Man, I've been thinking lately about all the cool people that God has put in my life. It's really amazing when you start to list their names...there's a ton! So here's a list of AWESOME PEOPLE in my life.

BonnieJean: BJ is one of the most awesome-ist people around. She smart, spiritually minded, kind, productive, focused and just all round a blast. She's great to be serious with, and great to be silly with.

Mama: Mom probably shares the number one spot with BJ. It's hard to discribe how awesome Mom is. I love talking to her, on any subject. You'd think that after almost nineteen years, we'd run out of new things to say...no way! Mom has got interesting thoughts on just about everything.

David C: David is amazing. An amazing juggler, an amazing performer, an amazing mentor...just generally amazing. He's been a huge blessing.

JC: Wow, were do you start with JC? My first really good friend outside of my family, JC and I learned a ton together. He'll always listen to you when you have problems, but he doesn't always side with you...which can be good.

Mr. Murry: When you look up "humility" in the dictionary, there is a picture of Mr. Murry. I'm telling you, they don't come any cooler than him. An amazing instructor, an amazing Christian, an amazing martial artist, he's just awesome. Let me tell you a short story. Last year Mr. Murry was promoted from 3rd degree black belt to 5th degree. Now, if I was promoted to 5th degree, I would have jumped into my car right then and driven at highly illegal speeds to the hardware store and purchased the tape for putting those stripes on my belt. I would have run up and down the store, yelling at the top of my voice "I'm a 5th degree! YEA! I'm a 5th degree!" What did Mr. Murry do? Nothing. He didn't even get around to putting those extra stripes on his belt for two weeks!

Mrs. Murry: Man, hate to think how our dojo would run without Mrs. Murry. She is the lady behind the man. She's creative, fun and just generally cool.

Jen: I don't really know Jen all that well (a great loss for me, I know) but she still makes my awesome people list just because she's so cool. She's wacky and crazy and spiritual and thoughtful and a blast and I love her blogger.

Alicia: Another person I don't really know all that well, but she's awesome too. She's fun to hang around with, always ready to help you learn and a good teacher. And girls who enjoy sparring are always cool.

Chera: Another super cool person who I don't know all that well. Chera has an awesome blog and she's a dear.

Sneff: Sneff has got to be one of the coolest people I've ever known. In the last couple years she's really back slidden in her faith and I don't have much contact with her anymore, but I still treasure all those whacky times we had together.

Tammy: Tammy is the lady who trained me at work. She's so cool it's hard to describe. She's been through alot and has an amazing testimony of God giving you the power to forgive. She's an amazing teacher, both gymnastics and how to teach gymnastics. BTW, her daughter, Erin, is also really cool: she's the junior high level 9 gymnastics champion. Just watching her practice is amazing.

Samantha: One of my students, I call her my "Smilely Girl", 'cause she's always got such a huge grin on her face. She's a blast to teach.

Shelby: Another student, Shelby is my tumbler...she loves to tumble and stays a few minutes after each class so I can work with her on something. I love students who love learning!

Alison: Probably the cutest little student I have. She's 7 years old and the tinyist little thing around. She doesn't do gymnastics: she attacks it! Whenever she comes to the bar (which is were I end up working with her, most of the time) she has a hungry look in her eye: she's just waiting to get on that thing and show it who's boss. She's a blast!

Here's an some interesting things y'all might enjoy.



He spoke with the wisdom that can only come from experience, like a guy who went blind because he looked at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it and now goes around the country speaking at high schools about the dangers of looking at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it.

She grew on him like she was a colony of E. coli and he was room temperature prime English beef.

He was as tall as a six-foot-three-inch tree.

The revelation that his marriage of 30 years had disintegrated because of his wife's infidelity came as a rude shock, like a surcharge at a formerly surcharge-free ATM.

The little boat gently drifted across the pond exactly the way a bowling ball wouldn't.

Her hair glistened in the rain like a nose hair after a sneeze. (gross!)

John and Mary had never met. They were like two hummingbirds who had also never met.

Even in his last years, Granddad had a mind like a steel trap, only one that had been left out so long, it had rusted shut.

The plan was simple, like my brother-in-law Phil. But unlike Phil, this plan just might work.

The young fighter had a hungry look, the kind you get from not eating for a while.

It hurt the way your tongue hurts after you accidentally staple it to the wall.

Her eyes were like two brown circles with big black dots in the center.

Bob was as perplexed as a hacker who means to access T:flw.quid55328.com\aaakk/ch@ung but gets T:\flw.quidaaakk/ch@ung by mistake.

Long separated by cruel fate, the star-crossed lovers raced across the grassy field toward each other like two freight trains, one having left Cleveland at 6:36 p.m. traveling at 55 mph, the other from Topeka at 4:19 p.m. at a speed of 35 mph

The thunder was ominous-sounding, much like the sound of a thin sheet of metal being shaken backstage during the storm scene in a play.

She caught your eye like one of those pointy hook latches that used to dangle from doors and would fly up whenever you banged the door open again.

The red brick wall was the colour of a brick-red crayon.

Shots rang out, as shots are wont to do. (that's a bad metaphor?)

He was as lame as a duck. Not the metaphorical lame duck either, but real duck that was actually lame. Maybe from stepping on a land mine or something.

Her artistic sense was exquisitely refined, like someone who can tell butter from "I Can'tBelieve It's Not Butter."

She had a deep, throaty, genuine laugh, like that sound a dog makes just before it throws up.

It came down the stairs looking very much like something no one had ever seen before.

The dandelion swayed in the gentle breeze like an oscillating electric fan set on medium.

It was a working class tradition, like fathers chasing kids around with their power tools.

He was deeply in love. When she spoke, he thought he heard bells, as if she were a trash truck in reverse.

Her voice had that tense, grating quality, like a first-generation thermal paper fax machine that needed a band tightened.

Well, hello there. And how are you doing on this fine Tuesday afternoon?

I'm doing very well. I had poison ivy on my right arm, but I got so sick of it that Saturday night I took a rag and just scrubbed the skin off. Yes, I know that sounds gross, but seriously, it feels much better. Pain, to a certain extent, can be ignored and lived with. Itching cannot. I would much rather have a moderate pain than a moderate itch.

Saturday we went to the G's for Brittany's graduation reception (the same Brittany of the previous post). We had a real good time and ended up staying a good deal longer than planned.

This Saturday is going to be very busy. First is the CHEF graduation at ORU (I've got four friends who will be graduating there...no wait...five or six). Then we'll be going to a wedding that afternoon. And then we'll be going to a graduation reception for another friend that night. So it will be an interesting day for us.

I'll probably be getting my driving licence in early June. That will be really cool. I'm still looking for work. It's supprising how many people are not hiring for the summer. As soon as I graduate (sometime in the next couple weeks) I'll be able to re-apply at Centralift, were I would REALLY like to work.

I'm not going to be able to go to college this fall. I simply don't have the money for it. So I'll be spending the next year working as much as I can re-apply for some of the academic scholarship that I didn't get this time. I'll probably start taking some CLEP test as well, so hopefully I can get a few hours of my general credits out of the way.

