Be Back Soon.

Okay, I'll be back in a couple months.

YAY

Tests completed. Next up....finals. Woohoo.

Action Packed Weekend

Hooray for an awesome time in Florida. Such a great time. I knew it was going to be fun when I got on the plane and when we started taxiing I buckled my seat belt into my...pants belt (the buckle is a car seat belt). I looked up at Andi and we are both chuckling because it just might fit....then it does *CLICK*, then both our faces turn to "OH CRAP!!" I know we both had the same thought run through our heads, "What if it doesn't unbuckle!!". Well thankfully it did, but I know I'd laugh if I walked onto a plane and saw a pair of pants stuck in a seat. When Scoot picked us up and we were heading back to his place he came up with something to do the next day. "Hey guys, I was thinking...There is a clam chowder cook-off going on tomorrow so I was thinking maybe we could all go and see what that's like." .....dead silence.....then Andi says in a shaky voice, "....cool...." God bless him, I knew the ladies didn't eat shell fish and I thought it was so funny that they didn't just come out and say so but instead tried to sound excited about it. But my laughter ruined their attempt and I called them out. Too funny.

Universal Studios was a complete blast!! On our way back to the parking lot we were all exhausted. We walked through the City Lights (if that's what it's called), where after the park closes all the bars and restaurants open up and dance music is blaring from all the speakers and people run around like idiots......or gay guys. Yep, we are nearly to the garage and this guy was skipping towards us. But regardless of what song was playing, this guy was definitely singing "It's Raining Men" and skipping with all his might. Of course he bounds right by me and says a few words I hope I forget real soon. And what do Andi and Tamrar do? Yep, they keep walking and say "You're on your own." I'm glad I can rely on Andi and Tamrar to bail me out when I'm paralyzed with fear. But anyway, hanging out with Scoot was awesome as always. I love the fact that we find tiny things completely hilarious. I'm glad that we all had the time to spend hanging out with him. It was hard leaving, it sucks having only a short time to hang out with a friend and then go back to the grind with one less person to share the good times with. So basically what it boils down to is, Scoot needs to come home.

Last Workday Before Visiting Scoot

Alright, so today rocked. I woke up a little early before work so I kind of took my time getting ready and stuff. I felt extremely mellow. Then I go to work and when I get there everybody is running around trying to get things done and a couple of them are grumpy from all the craziness. I was on dishes and I only had to work three hours anyway so my mood got better. Then I go in back and I see Sandii (yes two i's...she's wierd), she always brings in little things for people to snack on whenever she works. Today she brought in some hershey's miniature candybars and some cadbury's heart-shaped chocolates with carmel in the center. Oh yeah, things are getting better. I go out and grab me up a cup of drink to wash down all the junk food I'd inevitably eat. I notice there weren't many dishes to do, and everybody seemed fairly set on the dishes they had available so here I am taking my sweet ol' time. People were running around me trying to get things done and here I am munchin' on stuff and drinking drink with an enormous satisfied grin on my face. Just as I was thinking about getting some dishes washed one of the managers-in-training came back and said "Hey Josh, (that's my real name) we may need you to do something for us in a bit." "Okay, that's cool." I walk out front to see what they needed to be washed first and then the manager said "We need you to go to Meijer's for some Ceasar dressing because we are totally out and won't get anymore until tomorrow." "HECK YEAH!!" So I head over to get the dressing and on my way there I see the Oscar Meyer Weiner-mobile in a parking lot!!!! WOOOHOOOO, I was so excited. Unfortunatly I left my cell phone at home otherwise I'd go make the driver take pictures of me.....you know....standing next to it with my chest puffed out, in the drivers' seat, taking a bite out of it.....But no cell phone, but I didn't let that ruin my excitement. I've only seen it one other time, January 16th 1998 on Rt.4 on my way to the dentist. Even the second time I saw it I screamed like a little girl at a New Kids On The Block concert. So anyway, I make my way to Meijer's and I go in and get distracted.....yep I made it as far as the fish tanks. Wiggling my finger like I'm tickling them "Hey feeshie feeshie." Giant hot dogs, feeshies....distractions everywhere. Then I remembered I was there for a purpose. Hmm...but what was I there to get? Oh yeah, dressing. So I go to the produce section and walk around aimlessly as guys normally do in grocery stores. I had to stop and ask for directions. Then I found the dressing and realized I forgot a basket, so I had to go all the way back to the front, then all the way back and grab it all. I got back in the car and realized I was gone for almost 40 minutes so I started back. Yes, I could have gone back to work "the quick way" but then I wouldn't be able to see the Oscar Meyer Weiner-mobile again. I didn't even get yelled at when I got back, it was awesome. I spent 2 whole hours washing dishes and snacking on Mr Goodbars....mmmmm. Today was a really fun day.

