Things I don’t want to forget…

Things happen and before I forget them I have to write them down somewhere.

On Saturday our parents finally met and hung out for a while. They came over after we packed all of Emily’s college things. It was so much fun. Our mothers talked about baking and their kids. And something I will probably never live down is that game of fooseball. My dad and I were playing against Emily and her dad. We lost!?! 10 – 5 I couldn’t believe it and neither could my dad. We’ll beat them next time. I know we will.

Memories of the Lilac Festival are also very important to me. Last year the festival was very pretty but the best part of this year was that Emily’s parents came along. It was so funny. Right at the end Emily’s dad bought a turkey leg. It is like a huge drumstick. It was so funny to watch them eat it. Emily could hardly get her cute little mouth around it to take a bite. There are pictures on facebook!! And we took the shuttle bus this year. That was lots of fun too! We rode in the very front of the bus on the way to the festival and in the very back on the way back to the car. Emily and I really enjoyed that!!! Oh and we can’t forget cleaning off the knife!

Another experience I’ve really enjoyed has been exploring instruments. I’m teaching myself how to play piano right now. I know that is kinda hard to forget but I just thought I’d include it.

The family road trip!! Hind sight is 20-20. I wish I had blogged more. I’d have to say that my favorite thing was probably seeing the petrified forest. It was so different than I expected. That cavern we walked through was pretty cool too! Both figuratively and literally. My family is amazing.

Trips up to the cabin. I’ve only been up there a couple times now, but everytime has been amazing. During one of Emily’s first trips up, before we owned our cabin, at uncle Craig’s I remember going on a canoe ride with Emily early in the morning. That was so precious. My dad got a great candid picture of us. I also remember those wonderfully terrible ping pong games with Gabe. Another fun thing I remember is sledding down onto the pond. That was a blast!! Emily, Gabe, Lydia and I had some toboggans and the pond was frozen over. AMAZING!! Again my dad, always with camera in hand posted a video on his youtube channel. You should check it out. http://www.youtube.com/user/SMKaction He has some pretty cool stuff up there.

Something amazing I’ve been getting to do is love Emily. I love her and I also love being her boyfriend. We live and we learn. Everyday I learn how to put words to things that were just second nature to us before. We are reading Cracking the Communication Code by Dr. Emerson Eggerichs. It is a great book. I read about things that I already do, which is awesome because now I have the words to explain them to people. And even better I’m reading about things I can do to improve the beautiful relationship Emily and I have. She loves me well and I hope I can do the same.

If I think of more I’ll be sure to post it!!

A Time to Reflect

It is truly incredible how many resources are out there right at our fingertips, even just a mouse click away. Recently my beautiful girl has been reading blogs online and then passing along that I should read some of them. Specifically Bethany Dillon and her sister Kate McDonald. Bethany’s is cute and exciting but I feel like Kate has been through a lot more.

http://bethanydillon.wordpress.com/

http://katemcdonald.wordpress.com/

Emily had already filled me in on the details of what has been going on in Kate’s life. Emily told me that she had just gone through a divorce with a music artist I had really enjoyed. So with my sadness I approached her writings. And no, my sadness was not just because I had lost an artist. My sadness was mournful. I was sad that their marriage hadn’t worked. I was just blue.

But as I read I didn’t find a broken or mourning woman. I found someone who was free to let God be her lover. Someone who was free to live. I’m not advocating divorce by any means but what I found was not what I expected. Kate shared stories of being a single mother and stories of her sister Beth and Beth’s husband Shane. An incredible amount of joy and peace was flowing out of this woman who had been through so much.

God really does work things together for good. Everytime I think about what she wrote I can feel that well rising up inside of me. That joy disguised as sadness. The thankfulness disguised as watery eyes. I reflect on the beautiful friend and lover God has so graciously given me. The way her eyes glisten and glimmer when she looks at me. The strength we give each other when we are weak. Kate’s words poured through my soul and put a divine spotlight on something I rarely see. GOD WORKS ALL THINGS TOGETHER FOR GOOD!!!

The second half of that verse is very vital. “For those who love him and are called according to his purpose.” Seeing a small glimpse into the life that Kate has lived I can see that verse is so true for her. I know it is for my life with Emily. It can be for you too!

To be or not to be a geek…

Just as a warning, there aren’t any really serious thoughts in this post. I achieved something I never thought I could over the past couple of days. I have mastered the rubiks cube. I never thought I would be able to do that. Now the real questions is whether or not I shouls really be proud of that. I always thought it was amazing that people could solve the cube but I always thought those people had way to much time on their hands. Does that mean that I have too much time on my hands now? Should I be critical of myself as I have been of others. It has taken me years to master it. one step at a time. For those of you who are really interested I can solve it in just about 8 minutes. Another interesting fact is that I have 7 cubes but none of them are the original 3X3X3 cubes. I have one 5X5X5, four 3X3X3 cubes with images on each side, one 3X3X3 mirror cube and one rubiks touchcube. I’m not sure why I don’t have a normal one.

Late Nights and Clay Jar Plights

Yes I know, I told you I wouldn’t have any problem getting to bed. But I just had to write another post tonight. It is so addicting. I feel as though blogging is my creative outlet similar to photography. When I don’t have an english class I love writing blog entries. I found out something so awesome today. My Aunt has a blog. I didn’t even know until she posted it on her facebook page. haha. That is how we find out about everything these days isn’t it. I don’t have a problem with that though, just so long as we don’t waste time on these things.

Speaking of which, Emily reminded me today. I didn’t realize how time consuming facebook was until you have no homework. I probably check mine once a day now. I don’t want to chance even opening facebook on my computer at work. haha. Not even during lunch. I don’t know what kind of software they have on there.

Emily made the most scrumptious chicken for dinner today. It was sooo yummy. She also made elbow macaroni to go alone with it and I must say that I was full after that meal. I’m still full and I ate like 5 hours ago.

Every day I’m reminded of the love God has given me. Most days I feel it from people who I am close with (Emily =], my family, college guys) and other days I feel it from circumstances where I know God protected me. Bear with me, I just saw this really amusing picture in my head. So God is standing in his kitchen or pottery barn or where ever he keeps his fragile jars of clay. Our lives are fragile but resilient like clay jars. And God sees this one jar who has its back turned to God and God tries to grab it off the shelf. Because the jar has turned its back to God, He can’t grip it right and it slips out of his hand and begins to plummet to the concrete floor below. Of course, God catches the jar and chuckles to Himself as he dusts the jar off and places it back onto the shelf in a place where it can be seen and shown love.

I know that seems like a ridiculous story but I think if you play along a little bit you can begin to see my point. Sometimes we fall away or lose sight of God. But He won’t have any of that for He is a jealous God. He tries to grab us to show us some love. However because of our stubbornness we begin to plummet to a perilous situation in our lives, like car accidents or just any attack from the enemy to rob us of our well being. But then God catches us, saves us from the peril and shows us that we are loved and He wants to see us every now and then. I’m so thankful for the many times God has caught me just before I’ve hit the floor.

A New Season…

Rochester is a place where the seasons are sparatic. Winters consume a small portion of early December and the latter half of January through mid-March. The sun is a rare sight but when visible it is so magnificient. The seasons of life take a similar path. Somewhat cyclical but always containing a new twist. Last Monday I started my first Co-op at a company in Rochester called “Impact Technologies LLC.” I’m already loving the job. Some things might be a bore but there is always something to do. They definitely make sure to keep you busy.

With this new job, a new season with Enily also arises. I’m finding that going to bed as late as it is now (11:28 PM) isn’t the wisest thing to do. There isn’t much to be done about sleeplessness though. Our time together has grown more deep. When we spent unbounded amounts of time together we lost the ability to speak deeply to each other. Now that our time has grown more precious I find that it becomes easier to speak on the heart of the matter. That way we don’t dance around the issue and we have more time afterwards to speak love and care to the other. It may seem simple, communication may seem simple, but until we learned how to communicate frustration arose quickly. I love talking to her about things we are going through. A book she got me recently was the 5 love languages. She knew me so well that she got me the short version of the book. haha. It is quite interesting and and quite clear that her love language is quality time. I’m so happy to share quality time with her. Yeasterday we took the most wonderful walk together. We weaved in and out of brockport campus. I did something that I wish I’d much more in past months. I brought my camera along. Capturing Emily in pictures is so much fun. She is such a great model… A beautiful model if I might add. She uploaded some of the pictures on her facebook. We may have doubles because I want to upload some too. lol. Just spending the time focusing on her, both literally and figuratively was so wonderful and awe-inspiring. I’m so thankful to God for that incredible woman.

