The Latest Update

Here’s the latest update on what’s been going on in my life.  Last semester I earned my Desert Naturalist Certificate.  For those of you wondering what a desert naturalist is, as far as I can tell from the classes I took, it’s someone who knows about the plants and animals (and the habitat) of the desert.  I’m finding that after one three-week class on desert plants I recognize and can name several of the local plants where I couldn’t before.  I’m also enjoying the bird classes that went with the certificate, in fact, I’m taking the next bird class this semester called “Backyard Birds”.

Recently my family had to move because of the lawsuit mentioned in previous blog posts.  We ended up losing the lawsuit and had to sell the back twenty acres to the people who sued us and the other twenty to pay the legal fees (for those who didn’t know we owned forty acres with lots of farms around us).  We’re all moved into the “new” house, I was the last one to get moved and that was on September 29th.  We moved into my grandpa’s old house where my older brother has been living since late 2004 or early 2005, I forget exactly when he moved into the house.  So now we’re all under one roof again, which is kind of cool.  We’ve decided we now have quite the menagerie, thanks to merged household pets.  Between the five of us and my aunt, who we share a backyard with, we have; six dogs, four cats, a horse, and a “normal diamond dove”.  Once we get everything put away, which will likely take a few months, I plan to start a garden room.  The way that works is you have a space furnished like a room, any kind of room you want to make, and surround the furnishings with plants which act as your walls for the garden room.  I plan to have a patio table with a few chairs, since we don’t have a huge yard, with some plants at three heights that have flowers.  I’ll try to post some photos when I get to set-up my garden room.  I guess that’s all for now.  Until next time, take care and God bless everyone.

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The latest news, such as it is.

Hi everyone, I hope things are going well for all of you.  Here is the latest on what’s going on in my life.

 

     Last Spring semester, in mid May, I got my AA degree in Liberal Arts from College of the Desert.  Now I’m working on getting a Desert Naturalist Certificate at COD while my younger brother finishes getting his AA.  We eventually plan to open our own computer/electronics repair store together.  I’ve also been job hunting, unsuccessfully I might add, since January when the store I was working at closed.  I have a few ideas of where to apply and God is still taking care of me as I know He always will.

 

    In Early January I started a Christian chat group I called All God’s Children.  If any of you are interested please drop in and check it out.  Here is the description and the address to get there:  http://AllGodsChildren.Aimoo.com   "All God’s Children is a child friendly place, where people OF ALL AGES can meet old friends and make new ones.  Where respect for everyone’s opinion will be observed.  A Christ centered group, where people of all faiths will be welcome and treated with the same respect as one’s opinion."

 

    Well, that’s it for now.  I hope you are all doing well.  Until next time, take care and God bless.

Latest News For Me.

Hi everyone, I hope everything is going well for you.  Here is the latest on what I’ve been up to.   As of today I have been working at Steve & Barry’s for one year.  There are only about six or seven left who were there when the store opened last year.  I’m currently taking two of three classes I need to get my AA in liberal arts at COD.  Finally, in a recent fencing tournament I tied for third out of five in foil (one of three weapons in fencing for those who don’t already know).  Well that’s it for now, until next time my friends.  Take care and God bless.

Adventure in May

My family had an odd adventure this month.  On the tenth at about 11:30 PM we heard a thud out side our house.  We thought it might be some one breaking in to the boat that belongs to the Girl Scout troop my dad has.  When my dad went to check he saw that there was a fire at the end of the driveway.  He stuck his head in the door and told us to call 911 and grabbed a shovel and went to the end of the driveway.  I got ready to go as quick as I could, grabbed another shovel and ran to the end of the driveway myself.  When I got there I saw my dad standing on our side of the street and across the street I saw the fire.  It had already burned about 2-4 acres.  My dad and I silently decided that our shovels weren’t going to be much help in putting out the fire.  The fire department got there about five minuets after e called 911.  About twenty minuets later we asked one of the fire fighters if they thought we should be ready to evacuate.  The person we talked to started off by saying they didn’t think we would need to.  Over a period of about minuet the answer changed gradually from "I don’t think you need to" to "I’d go pack now."  So my mom and I started back down the driveway to start packing.  When we got back to the house we grabbed anything we could think of with sentimental value and a few things that we just wanted to have.  We "packed" for about twenty-five minuets before the fire department came and told us that we needed to go now.  "Packed" was more of grab it and put it where it wouldn’t get broken.  When they told us we needed to go we gathered up our pets, two cats and two normal diamond doves, and went to my aunt’s house which is about three miles away.  We got between one and three hours of sleep that night.  We were able to go back home around 10:00 AM on the eleventh.  Thankfully our house was fine.  We live on forty acres in an area that is mostly farm land.  In all, the fire burned about forty acres across the street from us, about four acres on one corner of our property, and about ten acres kittykorner from our property for a total of about fifty-four acres.  All in all I’d say God took good care of us through the firefighters.  They really did do a great job of defending our home.  I’m very thankful to both them, and to God.  God really did take care of us, just as He promises he will in the Bible.

