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.

I don't know how long this blog will be: I don't have much time. Actually, I started to update several days again, and had written a good deal of stuff, but then David sent me a link on AIM and I clicked on it, thinking it would open in a new window. It didn't. So I lost all that. Man, that was really annoying! Oh well, you probably wouldn't have wanted to read it anyway: it was a big long depressing whine session.

I've been feeling kinda depressed lately. Several reason, which I will not go into now. I'm feeling good for once and don't want to start feeling ick again! The one thing I will tell you is that a couple of my teeth have been hurting me almost non-stop, which is not the best thing for your general mood.

Dad is in Denver right now doing training for his job. He'll be back next thursday...I think.

We watched Raiders of the Lost Ark a few days ago. Dumb, gross movie.

Goodness, it's been a whole week since I've updated! I ought to be ashamed of myself! But of course I'm not....

Well, the show on Thursday went very well. I got a call the day before telling me that they wanted me to wear a jesters hat. I did NOT want to wear one, so they said maybe I could just wear it for the first few minutes. When I got there I talked to the hostses though and she said I could just forget it. Thank God! I also bought some new balls just before the show: their very bright colors and have a good bounce, so I'm pretty happy with them.

Anyway, so we got to the hotel and met up with the guy who was going to be doing magic. His name was Jeff and he was pretty nice, although sometimes his conversation was pretty confusing. I then found the hostses and talked to her, found an empty corner and warmed up. I had just started working on doing a head roll with the knife earlier that day, and so worked on that some, and dropped almost every single time! Funny thing was that I never dropped while doing it in front of people.

So at 5:45 I started working the crouds. There's not really that much to tell about it: I used a new routine with three balls to get people attention. The idea was that one of my balls was misbehaving and I had to try and do the show anyway. It was pretty funny and went over well. After an hour I closed up and Dad and I drove home.

In other news, I've been looking into stuff for college. There's a couple of film schools in CA that I've been looking at and actually right now I'm looking at some other stuff. I know what your thinking. CA? What? I know. I don't want to go there either, but I might have to. Oh well.

I'll try to update more latter. I can't think of anything to write.

Afternoon folks! How are you today?

Why on earth am I asking you that? This is MY blogger! If I wanted to know about you, I'd go to your blogger! So don't you dare answer that question! Just kidding (not really).

Today has been a pretty good day. Dad and I got a stump out of the ground this morning and then I did a little painting on the chicken coop and we (Dad and I) talked some about how we're going to be putting the clothes line in. Then I came in and started reading a book I got at the library yesterday and was finally so bored with it that I just put it down and got out another book.

We're listening to the soundtrack from Fellowship of the Ring right now...Nazgul music. Man, that music is so cool!

I've been working on a new diabolo trick. It's kinda something I can already do. The basic idea is to do a double around the world suicide on the right side, but to have somebody from the croud holding the left handstick. If you didn't understand that, don't worry. I'm trying to make myself sound superior by not making sense. Just kidding (kinda!). But it actually will be a cool trick once I get it finished.

Man, I just realized I haven't told y'all about the juggling job I've got for next week! It's a co. banquet and I'm giong to be doing strolling for an hour. And I'm getting $150 for it! That's something like $2.50 a minute! Pretty cool, huh? I'm really looking forward to it!

And now about the street juggling we did. (from my board): On the fourth of July my Dad, brother and I headed over to Tulsa to do some street evangelism! It was a blast! We did about four shows, and then stopped, 'cause I had left my water bottle in the car and was getting horse (spelled wrong, I know.) The first show I started into the message right away, but on the other ones I juggled first, got people to watch and then did the message. It seemed to work alot better. I really enjoyed myself and can't wait to do it again!

Like I said, it was a blast. And I think I shall leave you with that! God bless!

Man, I haven't posted in way to long. I really should know better....I mean, I hate it when other people don't update their blogs...oh well. I'm updating now anyway!

I think Ezboard has put all their non-pay users on a really lousy host. It's taken me 16 minute to read three post! Really annoys me, but since I'm not paying, I can't really complain.

We watches a Sherlock Homles movie yesterday, The Speckled Band. Could have been done better, but it wasn't that bad either. Has anybody ever read The Valley of Fear? Man, that book is SO cool! Everybody raves about the Hound of the Basckivilles, and sure, it was a good book, but there's just no way it's going to beat The Valley of Fear!