Yes and the guy time. I spent time with a wise young man. Not that much younger than me but he isn’t old. haha. Anyway, we had the most deep theological conversation I’ve ever had with anyone. I was able to look at my beliefs in an entirely new perspective. I was able to ask myself questions about why I believe what I believe and where my faith really is. I wish I remebered where we left off but unfotunately I don’t. We discussed human nature, the Sovereignty of God, evil itself, so many things. Our heads were spinning after lunch. But It was amazing to see what God was able to show me. Years ago my heart and mind was so closed to the idea of not knowing everything. I look at how we were able to discuss the things of God and I realize that God has given me such a great ability to stand up and be sharpened by Iron. I think I even saw some sparks flying during our conversation. Not sparks of argument but the sparks of deep thought and challenging questions. Kent, I look forward to many more coversations of God. You sharpen my faith in a way no other man has. Thank you and I really do look forward to more.

There are so many things to talk about and ponder upon but I think that is all for tonight.

The Week Of Many Things

This was the week which brought a light to things in my life. It has definitely been a long week. A week with few things to looks forward to, and many things to put off. Of the many things to put off were homework, studying, more homework… you know the routine. For those of you who don’t know Brockport was off on vacation this week and therefore, so was Emily. Yes, I spent an entire week without Emily. Emily and I have learned a lot. We’ve only learned because we have submitted ourselves to God. Without His hand on everything we hear, we would probably be in a much different place right now. But we have submitted ourselves to God and one major thing I’ve learned this week is that I love her unconditionally. No matter what happens I Love her. And the people said, “AWWW”. It was difficult but this week and the end of last week was a large wake up call for me. Things are beginning to come together in my head. I know that sometimes when we put things together without God’s influence they fall apart. But when God has His hand on the pieces he is assembling in your mind, be ready, because he will test you. I’ve had God speak to me in many ways; prophecies, sometimes a thought in my head, conferences I’ve attended, the encounter. I can see that he has been building things inside of me. It is so incredible to see the works he is doing. I know getting ahead of myself is wrong, so everything I do I’m going to submit to God before I take action. He is calling me to be a friend, a leader, a companion, a good example, a radical saint (Maybe not all right now). Looking back I’ve seen God strengthen me over the past couple of years. At the encounter, He changed my people outlook. He is teaching me how to receive things and submit them to Him instead of reacting. God is building a strength inside of me. The closer I draw to God the stronger I feel His presence. I am so excited to see what God is doing in me. He is helping me to remove the veil over my head. Helping me to see patterns in my life that I didn’t even believe were wrong. God is on the move, He is coming, I am so ready, are You?

Strong Foundation

God is so amazing and I’m sure that comes as a surprise to none of you. Tonight at Ironman we watched Fireproof. It was truly an incredible movie. But that isn’t exactly what has dawned on me tonight. As I lay here in bed I realize that God has such a hand on my life. And more evidently, He has a LARGE influence on my relationship with Emily. I take a look at the lives my parents lived, the lives adults in the church lived, and I realize that we have such a large foundation. God is building us stronger and better with every passing day. I look at the knowledge that has been imparted to us from God. And I look at how many different sources it has come from. There is no way that God doesn’t have his hand on this relationship. I just have to give Him praise for what he is doing.

Lots of Reading

I did a LOT of reading today. For my devotions I read Haggai and Zechariah (through chapter 10). Then I read a book Emily got me for Valentine’s Day, The Heart of the Five Love Languages. That boo really changed the way I view love. It took the “mystery” and turned it into something I could actually work on. If you find love just that, a mystery, then I suggest you read it. It simplifies things.

Well Haggai and Zechariah both had some very interesting passages that touched me in numerous ways. In Haggai 2:11-14 the Lord spoke through the prophet Haggai and told the people that by mere association, the people can be defiled, though people cannot be consecrated through association alone. Consecration is a choice and is something that must be worked toward in a person’s heart. Basically guard your heart and pray hard for those you want to see brought into the kingdom.

Zechariah 1:15 I felt really tied in with the guy’s small group message last night. It says, “but I am very angry with the nations that feel secure.” Now for a little context. In the previous verse He says that He is jealous for Jerusalem and Zion. So God isn’t angry with His children who feel secure in Him. He was angry with the people who felt secure where they were, with or without God. You are probably saying to yourself, “You just said He wasn’t angry with His children who feel secure in Him.” Yes I did say that, but God is constantly on the move. A key point in life group was that the only constant in our lives is change itself. If we feel secure where we are then we are not allowing God to change us and move us. When we are secure in Him, we are moving with Him, not staying put spiritually.

Zechariah 3 was entirely incredible for me personally, see if you feel the same. In this chapter the prophet Zechariah is seeing a vision that the Lord has given Him. We see Joshua standing with an angel before the Lord. Joshua has come to the Lord in His filthy garments, all that he had. The Lord told the angels to reclothe him in clean garments. If we come to the Lord he will take away our “filthy garments” whatever they may be, and replace them with clean garments. Then in Zechariah 3:7 God makes a promise to Joshua, which I believe holds true for all His people, “If you walk in my ways and keep my requirements, then you will govern my house and have charge of my courts, and I will give you a place among those standing here.” God is referring to the angels standing among Him.

Another verse that stuck out was Zechariah 6:12. In this verse the Lord has told Joshua his name is Branch, for he shall branch out from his place. I really feel that God has called me to reach out to others around me, specifically other Christian men who I link arms with and march in the army of the Lord.

Prayer: Equipping A Warrior

I love prayer SO much that I can’t stop talking about it. So Monday night Emily and I prayed fervently, for at least a half-hour if not more. Praise God, he directly answered some of them on Tuesday. God is definitely an awesome God. We had a breakthrough. For the longest time, Emily and I were praying for a certain person. After Monday’s prayer time, God answered those prayers. Now this doesn’t mean we stop praying we continue to pray for this person until we see God move in His relationship with this person. Now this is really exciting for Emily but it is also very exciting for me. I’ve prayed for people before but until now, I’ve never really seen fruit in those prayers. This is the first time I’ve prayed for someone and I’ve witnessed God’s movement in their life. Prayer IS a powerful weapon, and now that we broken through the sea wall and stormed the beaches we can’t give up until the war has been won. And we will win because God is on our side. This is a call to arms all you prayer warriors. God has mighty mountains for us to conquer. We cannot conquer them on our own. Just pray and God will be with you. I am SO excited.

Every Prayer A Powerful Weapon…

I’m beginning to understand what life is like for someone who stays home while the other person goes to work. I’m on break all this week and Emily has classes and she starts her job today. WOOHOO!!!! I’m so excited for her. For her job that is. I mean classes can be exciting too but this is her first day of a real good job. She’s working over in the admissions department. So cool.

Well so far today I went out to breakfast with Emily and Laurel and Sarah. That was fun. Emily got to meet Sarah, although they met unexpectedly on Saturday when Emily and I went to the mall.

As these past couple weeks have gone by I’ve begun to really understand the depths of prayer and how vital it is to a Christian’s walk with God. I always knew talking to God was important but I realize that whether you are in a large group or not, or the words come out jumbled, God knows where your heart is. He sees the desires of your heart and knows what you really feel, He knows where your loyalties lie. And most importantly, HE LOVES YOU. We are His children and His arms are open wide to us.

