the perfect chicken wing

hey everybody, i had a busy weekend, couldnt get to the blog. got to spend a lot of time with shannon, which was awesome. played tubal warfare after church on saturday, it was pretty cool, i wish more people would have played, but its all good. then i went to chili's with a few people and we all just chilled. sunday was the normal sawgrass/home group. then today was school. on a more interesting note, i got to serve some people in the parking lot today. some girl had a flat tire and needed someone to change it. so me and my buddy got to work, put on the spare no problem, and sent her on her way. i wasnt jumping at the opportunity at first, but im glad i got to do something for someone today. then i came home, did my routine of hw/work out/all that good stuff. then i got to go to jerseys with the guys for 40 cent wing night. now if youve never had a batch of danno wings from jerseys, you should really try something, cause it will open up your mind, body, and spirit. theyre dang near divine. i wouldnt be surprised if they just had bowls of danno wings lining the streets of heaven. but i digress, now with my homework done, no pressing activities, and my girlfriend asleep, i enter my block of unwanted free time. i should go try and find a hobby. im signing off, good day.

batter up

so today was the first practice of Sawgrass Softball. im on the team this year, so i went. it was pretty fun, and softball is a lot easier to play than baseball, which i like, cause i feel almost mediocre at it. i made the only play that came at me behind home plate (they put me at catcher), and i went 1-1, woo batting 1.000. it was just a lot of fun to be out there with some good guys and mess around. the season should be fun too... hopefully we'll win a game this year...

productive

so today was pretty good. 1st and 2nd block were alright, 3rd block lecture was entertaining, i read rick reilly's "hate mail from cheerleaders" during 4th block, so that helped kill time, and school wasnt so bad. what can i say, sports illustrated based writings make any day better. then did a little work, worked out, had a good dinner and got started on my application to UF. it wasnt very fun, but i managed to knock it out, essay included, and it sounded pretty good. its good to feel like you have a future... im just kidding. then i got to go see shannon for a few hours. which made it a great day. plus, there are rumors that my school hours maybe changed for the better, but none of its confirmed, we'll see.

2nd day

only 174 (i think) days of school left. hallelujah! today wasnt as bad as yesterday, it went a little quicker. i thought i was going to choke from the stupidity when my 4th hour teacher had to explain to the class what a million was. (a one followed by six zeros, in case you were wondering) but it was ok, i have to bring something to entertain me tomorrow though, maybe ill grab a book or something. but i came home, worked out, ate, did my little bit of homework, then realized my day was done at 6. so i waited around for shannon to finish her homework and then got to talk to her for a while (thus why im so hyper right now). now i dont know what to do. i realized that if everyday is like this, then i can definitely handle a job during the week. maybe i can go flip some burgers and make a quick buck. we'll see. well, im gonna go search for a book, then hopefully go to sleep at a decent time. so im signing off, hope all of you out there had a good day as well, and an even better one tomorrow.

first day of school

so today was the first day of my senior year, awesome right? eh, it was ok. my first two classes (ap environmental sci and volleyball) look like they're gonna be pretty good. but my last two (gov and earth/space) look like they may seem longer than they are. so now im all set for school tomorrow, i guess i could get ahead and do some homework since my girlfriend needs 10-12 hours of sleep a night and is already in bed, so i have some free time that i dont know what to do with. ill go figure something out to do. on the bright side, theres only 174 school days left for me. man... keep the prayers coming. :)

last day of freedom

so tomorrow at 7:20 ill be once again, stuck in school. its really getting old. at least this is senior year, which should be better than the rest. im actually not dreading school so much. it shouldnt be so bad. i cant go to sleep cause i crashed when i got back from sawgrass today. man, i got to climb the light towers, it was so much fun. number of workers were down, but it was all good. then i had home group, then i got to chill with shannon for a few hours. it was awesome. so now ill go stare at the ceiling for a few hours as i wait to fall asleep. stinkin school.

