Christmas Break...

So break was a very good one.  It started off with a clinic visit and the results were great!  My lung functions were at 107% and the only thing they wanted me to do was gain 10 pounds, but that's old news.  I ALWAYS have to gain more weight.  Christmas was fun.  I relaxed, did a little bit of work, and relaxed some more.  It was very nice!  My sister's boyfrie...well fiance now came up to visit during his pre-deployment leave.  He has become the brother I never had! :)  We were able to spend some time together and bond some and it was just awesome.  And as you can tell, he proposed to my sister :D.  I am so excited about this!

I go back to school on Sunday and classes start back up on Tuesday.  I'm not sure if I'm ready to go back yet.  I probably am though.  This is most likely just the right time to be away.  It has been good to be away from school though.  I do not feel ready to get back into the grind, but the coming days will prepare me for it.

This next semester entails trying to figure out what I want to do with my major, getting into a running routine, and disciplining myself in several areas.  This will be a challenge, but with God's help, I can accomplish it!  Praise the Lord!

End...

ONLY 3 MORE DAYS UNTIL I LEAVE!!! :)  I'm so excited to get to go home. :)

The end...

Well it's just about the end of the semester.  It has been an absolutely crazy, but rewarding semester.  It will be nice to go home and see my family for Christmas and to not have to think about school for a couple weeks.  It will be nice to rest and have fun and just relax for a little while.  This post will be short because I still have a lot to do before the semester is over, but before you leave, watch this video below.  It might just change the way you think.

tenth avenue north...

In light of the tenth avenue north concert on Friday night, I wanted to post a couple of their songs from their latest album "The Light Meets The Dark".  This is the name of their tour as well.  These songs are just awesome! (I just had to make the colors purple and gold for school spirit :P)

Sickness...

So please pray for me.  I'm sick.  I've been sick for a few days now.  I'm slowly getting better, but I don't want this cold to do anything to my lungs especially since I'm at school.  On top of me being sick, my girlfriend is sick as well.  Pray she starts feeling better.  This sickness is going around all over campus so while you're praying for us, pray for everyone that they get better, or stay healthy.  Thanks!!!

Ollies Follies 2...

So for an update.  SOPHOMORE'S GOT 2nd PLACE!!!!!!!  Seniors got 1st, Juniors got 3rd, and Freshmen got 4th.  It was an awesome time and every one had a blast!!  When the sophomore's found out that we did better than 3rd place we didn't care if we made 1st or 2nd.  We just celebrated like crazy right then and there!!!! :D  It was awesome!

Quickie...

So classes are basically all into full swing!  I will be one busy person this semester!  I'm taking two freshman level classes for my minor and two classes for my major and then one gen-ed.  One of my major classes is History of Political Philosophy.  It is going to be a hard class, and any free time will be spent thinking and reading and writing papers for this class!  I'm taking piano lessons and am also playing handbells (which doesn't take that much time) and working as well.  My girlfriend's phone quit charging so she doesn't have a phone for a while, so besides the fact I barely saw her in the first place, I can't really talk to her anymore which is super sad!  But a very good thing about it is that it causes me to GREATLY appreciate the time I do get to spend with her.  That's all for now.  I gotta go get busy!!!

Ollies Follies...

Sophomore 2010 Ollies Follies T-shirt

Freshman 2009 Ollies Follies T-Shirt

So my school always has a competition at the beginning of the year called Ollies Follies.  Last year the classes theme was a certain city.  As a freshman, our class had Chicago.  This year the theme's are Disney related (they're just technically not allowed to say Disney. lol).  The sophomore class as computer animation or Pixar.  Every year, each class has a different T-shirt to go along with their theme.  The picture with the green is of the sophomore shirt for this year.  The picture with the yellow is of the freshman shirt last year.  The colors of the shirts are a little bit off because I took the pictures with my phone, but you get the general idea.  The green is really more of a brighter lime green.  The picture looks more like an olive green.

