all the cold frosty snow.  

my feet after i ran through the snowy swamp. i was quite cold then! 

STAR

oh my gosh! we got my little sister's referal. we will get a picture of her tomarrow hopefuly! her name is Xing Jiang. Xing = Star. Her birthday is May 15th. I'm so excited. That means that we will get the dates of when we are going to go to China to pick her up. So awesome!
today i went and got a cavity filled during my lunch period. when i got back to school i had yearbook and then choir. that is my first day in choir. i tried so hard to keep a straight face so that no one could notice. being me, no i couldnt. so i tried to cover that side of my face when i talked or smiled. Lydia and Laura and I were getting a good laugh out of it. oh man, why not live life to the fullest.
in choir i had to turn around and tell them my name and grade and a little about me. that was funny. ben, funny kid, he is a lot like his bro nathaniel. i always have to laugh at that. i used to have choir with nathaniel in St. Franny. otherwise the day was prety good. i still think hearing about my little sister was the best part. anyways, im rockin out of here, i have to leave for work soon.

oh yeah i got the sound track for Napolean Dynamite the other day. thats a riot.

Segue Cafe

wowzers, i had to get up at 5:30 today. i had to work at 6. that was quite early. not my frenzy. jeremy and i talked a little when i first started the shift. i guess this weekend is his last of night shift. that is always nice. work wasnt too exciting the first few hours were kinda slow and then we slowly got more buisness. Lwana didnt have a voice today so you could barely hear her. that sucked.
oh hey yesterday i slept into noon. it felt so good. then i hung out around the house. relaxed. that was grand. i cleaned my room be proud of me. then erin, andrea, emma, and i went to forest lake. i needed to get some soil from the store for my ivy. i had to replant it into a larger pot. we went to target and emma and i fooled around in the furniture place thing. it was enjoyable.
the rest of today was awesome. i went over to jess' house and watched a walk to remember with her and micah. then micah left and so jess and i went to segue cafe. that was sweet. i got some hot coco, she got a mocha. then we just sat around on the couches and bonded. talked, bonded, and talked some more. then a prety cool punk band came on stage. it was kinda funny to sit back and watch the diff. groups. there were some punks and goths. yeah it was interesting. the band had some really good guitar players.
after the first band was done jess and i left and drove around. she showed me her old house and we told some stories of when we were little. then i dropped her off at her house and here i am now.
what a day. prety rockin. God bless! good night.

Chapel

hey i forgot to tell you about the other day in chapel. these girls who were adopted from the ukrain came and talked to us. there was a story done on them on kare 11 news. we watched that too. it was cool cause our school has a sister school in the ukrain. God has placed me in such a great home. their story just reminded me of how blessed we are as americans. we dont even think about it. Also it made me all excited about getting my little sister from china. i cant wait! but anyways these girls were about 14-16 years old. God has given them great testimonies. how awesome it is that God gave each and everyone one of us our own story/testimony.

laughter

hello. wow, i stayed up late talking to jon last night. im suprised im not tired. it will probably hit me later. school today wasnt too bad. it was the last day of the quarter. that is always awesome. my test in O.T. didnt go to bad. im quite thankful that i studied. i think i did really well. the memorization in english on the other hand, wasnt exactly the best. i had it down and then we started and my brain froze. it was just a quiz grade though and she said i passed. so whatever at least it is done and out of the way.
in yearbook i sat at the computer and put pictures on abby's page for her. in that class im know as the computer person. dont really understand why cause i dont know too much about them but i guess i know enough to get by. i skipped chemistry and helped load some more pictures onto some other kids pages for them. i really need to teach them how to do it. after you get the concept of it all, its not too hard. :) i start choir next monday. horray!
i volunteered after school today like every thursday. today was even better than normal. i love it. there is always a great laugh. laurane got all the bad cards. elmer and i switched cards then kathleen and i did. elmer started that. it adds a little splash to the game. try it. when i switched with laurane i had a hand of like 8 card that were all green. we all got a good laugh out of that one. what i love about hanging out with them is that life isnt so serious. they just lift up my spirits. they live life to the fullest. that is a great way to live.
i have pep band later tonight and i get to wear our pep band shirt. ick! anyways i dont have school tomarrow, im ganna sleep in that will be nice. then i think janelle, jess, steph, and maybe a few more of us might go sledding. that should be fun. God bless!

Fit Into Place

Walking slowly through the dusky frost
With white satin encircling us
Nearer you draw to me
Your hand slowly approaches mine
It sneaks nearer
Draws closer
Like a lion to its prey
Then
In surprise
It slips into mine
We grasp each others hand
The heat penetrates into my skin
It seeps into my bones
We keep walking
Voiceless
The sharp frigid wind blows past us
My hand opens
Our hands separate
My hand drops
Heavily it collapses to my side
The warmth quickly fades
We are back to the way we began

is life a job?

