Life... In my own words

Friend or resource?

2010-02-03T22:21:00.000-08:00

"Who would you like to get "accidentally" stuck on an island with?"

"Would you lie to someone to make them happy?"

The occasionally humorous, extremely random questions flew by on the "Social Interview" application on Facebook.

Then I saw one that made me think:
"Who would you call if you needed to be bailed out of jail?" Immediately a face flashed before my eyes. But then I thought about it, and thought, "When was the last time I spoke to this person?" And I realized, I haven't spoken to this person in MONTHS, but THAT is the person I'd want to pull through for me?! YIKES!

I do it. You do it. We all do it.
We all have people in our mental "corner". That one guy who is really good at fixing cars, the guy who can fix any computer problem, the awkward (but filthy rich) kid, the nerd from school who can help you with your Calc homework, or that crazy aunt that you keep close because of the large checks she sends you every birthday. We tend to subconsciously keep mental notes on people, ICE (In Case of Emergency). The majority of the time, I don't think this is done maliciously, but rather subconsciously.

Yes, we all have been endowed with certain gifts and talents in certain areas, BUT, I do not believe that these gifts and/or talents are something to be exploited.

It's happened to me before...
I'm sitting there, merrily going about my work, when all of the sudden the phone rings.
It's "Mary" who I haven't heard from in over a year.

When these calls come in I'm immediately skeptical, no matter how long the pleasantries go on at the beginning of the conversation, I just KNOW that it's coming.

"Andrew! How are ya hun?! It's been forever!
How's the fam? Everyone doing well?
How's school going? Still gonna be a cop?
Fun Fun...
So uhm listen! I was at my computer today, and all of the sudden it went blank, and blah blah blah blah......"

A part of me is like "REALLY?
I'd rather have you call and cut straight to the point, and not waste my time. You know what you are really calling for....."

I mean, I'm ALL for helping people out, and doing everything I can do be there for people, but sometimes you still feel a twinge of "they only called because they NEED something"

I have a friend who recently came to me with a problem like this.
For privacy reasons, we're gonna say "Jack" is really good at "fixing cars".
He came to me pretty upset one day.
He said:
"I saw a 'friend' of mine at a party the other day, and I tried talking to him, and he blew me off. Acted like I didn't exist. Well sure enough, two days later, my 'friend's' car breaks down. Guess who's on speed dial then? Yea, ME! Guess what? Magically I exist again! AND, because he is my 'friend', he thinks he's entitled to my 'friend discount'!"

Jack's story troubled me, but also made me think, and ask myself "Who do I have in my life that doesn't 'exist' until I need them? Who do I call a "friend" when it's convenient, or 'cool', but blow off when they are not needed?"

I realized that I had some work to do. I have some people in my life that I need to value for WHO THEY ARE, and not just for WHAT THEY CAN DO FOR ME.

I had to reassess a lot of my friendships with people, then pick up the phone and shoot out some texts and make some calls. The last thing I want to do is to be a "leech".

I want to challenge you to look at your life right now. Who are some of those "friends" who are really just "resources" to you?

In every relationship, we have what is called an "emotional bank account". We make "deposits" into this account through time spent with a person, through kind things we do, nice words we say, etc.
But we can make "withdrawals" through rude words, mean actions, and by "using" a person only for what they can give to you.
You never want to "overdraw" on your emotional bank account with a person. The results can be devastating to any relationship.

So, take a step back. Think about those whom you call "friends", and ask yourself "how do I treat this person?".
Maybe it's time to shoot someone a text, or phone some old friends, but for once, don't make contact with the attitude of "What can I get from you?", take on the attitude of "What can I DO FOR YOU? How can I be a blessing?" It may be as simple as just asking how the person is doing. NO ulterior motives, no other reasons.

It shows that person that you care about who THEY are, not only what they can do for you.

This made me think. I hope it does the same for you.

Thanks for reading!
Blessings,
-Andrew

"Who is important here?" and other interesting questions.

2010-01-30T21:25:00.000-08:00

In the dim light of a fancy restaurant, I sit, enjoying a wonderful meal. I look over, and see a cute couple, early twenties, dressed fairly well, their faces illuminated by the single candle in the middle of the table. All of the sudden, I see a weird glow on her face, followed by one on his face. Upon closer observance, I realized that they were both on their cell phones. While they were engaging in occasional small talk with each other, they both seemed to be a lot more interested in the person with whom they were communicating via mobile device.

I sat and watched them for a while, and it seemed like perhaps 75-90% of the time, they were staring at that little rectangular portal to the outside world. It was starting to really bother me. "Why would you come to this incredible restaurant, pay a ton of money for this meal, have a beautiful person sitting across from you, and then sit there and text the entire night?"

I started getting angry, but then I decided to take a more introspective look into the problem that I was seeing. I had to ask myself: "do I do the same thing sometimes in different situations?" I know for a fact that I am guilty as charged. I've been in plenty of situations where I've been with REAL people, yet I choose to sit there, and contentedly peck away at my iPhone, talking with who KNOWS who, usually about small and mundane things.

I believe that this is something that everyone has experienced. You're in a conversation with someone at a gathering, and you are sharing something, and all of the sudden the hand goes for the pocket. They look at the phone, and start composing a reply. Their head nods, and you hear the occasional "mmhmm" as if they were saying "Oh I'm still listening" But you know where their attention REALLY is. It can be somewhat belittling, because essentially, the person is saying, "what this other person is talking to me about is more important than what you have to say".. OUCH!

We live in and interesting day and time, in which our "worlds" have become more and more digital. But I would challenge each and every one of you to not forget the art of true conversation. I think it is something that has been slowing fading away.

