Now I know, I can't make you stay, but where's your heart?

Wednesday's are so awesome because I get to spend time at Snider High School with kids that I adore, and I get to hang out in a coffee shop gettin a lil bit crazy.

I had a meeting with Tom & Josh (Young Life staff) this morning at a coffee shop called Fire Fly. It took like 1 1/2 hours, but it was well worth it. I tried to high tail it to IPF dub, but didn't get much quality work done in the A.M. I went to Snider, and then got my butt back over to IPFW. It was the second trip over to the campus that I actually got some real work done. Tomorrow I am going to have to just wake up early, and work my butt off at my compy to make sure everything is set and ready to go for the GROUP PRESENTATION in my COMM class. Dang, I need to go to bed.

We did this really crazy game tonight at CLUB (Young Life weekly meeting). I think the picture speaks for itself. Check one, check it out!There were 14 kids in my little beast of a car (Ford Tempo)! It was a proud moment. In deed, a very proud moment. HA!

The plan is for me to go to bed, as soon as I click PUBLISH POST, then wake up early in the morning and work on my group stuff till I feel I have done everything I need to do. THEN, some little cousins of mine are coming over and I get to baby sit them for a couple 3 hours or something till my mom gets back. Tomorrow is going to be a good day. Today was a good day. I'm out.

Can't a guy catch a break?

I am writing this post pretty angry. I will post a picture explaining why.I was leaving the parking garage at IPFW (University) today when I noticed a Campus Cop sitting near. Now the IPFW PD, apparently have the same kind of power that a normal cop does. This didn't even enter my train of thought when I saw the IPFW PD. I was hanging out with my friend Derek on campus, and he dropped me off at my car in the parking garage and I was waiting for him to exit so I could follow him to his house. Well, apparently I did not come to a complete stop. SO, the cop put his lights on right away and pulled me over. :-O I was so angry, because I know darn good and well that he was abusing his position. There were no other cars at that friggin 3-way stop and that is just horrible. To sit there and wait for someone to slip up just the tiniest bit is just flat out wrong. Also, before I gave him my thoughts on the whole situation, he informed me that points were indeed going to be added to my already flawed license. What in the heck reason would he have to inform me of this!?!?!?!? He even asked me why I had 12 points on my license. He was extremely unprofessional, and just a jerk. I could have kept my mouth shut, and not said a thing, but as soon as I heard him tell me that he was just trying to protect the lives of other drivers, I LOST IT! I told him as nicely as I could that I believed he was abusing his power, and that the right thing to do in a situation where he knew I wasn't causing any harm, was to give me a written warning. I told him that he was not trying to help anyone, but instead he was only causing more problems for me and our tax payers. Now, I have to go to court and it is going to raise my car insurance. All because I came to a "rolling stop." The ticket will cost some where in the vicinity of $50-100, again money that is going to be hard for me to spend.

Was I "TECHNICALLY" in the wrong for not coming to a complete stop? Yes, I was. BUT, that really does not stop the fact that this guy pushed it to the limit. He really was on a power trip, and that is wrong, plain and simple.

I am just glad I didn't take it too far, and so happy that I stayed some what respectful. I almost said something to the effect of, "why don't you try to protect our campus from having another homicide instead of writing joke traffic tickets." I am really glad I kept that one inside....After I got the ticket, I went ahead over to my friends house. I had some dinner, and some time to chat with my friend "shoobs" who is currently on a 2 week leave from the air force. He is currently stationed in Texas. Shoobs, is the guy in the back with the hat on. After dinner was over I did the dishes for my buddies. There was a lot of dishes, but I knew none of them wanted to do them so I did. It gave me time to think and play in water!!! :-)

After I got some time to spend with Marty who showed me a bunch of really sweeet internet sites that I never knew about. I got to send my "future" self an E-Mail. So, in April of 2011, I will get an E-Mail of myself with some solid advice and information. That will be a pretty cool experience.

