New Port--I mean OSAGE Beach

Yo.
Hope everyone's Fourth of July/Independence Day is going swell! I'm currently in the Ozarks (Osage Beach to be specific) and enjoying a relaxing day by myself in an empty condo! My family is here for my Dad's side of the Family Reunion. So, even though I don't know the weekend's plans, I DO know that it'll be full of awkwardness and... FOOD. Haha
I think we're just chillin' today and grillin' out tonight for supper... That shouldn't be too bad. Tomorrow I think we're renting boats and Jet Ski's! That's all I really care about. I'm not particularly fond of lake water/swimming, but Jet Skis... That's a different story!
Wellllllllllllllllllllllllll... Anyways... I think I'm gonna head back inside and enjoy the A/C... I'm spending the whole summer outside.
Peace out!

Russians, Friends, Life in General

Wow:
Life is full of strange twists and turns.
Currently I am sitting on a piece of crap mattress, on a bunk bed, at a CONSERVATIVE BAPTIST church camp. I know! I never saw it coming either. I'm a HUGE fan of contemporary EVERYTHING! I mean, for crying out loud--I go to The Crossing! It's the most contemporary church you can possibly find in a 200 mile radius of where I live. If you would've asked me a short 6 weeks ago what my summer plans were I would've told you that I was going to try to get a job working in Quincy at a computer company. However, one night I was joking with my friend, Lorri, who told me she was going to work at a church camp for the summer. I said, "You should hook me up with a job as a lifeguard!" I was TOTALLY joking. Two days later I get a call from the manager at Camp Manitoumi by Peoria. I jumped at it. At the time I was having some friction with some close friends and needed some time away from home.
I've already made it through 3 weeks at this camp. I'm here for 9 weeks! This week we have RUSSIANS. I know, right! RUSSIANS?! I'm not exactly sure how they came to be at this camp, but this week is going to be interesting to say the least. Many of them don't speak English. I have to use an interpreter at the pool to get on people for running and hanging on the rope!
At first I was loving the fact that I was finally getting away from my normal Bowen/Macomb life. However, the day I left for camp I had a hard conversation with one of my good friends I was mentoring from Macomb. He's had a tough life and really just wants someone to be there and care. I feel like I've failed him by leaving. When I visited back home last weekend, he and I had another hard conversation in which he showed signs of rebelling against me. However, I texted back and forth with him today and I think he's doing a little better.
A couple other of my friends from high school are really scaring me. I know college changes people, but wow... These two jumped off the deep end! My heart breaks everytime I hear from them and they tell me about how much they threw up the night before at some party or something. And everytime I start a serious conversation about CHANGE, they say: "Well after this summer I'll start living a Christian life again."
When I get done with camp on August 8 I have a lot of stuff coming right up. I have a wedding for a great friend of mine on August 8. A week or so ago I was offered a paid job on staff at The Crossing. I was offered the Head Tech position in Macomb. I also interviewed to be an RA in the residence halls at Western. The interview went very well, but as of last Friday there are no open positions. Also these two awesome opportunities God has given/laid on my heart are slightly conflicting... If I'm selected to be an RA I'm supposed to only work 10 hours a week. If I accept the Tech position at The Crossing, I'll be working at least 15-20 hours a week. And once evey 5 weeks I'll have to work 30 hours a week... I've wanted this position at The Crossing for quite awhile. I'm not sure what to do about all these options, but I know whatever happens God had willed for my life. It'll work out.
Right now it's late. I'm breaking curfew. And I'm VERY exhausted! I have a long day tomorrow of yelling at Russians who can't understand me...!
I miss you all!!!
God Bless

VBlog2/Picture Post!

Here you go:
Video Blog Number TWO.
Enjoy! (I tried not to touch my face or flip my hair...)



Picture Post:
This is what happened when we set up a Photo Booth in the Studio for the students to have fun with... This is just a couple of my favorites out of the 200+ pictures taken within an hour or so!!!

I call this the RockStar pose.

I can't even tell you how scary this picture is. Can you believe it's actually me?!

Wow...

I just love this picture b/c the colors are inverted and still the shirt gets its message across.

You gotta love Larson and Carter...
Amanda... Ha.
Me, Lindsay, and Diane (Diane is the one whose house we go to to watch The Office!)
Carter was givin' me a smooch!
Thermal
Inverted.

The Truman Show

So I should be in bed right now, but frankly... I'm not tired.
I feel like this is the bout of Insomnia coming back to plague me like my senior year of high school... But who knows.