Monday I woke up to find that one of my brackets had fallen off of my tooth! We went in on two days later and got it back on, but the Dr. said it might come off 'cause whenever I bight down get's hit. Well, sure enough it did, just yesterday, less than a full day after I got it fixed. Right now I'm enjoying rolling it around on the wire with my tounge! *g*

I think I shall close for now. I'll try and post about how the street juggling went next time. God bless!

Wow...I don't really know what to say here. Somebody on the RI has died. I didn't really know him very well...he actually didn't a whole lot, but his sister posted fairly often, and I even talked to him on AIM every once in a while. And now he's gone. Really hard to beleive.

I shall be off the computer for about a week or so, so I will be seeing y'all soon! In the meantime, I'd like to do a test. If you are reading this, please reply. All you have to say is "I read it". Just reply once. I'd like to know who all comes here. Thanks! See y'all later!

I'm writing this on Tuesday night, although I don't think I'll be able to post it until tomorrow morning, at least. Mom and BonnieJean have gone to the store and when the get back (hopefully soon!) they will have some chewy candy for me! YEA!!! I'm getting my braces on tomorrow morning, so I figured it wouldn't matter too much if I lost a spacer or two and that this was probably my last chance for the next two years to really chew on something! :) The dr. probably won't approve, but who cares!

Dad has been working on making a chicken coop (for the chickens, but you probably guessed that already). He's actually getting it up pretty fast. This morning Anna, Ethan and I put the first coat of primer on it and Naomi and Ethan put the second coat on this afternoon. Hopefully we'll have it ready by the end of the week.

Speaking of the chickens, the chicks are growing so fast it's hard to believe! They've gotten so they can fly out of the little box we've been keeping them in, so today we enclosed some of the chicken yard and put them in there. They seem pretty happy with it.

Friday we're going to be "bombing" our house. *g* That means we'll be putting off some bug bombs and leaving the house for a few hours. The fun that about that is that we get to spend some time at the library and then we'll all go see Ep. 2 again! Yea!

Speaking of which, I never posted my thoughts about it on here, did I? Maybe I did. But who cares. I feel like writing. *ahem*

While not nearly as good as Ep. 1, this movie was really good. The effects were amazing, the characters believable and the general story idea very good. What bothered me were the parts that didn't make any sense. How did Anakin get his arm out of that machine? How did he keep from loosing his arm in the process? Why is he able to start tearing the plant apart with a lightsaber and it keeps on working? Why is there no one to oversee things at the plant? Why did R2 knock 3PO off that drop off? Why did Padme wear that extravagant costume while pretending to be a refugee? How on earth does the way 3PO acts when he loses his head in this movie work with when he loses his head in Ep. 5? What happened to Obi-Wan that made him so totally unable to do anything, when all he had was two cuts on his leg? Then once the tense part of the scene was over, both he and Anakin just stand up and are fine! And I simply refuse to believe that they would have let those little kids have actual light sabers.

Some of the good points, however, are the fact that Anakin and Padme actually marry instead of sleeping together, Obi-wan was just generally great and it was very interesting to see the young Boba Fett. I really loved the scene in the dinner with the four armed guy. The battles were great. Yoda's fighting was very interesting. I also liked seeing the Jedi use the Force for the more ordinary jobs of life. I've always thought it didn't make sense that they didn't do that in the other movies. Anyway, I would recommend that you see it, esp. on the big screen. Just don't expect too much.

Poor Mom is getting sick I think. She was pretty much worthless today, and to top it off she got to hot. In case y'all don't know, Mom is VERY sensitive to the heat, ever since she had a heat stroke many years ago. Naomi came down sick Sunday and had to stay home from Church. I'm still feeling very drained: I'm going to be fasting tomorrow (figured I probably wouldn't want to eat anyway, with the braces just on) and if I'm not feeling better after that I'll have to go to the Dr.

Goodness...it's 10:40 and Mom still isn't home yet. Maybe I'll start my fast after breakfast tomorrow and eat my chewy stuff then. I really do need to get to bed. Guess I'll post this and then do just that. So good night and farewell!

