1. What facial feature do you find the most attractive on others?: Hmm...it depends, because each feature is so affected by the others.


2. Would you vote for a woman candidate for president?: It would depend on her views.



3. Would you marry for money?: Nope, but I wouldn't mind marrying a rich person either!



4. Have you had braces?: Yep, for nearly a year now. They are annoying, but not as bad as I expected.



5. Do you pluck your eyebrows?: Nope.



6. Do you ever cut or hurt yourself?: Good heavens! People who do that are in need of serious help. No, I do not.



7. Removed


8. Could you live without a computer?: lol....are you kidding? Here I sit, filling out a totally mindless survey to post on my blogger while I could be doing something productive!



9. Do you use ICQ, AOL Buddy list etc..?: I use AIM and Y!IM, by way of Trillion.



10. If so, how many people are on your list(s)?: 109



11. If you could live in any past time period, which would it be?: Pre-flood.



12. Do you drink enough water?: Yep, I do.



13. Do you wear shoes in the house or take them off?: Barefoot rules man!



14. What is your favorite fruit?: Grapes.



15. Do you eat wheat bread or white?: Wheat taste way better and is way better for you.



16. What is your favorite place to visit?: Maybe the Okanogan (sp?) Valley in WA.



17. What is the last movie you saw?: In theaters? Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers.



18. Do you kiss on the first date?: Never been on a date and don't plan on kissing until I'm married.



19. Are you photogenic?: Not really, but I look out in pictures.



20. Do you dream in color or black and white?: Color, I think.



21. Are you wearing fingernail polish?: No way! Finger nail polish is a waste of the money that God has intrusted you with.



22. Do you have any dimples?: Nope.



23. Do you remember being born?: No, I don't think anybody does.



24. Why do you take surveys?: I have no idea. I think it's probably because I like talking about myself (who doesn't?) and it gives me a chance to talk about myself without boring people to death (they don't have to read it if they don't want to).



25. Do you drink alcohol?: Nope. The one time I did, I was about 6 and thought it was Sprite..ick!


26. Did you like or do you like high school?: Yes, learning is fun.



27. What is the most beautiful language?: Elvish.



28. When you are asleep do you like being kissed awake?: never happened, I don't know.



29. Do you like sunrises or sunsets the most?: Sunset in the TX Panhandle...you can't beat that!



30. Do you want to live to be 100?: Of course!



31. Do you think women should be expected to shave their body hair?: No, it's silly. Woman in Europe don't and they don't seem to have problems with it over there.



32. Do you like salty food or sugary food the most?: Depends. I like both.



33. Is a flat stomach important to you?: No, a full stomach is much more important to me!



34. Do you or have you played with a ouija board?: No, I have no reason to go for the weaker spiritual powers that Satan has to offer.



35. Are you loyal?: Yes, once you're my friend it takes a lot to change that.



36. Are you tolerant of other people's beliefs?: What exactly do you mean? I don't scream at people and refuse to talk to them when they disagree with me, but I am a very firm beleiver in absolute truth!



37. When you watch movies at home, do you like the lights on or off?: Off!



38. Do you believe in magic?: Yes, certainly.



39. Do you have nightmares frequently?: not really.



40. Do you like your nose?: Never really thought about it...I suppose it's good enough.



41. Do you like abstract art?: Some of it.



42. Do you think you can draw well?: No, I certainly cannot.



43. Do you listen to music daily?: Yes, lots of it.



44. Do you like to watch cartoons?: Not really. But VeggieTales rocks!



45. At what age did you find out that Santa Claus wasn't real?: I never thought he was real.



46. How many pairs of shoes do have in your closet?: Goodness...I have no idea! Four?



47. Do you like to wear the same shoes everyday or do you like a variety?: I could wear the same set of clothes every day for the rest of my life and it wouldn't bother me a bit.



48. Do you write poetry?: Not very often...I have to be in the mood.



49. Do you snore?: Not that I know of.



50. Do you sleep more on your back, front, or sides?: on my front, with my arms by my side.



51. Would you rather have a poodle or a rottweiler?: neither.



52. Do you lick stamps?: if they need it, of course!



53. Do you use an electric can opener?: nope, we don't have one.



54. Have you ridden in a hot air balloon?: nope, but I would like to.



55. Which hurts the most, physical or emotional pain?: I've never been in real intense physical pain, so I wouldn't really know. I don't like either.



56. Do you think balding men should shave their heads?: If they want to, that's ok, but if they don't, that's ok.



57. Do you know anyone who is clinically depressed?: I don't think so.



58. Do you prefer a piano or a violin?: I like viola better. Is that spelled right?



59. Removed



60. Do you know someone who has cancer?: I don't think so...



61. Do you hunt?: As in right now? Not physically, but I've been feeling kinda depressed about Tamera lately...it's been almost a month since she died and I've been kinda upset..



62. Do you like fast food joints, or expensive restaurants?: Burger King rocks man!



63. Would you rather visit a zoo or an art museum?: Art Museum, generally speaking.



64. Do you have a middle name?: Joseph.



65. Are you basically a happy person?: I guess.



66. Are you tired?: No, I'm pretty awake right now.



67. Did you drink anything with caffeine in it today?: Nope. Caffeine doesn't affect me, so I don't ever make a point of drinking it.



68. Have you ever met anyone off the internet?: Goodness! Let's see...Kali, Nikki, Kris, Courtney, Kate, Abbey, Brian, Tasha, Lisa, David (kinda met over the internet), Scott, qwerty, Beth...that's all I can think of right now.



69. How many phones do you have in your house?: two, both on the same line. Their names are Teddy and Madame Blueberry.



70. How long is your hair?: a little too long right now...Mom is going to be trimming it before my show tonight though.



71. Do you get along with your parents?: Mom, yes. Dad, no.



72. What color of eyes do you prefer?: Doesn't really matter to me.



73. Are you an active person?: I guess you could say so...I do stunting and karate.



74. What medications do you take?: None.



75. What does your bedroom look like?: Crouded.

Hello there. I don't have too much time to write this, but I wanted to take a minute and get a least a small update on here.

Last night we had a really big thunderstorm come through. It was pretty fun. But we had a slight power surge that fried the timer on our septic system and so all three of the tanks were filled to the max and the pump wouldn't come on. Anyway, the long short of it is that Dad had to come home early and get it fixed.

Mom, Anna and Caleb went to the bank around lunch time and when they came back they had us get our shoes on and come see the creek, which was very flooded after all the rain last night. The water coming over the little dam that creates the local lake was going pretty fast and was pretty cool. We took the camcorder and spent probably half an hour or more just having fun looking at the water.

Yesterday Dad, Mom, Isaac and BonnieJean went to evening service at a church in Tulsa. The church we're going to right now is rather strange...lots of things about it are great, but we're starting to wonder if maybe we shouldn't be going somewhere else.

I need to get ready for karate class now. We're leaving in half an hour. Talk to y'all later! God bless! Martha, I honestly will write you! I have an email in drafts right now, just waiting to be finished!

If I were a bird, I would be: A mocking bird.
If I were a body part, I would be: The hands?
If I were a car, I would be: An 18-wheeler.
If I were a cartoon character, I would be: Larry Boy! (I! AM! THAT! HERO!)
If I were a color, I would be: Dark green.
If I were a day of the week, I would be: Any day but Saturday.
If I were a direction I, would be: South.
If I were a facial expression, I would be: A sly smile.
If I were a fictional character from book, film or otherwise, I would be: A dwarf in the glory days of Moria.
If I were a flower/plant, I would be: I don't know the name of the flower I'm thinking of!
If I were a food, I would be: Beefy pinwheels.
If I were a historical figure, I would be: Stonewall Jackson.
If I were a kind of weather, I would be: A huge thunderhead.
If I were a liquid, I would be: Mercury
If I were a machine, I would be: A shotgun shell reloader.
If I were a material, I would be: Canvas.
If I were a method of death, I would be: Good heavens! An A-bomb I guess.
If I were a month, I would be: April or May.
If I were a movie, I would be: "Samuel Bavido: A man for his time", the documentary by A&E about me that will be made in 40 years.
If I were a musical instrument, I would be: A cathedral pipe organ.
If I were a mythical creature, I would be: A dragon.
If I were a number, I would be: 3.14....
If I were a piece of furniture, I would be: A bed.
If I were a place, I would be: The Okanogan Valley.
If I were a religion, I would be: Samuelism.
If I were a shape, I would be: A sphere.
If I were a sin, I would be: Do I really want to answer that one? Nope, I don't think so!
If I were a song, I would be: 800 Pound Jesus.
If I were a sound, I would be: The sound of a sizemick charge from Star Wars.
If I were a stone, I would be: Basalt.
If I were a subject in school, I would be: History.
If I were a taste, I would be: Sour.
If I were a time of day, I would be: Late afternoon.
If I were a tool, I would be: A cordless screw gun.
If I were a tree, I would be: An elm.
If I were a vegetable, I would be: A tomato.
If I were a word, I would be: parvis.
If I were an animal, I would be a: A turtle.
If I were an element, I would be: Hydrogen.
If I were an emotion, I would be: Mixed.
If I were an object, I would be: A galaxy.
If I were an RI'er apart from myself, I would be: James.
If I were a light bulb, I would be: A 60 watt.

Well the class last Tuesday went fairly well...I sat down with the girls and we talked a little bit and then went on and did class. I was feeling pretty bad through the whole thing (headache, tiredness and just generally feeling ick) but managed to stick through it. I finally got myself some aspirin in the middle of the second class and started to feel better after that.

Saturday we had the fun meet. I was the coach at vault, which was pretty fun. It was my job to spot the girls and move the mats around. Moving mats doesn't sound like that hard of a job, but they're about 15 feet by 4 feet and velcroed down, so it's rather hard to move them! Tammy saw I was having trouble and pulled Dad out of the bleachers to help me, which was very good for me. Naomi did very well: she got blue ribbons on all the events!

I've been reading through the epistles lately and have been really enjoying it. I've found it interesting to do a little study and find out what the writer was doing at the time of writing it and where he was. It really made 2 Timothy interesting to read once you understand that Paul knew he would be dieing soon.

Monday night we had our belt promotions, but we didn't get our belts because the order had gotten messed up! So I've got my piece of paper saying I'm a yellow belt, but I don't actually have a yellow belt! :) I've been working a lot on the orange to green belt kata, which is very different from the other two I know. It's a pretty fun kata, but there's a couple things that I'm not sure if I'm doing right, so I'll have to ask the Sensei about it at the next class.