My brother stopped by to say hi to my mom because she had surgery the other day. I didnt really talk to him too much. School wasnt bad at all today.
last night i worked. i went in at 4 and worked till 10. i knew that i would have to do register. well i went in and only had to do it for a few hours. i guess the assistan manager girl jamie is now fired, she never showed up the other day. angela called her and her dad said she was in the shower. so she is now no more. angela worked the first two hours of my shift and then went home, denise came in and took over register. jeremy was the leader for the night. my name was on register two but we both did floor work together. that was interesting. i guess he might become the new assistant manager. i think he would do well at it. anyways while i was on break he came into the back room and talked to me. he said he understands why i dont want to date him, that he isnt the right kind of guy for me. i said that we could still chill out sometimes and that he is a nice guy and all but i just dont want a guy that isnt a christian, smokes, and drinks. he understood. i still felt bad.
other than that. the rest of the night went quite well actually. both him and denise said im a good worker. that is nice to hear sometimes. i feel like sometimes i am just working for nothing. normally all you hear are the complaints. well i have a final tomarrow so im ganna go study for it. its my last final of my high school career. seniors at my school dont have finals. i dont really know why but i wont fight. as a good friend of mine once told me. . . "let the good times roll." (thanks jon)

oh wait. . . yep, another day of school

today, what should i say. there isnt much to say. i just woke up and went to school. it was prety fine. just an average day. i had a test in english on macbeth finally. i dont think i did the greatest or the worst. whatever. band was cool. mr. r is getting down to the nitty-gritty its good but that means i cant play as much. we talked about band tour. i hope i can go on it this year. we might be in china though. we shall see. yep. it was like 35 degrees out today. it was so nice. erin and i drove home with the windows open (well just one window open a few inches). that was great. for some reason it brought back some memories of riding home from concerts at the new union with all the windows down and my grand music blasting. brings a warm fuzzy feeling. just kiddin. oh when i got home from school i attempted to stay awake and i couldnt so i took like a 2-3 hour nap and then ate supper with dad and erin. around 6 we went and visited my mom in the hospital. her and dad werent here this morning to see erin and me off to school like normal because her surgery was this early this morning. it was so odd not to have them give me a hug and say goodbye. the house seemed so desolate and empty. not the normal thing. while visiting my mom at the hospital we watched 7th heaven. that show is way too sappy for my taste. dad and i walked down to where the babies are "stored" or the nursery in other words and took a little looksy in the window. there were none in there. while walking there i said to my father, "ahh, (sigh) just picture me a few years from now wearing a nurses outfit and having a name tag with whose pic on it? mine yep. what a day that will be." haha. have a fantastic night!

party time

oh man, i just got home from my friend Matt and Lydia's birthday party. It was at Matt's house. Wow, he has a really nice house. Anyays we just sat around and played games the whole night. There was a poker table out, no money involved except one quarter. Another group of kids did the playstation dance game thing. It's where you have a mat and you are to step on the right block as shown. Yeah I didnt think I was ganna do it cause I'm a party pooper but then Grant talked me into it. There were two mats so you do a little competition to see who is better. Grant and I went against eachother. He was just as bad as I was. We were quite lousy at it and not very enthused like Mary and Krystal and some other kids. Most of my class from school attended. That's kinda cool. Well its like 12:30 and I have church tomarrow morning. I hope your day was as beneficial as mine.

love 

a picture my sister took in out back yard a few days ago. we have gotten quite a bit of snow here in the last few days. 

Seven days left

hip hip horray! only seven days left of this quarter. the school year is almost half way over. i'm happy about that.
today, what can i say. i had to wake up early which always stinks unless i'm ganna chill with a cool kid. anyways so school was all fine and dandy. nothing horrid except my chemistry test. totally failed that. whatever, yes, i do care but no, i'm sick of caring about it.
oh hey, i tried to give blood again today for the red cross. again my iron level was too low. it is supposed to be 38. last time it was 36. today it was 34. Not good at all. i'm ganna have to do something about that.
i'm tired, how about you? we should probably go to bed early today. no i dont have homework. how about you?
right now im just sketchin something. i'm not too good so whatever, its all cool anyways. cheerio, toodle-oo good folks.

thanks jon i know you love me now. what a sweet guy. im so blessed! 

A day off

hey, I hope youre doing well today. It was a good day to have off from school. I got up around 10:30 and took a shower, then drove over to Farmstead. Cheryl wasnt there so I didnt volunteer. Then I drove over to the bank and cashed my check. Wow, I have a lot of money in my savings account for Africa. I could be doing better though. Anyways. After that I drove home chilled out there, went snowmobiling with my sister through the swamp off our land which is connected to Coon Lake. I was in the lead so I had to make a path through the reeds and got stuck once and Erin got stuck once on the way back onto the land. We drove around on the mud arm of the lake. I got up to 80mph. The wind still went through all my layers when going that fast so I slowed down. What fun.
Once we got home Micah called and then came over. He helped me with my chemistry homework, we have a test tomorrow. I am so sick of that class. I understood the work thank God and got a lot done. We had to stop working on it cause he had to get home and my sister and I had to go to the dentist. Lucky us! I have a cavity. I never had one until like 2 years ago. I think it had to do with me having braces. Whatever, it doesnt hurt but I do have to get a filling in a few weeks here so that sucks. Alright well I'm off to go put off doing homework again. Enjoy!