When I first came to that discision (put off college for at least a year) I was feeling pretty despressed about it. Until I realized that I'm not actually behind the curve: I'm simply taking the curve backwards! Most people go to college and then work to pay for it. I'm going to be working to pay for it and then going to college. So I'm not such a total failure after all! :)

In fact I'm starting to really look forward to this next year. I'll get to do a bunch of stuff that I've been wanting to do. I'll be able to make some of those short films I've been wanting to do for years. I'll be able to spend a lot of time working on my karate. Hopefully I'll start going into to Mr. Burnets class on Tuesday, in addition to the Monday night class. I'll probably be able to work at Gymnastics City for another year, something I'm really happy about, 'cause I've got several students who I feel are going to go far, and I want to be there to help them. I'm also really looking forward to summer camps this year, 'cause I've got several level 3's that I'm wanting to bring up to level 4 for next year.

I wrote the following to give to all my friend who are graduating, along with three butterfingers. I thought y'all might enjoy it.

Dear Friends,
So you�re graduating. You�ve probably had lots of people talk about how great that is, and you may even be somewhat excited. Don�t you believe them for a minute. It�s only downhill from here.
First off, graduation is a sign of your growing age. Face it: it�s only a few years until you�ll be needing that walker. While you were in high school you could ignore it, but now you must realize that you�re almost half-way to Over The Hill.
With your age come the health problems. And rest assured that the prices for your drugs will only go up. I recommend that you begin laying plans to rob a bank sometime soon, before you�re too decrepit to do it.
Of course you couldn�t be graduating at a worse time, either. Any job you try to get has either been outsourced, or already taken by an illegal alien. You might want to go ahead and get some of those unemployment forms and start filling them out.
With this step toward independence (and don�t even get me started on independence!) comes the pressure towards marriage. Everyone expects it of you, and they will bug you about it until you give in. I suggest that you just resign yourself to the inevitable and pick a random name out of the phone book.
Lots of you will be going to college soon. Man, it�s really going to get bad for you guys. You might as well start practicing for it now. Eat only one small meal a day. Stay up until 3:00 am every night staring at something written in Greek (that�s about how much sense your textbooks are going to make). Now write a 400 page essay on it. Or maybe it�d be faster if you just went ahead and shot yourself in the head.
The 21st century is probably the worst one you could be alive in. It won�t be long before the ice caps melt, leaving only 40 square feet of ground above water for the Earth�s 6 billion people. Of course if you want to look at the bright side, at least your job won�t be outsourced anymore.
In recognition of your achievement I�ve given you three Butterfingers in a plastic sack. This is highly symbolic. Butterfingers represent the fact that you will be fighting cavities for the rest of your unhappy life. The plastic bag represents the fact that everything is now bio-degradable, except for things you want to go away, like liberals. They�re here to stay. And the number three represents the fact that I am too cheap to buy you four.
Dejectedly yours,
Samuel

Ok, so I'm in the back room at the dojo last night, stretching. There's several other people in the room, doing kata or stretching. I'm talking quietly to Ricky and Josiah. Everything is in every way totally normal. The atmosphere is calm and almost subdued, like the quiet before a storm (good heavens, now I'm waxing poetic!) Then in walks Brittany G (one of our black belts). Now normally, when she walks in I look at her and smile and she smiles back. Maybe somebody says something to her as she puts her gear down by the wall. Like I said, everything is calm and before the stormish (so much so that you might even find yourself waxing poetic writing about it...) Well, this time, Brittany walks in the room, I turn and smile, fulling expecting a smile and maybe a nod back. But instead, she gives me a rather odd looks, cocks her head slightly to the side and declares in a simi-incredulous voice:

"You are SO weird!"

Now, as you guys know full well, I have never made a secret of my weirdness (I love my lips, anyone?) In fact I am quite proud of it. But I must admit that this loud declaration of the obvious took me rather by supprise. So in response I waxed eloquent.

"And in what particular way has my wierdness manifested itself this time?" I was pretty pleased with myself at coming up with that reply. In spite of my countinued supprise at her exclamations, I still managed to place a small, self satisfied grin on my face. Brittany, obviously stunned by the brillance of my razor sharp mind, replied:

"What?" This came as a rather crushing blow. You know how there's times that call for a witty comeback and your brain totally freezes? It's like there's a mental block there (just a random note...when I wrote "mental block", I started thinkig about ice burgs...why's that?) Well, this was one of those rare times when I actually came up with a response and without any warning I had shown forth my astounding brilliance. And what does she do in response to my amazingness? "What?" Isn't life just a bumer sometimes?

But back to my story. Seeing that she was not understanding my brilliance, I decided to say it in a simpler way (she is, after all, home schooled). "In what way was I wierd this time?"

"Well, I was on the web and I found this site, "Random Ramblings". You are so wierd!"

Now everything became clear. Of course! My mind went to the quiz results I had posted, declaring that I was TECSOL A-2 Solvent, Anhydrous. But seemingly she was most (shocked? impressed? What word should I put here?) by the story of Fredrickk with the two k's.

Anyway, I thought that was a rather humorous happening.

And now you've been waiting for. My recounting of the tournament! I didn't do well in kata. I got 7.0, 7.0 and 8.0 Rats. Most of the people in my division were pathetic. Absolutly horrible kata. It was sad. But there were probably about 6 or 7 who did really, really good. Anna won fourth with her kata! Out of about 30 people! That's so cool! Joshua won first in kata! WOW-WHO! YEA! Ethan didn't place. I fought very poorly and lost my first fight. Rats again. Anna got third in fighting...although it wasn't actually earned...there were only six fighters in her division and she lost her only fight...but by a quirk of fate she was beat by the girl who won first, so she got third. Ethan didn't place in fighting. Joshua got third (very cool).

Man I'm telling you, BattleCreek advanced girls rocked that night. Alica (one of our brown belts) won fighting in her division. Christina G. (black belt) won first in her division. Brittany G. (black) won first in her division. So we had nothing but BattleCreek people competing for womans grand champion! How cool is that? Brittany won (which was not a big supprise).

Mr. Murry won first in his division (totally no supprise) and competed for men's grand champion, but he was beat out by the guy who ended up winning. This guy was fighting extremely hard, doing take downs alot and slamming them really hard on the floor. In fact he was fighting a bit too hard, IMHO. Oh well, Mr. Murry fought well anyway.

Wan-Kan, our demo team, did their demo in the middle of the finals and then the gospel was presented. Several people accepted Christ! How cool is that?

Ok, Mom is making me get off now. I'll talk to y'all later! God bless!

Ok, ok, I guess it's time I posted a real, honest to goodness update...not a quiz or test results or something...

I'm up to my eyeballs in math. I hate Albegra. WHO CARES what 4N(3-4.86)-P is equal to? I'll (supposedly) be graduating on the 29th of next month. That's not nearlly enough time to finish my math...or actually it is...if I can just make myself do it. It's just really hard to do 3 lessons a day when you have to wait for Dad to come home to help you with half of it. Man, do I miss BonnieJean!

Speaking of which, I got to talk to her yesterday. That was real fun. She is considering staying over there for fully a year longer than she had first planned (for a grand total of 1 and a half years!) Needless to say I'm about to go nuts at the thought, but I guess as on long as she's in God's will she'll be fine.