Tomorrow is my 18th birthday! Can you believe it? No? Neither can I! I think I want to be 14 again. But the one good thing about turning 18 is that I get to register to vote, which is something I've been looking forward to all my life. We had a little family party tonight with cake and candles and what-not and then next Saturday we will be going paintballing with as many people as I can get to come!

Last night was the last night of class at gym until next school year! I'm gonna miss my girls! I will possibly be working with the summer camps though, so I should get to see some of them there. I'll miss having Shelby bothering me about doing back handsprings every five seconds. *grins* I think she would do those until she fainted if I let her.

We watched a couple interesting movies lately. One was "What about Bob?", which I highly recommend. It does have some language, but is otherwise clean. My fav. quote from it would have to be "GETOWABLAHBLAH!!!!!" (You have to have seen it to get it) The other movie was "The Next Karate Kid", which was moderately ok. It's interesting to see how it had several good ideas and characters, but neither were developed as they should have been. And the holes in the logic were huge. Like when they blow up a car down at the docks and NOBODY shows up! The whole dock is a flaming inferno, and yet for some reason nobody seems to notice! But I did really enjoy the scene with the Buddhist monks going bowling. ("Is called Zen Bowling!")

Sunday afternoon at church they hosted a dinner for the graduates and their families after service. It was a very good meal and lots of fun. Of the 8 graduates, only one is not home schooled and he had gone to a private school.

Tomorrow night BonnieJean and I are going to be going to a party at her Sunday school teachers house. Dad, Ethan and Joshua are going camping with the ALERT Cadets, and they are very much looking forward to that.

I need to get off now. Talk to y'all latter! Thanks for praying for me guys: it helps!


Red/Green/Blue:
To you, the world is logical. Everything happens
for a reason, life is scientific. You like to
find solutions. I doubt you needed to take this
quiz in order to realize this.


What color do you see the world in?
brought to you by Quizilla

Yesterday we tested for our yellow belt. I'm pretty certain I passed, but the black belt who tested me wouldn't say, so I'll just have to wait until promotions next week. We do know that Joshua passed, and are fairly certain the rest of us did pass.

Sunday afternoon Uncle Kirk called and said they had just gone to Eric's graduation and were going to stop by our house! They spent the night and left Monday morning: we had a blast! Meagan and William have gotten so much bigger!

Then last night Rod and Leona came over. Rod had some meetings in Tulsa this week, so they had made a "see the family" trip out of it. They only stayed a few hours but we had a good time anyway.

The funeral Friday was good. The church (which was very large) was packed. The message the pastor gave was very good: he even used the S-word! I hitched a ride with Jamie to the graveside service, which was also really good. There is a really nice view to the East of her grave, which is nice. The interesting thing is that the gym is about half-way between the horrizen and her grave, so it's quite likely she'll meet Christ right over it!

Pray for me tonight guys. I'm working the very same class we worked together just before she died and I don't really know how it's going to go. Pray that God will help me be strong for the girls.

1 Thessalonians 4:13-18

13 But we would not have you ignorant, brethren, concerning those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope.
14 For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. 15 For this we declare to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, shall not precede those who have fallen asleep.
16 For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the archangel's call, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first;
17 then we who are alive, who are left, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air; and so we shall always be with the Lord.
18 Therefore comfort one another with these words.

Yesterday I didn't get anything done at all...just kinda walked around in a daze. Mom took me to see the body at the funeral home...her right hand looked kinda odd...I think she must have broken it or something...whenever we taught bar she would point with her right hand and say "Look at the high bar!" I went to gym early last night and just sat around. I wrote out the chorus from "No night there" and placed it on the front desk for people to read...that song really helped me yesterday. The funeral in in an hour, so I'm going to get off now and go get ready.

And God shall wipe away all tears
There's no death, no pain, no fears
And they count not time by years
For there is no night there.



----------------------------------------------------------------
Tamera Leigh Judd





Services for Tamera Leigh Judd will be 2 p.m. Friday, May 9, 2003 at First Baptist Church. Burial will follow at Woodlawn Cemetery, under the direction of Rice Funeral Services. Friends may visit until 8 this evening at the funeral home. Tamera passed away Wednesday, May 7, 2003. She was 18.

Tamera was born in Tulsa on Nov. 23, 1984. Her parents are Bruce and Valerie Judd and Laurie and Mike Hixson. She has lived in Claremore all of her 18 years and was looking forward to graduation from Claremore High School later this month. Successful at whatever she undertook, Tamera was an all-state gymnast for five years, a member of the all-state honors choir for three years, and also played soccer. At the age of 15 years, she began as a gymnastics instructor at Gymnastic City. Though not a cheerleader, Tamera was such a skillful gymnast that she was offered a full cheerleading scholarship. She was also considering furthering her education at RSU.

Tamera was tender-hearted, caring and giving. She had a particular fondness for children and animals. Her happy nature, ready smile and concern for the welfare of others endeared her to so many who called her their friend.

Tamera is survived by her parents, Bruce and Valerie Judd and Laurie and Mike Hixson, all of Claremore; her brother, Eric Judd of Oklahoma City; sisters, Stephanie and Andrea Judd, both of Claremore; her step-siblings, Charlotte Richardson of South Carolina, Sam Hixson of Claremore, Nathan Hensley and wife, Amanda of Broken Arrow, and Chad Hensley of Tulsa; paternal grandparents, Earl and Shelba Judd of Claremore; maternal grandparents, Jim and Beverly Watts of Arkansas; maternal great-grandmother, Geraldine Ashby of Arkansas, extended family members and many friends.

(If you haven't read the post below, read that before reading this)

Tonight was tough. Some of the kids didn't seem to quite get it...others just wanted to talk about her...other just needed to be hugged. Everybody working there is taking it hard...several teachers just stood around and never actually got out on the floor and taught. After the lesson were over we all just stood around for an hour and talked and cried.

Below is the article from the news papper.

---------------------------------------------------

A Claremore teen-ager was killed in an early Wednesday morning wreck south of Claremore.

Tamara Leigh Judd, 18, was dead at the scene of the 1:10 a.m. single vehicle crash.

A Claremore High School senior, she is the daughter of Bruce and Valerie Judd and Laurie and Mike Hixson of Claremore.

Matt Wild, Claremore police officer who investigated the wreck, said Judd was northbound on Highway 66 in a 1993 Dodge Saturn when she apparently fell asleep at the wheel, according to a witness who saw the crash.

The wreck occurred just south of the Travis Boat Center, officers said.

Police said Judd�s vehicle veered off the roadway and into a ditch then traveled for some distance parallel to the roadway without Judd taking any corrective action.

The vehicle vehicle then struck the earthen raised portion of a culvert and went airborne for approximately 118-feet.

It landed on its rear and nosed in, flipping end-over.

Police said the vehicle then traveled forward sideways and struck the south entrance curb of the business parking lot entrance and rolled over, coming to rest on its top.

Officers said at some point during the wreck Judd was ejected from the vehicle.

Services will be 2 p.m. Friday atFirst Baptist Church.

Arrangements will be under direction of Rice Funeral Service.

So many things to write. So many thoughts swimming through my head, I can't think what to say. Tamara is dead.

Dead.

How can this be? I talked to her last night. I taught bar with her. Now she's dead.

I went to work with the home school class this morning and everything was normal. But as soon as I walked in, Tammy called me into the back room and told me that last night Tamara had fallen asleep at the wheel, rolled the car and died. It happened about 1 o'clock. I can't beleive she was up that late...she looked so tired when I had been working with her last night that I had asked her if she was ok. Latter while teaching bar she told me about breaking up with her boyfriend and the mess that had resulted from it. She'd only had an hour of sleep the night before...why didn't she go home and get some sleep?

How am I going to teach that class next week? Some of those girl have had her as their teacher for a couple years.

I had to teach the home school class myself: Tammy was making phone calls and just wasn't emotionally able to handle teaching. It was so strange...I was teaching bar and all of a sudden it would hit me: I'm standing right were Tamara stood last night. My hand is resting right were hers was.

I'm going to go to work early tonight and see if I can help any. Everybody is taking it really hard and I don't know how things are going to go tonight.

Good heavens! Bad Samuel! Bad! Behave! I can't beleive I haven't posted in so long! I have no excuse.

I just found out something really cool though...our filter now lets us look at stuff hosted on blogspot.com! Which means I got the first look at my blogger in about 8 months! WHOPPEE! And I just finished reading 'nika blog, first time I've done that in forever. I really need to start reading blogs more consistantly. I need to start keeping up on James' blog as well. He always has the most interesting posts.

Saturday we went to watch a karate tournament in Sand Springs. We stayed several hours and had a real good time. Several friends of our were competing. Our Sensi was promoted to 5th degree black belt the same day as well and his son was walking around telling everybody about it...he was obviously very thrilled! Our school did pretty well in kata: we got two first place medals and two second place medals. Most of our others students did well too. But in fighting (at least what I saw) we didn't do that great. Two of our students were doing very well in their fights but lost them because they hit the other guy in the face twice. :( It's a shame, 'cause they were both doing really good in their fights.

It's turtle season again around here. I saw one yesterday while out for a walk: they're so cool! I also saw a really small yellow chested something or other bird that was very interesting. I don't think I'd seen any like it before.

Let's see, work is going well. I'm working four classes and enjoying them all very much. I can now teach vault and bar by myself. I think I could probably teach floor by myself but we always do floor together, so I've never actually led it. The only problem is that my boss hasn't paid me for the last two months...I think I might mention that to her next time I see her.

Thursday we went roller skating with the home school group. I hadn't done that in many, many years and so I had many an impressive looking fall. All those years of pretending to die and falling from great hieghts as a kid are actually coming in handy. I still didn't manage to save my knees or my hands from getting pretty bunged up, but I had a great time anyway.

I just finished reading through all the minor prophets. Man, after reading about the prophets telling the people to change and then they didn't change and then God judged them, the book of Haggai is like a breath of fresh air. God said to do this, they did it, God blessed them! Cool! :)

I've heard rumors that we might be testing at karate tonight. If we don't we'll probably be testing next week. I'm really hoping we do it tonight, cause I'm ready for the test and want to get on to learning some new stuff.

I need to get off now. Bye! God bless!

