Normal...Kinda (I'll come up with better titles some day)

Alright, the week went pretty well. I'm just about half way through this semester, and I still have energy. Wait till Rodeo hits, I keep telling myself.

Speaking of rodeo, there's a small rodeo coming into town and I'm going to see if I can cover it for the newspaper. I might get to go interview a bunch of bull riders or something.

I put in about 38-39 hours at work.

I bought a camera, so pictures will be coming in future updates :)

First real picture



I also went to a church to cover that for the newspaper....that's the first time I ever dropped an article volentarily.

The reason I write articles about churches in my area is because I felt God tell me one day in church, "be a voice for my people."

I already put a significant amount of time and energy into putting it together, but once I went to the church to interview the people in the church that had split, I just didn't feel right about it. There are too many hurt people there right now. I would be causing a lot more damage if I did write it. So, that's over.

On to cherier news, I had a funny thing happen to me today. I've been meaning to talk to a man at my church named Jim Farmer at my church (CCSA) about going on a missions trip to Africa next summer.

I went to the paintball course today to interview people there about another article (seeing a trend in my updates? lol) and did my work, was about to leave, when I felt God telling me to stick around a bit. I did.

When I turned around after a few minutes, I saw Jim Farmer, of all people, sitting at a table and getting ready to play soft air! I talked to him about the trip, and learned a few things.

I went to a friend's house in the afternoon to target practise. I also did some welding (or cutting, was exactly what I was doing)

This is him when I walked up.


I wanted to know how it worked



Me shooting (notice the scope FAR from my face. Also, Jared, I got an Alaskan belt buckle just to upset the natives in Texas ;)



Both of us shooting (don't worry. there's not a single bullet between all 4 guns :)


Some sunset/moon shots I took on the way back from Ballinger.

Sportscamp, Mufflers, and Stripping Wax from Tile

Whew!

Here are a few things I've done in the last couple of days. They're really not linked in anyway.

Sports camp is done and there will definitely be some kids I'm going to miss, while there are a few faces I'd rather not remember.

Some of you know my younger brother, Jared, played basketball last year. It turns out one of the kids I instructed played against Jared's team, and yes, he had attitude.

"Are you as good as your brother?" he asked.

"Nah. Football's more of my thing." I said.

"Well you must be really bad because he wasn't good."

Alright, buddy, you can talk smack when you're taller than my hip!


While driving home with some friends, my muffler fell off my car. Oh well. I own the most valuable car in the parking lot because my Honda gets 35-40 mpg, in my opinion.


I drove out of town yesterday morning to help strip wax from tile in a church before going to work. There are a few tricks to that job! First off, be careful with that buffer machine; one wrong move, and it'll speed across the room with you clutching onto it and sliding across the slick floor behind it.

Fun job anyway, as long as you stay away from stairs.

Tomorrow my older brother and I, with whom I'm sharing an apartment, are starting a road trip to Oregon. The point of the trip is to see the family a few days before they fly off for Japan. I'll probably have pictures in the future!

Quick Update

This summer's been pretty fun so far and I haven't even gone on vacation yet!

I turned in a scholarship essay the other day about The Wizard of Oz, Toto, and money management, I registered for college classes, played paintball on some friends' property, and experienced my first day of something called Sports camp at a ministry I volunteer at.

How it works is we bring van-loads of kids to certain locations and we have coaches who instruct them in the sport they're interested in. The people in charge picked me to play basketball...which means I'm pretty much learning right along with the kids :)

One thing that got my attention this morning was listening to two boys talking this morning about butting heads. I didn't think anything of it, till one actually head-butted the other. The injured party didn't like that and punched the other kid.

Only in a group of pre-Jr. high guys....

I discovered the kids are a lot easier to control when you learn their names, btw. fyi, if you ever do anything with a lot of kids!

Insurance for the Missionary?

I've been working through a course by Dave Ramsey lately about financial issues. It's been a lot of great information that I'm glad I'm learning now instead of discovering later when I'm broke.

The topic of insurance came up in the lessons, and the one that particularly caught my eye was dissability insurance. Dissability is where the company will support you a little while you're injured doing your job and you can't return to your work.

The companies decide how much you pay not based on your age or health, but on your occupation. The riskier the job, the more it will cost.



So, how much do you think it would cost a missionary going to a country that is 99% Muslim? I'm thinking life insurance is what I should be checking out!

Whooops

I swore at a kid today.

It wasn't a big word, or anything that would nail granny to the backwall or anything, but I felt bad for saying it in front of a kid I was trying to be a role model to.

The kid (about an eight-to-ten-year-old guy) tackled a girl during a weekly outreach ministry and I said, "I'm not going to put up with that crap."

I know that kid probably knows more words than me, but I still didn't want him to hear it from me. Oh well...

On a lighter note, I played a game with some people when I got back! Have you ever heard of Silent Football? I hadn't. Pretty much, you do a bunch of motions (you can't talk the whole time) and someone has complete authority over who get's points or not. If you get 3 points, you have to do something everyone decides on, i.e., barking at cars or singing while standing on a table.

In all reality, I don't think I would have lost if I didn't have such a smart mouth. So they decided I'd drink a milkshake with:

Milk
A Stale Biscuit
Grape Jelly
Cheetoes
BBQ Sauce
Ketchup
Pickles
Julios Hot sauce

Probably threw in more stuff too, actually. I didn't watch.

Here are some pictures!