Almost Late For Class

Okay, so about two weeks ago after Bible study was finished at Emerge I walked around the lobby to read all the fliers and stuff. I read one that was about a prophetic school series. It said it would be about teaching and knowing God's voice. Well I figured that would be cool and I was interested in checking it out. Well I went to the Vineyard about an hour or so early and stayed in the car to get some quiet time in. Afterwards I went inside and continued to read my Bible. I saw Cherry and Rich standing around so I went over to talk to them. I asked what they were up to, assuming they finished practicing for Sunday worship, and they told me that thier Tuesday small group decided to check out this class. I had completely forgot that the prophetic school thing was this Tuesday. So she said I should go too. So I did. I'm totally glad I went to Emerge early today because the prophetic schoolong class started at 7 so if I came to Emerge on time I would have missed it completely. It was an interesting class and the guy leading it referred to scripture and made it really simple. His point being that prophecy is a gift from God, and not to be confused with new age crap and what not. That the Holy Spirit gives us this gift which can come in different ways. Be it dreams, visions, or just sort of "knowing" something about a situation or person. He referenced Ephisians 1:17-18 and 1 Kings 18:41-44. He talked about how even little things, though they may not seem prophetic, can inspire hope in somebody to rekindle thier spirit in some way which can serve God's purpose. Other than that he spoke of life experiences and stuff. Before class was let out everybody stood in prayer with our hands held out in front of us. It was pretty cool, while I was praying with my hands open in front of me...it felt like I was holding two basketballs, wierd I know. But it was like I was actually holding something. My arms moved with my breathing and it just felt like what I was holding seemed to give resistance. Wierd to explain I guess. It was just a strange experience. It is a once a month class, I'm going to go to the next class too. Lately I've been noticing a lot of things that God has been doing, and wondering about things that happen often and how I can use it to serve God's purpose. Anyway, it's super late and I'm sleepy.

g"night

Devil Won't Ruin My Lunch!!

When I got to school all the free parking was closed off so I had to park in the garage. I only had a ten and a twenty in my wallet so I figured I'd go down to buy a Sobe or something like that to wet my whistle and to get change for parking before I met up with Tamrar's dad for Discilpleship 101. Well I go downstairs after history class was finished and as I was walking into the cafeteria I realized I was starving. I remembered that the last time I was down there to get some food was when I had class with Alycia over summer. We would always get some wraps and chips and a drink. It totally reminded me of all the times we went down there and I couldn't keep myself from smiling as I walked in, it was great. There was this one time when Alycia and I went to get some food. I ordered a Southwestern Chicken Wrap.

I told the lady, "I'll have one of those."

"what kind of tortilla?"

"Hmmm, I'll have the Tomato one."

"Spinach?"

"Tomato please."

"Spinach?"

"Tomato."

"Spinach?"

"Spinach, yes....I'll have spinach."

I turn around and notice Alycia's face is red because she was tyring to hold back her laughter. But it turned out great and I loved it, every bite I took I told Alycia how awesome it was, of course she wanted to try it, but I didn't let her because it was just too good to let go. It was a specialty wrap so they changed it to a different one every day and I never had another one since. So anyway today as I was walking into the cafeteria I thought to myself, "hmm...if they have one of those Southwestern Chicken Wraps I'll snatch me up one of those babies! Heck yeah I will!" Boy did God bless me today, I turn the corner to see what they had and BLAMO there it was on the sign. I nearly drooled on myself. I ordered one and believe it or not, the lady let me have a tomato tortilla!!! I was so excited. I grabbed some SunChips and a Sobe to complete my favorite lunch from summer. I go to pay for it and the lady rung me up and it the total flashed on the screen for a split second.... $6.66 The second the lady saw this she said.

"oooooh, I rebuke you in the name of Jesus!"

"Yeah, me too!"

She rung everything up again and I payed $6.65 :) yay!! I went right to my car to eat and I called Alycia to share my excitement. Hooray for great days, great people, and little things God does to make us smile.

