As of late...

festival of lights
I slept for like 4 days straight when i got home on December 15. I visited my mom's 5th grade classroom for a day, i visited the dentist twice(the worst place ever!), and then i went to Plymouth Wesleyan's Christmas program called "Festival of Lights!" There were over 40,000 lights, Crazy? I think so! The pictures fuzzy, but you get the point. Then kelly came home on Saturday

Kelly getting ready
We had all of the neighborhood families over Monday night... CRAZY!!! over 20 kids 8th grade and under all going crazy at once!!! Now it is on to Christmas shopping! Jen & Brandon will come in on Christmas day and then we will have the whole family

together!

Gettin in the Christmas mood!!!

Hodson Hall
I mean when my guys' dorm does an amazing job of decorating our lobby and playing Christmas music, how can i not be excited for Christmas?!?
So the night before Christmas Break, me and my roommate

my roommate Steve
got presents for the guys on our floor and played Santa!!!

Presents

Brent=Santa
I think its fun... Steven tends toward the idea that Santa is Satan mispelled because it is a bunch of lies to little kids(just kidding) but i convinced him to give out the gifts... what do you think about that though: is it okay to have Santa or do you feel it's lying to your kids? I think it has a lot to do with how you were personally raised but what do you think?

Farm Fun!!!

My Nanna Pappaw and Me
our Family always love going to the Farm in NC. We went down there for Thanksgiving and had a great time. I definitely am already seeing signs of aging when i am consistently passing up activity and exercise for sleep & paper work!!! Either way it was still too beatiful not to go out. here is my dad enjoying the view

My Dad on the mtn
I would like to say that Brandon and I did not try to ride these cows... but we did with very little success!!! Despite there bulky appearance you would be surprised how fast those cows can move when being chased!

Ollie & Brandon

Becca & Nathaniel
These are my cousins and a friend that is staying with them. Family is great. We had the best homecooked meal ever and sat around and laughed... i actually ate too much food and threw up afterwards... how pitiful is that! I think i am grown up enough to move out in my own in a couple of years and yet i can't even tell myself when to stop eatin'! :) It was fun times at the farm. We relaxed, played golf, played Dr. Mario for NES with my Grandparents, appreciated our family and were back to school by the end of Thanksgiving weekend! Good times!

Grandparent's farm
We are off to North Carolina to visit my grandparents in a week for Thanksgiving. There is just something about getting away, relaxing, spending time with family, and eating really good homecooked meals that get's me extra excited... but what can i see, there's not much not to be excited about!

Fun in D.C.

Reminiscing...

The crew
Last month October 22-24 i flew to DC to visit Jen and Brandon. Lynne Payne and Brittany Sickler drove up too. On Friday we went to Ocean City Maryland and surfed and shopped. The waves were Crazy and Freezing!!!... and i loved every minute of it. Saturday we got the downtown DC tour... as much as i loved the monuments, i really just enjoyed all the parks and scenery just as much. There's a neat atmosphere about the place, which is good considering it is our capitol! Sunday we saw the new church and were out. Jen & B we had a great time and i'll see you soon at the farm! SWEET!!!

resting on the Washington Monument

the fellas
I'm a junior now... but i still don't live like one! God has definitely been talking to me about priorities and time management, but my night habits are still pretty bad. Anyways the 23 freshmen out of the 30 guys on our floor are always up and these are just two of the guys(Broc & Ryan) that are always up. Seriously it is crazy though!!! One time i worked on a project until 5am or 6am in the morning and came back to sleep for a few hours and there were still guys up yelling out a window for no reason. oh to be a college student!!! It's fun but my body is definitely requiring more sleep these days! There seem to be less and less allnighters being pulled :) It's all good though! I love it