Hello, how are you today? I'm doing pretty good. BonnieJean just got her grades in from her finals for last quarter, she got two A's, a B and a B+. Not bad really. The little guys are watching a movie and Mom and Anna are at the doctor because Anna has a really bad ear infection. I am trying to figure out how to use USChessLive, a program which a friend of mine has been bugging me to start using. It actually looks like a pretty good program.

Ah-ha! I got it working! I'm playing a game right now in fact. And I can't think of anything else to say right now, so I shall update at some other time. Bye!

Wow! I feel like I'm alive! Ok, ok, maybe that's not so unusual a thing, but after last week, man, it sure feels great again! Tuesay night I started feeling horrible and then the next day I felt REALLY bad and didn't even go help with the home school gym class, which is my very fav. Thursday I was feeling better, but I could hardly swallow. Anyway, I'm FINALLY feeling better now! Yea! Oh, yes, and I did go to the doctor (see comments on post below).

Let's see, in spite of the fact that I got sick that day, Tuesday was a fun day. I started working two new classes at gymnastics. In the first class (ages 6 and up) I taught vault: not assisted, actually taught. I did have a guy helping me, but I actually know more about it than he does. I think I did pretty well: I was just teaching very basic stuff and I didn't have more than ten kids at a time, so it actually wasn't very hard. The second class (ages 9 and up) is very far behind from where they should be and from what my boss told me, it would seem she wants me to start bringing them up to speed. :0 I suppose stretching is good for you, but sometimes I think she places a little to much faith in me!

After gym Mom picked me up and dropped Anna, Ethan and I off at the local coffee shop for their Tuesday chess night. We had a blast. My first game was absolutely horrible, but I did pretty good otherwise. What was really cool is that the highest rated chess player in Oklahoma was there! He was very friendly and showed Anna and I a lot of stuff, most of which we have forgotten already, of course. ;) He said he's going to be there next Tuesday and will try to show me some stuff with the Kings Gambit, which is really cool.

Just recently our library has gotten a very large collection of Jeeves and Wooster movies, and so while we have been laid up with strep throat and ear infections we have been watching several of them. My favorite is Jeeves Saves the Cow Creamer. Their all very good.

While at the library I got a copy of a translation of the poem "Beowulf" and have started reading it. It's interesting.

I read an interesting essay while at the library as well. It was by some "Literary Critic" (ugg!) who seemed to think that Tom B., the Balrog and Shelob were to hard to believe. Not only that, but the idiot showed his wanton ignorance on the subject by stating, with a strait face, that not only was the ring no temptation to the Balrog, but he was also of the sort who would never allow anyone to be his master! Needless to say, I rolled my eyes appropriately and put the book back on the shelf.

I shall leave you now. Farewell!

*sneaks onto blogger, ducking rotton tomatos*

Hello.

*cringe*

It's been a little while since I last updated, huh?

*tries to laugh*

He he...umm...y'all look so...stern. Nobodies smiling. What's wrong?

Ok, Ok, I admit it! I'm a jerk! I'm a lazy slob! I haven't updated since Feb. 16th! I deserve to be shot! And to top it off with, I have no excuse! *sniff* And I'm sorry, and y'all are probably going to shoot me anyway. *blows nose*

Alright, lots has been going on lately! I guess I'll start with getting home from Memphis. Anna and I left the morning of the first of this month and after a nine hour trip (which wasn't fun, be was ok) got home. Dad picked us up and we got home somtime around six or so. We stayed up way to late visiting (of course) and then go up way to early to go to church. After church I repacked my bags and we headed out to OK City. We had supper with my host family (wonderful people) and then they left.

Goodnes, I didn't tell y'all why I was going to OK City. I did a one week state training course called TeenPact (www.teenpact.com) I had to do the homework they require both before I left and in Memphis (ok, I admit, I even had to do some on the bus trip home!) I was staying with family about half an hour from the capitol. Their oldest son, Brad, is 15 and we had a good time together. At TP I was on the transportation committee. We did a mock legislature, in which we presented bills, which were assigned to committees and then brought before the whole "senate" and debated and voted on. On the first day we elected a chairperson and vice chairperson. I ran for chair, but didn't get it, but I did get vice chair. Other than the mock legislature, we did prayer walks around the capital building, had speakers (including the vice chief justice of the OK supreme court!), did "field experiance" (learning about some of the differant offices in the capital and what you could do there, then doing it). It was a blast! I don't have time to tell y'all about the whole thing, but at the end, out of 80 very smart people, I had the highest combined homework and test score of them all! I was so shocked! And thrilled!

Since getting back from TP things have been going pretty well, and are just barely starting to get back to normal. The last couple weeks I've worked several days at the gymnastics place. One day I worked on "Open Gym", in which they simply allowed people to come and have at it to make up for snow days. Basically I spent a couple hours walking in cirlces making sure nobody was killing themselves, somebody else or the equipment. It was actually quite tiring! I'm going to start working on two new classes come Tuesday, which should be fun.

I shall post more latter. I'm starting to get a headache and don't feel all that great right now. Bye, love y'all!

To my adoring fans. Sunday, Feb. 16

My dear fans,
Hey there! How are y'all doing? (Notice that the question cannot be answered unless y'all email me. Just send it to our family account.) I'm doing pretty good. I've been fighting off an annoying cold, or something like that, for about a week now. I thought I was over it, but last night my throat got all clogged up after I laid down.
Let's see, y'all probably want to hear about what we do here. Well, on a typical day (ha!) we get up at 5 or 5:15 and have Bible study with Brother Ronnie at 6:15. Most of the time we leave about 7:30, so you pretty much have to have everything ready to go by 6:15. That means a sandwich for lunch and you've got to have all props, or visual aids, that you will be using in the classroom. After Bible study we go over to Mrs. Karens's house and pack our lunch. She's got chips, fruit, and what not laid out on the table and you take whatever you want to go with your sandwich. Then we leave. Most days we do between two and four schools. We split up into two groups. On the way there you get your schedule. Once at the school, you sign in, and then start teaching. You have half an hour for each class and normally between four and six classes. So far we've been teaching Orderliness and Punctuality, although I will be doing Resourcefulness one day this week. Anna and I work together as a team, which is pretty fun. Most of the other people do solo, since we're pretty low on character coaches right now (hey, any of y'all want to come up and help?) The classes are anywhere from kindergarten to 6th grade. We normally teach a poem, then I do about two minutes of juggling and tie it into the character quality and then a story. I think I like doing the punctuality story best, because we get the kids involved alot (in most of the classes. In some the kids are just barely under control and you can't do anything to get them riled up). Of course things go a little different in each class...obviously you don't do what you would do in a kindergarten class with the 6th graders. We've only had one class that's been difficult so far, but I understand that sometimes they can be really tough.
Our longest day is Tuesday. We leave at about 7:30 and don't get back until 9:30 or 10. After doing two schools a piece, each group meets at a church in inner-city Memphis. There we do a CEF club that lasts about an hour and a half. Then we have a break (yes!!!) of about an hour and a half, and then the English as a second laungage people start to arrive. The adults go to English class in another part of the church and we do something kinda like a CEF club with the kids. Most of them speak pretty good English, so understanding them isn't a problem. We finish with that somewhere around 9 or 9:30 and then head back home. That is a long day! The one good thing about staying out so late is that after 9 you can make calls home for free on Brother Ronnie's cell phone, so I normally manage to make a call home during the ride back. Friday evenings we go to Chinese Church and do a CEF club with the kids there.
Most days we have the afternoons at home and about half of those you spend over at the "center". The Center is the youth center, where Philip (Bro. Ronnie's and Miss Karen's son-in-law) does an after-school character club. We have mostly elementary school kids come. We do a Bible or character lesson, help kids with their homework and play outside with them. It's interesting work. None of the kids we work with regularly have a Dad, and none have a good family life. They're all dying for love and attention. They all know a whole lot more about the world and it's ways than any of us, so we have to be careful. We simply avoid topics like music and movies, and the guys are under orders to just stay clear of a couple of the girls, for their good and ours. It's really sad. The character coaches are all really cool. Counting Anna and I there are nine, four guys and five girls. Then there's Miss Karen and Bro. Ronnie and Phil and Eva (Miss Karen and Bro. Ronnie's daughter and son-in-law). All together 13. They're all a really cool group. The ones I've gotten to know best are Craig (who I knew before coming out here), Eric, Josh, Rachel and Becky.
Well, I'd better be going now. Evening service starts in an hour and I want to call home before then. Love all y'all! God bless ya!

Hello, my wonderful fans! I am sitting in the living room,
writing on a very annoying keyboard. I'm having a great time and I miss
all of y'all. Today we didn't do school because it snowed last night.
We probably will have tomorrow off too, because it's supposed to freeze
tonight and stay cold.
Things are going really good. I've worked in the schools for
three days now and really enjoy it. We have half an hour with each
class, in which to teach a poem, and a story and an object lesson. The
object lesson is mostly me doing diabolo, and the kids really love it. I
got to tell the story for the first time yesterday and Craig said I did a
really good job. Tomorrow we're having a training session with Anna,
another fellow who is new and myself. The plan is to eventually have
Anna and I as a team, which should be a blast.
Well, I think I should probably get off. Maybe I'll try to write
more latter. BYE!

Well, I'm leaving tomorrow morning, so I guess I won't get to post anymore until March! Bye bye!

Step, step, lock, turn sideways, step together, turn backwards, step back, step back, lock in front, turn forwards, down, up, up, good job! Now go to the low beam, but make sure you go around, 'cause those girls are on the big beams.

Alright, sorry, but that is the beam routine we were teaching the kids two nights ago. I was working on the "hotdog beam", and I walked through the routine (me on the floor, them on the beam) with each of the girls at least five times. I probably did the whole thing at least 50 times...let me tell you, I know that routine!

Well, Anna and I are going to Memphis. I'm still not sure what I think of that, but I guess it doesn't matter that much since I'm doing it anyway! We'll be leaving probably on Feb. 1 and getting home on March 1. So that should be an interesting experiance.

And I shall try to update more latter. Farewell!

It's 7:45 right now and only us boys are home. BonnieJean is working at a friends house (she works there, baby-sitting and cleaning, twice a week) and Mom, Anna and Naomi have gone into town for a ladies tea that some of the home schooling mom's do. So I made super (turkey leftovers with carrets and onions and corn bread) and now Ethan and Joshua are cleaning up the dishes. Isaac and Caleb are playing in the living room behind me and I'm not sure were Dad is.

