!!!!

Ok......I'm sorry. I kind of got carried away......BUT I'M SOOOOOOOO EXCITED BECAUSE CHRISTMAS IS COMING!!!!!!!

ok.....here is a special riddle made up by yours truly that I bet you can't figure out:

Why did the chicken cross the road?

Because he was so excited that Christmas was coming (and that is was almost there!)

HA! Bet you didn't see that one coming! HA HA HA!!! I am smarter than you! Just kidding! But I have to admit that I am pretty smart......☺

Let's sing a Christmas carol!

"A Holly Jolly Christmas!"
(sing to the tune of "A Holly Jolly Christmas")

Have a holly jolly Christmas (....because it's almost here...)
It's the best time of the year (......yes it is! Told you so!)
I don't know if there'll be snow (...because I live in Texas...but there better be or else you'll feel my wrath!)
But have a cup of cheer (...or hot chocolate...cuz I don't know how to fill a cup with cheer...)

Have a holly jolly Christmas (......OMGOSH! IT'S ALMOST HERE!)
And when you walk down the street (...try not to slip on the ice...unless you live in Texas, cuz there won't be any! But there still better be! or you'll feel my wrath!)
Say, "Hello!" to friends you know (...or else they'll think your really rude...and they'll wonder why you ignored them...)
And everyone you meet! (...Not everyone though...because that would be kinda creepy...)

YAY!!!!!!! You are all amazing singers! But no one can beat my voice......"OOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHH" *crack* *crack* *glass shattering*
See?!?! I'm a natural!

Anywho, it was great getting excited about Christmas with you! We'll have to do it again next year, and the year after, and the year after, and the year after that one, and after that one, and.......well, you get the point☺

(please note: this post was written by Madison L. who wanted to let all of her readers know that she is very excited that Christmas is coming and that it is almost here. The "why did the chicken cross the road" joke/riddle is an original and was written by Madison L.)

Nick is Nine!

Happy 9th birthday, Nick! I love you little bro!

Happy 4th of July!

Happy 4th of July!

or

Happy Independence Day!