Seriously Entertaining and/or Entertainingly Serious.

spring break blog 1!

2009-03-08T15:34:00.000-07:00

hey kids! long time no blog. please accept my sincere apologies, i'm trying to make a comeback here, and you being mad at me will NOT help. so, let me do a quick recap of the past month!

rain, snow, cookies, skiing, beach, the book of Matthew, bagel baseball, ping pong, life is good, halo with the boys, girl songs, my pillow is defluffing, all my socks have disappeared, crazy love by francis chan, essays, essays, essays, actually being there when they put out the fire at cracker barrell, family reunions in boone, peanut's new/old toy, yo-yo's, CD almost done, out of tune rock band guitar in chapel, airplane game, new clothes, wonderful friends, awesome family, and that barely even scrapes the surface.

i'm strongly considering joining the disney movie club. just to get some classics, ya know? on a completely different note, right now i'm in the middle of a 5 day / 6 night tropical vacation in charleston, staying at glupker's house! the first night there were 5 of us, the past two nights there was 12 sleeping in the house (17 in the total spring break crew) and now we're down 11, and still having the time of our lives. we played alright in the frisbee tournament, we won some games, we lost some games, we won the games we should have lost and lost a game or two we should have won! but now, we're just chilling and going to the beach and eating and sleeping and more chilling and movies and telling the stories where everyone tells a sentence. poor rosie made herself a princess, and then left the story into the hands of 5 other guys before it got back around to her. let's just say the princess already had a marshmellow-making unicorn and Wolvervine for a husband who had already died once by the time it got back around.

so God's showing me a lot in these last few months before i graduate...stuff like "hey chris, be a better, deeper listener." and "hey chris, would you please talk to me, I'm right here, all the time." and "hey chris, you need a haircut." and "hey chris, make ME famous, not you." and "hey chris...i've got it under control. stop living / worrying / thinking like i don't!" i would rather my life be an introduction to Jesus than a dissertation on all the cool things i did. but i find myself serving myself instead of others, and having to constantly keep my MIND humble, because i'm NOT all that and an english muffin, and i can shine the light of Jesus much better when i'm not standing there waving my own flashlight saying "hey look at me!" you catchin what i'm throwin down out there?!

so i'll try to get back into this. really. because i know all you guys want to stalk me REAL bad. :) i have the bestest friends ever. i'm talking about YOU.

kbye!

2009-03-04T15:31:00.001-08:00

i need to write something in here.....a whole month of no blogging! AAAHHHH i hope by writing this i will remind myself to do that. kbye

trying to find my charger.

2009-01-27T13:22:00.001-08:00

This weekend was slam packed! The frisbee tournament happened, ping pong happened, middle school hangout happened, church sunday morning happened, sleep happened, bagels happened, halo 3 happened, cracker barrel happened, traditional sunday afternoon nap happened, monday happened, and so far, tuesday has happened too.

yesterday, i took some rest time. i read all over the Word about why God set the example of resting on the 7th day. it wasn't because God NEEDED rest, but taking that 7th day to rest was a way for the people of God to worship Him and remember that He created everything in 6 days. that amazed them....and they didn't even have planet earth to watch on the discovery channel! i usually take rest because i DESPERATELY need it. yesterday i took some time to rest so i could stop and thank God for the enormous amount of blessing He is pouring down on us.

My car's trunk doesn't stay open, you have to hold it up. Unless you're on some kind of decline and get it to stay just right. Well i found that perfect spot, and it was staying up on it's own, and i was searching for my cell phone charger in my trunk. Robbie decides to step out on the porch and throw an uncooked hot dog at me. He said "catch!" well...i didn't catch it. instead it hit my trunk and it came crashing down on my forehead. nobody makes me bleed my own blood! i kicked him in the shin. not really. because he gave me the bag of chicken rice that i cooked later. note to readers: anytime you harm me in any way, give me food and i will quickly forgive you.

i am now in Dr. Pater's World Religions class..and Dr. Pater is an avid mountain dew drinker. today he told us that it is the most efficient drink for his body...because his body doesn't have to change the color during it's digestive cycle. what a guy!

If i want to stand out in a crowd i just need to stop taking showers. too often i find myself striving to be holy NOT because God is holy, but because i want to appear holy, i want to stand out in the crowd. that's Dee You Em Bee with a capital DEE. the hard part is...people don't usually look at motives, God does. approval by people is usually right in front of us. God's approval is sometimes harder to see and find. So usually we are more inclined to make things look good on the outside and forget about the inside because ONLY God really looks there. thank goodness He isn't giving up on me.

wall.E

2009-01-21T20:32:00.000-08:00

....is one of my fav movies ever.

so if you haven't heard already, last night i was in one of those recording moods and recorded a version of peace like a river. it's on my facebook page here. you can also see my new possible album artwork there!

so ricky, one of the guys that lives in my house, discovered that i have the snowboarding game Amped3 so he is flipping out right now and spending 30 minutes designing his character. quite awesome. i went on a used game buying streak...except i bought the game burnout paradise, which has completely changed my life. i mean, over thanksgiving and christmas break me and my dad probably put in like 40 hours. that's a lot of gaming. so Amped3 got pushed to the side...until now! ricky JUST said "this is AWEEESOME!" in the same tone that i had when i first got to play on the new mcdonalds playground in 3rd grade.

so i'm doing my internship at stone bridge, doing media stuff, so basically i get to edit videos and lead worship and hang out with youth and i get CREDIT HOURS for it. by the way...SUPER pumped about worship this week, we're doing an extremely bluegrass version of peace like a river, kinda like the one i recorded! it just makes me want to jump around and dance. but i've been really pumped about every week. by the way..i think the final version of "centripetal love" is also up on that facebook page i linked to earlier. i'm working on a rocking version of "lead me to the cross" for the EP as well. exciting stuff. me and robbie went to waffle house tonight, i was quite thrilled to know that i could get two eggs, biscuits and jelly, and hashbrowns for under 3 bucks. that makes my heart happy. unfortunately waffle house makes everything else in my body upset. very upset. dad gum.

duuuuude

2009-01-19T11:45:00.000-08:00

it has been a full two months since i last wrote on this thing. i was going to say "i'm not going to try to catch you up" but i'm not going to say that. nope! i'm gonna catch you up. here we go!

-thanksgiving

-christmas

-new years

-all of them: on a scale of 1 to 10...total awesome.

now school has started back, and i have 3 jam-packed months until graduation! it's supposed to SNOW tonight! oh my goodness. and i am freaking out. i just showed all the kids in the office my snow dance, which consists of me singing "snow!...snow! snow! snow!..." to the tune of eye of the tiger. i am getting ready to go home to get my skim board, just in case it snows. i've been wanting to try it on the snow for months now, and so if my next blog is written from a hospital bed with 2 broken legs...you'll know why. and you can say "chris...skimboards weren't made for snow" and i'll cry and say "you're right" and i'll pull out a snowball that i stuck in the freezer and nail you as you're walking away. i have been reading a LOT of calvin and hobbes lately...i don't know if you've ever read calvin and hobbes comics, but it's helping me to remember and get in touch with my inner 6-year-old. that's where hitting you with the snowball came from. my inner 6-year-old.

stone bridge church is going pretty incredible. leading worship is something i have become extremely passionate about, and i get to play with so many talented musicians and we get to play some AWESOME stuff. and i have an office with christmas lights. that generally makes me smile. and the YOUTH at stone bridge are the bomb.com. i am also getting ready to order 3 books of amazon.com. this is a first for me...i never order books, and rarely ever buy them at all. but they are three books that look promising, and i'm sure once i get them that i will mention them several times in this blog..thing. i am currently sitting in computer services at school, where i work, (or pretend to...i mean, i'm writing this blog.) and i'm surrounded by these computer screens so when people walk by i put on this serious look on my face and talk loudly about how i'm hacking into the CIA's headquarters or something. not really. but i have been giving violent suggestions to students without really knowing it...such as "well if it happens again, just throw it out the window." the problem is...i don't think some people know i'm joking. if you see computers flying out of any windows...let me know. thanks.

i said if gas goes to 1.00 a gallon or less, i was gonna make a road trip to Niagara falls or florida or something. but it hasn't. i still want to make the road trips though. i don't know where i was going with that. i'll start a new paragraph now.

3 more months. and then i believe life will become much different. i think God is working out a youth ministry job for me as you read this. and i might walk off the stage of graduation into full-time teaching kids about Jesus, and investing and pouring my life into that. now THAT is exciting. even more exciting than SNOW. and yeah i just said that. i'll try and keep this thing updated...AKA update it less than once every two months. k bye.

colorado control center clock.

2008-11-07T09:04:00.000-08:00

what an incredible two weeks. maybe i need to write shorter blogs like every other day to keep all you kids updated! maybe. probably won't happen. that's ok though! you can stalk me on facebook.

but the real reason i wanted to write was because of psalm 90:12. it says "teach us to number our days so can we can gain a heart of wisdom." other translations say different things...they pretty much all start with teach us to number our days, but they end with things like "that we may present to You a heart of wisdom," "so that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom," etc. one translation even says "teach us how short our lives really are, so that we may be wise." this one verse screams SEVERAL things at me.

1) teach us to number our days. we have a limit! we have a specific number of days we are going to live, and today is one of them. how incredibly precious is the time that we have RIGHT now, today! it's the only shot we will get at today. it's the only shot you will get at the next minute. it's almost gone. i don't want to miss out. and if you jump into a realization of here and now and get into what God is presently doing, you won't miss out.

2) time totally controls us sometimes. we have classes, meetings, times to eat, a specific time to write that paper, to do that report, to be at a game, to be at a practice, to be at church, gotta be at work at 8, got to watch that show at 9, have to set aside time for being on the road to get there, etc etc etc and who decides what time it is? some Verizon Wireless control center in colorado telling my phone what time it is. i look down, it tells me it's 12:21, and oh snap there's always a lunch rush at 1230, do i try to make it before or after? do you see what i'm saying?

3) we get caught up in that, and it's a burden. stress comes for a visit, and before we know it we're saying "i can't wait for this day to be over." i've been there, i was there a week ago, i know how it feels. but that is NOT how the full, abundant life that God has called us to live works! and man has God slammed that point home. teach us to number our days, so that we can gain a heart of wisdom. teach us to realize how precious every second of every day is so that we can gain a heart of wisdom.

4) a heart of wisdom COMES from the realization that every day is precious and it's never going to come again. one shot, one chance. this is wisdom. with this kind of perspective, everything changes. and your heart affects perspective. sure, we've still got to make all these appointments and we have to live by the colorado control center clock, but it doesn't have to control us and our attitudes. what about the people you get to smile at on the way to class, your office, in the mall? how many people know that you care about them based on something you DID or SAID today? your days are limited. you only have TODAY to let God impact and influence the world around you, through you. when you are living through tomorrow, it will be "today," and you'll still only have "today."