If you ever go out to eat with my Grandpa Norm, you better believe that by the time you leave the restaurant, he is going to know the first name, occupation, and favorite baseball team of just about everyone within a 20 foot radius of your table, just by making "small talk". You'll never see him sitting alone at a table, pecking away at a mobile device.

I believe the art of "small talk" has been largely lost in our generation. But those who know how to truly communicate and network with people will go far in life.

This is why I would like to make a challenge, to each and every person reading this. Next time you are with someone, and you feel that familiar vibration in your pocket, ask yourself, "Who is important here? Is it the people I am physically with? Or is it this person who I am texting?" Even if what you are saying via text is "important" Are you considering the preciousness of the person you are with by spending all of your time on the phone?

Well like it says in 1 Timothy 1:15 "This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save inconsiderate texters; of whom I am chief." AT (Andrew's Translation) ;)
I'm probably the worst at doing this. But I think it is something that each and every one of us could look at in our lives. Just ask yourself, "How can I show the people that I am with that I truly care about them?" "What decisions and changes can I make to make them feel more important."

Even though our society has only become more and more self-centered, I believe that we are called to be different. To be a light.

So next time you have the urge to be an "inconsiderate texter" think twice about it. Maybe, just MAYBE, you can put that message off till later. It doesn't matter if they are talking about the most boring and mundane subject in the world. What can YOU do to make them feel important and loved?

Thanks for reading!
-Andrew

Life Update 04-28-09

2009-04-28T10:41:00.000-07:00

I thought I’d check in and give you all an update on what’s been going on in my life.
I am coming to the end of my first year here at Charis Bible College.
It’s been a wonderful experience, one that has caused me to grow tremendously.
I’ve been leading worship at my church for the past few years, and it has been great, but when I started at Charis, they decided to appoint me as the worship leader for our live worship chapel sessions twice a week.
While I know God has had me here to receive the teaching, I also came to realize that just as importantly (if not more), He had me here to receive the experience of leading worship 3 times a week instead of only 1 time per week.
And through this time, he has also given me many songs which have been awesome to write and teach to the people.
Overall it really has been a wonderful, (although sometimes stretching) process. But hey, you can’t grow without being stretched right?

I am just recently coming out of what was probably the hardest time of my life so far.
Without going into too much detail, I lost someone who was not only a very close friend, but was also the one person who I believed that I was going to spend the rest of my life with.
I believe that I had taken all of the right steps throughout the relationship, and had thrown myself wholly into it.
But in the end, it turned out to be a case where the feelings I had were not mutual when I thought that they were, and it didn’t work out.
So needless to say, the past 2 weeks or so have been terrible. There are days when everything is fine, then there are days when everything seems to remind me of the person, and it’s hard to move on through the day.
One bit of advice that my father gave me through this situation is this:
He said: “Son, you are in a place right now where yea, there may be pieces of you lying all over the floor, but this now gives you an opportunity to pick yourself up off the floor, get direction from God, and piece yourself back together in the way that God wants you.”
So that is what I’ve been focusing on doing. Getting direction from God, and restructuring my life.
Another opportunity that this trial has presented me with is the chance to reassess my relationship with God.
The relationship that just ended was unlike any I had ever been in before, in this way.
Every time I’ve been in a situation where I liked a girl and we would start to talk, other important things in my life would get pushed to the back burner. Relationships with close friends, family, and most importantly, God.
But in this situation, it was entirely different. Every one of those aspects that usually got pushed back, stayed in balance. My relationship with God was actually strengthened throughout the situation.
But now that that relationship has fallen apart, He has spoken a word to me, telling me that I need to focus even more now on my relationship with him, and take the time that I was investing in that relationship, and put it all into my relationship with Him, and into worship.
So I’ve been focusing on investing my time more and more into that.

Now, I’m at a point where I’m approaching the end of this first year at Charis, and so I’ve been seeking Him for direction on what He would have next for me.
When I was visiting my sister Sarah in Nashville last September, we were talking about the future, and she mentioned a worship school in California.
So I looked it up, and after praying about it, I decided to apply.
My best friend Luke also applied, and we were both accepted.
So this summer, Jun 17th – July 10th, Luke and I will be driving out to Redding, CA to attend Bethel School of Supernatural Worship.
I’m very excited about it, because I know that God has so much for me to learn out there. Worship, both at Charis, and at Family Life, has been amazing lately, and only getting better and better. But I know that He has a higher level that He wants to take us as a church to. And I know that I’m going to get the experience and wisdom to take our worship to that next level when I’m out in Redding.

My life has always been interesting in that I don’t usually get the next step on what I’m supposed to do in my life until I am in the step right before that.
So right now, I’m finishing Charis, and I know that the next step is worship school, but I’ve recently been praying about what God would have me to do in the fall.
Now Charis has a 2nd year program, which is called the “School of Practical Ministry”.
And while I know that it is a wonderful course, I don’t feel that that is God’s direction for me for this next year. It may be something that I come back to do in the future, I don’t feel that it is what He has for me for this year.
Now ever since I was young, I have been interested in Law Enforcement. I think it is something that a lot of young boys want to do, but it is an interest for me that hasn’t subsided as time has gone on. I am still very much interested in it, so because of that, I’m researching a career in Law Enforcement, getting details about it, and going on ride-alongs with different Police Departments in the area. I have recently tried a ride along in my hometown. And there was definitely something that “clicked” there for me. There is definite interest, so we’ll see what He has in store.
To become a police officer, you have to be at least 21 years old, so I have at least a year and a half or so before I could actually become an officer.