 

P.S.  The photos were taken the night of the fire between 11:59 PM and 2:33 AM, with the last four taken at 11:18 AM on the tenth and eleventh.  All of the photos were taken from the end of my driveway.  The last four show what was left across the street, about forty acres of charred weeds and trees.

The Latest News.

     Hello again all, I hope things are going well for you.  Here is the latest news in my life.  In mid September I got a job at Steve & Barry’s University Sportswear.  I am currently taking one of four classes I have left to take before getting my AA degree in Liberal Arts.  For those of you who are praying for us regarding the lawsuit over a land deal please keep praying as I’m sure you will.  We are still waiting for the case to be heard.  The only other semi-important note is that in about a week (March 4th) I’ll be turning 25 years old.  Well, I guess that’s it for this time.  Until the next update, take care and God bless you all.

What Went On In June.

    Hi there every one, I hope all is going well for you.  Here it is, the latest news in my life.  First off, I helped out at Southwest Community Church’s "Summer Spectacular" a.k.a. V.B.S. (Vacation Bible School).  This year’s theme was Space Quest, kind of like Star Trek Enterprise.  We had 276 kids choose to accept Christ into their hearts.  All the volunteers and church staff were very excited at this number.  That’s quite a few first time decisions.

 

    The other thing that happened this month is my parents took their younger Girl Scouts (Juniors) to Arizona for the weekend.  We went to see Montezuma’s Castle and Montezuma’s Well the first day.  after that we went to a near by park that is next to a creek.  We had lunch there and then we went to see Jerome.  That’s a small city that was built on the side of a mountain.  When we got back to the hotel we went swimming, or rather the girls went swimming and the adults sat in the jacuzzi and watched the girls.  We also had a parent along who is a life guard and she stayed on the deck also watching the girls.  While we were at the pool we met a woman who works for the forestry service, she told us that we should go see the fire camp at Sedona which was near by.  There was a wild fire on a plateau Near Sedona.  The girls voted that night to go to the fire camp, and so in the morning we got up a little early and went.  It was kind of interesting, we got to see where they eat, sleep, shower, and plan.  They also had a sort of news board set up so the firefighters could still see what’s goin on in the world.  Next we went to Out of Africa which is a wild animal park.  We got a special safari ride from the owners of the park, they have normal safari rides which are given by regular employees.  When that was over we watched the animal feeding and got rained on as we headed back to the gift shop and then the cars.

 

    Well, that’s it for this month.  I hope you all enjoyed this little tale of a trip with Girl Scouts.  Until next time, I hope everything goes well for you all.  Take care and God bless my dear readers.

The Latest News in my Life.

Hi there friends and family, I hope you are all doing well.  Here is the latest information about what I’ve been upto lately.  I am currently taking three classes at C.O.D. and have finally found a long term job.  This semester I am taking English 1A, History 18 (U.S. history form the civil war to the present), and Femcing (kind of like in the Three Musketeers).  My younger brother and I have both gotten a job at Steve & Barry’s University Sportswear.  They sell mainly college related clothing, but they also have some generic stuff.  Oe example is a kids shirt that says, "Homework, just say no".  We got the job around September 19th.  We opened three weeks ago on friday October 12th.  Well, that’s it for now.  I hope I have more news for next month.  Until then, take care and God bless everyone.

Excitement in May.

