Agh, Almost August!

"Enjoy it while you can." He told me. He found out I was reading my Psychology textbook ahead of time so that I will have less collateral in 3 weeks when school starts. He was shaking his head in disbelief. He asked what I was studying, so I explained to him my youth ministry major and my music minor. I've probably had at least half a dozen people tell me to get ready for my sophomore year. Again, I mentally prepare for it to be hard. Anyway, he thought I was too studious. I laughed and told him that I have had plenty of fun this summer. I'm a college kid. I've learned to balance fun and studies. (At least I think...*smiles*) His general comments were to make sure I have fun when I'm young. He wished he could relive my days of youth. I suppose he's right in a sense. I most likely do not share his world view, and am not jumping at the chance to "live it up". However, I do agree that when I'm young I will be young. I'm convinced I will not grow up in my heart. You may see physical effects as I have more birthdays, but I will continue to be a proverbial kid at heart.

Symbol number eight spotted today. Love you. Oh yea, something's going on.

My garden tea that I'm drinking looks like beer. My mom made it. I poured some in a water bottle before I came to the fair today. I'm almost addicted to the stuff.



I love rainbow sherbet. Keith and I got together last night to flesh out the details for VBS. I, as the "real-live" Bob the Builder and my assistant, Billy "Buzz-saw" Bungler will provide a comedic relief each night. We're going to start out funny, make the spiritual application, boom, and end with comedy. Thursday night ends with Pastor introducing Billy into a relationship with Jesus Christ. We will be talking about the foundation, (framing) walls, roof, and the finishing touches, respectively. It's a construction themed VBS, which I'm glad to say I've had my experience in.

Chipotle's rocks. My usual bide is a carnitas (pulled pork) burrito. White rice, black beans, fresh tomatoes with some hot salsa, sour cream, cheese, lettuce, and smoked tabasco self-sprinkled throughout. (I must be hungry.) Also purchased a doppio espresso at Starbucks Tuesday. It's a double shot with cream. It's a little strong; I ended up adding milk & sugar at home. I asked for espresso and milk, and they said the doppio would probably work for me. I was a little tired and wanted some "say-hello" coffee. I also received a coupon for a free vivanno smoothie the last time I went to Starbucks, so I got the orange mango banana flavor. I'd rate it a 5.3 out of 10. I'm sure it was healthy with 16g of protein and 5g of fiber, but it wasn't sweet enough for 250 calories. It was free, but would I buy it? No. And that's my food and drink review for the week.

Gas is 3.46 in Canton. Uh-huh!

I apologize Mr. Profitt, for using quotation marks like I shouldn't.

So long,
-Sam

Mother Was Concerned

I'm home alone today. She asked me yesterday if I could fend for myself as far as food is concerned. I told her, "Don't worry Mom. I've been doing that for a while." I woke up this morning and found a large list of things to do on the kitchen table. So I've fed the dog and cat, taken out the trash, watered the garden plants, cleaned windows, dried and folded laundry, cleaned the cooler, drove to the pharmacy, swept the garage, unpacked, got the mail, started painting the deck, and have made two meals for self.




So now I sit here classifying all you readers out there. Some of you won't even know that I've posted this week, or this month. Shame on thou. Others of you will be surprised to find that I've done it again. Still more of you will be pleasantly satisfied to see that I've updated and will read all new entries that you haven't read. And some of you, yes some of you, have been waiting for this moment, and will be delighted to know that once again I have blogged. Alas, I enjoy this.

Recently I've come back from Appalachian Youth Camp in Roxbury, PA. What an awesome week of fun! Someone asked me how this year compared to all others, and as a 9 year veteran I must say, it was better. I think each year my enjoyment level increases. I find it amusing how my popularity is spreading at camp. Amusing because it nots really something that I want, but I do enjoy it. My aim is to use it to promote Christ and not self. I had so much fun in Bible Bowl this year as well. Thank God for helping me win another year. To me it's amazing at the possibility of setting records in this competition at camp. God has blessed me - plain and simple. Also, Jeff Keaton was truly an incredible evangelist. I like his style, and the Holy Spirit really worked through him and the great topics he spoke on. Once again I come to another point in my summer where I can say, this has been the best of my summer so far. How overwhelmingly grateful I am for awesome friends of mine, for a truly incredible week at youth camp, and for the spiritual challenge and growth I experienced. This paragraph has no justice. Perhaps I will share more memories in entries to come.

The future holds a lot for me. In all these thoughts in my head I have been pondering many things. I am mentally preparing for the start of my sophomore year at college. It's difficult to believe that in just a few weeks I start year number 2. I've been talking on the phone with my friends recently and have kept busy doing things here at home. I plan to get some more collateral out of the way, and sooner or later I will be forced to begin packing. Wow. Next week I have an exciting, but creativity challenging part in VBS at my church.

And I hate saying this. Summer is draw nigh to a close.
Please don't weep. You'll make me sad.