5)matthew 6:31-34: (this is Jesus talking.) "What i'm trying to do here is to get you to relax, to not be so preoccupied with getting, so you can be respond to God's giving. People who don't know God and the way he works fuss over these things, but you know both God and how he works. Steep your life in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. Don't worry about missing out. You'll find all your everyday human concerns will be met. Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don't get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the times come." (the message.)

next time you catch yourself saying "i can't wait for this day to be over," think about it! i don't ever want to hear those words come out of my mouth again.

what in the world is going on in my head

2008-10-22T18:50:00.000-07:00

what a week!!!!

i can't begin to tell of all that's happened over the past week. i can say that i went to charleston, played frisbee in the rain, skimboarded, got a cold, made an indiana jones video, and missed every single class today because i feel like a blindfolded sloth stuck in slow motion.

also, i finished the book "What Came From Within!" by andy stanley. it talks about four monsters that are always attacking your heart....anger, guilt, jealousy, and greed. i didn't realize how much junk i had swimming around in my heart until this book...he holds nothing back with pin-pointed questions. it was a painful book to read at times! i thought i was doing so good in my Christiany life, then God goes and shows me that there is so much MORE out there, there's freedom for your mind / heart and it's a beautiful thing when you find it. i thought i had it. sure didn't. i had to let go of some things. a lot of things. seriously, pick up this book. it's 6 bucks in the haywood mall. it's on amazon. just grab it.

katy found my twin. you can see him act in a budlight commercial by clicking here. lauren and jordan and kimbo are absolutely amazing...they took me to walmart tonight so i could get some V8 fusion (woot woot) and oatmeal (along with plastic spoons and bowls to eat it in). my first ride in the mustang in a long time! also....kicking and screaming is now in the 5 dollar bin. this is huge. i remember going out and spending like 20 bucks on it and bringing it home and me and lauren actually watched it in pickens. now, 3 years later, we were in walmart and saw it in the 5 dollar bin. if you don't own this movie....make a run for the 5 dollar bin RIGHT NOW.

lauren germann and blair britt now have car puppies. blair got crouton's cousin for her bday. lauren got wiggles. ryan is now playing starfighter. that's gonna change his life. ashley is currently reading the book i previously mentioned...i think jenny's got it next, but it's up for grabs after that. also, the SKEETER JONES video on facebook is a must watch! so that's like...two videos in one blog. can you handle that? i cannot wait to go home and see and hang out with my family. but as for now....i have to go to bed. it has not been a very productive week as far as school goes, but i've felt pretty awful. that's bout all i've got for now, friends. k bye.

blog time.

2008-10-14T20:54:00.000-07:00

yep. it's blog time.

it was nice to actually be able to run today. i haven't been able to do like any physical activity for two weeks due to that cold previously blogged about that i just never got over. note to self....decongestants can help prevent ER trips. i think i'm gonna die this weekend though at the tournament....i'm pretty out of shape!

but i am pretty stoked about being able to go skimboarding at isle of palms. i really want to drive down, because my car is like this freedom to me. it means i can leave. i means i can go. if i don't want to do something, i don't have to do it. i absolutely love having the ability to just...leave. escape. my car. love it.

not only did i lose the ability to run for two weeks...but i couldn't sing either. not that i can sing good, but thank goodness that God doesn't care about what i sound like, just the condition of my heart and it's little passion to sing. speaking of hearts...i'm reading this book by andy stanley about my heart. it's gettin me pretty bad. my heart is somewhat out of whack. it's not broken, it's not cold, and it's not hard. it's just....not where it needs to be. i'm gonna go into the heart stuff in a later blog once i finish this book, because it's pretty revolutionary!

dale is back. gotta love that guy. and sprinting to catch his touchdown passes is better than peanut butter m&ms. also...ryan. what an incredible friend. and blair and lauren. wow. and lauren dubbleya. what a goofball. and the guys i live with. ashleyking txt msgs. and just the people i know are my friends out there....i am so blessed by friendships! so many crazy awesome friends. also...blessed by naps. and skeeters animal crackers. and a bunch of nice things. and FINALLY THE DETERMINATION TO GET UP EARLY IN THE MORNINGS! man have i had some wonderful mornings lately. lovin it.

found out from lauren tonight that she's helping my sister get ready for the pagaent...katy, i didn't even know you were in the pagaent. mom, dad, i'm going to have to start requesting email updates on the 8's, just like the weather channel. mall people watching was incredible friday....and listen to this.... i felt so crafty. i was sitting outside barnes and nobles while everyone was inside, cause i just wanted to chill for a sec, and i had sierra mist in my backseat. and i mean i was just in a complete state of chill and enjoyment, and i was thirsty. but the sierra mist was warm. so i go in...ask for a cup of ice, come back out and enjoy cold sierra mist. i felt like a genius. when ryan came back to my car, i proudly told him of my heroics. he was proud of me too. that was like....one of those moments for me. lately God has been filling me up with joy at random times, and i'm loving it. because it overflows when it's from God, and it just spills out. i try to go to big crowds when i'm like that so when the light is shining brightest it's shining like a city on a hill! i usually stand on tables and juggle. just kidding. but you guys know what i mean. jobi is trying to sleep now. and me writing this blog is keeping me from keeping him up!

mmhmm

2008-09-29T19:35:00.000-07:00

i'm sitting in a slightly disorganized room eating a fruit cup in cheez-it pajamas. i'm thinking that it's kinda yucky outside, thank goodness someone just called to tell me my lights were on in my car, i wanna watch a movie and go to sleep. and my tooth still hurts from the filling. and you know what? it's time to start doin my time with Jesus in the MORNINGS. that means i gotta go to bed sooner and get up a loooot earlier than i'm gonna want to get up!

school is not being very friendly to me right now. at the start of this semester, i wasn't putting forth much effort, and that was starting to get to me. now, i AM putting forth some effort, and school is absolutely beating me up like a 3rd grade bully! on another note, william lyon is addicted to halo. i mean, i haven't seen this kind of addiction since the halo days of high school. i'm really enjoying being a part of stone bridge church...there are some really cool people there and God's definitely up to something. i found some fellow skimboarders on the ngu ultimate b-team! and they are pretty good. we were out skimboarding in some of the puddles tonight. well....i was under the caf deck watching them because wet+coldness+an actual cold = pnemonia for chris brank. but it was fun watching robbie earle skimboard for the first time. ... ... and fall.

and now...i'm going to start reading a book. life without facebook is fabulous. i realized half the time i used my phone was to check my mail, and 75% of the reason i checked my mail was because i got facebook notifications. so now i don't use my phone as much either, and this is the first time i've sat at this computer for this long in a week! and it's only been like 15 minutes! so now i'm getting off because nathan needs my chair for william, jobi, skeeter and nathan halo time. i think i'll crawl in bed. my tooth still hurts.

it's about that time

2008-09-23T19:30:00.001-07:00

wow. it really is about that time to write a blog again. the main reason i'm writing this blog is to say that i'm gonna get away from facebook for a while. why? because...

1. it just consumes a lot of my time. i don't think just limiting my time on it would work for me. i mean, that works for some people, that's cool. but i'm just gonna cut it out, and if i do come back, i'd like to do it for the sole purpose of encouragement. not to try to get a date or impress people or gain popularity by having a million friends, but for the sole purpose of connecting with people to encourage them. but in order to do that, i've gotta get away for a while.

2. i don't want to have friends that are just my friends on facebook. i mean the kind of people that i only talk to on facebook and not in real life. i'd rather get calls than messages, i'd rather get calls than wall posts, i'd rather get calls than texts, and i'd rather actually talk to someone in real life than all of those combined. in this crazy 21st century culture we live in we've somewhat lost REAL connections with REAL people. like face to face. and we've lost it to AIM, texts, facebook, myspace, etc. i want something real. and i think the people in this generation want it as well. they just don't know it!

3. i would consider myself faithful to facebook. i check it pretty much everyday. i get emails sent to me with notifications, and i can check them on my phone any second of the day. that's faithful right there. guess what i'm not faithful about? God's word. prayer. hope. faith. i want the faith and the hope that Peter talks about in his first letter, i want to be filled with inexpressible joy!!!!!! facebook can't offer that, but man sometimes i was trying to find my encouragement and happiness through that site.

also, this weekend, i'm gonna turn off my cell phone! i'm gonna let my parents know when i arrive and when i leave, but it's going off. i want my entire attention on what God is doing here and now.

let me just say i have some absolutely AMAZING friends. real ones. that same letter peter wrote says "now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from the heart." that's incredible. and God has placed people in my life that love me like that. i want that kind of love, and i believe everyone does, and i want to offer that kind of love. and i want to offer it face to face!

not a long one.

2008-08-12T19:55:00.000-07:00

so let me start by saying that there is this group of teenagers on the campground that don't actually know what my voice sounds like. i've done so many voices, that when they ask me to do my real voice, and i do, they don't believe it's my real voice. they think i'm making my real voice up. that was really the sole purpose of writing this blog, i just wanted to tell you guys that. other than that, only two more days left here! i am officially all by myself for the next few days! except for punky and larry and wiggles, who have all become my best friends this summer. speaking of punky...i am currently uploading all of her pictures. so go check them out on my facebook! also coming soon...my skimboarding photo shoot today!!! woohooo!

true love and pirates

2008-08-07T13:04:00.000-07:00

this....is crouton. my friendly car puppy. he's been with me through thick and thin, and he's always there smiling at me and happy to see me, no matter when i get in my car or what i feel like when i get in my car. good ol' crouton. the love of crouton and ice breaker sours in the Ford Contour spread throughout the summershine staff this summer !!

anyways, today is pirate day, and it has absolutely been amazing. wanna hear what's happened so far? i got up, ate cinnamon toast crunch, got treasure hunt stuff ready, and at 9:55...there was no one there. in the next 5 minutes, 30 something people showed up! 30-40 is a normal crowd, but there was something special about today, they were just cool kids. then i finished the last fun finder activity schedule with what my life will revolve around for the next 8 days, and printed out around 400, took lunch, handed out water balloons, watched while the inspectors CLOSED THE WATER SLIDES because one of the ladders is too close to one of the slides. hopefully this matter will be revolved in the new few days, cause i honestly like the slides. the kids love them, and that's one of the easiest ways just to get to know the kids and the campers and to learn their names. so after doing lots of random things that needed to be done, PIRATE GEAR BINGO at 2 o clock happened, and it was one of those random activities i make up sitting at my desk cause it sounds fun, and it was AWESOME. i wrote off some awesome pirate stuff, and we had like 30 something people come out to that too. and we've just got a great group of families here right now!

unfortuately.....right now....it's storming. we're under a deadly lightning warning from now until 10 o clock tonight! so we had to cancel the 4 o clock sandcastle building / skimboarding lesson activity. which is a REAL bummer cause i know a lot of kids that were exciting about skimboarding, and i know a lot of chris branks that were pumped about skimboarding too. but....hopefully it won't rain out the pirate parade tonight, because i'm pretty sure the whole campground knows about it, and i'm pretty sure every camper on the campground has a bag of 50 water balloons that they are going to specifically ambush me with. how do i know? they've told me, the little sneaksters. anyways, corie and diana left at 445 this morning. i set my alarm to call them and i was like WIDE awake and i know it had to sound over the phone like i was on one of those youth-group lock in caffiene highs that you get at like 3 in the morning!

want to know the most awkward thing in the world? there was this girl that came to s'mores last night, and when i handed her the toppings i could have SWORN she was wearing a true love waits ring, right? but she jetted before i could ask, cause i love asking people about cross necklaces and true love waits rings and stuff like that. (side note...every church group that's come in this summer..i've asked them if they really love Jesus or if they just rented the van. no one's rented the van yet.) so anyways i was handing out those bags of water balloons today and her and her friend said they'd like to be ambushers for the ship, and i saw the ring again and i asked if it was a true love waits ring. and she said ".....uh, no. it's just a ring" and her and her friend kinda looked at me with that kinda "that was kinda a weird question" look, and then i realized, hey, that is a weird question, and i was out of there quicker than a couch potato in gold's gym. no, ok, not that fast. but HOW AWKWARD! never ask that question to anyone. because if they don't know what in the world you're talking about, that IS a really weird question. cole had said the other night that he saw a true love waits ring, and that the girl was like drop-dead beautiful, and he said he wanted to go up to her and say "hey, it can stop waiting. i'm here." but of course...he didn't. cause we're not like that. ok enough on that subject. i'm gonna upload some more pics to facebook. yay rain.

well, here's for catching up!