    Hi everyone, I hope things are going well for you.  There weren’t a lot of things that happened in May, but at least one of the things that did happen I have a bit to say on it.  First off my family and I went to an annual family camp at Thousand Pines Church Camp, it’s just above Crestline, California.  As always we had a lot of fun, we went on an off road golf-cart ride, fed the squirrels and Steller’s Jays, and enjoyed time together with each other and with God.  I also climbed the thirty-two foot high climbing wall at the camp and did their lower elements course.  both of which were a lot of fun.  That’s about all that happened although, we had some excitement on our off road golf-cart ride, I apologize in advance if I get too wordy in tell you about the interesting ride we had.

 

    First, let me tell you a little about how the ride worked.  For most of the ride they told us to have your seat belts on, but at different points they would tell us to take them off in case the cart rolled over.  This was because the parts that were seat belt off spots were on semi-steap hills.  About half way through the ride after a short seat belt off area they told us we could put our seat belts back on. 

 

    About five minuets later the cart that my mom, my younger brother, and I were riding in started to tip over and ended up rolling right on top of us.  The three drivers, one from the lead cart that lead us down the paths and two that we rode in, my dad, who was riding on the back of the lead cart so he could take pictures, and the two adults from the cart behind ours all quickly started helping to push it back over and off of us (don’t worry, we were fine, thanks in part I think to all the help we got so quickly).

 

    It felt like it took them about five to ten minuets but we were told later that it wasn’t more than about two or three.  At one point while the cart was rolling on top of us both my mom and I thought that we might not make it out of this alive.  Which wasn’t as scary as you might think, my only fear was what it would feel like and how much it would hurt.  I think this comes from my faith that when I die I’ll go to heaven to be with God.  Other than that I don’t know why it didn’t scare me more than it did.  I was thinking that any moment the cart would roll completely over us, coming to be upright again, and as it did it would break our necks and that would be it, my mom was thinking she would suffocate as she was having a

hard time breathing.

 

    After they were able to get the cart off us a bit, one of the two women from the cart behind ours literally pulled me out from under the cart.  At first i was a little annoyed because I was alright and would have rolled out from under it if they would have stopped dragging me from under it for one second.  I found out after we were out that some gas was leaking from the cart so my annoyance went away very quickly.  That and I knew they couldn’t tell if I was ok or not.

 

    Our driver wasn’t wearing his seat belt because from time to time during the ride they had to push the carts a little as they struggled to get up a hill.  So when the cart rolled over he was able to jump clear and to help get the cart off of us.

 

    We were all a bit sore afterward and spent about an hour in our cabin talking about it when we got back to the main part of camp after our wild ride.  By the way, in case you’re wondering, the cart still ran after that and we got to finish our ride and enjoyed it, though we didn’t put our seat belts on much for the rest of the ride.

 

    One thing I remember thinking as the cart started to tip over is that I was going to jump off, but then I remembered I had my seat belt on and didn’t have enough time to take it off before the cart rolled over on us.  According to both my mom and my brother, they had the same thoughts.

 

    Well, I guess that’s all of the excitement in May.  I hope you had a much less eventful month than we did.  I look forward to posting about V.B.S. (Vacation Bible School) next month.  until then, take care and God bless.

March and April.

Hi there friends and family.  Time to shock you all, this will be a short posting.  I think.  Nothing really happened in march, just school.  In April I had a fencing tournament at COD, I ended up tied for third (we don’t fence off for 3rd/4th) out of eight.  I also went to a bowling get together for local Deaf people and ASL students at the local bowling alley.  My average for the day was about 111, which is only two pins short of what I last remember having.  Well, that’s it for these two months.  I hope all is going well for everyone.  Until next month, take care and God bless all.

February for me.

I had another fencing tournament in February.  I only had 6 bouts this time around.  I think for this month I’ll just list the bout and score.  1st pool I won 5 to 4, 2nd pool I won 5 to 3, 3rd pool I lost 3 to 5, 4th pool I lost 4 to 5, 1st DE I won 15 to 14, and last but not least I lost the 2nd DE 9 to 15.  I also helped my mom run her Girl Scout event called "Arabian Nights".  For this event we take the girls to the fair where they complete a scavenger hunt.  For this hunt they have to find things like the petrified lightning, or some petrified wood in the rock building.  They also go to the camel and ostrich races.  Finally for day one of two for the event they watch the "Arabian Nights Pageant"  and then go spend the night at a near by school.  On day two we take them on a tour of the local agriculture, and finally we have a picnic at a local date farm.  That’s it for February, until next month, take care and God bless all.