Later Everyone

Valentine’s Day

Let’s start with Saturday because it was a lot more fun. Haha. So as you all know Saturday was Valentine’s Day. It was amazing and wonderful and billions of other words I can’t even begin to locate from within my not so expansive vocabulary. I spent the entire day with my valentine, Emily Masi. Yes indeed it was a sweet day. Well to start the day I was able to sleep in until 9. YAY!!! That is actually not too late, but it is better than usual. The first thing I did was give Em her flowers. I got her half a dozen red roses. I tried to pick the best looking flowers but no matter how hard I tried I could not find any that were better looking than Emily. After I gave her the flowers we decided to go for a walk into town. The weather was perfect for a walk into Brockport. We walked into town and we ended up at lift bridge book store. Emily loves it in there and according to her, so does her mom. I do like it in there too. They have all the knick knacks you’ve seen and then some you haven’t seen.

After the book store we walked down to seaward’s candies. A locally owned candy shop. I bought her a piece of candy and then we were off. We went back to the dorms and then decided we should go ice skating. We played mancala a bit and then went for a quick couple laps around the ice. I do love ice skating with her. She even said exactly what I love about it, though it won’t last. She told me that she can’t just skate around and look at me because she has to focus on skating on the ice. When we go ice skating, that is the one time when I can actually just skate around holding her hand and just watch her innocently. She is so focused on the ice that I don’t think she knows how much I enjoy it. I know it isn’t going to last because she will get very good at ice skating. I know it. So I have to watch her while I can. So after ice skating I took her back to the dorms to let her prepare for our night out in Greece. I made reservations for us at Ruby Tuesdays. It was so good. I loved just sitting there at the table with her, only her. Both of us dressed up. Of course, she dressed to match me. That was actually the first time we’ve gone out to dinner in the 4.5 months we’ve been dating. Then we went to the mall and did a little bit of shopping. And by a little I mean a little. First we browsed Barnes and Nobles, we saw my friend Sarah, and then we walked through various clothes stores, while Emily had me try on clothes. She ended up buying me two shirts and I bought her some jewelry. Then on our ride home from Brockport we had our deep talk. I believe every time we get together at least for an hour we talk about the deep inner working of our souls and what frustrates us or fills us with joy. It was a wonderful Valentine’s day.

Later Everyone

P.S. please everyone, keep the families of the recent shootings and the plane crash in your prayers. God has placed us in this community to shine our lights, not douse them. Pray Hard.

Friday the Thirteenth

Ahh a week off of school. So I had an excellent Friday the thirteenth. Nothing bad has happened today and by God’s power I don’t believe anything will. I’m not really very suspicious so I guess today is just another day, right? So far today has been really good. I had english class this morning that went really well. I actually brought up a point at the end of class that the teacher really thought was profound. We read a decent short story for once. “Cathedral” I can’t remember the author’s name but it was an okay story. The basic point of the story is to show people that most of the time their prejudices are incorrect and you shouldn’t judge people based on their disabilities. Then my sociology class was canceled which I really enjoyed. Mainly because I had time to do homework. I worked on homework until about 11. Then I went over to the PAC center with Tom, Dave and Sarah. We threw the Frisbee around for a while. That was fun but I would have loved to have Emily there. I think she would have enjoyed it a lot. In fact I still have turf in my shoes from the field. After our little excursion I went back to the office and did more homework. I don’t like having homework over break yet I still do. At 1 I had dynamics. We had a quiz and I can’t believe how badly I screwed up. It was a dumb mistake. The problem involved a train decelerating as it rounded a corner. And we needed the velocity in the middle of deceleration. I calculated the change in velocity and then used that instead of subtracting it from my initial velocity. Ah well.

I’ll continue this in a following entry. I’m leaving school.

Later Everyone

Thursday The Twelfth

Praise the Lord, today was a great day. I slept in until 10 today and caught up on some much needed rest. Then I got to see Emily. We had lunch at my house today. I am learning a lot about what she likes and doesn’t like. She does toasted cheese I found. We were just going to do toasted cheese sandwiches. My mom suggested we make toasted cheese though, they were delicious and now we both know how to make toasted cheese. After lunch we talked… mmmm… I love just talking with her. I love knowing what her brain is working on or what has been weighing on her mind. So we talked about the summer. I am SUPER excited. She is going to be in Brockport all summer, except for some certain times but I am so excited for us. I can’t wait to have her around. Though she is here to work. Lol. She’ll be getting more hours at her brand new job than I will be getting at the job I’ve been at for 3 years and 5 days. I can’t really believe it has been that long. God definitely had his hand on her entire job story. I know I wouldn’t do God or the story justice. God definitely wants her here over the summer. So, we’ll going to go biking in the evening or on Saturday, I can do hot dogs and hamburgers. We are going to have SO much fun. Then I just got to have a peaceful and restful afternoon. I jammed on my guitar a bit. Emily came over for dinner. And of course we talked some more afterwards. Sometimes though we don’t talked. Sometimes I just look at her eyes, and I get lost. She is so beautiful.

I am so excited, tomorrow is my last day of school before break. MCC actually gets the same break as the public schools in the area. That is SO cool because Gabe Lydia and I will have time to spend together all week. I can catch up on sleep and such. I’m so ready.

Later Everyone

Wednesday, The Day Of Due Dates & A Brand New Crayon

So it is true, I had tons of stuff due today and not a whole lot of time to do it. I had to do 15 problems for Mechanics of Materials, which I finished about 30 minutes ago. I also had to write a huge MATLAB program which would open a file, organize the data, and then write a new one containing the organized data. That took me at least 5 hours total. It works like a champ though. I am really exhausted. Work has really been taking it out of me. Tonight when I go to work I’m going to be finishing up a project that I started like a month ago. It has been really stressful and tiring. From lifting heavy boxes, to precisely cutting 42 labels and their 42 pieces of tape, to formatting a Publisher document exactly the way the director wanted. I almost went crazy. But I am realizing that “in this world we will have troubles…” then I have to realize the following line in that song, “…but You have overcome them all.” That is a stone cold fact. God has overcome all the troubles of this world and all we need to do is lift our lives and problems up to Him and He will help us to overcome them.

I do also realize though how much God has blessed me. He has given me a loving girlfriend, a loving family, a place to live, a job to work at, food to eat, friends to hang out with, a church family, an education, and the list could go on forever. And I mean it. God really has blessed my life. I am so thankful for Emily. She is a gift that God has given to me. Someone that, by God’s will, will never go away. Love is a tricky thing. Whenever the love is your agenda it won’t succeed and is most likely ungodly, however when God brings two people together that bond is so strong. Most people give the analogy of marriage being like tying two strings together. Alright now bear with me but imagine people are like crayons. I believe that when God brings two people together it’s like He is taking those two crayons, melting them down, mixing them, and reforming them to become a completely new color. That is what a Godly relationship looks like.

Later Everyone

Homework, what?

Homework. What is the true definition of homework? Well I think the only qualification is that it isn’t done in the classroom. If that is so then I am definitely meeting the qualifications. I am at home. Although I’m in and out of doing my homework. Obviously right now I’m writing a blog post but I just finished my English homework so I need a little break. Lol. Though just sitting here, watching her, sitting across the table from her, that is a break for me. She is so beautiful, even when she is focusing on her homework. Such focus and concentration, and that determination in those lovely green eyes of hers. I love watching her think deeply about things the way she plays with her fingers or her hair. Even the way she gently rests her head on her arm. It all adds to the beauty she has from God. Lol, she just noticed me watching, observing. She looks so gorgeous. And that smile, it is enough to make me melt right here in the chair where I sit. I should probably get back to my work. I love watching her so much. She’s watching me now but I can tell and without meeting her eyes I return a smile so she knows I see her. I love doing homework with Emily.

Later Everyone

A balmy 52 degrees

Wowza, I can’t believe the weather right now. I don’t know what the temperature is outside but, well that would have bugged me I just checked. It is 52 degrees outside. This is brockports warmest day in a long time. The best apart about it though is that today is a Saturday, meaning neither Emily nor I have classes. Therefore, we can go for a walk and not frees our faces off. YAY!!! I’m actually just about to go meet her.

What else have I done today? Hmm well earlier I went over to Kyle’s house. I really enjoy going over there. We just jam on our guitars and sing praise songs to God. It is a ton of fun. I guess we started watching Kyle’s favorite movie today. Cool Runnings. He was in shock that I had never seen it before.