2008-08-04T13:27:00.000-07:00

yep, not gonna do it! not gonna try to catch you up on everything that has happened over the past like 2 and a half weeks, because the days are packed, and there have been WAYYYY too many things that have happened and to try and blog it would / could / possibly take up WAYYYY too much space in your HTML browser.

so i'll start with today! i got up this morning, ate Cinnamon toast crunch, and just chilled for a while. i probably showered. went to walk wiggles, my wonderful neighbors dog (punky and larry, who are phenomenal.) then i went skimboarding for a little bit, and it was just bad. i mean where the campground is on the island, there are actually PEOPLE so over time there gets to be a real bad slope down to the water. so it's not so much fun skimboarding in front of the campground cause you just kinda go down right into the waves, even if you try to go sideways. and if you're not real good at catching waves yet, well, the waves just kill you! my foot suffered quite an injury today! so i went back in, helped diana write off some candy bars for candy bar bingo, ordered tie-dye stuff, called the kayak guy because like 20 people signed up for the tour tomorrow night! i just got some of diana's pictures onto my computer, i crashed on punky and larry's couch for a while with wiggles, and in 25 minutes we're doing flag football on the beach! woohoo! and then..... after flag football....

we are going to ocracoke for staff night out! there's only 5 of us left now....so we can all fit in one car...and we're taking the hummer. WOOHOOO!! punky let me drive it up to outback with the staff a few nights ago, and we drove through the worst storm i have ever been in...in my life. it was CRAZY. we have videos. anyways, came up with a new song today. i really enjoy songs that are like 2-3 minutes long. i think this fall i would like to release some kinda EP with some of these songs ideas. cause some of this stuff is fairly cool, and usually by recording it opens my eyes to crazy ways to improve the stuff. only 10 days left on the island! and no, it hasn't gone by fast. it feels like i've been living here for about 3 and a half months! i'm super excited bout going back to school and giving up to God the things i need to give up and let Him lead and see how He uses and leads me.

can't promise i'll blog again before i leave, just know that it's going absolutely amazing. it's time to wrap up this mission and prep for the next!

ahem

2008-07-17T09:20:00.001-07:00

ok so here are just a few thoughts running through my head at this point in time. enjoy!

-man. the dark night comes out tomorrow. is it worth an incredibly fun road trip 2.5 hours up to VA to see it in IMAX on one of my days off? quite possibly...yes.

-bottlecaps are one of my favorite candy.
-fries are just not that healthy.
-new skimboard rocks.
-maybe i'll upload some facebook pictures someday!
-pirate day activities ...pancake breakfast, pirate day power nap, pirate day write this blog, treasure hunt, pirate day make 500 copies of the fun finder, pirate base building on the beach, followed by staff skimboarding, followed by pirate day grab a super fast dinner, followed by fill up 400+ water balloons for the pirate parade, then pirate parade, then random other pirate things that need to be done till pirate day bible study at 10:30.
-air conditioning is great.
-i need to find my radio.
-mike is weedeating outside my window and it keeps messing up on him...it's loud.
-wiggles is my favorite dog on the outer banks.
-i almost have the entire "dooley" song memorized. if you dont' know what i'm talking about.....
-PLEASE WATCH THIS
-that's becoming my all-time fav. song.
-all my clothes are clean
-yyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy
-(i was trying to scratch some dirt off of the y button)
-i just found the bullet button so i guess i don't have to put the - before the sentences now.
i am definitely ready to see my family in about a week! YAY for vacations!
forrest has push-mowed for like 10 hours in the past two days.
diana is like a machine, except a really nice one.
tiffany has an awesome new haircut and contacts!
chris fell asleep at the lost colony, and it made me incredibly happy to know that guy was relaxed.
corie is developing perseverance like nobody's business.
cole's parents and sister and her husband are coming today! woohoo!
jasmine is a hardcore funzone worker, and she reminds me of goofy. idk why.
mandi got hit in the head with a golfball. and she's one of the coolest girls on the planet. on a scale of 1-10, she'd be spectacular.
me and courtney got to eat supper together last night, and i tried one of the waves breakfast wraps, and i didn't know it had avacado, i don't even know what that is but it's gross, and she laughed at the face i made. she's learning even more that she realizes. she'll probably realize that later.
kelli is like a breath of fresh air.
i miss jacob, and anne-marie, and ashley, and ryan AKA thelma, and i miss lauren bryant even though she never actually made it out here.
if i forgot somebody i'm gonna kick myself in the shin.
i am super excited about being a part of Stone Bridge Church!
getting plugged in there with the music and youth and video and whatever is just...yeah...exciting!
my musical wishlist for the fall is growing. i think it now includes a banjo.
God's turning my worries into ways I learn to trust, and it's cool.
ok i'm done!

hmmm

2008-07-13T07:52:00.001-07:00

i don't think i've ever written a short blog before. :-P

amazingly historical.

2008-07-11T12:10:00.001-07:00

ooooops! i guess i uh...forgot a had a blog. nah just kidding, i didn't forget, we just got in a fight and weren't talking for a while. we're on better terms now. i just was filling up my time with other things, and a few of them i'd love to share with you, you wonderful blog readers you!

first of all, kelli williams revealed to me one of life's greatest secrets. it's called skim boarding. it started small...in the puddles created by the massive amount of rain we've received lately! side note: lots of rain: good thing. lots of rain brings mosquitoes. mosquitoes: bad thing. them dad gum skeeters. but we've upgraded to the ocean, where the waves are MASSIVE thanks to hurricane bertha out there. i mean surfers are coming from EVERYWHERE, they're like gophers or something just popping up out of the ground! but we're not out in the waves, we're out in the skimmable part. and it is historic. i mean amazing. amazingly historic. forrest and chris have also discovered the historicalness of skim boarding. it has changed our lives.

so there's a pic of our crazy staff up there! not pictured: kelli......also, ray and surfer steve are in this picture and they are not summershiners but they are pretty cool and we love them just the same. God has given me energy and compassion as of late, and those i think are two of my favorite gifts. i'm also learning a lot about this whole faith thing, and learning how to have faith in believing what we hope for. does that makes any sense at all? well, just wanted to give you a quick update! my mom and sister and grandma come WEDNESDAY!!! and heather joy might come SUNDAY! and diana's parents, courtney's parents, and jasmine's parents are all visiting this weekend! the days are just packed!

ok before i end this blog, i've also started actually cooking. no more microwaveable meals! that, my friends, is definitely amazingly historical.

1 second = 1 minute

2008-06-24T10:40:00.000-07:00

let me just say that, even though it's tuesday, wednesday night bonfires are the most fun ever. i mean we do s'mores and have a fire and roast marshmellows and throw football and frisbee and do ladder ball and i'm gonna pull out the giant lawn jenga and we get to know people and.... yeah! the picture, from right to left, is ashely, jacob, forrest (aka farst) and diana.

i had a daydream about the funtrain today whilst out on the beach with cole. (the fun train is a lawn mower with a fiberglass casing which makes it look like a train and it pulls carts that people sit in!) some people were playing horseshoes next to us and i heard a "DING" which sounded horrifically close to the "DING" of the funtrain, and i thought it was coming for me. i jerked up and sand went everywhere. ....that's kinda the end of that story. now that i think about it, that's a pretty dumb story to blog about, i'm sorry for those last 37 seconds of your life that i just wasted!

ok so.... i was getting ready to eat this frozen cookie dough sundae, and it looked kinda iffy, and it ended up tasting kinda iffy too, but the box said that you could leave it out for 5 minutes in room temperature to thaw, or microwave it for 5 seconds to thaw. i didn't believe it one bit. so i put it in for 5 seconds, and i'll be dad-gummed if it didn't thaw! in other words...1 second in microwave = 1 minute of room temperature. so obviously, if water boils in around 2 minutes in a microwave, you leave water out for 2 hours and it also boils. this, also obviously, is the case with my shower now. something went horribly wrong. there is now no "cold" setting, i turn it on, and no matter where i turn it, it's absolutely scaldingly piping hot! the first day i waited for 10 minutes for the hot water to run out, and it never did, so i stuck my head under for a millisecond, then screamed, then threw some shampoo on, stuck my head under, screamed, stuck my head under again, screamed and yelled, and shut the water off. unfortunately shutting the water off required my hand to go under the hot water so i also screamed then. so the past few days my voice has been shot after the first 15 minutes of my day!

i bought bananas last week. i forgot about the bananas i bought last week. i remembered the bananas today. the bananas are still good! we got 14 comp. tickets to the outer banks music showcase tonight! YIPEEE!!! i'm super excited! i also think i'm going to go out on the beach tonight with the 4D maglite, which i found batteries for at the dollar store, and i'm gonna do some crab hunting, or at least have fun chasing them around. you are all invited. after maybe possibly applebees for the half-off appetizers. that's all for now! if you can fix my shower i'll help with gas.

continuation of continuing

2008-06-22T08:30:00.000-07:00

so....i think i'm bipolar. maybe not on a need-medical-attention-immediately level of bipolarness, but a definite bipolarity of some sort. the day will start out with me getting up...which is never good, because i can't ever get as much sleep as i need and i can't ever seem to pull myself out of bed at the right time, so the beginnings of days are never quite good for me. some people have good days and bad days....i have good minutes and bad minutes. it's like a wooden roller coaster, i mean it's all shaky and bumpy and crazy and you're always halfway scared that this thing is completely gonna break down and you're gonna go smashing toward the ground taking 40 million 2X4s with you. it goes from super excited in the first minute, deep loneliness even though i'm surrounded by people in the second minute, frustrated in the third minute, energetic in the fourth minute, and back to exhausted in the fifth. sometimes the second and third minutes last a little longer than the rest, and occasionally the first and the fourth will combine to make one super awesome minute!

an example of a super awesome minute....skit show last night. we probably had 120 people around the stage watching us do our craziness. Go Ministrie s came and did a few skits during the show and it was great! here's a picture from me and ryan's old lady / funny hands skit! i'm also going to upload audio from another chris/ryan skit called the drive thru to my facebook page, but i probably won't get to that till tomorrowish. YAY for days off! i've gotta go see Get Smart. but i'm running out of money. Even though i've been working for like 2 months, i've lost money being down here! gas, food, trips, food, gas, gradually paying off things, gas, food. crazy.

surfer steve is out teaching a few of the summershiners how to surf as i type this, and JASMINE, our newest summershiner is watching the pools! She is super super super cool. Guys night out was last night and we went to hot tuna for burgers and fries and saw some drunken islanders doing karaoke. quite the thrill! we seriously are having an amazing turnout with all the activities and stuff. i mean the whole campground is filling up, and the whole campground is turning out for stuff. if there are other summershiners reading this, don't get discouraged! we had our weeks with zeros. and even if the massive numbers come, what ultimately matters is the families you are getting close to and what kind of impact Jesus is making on families at the campground through you.

continuing!