So I am praying about possibly going to College of Dupage in the Fall to begin criminal justice studies.
We’ll see what He has in store, but for now, I’m just walking it out, in little Baby Steps. =)
That’s what’s been up with me. I’d appreciate your prayers just for clear direction and guidance throughout all of these situations.
I’ll try to post more often just to keep y’all updated with everything that is going on in my life.
Blessings on you all!
Love ya.

To run 3 miles...

2008-12-16T23:34:00.000-08:00

*I know this is a long post, but please take the time to read it, it's worth it!*

12-16-08

10:45 PM: …it had been a somewhat typical Christmas break day for me, until now…

7:30: woke up to get the trash out in time and take Johnny to school. Came back home, crashed back into bed.

12:15: Mom wakes me up asking when I was gonna get up.
She then said “did you see that?” and pointed next to me. On my office chair right next to my bed was a tray of what HAD been a hot breakfast in bed about 30 minutes prior.
She said she didn’t wake me up for it because I was in such a deep sleep. J
Well she warmed up the omelet for me, and I ate my breakfast, then rolled out of bed, threw some gym shorts and a shirt on and left for work. (Work being at my desk that is 4 feet from my bed…)
Worked for about 3 hours at which point I had to leave to pick up Johnny.
Well I went outside, and realized that a full scale blizzard had begun, leaving about 2-3 in of snow on the driveway. So I took about 15 min and cleared that, then fishtailed my way over to get John.
Came home, back to work for a few hours, then the kids came in, begging to watch an episode of MacGyver. We took an hour and watched that, then had a family meeting, then I went back to work.

Back to 10:45…
I knew I needed to go over to X-Sport and get on a treadmill, my normal 2-3 hour a day work-out schedule hasn’t been the same since thanksgiving, and I was really feeling the long hours at a desk, and big meals with no way to burn it off. So I decided to get my butt over to X-Sport and put 3 miles in.

Now I just FINALLY got my own room, (which I’ll post about later) so while my room is clean, I’m still missing a few things. One of those things being my running headphones. (they are really nice because they don’t fall out of your ears from the impact of running). And I REALLY didn’t want to be on the treadmill for 30 min with no headphones. So I took about 20 min looking all over the house for them, to no avail.
The thought ran through my head a few times “just run tomorrow…”Then, very determined, I finally decided, heck with it, I’ll run and just pray while I’m running.

11:15: …I make my way out to the car, and as I approach the door, my heart sinks, the in dash display read “Key in ignition”…
Sure enough, I had left the key in, and totally drained the battery.
My car didn’t even TRY to start! I then realized that to add to the problem, I had parked my car at an angle in the driveway turnaround, making it so that there was a snow bank about 3 feet tall to the right of my car, and 2 pine trees to the left. But I was DETERMINED to get over to X-Sport and run!
So I grabbed a shovel, cleared out the area in front of my car, put it in neutral and tried to push it into a better area so I could get a car next to it to jump it.
Well after 15 min of grunting, pushing, pulling, and slipping the whole way, I gave up on that idea.
Now this whole time, the thought kept attacking me “Is all this really worth 3 miles?” But, I was DETERMINED to get my car going and get over there!
I then decided to attack the snow bank to the right of my car.
So I shoveled, and shoveled, and shoveled… and after about 15 min on back breaking shoveling, I managed to make enough room on the grass so that I could get a van within range of my jumper cables.

11:59: Finally on the road for X-sport.
When I looked at the clock, I was amazed. I looked back at the hour that had just gone past, and thought about how much effort I had put into getting over to X-Sport! To tell you the truth, I’m not quite sure what could’ve stopped me from getting over there one way or the other…
I then thought about the level of determination that I had been functioning at. I wasn’t going to let anything stop me!

But then, as I fishtailed my way along on my way to the gym, I had a thought that made my heart sink…

How much effort and determination do I put into having my personal time with the Lord every day for a significant amount of time?
How small does something have to be for it to take precedence over that time?
Is it a text? An important work email? A phone call? Hunger pains? Sleepiness? Video games?
I realized how caught up I can get in my “life”, and how sometimes I let that take precedence over the one who gives me LIFE.

I mean COME ON! If I wouldn’t let ANYTHING get in the way of me and the gym (which is such a trifling thing) what on earth have I been thinking, sometimes letting tiny things get in the way of the absolute most important thing there is?!

Looks like I need to get a better grasp on priorities eh?

This leads me to my question to you…

What is it that prevents YOU from getting alone with God? From having that 1 on 1 personal, intimate time with Him? What are those distractions that pull you away from that?

I challenge you to take an introspective look at your life. Your priorities. Your level of determination.

I know I will be taking that look.

If I can do it to run 3 miles, I KNOW I can do it to spend time with my very best friend…

Thanks for reading.

-Andrew

Hillsong United =)

2008-09-01T14:12:00.000-07:00

Wow... I'm kinda speechless about the experience that I had last night.
We went to see Hillsong United at their "This Is Our God" Concert.
It was seriously one of the most AMAZING concert experiences that I have ever been to.
The worship was SO amazing, I think I'm still a little hoarse from all the singing =)

Then this morning I bought their new album, "This Is Our God"
I listened through it during work today and it is one of their best albums yet!
I can't wait to get the chord charts and start learning some of these songs!
Wow...
Go buy the album.
It's WELL worth the money!

Testing 1,2,3....

2008-06-05T19:16:00.000-07:00

So yea... my blog has pretty much been dead! haha
But now that school is done and i've GRADUATED! I can start to get some things taken care of that have somewhat fallen aside =)
So be looking for more posts as time goes on...
Peace out,
-Andrew

AMAZING Video =)

2008-01-25T20:48:00.000-08:00

My friend Andrew Smith just put together this amazing video from a photoshoot we did a little while ago... Check it out!