So what else is there to say. Well tonight I’m going over to Rich Kenyon’s for a party. That should be fun. I have no idea what we are going to do. I’m excited though.

Something that God recently refreshed in my mind is that I have to take steps of faith even though I have no idea where I’m supposed to know. I start walking in a certain direction and if it isn’t where God wants me to go he’ll pull me back and point me in the right direction. However, if it happens to be where he wants me to go, I will be rewarded in heaven because I was being faithful and putting my trust in Him.

Later Everyone

The Week Of February First

Hey Everybody! So I’m finally the end of another exciting week in my life. Let’s see what are the highlights of this week? Umm. Sunday… Church, homework, yeah. Monday, School from 8-5. Haha. Okay, something life altering happened on Monday. So I get bored sometimes at school. I was walking from the cafeteria to the ELC office. I open the stair well door and as usual, it is completely empty. I’m not even sure anyone else knows this stairwell exists. Then I see the railing. I hear it calling my name. I try to resist, then I realize that resistance is futile. I examine the railing and notice that there is one of those anti slide flat spots at the bottom. “I’ll just jump off before then”, I thought to myself. I hop on and then a fraction of a second later I’m at the bottom and I timed my hop perfect. I think I felt what a skateboarder feels after he lands a trick and realizes he didn’t kill himself. You know that adrenaline high. I know I only slid down a railing but don’t mock me, I’m an engineer, I design your skate parks for goodness sake. Now this stairwell has two tiers of stairs. Without a second thought I hop onto the second one. About halfway down I realize that this railing is about twice as long and I’m going quite a bit faster. So I figured I had two options, hurl myself off the railing now and possibly break my legs and everything in my backpack(laptop, calculator…), or I could try to slow myself with my hands and possibly burn them with the friction. Well thankfully I chose the latter. My hands did begin to burn as I grabbed hold of the railing. I loosened my grip. “DOOONNNGGGG!!!” That was the noise the railing made after my hand had connected with the metal bracket underneath the railing. I felt a large throbbing pain but nothing too severe. Then I decided to take a look. It looked like I had just stuck my finger into a meat grinder. But at first glance it always looks worse than it really is. Well I guess I learned a very important lesson; sliding down railings isn’t safe. Hey at least I had fun.

So now on to Tuesday. Well I made a huge mistake on Tuesday. I told Emily on Monday that I was going to meet her for breakfast at like 7:30AM. And of course, I slept through my alarm. So to make up for it I bought her some flowers, I believe they were pink roses. I was going to surprise her and get them into her dorm room before she got back from class. This is another funny story. So Emily’s class gets out at like 11:15 and I get to the dorm at about 11:10. So I figure I’ve got about 10 maybe 15 minutes before she gets back. I get up to her suite and luckily her suite mates are inside. I bring the flowers in and explain to them what happened and they OoOoOed and Awwed. I talked to them for about five minutes. No big deal. So I exit the room and grab the handle to the stairs I open the door and the elevator door opens. And out walks Emily. Haha, I almost had it. I almost surprised her with the flowers. My presence was good too but if she had found the flowers first I would have enjoyed that more. She still greatly appreciated them. She is worth so much more than just roses though. I love her. Well then we went out to lunch with my mom. That was a lot of fun too. Ahh but she worried me Tuesday night. If you want to know ya gotta ask her.

Well the rest of the week was pretty much a blur. Wednesday was the first ELC meeting and I had some members express interest in becoming officers. I’m glad I didn’t have to harass any of them. I really enjoyed that actually. Thursday, again no school but I hung out with Emily from 11-1. I tried to surprise her again but this time outside of her class building(Holmes, I think) but she came out right near where I was hiding and she saw me. Now today is Friday and there is Cornerstone tonight. I’m excited to see everyone. Later Everyone.

Weekend Of Em

This weekend was truly amazing. Friday We hosted the Game Night for BASIC at our house. I had the opportunity and pleasure of meeting Matt Kenyon and Deanna Harkins. They are one amazing couple, let me tell you. Matt and Deanna have such a bond it is incredible. I only can pray and ask God that Emily and I get even further. I love her so. And on that note we will move on to Saturday.

Saturday I was given the privilege to meet and hang out with Emily’s Grandparents. This was her mom’s parents. I spelled them quite incorrectly yesterday but hopefully tonight I will get it right. Stan and Arnoldine. We first had dinner at the smokehouse, which was excellent, thank you Stan. Then we went to the Holiday Inn Express where they were staying and we played cards right until 11:00. Then they both came to church today with Emily. I am so glad they came. Em and I were so nervous but they seemed to receive it well. I’ll find out soon enough. Prayer is the most powerful weapon Em and I can use in a situation like this. And pray we will.

I’m so excited; she is getting baptized on November 9^th. That makes me so happy to see her taking steps of faith. And apparently lots of people noticed today. We sat together in church. After church I went to Bruegger’s with Joel, Laura, Matt, Deanna, Heather, and two other girls. So Joel says to me, “So, Josh, am I late or something or are you and Emily dating.” I explained to him that we are taking things slowly and trying to respect each other, while at the same time learning about each other deeply. Em means so much to me. Its 11:11. Later Everyone.

Grandma and Grandpa

Emily’s grandparents are amazing. I had so much fun with them tonight. I was very nervous but I had so much fun. We met at the Smokehouse for dinner at 6:30. Of course they had to ice the kicker(me). I got there at 6:30 and they couldn’t find a parking spot so they ended up actually walking in at 6:40. Stan and Anrneldine. I probably spelled that way wrong. We played pitch at the holiday Inn Express up on the hill across from the old Golden Heights building. Stan and I played as teammates and we ended up winning 4 games to 3 against Em and her grandma. Then as we were leaving we walk up to the door and look outside. The ground was white and sparkly. We look at each other, so excited and one word comes out of our mouths, “snow”. We race outside and then it clicks it is actually the granite driveway in front of the door. I don’t think I ever laughed so hard with someone. We both thoroughly believed it was snow.

Lydia also got her ears pierced today. I think I was more nervous than she was. Now apparently some places do both ears at the same time. At Walmart they did one ear at a time. And I’m sorry but I will never ever get earrings. Never.

I really like Emily. Later Everyone.

Game Night and Thursday

It’s funny how amazing God can make things. So tonight, or last night was the BASIC game night, and we had it at my house. I had so much fun. God definitely blessed the time. I got to hang out with Matt, Deanna, and my most favorite, Emily. Ahh, she makes me smile so much. And tomorrow, I mean today I get to meet her grandparents. I’m so excited. They seem like really cool people. And they know how to play pitch. Emily taught me how to play rummy tonight. Wow, I didn’t write Thursday night, but I have good reason. Right after work I went to go hang out with Emily. We hung on the canal. Let me say, that it was AMAZING. She is so encouraging and uplifting. It feels really good to just be around her. Lol we tried to catch the sunset but there really wasn’t one. We saw lots and lots of clouds. But we didn’t let that dampen our evening. It was a little bit cold but whatever, we enjoyed it.

I am so glad that Emily introduced me to Matt and Deanna. They are really amazing people. Matt is an electrical engineer. An engineer, I’m so excited and he is picking up guitar. Now I’m even more excited. Lol. Later Everyone.

Thirteen Hours?!?!

My thirteen hour days are nearing an end. November 5^th is the final day of my stress management class which goes from 6-9 every Wednesday night. So I’ve got three more weeks of class to get through and then I’m finished. It is very exciting because I can then go home at 5 instead of 9. I’ll have another night added on to my week. Wednesdays seem to blend Tuesday and Thursday together. It will be nice to gain another day in my week.

So I was really excited all day today, I ordered this awesome shirt a few weeks ago and IT finally came today. I rip open the package and the main color on the drawing was a completely different shade than what was advertised. So I’m a little upset, but I’ll still wear it. I emailed the company so hopefully they’ll get back to me soon.