Love You

Crudely spray-painted symbols in white. There are seven of them, scattered randomly on a several mile stretch on State Route 93 - the road I live on and the road I most frequently travel. These symbols whom I'm sure most people in their normal oblivious mind would not observe as I have, are catching my attention and thoughts. I've only noticed and finally have counted today, seven symbols in white. This mysterious graffiti simply has a heart and the letter U underneath it. To me it seems like a proverbial message that some guy has painted for his girlfriend so that whenever she drives on this road she sees the symbols and is reminded of his love. Maybe it's too vivid of an imagination that I have, maybe it's my obvservant and curious mind, but it's just a mystery to me. And I like mysteries.

Well, okay, so...

Admit it! They're cute. I have trouble saying this on the world wide web, but these animals are adorable. Little hedgehogs are cute. There, I said it. My friend is getting them for her college dorm. Crazy, huh? And last semester, the only thing my roommate raised was a bunch of cacti!


I've left town. I'm in PA. @ my church camp. I'm going back home tonight for an Alaskan salmon dinner at church, which promises to be very good. Then I go to Cleveland Saturday with a group of people to shine my light. Then all I have between is several things which must be done before youth camp.






I know I'm not the only one excited about AYC. I know Keith is excited about it. I asked Josh if he was pumped about it and he just shrugged. I am just trying to keep up with time as it flies by and we head into the weekend.

Church camp is quite an experience. It's in the high 80's - low 90's here and I thank God for the AC. We had to get a new one since our old one is dying, so I oversaw the switching operation yesterday. However, when we put the old one in the bedroom window it was not placed correctly. I awoke at 245-300 this morning because my brother was up and noticing the drip of water coming from the front of the air conditioner onto the bed. He and the bed got quite wet. I told him he shouldn't have wet the bed. We sponged it up and turned a fan on it before going back to bed. Managed quite a few hours of sleep.

I brought the sewing machine here too. Um, yes I sew. I'll admit it. I also cook, clean and do laundry, but I'm not taking any resumes. I'm actually perfecting the making of my messenger bag. This is my third one and I am slowly but surely improving the design and quality of the bag. Also, I'm familiarizing myself with the proper way to sew them without having to ask Mom questions at every step, which has proved to be fairly successful. I ran out of thread though so that projects on hold. Maybe I'll post some sewing pictures on here when it's done in case you don't believe me.

Bouncer is here too. She came up to my after the service and we exchanged numbers and she wanted a picture. She asked a bunch of questions about what I've been up to. We talked for a while till she had to run off.

A lot of memories, this place has. Oh the times of summer.

And now I'll stop being nostalgic and reminiscent and all that stuff...

Rain to Sunshine

Hi.

Not sure what to blog about.

Today's day of rain turned into a beautiful day of sunshine. (Why the weather?!?)

It's been a great weekend, but very wearying. Friday I finished up the concrete job. It was a short day, but worked pretty hard: felt inadequate. I've never done finishing work on concrete. It was an experience. - I went out of town and out of state Saturday for a family reunion near Pittsburgh. I don't quite know what to say about this. As a young adult with one...cousin to converse with proved to be tolerable. We ended up playing on the kids playground and swinging in these geriatric chair swings - That was fun.




(The only thing) I regret was my wearying week of work and waking up early, causing me to not be at my best. One nice thing was getting the opportunity to purchase a softball glove for youth camp because of last year's theft. I invested in a nice one and am very happy about it. I plan to condition and use it this week. I also was able to purchase several energy drinks for AYC. Oh, and I must pack as well. A lot of things on my list to do before camp: Packing, one project to complete, collateral reading, studying camp material, time with two friends, work possibility, a trip out of town, salmon dinner, witnessing in cleveland: saturday.

And here's the part where I ask God for strength.

The fields are the greenest of green. The sky is the prettiest blue. The sun is the brightest.

And now I am home.

Tales from Summer

So I'm reading my Psychology textbook during the summer so that I don't have to read it during my busy fall semester schedule. Anywho, I have Adriana next to me to interpret all these big words. I learned a new word today: Confabulate. It's starting to get interesting. I'm on chapter two and it's talking about the brain and its parts, systems, functions and developments. Who knew Psychology could be so interesting? God certainly made the human body complex. It's fascinating.

I love my brother. We just had a severe thunderstorm roll through, and I was sitting reading while he was sitting at the computer online. A bolt of lightning made an extremely loud crash and the thunder pealed in response. So then Jon turns to me and asks, "Do you think I should turn off the computer?" I told him yes, yes, a thousand times yes. I'm just sitting here smiling and raising my eyebrows thinking about it.