So for more about Ollies Follies.  This competition takes up the first two weekends of school.  The first Friday kicks everything off with a whole school Block Party.  We just go, eat food, hang out, play games, and have fun!  Saturday (or today in this instance) consists of athletic games in the morning and afternoon.  Some of the games are ultimate frisbee, flag football, softball, and many others.  Tonight there will be relay games (known as wacky games to most).  These are just crazy events where people get muddy and wet and have to eat all kinds of food just after spinning around in circles with their heads on a baseball bat.  (This is not all at once. lol)  People scream and support their class, and even some of the other classes!  The next weekend there is a variety show.  Each class has two parts.  One part is a choreographed dance sequence.  The next part is usually some sort of acting.  This is the most looked forward to part of Ollies Follies.  The most people participate.  We all gather together into the room where we have chapel.  They've got all kinds of lights going and music and it's just awesome!  People are hyped up and having an awesome time!!  Once the performances start going, it's always a riot to watch everything.  I'll find videos on YouTube from last year and include them in this post.  It's just AWESOME! :)

This is the opening video we had.  When it goes dark, it's because Smitty and his daughter came running in the back and so the cameras turned live and followed him up to the stage.

Through out the night, in between each class, we had various funny commercials like this one.




Here are some of the things we saw last year from the classes!
(They may not be the best quality as they aren't the official videos)

This is part of the freshman's show.


This is the acting part of the sophomore's show.  They did their's exclusively in a video (for the acting).


Juniors Part 1


Juniors Part 2


Seniors!!!!! They won!  And if you notice toward the end of the video (around 5:30-5:45) to the right of the screen right at the end of the last dance, there's a proposal!!!  And then Smitty draws everyone's attention to it!


So basically, Ollies Follies is just amazing!!!! :)

Classes Start...

So tomorrow, September 1, is when classes start!!  I'm taking 17 credits this year.  I've got Christian Education, American Government, History of Political Philosophy, Fundamentals of Christian Ministries, and Christian Scriptures I.  Two of those 17 credits are from piano lessons.

The freshman are all moved in and are transitioning in well!!  The dining hall is crazy at the beginning of the year because all the freshman go to meals at once! haha  That's like 700 people all at once!! haha

Pray for everyone!!!

Thanks!

School...

It's Thursday, August 26th.  I'M IN BOURBONNAIS, ILLINOIS!!!!!  I move into my dorm room today at school.  I'm a freshman mentor this year, as is my girlfriend and some other friends.  We have training tomorrow and then Saturday all the freshman move in! I'm so excited to help all these freshman transition into their new life.  It was a big help to me last year and I just can't wait to pass that help along.  I'm excited to move in and get everything situated and get back into my life again. :P :)

A New School Year...

Well a week from Tuesday, my parents and I will hop in the car to begin making the trek to Illinois for school to start!!!  I'm so excited to go back!! I just can't wait!  This will mean hopefully better exercising which will mean even better health than I have now.  Pray the school year goes well! :)  Classes don't start till September 1st.  But I move in on the 26th, have Freshman Connections mentor training on the 27th.  All the freshmen move in on the 28th and the Jump Start Conference for the freshman kicks into gear late Sunday afternoon!!!  It will be an exciting time! :)

On To School....

So I was homeschooled in my early years. For kindergarten, a bunch of people who homeschooled their kids got together and formed a school. After that year though, they stopped it and everyone went back to just schooling their kids at home. I was homeschooled for grades 1-3. In 4th grade, I began attending the local private, Christian school. They had decided to start an elementary school (the high school already existed). My mom started teaching 1st grade there and I started there in the 4th grade the same year. I attended this school until I graduated in 2009. One thing I remember very clearly from my time there is when I was in 5th grade.....

It was September 11, 2001. School had started not too much earlier. The school secretary came in and pulled our teacher our of the room. She came back and told a student or two that their parents were coming to pick them up. A little while later, we got word that a couple more students were going to be going home as well. Our teacher wouldn't tell us what was going on. The morning went on and we all finally convinced our teacher to tell us what was going on. She said something to the effect of, "Our country was attacked. Terrorists came and crashed airplanes into two skyscrapers in New York City." We were shocked, but didn't really realize the full effect of this. At the end of the school day, our headmaster had turned on a TV on the stage. The news repeatedly showed the airliners crashing into the buildings, from multiple angles and multiple times. That night, every news station covered this tragedy all night. We had just experienced an attack on this country, and a piece of history was made. Something that we can tell our grandkids about. When our kids and grandkids come home from school and ask us about 9/11 we can tell them that we were alive and were old enough to know what was going on and tell them about it. That, was a very interesting time in my life.