I've finally figured out VIDEO BLOGGING!!! So here is my first one!



Maybe I'll start blogging more now that I've figured out the whole video thing! Keep your fingers crossed! I really like the idea! Maybe I'll even start editing them and make them really cool with effects and stuff... Who knows?! Anyways...

God Bless!!!

Faith, Hope, and Love

Hey guys,
I know it's been awhile. I'm sorry I've made hollow promises to get back into this blog. I am however writing one now. And I'm going to pour my heart out...
I'm at a church retreat right now. I'm a youth coach for all these high schoolers, and yet here I sit in my bunk praying and writing a blog because I, myself, am crying out to God.
God is so awesome. I can't even begin to fathom just how much he loves me.
Love. This word is thrown around so much by my generation and all those following.
1 Corinthians 13:8a- "Love never fails."
1 Corinthians 13:13- "And now these three remain: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love."
1 John 3:16- "This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers."
Psalm 5:11- "But let all who take refuge in you be glad; let them ever sing for joy. Spread your protection over them, that those who love your name may rejoice in you."
So:
What is love?
I'm not going to define it. I haven't looked up every verse that has the word 'love' in it and compiled a Bible-friendly definition of this concept, emotion, and feeling.

All I need to do is understand this:
-God is in control. He has everything for my whole life planned out. He's up in heaven right now, watching the footage of my life in the future.
-God paints on a HUGE canvas. He knows exactly what is good for us, and that His timing is perfect. I may not understand why I'm going through a certain situation, but God has it all planned out and He knows that in the end it'll become clear to me that it's all for the better.
-Forgiveness is not free but given to me nonetheless. I didn't have to pay anything for it. Nothing. Jesus paid everything when He allowed Himself to be taken and hung on the cross.

All those people that gathered to see the Christ tortured and killed on a cross... Jesus died for them. I was standing in that crowd. Every one of us were standing there, scoffing.
Jesus' love is limitless, boundless, unfailing, never-ceasing, unending, and uncensored.

I'm not sure if this really even makes sense. It did however help me.
Thanks for tuning in...

Pre-Finals Week!

Hey guys!
On my lunch break... I quit going to Thompson Hall to eat so I could save some money. So now its burgers and deli meat for meals! lol
I haven't gotten tired of it yet!

This week is going to be crazy. I can just tell...
I have two final projects that I need to get done before this weekend, three essays to prepare for, three history quizzes to take before Wednesday at 5PM, and one final exam to study for. As well as plenty of tedious homework assignments in my stupid religion class (No. I don't think religion is stupid. Just this class!). I'm going to need to stay focused all week and stay on task otherwise I'm not going to get things done.
I'm not sure I can study in my apartment either b/c I'll become distracted with people going in and out, my roommate playing XBOX, me wanting to play XBOX, and tv...
I'm thinking I may go to The Crossing church and study there in the Studio. It has some nice couches, and I can hook my laptop up to the tech booth and get on the internet that way as well as listen to some tunes while I'm studying. Then when I take a break I can bring my XBOX and play a couple of games of halo there in Stage 46 or the Studio...
I like that idea! haha

Last night I went to Studio and got a very unexpected surprise! There was an inspirational singing group putting on their fall concert in the main auditorium!
Now I'd like to say this:
I am by no means racist. So when I say this next thing, don't take offense, because I'm not being racist about it.
The entire choir was black! The whole service was a typical Southern Gospel church setting. A lot of jumping around and shouting! If you were sitting, you clearly didn't have the Holy Spirit inside you! It was probably the single most time I've ever felt the closest to God! It was a very powerful and moving experience! I honestly can't say I've ever had an experience quite like it!
Overall this past weekend was GREAT!
I had the Gospel Choir on Sunday, and on Saturday I went to visit my sister up by Chicago. Her church was putting on this thing called 'Walk to Bethlehem' and we did that. It was AMAZING! It basically is a VERY realistic reenactment of Jesus' birth. We were even verbally abused by Roman soldiers!
Overall it was a good weekend from a fun stand-point, but from a work stand-point... Not so much! I didn't get any work done on my projects... So I've really gotta crack down on those.

Oh ya! On top of all this school work, I also got scheduled to work on both Tuesday and Thursday. These two days are my major homework days because I only have one class and I'm done at 9AM. So then normally I can spend the rest of the day doing homework. This week though... Not a chance.

Anyways!

My break is almost over, and I need to pack my bag and grab something else to eat. So I'll try and post more this week but I'm making no promises with everything that's going on!
I want to get back to posting some scripture and giving my interpretation of it... So keep checking back!