We had our first karate lesson last night. It was interesting. The teacher spent about the first twenty minutes just talking about what we were going to be doing and explaining some of the stuff, then we spent forty minutes learning a couple stances and punches. There were several people there who I know and a couple who I have seen at some of the home school group functions.

Last night Dad got a call from a guy who had been a team leader at Life Focus. They want me to go to Romania for a month! Wow! Their doing ministry amoung teenagers at the schools and wanted me to come. I would really, really, really like to go, but if I'm going to go, we have to let them know by Friday! Ahh! So we're praying that if God wants me to go he'll make it clear! If y'all would pray about that it would be great.

Today 'nika (a friend from the RI) was asking who Meriadoc Brandybuck was. So I wrote the following so she would know who he is. ;)

Meriadoc Brandybuck was born in 1382 (Shire reckoning), the son of Saradoc Brandybuck. He was an early friend of Frodo Baggins and helped him to move to Crickhollow in Buckland in September of 3018 (Third Age). He was an original member of the conspiricy to not let Frodo leave alone. He led the company into the old forest. At Bree he was almost captured by a Nazgul, but Nob (a worker at the Prancing Pony) disturbed those plans. He was selected as a member of the Fellowship shortly after the Council of Elrond. Jumping forward a bit, he and Peregrin Took were captured by orcs near the Emyn Muil. After the orcs were destroyed by a band of riders led by Eomer, they traveled in Fangorn Forest and were met by Treebeard and took part in the storming of Orathanc. He was present when Saruman was cast from the order and traveled with Gandalf, Theoden and company towards Helm's Deep. He stayed with Theoden when Gandalf departed for Minas Tirith after the folly of Peregrin. At the Muster of Rohan he was told by Theoden that he could not come with them to Minas Tirith, but with the help of Dernhelm, he traveled with them without the King's knowledge. At the Battle of the Pelennor he was present when Dernhelm was revealed to Eowyn as she withstood the Witch King, guarding the dying King Theoden. He severely wounded him, allowing Eowyn to kill him. The black breath took him, and he nearly died, but by the hand of Aragorn he was revived. He did not take part in the battle at the Black Gate, but remained in Minas Tirith. He later led the rebellion in the Shire against Saruman. In 1484 (Shire reckoning) he and Peregrin Took traveled back to Rohan and stayed with Eomer King until his death. They then went on to Gondor and there he died and was burried in Rath Dinen among the great of Gondor.

This has been a rather short entry, but not all that much has really happened since I last updated, so you'll have to be happy with this. Farewell!

It is 10:40 on Saterday night and I should be in bed. But I'm supposed to take a shower tonight and the hot water has run out, so I am taking the chance to update. Hey, it's only been five days since I updated last! Cool, huh?

Today was cold. Not really all that cold tempature wise, or even wind factor wise, but for some reason it was that kind of cold that no amount of warm clothing will keep from freezing you. Dad was working outside most of the day, but he had Anna, Ethan and I take one hour turns, so I lived through it (just barely).

Friday was interesting. Dad had Thursday and Friday off, and Friday morning he headed into town and rented a trencher. We're going to be putting a new breaker box in when we get the boys room finished, so Dad is going to go ahead and run new wire from the pole (don't ask, long explenation). So we had about fifty feet of dirt to trench, which, supposedly, is not that hard if you have a trencher. HA! Things got started pretty well, but we'd done about twenty feet when Dad realized that we weren't digging deep enough. So he decided to drive the trencher forward and go over it again. Well, that was much easier said than done! The little wheel up in front kept on going into the ditch, and making the sides collapse into it. We finally got the whole trench dug, but it was quite an experience.

Mom and Dad are planning on sending me to a thing called "Teen Pact" (www.teenpact.orga) in Oklahoma city in March. It sounds really interesting and I'm looking forward to going.

We're going to late service tomorrow morning so that we can use the sancutary to film my Joshua and Caleb routine after people have cleared out. I'm hoping I don't have to try and film it too many times: it's got a couple tricks that I don't really have performance ready yet (of course, I perform them anyway!)

And, speaking of juggling, Thursday night I got 16 catches with six rings! I think that's the best I've ever done. I tried seven some, but never got a flash. My pattern really stinks. But I did nail a really cool five ring trick. For those of you who know what I'm talking about: juggle five rings, pull down two, throw a pancake flip, pull down the other two and catch the pancake on your neck. I've only done it a few times, but it's pretty cool when I do. Eventually I hope to start out with a pancake throw and pull the other four down before the pancake lands.

I shall leave you with the following, which I found amusing. This honestly happened to me.

Session Start (AIM - JJFSamuel:lilbaby82289): Fri Dec 27 18:48:37 2002
lilbaby82289: hi samuel
lilbaby82289: do u still juggle
JJFSamuel: yes, as a matter of fact, I do
JJFSamuel: who am I speaking with?
lilbaby82289: myrtle remember we met at bingo
lilbaby82289: you said you had im
lilbaby82289: hello?
JJFSamuel: bingo? The only time I ever played bingo was at a retirment place in WA state
JJFSamuel: did I meet you there?
lilbaby82289: the other weekend
lilbaby82289: at bingo
JJFSamuel: other weekend?
JJFSamuel: I haven't played bingo in a year and a half!
lilbaby82289: last weekend
lilbaby82289: yes you did silly
JJFSamuel: where?
lilbaby82289: the bingo club
lilbaby82289: ;-)
lilbaby82289: remember
JJFSamuel: you are either a: teasing me b: talking to the wrong person or c: talking to a guy who has forgotten playing bingo last week
JJFSamuel: I have never, ever been to a bingo club
lilbaby82289: remember caseys bingo
lilbaby82289: dont you
JJFSamuel: what's the location? (state, town)
lilbaby82289: indianapolis in indiana
JJFSamuel: last time I was in Indianapolis was October and I was only there for a few hours, and then only at the airport
JJFSamuel: I have to get off now, I'm afraid you have the wrong person.
lilbaby82289: i dont
JJFSamuel: goodbye

Ok, I honestly am updating. So much has been going on, and things have been so wild the past couple weeks that I haven't taken the time to update. Yes, and I am aware that y'all are about ready to shoot me for updating so rarely. I don't have much to say to keep you from shooting me, so instead...*BANG! BANG! BANG!* That was just a warning...everybody keep your hands in plain view!

So, I guess you want to know what has happened to me since the last update. Well, the most interesting thing happened on the 23rd. We headed into Tulsa with six friends of ours and went and watched The Two Towers. Which, by the way, was very good and could have been done much better. Oh well. Anyway, we got out of the movie and it had started snowing. Really snowing hard actually. So we ran out to the van and wiped it off (part of it got wiped right into BonnieJean's face, and she wasn't all to pleased about that!) And then we started home. A friend from down the road was there at the theater as well, so we followed her, which was nice, because she new a bunch of back ways through Tulsa that saved us getting stuck in traffic. It still took us three hours the make the normally half hour trip home though! It was kinda fun to get to have some time with the people we had taken along (I don't really know any of them all that well, although I would like to get to know them better) but everybody who was going to the party called and cancled. Oh well. We'll have to do it again next year for the Return of the King.

Christmas was really fun. We didn't really do anything unusaual and didn't have anybody over, but I like having it that way. It's nice to make Thanksgiving into a big production with lots of family and food, but it's also fun to have quite Christmas at home.

For new years we all stayed home except BonnieJean, who went to an all night new years party at her Sunday school teachers house. We stayed up and played Risk and then juggled into the new year. I was planning on juggling five balls into the new year, but I dropped just before the clocked rolled over and ended up doing four! Oh well. Maybe this won't be a year for numbers!

Actually, that's not true. My seven balls has been doing great. I can get a juggle (14 or more catches) with some regulatiry now.

Yesterday Ethan and I went home with some friends from church and spent the afternoon with them. It was really fun. Their oldest boy is quite the artist and I really enjoyed looking at some of his work. We played a bunch of board games (lots of bughouse!) and also got to watch the VeggieTales movie "The Star of Christmas". I loved it! ("Your toilets exploded/your flushing in vain!") We really had a blast.

Today we are going into Tulsa to start Karatie (sp?) class. I'm looking forward to it. There's a very large group of homeschoolers from our area who go, so it should be fun.

And I am getting offline now. Goodbye, my wonderful fans! And don't forget to keep your hands in plain sight.

Hello, hello, and happy holidays! Can you beleive it's almost Christmas? No? Neither can I! But it's the 19th, already!

And, that means that the Two Towers came out yesterday. And I can't wait to see it! We will be going on Monday to see it with some friends, and then be having a party at our house. That should be a blast.

Yesterday a friend from Amarillo stopped by. She and her Dad were driving bak from DC. It was fun to get to see her: we hadn't seen her in five years! Her Dad sat on the couch and took a nap, while we talked for two hours. It was a blast!

BonnieJean is taking finals this week. She took two test yesterday and has two more on Saterday. She was really worried about them, but she thinks she did pretty well on the two yesterday. Y'all might want to pray for her though: she's still pretty stressed out.

Well, I've started working at a gymnastics assistant. I've done two classes so far. It's interesting: last night I helped teach floor and we did alot of back hand springs, which I didn't really know how to spot very well...so I had to learn as I went. Several of the girls found themselfs spilled on the floor as a result, but at least there wasn't any blood! The skill range in the class I'm helping with is pretty wide. So I was spotting girls who had to be told to arch their back and other girls who were doing three back handsprings in a row! It's interesting.

Oh, and I am going to dedicate this post to Melissa, who, unlike other people, did not bother me about updating! Ok, ok, you guys were right. I really should have updated a long time ago. *hangs head in shame*

Oh, oh, cool news! Really cool news! Nathan Dorrel (www.crazytieguy.com) wants me to be in his new diabolo instrutional video! Yep! He wants me to do the Joshua and Caleb routine. I'm very excited about that! And y'all might want to pray for them too: Nathan's wife miscarried two days ago. :(

Let's see....what else is going on? My left pointer finger is hurting, 'cause it got hurt two weeks ago in stunt class...I was spotting a guy and he hit my hand really hard. Ouch. Yesterday I got the most awsome run of five clubs I've ever had: it went on forever! I can't juggle rings very well because I cut my right pointer finger, doing a double spin with a hatchet. Yes, that was really stupid, but I didn't think it was sharp enough to actually cut me. And I finally got that stump out of the garden that was driving me nuts.