pretty boring day

good news! i finished all my summer work, with one day to spare. shoot, i couldve procrastinated a whole nother day. but im kind of relieved its done, so tomorrow i can occupy myself with sawgrass/nation's and hopefully shannon if she ever comes home. but yeah, today was pretty uneventful. went to church, spilled some kool aid, and next on the schedule is sleep. things will get busy soon though. well, 4:30 comes early so ill sign off now. but before i go, you all should really come check out FRC Sawgrass (where i spend my sundays) services start at 9 and 10 15, ill be in the student theater trying to teach middle school boys. come visit, itll be a blast. all the high school kids are doing it.

dont procrastinate

so today i decided to tackle the last bit of summer work i had. which was read this book and write an essay. problem is, i underestimated this book. in the words of my friend matt, its pretty trippy. its called Ishmael, its about this super smart gorilla who is teaching this 30 year old what is wrong with civilization. i dont know. i knocked out half of it today. ill read the other half tomorrow and write the paper before church. then im free til monday. hallelujah! man, i cant believe summer is almost over. its alright, school wont be as bad as last year, i have an easier schedule, so ill more time to do fun stuff other than go home, do homework, go to bed.

so now im gonna go see how my sox did today against the angels. they had a double header, and a rookie on the mound, maybe a promising young stud to fill out the rotation. man, i can smell a pennant this year. its gonna be sick. preseason has started and college is getting ready to kick off! praise the Lord, football season is almost upon us! im stoked.

happy birthday shannon

boy was i productive today. i knocked out 11 essays, so now i only have one big essay to do and a practice test and im done til monday. sweet. so after all that, i got the chance to surprise shannon. when she was at dinner with her dad for her birthday i snuck over and left some chocolate, a rose, and a note on her doorstep. i think leigh ann ended up finding it, but apparently it was a big hit and i did well. so thats good. i went over to fridays after i dropped off her gift, and hung out with the GC for karoake night, but had to leave early when my gift was discovered. so i went over to shannon's, got interviewed, passed the tests, said bye, and headed home. its an early night tonight, might be able to catch up on some sleep. but it was a great day. this seems to be a trend developing.

no work done, but totally worth it

so today was another great day of summer, makes me wish it would never end, but i guess i have to. i rolled out of bed and went with avery and OG to get their parking permit, which they ended up not getting. but i got to see my old physics teacher, and said hey to him. then we got some delicious chic-fil-a. then i came home, and walked right out the door to go see transformers with drew. it was good, but my friends had hyped it up too much. i dont know how a movie can still pack out a theater 5 weeks after its opened. that was unexpected. but after the movie, i hopped in the shower and went and picked up shannon. we had some good eats at the olive garden, or the OG, as i like to call it (no relation to my friend orlando gutierrez, the previously stated OG.) then we walked the mall a little bit, rented a movie, and watched it at her place. it was a great, relaxing day. i had a lot of fun.

i can feel it

school is getting closer. dang. today i had to go to everglades and get my parking permit, 65 bucks down the drain just for a square of asphalt. then i came home and worked on some of my summer work with ramos. i got a lot done, then i took a nap. woke up to shannon's call, went over there for supper with the family, had some good chicken, watched some junk mtv shows on the couch and came home. i wish every day could be as chill as this. im gonna miss summer. i still have a lot to do, but im trying not to worry about it and just give it up to God. its hard at times, cause i want to take control. but itll be alright. now its almost time for bed, tomorrow should be quite a day with pete's "graduation party." remember to keep his family in your prayers.

winding down

only about a week of summer left, but its ok. im not dreading school too much. my favorite teacher got a promotion and wont be teaching ap government anymore, so im dropping the course and probably am going to take another class at bcc instead.