Tomorrow I’m going to go try and catch the sunset. Not literally of course but Emily and I so want to see one together and I’m just praying that it won’t be rainy. Later Everyone

Excellent Day

Today was much better than yesterday. Someone must have been praying because I finally understood my pre-lab by Lab today. And it actually made sense, not just fake made sense. That is definitely the power of God because I had no idea what I was doing. After Lab I went to my meeting with Shirley at 1:00. That my friends, was a little scary. Of course I was expecting her to tell me everything I did wrong and of course she did, but I am actually feeling better about my presidency. I was able to stand up to all her negative comments and take them at face-value without letting her get to me.

I did work again today. I worked from 3-6 today. Wow, I thought yesterday was boring. Today I did 2 hours worth of discarding books and about 40 minutes of shelf reading. I did absolutely no shelving today. Books books everywhere and not a page to shelve.

Tonight I had life group from 8 until about 9:30. Kyle came for the first time tonight and I think he really enjoyed it. He was able to connect with Zach and he had a lot of good points during our discussion. But the best part about tonight was the 10 minutes I spent with her. Alright now before I tell you who she is I must clarify our relationship for you all. Gossip and rumors can tear a relationship apart (I despise gossip, a story for another day). I do not want that to happen. We have entered into what I believe is a courting relationship. For those of you who don’t know what that is, I will clarify. A courting relationship involves 2 people who like each other. Courting involves getting to know each other better, and finding out if your feelings are just temporal or lasting. We are going extremely slow, don’t worry. I have enough sources of advice for this relationship that I do not need anymore. I appreciate it but no thank you. Alright, her name is Emily Masi. Later Everyone. =)

Mad Monday

Okay so now I’m officially going crazy. I don’t understand this pre-lab. I don’t even have the slightest clue what it is asking me to do.

So I worked tonight with Katie. We were so bored by the time 8:30 rolled around. We ended up clearing off all the carts. Meaning we shelved just about every last book. I think I got 50 minutes of shelf reading in tonight. That is a lot when your shift is only 180 minutes long. I go back tomorrow from 3-6 and I can only hope that people return lots of things. That might happen seeing as how today was Columbus day, and MCC was the only college in the area to have classes. Even local high schools didn’t have class. Lol. Tomorrow will be even crazier. I have homework for statics and physics due Wednesday, and I have circuits homework due Friday. Just pray for me please.

On an excellent note, I think Mindy had her baby tonight. Congratulations. Later Everyone.

A Slow Weekend

This weekend both went really fast and really slow. She went down to Utica this weekend so I really miss her. Saturday I worked from 10-3. Then I did nothing the rest of the day. I guess today was okay but I should have done homework. This morning I sang on the worship team at church. Then right after we finished worship for the second service I added $20 of gas to my car and then drove out to Childs (north of Albion) for my Grandma’s birthday lunch. That was great and all but I felt like I was wasting gas. I drove just myself and I wish they had waited one more hour then we all could have gone together. So then we came home and I wasted more time by doing nothing. Now it is Sunday night, I have a Differential Equations test tomorrow and then I have tons of homework to do. I just have to put my faith in the Lord although I know for a fact he doesn’t reward laziness so I’m gonna go do my homework. Later Everyone.

Hmm

Well no really deep intellectual thoughts tonight. I worked from 10-3 today. It wasn’t all that great. I got into an argument with my co-worker. We don’t exactly see eye-to-eye politically. And I think I said something that hurt her feelings. I feel bad about it now but I just wish I’d never told her where my loyalties lay. She is a ton of fun to work with. Except when we have a “debate”. After work I came home and played my guitar and listened to music, and then played my guitar some more.

I really miss her. She went home to Utica this weekend to visit her family. Now the most difficult part about it is that none of her family really knows God. They of Him but they don’t know him as their Lord and Saviour. I need to keep praying for them. Later Everyone

Another Friday

This week has been incredible. And God is so amazing. It started kinda rough on Sunday but it ended better than I could ever imagine. I even ended up deleting my facebook this week, and so far it has been the best thing I have ever done, kind of. And we went for a walk and saw the stars last night. I saw two shooting stars. That was a lot of fun. Then tonight I took Gabe and Marianne to the BHS homecoming football game. Yes they were 5-0 now they are 5-1. They lost to Webster who was also undefeated. After that we went to Jimmy Z’s. And now I’m home writing to you. Later Everyone.

Facebook De-activation Imminent

Tonight we took a big step together and by doing together it really helped. We both deleted our facebooks at 10:45 PM. It really feels liberating. Just to know that no one can look into my life without me knowing and anything anyone wants to ask me they can ask in person or text me. So many people just lost access to my life. It feels great. And to know that we are doing together really strengthens why I’m doing it. Using all the time I used to spend on Facebook for better things. I can increase my devotional life, I can hang out with her more. I can spend less time worrying what other people think and learn what God thinks.

I really love music, like it speaks to me. Well actually God uses it to speak to me. Even though a human is singing the words of the song, I can hear what God wants me to get out of those words. 11:11 I noticed tonight. Right at this very moment I am listening to the song God is using in my life. The song is entitled Time by Shawn McDonald. I love Shawn’s music, the last song God used was also one of Shawn’s. Time talks about how even though life drags on and things happen God has a purpose for everything. The chorus goes,

For everything there’s a reason

For everything thing there’s a rhyme

For everything there’s a season

For everything there’s a time

I hear God saying to me that I don’t have to rush things because his timing is perfect and it will all work to His glory. And because bad things do happen, God uses those to allow us to minister to others going throught the same or similar situation. God is amazing like that.

That’s all for tonight, Later Everyone

Crazy Times in the Life of a God Follower

Wow it has been so crazy since I last wrote an entry, sorry about that. Well to summarize really quick, we went camping, I told someone how much I like them and it turns out they really like me to, I’ve hung out with her a lot, school has been crazy, and there is probably more I’m forgetting to mention.

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I think that was as long as I had expected it to be, sorry if you didn’t want to read that, but you just did. Lol. So that weekend the family, the Rices (minus Joel and Abby), and Amy and Marianne went camping down to Letchworth State Park. I can’t even begin to describe to you how cold it was. I think the entire time I was down there I wore at least 2 layers. It was a lot of fun though. I was even able to teach some statics to Kyle. I think he enjoyed it. Now, you may be asking yourself, “did he take homework?’ well the answer is yes. The funniest part about it though is the fact that my calculator took twice as long to respond to every calculation I entered because it was so cold. Lol.

Everything has been going pretty well. Later Everyone.

A Four Letter Word

Wow, I am so pumped right now. I sure hope God is behind this feeling of love and adoration because it feels so powerful. Just thinking of her makes me feel like I’m floating on a cloud. I don’t know what else to say but she is too amazing for words. Well that’s all. Later Everyone. =)

Fabulous Friday

What an amazing day. Sorry I didn’t write yesterday but I was up until one this morning doing homework. Crazy I know. But Today was so wonderful. God shows his power in more ways than I can ever imagine. Oh how he loves us. Cornerstone was amazing like always. I always love going and just worshipping God to the fullest of my ability. But the best part of today is the person I got to hang out with after cornerstone. I really hope God is bringing us together on purpose. I love everything about her. She is so encouraging too. Like she helped me to remember to think of the good things about work and it’s just amazing talking to her. Later Everyone.

Wacky Wednesday

Did you know that is the title of a Dr. Seuss book? So today was pretty crazy like all other Wednesdays are. I was at school from 8AM until 9PM. Sometime I feel like Tuesday night blends right into Thursday morning. It is almost like I don’t have a Wednesday. But I got through another one with God’s help. I almost missed my first class though. I woke up and kept hitting snooze on my alarm until it was too late. I ended up sleeping until 6:45. And with rush hour traffic it usually takes me over an hour to get to school. But God kept the roads moving and I got to MCC at 7:40. That is really good granted that I left at about 7:05. But the early rush always causes us to lose things in our mind. And at home I left my physics notes, my statics notebook, and most importantly my Circuits Analysis Lab. Fortunately Professor Knebel said he would take it tomorrow. I said a quick prayer of thanks and rushed back to my seat.