And now, my dear fans, I will leave you. Mourn not overmuch!

Ha! So there Rebekkah! I did update!

Today I have an appointment with my torture technician, which is good, 'cause I'm almost out of pain bands. And hopefully I can get the neon bands this time, because the clear ones are very hard to find after you put them down on the table to eat.

Found out last night that Dad is going to be gone until Thursday working somewere (not sure were) on a crain or something.

The other day I found Final Cut Pro really cheep on ebay, but it turns out to be a pirated copy. Mice!

Wow...it's been a while since I updated. Longer than I realized. I hope you will forgive me.

Well, Uncle Kent (Mom's younger brother) and his family came up for Thanksgiving, which was a total blast. I hadn't seen them in 5 years! That's way too long! Erica (Kent's oldest) is doing some work with rifles that's very interesting, and is actually alot like devil stick. I think I want to learn how to do that now. Adam learned to juggle three and flash four balls in less than an hour: that is so not fair. We played Mafia a bunch. The only time the Mafia ever won was when BonnieJeana and I were the Mafia and we both managed to live through the whole game!

I've almost got the website for www.jesusfreakministries.com finished, but I'm having some problems with FTPing to the site. I'm going to have to email tech support and see what the problem is.

CONGRATS COURT AND KALI!!!!!!!!

In case you haven't heard, their expecting! Whoopee! COOL!!!!!!!!! And David Cain and his wife are expecting too! Awsome, huh?!?!

Well, my computer time is up now, but I shall try (try) to post some more tomorrow.

Go away, get out! Leave! NOW!

Alright, yes, that was a little odd. But I was trying to think of some original way to open this post and it struck me that I almost always started out with some form of "Hello!" Well..."hello" has a kinda welcoming tone to it, so I thought I'd try the opposite of that. Stop looking at me like that!

I miss the RI. I was thinking the other day. I haven't talked to Chera in several months. I haven't had a good debate since I got off. I have absolutly no idea what Mike is up to. I haven't read a funny Courtney post in forever. I don't know what deep thoughts James has been thinking lately and I haven't had a chance to enjoy Hannah's humor in way too long. On the other hand, I haven't had to deal with immature people who don't know how to use a period and who get themselfs banned, or Crimson or things like that. I'll be glad when I get back on though.

I think I shall go to evening service tonight. Dad and Anna and BonnieJean are going and I thought maybe I should, at least this once. Normally I am very opposed to evening service 'cause it totally ruins your day of rest. Between getting up early for morning service, getting home and watching little guys while the parents take a nap, getting ready to go and then coming home late, you don't get any rest at all. But I'm feeling pretty perky today and I haven't been to evening service anyway in over five years, so I guess once won't hurt me.

Josh's lawyer was on the raido the other day, talking about the case. The host was REALLY good, but his lawyer wasn't the best at describing what had happened. It is good that their finally taking this to the press, 'cause I think the response would be very favorable for them.

Yesterday I worked mostly on the new chicken coop I'm building. I've it looking pretty much like a chicken coop and actually got a whole bunch of work done. Now I just have to build the roof for it, put in the wire for the floor, build the laying boxes, the perches and the doors. And then paint it, but I might get the other kids to do that instead.

And I think I shall leave you now. Farewell! And GO AWAY!!!

Hello, hello! I have recieved two request to update, so I guess I should.

But update about what? I mean, sure, lots of stuff has been happening. I haven't updated in almost a week. So surely I have something to write, don't I? But you know what? I don't. I can't think of a thing to write. Maybe I should try anyway.

I need to write something for the CJA newsletter about my trip to David's. In fact, I really out to have it to David by the end of this week. And I'm drawing a total blank. Right now it looks kinda like this: "I went to David Cain's for a little over a week and learned a lot." Not exactly the full page that David was hoping for. I guess I should just knuckle down and do it. In fact, I should be writing it instead of this. But I'll go ahead and do this anyway.

I've started work on the Jesus Freak Ministries website. It won't be anything big, so I've got most of it done. I'll then have to do a little bit of a revamp of the CJH website and then create a website for my juggling ministry. I'm hoping to get all the stuff for my juggling ministry ready by early next year and start advertising myself so I can get the summer as booked as possible.

Gymnastics has been interesting lately. The teacher has started teaching me how to spot all the differant stuff and I even got to teach most of the trampoline lesson yesterday. She says I could very possible get a job there, which might be something I would look into seriously. I enjoy the people who work there and it would be something interesting to do.

Hmm...what else has been doing on. I've been playing alot of chess lately and seem to be getting better. Chess classes have ended, but hopefully we can join the home school chess club.

Ok, I'm out of things to write. Bye!

It has been four days since I posted. Is that good? Is that bad? Should I post more often? Should I post less often? Don't answer me, I just feel like rambling on about a question that will never, ever be answered. How often should you post on your blogger? Should you do like Abbey and post about every three months? Or like Brian, and post every three minutes? Should they be long, like James', or short, like Brian's? Ahh..the questions that will never be answered! When shall they ever stop? (Hey, there's another one!)

Ok, cool news! I invented a new juggling trick last week! I didn't even know that I was the first to do it until I told David about it. It's a force bounce variation of a four ball trick that is normally lift bounce: but it has to be kinda differant for a fource bounce. Anyway, I named it Samuel's Side Show, since it's a trick that mostly happens on the sides of the juggling pattern.

Did I tell y'all that I got a call from a guy who I met in Knoxville? We had started talking after one of my shows and exchanged phone numbers, and then promptly forgot about them. Well, he came across my number the other day and gave me a call! We had a fun time talking, and I'm planning on giving him a call back sometime soon.

Friday I have another show. It will be about 20 minutes long and will go before the lesson at our home school youth Bible study. I would tell you more about it, but we're leaving for gym now. Bye!

Good day to you, my loyal blogger readers! Anar kaluva tielyanna! (ten points to the first person who can figure that out!)

I am doing great! Except my sweater is getting kind of hot, so I will be taking it off now. Ahh! So much better!

Well, Thursday our chess teacher was talking to me and Anna, telling us he really wanted us to be in an upcoming tournament he is hosting in Dec. The problem is that I would have to join USCF ($20) and pay the entry fee ($15). But I really, really wanted to do it, so I told God that if he wanted me to do it, he'd have to arrange for me to get $35. Well, I found $5 in my drawer. Then Mom gave me $25 that she had mistakenly withdawn from my back account and then I found $3 in my drawer in change. And then Ethan gave my $2! So I get to do it! Cool, huh? So I'm pretty excited about that.

I am one week away from the half way point in my spanish studies! If I can keep up at the rate I'm going at now (and I'm pretty sure I can) I should be totally done with it sometime in mid-Jan. And hopefully I'll then be able to take the Spanish CLEP, which is worth something like 6 credits. I'm also hoping to take the biology CLEP sometime this winter. We're just a couple weeks away from finishing our text book, so I figure if I do some review and look up some stuff on the internet that wasn't covered in the book, I should be able to make a good score. If I can do both of those, I'd have 12 credits from stuff I'm doing here in high school.

Well, Dad wants me to build a new chicken coop. I'm not so hot on the idea. Techincally, I suppose I know how to do it, but I'm not at all confident I can do it. Oh well, I guess things will work out somehow!

I called and talked to JC for a good long while yesterday. That was fun. Because of our scedules, we're never online at the sametime anymore, so the only place I ever see him is on the admin board (and there's not really all that much I see of him there). School is going good for him, although he's feeling really stressed with the 19 credits he's taking this summer. We half-jokingly talked about having him get me some gigs up there so I could have all my expenses paid to fly up and see him. That would be lots of fun I'm sure, but I doubt it would actually happen. Then again, who knows? It might. Oh, btw, JC, Mom says you just need to buck up. Her brother took 18 hours a semester and held down a job. *grins* However, he brother is one of the most driven men I know of: the fact that he can do it doesn't mean that any of us can do it! :)

Well, I'm sure there's tons more I could write, but I can't think of any of it right now. Martha, I honestly, really will send you my comments on that story you sent!

Ta-ta!

Hannah! I need your help again! In fixing the problem so that I can post, it somehow got rid of the script for YACCS. And I have no idea whatsoever how I'm supposed to fix it! So if you could email me, that would be great!

Alright, I will try to give you as much of an update on my life as I can in the limited amount of time I have left on the computer today.

So, on the 14th I left the house about 4 o'clock and the plane took off at 6:45 PM. Nothing really worth talking about happened on the trip, which was good. I met David at the Indy airport and we drove the 2 hours to his house, arriving there at about 12.

Tuesday morning I met Janet (David's wife) and their six month old baby, Ethan. We went to David's church that morning, which had a really high ceiling in the lobby and juggled some. David showed me some cool numbers stuff, juggling six clubs, flashing seven sticks and attempting eight. David also pointed out that my five club pattern is not centered on my body, which was interesting. (I'm sure y'all were just dieing to learn about that, weren't you?)

I could try and give you a day by day acount of the events, but I don't guess that would be the best way. I learned a TON. David got me started on plate spinning, which is the most boring thing in the world, but most people don't know that. So you just act like it's actualy worth watching and they will! I made some real progress with ball spinning, and even nailed a few cool tricks (I spun a ball on a ball!) I tried out cigar boxes some, but didn't really spend much time on them. I worked alot on five rings and my pattern was actually looking fairly tolerable by the time I left. I went ahead and ordered some rings (yes, I actually bought rings, can you beleive it?) and I should be getting them soon. I learned a whole bunch of new ball bouncing stuff, which was really good, 'cause that's probably my weakest area.

On Saterday we went to David's parents house, where I got to meet David's twin brother, Scott. That was interesting. David and Scott do some really cool team stuff, but Scott is not actually that good of a solo juggler. We had an unoffical four ball dual between us, and Scott unoffically won, but I whipped him good with seven balls (in spite of that fact that I was using David's beanbags, which are horribly huge). I also found at that Scott doesn't like Reagan, so I threw a few things at him (yes, I honestly did. And no, I don't mean passing!)

David and I did 5 shows together. I was in about 5 of the routines in each one. We came up with a whole bunch of new material and improved alot of stuff we already had. Some of it we even performed. At one of the performances on Sunday morning there was a guy got saved! Cool, huh?