Well, I don't have that much to say, but I thought it was about time that I posted something new here, huh?

Life continues at it's break neck pace and yet I feel as though there is nothing to write about. Isn't that strange? I can do stuff all day and hardly have a spare minute and yet when I write about it, it comes out all in one sentence. "I did school work and chores today."

Ok, so I've got a little bit to write about. One thing is that we saw the movie "you've got mail". It was...ok. The basic story idea was pretty good, but I didn't like most of the characters. But after seeing this movie I can see why people like Tom Hanks. In the all the other movies I've seen him in (Apollo 13 and Saving private Ryan) he always looks like he's about to cry, no matter what the situation. I loved the scene were he is trying to come up with an excuse for not showing up and keeps looking at his dog, trying to find inspiration. VERY funny. But otherwise it wasn't all that great.

The other kids went swimming today but I stayed home to do biology. We have an experiment we're doing tomorrow and I had to catch up on the reading. I've been trying to study for a biology test that I should have taken before Knoxville, but was too sick to do. I still haven't taken it, but I'm hoping to tomorrow.

Also saw ET. I'd seen it a long time ago when I was a kid (was?) and didn't like it much then. I still don't like it much. ET is the dumbest looking thing you could have possibly come up with and all the human characters are a bunch of jerks. That and I don't like the whole dark-with-lights-messing-up-the-shot style the movie is done in.

Oh, and I would like to say

HELLO GRANDMA!

*grins* Hey, like I said earlier, I think everybody out to have the chance to see their name written in huge letters on some bodies blogger.

In other news, I am tired. No, not as in tired right now (even though I am tired right now). I have been tired since we got back from Knoxville. I can't seem to get any energy. Mom was telling Dad just the other day, "It used to be, when you had to find Samuel, he was juggling, or fencing, or reading or something. Now, he's in his bed, asleep." It's true. I find myself just laying in bed, not even reading, just laying there. I can hardly get up in the morning. If I'm still like this by next week I plan on asking Mom if I can go to the Dr. Anyway, please pray for me.

I've been wondering lately about something said in The Hobbit. When Thorin and Co. and Gandalf are stuck in the trees about to be burned to death, it says that Gandalf was about to throw himself down at the goblins and take as many of them with him as he could. But I find it somewhat hard to believe that Gandalf the Gray could have been killed by a mere handful of goblins and wargs. Of course, we don't ever really see Gandalf the Gray fight, it's only when he is the White that he fights when we can see him. But still, I wonder, was Gandalf really about to die, or was that just what Bilbo thought? What do you think?

BTW, yes, Melissa, I know my spelling leaves something to be desired. But I'm working on it!

Good morning people!

Did I ever tell y'all about Trevor? He's Ethan's Sunday School teachers kid and he has gotten into juggling lately. He's actually progressing really fast. He's been working on body throws and has behind the back and under the leg under petty good control. I lent him some juggling clubs and a movie with some really good juggling stuff on it, so I'm excited to see where he goes with it.

I got to talk to JC yesterday! Ok, so maybe that's not THAT big of a deal, but I haven't talked to him forever! He's doing fine it would seem, but the REALLY big news is HE'S COMING TO OUR HOUSE IN AUG.!!!!!!!!!!! I am SOOOO EXCITED!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well, I entered the poam below and one of my short stories (The Son of God, if you know which one that is) and an essay on why I don't date in the library writing contest. I had been trying to write a short play as well, but it stunck to high heaven when I finished it, so I didn't enter that.

And now I'm going to get off. Farewell!

Here's something interesting I wrote. What do you think?