2008-06-20T11:23:00.001-07:00

well, i think everyone's had time to read my last post. time for more blogging! we are having so many people at activities! sometimes it slightly scares me that 60 people are that into parachute games, whether actually playing or just watching! also scary: pirate parades. i absolutely know that i'm gonna be pulling that pirate ship and some little kid is gonna ride his bike and get piratically smushed by it.

i was in food lion today, getting food to put in my fridge that i finally have, and the lady checking me out at the register said "you need to get a wife!" when she saw all my microwavable stuff. i said...."well....maybe just a working stove for now." good one, huh? ALSO OF NOTE: the post office here is ridiculous, i will be using KOA's box still instead of getting my own. i mailed my first letter today...ever. EVER. for real. i had to call my mom just to make sure i only needed one stamp. what a loser. how crazy is that? so if anyone, family, friends, is sending me mail...just let me know and i'll bug the fire out of the managers to go check the mail, ok? k!

visitors! this weekend surfer steve, a work camper who the summershiners were able to point to Jesus my first year, is coming to visit for the weekend! the Virginia Beach summershine staff is also coming down to see us and vacation on either sunday or monday! or both! and chris thore is coming on a date that i shall not yet mention just in case any obx staffers are reading this! woohoooo for visitors! tuesday night we're going to the outer banks musical showcase thing again for staff night out, last year it was a blast, let's hope the same for this year! we have a group of about thirty 18-29 year olds staying here this weekend, and they're involved in Go Ministries, and they've gotta band and drama team and they pretty much rock. also....Jacob's youth pastor named Mister Tom came to visit monday-thursday! he was a pretty incredible guy. he gave me the coolest necklace with a cross on it. and i have been wearing it, and i am super pumped about it.

and i'm super pumped about it because now i'm not just in yellow with koa clothing all over, i am clearly labeled as a Jesus-follower. and i hope and pray God works through me wearing it, and that will further point people to Him!

crazy wednesdays!

2008-06-18T20:47:00.000-07:00

so, my wednesday actually started out in myrtle beach! yeah...i took some days off and went and stayed with the myrtle beach summershine staff! so i got up about 645am....30 minutes later than expected...but still got out the door by 715!

the real reason for writing this blog is so rumors don't spread with the wrong info about today's events! me and jenny have ended our dating relationship as of a telephone conversation today on the way back to the outer banks. it's been coming, i didn't see it as soon as i should have! important lesson for guys: love can be smothering. even when you think you're doing all the right things, sometimes too many right things can be a wrong thing if the other person in the relationship starts feeling overwhelmed. and that's what happened with jenny and I....i was so caught up loving her that i tried to ignore the warning signs that our love was becoming uneven. i don't think either of us ever wanted that to happen, but it did! so breaking up was a mutual thing. her desires were leaning toward other things, and it was hard for me to accept that, because my love for her got in the way of me REALLY seeing what she needed. and what she needs right now....is not me. jenny is a woman after God's own heart. and she is actively pursuing Him and what He wants out of her. and that is awesome. this is just a step we took along the way.

so as you can guess, there was a time for mourning. and i can already see several reasons that God had in mind when he opened up the door to go to myrtle beach, and one is the car ride back. i had time to mourn and let what happened really sink in. then when i got back to my house, about 20 minutes before candy bar bingo was to start, i had a mini-breakdown for about 10 minutes. i think it's good to cry. i think some of the best prayers come when you're crying. for me, emotions can go no farther, sadness reaches it's peak with tears. but you know what? at 3 o clock, candy bar bingo happened. it was there and there was nothing i could do to stop it from coming. i went, and there were 20 something kids, probably a record at hatteras for candy bar bingo, maybe, and then scheduling and activity planning, fun train, then the s'more bonfire, and meeting with ryan and courtney, and chapel practice, and now here i am.

in the incredibly wise words of my neighbor, larry mckinney, "well....life goes on." i can't throw a pity party at my house tomorrow night at 7, because there's the pirate parade. i am going to miss her, obviously. i mean this is one of the most massive things that has ever happened to me, i've never grown so close to anyone, ever!

but you know where my hope needs to be? (wow...i've never gone this deep in a blog before.) my hope doesn't need to be that she'll ever love me again. my hope needs to be, and has slowly become over the day, that God knows what He's doing, and He's in control, and that He is the pivotal cornerstone of my life. now that, my friends, is real peace. that's real joy. that the creator of the universe is OUR friend. he's rooting for jenny as she wants to grow closer to him, and he's carrying her through this. and he's carrying me, and we're right in his hands. i want that. i want the kind of hope that sends me out with the gospel bursting from my mouth, and through my actions. chapel practice was so refreshing...i hadn't played guitar or sang for 3 days, and singing and playing "for my God is with me" is one of the most incredible things, i can't describe it.

so, morals of the blog:

love can smother.
take nothing for granted.
closely pay attention to every, and i mean EVERY, hint, whether it's in actions or words, because all hints mean something....and
don't let your love blind you to what's really happening.
be careful of what you're hopeful for.
there is a time for mourning. (at least that's what that wise writer in the Bible says, and i believe it!).
so there is a time for mourning, but life and time doesn't stop at a red light for mourning. it's a constant green light.
and now i have to get some sleep, because pancake breakfast happens at 7:30 am, and by the time you read this, i might already be parading piracy at 7 pm! if you've read all this, please take an extra few seconds to pray for jenny in myrtle beach, and me at hatteras, and for all the summershiners out there this summer. please!

UNEXPECTED FRIENDS!!!!!!

2008-06-11T10:11:00.000-07:00

i found some new friends today! first i've gotta tell you how i met them.....this morning we did wacky olympics on the beach, and that was a blizast! (ghetto for blast)! it was pretty super hot at 10 in the morning on the beach though so we found that many of our relays either started, ended, or took place while partly submerged in water! after this we stopped by P&L for some F&D (punky and larry's for food and drink) and hung out with Wiggles, the coolest 15 year old blind and deaf dachshund (hotdog-dog)!!!! he's the bomb. he's awesome. so after that, i went and started doing the new fun finder and the new summashine schedule and planning everything out, and let me tell you, this father's day stuff is gonna be ROCKING!!! we're going to play Wii on the big screen (yeah....i have to give credit to the myrtle beach staff cause this was their idea...a father vs. son Wii tournament) but we're STEALING THEIR IDEA!!! MMWWAAAHHAHAHA!

anyways, i was planning and sitting there at the desk, and i had a ice coffee smoothie thing, and that's when my two unexpected friends came in. Joy and Excitement!!!! let me tell you, they are a crazy combination. they just came right in, completely uninvited, and they have taken over my attitude, my day, and i hope they stay for the rest of the summer. it's one of those completely unexpected gifts from God, that you REALLY REALLY need, but never think to ask for. Thanks, God, for knowing exactly what we need even when we don't. Now, a few blogs ago, i said i might put a picture of my farmers tan up for the world to see. Here ya go.....please, ladies, i'm taken, ok? If you'd like to fight for me, call Jenny and you can schedule a time. Just don't expect to win!

from juggling sticks to juggling schedules.

2008-06-09T22:02:00.000-07:00

dude. i got some juggling sticks. google it, i dare you. you've probably seen them before, and they are suuuper cool. we met this guy named chip who works at the kitty hawk kites mega store in nags head, and he taught me ryan forrest and tiffany all how to use them and learned us all some tricks. da-gum, the last half of that sentence went totally redneck. anywho this chip guy was also good at the sticks and juggling balls and pins and anything juggleable. it was pretty sweet! and he works mon-fri so i'm sure we'll hang out again. (we hung out in the store for like 1.5 hours)..... i also have a nintendo wii set up in my camper!!! WAAHOOO!!!

ok so the past few weeks have been like christmas, with new recreation stuff from corporate coming in like every day. we got a parachute, a really nice pool volleyball thing, a Wii, huge inflatable STUFF, ladder ball sets, giant lawn jenga sets (i don't even know, they just send stuff and i guess we'll figure out a way to throw it in as an activity!) and a few weeks ago we got the giant slip and slide inflatable thing. needless to say we have like 50+ activities we could do in a week, but we have to narrow it down to 25ish. father's day weekend is gonna be sweeeet...we're doing a father vs. kid wii competition on the big screen, courtney is in charge of craft and they're making like father's day tie's, but they're cards too, and it's crazy. and i'm pretty sure we're gonna do some other random father's day things, like father vs. kid horseshoes or basketball or flag football or competitive sleeping, you know, see who can sleep the longest. i think i'll be able to dominate competitive sleeping after this weekend!

i'm gonna tell my saturday story, you ready? i got up, and it was time for pancake breakfast. we got there, and it was me ashley and anne-marie, and neither of them had done pancake breakfast before. new adventures! so we open at 8, and ray, the night security guard who is amazing, is hanging out with us. as soon as we open the window we have like 5 or 6 families order pancake plates, so it was pretty rushed to begin. then about 8:05 tells us "hey those girlscouts are getting ready to come up! the whole troop!" and we TOTALLY thought he was kidding, we didn't even know there were girl scouts on the campground. next thing i know, we got ambushed. attacked. helpless. they all ordered at once. chaos. madness. by the time we got all the orders out at 845, we had a breather, and then pancake breakfast continued until 10:30 after clean up. then i got the kayak info and flyer and sign up all organized and together, and then i was like "hey i've got from 11-12 before i have to be back to set up the slip-and-slide" cause i knew saturday is a day of seldom breaks. so i got to my camper, and about 10 minutes into the stillness mo calls on the radio needing someone to cover slides. here's some more background info....i desperately needed this hour. i didn't know for sure what i was even SPEAKING on in chapel the next morning. i knew that i wasn't going to have any more breaks until like 9:00 pm, and i was already worn out, wiped out, etc. i went into a state of panic.