All three of us boys went outside on the front porch and watched the rain fall and the yards flood. We got a bunch of rain. Joshua even went out running in the rain for fun. We were standing there enjoying the storm, when all of a sudden we jumped as we heard a huge crack, while we simultaneously saw a bright flash of lightning about 500 yards away. It was extremely loud! I was like, "Whoa!" Apparently, the closer lightning is to you, the louder it is when it strikes. I told my brothers I wondered what it would sound like if it struck in our front yard or the field across from our house.

Worked today, several hours: smashing apart concrete, blocks and brick. I worked with my great-uncle and brother today breaking up a concrete patio and laying a block wall. It was in bad need of repairs with cracked and crooked slabs of concrete. We even found and killed a groundhog burrowing underneath a corner slab when we started. It was very hot and it was very hard work, but we didn't work too long and after a nice hot shower I feel like a new man.

Oh yea.

-Sam

Reminiscing

Remember the days of cassette tapes and dial up? When you checked your email and read a book at the same time. I remember when the only way I listened to music was with a cassette tape. Of course I remember when we had 75 cents a gallon gas. Now we can say that those were the good old days, and I'm sure there's plenty of space for argument there, but we'll never get yesterday back again.

The past hold memories captive with regret rusting away at the bars
The future shines hope like a light in the distance on the darkest night
And the present lies between, with choice lying in front of us

Now, our days our filled with ipods and high speed. When we talk on the phone, text, and surf the internet all at the same time. I must confess, I don't really like texting. I try to say everything I can at once, by anticipating what will come next and summing things up as best as I can. I prefer to avoid text conversations and keep it short. Of course I have a limited number of texts per month, but I'm thinking about caving and getting more texts in my plan. However, I'm truly afraid that this will be my death in my resistance against technology. It's not that I hate it, on the contrary I love it. I have a laptop, ipod and cell phone. It's simply that I am not willing to be tied to them.

Oh, and for those of you who are comment hungry, I have the solution. Simply fall out of a tree, and post pictures of your injuries. I think I broke a comment record.

-Sam

Cherries, Fireworks, Doughnuts and Nails

Well we're 12 days into summer and a little over 2 weeks before that highlight of my summer: AYC. A new fruit season has hit our home and my life.


Pop, my grandfather has two large cherry trees in his backyard so my family went and picked a heaping bucket each. Only one bucket equals to 16 cups of cherries, or 4 pies. You do the math. I enjoyed picking. I had the step ladder and was grabbing handfuls at a time. Ocassionally I would eat them as I picked, oh so sour and delicious! Now that the strawberries are gone we will be eating cherry pies for a little while. My mom even made a cherry dessert that is hiding in the fridge for consumption tomorrow.

Tomorrow happens to be the 4th of July that millions of Americans celebrate with two very wonderful things: food and fireworks. I am not a huge patriot of any sorts, but I love my country and don't mind grilling out and watching colorful explosions in the sky. Funny how this is the only national holiday that is more typically called by the date instead of the name. I vote for 25th of December, and we start calling this Independence Day.

The doughnut post was a little humor that I composed when Keith came over Tuesday night. We practiced the ever familiar Bomb Squad skit that we did in church last night. I enjoyed church so much last night. Keith asked that I lead a couple of songs for the adults, which I never do, and was quite a privelege. It was a blessing to see many people responding with worship to God's presence. It's also amusing to see adults get distracted by the same things kids do. But anyway, Keith and I did the doughnut skit. It's humorous, but it packs a punch - a powerful message that is. After this I went over to the youth who were practicing Bible Bowl for AYC which just gets my heart pumping. To close it up Mel had us all go outside and we sang several songs that I led on the guitar. It was beautiful outside, a little distracting, but a needed break that was fun and worshipful.

I'm beginning to think that I am accident prone, as before I was not totally convinced. I think I am now. I fell out of a tree. Josh and I were building a tree fort/deer stand in the woods at our campsite. I had built the steps and put two 2x4's across the tree limbs. Next I placed 2x12's of different length across this for a platform. I began nailing. One hit, two hits, boom! The platform gave way. I fell fifteen to twenty feet to the ground scraping myself on the way down. If I would have had warning I would have jumped or fallen away from the tree, but with no warning my natural instinct was to try to stop myself or slow myself down which only ended in pain. I sustained abrasions and lacerations to my forearms, upper arms, chest and legs.





Problem: incorrectly nailing one of the essential cross beam boards. I learned my lesson and might finish this project once I heal. *grimace*

Not sure why you enjoy reading
But I enjoy writing
Much happiness to all

-Sam

Sam's Helpful Tips

How To Save A Doughnut When It Falls On The Floor

Step 1. Don't panic (Often the hardest step)
Step 2. Quickly reach down & gingerly pick it off the floor (Emphasis on quickly)
Step 3. Inspect doughnut for contamination (Dirt, hair, dust)
Step 4. Blow doughnut off (Must be done with good strong blast of air)
Step 5. Act as if nothing happened (They call this nonchalant)
Step 6. Continue enjoying your doughnut. (No worries, right?)