Ya know that feeling you get when you wake up and you know a project is due that day. That feeling like, “oh no.” Well I woke up this morning and remembered that I had forgotten to order pizzas for the Engineering Leadership Council meeting today. It worked out okay, I was able to order the pizzas between Physics and Circuits. Then they ended up delivering it to building 9 at RIT. And when the delivery man call me and asked if I was at the loading dock at building 9 I was like yes I am. Then he said “Are you sure you aren’t at building 17?” That tipped me off that he delivered to the wrong place. MCC only has 12 buildings, you know?

Any who, the rest of the day went swimmingly. I went into the club office between lab and stress management. I was able to get the club stuff all organized. And as an added bonus I found a racquetball. I was so excited, for the longest time I just wanted something to bounce or throw at a wall and now I’ve found it, my blue squishy. Haha.

And of course I can’t go any further without mentioning that today was a national holiday. Today was Marianne’s birthday. I only wish I did not have classes until 9. That’ll all change in 7 weeks. My stress management class is only 10 weeks long and this was week 3.

On a happy/sad note we had another page leave the library. I’m surprised I haven’t mentioned this yet. Sadly while I was away in Florida, Amber left suddenly. I was shocked and very distraught when I returned to find that she had quit. I’m really going to miss her. She always had a way of making me feel really stupid but letting me know that it was okay that I didn’t know everything. I’ll miss ya Amber. However, the happy part is that Sarah Caffery got her job. I’ve been petitioning for Sarah for months to get a job at the good ol’ BSL. So last Saturday was her last day training and I think she is going to fit in just fine. Even with those dang page slips she still managed to shelve an entire Adult non-fiction cart and get it completely right. I was amazed. Good Job Sarah.

Well I got to hang out with her again yesterday. =) I’m just full of smiles whenever I talk about her. Later Everyone.

The Unmistakable Voice of God

God gets our attention in many ways don’t you agree. However one thing I have discovered is that we never get the answer in the way we expected. And sometimes he doesn’t even give us an answer. This is what we went over in life group tonight. It just doesn’t work if you question the ways of God and asking Him to bless you. First you must have the faith to step out, endure the trial, or whatever the case may be. Then and only then will God give us the answer. And still He may not give us the answer, but he will show us that he had the answer and wanted us to live it out instead of turning us into puppets on strings. God wants us to trust Him. In order to build that trust we need to let go of the cliff we are hanging on to. We must release our life to Him and know that He will do the right thing. Because He will, but only if you let Him. Later Everyone.

How Quickly God Answers

It is so amazing the way God responds to us. Whether you prayed for me or not, God heard my prayers and although it wasn’t answer I was looking for God gave it too me. He always has a way of changing our minds , ya know. Half an hour ago I felt terrible, but now I realize what God is doing in me. I need to work on my pride. God put it in perspective for me. I may be good at lots of things but it isn’t what I can do. God gave me the gifting to do everything I can. Not by my power but His alone. And though he has given me much knowledge, I don’t know everything. When I assume that, I’m being prideful. I need to learn how to receive correction from God, and this is the first step. Like I just told Marianne, when God takes something out of you that is very close to you, it hurts, a lot. We don’t want to let go, but the harder we hang on the deeper the pain goes. That’s the pain I’m feeling right now. I need to swallow my pride and humble myself before God. Once again, Later Everyone.

In your weakness he is stronger..

Well so far today has been a downer. I knew I should have done my devos this morning. Things happened today that really crushed the inside of me. They made me feel like I’ll never get out of the situation I’m in, and I will never be able to change my habits. It really made me upset inside. It gave me that feeling like you have a stomach ache but you know you didn’t really eat anything that would make you sick.

I know I felt a break from a spirit of rejection but I so want to be released from this spirit of depression which constantly tears away at my life and soul. All I ask is that you pray for me. I really need to feel the love of God right now. Later Everyone.

Lyrics from a song I need to remember

All I need’s another day
Where I can’t seem to get away
From the many things that drag me down, yeah
I’m sure you’ve had a day like me
Where nothing seems to set you free
From the burdens you can’t carry all alone
In your weakness he is stronger
In your darkness he shines through
When you’re crying he’s your comfort
When your all alone, he’s carrying you

This valley is so deep
I can barely see the sun
I cry out for mercy, lord
You lift me up again

The Amazing Refreshing Power of God

Wow technically I shouldn’t even be doing this right now. Mainly because I have a big week ahead of me. Well I’m writing because I haven’t in so long. What can I update you on in my life. Well in short I have too many things on my plate to handle. But I know God can get me through anything. So this semester I decided to take 20 credit hours worth of classes and so far it is killing me. I’m always exhausted and on top of school I’m working. There are only a few things which get me through the week; God, my family, and someone else. Wouldn’t you like to know who someone else is. It may or may not be you. So I’m taking 6 classes this semester, Differential Equations, Circuit Analysis, Statics, Physics 2, Psychology, and my favorite stress management. Actually I’d have to say Statics is my favorite. I think that is because I actually understand it so much better than any of the other classes. Stress management feels like a waste of three hours every Wednesday. It doesn’t even really propel me through the week like God does.

Every Sunday, I drive over to Hartwell, one of many buildings on the Brockport State College campus. Kendra, Emily, Greta, Corinne, Jeni, Joel, and I get together to worship God. Tonight was no exception. Basking in the Lord’s presence is so wonderful. When Kendra was closing in prayer tonight she hit the nail on the head. I’m paraphrasing of course but the gist of what she was saying went something like this, “Lord we are so glad to come here and bring you glory, but the most amazing thing is that even though our purpose is to love you, in these times of worship you pour Your love out upon us in a fashion so unimaginable.” If it hadn’t been for the fact that it was 10PM we so would have kept on worshipping.

Later Everyone.

YAY

The most exciting part of today is when I found out that my best friend accepted God into her heart at church. To tell you the truth, I think that was the first time I really had tears well up in my eyes because of how happy I was. I almost started to cry in front of her. Ahh… I’m so happy. Today was also the first service I went to that Laurel also went to. It was too bad that she couldn’t stay for the entire sermon though. And then after church Emily and I discovered how full my schedule is. It is really sad. I want to hang out with her so bad but I’m either working or at school. I think we are going to end up making plans for next Saturday. Later Everyone.

A Smooth Start to a Crazy Semester

So I started back to school on Tuesday of this week. Needless to say this week has flown by. Tuesday I only had one class but I had to get tons of “business” accomplished. This included president stuff and scheduling stuff. I had to go and get papers from the Engineering Club Office and fill them out to Shirley’s requirements. And of course all the sheets require like a billion and one signatures. I was able to get the room request form in on Tuesday and the office request form in on Wednesday. This was a decent start to the club. Wednesday was my crazy day. I was at MCC from 8AM until 9PM. 13 hours at my educational institute. Lucky for me the last class of the day was stress management. Three hours of relaxing. Amazing isn’t it? That class actually fulfills my Physical Education requirement for my engineering science degree. On Tuesday I think it was, I got to see Sarah Haller. My bestest buddie. Ahh I don’t know what I’d do if I didn’t have a little Sarah in my day. It was great that I got to see her on my first day at school too. Then yesterday I got to revisit so many people I’ve been away from for so long. BASIC had a bonfire out at the Ritchie’s house. I got to see Emily, Laurel, Joy (my bff), Kerri, Jeni, Laura (My Math Geek), Chad, Brian, Teddy, and Charlie. All my great friends. And the best part about it was meeting the new people too. I was able to met Zach, Kent, and Brian. These guys are awesome. Brian is doing a field I would never dare even attempt. He is a history major. Brian all the best to you. I know I couldn’t do it. And Zach plans to go to Seminary, after he also completes his history major; He is in ROTC as well. I was definitely most excited to see Emily and Laurel. Its been quite a few weeks since I’ve seen Emily. I really missed her company. She is someone who really listens. And always offers her help. I wish I hadn’t missed her birthday though, she turned 19 on the 23^rd of August. Ah well, I think she forgives me. ^_^ Alright well I must return to my statics homework. Later Everyone.

