SPlog

Saturday February the 28^th, was a fun day. It snowed early that morning, but regardless, we had a church activity going roller-skating. The church rented out the whole rink, and we only had to pay $4 per person, then $3 more for in-line skates. We got them on and got ready to skate.

My brother was in charge of the music. He was told to get some good peppy, Southern Gospel songs. So the background music was right up my alley. I loved singing along with the songs while skating.

At one point I decided to skate backwards a little. It had been a few years since I last skated, so as I started going backwards I started to get a bit proud. I could still skate backwards! But God has a funny sense of humor. I started to weave a little and, well, I lost my balance. Then I tried to regain my balance by picking up my feet and… you guessed it.. I fell down; right on my back. I fell right in front of my pastor, and whomever he was talking to.

Halfway through everyone stopped for a devotion that my youth pastor gave. All the kids sat down on the side during the devotion. Afterwards the main lights went off, and the spotlights and disco balls were lit. We all skated backward during one song, and then we also speed-skated during another song. At the end of the speed-skate my youth pastor lost his balance and fell down in front of everyone.

At one time my friend and youth pastor started a snake (or chain). More and more people attached themselves, making it hard to maneuver. Eventually the chain broke in the middle when someone lost their grip. That teenager fell and got trampled by two others. He wasn’t hurt bad, just a few bruises.

After the last song, everyone was tired and sweaty. It was a fun two hours of spending time with other church folk. We thanked the skating rink for having us, and left. I loved every bit of it.

Friday evening, the 27^th of February, my family decided not to go to a concert, but to stay home and relax a bit. My sister was gone at a church activity, so it was just the three, my mom, dad, and myself. We got a phone call from my grandma that said she was coming over. Soon she was at our door, and behind her my brother and sister-in-law and nephew.

It was a nice surprise to see them. Grandma got to hold the new baby for the first time. We got pictures. We then called my other brother (Matt) to bring his family over. So we ended up having a little family reunion. It was also the first time for Matt’s family to see baby Elijah. We got several family pictures of the grandparents (my parents) with their grandkids. It was a nice evening.

There was a work day at our church (Hillside Baptist). We’ve been building a new building, and the outside needed cleaned up. So I showed up on Thursday, Feb. 26^th, with 4-5 other men to clean the church grounds of all metal, trash, brick, and sand. We stored any good metal studs and pieces up in the rafters of the bus barn.

We then picked up all metal and threw it in the back of a truck to get it hauled off. There were several hundred pounds of metal that had to go. It was hard work. We then ate lunch at a restaurant and then got back to work. We picked up all the trash and dumped it in a burn pile. The brick was and other dirt was dumped in a huge dirt pile behind the church.

We did our best to flatten out the gravel parking lot with tractors. I eventually got to drive one and do a little flattening myself. It was a hard but satisfactory work day.

At the end I had originally planned for piano lessons, woodworking, and discipleship with my youth pastor. But we didn’t have much time, So I gave him the piano lessons, then we went over discipleship, and skipped out on woodworking.

I had Taekwondo that night, so I was exhausted when I got home. Almost fell asleep in the shower.

On Wednesday the 25^th, the Teen’s service went well. The theme was “Sins to Ashes.” What that theme meant was that everyone was to bring their sins written on a piece of paper to “nail” to a cross and be burned. We went to my youth pastor’s house for a bonfire. We all gathered around the bonfire and had our lesson. In the middle our cross was placed in the fire, and our sins burned. It was a pretty cool illustration.

While I was at the mall in St. Louis, my friends and I visited a game store. There I found a used game for $4. 007 Agent Under Fire. This is a first person shooting game that also includes a multiplayer mode for up to four players. The game has pretty cool guns and some neat levels that include driving a vehicle that shoots missiles and bullets. The graphics are a little old, but still pretty good.

My favorite feature is the multiplayer mode. Since I like playing with friends and family, this is the main reason I bought the game. It doesn’t allow any computer bots during multiplayer mode, but regardless, it’s still fun to play. So my overall rating is good. Not the best multiplayer game but still worth owning. Especially if you like any James Bond games.

Wednesday through Saturday, February 18-20, was the Speech and Debate tournament in St. Louis.

We left Tuesday, late morning, so we could get there in good time and have the rest of the day to relax. Several others were there early too, so we all got together and went to the St. Louis Mills Mall. There we ate at their food court. We were having a good time taking pictures of each other, and of the surrounding stores, when a mall cop came and told us that we’re not allowed to take pictures in the mall. It’s in their security rules. So anyway we went to the Cabella’s store in the mall and got to look around. Later we got back to the hotel so we could get to bed early, because we had to get up at 5:30 am the next morning.

The Next morning we got up early and got ready for the tournament. We did one round of all our speeches, while the debaters did three rounds. I got to meet up with friends that I made from other tournaments, and make new friends. Abigail and I left a little early to go back to the hotel to swim with our friends. After swimming for an hour, everyone from our speech and debate squad went to the mall to eat at Jonny Rockets, a 50’s style diner. I had a double rocket burger, which I think was the biggest on the menu. I tasted great, but it wasn’t that big. We then split up into groups and shopped around the mall. We didn’t get back to the hotel until around 10 or later.

The second day we had to get up even earlier. We ate breakfast and left for the tournament. This time the day dragged on as we did two rounds of each of our speeches. I was on my feet for most of the day, rushing between speeches and timing debates. It was a very long day as we didn’t get back to the hotel until around 10pm. We played some games with our friends and got to bed at around 11pm.

The last day of the tournament went by rather smooth. The debaters had a round early and had to go first. So my family, along with some others, slept in, because we didn’t have to be there until later. At about 8am we packed all our belongings and checked out, and headed toward the tournament. I made it into finals with my Expository speech. I didn’t have my finals until later that afternoon. Afterwards we decided to head home and skip the award ceremony. We got back at about 7pm. It was a great tournament. I found out that I got 8^th place in my Expository.