THEN, at the way end of the night, I took my friends to the bar. Now, they invited me to come, and I could have totally reasoned it because Shoobs is back in town. BUT, that would have been wrong, and totally bad for me. I said no thanks, after much careful consideration. It would have been so easy for me to say yes and go ahead and not even feel totally bad, but I did the right thing because that is the right thing to do. NOW ONLY IF I WOULD HAVE COME TO A COMPLETE FRIGGIN STOP!!!!! AHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!

today was kind of rocky

I started the morning off with some rock removal. The yard at Pathway is came in pretty well considering how many rocks/stones there is. My job this morning was to remove as many as possible that were making it difficult for the grass to come in good. I must say that the majority of the rocks needed plenty of "coaxing" in order for them to be completely removed.

Yea, I stayed busy through out the day. Towards the end John (facility manager) had me type some stuff into his computer and just work some technical issues he was having. After work I went home and ate some dinner, then I took my sister to go and see this car she had found on the internet. It is a 2002 Honda Civic (4 door) with 64,000 miles on it. Runs great, but has some sun damage to the paint job. Also, a little other minor things caused by sun damage. Sun damage was from the crazy sun it got while in Cali and Nevada. They are only asking $8,000 for it, and the owner said he would put a 3 month guarantee on it, meaning that if anything goes wrong within 3 months, he will pay for it out of pocket. I think that says it all.

After we got done taking it out for a spin, my sis invited me back to her place for a bite to eat with her ROOMIE, Traci. yummmmm
It was a good day, even though I fell short of the glory...

great, wow, ummm good day.

So, I started the day out with a really great devotional/Bible study. It went a little something like, "you're an idiot if you do things for yourself, yourself is momentary, but do things for God, and you will be doing them for an eternal figure." (Jeremiah 45:5) Got me thinking about why should I pray if God knows what I need, and what I want.....made me realize that prayer is a tool to bring you closer and closer to a fuller and more complete understanding of who God is. LOVE IT!

So, after church I did a little community service. No, not for me, but for this kid I met at Snider. I forgot to ask him if I could have his permission to put his pic. on my BLOG, and so I am just going to post an edited picture of him. Then, maybe in the future I will re-post the real deal if I get his OK.This is a picture of the massive amount of trash we picked up from a very large field. SO MUCH TRASH, for 3 hours! It was actually a lot of fun getting to know him though, and I am quite glad I got the chance to do it.This is a pic. of *******, he is a pretty cool dude, and I am glad I got a chance to befriend him at Snider lunch.

After the community service, I went home for maybe 1/2 hour, and then went to a Young Life leader meeting. It was real good, and we talked about some really hot topics.

After the YL meeting, I went to Collateral, and it was quite healthy. We talked about more hot topics. (sigh) I don't have my Bible right next to me though, so I kind of forget what exactly what the topic was. hold on...........wait for it........."haughty" is coming to mind. Romans 12:16 in some translations I believe says do not be haughty..........ohh man, I maybe take that back. I am super tired, and need to go to sleep. I had an incredible day. It ended with me taking my friend Paul home from Collateral. We talked about mormans.............We talked about mormans for what seemed like an eternity. I am sick of Joseph Smith and his craziness. But, I love Paul so I will talk it out whenever he needs me to. I will also stand by his side for how ever long it takes. I am in it to win it with Paul. :-)

Then, I watched this video that made me cry pretty hard. It is pretty powerful stuff. I don't know if it is true or not, but there is just so much truth in this video that I get very emotional. SO GET EMOTIONAL AND LOVE AND CELEBRATE LIFE!