Tomorrow is the ABKA National Karate Tournament. I haven't been this nervous since piano recitals when I was a kid. Normally performing doesn't bother me: in fact I love being in front of a croud. But this isn't going to be fooling a bunch of non-jugglers into thinking I'm cool: I'll be performing for black belts: there will be no fooling them. Monday night I worked on my kata a lot with one of the black belts after class. He seemed pretty pleased with it, but I'm still very nervous. It'd be cool if I did well in fighting (hey, it'd be cool if I won!) but what I'm really, really, REALLY wanting is to take first in kata.

Anna is going to do really well in kata. In fact I would not be at all surprised if she won. Her stances are looking really good and her transitions are awesome. Sometimes she has trouble putting power into her punches, but I'm really excited about how she'll do.

And on the other end of the scale, we have Ethan. Ethan will probably do very poorly in kata. Anna and I have both started working on our compitition kata 4 months ago. Ethan started only about 4 weeks ago. He simply doesn't know the kata well enough, nor has he had the time work over all the little details with a black belt. And to top it off with, he won't listen to Anna or I. Some of the simplist things, like chambering high for a kick, he tries to argue with us about. "It's high enough: my kick is getting up there!" Well, so? They're stilling going to see a low chamber and they won't like it! You've been learning that since you were a white belt! ARGG!!!

Joshua will probably do ok. I was watching his kata earlier today and while not great, it's not horrible either. I've been trying to get him to keep his hands tight lately: he's trying to punch or backfist with a totally loose hand and it looks really bad. I'm afraid he won't do very well in fighting: he fought a guy about his size and level on Monday and was beaten really bad. Oh well. I'm sure he'll have a good time. Joshua is a really good sport, which I gues is more important.

And now I need to get off. Good bye, and farewell, my adoring fans!

TECSOL A-2 Solvent, Anhydrous: You are an industrial solvent marketed as TECSOL Special Industrial Solvent by Eastman Chemical Company. You are available as both 95% and anhydrous. You are denatured with methyl alcohol and methyl isobutyl ketone. Find out what kind of industrial solvent you are

And on top of that....

You copy other people's HTML and blindly paste it into your own pages with no concern for the consequences. What kind of Hummel figurine are you?

This one is strange...

You are Fresh Step Scoopable With Baking Soda What brand of scooping cat litter are you?

*walks in, looking confused* Something about this place seems so familier, like I've been here before...long long ago. Maybe in another life...or at least a different month.

Ok, I'm back! For how long I don't know, but I am.

I'm keeping busy with school work, tax stuff (it's driving me nuts) and looking for a job. I'm really hoping to get in at centralift (bakerhughes.com) or QuikTrip (quiktrip.com). I've talked to people at both: Centralift told me I had to graduate first, QuikTrip said they'd call the district hiring manager. I'm hoping something happens there.

May 1st is the ABKA tournament. I can't beleive it's going to be so soon. I'll be doing Wansi-Sho for the kata compitition and will be doing Wansi-hope-to-live-through-it for the fighting. Sure, it would be nice to win a fight or two: hey, it would be nice to win first place! But I doubt that will happen. So I'm spending a lot of time working on the kata, because I would really, REALLY like to win in kata.

Sunday I was feeling like writing something which would have no real value to the world, and so I came up with this. Please forgive the spelling.
----------------------------------
One doesn't like to wake up in the morning only to find a dead body has come into your home, made a pot of coffee, poured himself a cup (and made use of your best creamer) and is happily awaiting your waking so he may eat you for breakfast.
Fortunately for me, on the morning in question, such a thing had not occured. In fact, to my limited knowledge, something of that sort has never occured, but you must admit that it sure did a lot to grab your attention right at the start.
However, on the morning in question, there was somebody waiting for me, and indeed someone almost as bad as the aformentioned zombie. It was my cousin Fredrickk, who had several annoying habits (not least of which was insisting on placing two k's at the end of his name), and probably the most annoying of these was his amazing ability to totally ruin your breakfast. He did this through a combination of snide remarks about the cooking, loud chewing noises, and his own unique hair style. But the worst of it was that you knew there would be no getting rid of him until you had given ("loaned" was the word he liked) him the amount he was asking you for every three and a half minutes.
In fact, when I had first made my fortune in the commimorative rubber band industry, I had taken several steps to see to it that he would never be able to find me. First I had changed my legal name and then hired a local gang to burn the building holding the records of the change. Moving to the most obscure part of the nation I could find, I settled in a small town in eastern Washington. I then had all the citizens placed under hypmotizim so that none of them knew I lived there. Plastic sergery gave me another face, I had my finger prints altered, my voice box changed and my iris pattern redone. Next I placed a moat around my house, a thorny hedge, a poison ivy hedge, machine gun bobby traps and razor wire. I released large dogs, bulls and poisonis snakes onto the property, and then placed thirty-two seperate kinds of locks on every door.
Apparently however, my efforts had not been enough, for when I came down to breakfast on that morning, Fredrickk was already sitting at the table, louding eating my toast. His hair style (too horrindous to describe) was even more annoying than usual.
"Why dear old Thomas!" he cried around the food in his mouth, "This food is absolutly horrible! Do you want to join me for breakfast?"
"YOU are inviting ME to breakfast at MY HOUSE?" I thundered.
"Yes I am!" he replied, helping himself to my eggs, "Downright generous of me, isn't it? By the way, can you loan me a million dollars?"
"Why should I do that?"
"Because if you don't, then I'll stay here and eat a lot more than a million dollars worth of this awful food. I can take a cheque if you don't have cash on hand."
"Never!" I cried, determined that this time he wouldn't get a red cent out of me.
He looked hurt. "Hey, now that's really mean of you. You know most guys would demand cash, but here I am, willing to put myself through all sorts of trouble for you and all you do is yell at me. It's things like this that wound a man for life, you know."
"Well, maybe it will wound you to death!" I ranted.
"Oh, no fear of that! I'll just keep eating this deplorible food until you see reason."

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

Crazy, no?

Last week I did a round-off, backhandsrping, back tuck all by myself! It was really cool. Last night I did it several times, although I messed up a lot (actually, I messed back a lot: if I had gone up there wouldn't have been a problem!)

I need to get off now. God bless, talk to y'all later!

Take my Quiz on QuizYourFriends.com!

2-6-04

Well, howdy, howdy, howdy! I just sat down to write BonnieJean and then realized that I don't have anywhere to send an email, so I guess I'll post this on my blogger and make it a letter/blog entry.

That's so cool about your class going so well during karate class! Everybody was very interested in hearing about you. I can't wait to tell Mr. Murry about what you said!

Speaking of karate, it was pretty fun. I did the first class with Isaac and actually learned something really interesting. Remember how when y'all learned the backfist Anna and I were in Memphis? So I never was actually taught the backfist. What I was doing was holding my hand as though I had just finished a descending hammerfist and swinging from my elbow to strike (if that makes any sense). Then Mr. Murry taught us the backfist in first class and it turns you that you're supposed to throw it like a hammerfish, turning it over into a backfist at the last moment to get that "snap". So I've had to totally re-learn my backfist, but it feels much better now.

In second class we worked on basics all together and then partnered up and worked on sparring componets: in close, hands only, kicks only, body shots only, etc. Mr. Garza took several of us aside and had us do slightly different stuff. It was pretty fun. I had hoped to grab Mr. Davis after class and fight a little bit, but wasn't able to. However, Rachel Baker said she'd fight me next week, which should be pretty fun: she's a good fighter.