barn party extravaganza
So a group of us went down to a Purdue for a Barn Party put on my a Christian club last night. It was a fun time to dress up, meet people and talk, eat country food, and listen to country music. The real fun didn't happen until afterwards... or not!!! I had just finished telling my car that if something bad is going to happen or if someone is going to get caught for something it is me. Our three car train and a random minivan were cruisin down a country road at a decent speed on our way back when a cop behind us turns on his lights. He proceeds to go to the front to pull over the rabbit right... Oh NO!!! He blocks off the road and pulls all four of the cars over just around quota time at the end of the month and gives us all tickets for going the Same Speed! Not to mention by the end there were 3 or four cop cars there by the end. Now, as seen in the picture us drivers were not too excited, while it seems that everybody was having a great time. Maybe it was the fact that it made it was a memorable night, or maybe it was just the fact that there memories and entertainment didn't cost them $70 and a mark on their traffic record!!! :) Either way, it was definitely an experience and a night that won't be forgotten

Best Seat EVER!!!

yea 4 me
As fun as traveling is, I am NEVER comfortable in planes!!! Well it turns out i got the hook up leaving Washington DC. The seat was gone!!! Coincidence?... I think NOT!!! God hooked me up with Shaquielle Oneal's seat! Forget first class, they can come serve me back here!!! :) Ahhhh the little joys in life!

leg space

Things to beat

Bring it 
I fit 14 full napkins in my mouth
I got six hits running completely around the table while playing ping pong by myself
I slept for 18 hours straight

That's It For Now...

Quick Thoughts

PERSPECTIVE: Adam Thada ran the half marathon faster than me but his response to my praise was this: Good Job! That means that you ran just as hard for that much longer than me. You're Amazing!

Am i the only one who doesn't feel that excited to vote for Bush or Kerry?!? That i am almost settling either way?

The culture says: To Live is Gain and To Die is Christ!
God said through Paul: To live is Christ and to Die is gain!
Can we do anything about that?

So what have i been up to?

A LOT!!! This last weekend(Oct 8-9) i hiked the Knobstone Trail which was a 45 mile hike in 21 hours through the night and day. To see more pictures and a description of the hike and trail go to this sight
http://courses.indwes.edu/KD-PHE120/knobstone.45.24.htm

Ryan Robertson, Danielle Searl, Dan Eggenschwiler, Kevin Wright, Me, and Adam Thada 

From 6:15PM to 3:45PM the next day 
FUNNY STORY: "And God humbled Me" About 4 miles into the hike i was leading the group and i felt fresh and ready to hike. So at the top of my lungs i half seriously half emphatically said,"Whoo! Give me a challenge" No exaggeration... 3 steps later i am rolling down the hill in the dark. God somehow kicked a stick in the road that caught my shoe and took me out. Not to mention everybody else was laughting and knew i deserved it.

What?!? 
This is the 45.24 club pretty much saying WHATUP!!! you see that mountain behind me... yeah walked like 20 of those today!

God has blown me away

I am the dorm chaplain for Hodson Hall this year. For our Hall Devotions we had a "lust and pizza night" where Professor Dave Smith who definitely reminds me of Agent Smith (see below)

Dave Smith Devos 
came and spoke to us about our struggles. So i was expecting 30 or so guys...75-90 showed up and pack in this small room! God definitely spoke through Dave and I have been blown away by how much the guys in my hall actually desire to make a difference for the Lord and to know him better! Praise the Lord!

Free Time!!

I've been playing a lot of Ping Pong

Free Time also equals
HALO! You can hook up 16 players to one game over the internet/network. Here's four guys from the floor playing!

Halo Time 

Hodson Scotsmen!

My Dorm dresses up as Scotsmen and we go to our home soccer games with shields, torches, and swords cheering like mad men! We do a push up for every goal we score and hackle the other team... IT's Great!

Hodson Scotsmen 

Ahhh- jogging buddy 
THis is Jon. He wakes me up on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays to go running 2-3 miles with him

Three Weekends Ago...

I went to Dayton Ohio and ran a half marathon with 6 friends. I ran a half last year and burnt myself out so although i was in worse shape, i paced myself and bettered my time by averaging just under 8 minute miles!!!

half marathon 

Reminiscing on the Summer

One thing that i did this summer that was amazingly lucky was i picked up an 8-10 spare! It was amazing.