Well, I got back home on Wed. Saterday morning we left for Amarillo and just got back last night. It was a fast, but fun, trip. We got to see Ms. Johnson, our old piano teacher and had a blast with her. She played some for us, which was interesting, because in all the years I took from her, I think I'd seen her play only three times! Then we went to see Mom's friend Judy and stayed at her house until 10 or 11, having a total blast. Poor BonnieJean spent most of the time on her computer, writing some stuff that she had to have turned in by midnight! She had stayed up all night before we left trying to finish it, and hadn't been able to. Poor girl. She's managing to keep on top of it, but just barely. Hopefully she'll get a little more used to it soon, since she's only been doing it for three weeks.

Sunday morning we went to church with some good friends about an hour from Amarillo. We had a real good time visiting and left two hours late, but we got home about 11, so it wasn't too bad.

Which brings us to today. We slept in late (very late!) and then I had to go have my torture device worked on. I'm now wearing rubber bands, so I can't open my mouth all the way. Annoying. Oh well, I got neon colors, so that was cool.

And now, I think I shall close. Farewell!

This is Anna. Samuel has asked me to post to see if it will show up. Please reply us if you can see us.
Love y'all (esp. Samuel!)!

Alright, I'll try this. Who knows if it will work, but hopefully you will finally be able to see my last three posts.

[9/23/2002 11:06:47 AM | Samuel B.]
Quick question. When I look at yaccs.com and check the comments, it says nobody has made any comments on the last two posts. Is my account messed up, or have y'all just abandond me to wonder if I spelled appandond right?

Well, I bought the plane tickets for going up to David's next month. I'll be gone Oct. 14-23 and plan on having a great time. David and I are going to work on developing some routines as well as some more technical stuff (ball bounce, ball spinning, four club tricks).

Courtney and Kali got married on Saterday!!!!! I think this calls for a large, red sentance with lots of exclamations points (we haven't had one of those in a long time!)


CONGRATS COURT AND KALI!!!!!!


Right now I have two AIM windows open trying to get info about the wedding. One girl (who was probably at the wedding!!) is not responding and the other wasn't there. The lack of info. is maddening. Kali's sister is only on AIM every once in a while and I'm sure Courtney will not be posting on his blogger until at least after their honeymoon.

Good heavens, Jen just told me that she was going to be at the wedding, but they wouldn't let her on the plane, because they had booked the flight under her Dad's name! So she missed it! How horrible!

I'm not making much sense, am I? Oh well, I don't care! I'm feeling very carefree today! Goodbye! *walzes off*
[edit]
[9/19/2002 10:48:34 AM | Samuel B.]
Just a quick note. David Cain called me this morning and told me that last night he became the second person in the recorded history of juggling to flash 8 club like objects in a show! CONGRATS DAVID!!!
[edit]

[9/16/2002 7:51:42 PM | Samuel B.]
Here's something interesting I wrote a week or two ago to a friend. Thought you might (or might not) enjoy it.

Alright, I don't know how long this will be, or how much sense I will make, but please bear with me. BTW, this stuff is not the result of a hastily thought up theory: I've studied Tolkien's works extensively with an eye towards this very topic. And allow me to state right up front: I have yet to find a single good guy who uses magic. None. Zip. Zero. Nada.
Ok, so we know that the Bible condemns witchcraft very strongly. Ex. 22:18 says "Suffer not a witch to live." And there's a lot of other verses like that, but since you've already done some study in that area I won't bother to look them up. The fact is that Bible believing Christians should not be reading and studying about magic (unless God has called them to and given them the grace to do it).
Now, from our talk about Spiderman and the role a villain should play, you know that I don't see anything wrong with having a bad "bad guy". So, how are the bad guy magicians shown in Tolkien? Here's an interesting bit taken from "The Return of the King" Book 5, chapter 10, "The Black Gate Opens".
"And thereupon the middle door of the Black Gate was thrown open with a great clang, and out of it there came an embassy from the Dark Tower.
"At it's head there rode a tall and evil shape, mounted upon a black horse, if horse it was; for it was huge and hideous, and its face was a frightful mask, more like a skull than a living head, and in the sockets of its eyes and in its nostrils there burned a flame. The rider was robed all in black, and black was his lofty helm; yet this was no Ringwraith but a living man. The Lieutenant of the Tower of Barad-dur he was, and his name is remembered in no tale; for he himself had forgotten it, and he said: "I am the Mouth of Sauron." But it is told that he was a renegade, who came of the race of those that are named the Black Numenoreans; for they established their dwellings in Middle-earth during the years of Sauron's domination, and they worshipped him, being enamored of evil knowledge. And he entered the service of the Dark Tower when it first rose again, and because of his cunning he grew ever higher in the Lord's favor; and he learned great sorcery, and knew much of the mind of Sauron: and he was more cruel than any orc."
Not exactly a pretty picture. Being more cruel any orc is saying a lot. The Mouth of Sauron is one of the two magicians that we get to see in any detail: the other is the Witch-King. He was a great sorcerer and very powerful. He established the Witch Kingdom of Agmar and was given one of the nine rings by Sauron himself. A sample of the way he talks: "Come not between the Nazgul and his prey! Or he will not slay thee in thy turn. He will bear thee away to the houses of lamentation, beyond all darkness, where they flesh shall be devoured and they shriveled mind be left naked to the Lidless Eye." (Return of the King, book 5, chapter 6, "The Battle of the Pelennor Fields")
That is magic in Tolkien. Cruel, hard, horrible. There are no perks, nothing desirable about it. Magic is evil, pure and unaltered.
But what about the magic that the good guys use? Doesn't Gandalf use a "closing spell" on a door? Doesn't Aragorn make use of a green stone in healing the wounded in Minas Tirith? Doesn't Galadriel have a magic bowl of water? Don't the Dwarves in Dale create magic toys? And isn't Revindell protected by a magic ring worn by Elrond? How do these make sense? Certainly Gandalf, Aragorn and Galadriel are not bad guys. How then can they use magic?
The answer is extremely simple: they don't! Allow me to go through each of the mentioned bits of "magic" and explain them. Please keep in mind that these are not the only examples of "magic" in Tolkien, but I have chosen each because it represents each kind of "magic" that you will come across. Let's start with Gandalf.
Were you to travel back in time, and yet have access to all the stuff of the 21st century, you could very easily convince people you were a magician. In fact, you might have trouble convincing them that you weren't!
The case is somewhat the same with Gandalf. But he is not a human from the future. In fact, he is not even human! He is a Maiar (that's probably spelled wrong!): an angle basically. He comes from Valinor, a place were the Valor live (the Valor are NOT gods, as some people mistakenly think.) He was sent to Middle-earth to oppose Sauron, and yet not openly. He was not to make a big display of his power, but rather to encourage the people of Middle-earth in their fight against Sauron.
So if he's not a wizard, why is he called such? Well, the Lord of the Rings was written by Hobbits. This is much the same as if those people who you met while time traveling wrote about you. They would get a lot wrong, without a doubt. And if you were under orders not to tell them all about yourself, they would get even more wrong. The same thing happened in Lord of the Rings.
But Gandalf himself talks about casting "spells" and such. How do you explain this?
The language spoken in Valinor is not the same was the one spoken commonly in Middle-earth (often called the "Common Speech"). In fact, when Gandalf first got his body and came to Middle-earth he had to learn how to speak! And as he learned the languages he found that there weren't really any words to describe what he did. So he was forced to improvise. He did not cast "spells" but that was as close as he could come in the Common Speech.
Now let's talk about Elrond and Galadriel. Both of them are Elves: totally different creatures than Humans. And so they have some abilities which are super-human. The funny thing is, if Tolkien were science fiction, Elves would just be aliens with special abilities. But because it's fantasy, everyone assumes that it's magic. Have you ever heard anyone talk about the magic used by Spock in Star Trek? No. Why? Because he isn't a human! And the very same thing applies to the elves.
While we're on the subject of Galadriel, there's a very interesting quote on the subject of magic by her. Sam and Frodo are with Galadriel in Lorien. They are standing by a basin of water and Galadrial was just asking Frodo if he wanted to look into it.
"'And you?' she said, turning to Sam. 'For this is what your folk would call magic, I believe; though I do knot understand clearly what they mean; and they seem also to use the same word of the deceits of the Enemy. But this, if you will, is the magic of Galadriel." (The Fellowship of the Ring, book 2, chapter 7, "The Mirror of Galadriel")
Galadriel obviously didn't consider what she did magic, so why should we? And Galadriel certainly knew about this so called "magic"! She had studied under some of the wisest and most powerful Elves and Maiar, both in Middle-earth and Valinor. I think we can take her word for it.
The "magic" used by the dwarves has the same story. They are not at all human (their biology is such that they can't even interbreed) and their "magic" is nothing of the sort.
So, what of Aragorn and the green stone? Aragorn is certainly human, and yet he uses it. From the context of what we know about humans using magic (like the two magicians spoken of above) we know that it is certainly a bad thing.
Well, the fact is, Aragorn didn't actually use the stone. It was a gift from Galadriel and I'm not even certain he knew what it did. He was simply wearing it while doing his doctoring. And as we see when he heals Faramir, Eowyn and Merry, he doesn't mention it, touch it, look at it, or anything of the sort. It was simply the elvish power of the stone working on it's own and Aragorn had nothing to do with it.
Now, as to the nature of the Valor and God in Tolkiens world. The creation account found in the Sillmarillion cannot by any twisting of the imagination be made to sound anything like the account in the Bible. The world is ruled by the Valor (angles basically). This would seems almost like a pagan religion!
Allow me to explain Tolkien's (and mine) view on this. We, as humans, are created in the image of God. And God is a creator. And so instilled into each of us is the desire to create. Like a child wanting to act like his dad, we each want to make something. There is nothing wrong at all about this desire. It was given to us by God.
Tolkien called his world a "sub-creation". If we are created in the image of God, the creator, why is it wrong to want to imitate him and create our own worlds? This must of course be done with the realization that our would is fake: but that does not make it wrong.
Now you may have heard that Tolkien referred to the Gospel as a "myth". He did. But to have that quote outside of context is a highly deceitful thing to do. I have read the entire passage in which he called the Gospel a myth and it is one of the most beautiful statements about the wonderfulness of the Gospel that I have ever read.
You can find the quote in an essay entitled "On Fairy-Stories". In it, Tolkien discusses what he considers to be the criteria for calling a story a fairy story. At the very end, he notes that by the definition he has just laid out, the Gospel is in fact a fairy story. But, he quickly points out, the wonderful thing about it is that, as opposed to the other fairy stories, the Gospel is true! It really happened! Tolkien was not rejecting the divine authorship of the Bible: he was simply making an observation as to the classification of the Gospel story.