God Bless!

Tactic Squad--Take 2

First of all:
I made it into the clan. I had tryouts last night, and did a head-to-head game against CrawMan. I played terribly, but [thankfully!] they still let me into the clan.
Anyways, my avatar was approved and the emblem was supplied to me.
Here's the finished product!

Tactic Squad

Hey guys this is going to be a short blog.

I have homework today before FIRE (the campus house's college-aged ministry) tonight.
My real point in posting this blog is to show someone the avatar I created for his clan.
Tonight after FIRE and small groups, I have tryouts for a Team Objective clan in Halo3. It should be fun, I just hope I'm good enough... I skipped my History class today to get some practice in, but my games were plagued by people quitting. Either my whole team would quit or the other whole team would quit. It was impossible. So I got NO PRACTICE for my tryouts tonight! Great.

So now I have to get busy on making a flow chart for my Final Project in IDT205. My project topic is "How to become a pro in Halo3!" My professor thought it was hilarious... I'm pretty much his favorite! lol

Anyway here's the avatar for ZeeSee09's Tactic Squad clan:
(I used PhotoShop to create this if anyone was wondering...)

Oh and by the way... It's not completely done. There's going to be the clan's emblem where that text it.

Let it snow, let it snow, let it melt?!

"It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!..."
Well I missed the promised blog on Saturday. I'm sorry!

So the one thing I really wanted when I came back from Fall break was for there to be NO SNOW. I didn't want to walk through it at all.
I didn't get my wish...

But it's not as bad as I thought it was going to be.

I made a new friend over the weekend. Geoff. He's a pretty cool guy. I can't wait to get to know him better, and see our friendship grow since I've been pretty lonely lately.
More on this later.

Time to get ready for class!

Post-Turkey Day

Today was so bland. So boring. So uneventful! I honestly can't tell you one thing I did today that benefited me in one way or another.
'Anonymous Reader' posted a comment on my last blog asking if I'd given up on blogging. Well no I haven't! I am busy, but if I'm serious about blogging then I should be able to make time to post.
With that said I'll try to get on and post more often!
I'm hoping to get on tomorrow during one of my last few days of break and putting on a much more serious blog, but for now some updates:

1) My oldest sister has had her second child! My new nephew's name is Kinnick (after the Iowa Hawkeye's Stadium) Marc. He's a beautiful boy that weighs 8lbs. 1oz. and was 20.5 inches long. Congrats! He was born on 11/25.
2) Yesterday was Thanksgiving! I had a wonderful day of stuffing my face, and gorging on pumpkin...EVERYTHING! I'm truly thankful for my family, my FRIENDS[!], and that I serve a GREAT and AWESOME God!
3) Finally I may be able to realize a dream of mine since I was 6 or 7. In Fall of '09 I'm going to be traveling overseas to Study Abroad. Now--it wasn't a dream of mine to study overseas but simply to visit Europe. I've always wanted to go to England. Finally, through the Study Abroad program, my dream will be realized! I'm looking at studying in the UK somewhere, and will go into further detail when I have it.
4) Christmas is coming closer and closer!
5) The semester is almost over! I only have 2 and a half weeks left in this semester! That makes me so happy!!! Finally I'll be done with my stupid gen ed classes... I will however miss my class with Prof. Grace. She's definitely become more of a friend than a teacher to me.

That's all I can come up with right now... I'm sure more will come later!
Until tomorrow...

God Bless!

Give - Until there's nothing left.

It's kind of funny how God works sometimes...

I've been kind of struggling financially. College is so rough sometimes! I'm only 8 weeks in and yet it feels as though I've gone through so much already!

Several weeks ago I wrote about how I bought a new TV... I didn't see the harm in it. I figured I would make the money back within 3 or 4 weeks at work. Well guess what. For the 3 weeks after I bought the TV, I wasn't placed on the schedule.

So then last week I ate fast food for almost every one of my meals. Not only is that NOT healthy, but it really takes a toll on my wallet.

So in the midst of all this financial crisis, what do the two sermons from the two churches I attend pertain to? Giving. Tithing.

God are you serious?! I'm having so many problems right now, and then I start struggling with money. And NOW you convict me to GIVE???

It was just really strange. I know what God's pushing me to do... The question is: Will I give?

God Bless

Individualism

Where did I lose sight?
I've always been a very strong proponent of everyone being their own person. I myself used to be a leader. I used to at least try to be a good role model for my friends and those who looked up to me.
But lately... I've lost sight of this goal, standard, and moral of mine.