10 Days Anywhere Is Enough

It’s enough to make you appreciate how much you miss home. Orlando is great and all but I really miss my friends and my guitar. I can’t wait to go home and play those strings until my fingers ache from their unfamiliarity. And I miss all my friends. We travel back to Brockport tomorrow. And then Tuesday, Gabe Lydia and I all start back to school. That gives us Monday to hang out with our friends before we go back. I missed a lot while we were here. I missed Emily’s 19^th birthday on the 21^st. I missed the first 2 weeks that Laurel came to my church. I missed the first cornerstone meeting for BASIC. Lots of stuff I really wanted to do. I still wouldn’t trade this week for anything. I am really thankful for this vacation. God blessed us with great weather, and more importantly we bonded as a family. We have an entire week of memories. I can’t even believe that my parents were able to keep it a secret from all three of us. I mean it isn’t much of a surprise that they were able to keep it from me but from Gabe and Lydia. I think I said this before but I am so happy that my parent have been loving and caring for us and each other all 25 years of their marriage. The fact that they didn’t mind spending their anniversary with us just shows you how much we mean to them. I just hope God blesses them for how well they done. I also hope that they will know that they mean just as much, if not more, to us. See you all soon, Later Everyone

EPCOT.. Experimental Planned Community Of Tomorrow

Today we explored EPCOT and the world showcase. Once again the family had us run over to the newest ride to get fast pass tickets. The newest ride is entitled Soarin’. It was pretty cool. It give they simulated feeling of handgliding over vast landscapes and cities. All this is being displayed to you on a huge vision filling screen. There was even a synthetic breeze. The ride we did while waiting for our Fastpasses on Soarin’ was GM’s Test Track. It was just as amazing as I remember it last time. The acceleration test, speed test.. all amazing and hair raising. After Test track we went on over to Mission Space by HP. That ride was amazing. G forces and twists and spins. I really felt like I was in a space ship. I’m surprised there was only a 5 minute wait time. We also went through the world showcases. We went to the Canada show and the Norway show. We weren’t able to stay for illuminations though. The last ride we did before we left was the spaceship earth. A nice slow ride that lets you sit there and rest. The cast member who helped us get to the handicapped entrance was pretty funny. His name was Gary and he really enjoyed picking on Lydia. She loved it though. Gary kept on whispering to people about Lydia and by the time we got on everyone knew her name. It made her blush and smile. It was cute.

Today was my parents’ 25^th anniversary so we left the park at about 3 so they could go out to dinner. They had a great day. I love my parents so much. Sometimes I take them for granted. But I should always remember how many people didn’t grow up with 2 parents in the house. Someone was always there to take care of us. I continue to pray every day that I will be even a fraction of the parent that my dad was.

Later Everyone

A Day at MGM

Same routine as yesterday. Wake up bright and early so we could beat the crowds to the park. The first ride for the day was the Hollywood Tower Hotel. Once again, Lydia braved this ride where seven years ago she couldn’t. It was much shorter than I remember though. You get on and then like 2 minutes later you finish. Ahh.. I shouldn’t complain. We are at Disney for goodness sake. It was amazing though. This time I watched the minute details of the ride. How the pieces fit together, ya know. That was cool. After HTH, we went to the Prince Caspian: Journey into Narnia show. It was pretty cool it was a much more interactive and hands on version of the movie. We then got on the Toy Story Mania. One of the newest rides in MGM. It was a lot of fun. Probably the craziest parts about the ride was getting the fast pass tickets to get on the ride. As soon as the park opened, even before we rode the HTH, Gabe and I ran to get Fast Pass tickets for Toy Story Mania. We arrive at the distribution center and we are like 5^th in line. So this 12 year old is in front of us with like 5 tickets. Some older guys walks up to him. Obviously from his party and hands him at least 25 more tickets. That was completely infuriating. We were 5^th in line and our tickets ended up being for 11:30 AM. The scariest part was that the guy in front of us was getting really really angry. I was glad when the kid finished and left the line. He had escaped. Lol. Then we went to the Lights Cameras Motors show. That was pretty amazing. They showed us how Hollywood does some of the amazing special effects mainly car chases and stuff. It was flipping amazing. Just look at the pictures. Our Final Destination was the 50′s Primetime Café for a late lunch. Our Waiter was from Buffalo. How cool is that. Well I’m exhausted. Later Everyone

One Down Three to Go

Today me and the family conquered Magic Kingdom. There were so many rides. It was pretty crazy, the lines were quite nonexistent. We got there bright and early for the opening of the park at 9:00 and from there we had non-stop fun. First thing we did was the Haunted Mansion. Seven years ago Lydia was too freaked out to get on the ride so she took the chicken exit. This time Lydia was ready for all the chills and thrills. She enjoyed so much we did it twice. The second ride we went on was Thunder Mountain Railroad. That is the crazy train roller coaster. The wait was 5 minutes the first time we rode it, so after the first ride we decided to get right back on. The second time the wait was only ten minutes. It was a great ride. The second ride we went on was Splash Mountain. This ride was themed after the story of Brer Rabbit, Brer Fox and Brer Bear. It is a log ride but if you look at my pictures you’ll see that I was gutsy enough to pull my camera out on the ride. Gabe was worried it was going to get wet. I decided to listen to him right at the top of the very last hill where we all got soaked. After Splash Mountain we went on the pirates of the Caribbean cruise. It was an air-conditioned boat ride. It was pretty cool. No pun intended. We then headed over to Tomorrowland to hop on Space Mountain. That was the craziest ride I have ever been on. You have no idea where you are headed. And you have to be ready for anything. We hung out in Tomorrowland and did a few more of the rides there. We did the new Monster’s Inc. Laugh Floor. It was so cool because they animated it as you went. Like the animated character said things relating to what the crowd did. It was very innovative. Then we went to Stitches Great Escape. I would not recommend this ride. It was fun if you like rides that pop your protective bubble. It didn’t smell that great either. We then boarded the Tomorrowland Transit Authority tram. It was a nice relaxing ride showing us the ins and outs of Tomorrowland. And we got to see a side of Space Mountain that we will never ever see again. Apparently they were doing maintenance because all the lights were on in the mountain and you could see the entire track. It was like a cart was stuck or something. I so should have gotten some pictures. But I didn’t. gah.. ahh well. After that we went down to Main Street USA to watch the Founder’s Parade. It was so amazing. Except for being a million degrees, it was so much fun. We saw so many characters sitting on their floats. You’ll just have to look at the pictures.

I do greatly miss my friends. My Disney Connoisseur, Alicia, continues to keep in contact. She is always making sure she knows which park we went to and where we are headed. I know it sounds crazy but it feels as though we’ve grown a little closer as friends. Not just because of my vacation but it definitely helped. We’ve been talking a lot and it really feels like we’ve been able rebuild the friendship we lost when we graduated. We’ll never get to where we were, but it feels good to be friends again. Thanks Alicia. Later Everyone.

Fourth Day in Florida

Once again we had another great day in Florida. Again because today was a weekend we didn’t go visit the Disney parks. Today we went out to Cocoa beach on the east coast of Florida. It was so hot. I mean it is Florida and it is only the end of summer but I got burns on the bottom of my feet because the sand is so flippin’ hot. And that was not cool. I did go boogie boarding on the waves. As hot as the sand was the waves were that much higher. That was a lot of fun. I found out two amazing things today, first of all, one of my best friends, Laurel went to my church and really liked it. And secondly, my other best friend, Sarah, is coming to Brockport College next year. That makes me so happy that my two best friends are going to be going to Brockport college. YAY.. Later Everyone

A Saturday Away From Home

Well since today was Saturday my dad wisely decided that we would wait to visit the rest if Disney. I figured that was wise. Everyone down here is already in school so on the weekends all the locals visit Disney. So today we did some fun stuff outside of Disney. First we went miniature golfing. I ended up second to my dad, and only by one stroke. We had lots of fun though. Man was it hot outside. I think I almost melted. After mini-golf we went to a go-kart track. The carts were kinda slow but the most interesting thing there was one of their side attractions. They had a pond where you could feed baby alligators. It was so funny to watch my family feed them. My mom was so scared that they were going to jump out at us. You should have heard her. Lydia jumped a little, but Gabe, Dad and I didn’t really jump. It was really fun. Later Everyone.