Monday afternoon I had my follow-up with Mr. Brown, the guy at the ORU career guidance office. He sure is a character! what a blast! He said I'm very much the business starter type. At one point when we were talking about film directing he actually got out of his chair and started pacing! After my meeting with him I went by the Fin-Aid office and got the verification forms for us.

Anna and I sparred some today. She's getting much better at being consistently aggrasive when fighting me. She's got about a forty percent chance of hitting me when she charges, while when she lets me come to her she only has about a ten percent chance. I have a lot of trouble when we fight no-break, because we're in such a small space and I can't block forever. So I just keep on leaning backwards and end up falling down on the couch. I guess I'm going to have to learn to keep my feet under me and to take a few, rather than trying to block everything (which isn't working anyway!) Then Ethan and I sparred a good deal as well. He's starting to develop a really solid round house that he doesn't telegraph nearly as much as he used to. I've starting using a combination that Mr. Murry showed us last week and I'm really, really liking it. When you are in an opposite stance from the other fighter, throw a ridge hand with your back hand. For example, if your in a left stance, you throw a right ridge hand to chudan, stepping forward into a right stance as you do so. From there you transfer into a right backfist. It's been working extremely well and I can't wait to try it on some different fighters at class.

I got behind in math at the end of last week and have been working like crazy ever since then to catch up. I did four lessons on Wednesday, four on Thrusday, four today and if I do four tomorrow I'll be caught up. I'm not having much trouble with going that fast, because they're focusing on a couple concepts right now and introducing new stuff very slowly.

So far nobody has given us an answer on going to TeenPact with us. Josh Garza said his parents are talking about it and Sarah However-You-Spell-Her-Last-Name (the one related to the Sova's) said they might possibly go. I know Jordan Baker is going, but I'm not sure which one he's going to.

So, BonnieJean, why haven't you posted on your blogger any? If you want me to, I can set up comments for you (I finally figured it out! Which is a good thing, 'cause I didn't want to risk losing the favor of Hannah by asking her to help me once again with comments.) Oh, did you know that Kelly Holliday and fam. have started karate? Don't you think Kelly would be just a total blast to do karate with?

Tuesday night at tumbling class I did five back hand springs in a row! They weren't the best I've ever done, but I did it! I also did round-off four back hand springs for Mom, which was cool. I'm starting to think I may quit class in a couple months: I have access to Tammy every Wednesday and Josh every Wednesday and Thursday. Josh can teach and spot just as well as Kevin, and Tammy is much better than Kevin. I have plenty of time to practice when the floor is free.

BonnieJean, as for posting on your blogger. Log in and blick on "BJ's Babblings" on the right hand side. This should take you to a page that has two parts: the top part is a blank for for you to write in and the bottom shows you your previous post. (If it doesn't, look at the very top: you'll see three links ("Posts", "Settings" and "Template") make sure it's on the "post" one.) Enter your blogger entry in the top part of that page. Then CC your entry, because sometimes it can get lost if there is some sort of problem. Now on the upper right hand corner click "Post and Publish" (Not the post button). And that should post it to your blogger! If you want to edit a post, look in the bottom of the two parts of your screen. Click "edit" on the post you want to edit. It will appear in the top. Edit it, then click "Post and Publish" once again! And that's all it takes! *grins*

PS How do y'all like the new text color? lol

1-30-04

Well hello to my adoring fans. It's been a little while since I updated, but I have good reason. Sunday BonnieJean headed off for Taiwan, so all of last week was spent getting everything ready for her to leave. Then after she left everybody got sick. Anna and Naomi were throwing up last night, Isaac and Joshua two nights before that. I'm feeling really bad right now. I suppose the good thing is that I started feeling bad after the juggling show I had this afternoon.

Speaking of which, it went pretty well. It was actually a home school co-op clowning class that I performed for (no, I have not become a clown!) I did about twenty minutes of Christian juggling and then about twenty minutes of talking about Christian ministry and juggling ministry in partiular.

Monday we got a snow storm, which prevented us going to karate. So instead we cleared out the living room and had our own mini class. We worked mostly on the basic katas, trying to get them exactly perfect.

2-1-04

Can you beleive it's already the second month of the year? Amazing.

BonnieJean called us yesterday. She talked for an hour and a half. It was a blast. Except the cell phone she was on kept fading out, which made it kinda hard to talk to her.

The stuff written on the 30th was written when I was feeling really, really sick. I had been laying in bed for several hours and about 10:30 PM I couldn't lay still anymore. So I came into the kitchen and wrote some.

Last night we watched Pirates of the Carribean with Dad. I didn't except he would like it that much, but he actually did. Every time I see that movie I enjoy it more. And it has some of the best lines!

"I'm terribly sorry, I didn't know. If I see any, I shall inform you immediatly."

"You're off the map. Here there be monsters!"

"Aye, the compass doesn't point North, but we aren't trying to find North, are we?"

"You'd best start beleiving in ghost stories, Miss Turner. You're in one!"

"I always liked you."

"That was for the smell."

"Jack, you should know better than to wake a man when he's sleeping! It's bad luck!"

"'Must have been terrible for you Jack...' WELL IT BLOODY IS NOW!"

"But why is the rum gone?"

"No surviours? Then were do the stories come from?"

"Dambed be whoever came up with the word 'parley'!" "That would be the French."


"Hmm?" "HUUmm..." "hhuUUMM?" "HuMMMM. Hmm-UUUmmmMM..." "The kid?" (only makes sense if you've seen it).

"Aye, sea turtles!" "What did he use for rope?"

"So we're all men of our word! Except of course Elizibeth, who is in fact a woman."

"That's interesting."

"You're supposed to be dead!" "Am I not?"

*ahem* Anyway.

BonnieJean says she's going to be getting a blogger. That will be cool.

Tomorrow I'm going to a meeting with the ORU career counsler to talk about my major and my career plans. BonnieJean went about a week and a half ago and said it was a really interesting meeting. I've seen the guy guy before a couple times and he seems like a real character.

I can't think of anything to write. Please forgive the horrible spelling. Farewell!

Life is crazy.

Maybe I can tell you about it later.

Alright, I'm updating, finally. It's amazing how time get's away with you and you look at your blog and say "Wow! I need to update!"

Friday afternoon I did an unsupported rising elbow break. Anna got it on the video camera and I took the still off of it.

That's pretty cool, huh?

Last week I learned about a scholarship worth between $60,000 and $4,000 over four years. Of course the idea of $60,000 was really cool, so I decided to apply. Only problem was the deadline was three days away. Ok I figure, I'll have to hurry. Well, because of the stupid website for the scholarship and because of stupid Y! mail, I wasn't able to get the application until a day and a half before the deadline! So Mom and I ran around like chickens with our heads cut off and finally managed to get it on time, just barely!

Saturday Mom dropped Anna, Joshua and I off at the dojo to watch the black belt testing. There is a testing every six months and this time our dojo was hosting it, which was cool. We didn't have anybody testing for black, but one of our instructors was testing for his third degree black. He did some very cool kata in spite of the fact that he was coughing and sniffing through the whole thing. He got his belt. Two of our brown belts tested for their first degree brown (the belt just below black). All the other people were from other dojo's: about 8 or 10 people testing for black and one other fellow testing for third degree. The whole thing was all very cool: we watched some really neat breaks and some very good fights. It was also interesting to see people from other dojo's do kata and compare it to how we do it.