Easy Target

Well, because of the snow tonight Andi, Tamrar, and myself decided to just hang out at Tamrar's house instead. It was great, Andi was going crazy she had way too much energy to be cooped up in a house. When she got there it took her about five minutes before she said, "I've been craving chocolate all day, can I have some brownies!!??" Well, they did have brownies but Tamrar came up with making no-bake cookies and of course Andi's eyes opened really wide. No-bake cookies woohoo. So while Tamrar and her mom are making the chocolate goop Andi is dancing all over the kitchen. I'm surprised she wansn't sweating and I wasn't so sure about letting her have too much sugar. Tamrar joined in the dancing so Sue and I tried to dodge them while we took over stirring the goop. We ended up calling Scott to find out what channel the super bowl would be on and here's Andi in the kitchen, her hands on the counter and her feet walking up the wall accross from her holding herself off the floor. The cookies turned out great, we got to talk to Scott for a while and that was great, and Andi got her fix so that was great. The rest of the night we hung out and talked, it was a really relaxing evening, well for me at least. While we were talking I noticed that sometimes Andi would start breathing heavily like she just ran around the house ten times. What goes up....must come down, and this holds true to Andi's energy level. By the time we left she seemed pretty sleepy, as we walked out to go to our cars I decided to scoop up some new snow and lob a little snowball at her. It was one of those dinky ones that weren't packed hardly at all, well she decided to throw one back. Then the war began. Well....it wasn't really a war, it was more like a massacre. She can be quick....sometimes. She did hit me with a couple snowballs. I could just tell you that I'm an elite snowball thrower and that Andi is an easy target......but to keep Andi's feelings from getting hurt we'll just blame it on her sudden loss of energy. It was so much fun, I threw a snowball at her and it nailed her in the chest, luckily her coat is well padded. I'm just glad she didn't even think to duck or it might have smacked her right in the face then I would have felt terrible. Then we realized Tamrar and Kim were staring at us the whole time. Spoo!

Odin Strikes Again

My dog totally rocks. He always makes me laugh so hard. The other day he needed to go outside so I opened the back door to let him out. I didn't go outside with him, not only to offer privacy but it was pretty cold out. I see a big cardboard box sitting between our yard and the neighbors yard. Of course I knew this would totally freak my dog out. So I just watched. It was so funny. He was sniffing around and all of a sudden the wind blew and moved the box. It instantly grabbed his attention and he whipped around and started barking. Of course the box stopped trying to sneak up on him, so he just gave it one of those "You're darn right you better stop." kind of stares. Then the wind blew again and moved the box and Odin ran to the door. He stood at the door barking at the box like, "WHAT NOW HUH? WHACHA GOT ON THIS SUCKA?" Then the box came a bit closer and Odin tried to run inside but the door was shut, and I was on the otherside laughing at him. I realized time was growing short and he still needed to go potty. So I slid the door open and since he was still barking at the box hoping to scare it away, I had to yell over him to try and get him to go potty. GO POTTY!! BARK!! GO POTTY!! BARK!! GO POTTY!! BARK!! GO POTTY!! BARK!! It was pretty funny. My grandmother was inside laughing at us both.

Then this morning I was getting ready for work and I passed my parents room, Odin was sleeping next to my stepfather and awwww he was covered up by my stepfathers button up shirt, how cute. Anyway some guy knocked on the door and of course Odin jumps up barking. He somehow got his nose into the sleeve of the shirt when he stood up and then tried to walk forward but stepped on the shirt forcing the sleeve tighter around his face. He had no clue what was going on. He started freaking out because each time he tried to walk he stepped on the shirt and it forced his face down, the sleeve kept getting tighter, and a new friend was knocking at the door. He tried swinging his head back and forth but he was standing on the shirt so he couldn't fling it off, he was getting really frustrated by the whole situation and started flailing around even more frantically. I was paralized with laughter and couldn't help him out. I couldn't have asked for a better morning.

Emerge Recrooter

Welp, before I left Emerge tonight I talked with Jackie about how we only have these tiny little fliers. Don't get me wrong, they are really nice and the person/people involved in making them did an awesome job.......but. It came up that Steve was the main guy who has been stopping people and offering information about Emerge and stuff, and handing people the new fliers. I mentioned to Jackie that Steve may stop a person, maybe a couple people at a time but while he is talking to them a few more might walk right on by without ever hearing about Emerge. I also told her that whenever I'm there I never see anybody advertise Emerge, all the Emergents hang out with Emergents. I'm not saying it isn't done, but I've never seen anybody other than Steve recruit noobs. So I proposed setting up the Emerge board and have people stand around it and offer fliers to people as they walk in/out.

Jackie said, "That's a great idea! You should do it!"

"...Yeah....somebody should totally do that."

Then I said we should get some Emerge t-shirts made for them to wear so people know who to go to if they have questions about our group.

Jackie said, "That's a great idea too!! You should do it!"

"...Yeah...somebody should totally do that..."

So I ran over to John and asked if he could email me the Emerge "E" logo and told him why and he grabbed me by the shoulders and said "AND YOU ARE GOING TO BE THE ONE IN CHARGE OF IT ALL TOO???!!!???"

"well....I didn't....I mean I.....it's just that....hmm...yeah...I will."

So, now I gots plans. Print out some stuffs to show John and Caleb get the ones they like and do some silkscreening for some t-shirts, and since the Emerge board looks like it was done with a marker I'll see if Kinkos can print one out so it looks all nice and purdy. Woohoo John just emailed me the logo so when I get some time after my tests on Thursday I'll work on it. aww....who am I kidding, I'll put off studying and tinker with it. This should be tons o' fun!

:)