Photography in Chicago from Andrew PC Smith on Vimeo.

Dominican Republic Vol. 3

2007-11-10T21:16:00.000-08:00

Wow.. I just realized that I never posted the third video from our trip to the DR!!!! well anyways. :P here it is:

Life...

2007-10-08T21:49:00.000-07:00

Life is well... how should I put it...
A myriad* of different activities and responsibilities that all require a whole lot of my attention...
Needless to say its hard to keep up with everything.
Just a quick update for those of you who aren't totally up with what is going on in my life.

I am currently working to complete my senior year at Valeo Academy, a small private school that my parents have my sister Natalie and I going to this year. Coming from the background of homeschooling for my whole life (i.e. school out at 12ish, and no homework... EVER) This is a bit of shock treatment, going to school for 8 hours a day, then coming home with 3-4 hours of homework every night, yea, lets just say I have a new (forced) best friend :P

Basketball season is starting up really soon here, we are in training camp right now which is proving to be the hardest one i've ever had to go through, and we are really just beginning. But I am super amped about the upcoming season, I have a lot of confidence in our team... I really think we can go all the way this year.

I've also been leading worship at our church, Family Life Christian Center, it is a lot of fun, but also a lot of work. Preparing the sets, (trying to) schedule rehearsals... But I really enjoy doing it and people are getting blessed.

So yea, things are kinda stressful, but hey, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me right? =)

*. You may be asking where the heck did you get a word like Myriad? to tell you the truth, I'm not all that sure... it might have come from the fact that I just did 25 crazy old word definitions for modern lit... I'm not sure :P

been workin' out :P

2007-09-08T13:03:00.000-07:00

I'm tellin' you guys... all this hardcore working out and exercise pays off!!!! :P lol

Very Very Powerful...

2007-09-01T15:45:00.000-07:00

Check this video out... It is a VERY powerful drama.

Stayin' Alive...

2007-08-20T19:07:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone!
I just wanted to make sure everyone knows that we are still alive down here! lol
The hurricane went by late sat. night, early sunday morning. But we were so high up in the mountains that all we got was a TON of rain and winds up to 13mph... lol

Our internet has been down here since the night of the hurricane, so my uncle hooked the computer up the phone and i'm on right now using this ancient method of connection called Dial-up. If you dont know what that is you can look it up in your family's Websters 1828 Dictionary. ;) lol
But its better then nothing...
Oh yea! Here is the 2nd video from the trip...

Thanks for the prayers everyone!
-Andrew

"Historic Hell Storm..."

2007-08-18T10:33:00.000-07:00

We are somewhere in the middle of the right side of that divided island that Mr Dean is starting to go past... Its supposed to go past us south of the island but there are sustained winds of 155 mph and gusts of up to 184 mph... lol
So yea, keep us in your prayers!
We are high up in the mountains so we will only get a lot of rain and some strong gusts, and my aunts' house here is built of solid concrete, so we dont have to worry about anything... we just dont want any bridges to go out, cuz then we'd be stuck up here for a while...

We were out doing some painting today and then the first stages of rain started to come in, and the paint doesn't stick too well in the rain.
We also visited a graveyard today, it was insane! there are just a bunch of concrete containers that hold the bodies... I'll post a video later :P

Anyways, the worst of the hurricane is supposed to hit during the night tonight, so if you remember, keep us in your prayers =)
Love yall

Getting To the DR, and Crazy Drivin!!!

2007-08-16T11:55:00.000-07:00

Update... and a small world

2007-08-15T20:12:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to let everyone know that we are alive and well down here in the Dominican Republic... I made a video of the trip down here, but I am still waiting for it to finish encoding, so I will get that up asap...

P.S. Today we were working at a school down here called Jarabacoa Christian School, and Natalie was working with one of the teachers in the school, Miss Elmer, and after talking for a while they found out that she grew up in Janesville, Wisconsin with our friend David Jay. Apparently she was "going to marry DJ's brother" lol so that was pretty sweet, meeting her down here!!!
Natalie was like "DJ is now one of the worlds biggest wedding photographers!" And she was like "no! Little David???" lol
Just proves that just when you thought the world can't get any smaller, it still does =)

Here is a pic of us and her after a LONNGGGG day of hard work

Crazy way to start :P

2007-08-13T18:21:00.000-07:00

Well, I thought that right now I'd be down in the Dominican Republic, at my aunt's house getting ready for a big day of work tomorrow...
Instead I am in the lobby of the Holiday Inn right by the Miami Airport, using their "business center" which is a computer on a desk in the middle of the lobby... :P But I am very thankful.

Ok so we made it to Miami fine...
And we went right to our assigned gate after we grabbed some Uno's "to-go" pizza, (both me and Nat said to each other at the same time after taking a bite... "you can tell were not in Chicago anymore" lol)
But our first plane broke (thats what they said) so they said that they were going to bring another plane to another gate for us... so we went to the counter right there, gave the lady our boarding pass, and asked her where we needed to go for the new gate.
Our original gate was A10, and she said the new gate was A17, so we went right over there, waited for about an hour, then it was finally time to board, they called our group, we handed the guy our boarding passes, and they wouldn't scan! So finally he was like "go check with them at the desk". So we ran over there, and she was like "oh, this is the gate for Santo Domingo... You are trying to go to Santiago!" She was like "let me check your real flight" so she checked, and it was supposed to take off at that same minute, on the OTHER SIDE OF THE AIRPORT!!!!!
So she called, and they said "yea send them over, we will hold the airplane" so me and Nat take off sprinting across the airport, and it was seriously about 3 miles, so after about 20 min of running, we get to the gate, and I look and the plane is still there with the ramp out to it, so i say hey we are the ones that they are holding the plane for!!! And the dude there was like "oh I tho thorry thirr... iths too late"
So yea... we missed our plane because of the stupid gate switch, and the lady who gave us the wrong gate...
At least they made it somewhat right... They bought us dinner, paid for the night in the hotel here, and gave us money for breakfast...
Anyways, our flight leaves at 10 tomorrow.
Pray for us!!!
-Andrew