8-10 split 
Another thing that was awesome was i chipped in my first golf shot from like 20 feet away! i also had my longest putt out of the rough from about 15 feet away on a par three course!

Back to School

So i had a 3 day rest and now i am off to Indiana Wesleyan University to be the chaplain for my dorm... excited and ready... and yet still craving surfing like it is nobody's business! But it is something to keep in check. Could surfing be considered an idol in my life?!? Is the amount of time and thought i put into surfing more than i put into my relationship with God? Welp back to school. God I commit this year to you and help me to put you first.
Proverbs 16:3 "Commit whatever you do to the Lord and your plans will succeed."

I'm Off

Sorry for those who have tried to keep up! I have been so busy enjoying California that everything else went crazy! I barely got on the internet, lost my cell phone- so i had no way to be contacted, and was without my car for a week while it was getting fixed! Now i am off to visit my sis KelDawg today, and then i drive home to Indiana and should get there Wednesday night. So before i go... here are the highlights of the past few weeks


Me, Moulaye, Jessie, and Trace

I Visited Saddleback Church

Went down to Mexico Twice to Surf and hang out with friends

The DayCamp Staff at Disneyland

Mt Helix for the play Bye Bye Birdie

Ocean Beach
And Now i am Off...

What... What... I Can't hear you B!

Payback
This is a tribute to my trashtalking brother-in-law! He only weighs 160lbs. and yet he thinks he is bigger and more ghetto than all of Compton put together! But since he is stuck in Maryland... he takes it out on poor little ole' me! Brandon, Keep trying bro, but just remember that whether it's basketball or life, all your going to see is my backside while you are trying to keep up! With a brotherly love that wouldn't have it any other way... Peace! I'm going surfing

1-800-94-Jenny!

NOT GOOD!
I don't know what the number is now but i am calling up Jenny Craig! Today while i was playing four square i totally ripped my shorts! The weirdest thing ever was when one of the other workers ripped his pants too! What are the chances of two of splitting our pants on the same day... I guess they're PRETTY GOOD! But it's all good because i had the best dream EVER!

The Perfect Dream
I have had surfing dreams for awhile... but in every dream there are always good waves and i have never been able to ride them!!! Either they got further away or something would happen. You know you are pretty bad when you can't even do good in your dreams! Anyways, not last night! I did good surfing the day before, so last night for the first time... I RODE THE WAVE. Not only that but i was in the barrel like this and ... honestly... i probably felt better in my dream than i EVER will in really life! Then i woke up late for work and split my pants and my life returned to normal!

Praise Report

Praise the Lord!
My friends are doing well:
Michael Muniz is in a paid position working at a church in San Diego
David Carillo is leading his second missions trip to Hawaii this fall
Phoebe Hamann just got back from New Zealand where one of her friends accepted the Lord
and alot of my other friends are doing great as well!
AWESOME ANSWERED PRAYERS:
Kim Clark prayed with a deaf person through sign language and God gave him hearing for the first time during the prayer
David Carillo prayerd for a homeless man whose leg was crippled by a car accident and the man's leg straightened up and he walked away from the prayer healed!
PRAISE THE LORD

The Commitment!

Brandon Bruce and i made a commitment two days ago that we are going to consistently have time alone with God for a year without missing. Your prayers are appreciated. This is not an attempt to "conquer" something for our glory and the last thing we want it to end up like is a Tower of Babel thing, but i think it is important that we could say, that it may not be a necessity but it is possible and good to be that committed to the Lord. We often hear so much about the failures of man. How we constantly sin and mess up. What about the victory we can have in Jesus! That He can be our bread of life and living water and that man truly does not have to live on bread alone but can live on every word of God! Please pray for us on this journey!

Beach Camping

Sharon & Darryl Johnston
Today i met up with the Johnstons, the Holmquists, and other relatives done in Carlsbad. We went surfing, talked around the fire, made so kind of chocolate biscuit thing, and played the guitar! It was such a fun and relaxing night! God has been good to me and has been challenging me in a bunch knew ways. It's good.

Sitting around the fire!