One of the little girls I worked with in Memphis asked me to write her a poem. I couldn't think of what to write, so I wrote about not know what to write. I thought y'all might find it amusing.

So you want a poem? An artistic arrangement of words?
Something that rhymes, and maybe mentions birds?
I suppose I'll have to oblige you and wrack my little brain
For some lines that are witty and avoid those that are lame.

Well, here goes, and please do wish me luck,
For I feel rather unable, like when trying to back a truck.
But just for you I shall do my best and hope that no one laughs
As I stumble around on my poetic legs, like an unsteady newborn calf.

But what to write my poem on? What shall the topic be?
Should I write of a sunset? a pretty thing, we all agree,
Or of a piece of old newspaper, floating in the wind,
Carrying the headline "Brits manufacture tin"?

This is indeed a big question, one that requires great thought
Perhaps I should form a committee, before whom it would be brought.
Or of course I could flip a coin, much like Jonah's shipmates,
But maybe not, because then Jonah was almost fish bait.

What method then should I use? Oh, how shall I decide?
Is there no answer to this question, will it forever with me abide?
Surely there is some way, a clearly marked path
Whereby a poet may write, and his head not have to bash.

But now an idea is upon me. Oh, what a glorious thought!
What of our friend Webster, and the countless times help he has brought?
Why, I am sure he can help, the man who wrote that giant book
The one I used to sit on, so over the table I could look.

Now a dictionary, you see, is to be used with care
Only by those who are qualified: none others should dare.
For it can be so heavy, that if by accident it is dropped
Someone could be quite splattered, and from the floor have to be mopped.

I open to a random page, 1416 it happens to be,
And select a word that sound interesting, adventurous and free.
Ok, it doesn't actually sound adventurous, this word of which I write
For "parvis" sounds more like an illness, maybe caused by a dog's bite.

But as I examine this word, it turns out to be nothing of the sort.
It speaks of a church before which lies an enclosed court.
A word very rarely used, "parvis" speaks of architecture
Of the way something is built, of it's overall structure.


So now my poem has a topic, something of which it speaks
And a tremendously cool topic too, one that all others beats.
I must say I am really thrilled to have produced this work of art
Which will probably live on longer than that thing we call the cart!

I wrote what is below last week and forgot to post it.

12-16-03

Well, hello, hello and how are you? I'm doing GREAT because as of last night I am a

GREEN BELT!

Yes, yipee and yahoo! Yay, wow, and wonderful! *super big huge grin* I guess the reason I'm so thrilled is that green has always been the color of a real martial artist, in my mind anyway. Anybody can make it to orange belt: it's when testing for green that you do your first really hard board breaks, your first back to back fighting and your first plural fights.

Well, I guess I'll tell you about the test. Last Monday night we tested on kata, techniques and Bible verse. I did real well on kata and techniques and only messed up a little on the verse. I don't know why I did, but my mind went just completely and totally blank. I know that verse so well I could say it in my sleep, but I still couldn't remember the first few words. I got it after a minute though. Our group finished our stuff before the other groups, so they asked if anybody had brought their boards to break. I had thought something like that might happen so I had brought ours and we all did our breaks. I had four breaks: a ridge hand, a hammer fist, jumping front kick and spinning back kick. All had to be done with two, 1 by 12 by 12 boards. The ridge hand was the one that worried me the most: the striking area is the side of the first nuckle of your pointer finger. But I managed to go through on the first try with very little pain. All my other breaks were pretty easy to do: I did them all left sided because I knew that I could do them with my right hand or foot: I wanted to know if I could do it with my left. BonnieJean had to break four baords: one each with a punch, a knife hand, a front kick and a side kick. She had broken boards quite easily before with her feet, but had never been able to break with her hands. A few days before the test she finally managed to break a board with a descending palm strike, but she was still pretty worried. Well, she went to do her knife hand break and BAM! went right through it, like a hot knife through butter. Punch, BANG! Perfect. Side kick. WACK! No more board. Front kick: dull THUD. No break. She tried again. THUD. Again. THUD. The dumb board just wouldn't break. Finally she tried it on a differant board and went right through. Anna, Ethan and Joshua got through their breaks with no problem, but poor Naomi really had trouble. She had to try multiple times on all of her breaks and really bruised her hand up good. But she didn't quit and broke them all herself! I was so proud!

Then last night we did all of our fighting and those who hadn't broken boards last week did theirs'. I had three, two minute fights back to back with no rest. It was actually really fun. My second fight was against a guy I had fought a few weeks ago and not done very well against, but I did much better last night. I even got him with a very good hook kick, which is really cool, 'cause I hardly ever score with that. On my last fight our head Sensie came in and fought, which of course was really cool. I scored on him a few times. But of course he wasn't really fighting with me, toying with me would be more like it. I won two of my three plural fights: one of the two on one fights and the three on one fight. BonnieJean and Ethan fought very well. Anna did ok: she really been having trouble gaurding herself lately. I didn't get to see Joshua fight much (he was in a differant group) or Naomi. But I did see Naomi do her last plural (3 on 1) fight. She had trouble picking which person to fight and instead tried to fight all three at once, so she got hit a good deal. A couple landed pretty hard in her gut but she kept on fighting!

12-23-03

Good heavens, I had totally forgotten about this post I'd started to write! Sorry about that!

I worked yesterday. We are on Christmas break, but since we were snowed out a few weeks ago we had to do a make-up day. I was there 8:30 to 2:30, teaching most of the time. The last half hour or so there were very few people left at the gym and several of the upper level gymnast and teachers did tumbling. I tried a couple new things and I think I'm finally starting to get a handle on two standing back hand springs.

Saturday I took the ACT. I need to get a 31 or higher in order to apply for a full tuition scholarship at ORU. Last time I got a 28. I'm pretty confident I managed to raise it the needed three points, but I'm not certain. Guess there's no use worrying about it now. After the test, while waiting for Mom to pick me up, I went to a nearby Denny's and ordered a milk shake. Stupidly I didn't ask what the price was: that silly milk shake cost me $3.50! I could have bought a whole gallon of ice cream for that much! It was highly annoying.

Mom, Anna, BonnieJean and I pooled our money and bought the soundtracks for Pirates of the Caribbean, Attack of the Clones, The Two Towers and The Four Feathers. Pirates and Attack of the Clones have arrived and we are enjoying them alot. In fact I'm listening to Pirates of the Caribbean right now: man, that is a cool soundtrack! I need to see that movie again. The problem is that it's not a movie we want the little guys to see, what with all the walking skeletons and all, so I'm not sure when we'll get a chance to see it.

I can't beleive it's only two days until Christmas. It doesn't seem like it. Maybe because the weather is so warm: yesterday I went running in sweat pants and a T-shirt. Anyway, I hope you all have a merry, wonderful Christmas and a great new year! God bless y'all!

Well, hello there. I'll be you weren't expecting to see another update for at least a month! Ha! I fooled you!

BonnieJean is in Tulsa taking the CLA exam right now. It's today and tomorrow. She's not too stressed out about it, but she's still worried.

Ethan and I will be spending most of the afternoon helping get things set up for the chess tournament tomorrow. Ethan and Joshua will be competing. I'm going to do some strolling in the morning and then do a twenty-minute Christian show during lunch. It should be fun.