Of Baranck and His Fall Before the Gates of Nangarath

Twas wintertime in Baladsdare; the lake was frozen hard,
And in the town of Nangarath the gates were heavily barred.
The siege had stood for three long years and many a battle was fought
Yet still those gates stood tall and strong, though oft their fall was sought.
Beyond those gates there was a field, once fair as you could ask
But now was horrible to behold, since the enemy had set about his task.
For there they left their dead to lay, and in time they did rot,
And to a grave, with song or prayer, none were ever brought.
No badge or banner did they have, nor battle cry to shout.
None was needed to tell those who looked, what land they had been about.
With hollow eyes and faces dull and no cry when they felt pain
From a place of death did they come, the land of Brilliance was its name.
Twas on a fateful afternoon that Razdor did arrive.
A foul creature of the dead lands, just hatched from his hive.
Clad in mail from horn to hoof and wielding a great mace
He bellowed and charged the gates as though running a great race.
Yet a gleam of hope there is, as a warrior steps outside the gates
The monster looks at him in surprise and slightly checks his pace.
King Baranck it is, the last king of the Second Realm
Quick as a dear, cunning as a snake and with the strength of an elm.
He lifts his sword and gives a cry, and laughs at the mighty beast
Saying he had best return, or be made into a feast.
Slowly then, Razdor approaches, his mace held in the air
And brings the mace down at the man, hoping his bones to lay bare.
Yet the warrior is quick, and jumps to the side
With a swing of his sword, the wrist of the monster finds a blade inside.
Yet the hope was cheated, and the triumphant cry snatched away
For with a mighty kick the Kings back was broke, or so the stories say.
So the gates of Nangarath did fall and the Second Kingdom failed
Yet some escaped and left that place, those who freedom still hailed.
And one has said, though he is now dead
That from the South a hope shall come and no longer must people know dread.

Ouch.

I got spacers in yesterday in preperation for the braces I'm getting in two weeks and they hurt. I couldn't even eat a peanut butter and jelly (not grape jelly!) sandwhich for lunch! So I'm not feeling all that good....

In other news, I finished that play I've been working on. I don't like it all that much, but since the deadline is tomorrow, I guess I'll enter it anyway. I'm also going to be entering "The son of God" story I wrote two years ago and I started work on a poem I just might finish and enter. *shrugs* who knows. Or maybe I'll work on a short essey and enter that.

I can't think of anything else to write. I've written too much today.

Wow.

That's probably the best way to describe Knoxville. All the people, all the info., all the speakers, all the insights into Scripture...it just defies description. But I'll try.

Monday morning we got up at 4:30 and Ethan and I made breakfast for everyone (egg and toast sandwhichs...yum!!). We hugged Mom and Naomi goodbye (they were the only two up) and headed out at 5:30. We had planned on leaving at 5:00, but I was supprised we got away before 6:00 or 6:30, knowing how Dad is about leaving. There's not all that much to tell about the trip: we drove, and drove, and drove and finally got to Nashville sometime around 6:00 or so. We had supper, showerd, called Mom and went to bed. Next morning we got up at around 5:30 (or something like that) and packed, ate breakfast and left again. It was a short drive to Knoxville (two or three hours) and we got there sometime between 10:30 and 11:00.

Ok, it's probably time for a new paragraph. Once we got to the dorm, we checked in and brought our stuff up to the rooms. We had two rooms with a bathroom connecting them. Each room had two beds, and we had a roll-away for Ethan. The rooms were pretty small, but we spent such a small amount of time there it didn't really bother us. We called Brian's cell phone and found out that he was wondering Knoxville, lost. We had arranged to meet at a park near our dorm, but he couldn't find it. So Dad managed to direct him to us and Anna, Ethan and I went down to meet him. Ethan and I did some juggling, figuring that it would make us more visible. It was also a good chance to show off! :) So Brian pulls up in his Firebird, blaring heavy metal music, smoking something that gave off green and yellow smoke and sporting a skull and cross bones tatto on his bare chest.

Ok, so I made that last part up.

So Brian pulls up and we try to find him a parking place. HA! Those of you who have been to the ATI conferance probably understand how hard that was. Finally we had him park in a "staff only" parking place and hoped he didn't get shot. We went up to the dorms and found out that we had missed BonnieJean while going up on the elevators! So we introcuded Brian to Dad, who didn't seemed too shocked by the look of our crazy internet friend. After BonnieJean came back, we went down stairs, parked Brian's car in a legal parking place and went off to get registered for the conferance.

That was pretty funny. Brian had never even heard about ATI until a few weeks ago, when some people on the RI started talking about it. And when he first came out to meet us he was thinking it was going to be something like a couple hundered people there. So seeing all those people in navy and white and then being told that there were going to be several thousand there really supprised him. We could barely manage to talk to him, he was so busy staring at all the people!

After that, we decided to find a place to eat.