Our First Day In Florida Was… A Little Wet

Yet we still managed to have a lot of fun. This morning we had an amazing breakfast of eggs, bacon, and potatoes. We lounged around until noon when we decided to head out to Downtown Disney. It was a lot of fun. We started right in the middle at Pleasure Island and worked out way toward the Marketplace. And of course during our tour we stopped at my favorite place ever, the LEGO store. And I can’t believe it but all I did in there was take pictures. I was quite shocked. We made our way around the marketplace and we then boarded a ferry to take us back to Pleasure Island. That was a ton of fun.

I really do miss my friends though. Marianne is a way having fun in Minnesota. So she is having a blast. Today is Emily’s birthday. Happy birthday Emily. And I definitely can’t forget my Disney Connoisseur, Alicia was the first person to find out we went to disney. Meg, Amy, Laurel, and Sarah, I miss all of you too. I pray every day that God would bless you guys. We’ll get together when we get home. Later Everyone.

A Home Away From Home

So this is what is feels like to go on vacation to florida. Well aside from how crazy today was it is nice to finally be laying down somewhere. We are now experiencing the remains of Hurricane Fay. So it is pretty rainy here. But when the sun comes out we are going to have SO much fun. Well now time for the crazy adventures of today.

So after my last blog post we boarded the plane to Orlando. We sat for about 10 minutes on the runway before we took off. Then we were on our way. The plane ride lasted about three hours and only the last half hour was really turbulent. We got our luggage and then I realized I had done something terrible. I left my wallet at the security checkpoint back in Rochester. My ID, my credit card, any spare change… all temporarily lost. Grr. Now I have no money to spend here. I have my camera though. Pictures will last a lifetime. We get to the car rental place at the airport and we get ourselves into a Chevy Impala SS. That car is so sweet. We got to the place that gave us the key to the “motel room” my parents said we were getting. There was an after hours key pick up office so we go in an look at the list to find out which key box is ours. Of course the only box that is hanging open is ours. No Key, No information, nothing… We sat there for an hour waiting for the “motel” staff to call us back. We left numerous messages on their machine. So finally the manager calls us back and tells us were to go and how to get into the house even though we don’t have a key. We arrive only to find 6, maybe 7, guys lounging in our house. Another surprise devised by the unstoppable duo of my mom and dad. It was an entire “villa”. Basically amazingness. So we knock on the door. And an Indian guys answers and he’s got this look on his face like, “Do I know you?”. My dad breaks the bad news to him and he turns to his buddies, who have taco bell hanging out of their mouth, and tells them. Of course the guy that answered the door is really apologetic. The other 6 are mumbling, “it isn’t our fault. I grabbed the right key.” Even though my dad’s name was written right on the key. Any way they end up leaving with all their junk and finally we can rest. So that was our crazy adventure for the day. Later Everyone.

Dingman’s Camping… NOT.. Off To Disney

On our way to dingman’s campsite. This should be interesting. This is the longest camping trip we’ve been on as a family. I mean we’ve been on vacation for this long but never camping for this long. I have no idea what we are going to do for 10 days. Mom and dad say we are going to go sightseeing but the only sight-seeing I know is gettysburg.

HAHA.. my parents tricked us. Well we pull in to the airport parking lot and we begin to realize that we are not really going camping. So we then realized that we were flying somewhere but our parents still wouldn’t tell us we were going. So they were able to keep it a secret until we got to the security checkpoint where we had to get our boarding passes. They said Washington D.C. That made me extremely excited. Then our names get called on the overhead announcement and we all moan. My dad returns to us with 5 more boarding passes, only these ones list our final destination as Orlando, Florida. AHHH we were all so excited. The only thing that bothered me was the fact that Gabe and Lydia had already picked up on the fact that we weren’t camping. I was completely clueless. Ahh well. Right now we are waiting for our flight from Rochester to arrive at the Airport. I can’t believe we are really going back. Later Everyone. J

Below is a list my sister had kept in her journal describing details which meant we weren’t camping.

Blessed with another day from Him

Today was truly wonderful. It was an amazing start to the week. I went to lunch with my friend Meghan. I feel like I know so much more about her. I can’t really describe in words how much fun I had. I can only hope she had as much fun as I did. Sadly, I forgot my camera.  I will regret that for quite a while.  She was actually the best part of my day so I’ll leave you on a good note. Later Everyone.

Ahh.. For the Glory of the King

Well today was a renewing day. It started off like every other day this week, early and with a disdainful tone. I didn’t get as much out of church as I would have liked. Until now that is. Today, Pastor Mark’s sermon was on the Glory of God. We were placed on the earth to bring glory to Him; placed so that we might glorify His holy name. If we all were given index cards and were told to inscribe what we believed our ultimate purpose was on the earth, very few of us would honestly put down that we were meant to glorify God. Writing from a Christian standpoint, if we step back and look at what God’s ultimate plan includes the end result is the glorification of God. Amazing isn’t it. Right now I’m listening to a song by David Crowder entitled, “For The Glory Of It All”, and the truth in the lyrics is that, “for the glory of it all He came here” To this very earth to die, “that we may live for the glory of it all“. It is so wonderful to see what God works through us.

Tomorrow should be exciting. I’m going to meet my friend Meghan for lunch. I know we are going to have so much fun. It has been so long since I’ve seen her. Of course, I’m going to take my camera.

In other news, I’m the president of the Engineering Leadership Council (ELC) at MCC. I was voted in last spring. The decision was unanimous and my opposition was… somewhat nonexistent. Actually there was no opposition. Teehee. So I ran unopposed and this week was the leadership training session over at MCC. There was SO much information and SO much paperwork I thought my brain was going to explode. Well luckily it didn’t and my head is still intact. But I’ve got a long 2 semesters ahead of me and it is going to be quite the journey. There are five leaders for the ELC, We have a President, Vice President, Secretary, Treasurer, and Student Advisor. The Student advisor and I were the only ones who attended both sessions. The VP made an effort and made it to the first session, the longer one. And neither the Treasurer, nor the Secretary, showed up either day. I knew the Treasurer wasn’t going to show but our Secretary said she would be there both days and she didn’t show at all. Hmm… I even had another leader ask me if we could count on her. I really do believe she can do it. It is just a matter of whether or not she wants to do it.

If you don’t hear from me until after the 21^st then I am away camping so try to reach me by my cell. 1001-0111-1000-0010-0000-0001-0000. Haha, for those of you who can read binary. Later everyone.

Two Solid Days of Rest

Wow, I would hate to not have friends, family or a job. For the past two days I did absolutely nothing and let me tell you, I was so bored. I did live through it though. A text here and a text there. Especially the one I got this morning. I played lots of videos games. I read. And I thought about people. Very important people to me. And it reminded me of how much I miss them.

Monday night I did something exciting though. After work I went to go wash cars. Now you may be thinking, “Why was that fun?”. Well I was with all my friends and we got to bless Brockport. We washed about 35 cars in the 2 hour period. I mostly dried the cars after they had been washed and rinsed. But the best part about it was seeing the smiles on their faces when we had finished washing their car. It really made me feel great about what we were doing. Then Yesterday I actually did do a little bit of work. I went over to church to help the drama team prepare for Mr. Rennie’s upcoming sermon. Let me tell ya, when thy finish their skit it is going to be so amazing. I’m excited to see it.

Well it’s time for bed. Later Everyone. And God Bless

Friday, YAY

So once again I went over to Debbie’s house to try to fix her computer and once again we got no where. So I’m a little down about that, but God is always there to cheer me up. I was at Debbie’s from 10 until 2:30 today. And then I worked from 3 until 6. I was exhausted. I did get to work with Jenny and Lori today though. They are always so much fun to work with. I am still training Katie but its almost like I’m not training her anymore. She seems to be remembering most everything that I’ve taught her. She and David are doing very well and I know they are going to be excellent pages. I did nothing else today though. Later Everyone.