God then directed my eyes directly toward a flipped page in my Bible which said Luke 8, so i went there and immediately found Luke 8:22-25. the disciples were on a boat, Jesus was sleeping, a massive storm came up, and they went into a state of panic! they yelled, "Jesus, we're going to drown!" he gets up, calms the wind and the waves, and simply asks them "where is your faith?" it was like those 4 words were directed straight at me. where is your faith? the message version says "why can't you trust me?" i knew God was in control of the time and the situations, but i didn't fully trust that He would give me enough time to get everything i needed to get done, done. but man, oh man, does He provide. so at 11:10 i simply prayed, "God, i'm going to drown. help me trust you." i smiled, walked out the door a few minutes later after a bite of lunch. after getting the slip and slide set up, i was ready to stand there and staff it for about 2 hours. mo simply comes over and says "hey, you don't have to stay here if you need to go do something else. jacob and anne-marie can handle it." it was like God just kinda said "you're not going to drown. see how i provide?"

so i took of on my bike and went back to my camper and knew exactly what God had laid on my heart to speak. it's a beautifully thing when you can push all else aside and listen for God talking to you. The more i push stuff aside the more i realize i like listening to God more than all the other stuff that gets in the way. i wish i would push stuff aside more often. the rest of the day was quite hectic and crazy, but it makes a world of difference when you know you've got the Creator, Sustainer, Rescuer, and Manager of the Universe holding you in His hands, and if you let Him work the schedule of your day. after all, i get more done when i trust Him to guide my priorities for every minute. i mean there's so much to do!!!! but God knows exactly what NEEDS to be done and He provides plenty of time to get it done. how amazing. i'm going to sleep now.

asdflkajsdf;lkajsdf

2008-06-07T15:22:00.000-07:00

i just wanted you to know that i'm almost too busy to write a blog about how i can't write a blog because i'm actually too busy. i mean i literally do not have any extra minutes at any time during the day. i mean i have no clue how i actually just found an extra 2.5 minutes so i could tell you that i am a little too busy to write a blog saying "i can't write a blog right now because i'm too busy."

i would say that i can wait till my next day off to write a blog....but last week i was doing so many other crazy incredible things, i didn't even have time to write a blog on those days off! i mean, this is probably going to be the best summer i've ever had. i wish i could tell you about it, but right now i'm pretty caught up living it every second, so hopefully soon i'll be able to write about something other than how busy i am and how i can't write a blog because i'm too busy, even one about how busy i am!!!!!!!!!

i dare you to keep checking back at random...soon....very soon.......sometime soon you might find a picture of my farmer's tan. .......that might be worth checking back!!!

a few hours off!

2008-06-01T12:42:00.000-07:00

i officially decided that i am going to take about 2 hours off. right now. this is it. it's in between the horseshoe tournament and the flag football / bonfire that we're having tonight. the past few days have been quite trying! we'll have 1 or 2 come to an activity, then 3 hours later we'll have 30-60 show up, then a few hours later, nobody. so it's like...prep...setup....nobody. prep...setup...overload. i am SOOOO EXCITED about a full two days off!!!!

tuesday night for staff night out we're going on a sunset kayak tour! really looking forward to that! jake and mandi told me they were going to atlantic coast cafe for breakfast in the morning...so i'm DEFINITELY going with them because it's fantabulous. and in between? no clue. i've been here like a month. i might head into manteo and hit up the aquarium or go to the downtown sound-side / waterfront park which i've heard is SUPER cool. also of note, i'm getting ready to eat some pineapples. right now.

ok, so far, this blog has probably been pretty boring. it's getting ready to get exciting. you ready? so one of the summershiners was in food lion yesterday, and she said this lady kept on staring at her. and she said it was really really awkward, and she kept looking away but every time she glanced back she would keep staring! they were in line together, and the staring lady was in front, and finally she said "can i help you with anything?" and the lady was like, "oh i'm sorry if i'm staring, it's just that you look just like my daughter. she died last year." ....WOW. so then she said "aww i'm really sorry to hear that!" and the lady kept staring, and she said that the lady finally got to the register and started checking out, and the lady turned around and said, "could you do me a favor? as i leave could you just say 'goodbye mommy?' i never got to say goodbye to her." ...double WOW. so she said "um....not too sure about that" and the lady said, "please! it's just for closure, and it'd really help!" so she said she kinda mumbled goodbye mommy under her breath, and the lady just walked out! HOW FREAKY! so then, she was going to check out, and she only had like 3 things, and the cash register person said the cost was like 75 bucks! she was like, "no way, i only have those 3 little things!" and the cash register person said, "aren't you paying for your mom?" ..........yeah. so she says be right back and she runs after this lady who is walking briskly to her car, and she almost catches up to her when she trips over a curb, then grabs the lady's leg and starts pulling her leg, just....like....i'm...pulling.....your......leg. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA got ya!

the broken key

2008-05-30T08:37:00.000-07:00

so hey...i'm on a quick lunch break. and i thought i'd tell ya about my day off wednesday. because it's slightly crazy. me, ashley, corie, and diana had our day off together, so we were like "hey let's go to ocracoke!" so that morning we ate breakfast at the atlantic coast cafe which is AMAZING and non-expensive and the BOMB place to eat. it was pretty cold and rainy. so we drive down to the ferry, and get on the ferry to ocracoke! woohoo!!

anyways, ashley wants to get her camera out of the car, so i give her the keys and she goes down, and she is SUPER strong and she just breaks the key off the door! it was incredible! i've never seen such a massive exhibition of strength and power. so she came up and showed us the key, and i could not help but just cracking up. here we are, on a ferry, my car is smack dab in the middle of the ferry going to ocracoke island, where there is no locksmith. we couldn't get inside the car, and even if we could, we didn't have a key to start it! my spare key broke about a month ago in SC. so here we are parked in the middle of the ferry.

after the ferry people moved all the cars from around me, we just stay on the ferry and head back to the hatteras side. we have pictures documenting this by the way, they should be on facebook soon! after spending about an hour on the phone, we had a wrecker meet us on the hatteras side to get my car off the boat. then he pulled it into a parking lot....75 bucks. we had a locksmith come and just open the door for 20 bucks, so we could get cameras and wallets out. it's still cold and raining! ryan came to our rescue, and put down his weedeater and came to pick us up at the ferry. what a guy. then, ashley spends about an hour on the phone talking to AAA (she's cool like that) and they tell us they are gonna send a wrecker down there to take my car back to the campground. so we start heading back, the wrecker called and said we didn't need to be there when we pick it up. we ate at bubba's b-b-q. never eat there, ok? just don't. they served "new mexican food" and "b-b-q" and it was just weird. just never eat there.

a few hours later, my car arrives back at the campground. this guy used dawn soap detergent to slide my car off of the ramp. quite humorous. it was cold and rainy. that was completely free of charge thanks to AAA!!!! then, AAA sends a locksmith down to make a totally new key for my car, and so he comes, takes the lock out of my trunk, decodes it, gives me a brand new key plus 2 spares, and AAA covered $170 of the $260 dollar charge. then we had chapel practice, and then i went to bed.

at the end of the day i had 1) grown a lot closer to some of the staff, they are absolutely...incredible. 2) i had 2 spare keys for my car, 3) i know never to eat at bubbas, 4) i have about 200 dollars less than i had before my day off, 5) the next day i learned i had direct deposit and God totally took care of finances, 6) i kinda craved a hug from jenny and some ice cream, and 7) it was God that orchestrated my day off. from beginning to end. how cool!

we now have 13 summershiners here!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2008-05-27T20:56:00.000-07:00

hallelujah for days off! this weekend was absolutely non-stop! and when i mean nonstop, i don't mean like just kinda nonstop. i mean literally, i would get out of bed at however early in the morning, and i would go, and go, and go, and i think my longest break for food (lunch or supper) was 20 minutes on saturday night in which i had to call some people and couldn't even eat, and then i would get in at however late at night at go straight to bed, because i had to sleep or else i couldn't get up and start it all over again! this was my first experience of having an entire weekend in which every actual minute i had to be somewhere, and some minutes, two or three places at once. i know numbers don't mean anything when it comes to church, but this is activities at a campground we're talking about, so i'll throw some numbers out at ya!

friday night - campfire with s'mores - 225+

saturday - pancake breakfast - served over 300 something pancakes

- free ice cream - went through 200 cones in around 25 minutes

-tie-dye - around 100 people, which is nothing compared to cherokee's 400! good grief!

-skit show - around 70! it was the best skit show i've ever been a part of. these kids are seriously talented, and hilarious. they are just...funny. and all the crowd loved them!

sunday - chapel! we had around 60 or 70 out for chapel too!

-giant slip - and -slide! -over 150 people!

-water balloon volleyball! we had like 30 or 40 people show up to watch or play, and it was actually pretty fun. i'd only seen it in pictures before, so wasn't real sure about how it was going to work out.

-movie night - TOY STORY! i stopped counting at 100 people hanging out watching the movie. i mean how can you NOT show up to watch a free movie on a 70 something foot tall movie screen?!

monday - just as busy, but not as many people at activites because most everyone checked out. the campground is now pretty much a ghost town. but we still have people going to activities, and courtney, the assistant AD, is doing great! she had several people show up for the planned activities today, even though it was a ghost town!

we will have 13 summershiners here by thursday! wow. and what a bunch of crazy kids they are. i wish i could work with this group for the rest of my life. we could do construction, or maybe start a mall, or work at belks, or start a summershine fishing business, or make play-doh!

so...today! day off. i was awakened by a phone call from my manager about some paper work that he needed, so i got up and gave him that, then cleaned my house, put the broken A/C unit back together, then me/tiffany/diana/ryan went to see indiana jones, and then we came back and diana made me and tiffany TOASTED PB&J and it was DELICIOUS! then we all went to lisa's pizzaria with some of the work campers, and then we came back and watched the sunset, and then played catch phrase, and just hung out! mandi introduced me and ryan to coloring again, and we all sat there and colored. diana will probably upload some pictures to facebook soon of me and ryan doing backflips with the sunset...they turned out pretttty sweeeet! and then i talked to jenny for a while, which was lovely! i really do like that girl. i think God's got something up His sleeve for us this summer. as she says..."He's got a pretty big sleeve!"

AAAH ! TIME!

2008-05-22T19:09:00.000-07:00

man!!! what a week! so many things to blog about...yet so little time. Bible study in 20 minutes. what to say, what to say! i got an a/c unit! it's not installed yet. but after this weekend it might get put in somewhere!

the "lead me to the cross" is going really well! i had ryan tell me tonight that after it's done, this is a song he would listen to. not because i was his friend, but because "it's really that cool." that was a pretty amazing moment in my musical career...if there is one that i have. but yeah, there are now some drum parts in the 2nd chorus. and i'm doing everything with garageband and the built-in mic on the laptop. and by the end of the summer, i'm really aiming for perfection. no parts left where i say "well i probably could have done it better, but i'm tired of trying." i mean, this is that can be done with garageband and a built in microphone. i might upload a sneak peek to facebook sometime. but it's pretty exciting!

the campground however, is super exciting. starting tomorrow...it's activites everyday for the rest of the summer. we have around 12 events happening this weekend alone, starting tomorrow night, and we'll have around 25 on a weekly basis. FUN stuff too...movie nights and tournaments of all sorts and tie-dye and water balloon volleyball and pirate days and super soaker weekends and christmas in july and water balloon EVERYTHING and man, it's started, and it's happening, and it's super cool. we have 8 summershiners here now....with 2 more coming this weekend...and 3 next week! WAAAHOOO!

i also got national treasure 2 today...i splurged a little and bought a dvd. also...i bought yellow cheapy crocs. pretty fanatical about all this yellow stuff! there is a fly on top of my foot. and i've tried kicking it off 50 thousand times. but it keeps coming back. and i'm too lazy to get up and get a fly swatter, because i'm typing this blog. and i'm tired of kicking. i think i'll just let it crawl around. this is too weird. ok i just kicked. and it's back. ARRGGGGG!!!! by the way, do you know a pirate's favorite place to eat? ARRRRRBY'S! tell you what!

the staff here is full of energy and ideas and surprises! but i do miss my family. i get to talk to jenny pretty much everyday for about 5 or 10 minutes, but i don't get that much time to talk with my family a lot. but GUESS WHAT?!?!? THEY HAVE A BLOG NOW!!!!! so now that you're done reading this...go check it out!

brankfamily.blogspot.com

LUUUNNCCHH TIMEEE!!!!