HA! Yea right. It sounds so simple in type. Just go find a place to eat. Well, let me tell you, Knoxville was built to keep people from eating. As we drove around, hungry people begged us to stop and give them food. I even saw the bodies of ATI'ers who had died of starvation during previous conferances. We drove around for half an hour (I'm not making that part up!) before findally finding a Burger King. YES! I was pretty happy about that, because that's what I had wanted all along, while Ethan kept up a constance "Taco Bell, Taco Bell, Taco Bell!" chant in an attempt to affect Dad's choice. So we go into the Burger King and ordered our food. And I'll be you can't guess who was there in the Burger King.

It was the Tall, Broad Shouldered Girl. Maybe you don't know who she is. Well, to tell you the truth, neither do I! I don't even have any idea what her name is, but I swear she has been following me ever since I was in Flint. Honestly, she has been at EVERY SINGLE ATI funtion I've been at since Life Focus. No, I am not making that up. She has been at every one! BonnieJean worked with her while in OKC, and said she was nice, but I just wonder if she has some sort of sinister motive. Why? Because it makes a much better story if she does.

Anyway, where was I, and how did I get here from there? Ah, yes, Burger King. We ordered our food (I got a chicken sandwhich...man, those things are soooo good!) and sat down and talked. Mostly about Tolkien stuff at first. I found out that Brian really likes the story of Turin. Anna just about died when she heard that, because she HATES!!!!! the story of Turin. Personally, I hate Turin, but the story is somewhat interesting. I really like the part at the end where Turin kills himself. Yea, I know that sounds horrible, but Turin deserved it times ten.

So, we talked about horrible things like that and ate our food. Then we took pictures. (see below) Then we took Anna to her first session. The conferance hadn't really started yet, but since Anna was going to be helping with COMMIT she had to go to a kinda "this is what we'll be doing, and this is what you should do" type session. Meanwhile, we dropped Brian off at his car, said goodbye and parted ways.

Hereist we have Brian and Anna and myself.

This is Anna and Brian.

Samuel and Brian.

And all of us, minus Dad, who was taking the picture.

We then sat around in our dorm room and picked our noses and wondered what we should do until it was time to go pick up Anna. I think something interesting happened then, but I can't remember what, so I'll just skip ahead to the first session.

I got to see Kalen! Yes! That was really fun, because I hadn't seen him since Focus, and since he got back from Focus phase 2 (which I didn't go to) I hadn't had much of a chance to talk to him. I actually didn't really get to talk to him much until the next day, but it was fun seeing him anyway.

The next day we all had breakfast and then Dad and Ethan headed off while BonnieJean and I drove Anna to COMMIT. We then went back to the dorms and did various things because our sessions didn't start until 9:00. BonnieJean did the Christ Centered Business track and I was in the Law and Gov. Policy track. I LOVED the Law and Gov. track! I wish I had time to write about all the stuff we did and the speakers we had, but I can't. I got to sit with Kalen most of the time, which was an added plus.

Then, that night, after all the sessions, I went outside and started juggling. A couple guys asked if I could show them some stuff, so I did a Christian routine. They liked it, so I did another. I ended up doing about a twenty minute show and had at least 50 people by the time I was done. After I finished, a little kid came up to me and asked me if I could do some more for him, since he had missed most of the show. I told him I had to get to bed (it was 9:00) but that I would do a show the next time. So I did. Anna counted and I had at least 70 people this time! I did it again on Friday night and had even more people! I'm not sure how many, but it was alot. That was really fun!

Maybe I'll be able to post more about the sessions and such latter. I need to get off now. God bless and bye!

I'm just posting to say hi and we made it back safe and bye!

'ello, 'ello, 'ello! This blog will probably be pretty short: I'm just posting to say that we'll be heading out for Knoxville early tomorrow morning. I'm very excited! Oh, and Dad finally decided to rent a mini-van for the trip. He got to working on the car on Saturday and just decided that there was too much to be done in too little time. For one thing the AC doesn't work, and that really could have been horrible in the heat. And we're going to have a ton more room, which will making packing much easier. And so we can pack clothes for each day and won't have to do laundery! Man...I really need to learn to spell...

Not much else to say for now. I'm really looking forward to going. And meeting up with Brian. So I guess I'll close this blog and see you sometime next week!