a car car here, & a car car there

So today I woke up and my sister Merideth was helping out with cleaning the house, my dad was cutting down a tree outside with a friend, and my mom was directing and cleaning as much as she could with her foot being broken. I woke up late, and got a shower and was off. My sister and I planned on taking the afternoon to go out and look at cars for her. Her car is going to DIE soon, it is sad, but just how it is going to go. She bought the thing a while ago, like over 2 years, maybe even 3, but I think more like 2 years. It is a Mazda Protege, and I am not sure of the year. I do however, know that it has over 210,000 miles. The thing was in an accident before she got it, and the front of it is all smashed up. She only paid $500.oo for it too. The thing is straight up a runner. But, it's time is coming soon where it will run no more. It's been good for her though. So, we hit the market strong and noticed right away that Car Salesmen are like gnats. They get right in your face and don't leave you alone till you are kind of annoyed with them. They just POUNCE on you as soon as you step on to their lot. I know it is a business, but some of these guys were relentless, pressuring and making you feel uncomfortable. We met a few who were calm, and didn't make us feel like they just wanted to make a sale. We covered a lot of ground, and got a good idea what all is out there. We will have to go again soon though, to finish up the CAR SEARCH in Fort Wayne. I just barley made it to Saturday Night Church (SNC) at Daves house. I got into some good conversations with Dave, and he made this comment that really stuck with me. I have to share it and remember it. Dave said, "Sometimes staying in tune with God is like dancing in the moonlight. Sometimes it gets dark, and there is only shadows. BUT, the moon is always there." Man, that is a pretty good depiction of my in tuneness with God at times.

After church was over, I took Daves daughter Rachel to her brothers house. Her brother is on staff with Campus Life, which is another High School Ministry just like Young Life. I got a chance to hang out with kids from Churubusco high school (right outside of Fort Wayne). They seemed like a good group of kids, and I watched as they got their Wii on. It was fun, and now I am super ready to go to BED.

I pushed it to the max today.

I put in 10 hours for Pathway today. I did all kinds of work from moping the stage getting it ready for a wedding rehearsal, to purchasing bails of hay for a project that will be done tomorrow with many volunteers. I stayed so busy, but at the same time, as you can see very clearly in this picture....I STILL FOUND TIME TO HAVE FUN! I was so tired when the day finally ended, that I drove home and passed out on the couch.





There was one part of my day however, I was ecstatic! Let me set the scene...I get E-Mails on my cell phone and I check them quite often to make sure I stay up on things. Well, one E-Mail came that really just sat me down for a second. I got an E-Mail from a friend in California who is sending me to Arizona for the Young Life camp. I would not be able to do this camp if it was not for this person. He is 100% a blessing to me for doing what he did, and I am just in awe. I have never even met the person face to face, but yet he believes in me and supports me. OK, so picture me on the stage moping it for the wedding. I hear a "beep" and check my phone. It is the confirmation E-Mail from American Airlines saying that my flight has been booked from Indy to Arizona. That was amazing, but then I see that I am set for 1st class!?!?!? I don't know what it is exactly, but I had to sit down for a second and just be ever thankful. I just went to prayer and thanked God for it, and for some reason, it just really hit me. I am not big on NICE THINGS, or living a FANCY LIFE STYLE. But when I saw that he sent me 1st class, I dunno, it just touched my heart. It is probably nothing, well I actually know it is nothing for him, but to me it meant the world. It was so simple for him to do, but really it meant the world to me. If you could say a prayer for his dog, IKE, I would really appreciate it. IKE is his good buddy, and he is getting old.

God Bless!

I love lamp

I think that today was a pretty solid day. I say this because I got a lot accomplished and had super high spirits, higher than normal even.

I didn't feel like a plumb melon head or anything.I felt more like a blessed servant of Christ. I got some incredible news from a friend in California. The enormously generous person who is flying me out to Arizona and back just confirmed the flights today. I am totally pumped for this. It is going to be an amazing and SWEET experience to serve God and kids. I believe we are called to be a servant in all facets of life, but getting a chance to serve at a place like a Young Life camp is especially neat for someone who is wanting to directly serve kids. I say this because these kids are taken out of their element, we (myself and the kids that will come to the camp) will have a chance to really take a good look on the inside and seek God's face in a more inwardly directed sort of fashion. I am just so excited!
Today I spent a lot of my day in the computer lab at IPFW (Indiana University Purdue University Fort Wayne). I have a group project coming up next Thursday for my communications class and I am going to really be proactive with my group. I started out by printing out some general ideas and things of the sort to kind of drop kick our project into the right direction. It was a successful group meeting. I like the people in the group, and feel that we should do just fine.

Also, on campus today they were providing free food. It was pretty cool. I met up with my friend and fellow Young Life leader Ryan and ate up some food and chatted about our summer plans and such. It was motivating and so pretty outside today.

All the sunniness kind of has a way of making a guy pretty sleepy. :-)

G'Night!