I noticed it a little at the end of my senior year, and then it went into full effect over the summer. College is fun, but it rips you apart. If you aren't secure with who you are and what you believe in then you will change.

So now that I finally realized what I'm becoming, it's time to change. There's so much I want to say here, but is too sensitive.

I've begun to take steps in the right direction, but I'm going to need your help. If you could please be praying for me. Pray that I allow God's will to be done in my life, that he would calm my worries and extinguish my stress, and finally pray that I'll re-become my own person.

Thanks for listening guys! It's really important for me to be able to write out my thoughts because anymore I don't really enjoy talking more than I have to. Writing is so much easier. I can fix mistakes and I don't write with an impediment like I talk!
:-)

God Bless Friends!

Automatic

"I wanna love You like it's AUTOMATIC...
Make You into my Good Habit!
You're the only one that really matters!
Every minute, every day, it's AUTOMATICALLY okay--
When I make it all about You."

These words are all taken from Stellar Kart's new song Automatic. The first time I heard these lyrics I was inspired. They're so REAL. So TRUE.

That's how I want to describe my relationship with Jesus. I want to make communing with my Heavenly Father a daily good habit. I want to put Him first in my life and priorities. I know if I can let go and do that, then everything else I want of my life will come.

God is always there waiting for us. We just have to come out and meet Him. We don't even have to go far. He is more than willing to meet us more than halfway.

So what's holding me back? ...And what's holding YOU back? Why aren't you where you know you really should be? Why do WE keep staunching the convictions of God's Holy Spirit which resides inside us?

Just something to think about.

God Bless

Ketchup.

I haven't blogged in ages. Sorry!

So currently I'm [purposefully] skipping my first class of college. It was just a boring history class so who really cares. I have homework due over the weekend that I want to do now because I'm going home this weekend and probably won't ever get around to it.

I had so much to blog about when I thought about it earlier and now I can't think of what I had...

Oh! I bought a new TV a couple of days ago. A Vizio 32" LCD HDTV. It's pretty sweet! It did, however, set me back considerably in the sense of a wallet. But in my opinion the fact that Halo looks and sounds so good on it makes it TOTALLY worth it!

I've always wanted to do a daily devotional. Finally Mark and I started doing one together. I can already see improvements in my walk with Christ. Mark has been making leaps and bounds in his walk also. It's so amazing to see how God has been using Mark to impact me (even with his shady background) and how He's been using me to impact Mark. Also we're beginning to work ourselves in holding each other accountable. So, that's good.

I have one word for you: HEROES. I borrowed the boxset of Season 2 from a girl who lives in the Campus House and watched the entire thing in a day and a half! I am so pumped to watch the Season 3 premier (which showed Monday the 22nd). I'm going to rig up my laptop to my new TV and watch it on there hopefully on Sunday. But anyways... Heroes is awesome. There are moments when I was screaming and yelling at the TV and then moments when I was laughing hysterically and also those moments when I almost could have cried. Any TV show that can do that to you is indeed awesomeness!

Now I really need to get to work so I'll try and blog more often. TTYL

God Bless!

MLG - Major League Gaming

Hey guys sorry I haven't blogged recently. School has started up and I've gotten busy already!

Anyways this is going to be a short blog b/c I have to go down and check on laundry and I'm also in the process of typing a paper for my Religion class.

Mark and I are playing TONS of Halo. We stay up late like every night playing online with one of our friends from back home, Ben Tooley. We all have had this little dream that we wanted to try and go pro in Halo, but none of us ever dreamed we'd ever make it. That is until we all got together! We decided that we wanted to form a team and start competing in smaller online tournaments until we think we're actually ready for the real thing: MLG. Major League Gaming. We're hoping to be able to travel around and compete in tournaments around the States. But for right now, we're just thinking small-scale. Big-time tournaments are still a long ways off, but I'm confident.

Anyways...:
Time for HOMEWORK!

God Bless

My Apartment

I'm feeling lazy...
Just pictures tonight!













God Bless

First Day of College Classes

--FOR THE RECORD I HAD THIS TYPED UP LAST NIGHT BUT MY INTERNET WENT OUT BEFORE I COULD POST IT.--

No interesting title.
I'm TIRED. It's crazy just how tired I am...

Anyways I had class starting at 8. It was one of my three major classes. My first impression of the teacher was that he was a MAJOR GOOBER! But after I talked to him a little bit I started to think that he was pretty cool. Professor West seems to be pretty cool and he's going to be teaching me about Authoring Software. Something I've NEVER dealt with!