Monday is karate testing. I just finished getting our boards cut. I'm not so worried about my ridge hand break anymore (I have to go through two boards with the side of my hand). The boards I got a very good breaking boards...so it shouldn't be too hard to break them.

Next Saturday is the ACT. I've got to raise my score to 31 (from 28) in order to apply for the full tuition grant at ORU. I'm about to pull my hair out. I simply don't think I'm ready for the math part...there's so much of it I simply don't know. AHHH!

Interesting debate about online dating on the RI...personally, I think the whole thing is silly. Even if you're being totally honest with the person, they still don't really get to know you. You don't get to see each other in real life situations. How does he treat his mom? How does she react when her car doesn't start? These are things you just can't learn through instant messsenger.

I'm getting excited about bringing a group of people to TeenPact next year. We've got a 15 passenger van and as long as we're going, why not get a bunch of people, right?

Well, I can't think of anything else to say. So bye!

One day short of two months...wow, that's a pretty good record! *dodges rotten fruit*

Well, Memphis was a blast. They kept us extremely busy (I could never manage to live there for a full year like some of the Character Choaches do) but I think it was worth it. BonnieJean did really well in the schools and working with the kids. She had some problems with some of the other Character Choaches at first, but things got better towards the end.

A couple weeks ago BonnieJean and I went to ORU's college weekend. I'm looking at taking their Multi-Media major and BonnieJean is thinking about something math based, possibly teaching math. We've sent in our application and should be finding out yea or nay soon. I'm taking the ACT again in December in the hopes of getting a 31 or higher so I have a chance at a full scholarship. With my current score (28) I'd get $5,500 a year and with one more point it would be $6,000 a year.

Well, I'm not going to be testing for my green belt until December (the 8th to be exact). I just didn't have enough time before going to Memphis to learn what I needed so I could work on it there. I'm thinking I might possibly test for blue half-way through this next period and then test for purple at the next all-school testing date (in other words, advancing two belts in three months...hard, but not impossible).

BonnieJean is going to be working in Taiwan from late January to mid August of next year. In fact she'll be getting back home one week after classes start at ORU, but they said that would be fine. It's going to be hard for her to be gone for so long, but I guess we'll live.

Work is going well. Naomi almost has her back hand spring by herself (I just have to apply a little bit of upward pressure on the small of her back to give her an extra half second to her hands down). Tumbling classes are a blast. I've got a round-off back hand spring by myself and a standing back tuck by myself (although I only land it about half the time...) I can also do a punch front (front flip) and front hand spring by myself.

Dad has this week off and is working hard on the remodel. He's going to be buying the sheet rock today and we'll start putting it up in the next few days. He's hoping to get the brick work done this weekend. It's actually starting to look like a real room.

Well, I have to get off now. Bye, God bless y'all!

Hello, hello, hello! I know I should have posted a long time ago. And it will probably be a good while before I post again, 'cause I'm leaving tomorrow for Memphis to spend five weeks working in the schools there. It's the same thing Anna and I did in Feb. BonnieJean is going with me.

Our computer is driving me nuts. It won't stop freezing on us and I think I'm going to shoot it with a machine gun.

I got my orange belt at the start of this month. I hope to test for green in Nov. when I get back from Memphis. We went to a "She-hi" (workshop) a few weeks ago and learned some really neat katas. In fact I plan on using one of them in the tournament in May as my competition kata.

Work is going well. I'm having a little trouble with one of the ladies I teach with, but other than that I enjoy working with all the people. I've got a few kids in some classes that make things difficult, but I've also got some really great classes as well.

Pray for us while we're in Memphis. Pray that God will use us and that we will stay healthy.

Bye now!

Hello my adoring fans, I'm just posting a very fast blog to say that I will be updating soon! Honestly!

Well, as of yet, there is not winner in the opening lines for my blogger contest, so I am currently deprived of any form of greeting.

Yesterday was quite a day. We (Mom, BonnieJean, Anna and I) went to the rec center in the morning and I ran and juggled some. When we got home (after stopping b QT for a 49 cent quart of fountain drink!) Ethan told us that Sam B. had called saying they were going to be doing another demonstration up by RSU. But he couldn't remember when it was. So we called her and got a busy signal. We did finally get through and learned it was going to be 2-3:30, so BonnieJean, Anna and I headed up there at about 2. Sam gave us all signs and flyers. I had a sign that said "Kangaroo court at RSU" and had a picture of a kangaroo with a gavel on it. I took up position on a concrete triangle in between the exit from RSU and the road (if that makes any sense). It really was a good spot, because everybody leaving the campus had to stop at the stop sign and there I was, holding out a flyer. I think between me and the lady standing on by the stop sign (across the road from me) we passed out more flyers than everybody else combined. At one point "everybody else" totaled about thrity people, so we had a pretty good turn-out (turnout? turn out? turn-out?) The only problem was that we forgot to get any sunscreen and I was standing in the direct sun for about two hours, so I am now beet red. Not fun. But other than that we had a great time. There is something very fun about handing a flyer to an RSU administror and telling her that we're here protesting the violation of student civil rights. (For those of you who have no idea what I'm talking about, try visiting www.rsusaga.com and you'll find plently of info. there.)

We headed out for karate right after getting back from the demonstration. I didn't do too much during the first class: just streched out and fought Ethan and Anna a little bit. Something I find very interesting is that Ethan is a very defensive fighter who throws no combination and lots of very obvious kicks. The odd thing is that when we fence, he is a very fast and versitile fighter, excelling partitularly at hitting me in the legs. And although he doesn't have a defense to write home about, he can manage pretty well when I come at him with a stick. Yet when we're sparring, he's almost without a prayer when I come at him. He can block most of my kicks, yet if I come in with four or five things in combination I almost always get him.

During class we didn't do much of interest (other than lining up in time, so the black belts did push ups...it was fun to stand there and watch them do it) but afterwards I fought Jordan, a brown belt who's a friend of mine. He was also an interesting fighter in that he is TOTALLY defensive. At least Ethan will come at you every once in awhile: Jorden didn't come at me once. And every time I moved in close to him, he'd back up. In fact I chased all the way across the dojo once, without him doing anything but backing up! It was actually kinda humerous. He does have a mean snap kick though, and would hit my arm repeatedly. Another interesting thing that happened was I knocked him the ground once and tried to come in with a punch to the cest. Notice I said TRIED. What happened was he came up with several ridge hands to my chest and I half ran, half fell right over him. It was rather funny.

After fighting Jordan I fought his sister Rachel, also a brown belt. She is a much more agressive fighter and was very adept at hitting me in the side whenever I came at her. She was also very adept at hitting me in the face: three times in fact. (You're not supposed to have any face contact unless both people are brown belts or above.) I think I did pretty well against her though: I managed to slip several side kicks under her gaurd and get her in the side. One of these was perhaps a little too powerful, so after we were done fighting she kicked me in the stomach when I wasn't looking at her. *shakes head* I think she has a tendancy to go a little bit far. Still, it was a fun fight.

Well, Saturday I went to the tumbling clinic and I am now certain that the fellow teaching it is not gay. In fact he acts a whole lot like BonnieJean's Sunday School teacher. I worked mostly on back hand springs and back tucks. I'd never even tried a back tuck before, but he had me doing them into the pit and I actually didn't do that bad. We had the pit built up almost level with the floor and I was still able to land it about half the time. I also got a punch front on the floor and did some front hand springs. Oddly enough, I find front tumbling much easier than back tumbling. Most people are the other way around, because all your front tumbling has a blind landing. I guess I'm just a wierdo.