I'll try and post more about what's going on in my life latter. Maybe tomorrow.

Alright, I'll try this. Who knows if it will work, but hopefully you will finally be able to see my last three posts.

Quick question. When I look at yaccs.com and check the comments, it says nobody has made any comments on the last two posts. Is my account messed up, or have y'all just abandond me to wonder if I spelled appandond right?

Well, I bought the plane tickets for going up to David's next month. I'll be gone Oct. 14-23 and plan on having a great time. David and I are going to work on developing some routines as well as some more technical stuff (ball bounce, ball spinning, four club tricks).

Courtney and Kali got married on Saterday!!!!! I think this calls for a large, red sentance with lots of exclamations points (we haven't had one of those in a long time!)

CONGRATS COURT AND KALI!!!!!!

Right now I have two AIM windows open trying to get info about the wedding. One girl (who was probably at the wedding!!) is not responding and the other wasn't there. The lack of info. is maddening. Kali's sister is only on AIM every once in a while and I'm sure Courtney will not be posting on his blogger until at least after their honeymoon.

Good heavens, Jen just told me that she was going to be at the wedding, but they wouldn't let her on the plane, because they had booked the flight under her Dad's name! So she missed it! How horrible!

I'm not making much sense, am I? Oh well, I don't care! I'm feeling very carefree today! Goodbye! *walzes off*

Just a quick note. David Cain called me this morning and told me that last night he became the second person in the recorded history of juggling to flash 8 club like objects in a show! CONGRATS DAVID!!!

Here's something interesting I wrote a week or two ago to a friend. Thought you might (or might not) enjoy it.

Alright, I don't know how long this will be, or how much sense I will make, but please bear with me. BTW, this stuff is not the result of a hastily thought up theory: I've studied Tolkien's works extensively with an eye towards this very topic. And allow me to state right up front: I have yet to find a single good guy who uses magic. None. Zip. Zero. Nada.
Ok, so we know that the Bible condemns witchcraft very strongly. Ex. 22:18 says "Suffer not a witch to live." And there's a lot of other verses like that, but since you've already done some study in that area I won't bother to look them up. The fact is that Bible believing Christians should not be reading and studying about magic (unless God has called them to and given them the grace to do it).
Now, from our talk about Spiderman and the role a villain should play, you know that I don't see anything wrong with having a bad "bad guy". So, how are the bad guy magicians shown in Tolkien? Here's an interesting bit taken from "The Return of the King" Book 5, chapter 10, "The Black Gate Opens".
"And thereupon the middle door of the Black Gate was thrown open with a great clang, and out of it there came an embassy from the Dark Tower.
"At it's head there rode a tall and evil shape, mounted upon a black horse, if horse it was; for it was huge and hideous, and its face was a frightful mask, more like a skull than a living head, and in the sockets of its eyes and in its nostrils there burned a flame. The rider was robed all in black, and black was his lofty helm; yet this was no Ringwraith but a living man. The Lieutenant of the Tower of Barad-dur he was, and his name is remembered in no tale; for he himself had forgotten it, and he said: "I am the Mouth of Sauron." But it is told that he was a renegade, who came of the race of those that are named the Black Numenoreans; for they established their dwellings in Middle-earth during the years of Sauron's domination, and they worshipped him, being enamored of evil knowledge. And he entered the service of the Dark Tower when it first rose again, and because of his cunning he grew ever higher in the Lord's favor; and he learned great sorcery, and knew much of the mind of Sauron: and he was more cruel than any orc."
Not exactly a pretty picture. Being more cruel any orc is saying a lot. The Mouth of Sauron is one of the two magicians that we get to see in any detail: the other is the Witch-King. He was a great sorcerer and very powerful. He established the Witch Kingdom of Agmar and was given one of the nine rings by Sauron himself. A sample of the way he talks: "Come not between the Nazgul and his prey! Or he will not slay thee in thy turn. He will bear thee away to the houses of lamentation, beyond all darkness, where they flesh shall be devoured and they shriveled mind be left naked to the Lidless Eye." (Return of the King, book 5, chapter 6, "The Battle of the Pelennor Fields")
That is magic in Tolkien. Cruel, hard, horrible. There are no perks, nothing desirable about it. Magic is evil, pure and unaltered.
But what about the magic that the good guys use? Doesn't Gandalf use a "closing spell" on a door? Doesn't Aragorn make use of a green stone in healing the wounded in Minas Tirith? Doesn't Galadriel have a magic bowl of water? Don't the Dwarves in Dale create magic toys? And isn't Revindell protected by a magic ring worn by Elrond? How do these make sense? Certainly Gandalf, Aragorn and Galadriel are not bad guys. How then can they use magic?
The answer is extremely simple: they don't! Allow me to go through each of the mentioned bits of "magic" and explain them. Please keep in mind that these are not the only examples of "magic" in Tolkien, but I have chosen each because it represents each kind of "magic" that you will come across. Let's start with Gandalf.
Were you to travel back in time, and yet have access to all the stuff of the 21st century, you could very easily convince people you were a magician. In fact, you might have trouble convincing them that you weren't!
The case is somewhat the same with Gandalf. But he is not a human from the future. In fact, he is not even human! He is a Maiar (that's probably spelled wrong!): an angle basically. He comes from Valinor, a place were the Valor live (the Valor are NOT gods, as some people mistakenly think.) He was sent to Middle-earth to oppose Sauron, and yet not openly. He was not to make a big display of his power, but rather to encourage the people of Middle-earth in their fight against Sauron.
So if he's not a wizard, why is he called such? Well, the Lord of the Rings was written by Hobbits. This is much the same as if those people who you met while time traveling wrote about you. They would get a lot wrong, without a doubt. And if you were under orders not to tell them all about yourself, they would get even more wrong. The same thing happened in Lord of the Rings.
But Gandalf himself talks about casting "spells" and such. How do you explain this?
The language spoken in Valinor is not the same was the one spoken commonly in Middle-earth (often called the "Common Speech"). In fact, when Gandalf first got his body and came to Middle-earth he had to learn how to speak! And as he learned the languages he found that there weren't really any words to describe what he did. So he was forced to improvise. He did not cast "spells" but that was as close as he could come in the Common Speech.
Now let's talk about Elrond and Galadriel. Both of them are Elves: totally different creatures than Humans. And so they have some abilities which are super-human. The funny thing is, if Tolkien were science fiction, Elves would just be aliens with special abilities. But because it's fantasy, everyone assumes that it's magic. Have you ever heard anyone talk about the magic used by Spock in Star Trek? No. Why? Because he isn't a human! And the very same thing applies to the elves.
While we're on the subject of Galadriel, there's a very interesting quote on the subject of magic by her. Sam and Frodo are with Galadriel in Lorien. They are standing by a basin of water and Galadrial was just asking Frodo if he wanted to look into it.
"'And you?' she said, turning to Sam. 'For this is what your folk would call magic, I believe; though I do knot understand clearly what they mean; and they seem also to use the same word of the deceits of the Enemy. But this, if you will, is the magic of Galadriel." (The Fellowship of the Ring, book 2, chapter 7, "The Mirror of Galadriel")
Galadriel obviously didn't consider what she did magic, so why should we? And Galadriel certainly knew about this so called "magic"! She had studied under some of the wisest and most powerful Elves and Maiar, both in Middle-earth and Valinor. I think we can take her word for it.
The "magic" used by the dwarves has the same story. They are not at all human (their biology is such that they can't even interbreed) and their "magic" is nothing of the sort.
So, what of Aragorn and the green stone? Aragorn is certainly human, and yet he uses it. From the context of what we know about humans using magic (like the two magicians spoken of above) we know that it is certainly a bad thing.
Well, the fact is, Aragorn didn't actually use the stone. It was a gift from Galadriel and I'm not even certain he knew what it did. He was simply wearing it while doing his doctoring. And as we see when he heals Faramir, Eowyn and Merry, he doesn't mention it, touch it, look at it, or anything of the sort. It was simply the elvish power of the stone working on it's own and Aragorn had nothing to do with it.
Now, as to the nature of the Valor and God in Tolkiens world. The creation account found in the Sillmarillion cannot by any twisting of the imagination be made to sound anything like the account in the Bible. The world is ruled by the Valor (angles basically). This would seems almost like a pagan religion!
Allow me to explain Tolkien's (and mine) view on this. We, as humans, are created in the image of God. And God is a creator. And so instilled into each of us is the desire to create. Like a child wanting to act like his dad, we each want to make something. There is nothing wrong at all about this desire. It was given to us by God.
Tolkien called his world a "sub-creation". If we are created in the image of God, the creator, why is it wrong to want to imitate him and create our own worlds? This must of course be done with the realization that our would is fake: but that does not make it wrong.
Now you may have heard that Tolkien referred to the Gospel as a "myth". He did. But to have that quote outside of context is a highly deceitful thing to do. I have read the entire passage in which he called the Gospel a myth and it is one of the most beautiful statements about the wonderfulness of the Gospel that I have ever read.
You can find the quote in an essay entitled "On Fairy-Stories". In it, Tolkien discusses what he considers to be the criteria for calling a story a fairy story. At the very end, he notes that by the definition he has just laid out, the Gospel is in fact a fairy story. But, he quickly points out, the wonderful thing about it is that, as opposed to the other fairy stories, the Gospel is true! It really happened! Tolkien was not rejecting the divine authorship of the Bible: he was simply making an observation as to the classification of the Gospel story.

I'll try and post more about what's going on in my life latter. Maybe tomorrow.