My second class was religion class at 9. I wasn't really that thrilled about taking this class because I've already taken one religion related class at the local community college and it SUCKED! I walked into and sat down in the wrong class room because I looked at the wrong section of my schedule. After I realized that I got to my real class and it was packed. I found a seat and waited. The teacher showed up and she was WEIRD. I'm not sure what her religious background was... But oh well... Hopefully I can just make it through the class.

My third and final class before lunch was my favorite of the day. I got to the class about 10 minutes early yet the teacher was already instructing so I figured I was in the wrong room again. It was another of my major classes so I was looking forward to it. I got back out in the hallway and checked my schedule to find that I was at the right room. Apparently the professor decided that she wanted to start early. So I find a seat once again and then I start actually paying attention to the teacher. It's at this point that she says, "I'm going to be learning just as much as you guys and FROM you guys as you're going to be learning from me!" I now realize that this professor is CHINESE and has an accent so thick you almost can't even understand her! She goes on to pronounce her name for us, BUT she loves the English word 'grace' so she prefers us to call her Grace! I basically laughed through the entire class. By the time the class was over I had decided I was definitely going to enjoy this class...

Next Josie, Mark and I went to Thompson hall to eat lunch. We had pizza, french fries and vitamin water! It was good in my opinion, but I don't know if I really want to eat there every Monday, Wednesday, Friday for lunch...

After lunch Jos, Mark and I all had the same Concepts of Leisure class. I know! It sounds like a blow-off class. However, I think it's going to prove to be a lot harder than it sounds. Anyways I almost fell asleep--it was BORING! And it didn't help that I have the class right after lunch.

After our CoL class, I headed to my final class of the day: History. I wasn't really looking forward to the class, and it didn't help when I arrived to find around 40 students in the class... I HATE big classes. Anyways the instructor went over the syllabus and then he wanted each and every student to introduce themselves... We barely got done in time to leave.

And that was it! My first day of classes was interesting to say the least... I think I enjoyed it overall though!

God Bless

Work Day

Hey!
Today was a work day at the Campus House. I equate it to spring cleaning or something like that...
Basically there was a list of all these small cleaning and maintenance jobs that needed to be done so anyone that didn't have any other obligations was supposed to come down and help.

Mark and I sandbagged all morning and laid the sandbags around the perimeter of the sand volleyball court. That was the hardest job. Then we changed some filters, installed a wireless router, and swept the floor of this one room... Random jobs, but necessary all the same.

On another note I'm REALLY tired. I'm going to bed as soon as I'm done typing this... We have a big day tomorrow with our first church service and then there's a picnic, a meeting with all freshman commuters, and then a cook out! So we'll be busy tomorrow...

On ANOTHER note (that's slightly related to the last one when I mentioned church):
I have not been doing very well keeping up with my prayer life and staying in the Word.
I'm trying to get into a routine though... So I don't know... Anyways I'm tired. TTYL

God Bless

Excuses, Excuses...

I'm back!

I do apologize for not blogging in almost a MONTH!
I have so many things I can call up and excuse myself, but honestly:
I've just been BUSY.

As may remember from a previous blog, I went to a church camp the first full week of August. Well on Wednesday night we had BBQ Chicken for supper. To make a long story short, I got food poisoning from it, which turned into a bacterial infection in my intestines. It was PAINFUL!
I was bedridden for almost a week and then I finally, slowly became more active...

Now I'm exiting the recovery stage and finally getting back to normal.

On Thursday I finally moved out of my parents' house and into the Campus Students for Christ. Our apartment was GROSS! It was so bad... The carpet was so stained and smelly, and the walls were marked up. So we decided to paint them! And then my roommate's (Mark Vonholt's) parents said they had extra carpet at home and so they came back on Friday and laid new carpet in the living room! Now our apartment is pretty nice. We have a nice setup in our bedroom too. I'll post pictures later. Tomorrow we have a work day at the Campus House. I'm not gonna lie... I'm kind of dreading that. Then later in the day we have a bunch of Freshman activities... Who knows how all that stuff is gonna go...

But all in all everything is going GREAT! I love the RA, Kirsten. She's SO funny! And her roommate Dee is pretty cool herself! So I'm not quiet sure how everything is going to end up, but I'm excited and ready for it! I'm hoping to keep an open mind and a positive attitude in everything.

Here's to hoping everyone else is doing good! Let me know how you all are via comments!

God Bless!

YouTube Madness!

Here's some of my favorite YouTube videos: