Sunday, August 26, 2007

Quick Announcement


Hey everyone!
Debate camp is over! How sad!! I had sooooo much fun. I am totally hooked. Debate is very much like playing chess except way cooler. It's kind of like an intellectual punching and dodging with different arguments and so forth. I got to debate twice during the camp even though I didn't have my own case. I just used different cases from the RedBook. (A Debate book on this years topic)

After every debate you get the same feeling you have of stepping off a great roller coaster ride. Seriously. Man, it was awesome.....I can't wait to do it again.


So anyway, the quick announcement is that the pool party that I mentioned in my previous post has been extended. So instead of the party being from 2:30pm-6pm, it'll be from 2:30pm to whenever it gets dark or something. There's going to be a barbecue at 6 and afterward we'll probably keep swimming, or go on the zip line, or do some jammin' music, or play some ping pong and whatever else you might think of.

Go ahead and bring your dinner to the BBQ and we'll do a potluck kinda thing.

Also if you want pictures of the camp go to www.trainingminds.org

Wednesday, August 22, 2007

YeeeeeHaaaaww!!!!

We went dune-bugging at the Oregon Dunes!!! IT WAS A BLAST!!! Of course, usually when I say something was a blast, I mean it was a lot of fun. But this was alot more than alot of fun. Compared to a blast, going dune-bugging was more like an atomic explosion! I simply can't tell you how much fun it was!

Anyway, I'm sure you want more details. So we left for the Oregon dunes on Monday mornin' and got there about noon. The Hulces had invited us and they were there ready for us. They had 2 "Sand Rails" and a quad. One of the sand rails wasn't working so we only used one. Alexa and Jason Hulce went together on the Sand Rail and I was on the quad. We were the first to ride. Everyone eventually got their turn.

It had recently rained so the sand wasn't blowing in our faces. That was nice. Near the end of the day we had a jumping contest with the quad on a particular dune. Josh filmed us while we took the jump. I made it 15 ft far and a foot and a half high. I think Nathan beat me by a foot.

We didn't get any pictures but here are some pictures of the kind of equipment we rode.

Sand Rail

Quads

There's tons more to tell but I have to get going.

Some announcements-
  • The next post will be "Busy Busy Buzy Pt. 2"
  • I'm going be at a debate camp 'til Saturday.
  • You're invited to come to the Debate camp dance tomorrow night(Thursday night) at 6:30 or 7 pm at New Hope Christian School.
  • You're also invited to a pool party at our house on Sunday any time between 2:30 and 6:30pm.
  • And, of course, you're always welcome to come to Coram Deo Church on Sunday at 11:00am.
Hope to see ya at each event!

God Bless.

Monday, August 13, 2007

Crown and Covenant Event

On Saturday night we went to the Crown and Covenant Event at the Deems for Creighton and Tessa Deems. Mrs. Deems asked me to write a speech/essay to read to Creighton at the ceremony about manhood. So I wrote this poem called- "Who Can Find a Man?" and gave at the ceremony.

What was really funny, though, was afterward, Mr. Kruse told me he had heard the poem before and really liked it. I was a little confused because I had written the poem that very day. So I told him I wrote it and he said it must have been some other poem a lot like it. Perhaps there's another poem out there called "Who can Find a Man?". I should Google it. :)

So, anyway, here it is.

Who Can Find a Man?

Who can find a man of character?
Who loves the Word of God?
And uses it like a double-edged sword,
To fight the enemies of our Lord.


Who can find such a man?
A man with courage to stand before giants,
Willing to lay down his entire life,
To save the lives of women and children.

How would such a man live?
In a culture that bombards us with lies,
That expects little from we young people,
And tells us to seek frivolous pleasures, until the day that we die.

Such a man would live uprightly,
Spotless and unstained by the world,
He would know where to find true satisfaction,
He would find it in the love of Jesus Christ.

He would treat females with gentleness and respect,
And understand that children are a blessing from the Lord,
He would be careful with his money,
And prudent to protect his heart.

His parents he would honor,
And his siblings he would love.
He would treasure his quiet time with the Lord,
And not let small things distract him.

Such a man would be wise with his time,
Always seeking to be productive; an entrepreneur.
Looking for ways to make money,
To prepare for his future.

This man of character would be a servant leader,
A humble and honest ambassador,
Helping to lead fellows sinners to the cross,
To Christ’s sanctifying mercy and grace.