I am tired. Very tired. I think I'm fighting getting sick too. Last night I stayed up until 12:30 working on the van, which wasn't fun, but

WE GOT THE VAN FIXED!!!

Yes, yes, yes! Dad drove it to work today,and as far as I know it hasn't caused any problems yet. So Mom will have a car when we go to Knoxville (we're leaving Monday! Ahh,so soon!).

Our library is having a writing contest and I'm trying to write a play to enter. It's interesting. It's a comedy about a couple actors and a playwrite. One is very high strung (like my brother Isaac), the other, dude, he's like...you know...dude. And the playwrite is an emotionall unstable "artsty" person. Maybe I'll post it when I'm done.

Math is driving me nuts. Two days ago I tried doing and simply couldn't do it. My brain just wouldn't work. Then yesterday I got 3/4 of the problems wrong. I think I'm going to die. And I've got to get off too, so good bye! God bless!

Good afternoon...if it is a good afternoon. I'm feeling sick. I got almost no school done. I have to do my biology test on Friday and I can't even think enough to study for it. I'm amazed I can think enough to stare at the computer screen.

But, in spite of all that, I had a BLAST at my party yesterday. Tim and Amy and Amy's mom came at about 11:30 and didn't leave until 6:30! We juggled, and talked and ate (and ate and ate...) and even put on a little juggling show. It was the first time I'd seen any of their show, so I really enjoyed it. The best part was when Tim juggled Caleb (three years old). He had two balls in one hand and Caleb in the other. He almost started and then decided he should practice yet, so he got out a baby doll and juggled it, finishing with throwing the doll high, spinning around and not catching it. He then kicks the doll out of the way and declares he is ready for Caleb. Mom was freaking out. He threw the two balls up, switched Caleb from one arm to the other, caught the balls, flashed them again, switched....etc. It was really good and Caleb loved it. They also passed six clubs with Dad in the middle, which was very funny...for us anyway! I don't know if Dad liked it that much.

Then I did several of my Christian routines and probably had one of my best performances ever. I got almost every trick on the first try. I even did one routine were I was supposed to drop on the first try and ended up catching it! :)

It looks like we're not going to get to see Ep.2 until after Knoxville...that was a real bummer. But I guess we'll live. Dad actually said that once we got the van fixed that Mom could take ALL of us kids (even Caleb!) to see it! That should be a blast: I think Caleb will probably be going nuts, yelling things like "BEN JEDI!! BEN JEDI!!!!" and such.

I got my cavities filled this morning. It was actually pretty quick, I just didn't like having my mouth be totally dead for several hours afterwards. It's fine now though, so I guess I'll live. I hope I'll live...

Hello, hello! I know, I haven't blogged in awhile. But it's not my fault this time! Don't look at me like that, honest, it's not! Caleb spilled some coke on the keyboard and killed it, so we have been without a keyboard. But this new one has got all sorts of hotkeys and such on it, so I don't mind too much. It actually came with a CD that we had to install to run it! That was nice though because we got Windows Media Player with it. Friday night we had a fun time playing the LOTR soundtrack and looking at the different visualizations they had!

The van is not working right now. As it has been for the past week almost! Dad is having a horrible time getting the fuel pump to work. I spent most of Friday (Dad has every other Friday off) working with him on it. It was miserable. I soaked my pants with gas twice, and got an awful headache. Half the time was spent under the van laying on the pavement! And to top it off, I couldn't really complain, because Dad was going through the same thing. And it had to be done, so I couldn't really ask to be let free! I managed to survive it (barely!) though.

Oh, which reminds me of what I did on Thursday night. We were trying to get a siphon to the fuel pump with a little pump that Dad had gotten at Wall-Mart. We were both under the van, Dad was pumping and I was holding the hose into the big pickle jar we were using to catch the gas in (don't worry, it didn't have any pickles in it!). Well, I got to looking at something else and didn't notice that I had ended up pointing the hose right at Dad! He gave a mighty pump and got it full in the face! He had his glasses on,and wasn't breathing in at the moment, so it wasn't too bad, but I sure felt awful about it! He took it well though and things went fine. I just hope he doesn't decide to get even one of these days and spray me! :)

BonnieJean has been working on her application for the Paralegal program alot lately. She's done 6 of the 8 essay questions. She says their pretty good question, although I think a couple are kinda dumb. "Describe how your beliefs are consistent with the statement of faith." Describe? It either is or isn't! ;) She will be taking the English CLEP in the next week or so, which she needs to have for the program (she needs a score of 55 or higher). Next week she has to write an essay for the application as well.