Oceans

Hello there friends. Alrighty, I keep forgetting today is Sunday for some odd reason. Yep, I woke up at the latest time possible to get to church. My family and I got there on time like always. Church was good today. We has Sunday school class today (we have it every other week). Joe Nagell talked to us about Jesus, wowzers what a suprise, no we talked about his first 30 years and how there is more about the last 3 than the first 30 and so on. . . It was all good. Doogie actually came out to class which made it a little more interesting. Normally there are only 3 or 4 of us in the class. Yes, my church is quite small.
After church my family and I went to Target, I needed to get some kaki pants for work. Yesterday one of the managers came in to check out our store and I guess he didnt like how dark brown the pants I was wearing were. I only have one pair of kaki pants so we went and got another pair today. After that we went home and I called my friend Bob and he came over and hung out with me and my sister, mostly my sister though even though he is my age. They played Mario Cart and then a snowboard game on the game cube while I fell asleep on the couch. Yeah I'm a bad friend. Then we watched Oceans 11 and then went to the theater and saw Oceans 12. Both were good movies. I enjoyed them. Well anyways, not much else is new so yep. Oh yeah I talked to Jon last night. I always enjoy talking to him. He is in Utah for some races, he said its really beautiful out there. I can believe him. Some day I will go watch one of his races, that would be prety awesome. Anyways, I'm rockin out of here. Enjoy your night!

me and my awesome fat cat herman! rock on! 

Dating 2 (In a Spouse)

Here you go, for Christian Thinking we had to make a list of things we want in a spouse and standards or whatever. There you are my friends. enjoy reading what i thought.

1. Has an awesome relationship with God
2. Active in the church
3. Good with talking to people
4. Friends with my parents
5. Doesn’t try to be someone they are not
6. Can show his love in subtle ways
7. Tells me what’s on his mind
8. Has musical talent
9. We have alike interests but yet have our own interests also
10. We need to be able to add to each others character
11. Likes to read
12. Same humor
13. Has parents seeking God that are active in the church
14. Has good manners
15. Likes the theatre/stage (going to plays)
16. Has dreams and goals that he is reaching for them
17. Is supportive of my dreams and aspirations and encourages me to reach for them
18. To be friends before dating and marriage
19. Knows how to keep boundaries in the relationship
20. Shares many of my goals, dreams, and aspirations
21. Has integrity
22. Has a longing for Christ
23. Same morals
24. Trustworthy
25. Can share anything together
26. It would be cool if he was good looking but that isn’t a huge thing

the attack of the killer Carrie 

Jon, ah yes.  

saikano!  

Dim Roads

I sit wide-awake looking out across the barren earth of the country
Feeling the wind across my face through the open windows
Listening to the sound of the tires soaring across the faded road
The stars shining brightly across the sky
Lights from the cities so far away line the horizon in a magnificent glow
Lightning bugs flash off beat
I pass through one sleeping town then the next
All these things fitting so perfectly together
In a rhythm running over and over in through my head
And if I listen closely I can hear the voices of the fields
Telling long told stories of the past
Always amazed at what I behold

Not knowing what I might pass next

Rose Pedals

Like a wild rose
Set before you
You can look
Behold its beauty
Its scarlet red pedals
Catch your eyes attention
With the soft touch
Of your warm flesh
You may caress it
With every embrace
Flows out specks of blood
Small thorns seep slowly
Into your finger

Pain outweighs the beauty

To Be

Standing motionless
Seconds stopping
Staring in your eyes

Time stood still

another college

hey. . . i got the mail today, i recieved a letter from Black Hills State University. I was. . . accepted! Rock on! This is one of the colleges I wanted to go to. I could be closer to my best friend Jon. That would always be cool. Oh yeah I dont know if I told you this or not but I got a letter from St. Kate's and I was accepted there also. That's always cool.
So last Thursday I hung out with Jon after I volunteered and then attempted to give blood with my friend Tracy. I couldnt my iron level was too low. I tried, that's all I can do. Oh while hangin out with Jon we watched Napolean Dynamite. After the movie was done we just chilled out in the family room. Quite cool indeed.
Then oh Saturday he was supposed to go back to Rocky Mountain College but his car had problems so he got a flight for Sunday morning. He asked me if i wanted to chill with him and for sure, i said yes, its Jon come on. He's my best friend. So I drove out to Buffalo, MN and we hung out at his house while he packed some more then we drove to Maple Grove and went to a ski shop cause he needed some stuff there. After that we went back to his house and talked to his mother for a bit. then his dad got home and we sat in the living room chatting. it was fun. next we went to his brothers house so he could say goodbye to jake. after that we were going to go bowling but the lanes were full cause of leagues. so we decided to go rollers8ing. it was so much fun. they were playing christian music at the place too. i was quite suprised. after that we went to the movies and saw Spanglish. Adam Sandler did a really good job in the movie. i enjoyed it. then we drove back to his house and sat in the my car talking for a long time. i have an awesome friend. God has blessed me greatly to have found a guy like him. anyways. i worked the rest of the weekend. it went by fast. catch ya later dude!