Outta here... (at least for a while)

2007-08-12T21:02:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone, I just wanted to let you all know, (for those of you who didn't already) that I am going to be out of town for about 2 weeks.
Natalie and I are going down to the Dominican Republic from the 13th to the 25th on a missions trip. My aunt and uncle are the directors of a school for troubled kids down there, so I'm gonna be doing a ton of work, construction, fixing computers, networking, leading worship, feeding the homeless, a whole ton of stuff.
So PLEASE keep us in your prayers,
pray that it will be a very profitable time down there, and that many people will be blessed and touched by the way that God works through us.
Blessings,
-Andrew

We ride we ride...

2007-08-11T21:37:00.000-07:00

This basically describes it,
Today I bought my first car, its a '93 BMW 740il in AMAZING condition.

The sweet thing about it is that my car is kinda like Sarah's Car's daddy! lol its the same color, same year, just bigger because its a 7 series.
Its a huge blessing that came at just the right time, because me and Natalie are going to be starting school on the 27th, (which is a whole other story in itself which I will post later) but we'll be able to take this car there and back every day.
God is so good!!!!

KIDZ RULE!!!!! ||Camp Day 2, and Airsoft...||

2007-07-24T19:04:00.000-07:00

Kids totally rock... lol today was the second day of camp. And it was so amazing compared to yesterday!!! One of the group leaders had to be in the drama, so for the rest of the week I have to be the head leader of Group Metallic Silver!!! The kids voted today and the official name for our group is The Silver Surfers.
The kids in the group are so cool!

Thursday is Team Spirit Day, and our whole team has to come out and do a cheer about our team, so we started practicing some stuff, and I found out that like half of my kids are like gymnasts or break dancers!!! lol so like its gonna start out with some kids running opposite directions on the stage, then in the middle one kid is gonna spin and do a backflip and the other girl is gonna to a roundoff. Then a bunch of kids are gonna do the worm, lol and then one kid is gonna breakdance and even spin on his head!!! lol its gonna ROCK!!!!

The highlight story from today was we were bball in the gym, and I looked over and one of my girls (who has autism) was standing against the wall crying... I went over and asked her whats up, and she said "I can't make the ball go through the hole!!! lol so I took her over to the hoop and showed her how to shoot it right, and at the end she made 4 out of 5 baskets in a row!!! She was so excited she was clapping! =)

So then later tonight, Marky had his friend Jason over, so I took them outside and we played some airsoft! The boys loved it! lol so we got some shots of us after that...

Camp Day 1, and Shopping!!!

2007-07-23T19:19:00.000-07:00

Well today was the first day of the 5 day day camp that Natalie and I are helping out at, and my younger siblings are all attending. Its 8-5 for us EVERY DAY this week.
Today was pretty hectic because we had registration going on, so I was going around helping lost children find their groups, so it was basically damage control :P
lol one memorable moment from the day was when I was leading the volleyball section of the sports part of the camp, and a 5 year old group came over, and they were all fine except for 1 kid who was just bawling his eyes out...
And the group counselor didn't seem to be doing anything about it, so I went over and I was like "buddy, whats the problem?" He mumbled a bunch of incomprehensible words, so I asked the counselor, I'm like, "whats wrong with him?" And he said "Oh, he doesn't have a partner." and this was causing the whole group to cease to function because of this kid, lol so I went to the kid and I'm like "hey, I'll be your buddy!" Immediately he stopped crying, looked up at me and was like "really???" I was like yea! So he grabbed my hand, and that totally stopped the whole problem! :P
lol later throughout the volleyball game he kept running over to me and saying "your still my partner right?" lol it was so sweet! =)

So we have another big day of that tomorrow...

Then later tonight, me and Bryant went over to the mall, cuz I wanted to grab some new shoes.
I found some sweet Pumas at Finish Line, then I stopped by AE (my second home) and grabbed a belt and some new boxers :P

But when I looked at the inside of the belt, I got a pleasant surprise... lol check it out... It's my new favorite belt! lol

Is It Official?

2007-06-29T12:04:00.000-07:00

Does this...

...Officially make me a geek? haha lol
I have 3 computers set up here, 2 are mine one is the church computer that I work on all the time.
Oh yea, and I use this SWEET program called Synergy that lets me share a single mouse and keyboard between all three computers, and its as simple as just moving the mouse to the screen you want and you are immediately controlling that computer. :) Pretty amazing I know... :P

Oh yea! I just recently finished building my new computer! Lovingly dubbed "Natasha" or "Tasha" for short... hahaha :D
Here are a few shots of her...

So yea... good stuff... :)
For those who know.. or care...
Its has a Dual-Core 2.13 Ghz processor
2GB Dual-Channel DDR2 RAM
A 256MB XFX NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GT

Coming Soon!!!

2007-06-22T11:54:00.001-07:00


Player Homepage \| Get Your Own

Workin' Away...

2007-06-15T19:45:00.000-07:00

Well we're here at the reception, waiting for the people to finish eating and start dancing so we can start the sweet slideshow that we just finished! :)
But here is a shot from earlier when we were shooting the bride and groom and Sarah told me to to hold the bouquet. lol

Anyways... lol I'll post the slideshow later. :P

This Me, Sarah, Beth, and Kristen after the wedding.