Who can find a man of character?
I have searched for this man within myself,
But I have a long while to get there,
Only through Christ will I be able to make that far.

Like a young eagle growing his wings to fly,
So you, Creighton, are becoming this man described,

“When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me.”


Since the first time I met you,
I have seen you grow in character, confidence, and height.
Like an eagle, may you soar,
And may God grow and bless you more and more.


Tough times are ahead,
Tremendous blessings are ahead.

Cling to Jesus to give you strength.


The End


Here are some pictures from the Crown and Covenant event.


Tessa, Creighton, Nathan


Destiny and Tessa


Me and David.
I'm about to spin him and he looks pretty frightened.


There he goes!


Being goofy


Acting serious


Destiny and Ruth


Alexa, Karissa, Stephanie.

More people.


Tait and Mr. McMurray


And a goofy picture of me.....just as we're about to leave for the event.



And our van.


Pictures courtesy of Alexa Sleadd (and Destiny :)

Friday, August 10, 2007

Busy, Busy, Buzy. Pt. 1 of 2

Well, Hello dere!
It's me again. Perhaps you've been wondering what I've been up to. Perhaps you aren't, but I'll tell you anyway. I'll try to categorize it to help boil it all down. Hmm........Let's see.....Yard Working, Camping, Birthday-ing, Debate-ing, Filming, and Pool-ing.......And Scheming.

Yard Working!
I've told you a little bit already about me doing yard work but I never said exactly what I've been doin'. So I'll tell ya. I have 2 regular clients- Guy and Audrie McDonald, and Richard Virgin; both fairly close neighbors.

I do mowing for the McDonalds almost every Friday and they're moving back to California soon so I've been helping 'em move furniture, boxes, and so forth.

I do all sorts of things for Richard. I'm kinda like his handy-man. He moved here from Cal. in January and is having a lot of work being done on his house and property. The first thing I did for him was take out his big patch of ivy. It was quite a pain getting all those never-ending roots out of the ground. Later I moved some rocks, raked leaves, weed-whacked, tore down and re-built a small part of his wood shed, stacked a cord of wood, and I just finishing painting his big deck.

It's been fun working and making money. So that's a little bit more about my yard work ventures. I've been thinking about even more yard work ventures which you'll read about in the "scheming" section.

Camping!
The camping trip was a tremendous blast! We spent Friday and Saturday night at Howard Prairie Lake. We went canoing, paint-balling, boating and lots of other things. The boating was very fun because I was able to get up on a wake board for the first time! I also got to try some jumps and things. It was soooooo much fun! I can't wait to do it again. In fact, we're going camping again next week and I'll be able to do it there. YESYESYES!!! We didn't get many pictures except of the fire places. But we did get a lot of video footage with our new Canon GL-2.
The last day of camping(Sunday) was my 16th birthday.


Birthday-ing!
It was an awesome birthday. 16 years from then was August 5th, 1991. Pastor Dale gave a sermon that morning at the campsite and then there were some baptisms in the lake. (Did you know I was baptized in the Rogue River at Riverside Park? Yup. I think I was 6 years old
.) After the baptisms, we got ready to go home, stayed around 'til the afternoon and then headed back. We had a small birthday party after dinner and then Nathan decided he would take me out to see "Bourne Ultimatum", so he and I jumped into the van and got there a few minutes before the film started. It was an awesome film. Very intense, cool fight scenes, and an intriguing plot line. The best part is where Jason Bourne and another top-agent/assassin have a hand-to-hand combat scene. It's pretty intense. Read a good review on it here.

Then, on Monday, mom and Alexa took me out clothes shopping- one of my most favorite things to do........haha......not exactly. Mom got me some boots and sandals and some shirts. Though, I don't care for shopping, I still appreciate the clothes they bought me. The picture above is of me with one of my new shirts.
It was a wonderful birthday!

Debate-ing!
Speech club is coming up pretty soon I am going to do Lincoln-Douglas debate this year. So I just recently started studying and compiling info. I haven't exactly worked on the affirmative case yet because I'm still getting familiar with the topic-Isolationism. There's also going to be a debate camp coming up soon that I need to be ready for. I can tell it's going to be very fun but a lot of time. Lots of research. I can't wait until speech starts up again. Here's a link to learn more about debate-click

That's all for now folks! Stay tuned for Part 2 with
Filming, and Pool-ing.......and Scheming.
Part 2 should have lots of pictures....I think.


See ya later......