Sunday the water pump on the new car went out and Dad had to replace it. He went ahead and replaced all the hoses while he was at it. I went out and helped him towards the end of the day and we finished about 11 o'clock. Then on Monday Dad didn't show up at karate because he had to go home and pull out the radiator because it was leaking. Hopefully once he gets that fixed there won't be anymore problems.

Sorry about the last post being posted twice. I tried several times to delete one of them, but couldn't figure out how to do it. The problem with blogger is that although it works great when things to right, when things go wrong, they are very hard to fix. Oh well. I have to get off now. Math is calling!

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The following is my last post that somehow got deleted.
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Hello, hello, hello! Do you think I need to get a new greeting? It's gotten kinda boring to say "hello, hello, hello!" at the front of every blog, but I can't think of anything else to write. So, I am happy to announce the first annual international blogger greeting contest! To the winner will go hundreds of $$$!!! Along with instruction on how to make much more $$$ on your own! There is no selling involved and no cost! It's all pure $$$!
Today was a tiring day. Dad stayed home to get the refrigeration lines installed for the new A/C unit and I spent the morning and half the afternoon up in the attic or out in the heat working with him. We used 3/4 in. copper tubbing that was very difficult to bend without kinking. In fact the first two hours of work were wasted because the pipe kinked too many times and we had to pull it all out and get new pipe. Not fun.
Tomorrow I'm taking a three hour tumbling clinic at work. I've been planning on taking a tumbling class this fall and figured this would be a good way to get ready for that. The interesting thing is that I've heard from several people that there is a guy at work who is "obviously gay". There are only five guys who work there (counting me) and I know four of them (counting me). I'm certain that none of them are gay. This clinic is taught by the one guy I don't know. Although I haven't worked with him, I have seen him working before (he taught a cheerleading class at the same time I was teaching a 6 and up class one night a week) and he is not "obviously gay". Everybody says that you can tell from a mile away that who their talking about. So I'm wordering if they might not be all wet. For one thing I doubt my boss would hire someone who is obviously gay. So anyway, I guess I'll know tomorrow!
Monday night I got to fight one of the black belts, the younger Mr. G. Interestingly enough, he isn't actually all that great of a fighter. He did score more points than I did, but all his kicks were very obvious and he hardly used his hands at all. And I made multiple scores by simply throwing a single roundhouse to his chest. Next week I'm going to be sparring Jordan (a brown belt who we've met through ATI and various home school events-he's a cool guy) and the younger Mr. M. I don't know if Jordan is a very good fighter but I do know that Mr. M is very good, so I'm looking forward to that. It's actually funner to fight somebody who is better than you. I also like sparring the upper belts because although you get hit more often, you get hurt far less. We are going to be tesing for our orange belts at the end of the month. That includes six minutes of sparring (three-two minute fights) with no rest. I've been running for about five minutes every day and should have it up further by that time, so it shouldn't be a problem. BonnieJean will be testing for her yellow belt at about the same time.
We're going up to Chicago at the end of the month for my cousin's wedding. It will be fun to get to see Dad's sisters and Grandma again.
After leaving Chicago we'll go over to Memphis and spend two nights and one day there. It's going to be so fun to get to see everybody again! We'll be there for the first day of school and us older ones will get to go with the couches and help some. And the really fun thing is that we'll get to go to Speedway! Speedway is a church in inner-city Memphis were they do a Good News club and a English as a Second Laungauge class. We do the first club and then watch the kids of the parents taking the class. It's really cool. Mom called Miss Karen today and she said that they were kinda counting on BonnieJean and I to be there in the month of October and we're really hoping that doesn't cause complications because....
KIWA IS COMING TO SEE US!!!!!!!!!!! She emailed saying she was hoping to come in October or next spring. We're hoping we can get her to come at the end of September or the beginnnig of November. It'd be such a blast to have her over here again!
BonnieJean is applying to go on a mission trip to Tiwain next year...for six months! I'm still not sure what I think about that. If it's God's will, then of course she should go, but...SIX MONTHS!!!!!! is a long time! What am I going to do without my sister for six months?
Speaking of BonnieJean, she will be graduating from the paralegal course right after we get back from Memphis! We get back on 4th and she has finals on the 5th and 6th and then she's all done! Yea! I'm very excited and I'll be I'm not nearlly as excited as she is!
The 15th through the 17th BonnieJean and I will be going on a retreat with the college and career class. BonnieJean went to the same place last year and really enjoyed it. I'm really looking forward to it.
Well, I'd better get to bed now. Talk to y'all guys later! God bless! Jude 24-25

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Well hi there! How are you on this fine day? The picture you see above is me as Darth Maul. Saturday BonnieJean and I went to a costume party for the college and career class at church. So I decided to be Darth Maul. At first I was thinking that I should just do the make up and the outfit and that I wouldn't try to do the horns. But Mom said that if I was going to be Darth Maul then I should go ahead and do it right, so...we shaved my head, except for in the places where we wanted horns! Between the haircut and the make up it took Mom an hour and a half to get it all done and the end result was very good. At first not everybody at the party realized it was me! I recited a poem called "I don't hate" by Darren Collin (so of course it was outrageously hilarious) and it was well received. But of course I only plan on doing something this wild with my hair about every twenty years, so I had to keep this look for at least a little while. So this morning I showed up at church with a totally bald head, except for in spots where there were big spikes sticking up. I got some very good reactions. Mr. S said that if I showed up at chess like that (which I plan to) he'll pretend he doesn't know me. Aaron got out his knife and wanted to shave the rest of it off right then. Mr. H told me that he was praying for me.

Monday night only BonnieJean, Anna and I went to karate because Naomi wasn't feeling well and Ethan, Dad and Joshua had to go to ALERT Cadets. I got to spar against Mr. G (a black belt and a really cool guy) and actually did fairly well against him. I scored a few times and defended myself pretty well (considering).

After class we were driving home and the van died in the middle of the highway! We couldn't get it started for anything and to top it off, the flashers on the back wouldn't work! So we decided to try and walk to a gas station, call Mom, have her call Mrs. J, and get Philip's cell phone number, call us back and give it to us (Philip is a fellow home schooler from our town and does karate at the same school we do). It was a long way to the exit, but a kind man gave us a ride and allowed us to use his cell phone. We finally managed to get ahold of Philip and he was still in the area, so he and Steven (his brother, also a home schooler and karate guy) came and got us. We squeezed into his five seater pickup and drove home. Mom and Dad drove into Tulsa at the same time and Dad got the van started and driven home.

Last Tuesday Martha came over! Yea! we had a blast. Her sisters dropped her off at our house and she stayed for about two and a half hours. We (of course) made the traditional joint post on the RI and I enjoyed showing off my various blackmail pictures of RI'ers (she particularly liked the picture of Brian brushing his teeth!)

Thursday Philip and Steven (the same guys who drove us home on Monday) came over to have supper and sparring with us. We had a really great time. Steven is amazingly quick: he can throw a lead-leg round house to my head and I don't even see it coming half the time. Philip isn't as good as Steven, but he is still a very, very good fighter. We also worked on kata a good deal.