2008-05-16T10:06:00.001-07:00

howdyyy folks! things are going GREAT here! of course...there are like...20 campers right now. but let me tell you, business here runs amazing without many campers. ok so things really are going great, we've got a lot more people rolling in this weekend, with a super cool line up of activities including more bonfires and s'mores, mini-golf tournament, the NEW super huge inflatable slip-and-slide which we'll have up and running for a bit, we're showing the Jungle Book (old school) on the massive screen, and chapel sunday morning. and tomorrow...3 more summershiners come in! WOOHOOO!!! this is the LAST day that the guy summershiners will outnumber the girl summershiners. for the rest of the summer. (gasp.)

don't you just love the jobs where you get a ton of stuff done, your days are packed, and you feel like you're actually accomplishing something? yeah, i love this. tonight's Bible study is on Ephesians 4, and how we imitate what God does, and how mostly what God does is love us.

also...no more two hand tag football! we got FLAGS!!!! booyah! and towels to play water balloon volleyball, and a new volleyball net!!!! yellow!!! the last volleyball net lasted through 4 or 5 hurricanes and 3 years worth of major storms and nor'easters! i've really got high hopes for this one, i mean, i've never even put up a volleyball net before, so we'll see how the knots hold, but this one looks good. i've glanced over at it several times today and thought "man, if i was bored, seeing that good looking net would could turn me into a volleyball player. like my sister." these mosquitos are really getting me. only ONE MORE WEEK until it's activities everyday for the rest of the summer, and it's gonna be ridiculously cool. i mean, you should come. seriously. right now. just come. or, you could seriously, right now, pray for us. because as cool as this summer's gonna be, one can only handle so much coolness before a partial burnout, so we need prayers for constant strength, energy, and encouragement straight from the Source and the Creator of strength, energy, and encouragement. you guys are the bomb, thanks for reading!

how awesome would it be to have a moped.

2008-05-13T18:03:00.000-07:00

i mean seriously! a moped! i mean i've got a car and everything for serious highway driving, but a moped would be incredible! who really needs to go faster than 45 anyway? it's either a moped or a super nice acoustic guitar. but if i had a moped, an acoustic guitar probably wouldn't fit on it. but a guitar doesn't drive you anywhere, and a moped gets better gas mileage anyway. you put gasoline in a guitar and light it on fire and it MIGHT blow you a few feet. but with a moped, you're talkin MILES.

in other news, winds up to really fast mph today, and we took a trip to ocracoke island which is about 45 minutes plus a ferry ride away. last year it was rated the #1 beach in america! today...not so much #1. but there's this place called howards where you can get really good burgers and fries, and we walked on a road called Back Rd. for a really long time. my car is SO dirty from all the sandy grossness that is the beach...i absolutely HAVE to wash my car AND my clothes tomorrow. i wish they had one big washing machine that washed everything. clothes, cars, your hands, dishes, you name it. just throw it in with some Tide (the kind with Febreeze of course) and out it pops, sparkling clean! it would have to POP out too. maybe like a toaster.

also...have you ever thought about how strawberry twizzlers taste NOTHING like strawberries? i paid $3.89 for gas today! YEEEAAAAHHH!!! 5 gallons for 20 bucks baby! i saw the mopeds soon after i put the gas in...that probably has something to do with the first paragraph. also...HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!

wahoooo!!!

2008-05-12T17:57:00.000-07:00

heeey folks!!! well, it is officially my first day off. you know what my biggest accomplishment is? we stood about 10 feet away from a couch and started throwing golf balls at it trying to get them to stick in the cracks. i got mine stuck like 15 times! it was AWESOME!!!! but we got through yesterday....sold like 300+ pancakes! and chapel was great too. what we learned from this weekend...God is with us, right alongside us, helping us out through every twist and turn.

today has been AMAZAZING. i'm recording the rest of "lead me to the cross"! i didn't really plan on it...i just started playing around with it this morning and it sounds pretty cool. i've got a rough cut all the way through the 2nd chorus...not really sure what i'm gonna do in the bridge. THE WIND HERE IS INSANE. and it's freezing. gusts up to 58 mph tonight! what in the WORLD! i'm going to get blown into the ocean!

jenny is now offically in myrtle beach, through some very crazy happenings and sequences of events! but God is with her, and she knows it, and it's cool. JACOB IS HERE! that's two summershiners now...with 4 more coming in this week. Jacob is a super cool guy, and he's 6'6". he puts his computer on top of the fridge to surf the web, and all of his cabinet space is ABOVE the cabinets. have i told you that the summershine house has a mind of it's own? yeah, certain parts of the house will completely lose power for absolutely no reason for hours upon hours. and then it'll all switch. and none of the electrician workers in the campground can figure out what's up. pretty fun...but slightly irritating when you have to throw all the food back and forth between refrigerators! i don't even know how to spell refdrigeratrs. fridge. so how you guys doin?

whew!!!

2008-05-10T20:14:00.000-07:00

man, what a day!!! what a past couple of days! ryan has arrived, and it's been a blast. we ate pizza and went out to nags head thursday night (including jockey's ridge...pictures will come later, when we have a few seconds to breathe!) yesterday started the fun! ryan got to learn a ton of stuff, and we followed joe and michelle around on housekeeping! then...the fun train. mike re-did the exhaust, so it's really nice and fun to drive that thing! we also opened the slide for the first time friday, i can't wait to go down those slides. then last night we had a bonfire in the new fire pit with s'mores and free marshmellows! this was the first time building a fire in the new fire pit, and the first time selling smores for 25 cents. we had around 120 people come from 7-830. it was absolutely, positively wonderful meeting all sorts of kids and campers and just PEOPLE! me and ryan. first summershine activity. 120 people. awesome.

so time for TODAY!!! got up this morning around 7, and started cleaning pools at 8! scrubbed some tiles, vacuumed some dirt. then around 915 ryan drove the fun train for a bit while i got all the beads and string and markers and crayons and paper together and organized for the craft hour, then craft hour happened. we had about 20 kids making mother's day cards and beads, and the weather was beautiful! we then did some water slide / fun zone duties for a few hours and proceeded to the beach at 2 for sandcastle building! we probably had about 20 people participate, gave out some free banana bikes and some free tie-dye shirts, because everyone was making INCREDIBLE sand castles. again, the weather was awesome! note to self - give about 15 full minutes to yourself for rinsing off all those sand castle toys. that takes a while!

then we rushed over to get the tie-dye stuff ready before 4, filling up tubs and getting out shirts and getting money and rubber bands and clothes-pins prepared, and then they started piling in. and i realized i really only know ONE DESIGN to show everybody...and that's the spiral thing. the easiest one ever. but, other campers knew other ones and we had a blast! we sold probably around 40 or 50 shirts but around 60 showed up. all this time, by the way, we've gotten to actually know a lot of the kids and families!!!

after tie dye it got REALLY windy and cold, we had to move the movie and raffle inside, and we gave away a TON of stuff at the raffle. 60 or 70 showed up to hang out with us for a while.

backing up a bit, directly after the tie dye i rushed to the store to rent the incredibles, the movie for tonight, and there was a sign on the door "be back in 5 minutes." i waited like FOREVER!!! it was God's way of saying "hey, pray. in the middle of the day." so i was like, "ok!" raffle at 6 went great, then we got ready for the movie at 830...and got to know this one family that is awesome. jonathan is 5 and jennifer is 2.5, and she broke her leg last night on the jumping pillow!!! her and her dad were jumping and she just landed wrong! she's the cutest thing too. but they won 7 prizes at the raffle! so they really loved that. we made popcorn in the middle of the movie and handed it out, and the movie just ended and we packed up 40 something chairs and the sound systems and you name it and ran through the cold putting everything and it's brother in storage places, and ran to our houses where i am now sitting writing this blog.

tomorrow, we are getting into the cafe at 715 to start getting ready for pancake breakfast from 8-10. then chapel at 1030...we're gonna have like 30 minutes to do what normally takes 4 or 5 people 45 minutes. how bout them apples? but you know what? looking back, God has really been on our side this weekend. it's been amazing. i hope God shows up and does something huge tomorrow. it's probably gonna be cold and windy, and we might have to move the chapel service to the cafe deck...but this is SO excited!

just to think....this is what it's really all about, this whole summershine thing. i love it. i've done it for 2 summers...but this 3rd one seems brand new! i just wanted to give you guys a taste of what an average day will look like as a summershiner. packed full of meeting people, making friends, seeing God work, and smiling.

the days are just packed!

2008-05-07T13:51:00.000-07:00

i absolutely LOVE calvin and hobbes. those two are my favorite cartoons of all time. it just always reminds me of playing outside when i was a kid, and reminds me that i should be playing outside NOW.

needless to say...i'm anxious for some Summershiners to get here. Ryan couldn't get here today, he was having some side-effects from a tetanus shot. I know it's gotta be a huge bummer for him to wait another day, and it's definitely given me some extra time that i have no idea what to do with. i'm thinking about taking an adventure down to Avon and go eat somewhere just to keep me from sitting around here being unproductive. I could say i'm "scouting the area." None of the local ice cream shops are open yet! But oh man...when they do, i should probably just go ahead and move there. The Village Conery. As Shayne calls it...the Sean Connery. No clue why...it's just funny!

I'm slightly nervous about speaking Sunday morning. I had one of my neighbors (a permanent camper here) tell me just a few minutes ago that she was excited about hearing me speak this summer. I think I'm gonna do a quick 10 or so minute talk on forgiveness, and the parable Jesus tells in Matthew 18. Forgiving is NOT natural, forgetting is NOT forgiving, and in order to forgive I can't forget the forgiveness that God has shown me. I promise I won't present it like that, because that could get CRAZY confusing! somebody might forget to forgive or forgive themselves of forgetting without ever remembering what they forgot...you know?! dangerous.

Jenny is almost done with the scrapbook for her dad! She is absolutely AMAZING at scrapbooking. Same with photography. and you know what? my sister is amazing at photography too! they're straight up professional. As in like...they both are paid to go places and take pictures. I don't like seeing myself in pictures. I better get used to it QUICK.

that's all! keep this campground in your prayers!

i'm here.

2008-05-06T13:47:00.001-07:00

hey! i'm here! i am on the outer banks, sitting in the camper, typing this. it's an absolutely gorgeous day. i drove all day sunday, got here sunday night, unloaded all the stuff, unpacked all the stuff, and SLEPT!!