Whats goin on?

2007-06-15T11:55:00.000-07:00

Were in the car headed to a wedding and I'm on Sarah's laptop connected through her blackberry... its pretty sweet cuz you can be anywhere and be connected! Anyways, were going downtown for this wedding so it should be pretty sweet.

Sarah has a new girl coming in to intern with her for the month of August and shes gonna be staying with us, so her and her mom and sister came in last night to kinda meet the family and make sure we aren't crazy people... (little do they know..) ;) lol

But it was awesome because as we started talking at dinner, we found out that our families have SO much in common. Both families have 7 kids, homeschool, both moms are RNs and we both even have a dog next door named Jojo... lol

Her name is Kristen Snyder and she is really an AMAZING photographer, you can check out her blog here. Its gonna be so cool when she stays here in August, because she kinda just fits right in with the fam... :P

Hillsong United!!!

2007-05-31T12:59:00.000-07:00

Last night we went to the most AMAZING concert EVER!!!!!!!!
The band is called Hillsong United and the worship experience that they created last night was indescribable!

Check out one of their concerts here^^

Their stuff is on Itunes and I would recommend any of it.

Our friend Kenny had a press pass for the event so he got a TON of amazing shots! Check them out here

Here is one of some of us in the group

Nashville... Day 4...

2007-05-13T21:29:00.000-07:00

day 4...

Today we got to sleep in till 8:30!!!! OMG it was incredible!!! :P lol

So we got up and got ready for church, we decided to tryout this church that my cousins go to whenever they are down here. Its called Newsong, and it was absolutely amazing!!! :) The worship and the message was great! And during the "greet the visitors" time 2 of the girls that I know from the Barlowgirl Messageboards saw me and came up and said hey. It was Shay and Lindz so after the service I made sure I got a pic with the two of them :)

After church, well, I was on the phone with my mom for mothers day and I wasn't watching where we were going, so we went the wrong way on a highway for about 20 min... :-/ so I mapped us out a detour to get us back on track, and well, we finally got on the right highway and we were cruisin along and all of the sudden traffic stopped... dead....after waiting about 20 min, and seeing a helicopter land a ways up on the road, Matt, Josh, and I hopped out and started walking on the side of the road up to the accident. On the way up there... we saw some people gettin pretty comfortable, and settling in for the long wait.

If you look close you can see the guy in the lawn chair behind the trailer... :P

So anyways, we got up to the scene, and from what we heard there was a guy going over 100 who flipped his car and it went into the woods on the side of the road, so they had to land a chopper to airlift him.

So after waiting for about an hour, the chopper took off and we finally got through... after the we went to a dam. Commonly known around here as the "Downtgivay Dam". rotfl...

Anyways, 4:30 comes early... ugh... talk to yall soon :)

Nashville... Day 3...

2007-05-12T20:00:00.000-07:00

Today was... pretty amazing...

We woke up at about 7 and headed over to help out a guy who runs his ministry off of the campus that we are working on. His ministry is called Layman's Lessons and its a ministry to the homeless. So basically we drove down to downtown Nashville and set up a bunch of tables, chairs, a stage, and a sound system. Then the show started, lol we blasted worship music, and when I took a walk it could be heard from 6 blocks away... lol but the homeless people came to see what is going on. And when they showed up we gave them a hot cup of coffee and then told them that we would give them a hot meal if they would sit for about 30 min and listen to a message. By the time the message was over we had about 75 people there. It was awesome!!! When he gave the alter call 9 people came up to receive Christ!!!! It was AMAZING!!!!

I took a ton of video, but barely any pictures... :-/

here are a few that I did take... lol

The (wet) Sound System that we used... lol

Never go anywhere without your korky flapper tank balls... :P

I can't wait to post the video when I get home... :)

Talk to you soon...

Nashville Day 2...

2007-05-11T19:53:00.000-07:00

Hey yall... I'm down in Nashville right now, me and my best friend Matt, his brother/alien Josh lol, and their dad. We are putting a new roof on an old hospital that the ministry that Mr. swanson works for owns. I'll put together a whole video when I get back, but here are some pictures from what we've done so far...

Right now we are sitting in the hospital, and we had to hack their mainframe to get internet access... :P

Me and the hott pig (skinny white nut job) at famous daves... lol

Us all after day 2 of roofing

Commercial

2007-05-07T21:45:00.000-07:00

Hey yall, I'm back in town, just for a few days, I'm heading out Wednesday Night for Nashville... ahh!!! Crazy story, but I'll post about whats goin on later... anyways.
Today Jeremy Flanagan and Mark Collins came over for a meeting for the web design ministry at the church. Bryant, (who is staying with the family here at the house for a while) joined us in the meeting. So after it was over one of the things we discussed doing was making a recruiting video for the web design ministry. So we got the camera and this is what we came up with...

haha so yea... that was it...
talk to yall soon :P

Outta Here... :P

2007-04-30T11:37:00.000-07:00

Hey yall! I just wanted to let everyone know that I am going to be out of town a lot this month...
I'm leaving for michigan right now for 3 days, but I'll post later :)

Spring Formal 07!!!!

2007-04-02T19:27:00.000-07:00

Hey Yall! Well last saturday me and my sister Natalie went to a homeschool formal. It was awesome! We went with a group of about 15 kids, first we went to our friends house to take pictures then we went to the place. We hung out for a while, dranks some (kiddie) cocktails, then they finally brought the food. So after we finished eating they started the dancing which was awesome!!! lol Here is a short little video of the dancing,

the camera was low on battery so I couldn't take a lot so its only like 30 sec... lol and kinda blurry cuz it was so small...