Let's see, my walk with God has been interesting lately. Much as I hate to admit it, I am not the most regular with my Bible reading. But in the past several weeks I've been making sure to read at least 5 chapters everyday. I'm trying to read through the Bible. It's been kinda a test of if I am willing to work on my relationship with God. Will I read my five chapters today? I would rather do my history and I've REALLY got to make sure to do my biology...but will I read it anyway? And the next day? And the next? Through Leviticus? Numbers? I've only missed one day so far though, so things are really going good. I was reading in Ex. not long ago, and something really stood out to me. After they left Egypt and went into the wilderness, the people got thirsty. So the complained, and then Mosses asked God what to do and he gave then water. And the same story with food. And later, with water. And again later. And again. And again. Several times Moses tries to make them see that they should be going to God when they have needs, yet they never do. I wonder what God would have done if they had turned to him instead of murmuring against Moses. Oh, that reminds me of something. Remember when Lot was leaving his home and the angles told him to fly to the mountains? He didn't want to, so he asked them if he could go to a small town near by. They said he could and so he did. You know what the name of that city meant? Leanness. It's interesting that God will often give us what we want when we insist on it, yet it's never as good. And guess were Lot ended up before long. The mountains. Lot makes an really interesting study. He was what we would call a carnal Christian. You can see through his life how he always ended up in trouble somehow. He was saved, sure, but he didn't let God be the Lord of his life and he paid the price for it his whole life. \

I'm really cramming so I can graduate next May. I've fallen kinda far behind and am paying for it now. I'm pretty certain I can have it all done in time though. The only thing that really worries me is math. I'm going on at a pretty good pace right now, but I don't know if I'm going to have to slow down. I hope to get two more math books done this year. I figure I should be able to get one book done in 4 months. I've got about twenty school days per month, and with two lessons a day (which I can manage without much trouble) I should get 40 lessons done a month. With about 140 lessons in a book, that should take me three and a half months. So if I make sure I get it done every day I can do it.

Don't you hate that when your writing someone and you know you've just got a million things to tell them, and not a single one of them will come out of the dark deep caverns of your mind? Their hiding back in there somewhere, but you don't dare actually go in there and look for them because there's this huge beast called Confusion and Disorder in there and it just might eat you! So you have to sit outside the cavern and wait for a thought to peek it's head out of the door and you try to grab it, and sometimes it even bites your hand. And then the sun goes down and you get tired and go to sleep and all those thoughts come and dance around you, and if you wake up you're too sleepy to grab them, and they sing songs about how stupid you are. I just hate that.

Saturday morning we got some chickens! Some friends of ours were getting rid of some of theirs, so we took them. We have 13: a roster and 12 hens. We're hoping that the foxes don't get them: there are alot around here. We will be getting the chicken coop as soon as we can get the van working, so we can get it out of the driveway into the back yard!

Church was pretty good today. I'm not going to the College and Career Sunday school class anymore. They didn't want anybody who hadn't graduated in the class, so I went to the adult class for awhile, but their teacher is REALLY boring. He always talks about the same thing. So now I'm going to the high school boys class. I hadn't been able to get to know anybody in the adult class (it was weird, even people who would normally talk to me acted like I didn't exist while in that class), I figured I'd rather have a good teacher and no fellowship than a boring teacher and no fellowship. I'm really starting to wonder if this church is really were God wants us. I know I wouldn't mind if we left it. There's only one other guy in my class who seems even remotely interested in Spiritual things. It really is annoying. Oh well...I guess I'll just have to servive...and if I don't, oh well. Such is life (dieing? Life? But if you're dead, then your not alive...but dieing is a part of life...now I'm really confused!)

Ok, here's an interesting question. Look at the last sentance above. It's all one sentance, but there are three inside the (). So, do I put a period after the ), or do I not because I've got that ! in there?

Christina, go ahead and post! We won't eat you....right away.

Oh, btw, let's all keep Mike in our prayers, he's heading off to WA DC today.