Monday: got up. early. couldn't go back to sleep, i was rather excited. had a meeting with mo, i asked him a ton of questions, he answered them all, and then i hit the ground running. i started organizing all the closets full of STUFF!! inventory of tie-dye shirts, skit show props, sound systems, karokee, crafts, the Taj, i mean 4 storage sheds full of stuff. The work campers are super cool. After organizing all day and getting things sorted out, i went out to eat at applebees and then went to walmart and stayed for like 2 hours! The camper already had a ton of things i needed, so i just bought mainly food and cool things like a car wash brush and a big calender and just cool stuff. On the way back me and jenny talked, which was quite refreshing. Then, just like the night before, I slept. Also- I watched the weather channel.

Today: got up. early. the shower here in the camper is wonderful. there IS hot water. i've spent the majority of the day re-doing Taj procedures, getting activities planned for this weekend, and getting to know work campers. I cleaned bathhouses with Sam and Audrey and dug a ditch with Ray and .... I just forgot his name. I'm still trying to learn all these names, it's hard . i'm quite name-challenged. then MIKE who is over maintenance and who is awesome told me all the cool stuff he worked on at the summershine house...like new ceilings and bathrooms and duct work and he's just a cool guy. I found out 3 MORE SUMMERSHINERS are coming this summer! two for the whole summer and one for the month of July! we're gonna need all the help we can get, the more the merrier! i'm getting ready to work on Sunday's lesson. Ryan's gonna do the testimony, which is cool. Here's the plans for this weekends activities:

Friday - 830 - Movie night. Huge inflatable screen. IF YOU CAN THINK OF A GOOD MOTHER'S DAY MOVIE TO SHOW LET ME KNOOOOWWWW!!!!!!! leave a comment!!!! pleeease!

Saturday - 10 - craft hour with beading and making mother's day cards! then at 2, sandcastle contest. then at 4, tie-dying shirts! then at 6, bon-fire with the big KOA raffle thing. we're raffling like 2000 dollars worth of stuff...pretty cool!

Sunday - 8-10, pancake breakfast! i am super stoked about that. i love doing pancake breakfasts. 11- Chapel. with me and ryan. WOOHOO!!

in between we'll be running the Taj and the water slides and driving the fun train and getting ready for activites...and overall just a pretty crazy weekend! so that's all for now. i'm gonna work on chapel stuff. if you have any ideas for movie night...let me know! you guys rock.

PS check on facebook for pictures and such.

packunpackinging

2008-05-01T19:08:00.000-07:00

yep. packunpackinging. i'm trying to do unpacking right in the middle of packing. you might get that later. it's the only word i could come up with to describe the craziness of trying to unpack from college life and at the same time pack for 3 months on an island. school is DONE, i'm spending the last few days with family and jenny, and then i'm outta here!

Things i'm not taking:

- my TV

- my super nice chair

- procrastination

- remote controlled helicopter (it's sad...but i'm afraid it'll break)

Things i AM taking:

-snow globe

-calvin and hobbes comic books

- every charger imaginable

- every Bible i've ever owned! (the more the merrier)

the last night at mt. lebanon was great. we spent most of practice learning a new song called "Sing" by Sanctus Real and we could have watered it down but we didn't and it was incredibly tough on every aspect of the praise band to learn all these intricate parts in an hour, but we pulled it together and it was amazing. Those kids are amazing. Then they all suprised me with cookies and a cookie cake, and julian gave me a little DOPEY from the seven dwarfs stuffed guy that i will keep with me ALL summer.

other random things to note:

-my hair is the shortest it's been since 8th grade.

-i can't wait to get down there and buy a croquet set and a badminton set.

-i can't wait to get to the OBX and be a part of what God's doing out there.

-i can't wait to get back to be a part of the Stone Bridge Travelers Rest church start!

- i can't wait till tomorrow to go kayaking with my dad.

-i can't wait to see jenny on saturday.

-waiting and anticipation is half the fun of anything! like Christmas!

well, it's about that time.

2008-04-25T20:12:00.000-07:00

so how about....I have an exam at 8 in the morning? and tomorrow is Saturday. And have I studied? I hate to admit it...but no. But we have had exam reviews and I think I'm pretty comfortable with the stuff. So don't think I'm a complete slacker. A few crazy things to note:

-Me, Jenny, Ryan, and Adam went to the Sanctus Real concert tonight, and I won a meet-and-greet backstage pass for the next Sanctus Real show in Greenville on October 4th! They had a drawing and actually pronounced my name right in front of everybody! Quite a happy moment.

-Today, both my feet have been traumatized. I stepped on a sharp stick with my left foot and it went through my sandal and into my foot. It was on the way to a pick-up frisbee game, in which my right foot got smashed by a cleat because I was playing barefoot. 9 out of 12 people were playing barefoot. Both incidents bled, but you know what? I didn't cry!

-I was slightly nervous about not having a lot of cash money $$$ to get to the OBX, and let's just say i'm not even slightly nervous anymore. God takes care. of...everything.

-Have you heard that I'm pumped about this summer yet? Yeah...well I really am! I am super ready to see some God-movement.

-I am done with classes. And if i make a 20 or higher on my Spanish final, I will make a B in the class. which would be incredible.

-I've been super sick, and Jenny is sick too but her sickness is coming much much slower. Or just not getting as bad or something. Poor thing. We have 3 breakfasts to eat together before 3 months apart. I think I'll miss that girl, she is like my best friend and my fav. person ever and stuff. Thank goodness for cell phones / laptops with built it video-chat cameras, they help some.

-You all rock.

man!!!

2008-04-14T17:49:00.000-07:00

i am absolutely compelled to write a blog. i can't wait any longer, there are so many things i must tell you about.

first of all, i am procrastinating. yep... i am. i had a major paper due this afternoon, which has consumed my mind for several days...between dreading it, and then actually writing it, it was pretty consuming! after that was done, i had an big article due for the newspaper which was written this afternoon, and tonight i've gotta write the largest of 4 essays due tomorrow...1 i will write tonight and the other 3 i will have to write in class tomorrow morning, then after that craziness, i have an oral exam in spanish at 430, so i basically need to memorize the answers to like 16 questions in spanish. i dunno...it's almost like it's a foreign language...i can only understand a few words.

so that's school. not too bad compared to some people. and it's almost over! i'm going to miss my room. for those of you who don't know...i have a room all to myself right now. it's carpeted, and big, and wonderful. but i miss having a roommate. the longest i ever had a roommate was 1 year...and that was john lamb. we roomed together at cape hatteras for summershine, and then stayed together 2 semesters until this christmas. i never realized he was my one of my best and closest friends until after he was gone. it's quite sad now that i think about it. he left for basic training today! God's got great stuff planned out for that kid. and i also never realized how close i was to dale until after he left for the navy. the navy is stealing all my close friends! jenny, don't you go to the navy!

also of note, i have realized, that i don't put commas in the right places in my blogs. this is because, well, whenever i hear a pause between words in my head as i'm typing, i type a comma. so whenever you see ",", insert a pause into the reading of the words in your head. try it, it'll be fun. same with these things...yep the little...dot...things. pauses. maybe if you read these blogs outloud the .... things and the , things will be more effective. ....maybe not. yeah don't read this outloud. please. thanks!

outside of school and friends, i just got a youtube account. i got tired of facebook and myspace videos...i mean what's up with putting a 300 mb limit on videos? i have to like compress to 1/4 the quality, and it looks bad! and that upsets me sometimes! so i've decided to no longer get upset, because youtube lets you upload a full gig. woot woot. yay youtube. i'll be gradually uploading stuff...you can search for me. my username is pretty original....it's chrisbrank. one word. you tired of reading this yet? cause i'm like halfway done. summershine is coming up ridiculously fast, and i really want to be ready, but i've come to the point where i think i'm just gonna have to go, whether i feel ready or not, and trust that God's got me right where He wants me in my feeling of readiness. so i'm cool with that!

i like rain. i like light too. for those of you who might be interested, tomorrow night's Bible study i think is going to be on Matthew 6:22-23 and the "Dark Sucker Theory." check it out, it's pretty funny. you'll need to check out the verse first and then you can imagine how to tie it all together...and how your eyes are duck suckers maybe. go ahead, look that Matthew verse up, i dare you. no, seriously, look it up! it's short i promise! at least that's what i think Bible study is going to be on...we'll see what happens tomorrow, sometimes God works best in what we call the "last minute." the implications of God being outside of time are pretty cool.

David Crowder summed up the feelings i have about recent events and the opportunities that are opening up in my life right now.....he summed it up in that song "forever and ever etc."

i think i'm on the brink of something large

maybe like the breaking of a dawn

maybe like a match being lit or the sinking of a ship

letting go gives a better grip

sounds good. i better go write that paper. i think i'm on the brink of something large though. a perpetual excitement is slowing rising, and i get glimpses of joy, and it creates this urge for more. it's like looking through the boards of a pier at the waves going by below, and you REALLY wanna see the full effect of the waves and you want to watch the wave from it's start as a swell to it's finish in the breakers, but you only get a glimpse. you only get a hint at how big it really is, and you spring up from looking through the cracks and think "oh man this one's gonna be a big one!" and you run over to the side of the pier to watch the wave. i really wanna see the big wave going on, and the full effect of everything that's happening around me. but i'm only getting glimpses of how big it is, and i get frustrated at those stupid boards getting in my way of seeing the wave. but that's ok. i'm looking forward to the day when i can spring up and see the wave and once again realize, "wow, God. You were in that from start to finish." and the glimpses will mean even more. but you know what? i really want to enjoy the glimpses. i want to enjoy looking through the cracks. i don't wanna miss out on ANYTHING.

dont worry

2008-03-23T21:12:00.000-07:00

don't worry...i have not forgotten about this blog. i seriously just do not have time right now to write one. busy life. i'll write about it later. (haha!) no but for real, later, i think i will.