Last week was the last week of summer camps at work. Naomi took the regular camp and Ethan did the mini-camp (trampoline that week-he had a blast). Two girl got their back handspring for the first time by themselves. We worked really hard with them all week to get it, because they had to get it that week in order to go on to the next level on the team. They both finally got it on Thursday, which was cool. I'm not going to be working next month, because the only night they have anything going on is team practice on Monday nights and I have karate on Monday. I will be working the cheerleading class on Tuesdays for the next three weeks though, but that's only one hour a week. I think I'll enjoy the break and use it to try and get some stuff finished up before the school year starts.

I've got to go now. Bye! God bless!

Hello, hello, hello! I am writing this from my brand spanking new computer! Yes! It arrived today and I took it over to Josh's house and we got everything running. It's a 2 Ghz with 1 gig of RAM and a 120 gig hard drive running Windows XP. I have a 17" CRT monitor. I'm so excited! Some time soon I plan on buying a DVD burner for it. I can't connect the camcorder to it yet though, because I need to get a firewire cable.

Goodness, have I really not updated since the first of this month? I can't beleive it! I guess I'll start with my trip to TN.

It was awesome! Except for the 23 hour bus trip there and back. I did about ten minute at chapel each night and taught some juggling during the free time. Other than that I was basically one of the counslers. I spent most of my time with the group of boys under Joel (his sister is Rachel C. who I met in Memphis and who pestered the camp director until he called me). The only real differance between me and the other counslers was that they knew where things were and how things were normally done and I didn't. And they were well, while I, on the other hand, was sick.

Ick! That was the one part of the trip that really bothered me. I had a really bad sinus infection, which put pressure on my upper right teeth, which HURT! I had to take medicine one every six hours or I simply could not function. The roof of my mouth was so swollen that it was covering the backs of my upper right teeth! Not fun!

We had about 40 campers (20 guys/20 girls). I spent most of my time with the boys from "Uncle Paul's" cabin. Out of ten boys we had three Nathan's and two Ethans! It did tend to get rather confusing! I also spent a fair amount of time with the girls from "Sharyon" cabin. Whenever my guys would go do something I wasn't really feeling up to (which was fairly often towards the middle of the week!) I would hang out with them. Some of them were really crazy, but we had a good time together.

After I got home things settled down to normal (normal being defined as "not normal"). I had the week off work because we take the July 4th week off. On the 3rd we went to a party at BonnieJean's Sunday school teachers house and had a blast. Everybody but the pastor and his wife were thrown in the pool (and they very narrowly escaped!) I put a pretty good fight when they came after me, but was thrown in none the less.

On the 4th we went out to a friends house for their annual 4th of July party. There were a ton of people there, mostly home schooled families from the area. We had a blast (literally!) The fireworks that Mr. J (Tamera's uncle, btw) had bought were very good and he seems to have spent about three million nine hundred forty-two thousand, eight hundred sixty-five dollars and seventy-four cents on them. It made a very good display. The food was great (and there was lots of it) and the people were all a blast. I had Rickly Lee (a very tall guy) get on his knees and I did a round-house to his head. I am now bragging whenever I see anybody from karate that I got a round-house all the way to Ricky Lee's head!

And speaking of karate, I'm having a blast (I seem to be using that word a lot). I'm hoping to test for orange belt in a few weeks, but still don't know if I will be able to. We got to sparr some a couple weeks ago. I did pretty well. We did "King of the Hill" stlye. I defeated three guys and was finally de-throwned by one of the "older yellow belts" (meaning he has been a yellow belt longer). He beat me 4 to 5, so I think I did pretty well. Then, after class, I got to sparr against one of the black belts. Of course, she wiped the ground with me, but I did manage to score on her several times (and no, she didn't let me hit her). Next week I'm going to be trying to get together with a couple blue belts (both very good at sparring) and fight them a little bit. Yes, I know it's more fun to win when you sparr, but you learn alot more when you fight someone better than you.

Cool! I was just looking at some of the new visulazations on Windows Media Player. Some of them are very sweet!

Work is going well. Next week will be the last week of summer camps. In Aug. they don't have any classes and only have team practice on Monday nights. Since I have karate on Monday nights I won't be able to work then, so I'll have Aug. off. That doesn't bother me much: I have other stuff I need to get done before Sep. (like finishing school!) so Aug. it going to be pretty busy for me. The group of kids I had this week was rather challenging. The more the week progressed, the tireder they got and the crankyer they got. When they went to beam (the one rotation I didn't have them) they gave their teacher a really hard time, so on the next rotation I sat everybody down and read them the riot act. They behaved fairly well after that.

I get to meet Martha next week! Yes! She and some of her siblings are coming over to visit their grandparents and are stopping by our place on Tuesday. Cool, huh?

Well, I need to close this now. Talk to y'all guys later! BTW, David, if you're reading this, post a reply and let me know! God bless y'all!

I wrote the following during my five and a half hour lay-over in Nashville. It was 1 o'clock in the morning, so it probably doesn't make much sense. In fact I don't even know why I'm posting it. I'll post later and tell y'all about my trip.
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What does one write when you don't know what to write and yet have been feeling the need to write something about it for weeks? I really don't know what I'm writing. All I know is that it hurts.

It hurts. Such pathetic words. The same thing I say when I get a papercut.

I can still see exactly how she was sitting there on the Floor. The outside sides of her feet on the carpet, her knees spread apart, her elbows resting on them, her fingers holding on to each other. Her hair was streaked and let down. She looked zonked. Everything about her said one thing: tired.

In fact I even asked her about it. Something along the lines of "Tamera, are you alright? You look terrible!"

It's strange how you remember some things and not others. I don't remember much about teaching floor that night. But I remember almost exactly teaching bar with her.

Teaching bar with Tamera was always fun. She didn't teach bar like the other teachers: she always seemed to have some new little thing for the girls. She was cheerful and relaxed when teaching bar and we would have an unhurried conversation: about five minutes of talking strected into twenty minutes 'cause we would only talk while waiting for the next kid.

That night we talked about the trouble she was having with her boyfriend. First thing she said was "I don't think I like boys anymore." I asked her why she had decided she didn't like one half the population of the earth and she laughed.

Am I going anywhere with this? I have no idea.

For conditioning that day she had the girls hand from the low bar and hold a tuck as she counted to ten. I can still remember how bug-eyed Kendel got as Tamera counted. And as soon as she had gone to the next station Tamera did the same thing for twice as long. Tamera loved bar. She would always jump up and do something while waiting for the next kid.

She had invited me to come to youth group with her the Sunday before she died. I told her no, not this time, maybe in two weeks.

After we taught bar we went to tramp. It was while teaching tramp that we had first started getting to know each other. Now, whenever we do jump rope on tramp I think about how that night she told her pet peeve was people not putting the jump ropes away properly. I'm always careful to put them back just like she wanted it.

The last I remember of her everybody was sitting on the floor by the beam. Tamera had the cards and was calling off the kids names while I put a stamp on their hands.

Next time I saw her it was only her body, laying in the coffin. Oh Tamera, why didn't you go home and get some sleep?! Why didn't you sit down during tramp at least? I could have taught it by myself! Oh Tamera, why couldn't you have stayed awake for just a few more minutes?!?

It hurts.