but i didnt think about school much today. i got up at 4:45, headed over to sawgrass to set up for church. it was awesome today. i had a great time hanging with my boys, we only had a handful, but i feel like they just had a genuinely fun time hanging out with us. tear down went quick, then i went to my friend's going away party. a bunch of kids from church just chilled at the pool. i had a great time with everyone there. then i went straight to bible study at nation's house. i was late, with spain, keith, and brandon, but for good reasons. jim was fine with it, and he let me close in prayer with scott, which was cool. then we went from there over to the watsons, and i watched double jeopardy with a lot of the people over there. i stayed there pretty late, hanging out. finally headed home and im almost ready to crash. its just been a great day, ive been surrounded by great people and had a blast going from place to place, even with wet shorts from the pool. its about time to hit the sack, tomorrow should be another fun day.

home, finally

i got home yesterday from ocklawaha. middle school camp wasnt quite what i expected, but it was awesome. it was a lot of work. we had to set up/serve/clean up/do the dishes for all the meals, and then clean up after the night games, and tear down, and do fun jobs like that, but overall, work crew was pretty cool. i got to meet a lot of cool people. i had a lot of fun. there was definitely a reason i ended up there. plus i had some quality company on the way up and back. so i cant complain. im definitely down for the rest of the camps i can go to. they've been a blast, so God focused and charged. it was great.

i slept most of the day, but got up at about noon. went to the movies at sawgrass. we saw matt and the sawgrass crew handing out waters on the road, it was good to see them out there spreading the word about FRC sawgrass. we had the same theatre we use for church, made me feel like i should be building something during the whole movie. but we saw the bourne ultimatum. it was good, but the camera was zoomed in too much the whole movie, and it was so shaky i felt a little sea sick. but other than that, it was good.

went to church later that day, chad did a great job. a real touching sermon about pete. i miss pete, but im happy that hes in a better place. pete was my table leader with abel when i was in middle school. it was crazy, our table started off so small, with only about 4 of us, but grew into this huge group by the end of our 8th grade year. it was cool, because before we started sawgrass, i helped out teaching middle school on sunday mornings at the cooper city campus, and i got to help out at pete's table. i could tell he practically ran that place, he did 3 services, had a huge table, and did socials all the time. those kids loved him and it was a great experience getting to work with him and learn from him. it was definitely a God thing that i got to work with him for those few months after he was healed of cancer, and before he had that relapse. i feel like God gave me a great opportunity to get to know pete better and learn from him during that small window when he was healthy. he really made an impact on me and i hope i can be the leader for my middle schoolers like he was for those kids. it was sad when i found out he died, miss watson told me early in the morning at camp, i had a hard time at breakfast, but ive been ok since. i know pete went out on God's time and that God gave him an amazing gift of an extra few months to change the lives of his middle schoolers, his friends, his family, and me. i know im gonna see him again one day, and im going to thank him. love you pete. praise the lord! as my sister says, pete found sudden glory.

here we go again

so i was sitting at my house around 6 today and i got a call from my buddy scott. he asked me what i was up to this week, i said nothing. he said, how would you like to come to middle school camp. so i basically put all the clothes and towels and stuff that just got out of the laundry from high school camp back into a bag and said, alright. so here i am again, im leaving for ocklawaha tomorrow to watch a bunch of middle schoolers make fools of themselves, try to impress the opposite sex, and hopefully grow closer to God. im on the work team, so i shouldnt have much free time, but its all for Him, so ill gladfully serve all those kids biscuits and gravy in the morning. at least ill have some quality company, and maybe ill make some new friends. im sure it wont be so bad. so i'll see you all when i get back on friday. pray for me! over a hundred middle schoolers all running around with their parents hundreds of miles away. i'll need the prayers.

camp

hey guys, i just got back from camp. it was awesome. tennesee was amazing. zip lining and white water rafting definitely topped the list. it was such a God charged week. no distractions, everyone seemed to be on fire for Him. it was amazing. i feel like ive grown closer to the guys in my home group, and have grown closer to God. i can't get the song of the redeemed out of my head. : ) all in all, it was great and im so glad i went. i can't wait for next year.