But anyways, here is the ** slideshow ** from the night.
It was great getting to see old friends and meeting new ones.

Anyways, ttyl

Chicago Thunder Oklahoma Trip

2007-03-24T09:35:00.000-07:00

ROFL

2007-03-01T11:09:00.000-08:00

Chicago Thunder Ohio Basketball Trip

2007-02-20T11:32:00.000-08:00

Hey Guys, I'm finally posting!!!! lol This is the video I just finished from my bball team's trip to the regional championships in Cincinatti, OH... Hope you like it!

Which one are you???

2006-12-16T07:40:00.000-08:00

Haha try this out... lol its pretty accurate! lol

Your results:
You are Superman

Superman		100%
Iron Man		98%
The Flash		90%
Green Lantern		70%
Spider-Man		65%
Wonder Woman		65%
Supergirl		55%
Hulk		55%
Robin		52%
Batman		35%
Catwoman		35%

You are mild-mannered, good,
strong and you love to help others.

Click here to take the Superhero Personality Test

Hey Hey!

2006-12-02T14:34:00.000-08:00

Hey yall! haha its been a while... a whole lot has been goin on with me, were working on getting a new building for the church, basketball season is in full swing... and a whole lot more. lol

So first basketball... First of all I'll talk about my team, Its been kinda crazy because this year there are so many guys on the team and basically the rule is if you pay then you play. So, there are about 10 seniors this year so they decided to put all the seniors on one team and all the juniors and lower on a "B" team, both teams are playing in the same league, so it is kinda crazy because my team isn't a very "big" team. Then we took another blow when one of the guys who was supposed to play on my team decided to desert us and go to the "A" team. And he was one of our top 3 guys. So we are all having to really step up as a team and fill in the gaps that are left.

The main league that we play in started 2 Saturdays ago, and man, we have all really been stepping up! Our first game this year in this league was 2 Saturdays ago and man, we all really did step up! We won 62-48 and I had a Career high 24 Points as well as 4 Assists, 10 Rebounds and 2 Blocks. Then Last Saturday we had another blowout win, 77-38, I had another big game... :P 22 Points, 3 assists, 15 rebounds and 8 steals.
But it really takes more then just me stepping up, the team is doing an AMAZING job at playing at this higher level. we only have 3 juniors. The rest of them are JV guys. So I am really proud of all of the younger guys who are stepping up to play (and dominating) at this level. Our total record as a team so far is 6-0. GO THUNDER!!!!

So yeah... I am gonna try to get Sarah out to one of our games soon to get some shots of us playing. So if I can get that to happen, then I'll post some pictures.
Oh yeah, if any of yall live in the area and want to see us play sometime, just let me know and i'll get you a copy of the schedule.

Talk to yall later!
I'll try to post more often... lol
-Andrew

CheckIT

2006-10-30T18:15:00.000-08:00

Hey yall, My friend Mark Collins just wrote a great post on his blog. Check it out! Its mainly for you Guys, but i'm sure the girls will love it too! lol talk to yall later

Sweet Phone Thing!!!! Leave me a message!!!!

2006-10-27T10:53:00.001-07:00

Get Your Own Voice Player Manage

BG Concert!!!!!

2006-09-30T18:27:00.000-07:00

Well, last Friday after my football game, our whole family made the 1 1/2 hour drive down to Bourbonnais, IL for the Barlowgirl concert. It was an AMAZING SHOW!!!!! This is the girls first tour that they are headlining, so it was pretty awesome!!!

Anyways, they had this thing where you could text a message through your cell phone to this number, and they would put it up on the screen during the intermission. And then they told us that one of the people who texted would be selected to win a Barlowgirl electric guitar!!! So like tons of people were texting in messages. I decided, what the heck... might as well try it out... lol I tried from my 1st cell phone but it said "access denied" lol. So I pulled out my 2nd cell phone, lol and texted from there. I didn't even see the message go up on the screen, but then about 15 min into the girls part of the show, I felt my phone buzz, I thought someone was calling me, so I pulled it out, and when it said "message" I was like oh great, I texted one of these things and now i'm gonna get text spam for the rest of my life!!! lol but when I opened the message it said, "YOU WIN!
Code: ****
Congratulations! You're tonight's winner! Head on over to the Barlow Girl Merch table to claim the guitar now!"
HAHA isnt that CRAZY??? lol so I went over to my aunt Maryanne (the BG's mom) and showed her the message, when she saw it she like freaked out! lol she was so excited! she was like go over to my merch table and show them!!!! So I went over and got my new BG Guitar!!!!

I know what some of you might be thinking... "That is so wrong!!! It was probably rigged!!!!" lol So I asked them how it works, and there is this lady in texas who runs the whole text thing, and she sits at the computer for 3 hours during the concerts, screens all the messages then randomly picks one of the messages and that person wins the guitar. So it was NOT rigged!!! lol

So after the concert our friend Shyla who is a photographer was like "lets do a photoshoot with the guitar!!!!" lol so here are some of the shots from the shoot
P.S. In case you couldn't tell from these shots... Shyla is a BEAST!!!!! lol

Oh yeah!!!! I start drivers ed today!!!!!!! WOOHOO!!!!! Finally!!!!!

PARTY TIME!!!!!!!

2006-09-29T06:02:00.000-07:00

Wow.. its been a while since ive posted!!! lol
So lets see...
Last saturday we had my 17th birthday party!!!! It was great!!! There was around 20 people there, so we started by playing games for a while because it was raining... then later after dinner the rain stopped so we all went over to a field and played some awesome Mud Football!!!!!!!
Here is the slideshow from the party. Enjoy!!!

My Birthday!!!! WOOHOO!!!!!!!