2008-03-07T15:20:00.001-08:00

I WANNA WRITE A BLOG I WANNA WRITE A BLOG I WANNA WRITE A BLOG! but i don't know what to write about. (tear). man, i'm so excited about this summer. also: next weekend's frisbee tournament in wilmington. also: most everything, except school, and the work it requires. i AM reading huck finn though, and it's required for my english class, but it's actually a pretty fun read and i have to write a paper on it, so while it's enjoyable and it's for school, i don't count it as school work until i actually have to sit down with a blank Word doc and stare at a blank screen for a while.

tonight we are having pancakes and eggs. it was quite a scene a few moments ago...my mom yelled out "do you want eggs or pancakes" and i HEARD "do you want eggs and pancakes?" so of course i was like, "yes!" then she said, "which one, eggs or pancakes?!?!" and i was like..."um...both? is that ok?" then then said "how do you want your eggs" and i said "scrambled," but i paused before saying it, so at the same time i yelled "scrambled" my mom yelled "how do you want your eggs?!" and my sister (at the same time) yelled "fried or scrambled, chris?!" so i quietly responded, again, "scrambled." and then started crying, and figured i'd write a blog. ok so part A of that last sentence was false, but part B is true.

and now they are calling me to get the drinks ready. i must go. FAST. maybe i'll write another blog tonight. hopefully. maybe. we'll see. don't have time to write anything else, i gotta go.

halfway through spring break

2008-03-04T16:16:00.000-08:00

it's not often that i have time to write a blog...even on spring break! today is my dad's birthday...we're getting ready to eat Stouffer's lasagna (best in the world.) ((THE MEAT KIND, not that 3 cheese stuff.))

man, spring break has been incredible so far. i learned that i get to spend another summer on the outer banks, except this time i get to be the activities director! i cannot even begin to tell you how pumped i am about this summer. oh my goodness. if you're interested in what i do check out the site... www.summershine.us . talk about a life changing summer. good grief! this summer it's goin to be just as busy if not busier than normal, but i am going to try to keep a blog going about every other day so you folks that can't quite get away for a summer can keep up with the incredibleness that makes up a summershine summer.

with that lasagna tonight, we're having salad with RAISINS. have you ever tried raisins in a salad? with ranch dressing? try it. right now, go on. i have gotten to spend a lot of time with three girls over spring break...their names are maddy, boo, and peanut, and they are very small yorky/poodles and they are ridiculous. school this semester is tougher than ever, ok so mainly just spanish 4. spanish 4, like the dogs, is just ridiculous. if i can JUST PASS, then continue on with my packed senior year and GRADUATE, then work for 50 years or so then RETIRE, then i'll be ok. but it all starts with spanish 4. and...it could all end with spanish 4. let's hope for the first.

so at this point, i've realized that this blog hasn't been that entertaining yet. i'll try and change that right now: actually, i'm going to go eat supper. brb.
well, that was good! oh good grief...i have 1.83 gigs of space left on my 120 gb hard drive. and a 500 gb external harddrive that i'm SUPPOSED to be throwing stuff on. this needs to change immediately. so i'm going to take care of that!

woohoo!

2008-02-18T18:11:00.000-08:00

man, i am such a slacker. i haven't written in a blog in like 2 weeks....that's pretty slackish. and i'm actually procrastinating and putting off a paper and a ton of reading just so i can write this. that's like...slacking off from slacking.

i just watched Deal or No Deal, the one where they tried to give away 1 million dollars by throwing like 12 cases with the million into the game. in short...it still didn't work. they're going to have to put a million in every case and fire the banker. i'm currently watching the new hit TV show, My Dad is Better Than Your Dad. there are some INTENSE little kids on this game. they're like 8 years old. if i were in a frisbee game, i wouldn't mind taking on the dads. but these kids are POSSESED by competition. the kind that would bite your knee off if you caught a frisbee over their head.

concerning frisbee....i'm super pumped bout the charleston tournament this weekend! i was super pumped last year, evidently a little too pumped and my small intestine busted and 3 weeks later, i was recovering from surgery and addicted to the Price is Right. so i'm hoping to make it to the charleston tournament this weekend. i'll keep ya updated on if i make it or not.

well, my xbox 360 has officially given me the red-ring-of-death. actually, hold on a sec, i'm gonna put the computer down and try it ONE more time. (17 second later...) yep it's dead. and the weirdest thing happened...as i was just walking back to my chair, some little kid and their dad got eliminated and were given an xbox 360 as a parting gift. ......ok so maybe that's not the weirdest thing. my bad. next subject!

i have heard the opinion that taking a day trip to charleston, like me and jenny did on friday, was slightly ridiculous. that such a large amount of driving for 7 hours in charleston was not worth it. well, give me a moment to defend myself and our trip.... it was not ridiculous. it was actually quite fun.

Romans 12 tomorrow in Bible study! it's good stuff. you outta read it sometime. it's like, the first 11 chapters are full of God's plan of reconcilation from the beginning and how Jesus is our rescue from this mess called the human nature, and what God is doing in the world now. And chapter 12 jumps into "here's how to live after you've been rescued." it's good stuff.

Also occuring in my life: my car's thermometer was replaced by my dad and auto zone's online resources. and it's working MUCH better now...i actually have heat! and man, that's nice. also, computer services is fun. I would really like to know where i'm going this summer with SummerShine, but God's timing is perfect. if you're looking for a job this summer, and you're reading this blog, please TALK TO ME! i dare you. double dog dare. the new SANCTUS REAL cd is pretty awesome. i created a reading corner in my room. i haven't sat in it yet...i probably would have more time if i started on that paper now.... but, i'll leave two deep thoughts, or things i've been thinking about for you.

1) how does water reflect? i mean i know it's something with surface tension, but i just think it's cool that water reflects. God DESIGNED that. He thought of that.

2) Why is there an entire universe? God probably could have stopped with just the earth and created some other kind of heat source or something. but He created something MASSIVE, maybe it's to remind us how small we really are. can we ever explore the entire universe? approx. 2 trillion something stars? i mean, we've only explored like 5% of the oceans. and....the oceans are on the same planet. crazy, huh?

in response to ashley's blog...kinda.

2008-02-05T18:17:00.001-08:00

so in the beginning, there was this perfect connection between God and us. God was CONSTANTLY with us, existing with us, but most important, that direct connection with God was always letting us know that we were loved and accepted by God. It was giving us our self-worth, and that's why Adam and Eve weren't afraid to be naked, which is something that Genesis points out several times. Who cares about being seen naked! God loved them, accepted them, and was with them. and that was enough.

then...the fall. adam and eve rebelled, the connection was broken. there was no more live streaming; love and joy coming straight from God was cut off. so, IMMEDIATELY, they knew they were missing the feeling that they are loved and accepted, and they looked to each other. They threw on some clothes because they wanted to be loved and accepted by each other, because they needed that, and they didn't have it anymore.

So, anytime that something or someone makes us feel loved, accepted, or anytime we do something good and get praised for it, it's never good enough. We are wired for a direct connection with God, and ghetto-rigging will not suffice! Even if everyone loved us, and we were constantly being told how awesome we were, it wouldn't be enough.

GOD is enough. He's more than enough. But He's also the only love that will satisfy. And that's what we're all looking for anyway. Love, attention, a feeling of self-worth, acceptance. The answer is Jesus...nothing more, and certainly nothing less. and now that you know, and now that you've heard, go after Him with all that you've got. nothing else will satisfy, and nothing but Jesus can restore that once-broken connection that we all so desperately need. period.

broken records.

2008-02-04T20:05:00.000-08:00

it's...february. ever come close to drowning? i haven't. but i would hope someone would throw me one of those floaty things if i was, and they couldn't get to me. you know, those round orange floaty things. i can't believe i forgot the name! ok so i just googled it and found an image. i would hope someone would throw me one of those things you see in the picture right there.

i think there's a bunch of stuff getting drowned out right now, by work/school/life/whatever. and by a bunch of stuff i really mean..ok so i just feel like the music part of me is getting drowned out. i wanna throw it an orange floaty thing. i think i could really record and write and play some good stuff, stuff that people would enjoy, but i'm just not doing it right now. too much busyness. and i STILL want to film a parody of Cloverfield with Rob as the monster.

you wanna know what absolutely cracks me up? of course you do, you're reading my blog. nevermind that, because you could be reading my blog to blackmail me with something. i really wanna play battleship right now. wait..that's not what cracks me up...i completely forgot to finish that thought. well shucks, now i forgot what absolutely cracks me up. what a paragraph, you probably could have just skipped this whole paragraph and been fine.

i met cullen harper tonight. i actually asked him to sign my forehead, and then assured him i was just kidding. he's probably writing in his blog...i met this guy tonight, and he asked me to sign his forehead, but i think he was kidding but i don't know for sure.... on another note, they said that he's broken 22 of the clemson's school records. i didn't think that was very nice, for him to be breaking records...i mean they don't make records much anymore, it's all gone digital, like CD's and iPods. they were probably very valuable.

have you ever read calvin and hobbes? like the comics? if you haven't, come see me, and i will let you borrow a book or two. seriously! man, how awesome would it be to have another snow day? or two? i drank wayyyy too much sweet tea tonight. like 3 cups! it's really messing with me. i think there is a direct correlation between obesity / general unhealthyness and CARBONATION. people need to get away from that junk, just drink water. that's all i've got for now.

2008-01-30T21:03:00.001-08:00

Man. Tonight has been one of those God-dealing nights...you know...one of those nights where God deals with you? Through a crazy series of events, conversations, and arguments, God's got me right where He wants me for tonight, and I can go to sleep knowing that while I'm not a finished, sanctified product, at least i'm moving forward on the assembly line.

First He reminded me He loved me, more than I could ever imagine, and that he CREATED every emotion, and thought up the idea of tears, and has taken me in His hand and He's not going to let go, and He's in the process of rescuing me and turning me into something new and fresh from the inside out. Yep, He reminded me of all that, first. Then He told me (and when I said "He told me," I mean that He revealed it to me through thought-processes, His Word, or other people talking or whatever. In this case, it was a thought-process) ...He told me that I hurt Him, a lot, everyday.

You see, I have this problem, and it's kinda like this: I like to make points. And I like to get my point across, and I like for everyone to realize that my point IS best, and while you have a point...well...mine's better. It might not come across that harshly, but when I think about it, that's pretty much the motive behind it. Bottom line: God told/revealed to me that I need to quit being consumed by making my own points and start making HIS points. He's got some really good ones. I'm gonna type that again, in the hopes that my fingers will remember the specific pattern and somehow send a signal even DEEPER into my brain.

I need to quit being consumed by making my own points and start making HIS points.

Another thing: Jenny grabbed my hand tonight. And at the same time she grabbed my hand, I was thinking "sometimes it's really hard to see God's hand." the more I think about it, the more I realize that God uses that same hand that grabbed mine to teach me so much. And while I tend to think it's US working things out and going through deserts and valleys and on mountaintops........it's really God leading us there. And carrying us through. And TEACHING us and giving us the opportunity to grow. It's God, it's God, it's God.

On a different note, I have a severely chapped lip, and tonight some of the guys bought a coconut, and cracked it open, and said it was DISGUSTING. Note to self:

Self: Please buy chapstick BEFORE your lips are almost falling off, and also don't eat raw coconut.

the first, also the beginning.

2008-01-28T19:51:00.000-08:00

Man, i'm really late getting into this blog stuff. i need to go back at least 2 or 3 years and write some blogs. maybe i can find one of those flux capacitors they used in Back to the Future on ebay...

So one of my housemates definitely just walked in and told me it's really cool when people used these things to talk about serious stuff. I'm sure i'll write about some serious stuff sometimes. But not now. Now is not one of those times to write about serious stuff. Tonight is one of those times to talk about how I can talk about whatever I want, right? Cause it's my blog, right? Why am I asking questions? I wonder how many people will read this.

Do I need to advertise? Doesn't that cost money? Money is weird. You miss it when it's gone but wanna spend it when it's here. I guess food is kinda like that too...you're really hungry without it, but when you get it, you eat it. If you really like something, you either spend it or eat it. If that applied to Jenny, I'd totally be a cannibal. Not cool. Different subject.

Today was a breakthrough day. Today was a Monday. There was weather. It was nice! That was a pretty pitiful attempt to change the subject. No but for real, it's pretty nice outside. Rob told me not to get used to it, we've still got February. But i really don't understand how he can HAVE February. That was where I was getting with the breakthrough part of today...I learned that months are actually a tangible thing, and Rob has one. I want May and December...I guess I need to check ebay for that too, while i'm looking for that flux capacitor. Should I end this now? Sleep sounds good. Yep, i'm done. First blog over and out.