Wow, these past two days have been something else. It's been a really faith building time and a very tough time. It all started a long time ago (like last year I think) when a fellow who works on computers at the local college was fired for putting "God bless" at the end of an email (his name is Mat). Then, about a month ago, he and his friend Josh (who goes to church with us) were taken out of class under armed guard, questioned and expelled. They were not allowed to call their parents, a lawyer or even go to the bathroom. Josh's sister Michaela was also taken out of class and not allowed to call her parents. She has since been up on probation for a year: nobody has been able to really figure out why. Something was said about her biligerant attitude. If you knew Michaela you would realize what a dumb charge that is. She is probably the most quite, soft spoken person I know! So, after much problems and riggermarro, they finally sceduled hearings for Josh and Mat on the 11th. Josh went in at 1:30. BonnieJean and I showed up about one to take part in the prayer vigil that they had going. We had a chance to talk to Josh some and then he went in. We stayed for a couple hours, walking around the building, reading our Bibles and praying in a group. Finally at about four we went on home, but a pretty good group stayed until Josh came out at 6:15. Mat was supposed to have had his hearing at 2:30, so they resceduled his for Thursday (the 12th). It turns out that they prayer group had really unnerved them during Josh's hearing, so they told Mat to come at 9, then called him at 10:30 that night and said to come at 8, hoping that they would be done before we got there. Enter Sam, a dear lady from church and Josh's aunt. She called us at 7:30 and by 8:10 we were up there in a big circle praying. We spent all day up there, except for about an hour and a half that Mom had us come home. Finally, at about 6:00 they finished the hearing and let Mat out. He had some really good news for us: he had not been given a gag order and Josh's gag order had been removed! So we all headed off campus and head "debriefing" with Mat and Josh for about an hour and a half.

Some really cool things had happened. One had been that over the two days, everyone had been praying for "conffusion in the camp of the enemy". I heard those exact words at least three million times. Then, when Josh and Mat started telling us about what happened, it was amazing to hear how God had worked! The main wittness for the oposition had hardly been able to answer a single question and the chairman of the hearing had been very good.

So, the people who judge the hearing have 15 days to make their decision, which will then be passed to the president of the college as a recomendation. It's far from over and we're still doing alot of praying, but it's really been a great experiance.

One neat thing was that I got to get to know Josh and his family better. Our families have always been on pretty friendly terms, but I've wanted to get to know them better. I also found out that I actually knew Mat! I hadn't realized that it was a Mat I had met at several church funtions.

So, please keep Josh, Mat and Michaela and their families in prayer.

find your inner PIE @ stvlive.com

I'm an apple pie. How interesting.

So, how are you doing today? Fine I hope. I had an interesting idea sparked by Hannah. Person 1 says to Person 2 "Hey, look on the bright side!" Person 2 replies "No, then it's even more depressing when it turns dark!"

Yes, I'm nuts.

Hey, did I tell y'all that it looks like we've set some pretty solid dates for going up to David's? Hmmm...have I even told y'all I'm going to David's? Maybe not...if you've heard this already, stop me. David is a professional Christian juggler who I have become pretty good friends with over the past two and a half years. And this coming Oct. I'm going to be spending a week at his house working on juggling and Christian routines and just visiting. I'm REALLY excited about it! If you'd like to, you can visit David's sight: christianjuggler.com

Let's see...what else. I did my drawing lesson today. It went pretty well (I got an A!), but I still didn't like what I'd drawn all that much. Still, it could have been alot worse. This afternoon I've got to go over the first 20 verses of Mat. 5, 'cause I have to say them to Mom tomorrow. I had up to verse 34 once, but I've kinda forgotten some. Still, it shouldn't be very hard. Spanish is shaping up to be taking a pretty big hunk of time, but Mom gave me an hour and a half for it, so I think I should do fine.

I got a very nice email from JC the other day, which I need to reply to (I'm going to try to do that tomorrow JC). It seems I need to write somebody else but I can't remember who! Hey, if you need me to write you, let me know! :)

Why is it that whenever you are posting on your blogger you can't think of anything to write, but once you get off you think of a million things to write?

And with that question I shall leave you. Farewell!

'ello, ello, ello! How are you doing today? I can ask that question because, thanks to a remark by OFG, I can now view the replies. Yup, I just log into my YACCS acount and there they are! I still can't view my blogger though, but I can look at it in the control center here...so altogether, things could be worse. Then again, they could be alot better.

But in spite of that, I'm feeling pretty good right now. We started school yesterday. I like my scedule, except that I have to get up at 5:30. Not my first choice, but I'll live. I start school at 7:00 (biology) and finish at 3:30 (mimorization). In between is Math, Spanish, Gov., Wisdom Booklet and Faith Journal. I'm also having to fit art in there whenever I can. It's working pretty well.

Last night we had hamburgers for supper! Yum! They were VERY good.

Today was our first day of gymnastics (how do you spell that?). There's nine people in our class, mostly younger than ten, although there are a couple girls who are older than that. Ethan was trying to go wild the whole time. I think if we let him, he would try everything until he broke his neck! Joshua seems to have a little trouble, but I think he'll be ok.

And now I shall get off. I meant to post more, but I don't have enough time. Maybe tomorrow.

I am very annoyed. My blogger has be blocked by our server because of "full nudity, sexual acts/text". So I can't view my blogger. I emailed them and have yet to get a reply. Is that annoying or what? In fact, I can't visit any bloggers on the blogspot.com server. Not Mike's, not Anna's, not JC's....it's driving me nuts!

In other news, our trip was a blast. Friday we drove up and it was a really long drive...we got there about midnight! Then Saterday we went to Aunt Trish's and had a cookout, which was very fun. Got to see a bunch of people I haven't seen in awhile and got to meet my cousin Cathy's new husband Andrew, who was a total blast. He looked amazing like Jason Garfield as well, and learned to juggling in about ten minutes....interesting. He told me he could live with the great juggler part, but he would just skip the total jerk part.

Then Sunday we went to church. It was a really nice church with some great music and neet people. Then the party was at 2:00 and went to 4:00. I didn't actually get to talk to Grandma Loria, but she seemed in good health, although she was worn to a frazzle by the end of the day.

And I'm getting off now. I know I should write more, but I don't feel like it. Farewell!

I am alive! Honestly, yes, I really am! ....Man, I haven't updated in a long time...actually, I have an excuse this time. JC was over! And I meant to update yesterday, but...well...I forgot. *sheepish grin*

Anyway, let me tell you about JC being here. We had a BLAST!!!!! We went bowling, to the mall (not that I like the mall that much, but we went to get ice cream, which I like very much) went to see a movie (K-19, it was pretty good) and just generally had a great time. JC and I stayed up several nights after we were supposed to be asleep and had some really good talks. I hadn't had a nice long talk like that with JC in forever...phone calls are good, but their are nowhere near as good as talking face to face. Last Sunday when we went to sunday school, our teacher wasn't there for some reason, nor was the rest of our class! I have no idea what happened to either, but JC and I went ahead and had our own Bible study anyway! :)

Mom has got our school year planned out now and it looks like it's going to be a very busy one for me. So much so that I've decided that I'm going to be taking a break from the RI at least until I graduate. I've actually been backing off some in the last few months anyway...it's really a totally differant RI than the one that I first came to. Not that the old one didn't have it's problems, but I kinda like it better back then. There's just so many people now it's hard to really get to know them all. Oh well. I figure I'll be coming back after I graduate...addictions tend to be like that! :)

Tomorrow morning we're heading off to Chicago for my great grandma's 105th birthday party, which should be fun. We're all packing right now (ok, so I'm not packing right now, but I will be soon!) and getting ready for the trip. If y'all could pray that the van holds up it would be great.

I am a rock....I'm just sitting here...calm...peaceful...tranquil. What? What's this? It's movement...vibrations! Stop the vibrations! They cut through me, like a knife!

I must destroy the thing that is causing the vibrations!!

Alright, sorry, sorry. Can you tell I've been watching some of the deleted scenes from Galaxy Quest? I found that whole thing to be very funny. If you don't know what I'm talking about, get the Galaxy Quest DVD and watch it: it's blast.

Anyway, I'm sitting here in front of the computer desk, and I'm not actually that upset by vibrations. Mom, Dad and BonnieJean are at a party some friends from church are holding and I've just finished getting the little guys to bed and am waiting for them to return home.

Not much all that interesting happened today, so I will tell you about yesterday instead. At about four o'clock BonnieJean and I left the house to run errand and go pick up Dad at the airport. His flight didn't actually arrive until 8:15, but we had to stop by the magic store that booked that show I was telling y'all about a few weeks ago and pick up my money (fun fun!) and they closed at six. And we had to stop by the library and didn't know what time they closed, so we just gave ourselves plenty of time to spare! Anyway, everything went fine until we decided to stop somewhere and get some fries and pop. So we head out in the general direction off the airport, planning on finding a Burger King or some such thing and stopping there. Well, in talking we ended up missing the signs for the airport and found ourselves in another town! So we stopped and ate there and then headed back toward Tulsa. Or thought we did. I swear, it looked like an entrance ramp! Only it lead to a dead end. And by now it's like 8:05. So we have to turn around and get on the highway the correct way this time and finally reach the airport (only five minutes late!). Anyway, Dad was there and everything turned out fine.

Man, that story sounds so much better when I tell it out loud than when I have to write it out. Oh well. Speaking of writing, I haven't been doing much of that lately, even though I need to. But I have worked some on the Timothian language, which has been fun. My only problem is the whatever you call them at the beginning and ends of words. So gaz is build. What about building? Built? Builder? I need to come up with some rules for those sorts of things. I guess I'll have to talk to Mom about it: I'm sure she would have an idea of what to do.

JC IS COMING TOMORROW!!!!!!!

We watched a movie called "The Sting" this morning. Mom thought it was great, but I find it horribly boring and annoying. It was a character story: the only problem was, I hated all the characters! I couldn't care less which jerk won out in the end. Mom said she liked the mystery aspect of it, but the problem was that it was put together in such a way that you couldn't tell if it was a mystery or simply a poorly written and edited film.

I'm not sure if I've been in a bad mood all day or if everybody else has, but I've had real trouble getting along with people today. I even got really annoyed with BonnieJean, who is the person that annoys me the least. Guess it's probably me.

Why is it that you write "me" with a small m, but I with a capital?

And with that tough question I shall leave you.

Hello, hello, hello! Things are pretty nuts right now. Isaac is screaming his head off and everybody else is getting ready to go swimming.

Today has been somewhat interesting. I slept really late this morning because we stayed up way to late watching the movie Rocky....dumb movie. The first hour was highly boring and I hated all the characters (yes, all of them). Then at about 1 o'clock everybody except Mom left the house, 'cause she had some stuff with filing she needed to do and didn't want to be interupted. So we had lunch out and ran some errand and came home and now the other kids are swimming.

Let's see...I've been looking into some various film schools. The New York Film Acadamy and the LA Film School both sound good.