2006-09-21T18:24:00.000-07:00

Well... today is my 17th Birthday!!!!
I am working on the computer on my new 19" Flat WideScreen Monitor

And listening to music on my new Surround sound speaker system!

And we just finished an AWESOME dinner of Chicken Kievs and Mozzerella sticks!! Then we had an amazing cake (that I picked out!!) lol and Oreo ice cream.
WOOHOO!!!! So I have had a GREAT day so far!!! Thank you all for your cards and comments and messages!!! You guys Rock!!!!!

Six Flags!!!! And great friends...

2006-09-02T15:33:00.000-07:00

On thursday we went to Six Flags for homeschool day!!! It was awesome because there was seriously barely any lines! I think the longest line we waited in was about 15 min. lol We had an amazing time!!! Me, Sarah, and Natalie got to hang out with our awesome friends Bethany, Abby, and Elyse and a bunch of their friends. It was great!!!! We were singing on like all the rides, haha. Then after we rode the superman we went into the superman shop and tried on all the blingage... haha Then after the park closed, we all went to Old Country Buffet for dinner. So it was an amazing day!!! (I think I already said that... lol)

Anyways, thursday was my parents 21st anniversary!!!! WOOHOO!!!!

So at great america, all of us went up on a stage and sang and danced "Happy Anniversary" haha

(Click the play button to start the slideshow.)

Are You On The Right Path?

2006-08-30T06:28:00.000-07:00

The other day in my devotional time God spoke these words to me in my journal. They have really helped me, I hope they encourage you!!!

"My Son, listen to the words that I say, accept them, do them and you will prosper.
There are many things that might try to distract you and divert you from my path. My path leads to life, prosperity, and love. Stay on it!!! Don't skip back and forth between my path and the world's path. Its not worth it! Stay away from all lukewarmness. The way of the world might seem fun and pleasureable, but you dont see the end of that path. I Do!!!! Cause your flesh to come under subjection to your spirit. My path is the best way!
I love you son."

Football Camp...

2006-08-29T06:16:00.000-07:00

Well it is 8:00 AM on tuesday morning, (way too early to be up...) and I have to leave pretty soon here for the 2nd day of football camp. It started yesterday and after a killer workout, (even for me... lol) we started from the very basics, like ready stance, 3-point stance, and play calling. So it was great, but the problem is, that was just the first day, and I am already sore!!! oh well, I guess I will just have to fight through it. lol So anyways...

I will talk to yall later...

-Andrew

P.S. Oh yeah, in case you were wondering... that is not me in the picture. hehe lol

Vacation... Days 4 and 5

2006-08-24T21:13:00.000-07:00

Day 4...

Well today was pretty awesome, we pretty much just chilled in the morning, then after lunch we went to this cave here called Bridal Cave, it was pretty cool, except for the fact that there were some really really small spaces that we had to squeeze through, and our tour guide.... well lets just say he had some trouble getting through these spaces... lol but there was one other problem... my sister natalie was having, uh... well... lets just say it was what girls get that guys dont... lol so when we got to the back of the cave, we told the guide and he like rushed us back through it, cause she was seriously about to lose her lunch...

So me and her we running in front of everyone else to get her back to the car where she could lay down, and we ran back through the gift shop, and thankfully I found her some advil and a water bottle to kinda calm her down... lol

Then later on we hit up Outback for dinner, it was some amazing food as always... (oh yeah, me and my bro Mark decided that we need to find ourselves some Sheilas!!!! haha jk lol)

Then we went back to the house and got our Guitars, Banjos, Harmonicas, and Jaw Harps (gosh we are getting really hick!!! lol) and trooped down to the dock with the neighbors for a hoedown!!! lol well not really... my dad just played a bunch of old songs, then I took the guitar and did some worship... It was an AWESOME time!!!! The neighbors were really blessed too...

Here is the slideshow from the day

Day 5...

Well today we kinda just chilled all day. We went to Hyvee's MONSTER buffet for lunch, then we came back and swam and played some games, then tonight at about 8 we all went out and got some ice cream and went to the arcade again. Dude, me and natalie are getting soooo good at the dance dance revolution thing!!!!! it was sweet!!!! I had like 3 perfect games! lol

Wow... It is our last day here, this time has really flown by too fast! But it has been an incredible time!!! We got to spend a ton of time together as a fam, and just relax and unwind... which we all needed soo bad.

Thank you all sooooo much for your prayers, And I hope to see ya soon...

Love Always...

-Andrew

Vacation... Day 3

2006-08-23T21:38:00.000-07:00

Well, another amazing day has passed on our Totally flippin awesome vacation... lol
We spent most of the day at the lake which was totally awesome! Sarah was totally shooting up the place with her camera, so we got all these pix of us all jumping off the dock!!! They are totally sweet!!!!
The only part that stunk about it was that we all got sooo burned up!!!! Exept for Mark of course... it is so unfair, cause he is the ONLY ONE in the family who can tan!!!!!! It is crazy!!!! He is seriously going to be black before the end of the week... lol

Then Me, Sarah, and Nat went to Hyvee (A grocery store) for lunch, They had this Crazy HUGE buffet there!!!! It was like a Italian, Chinese, and American buffets all smashed into one huge one!!! lol It was great, we like seriously waddled out of there, I think if any of us had fallen over, we would have rocked ourself to sleep trying to get up... haha lol

So then after a few more hours of swimming, Sarah cooked up some "Chimi Changas" which are these fried burrito things that she learned how to make in Cali... They were so so amazing!!!! Even though she burned the bottoms... lol

Then after dinner, we all packed in the van, (which is not an easy task anymore) and went to go shopping and to have some fun... so we found this little gift shop that had some hilarious stuff!!!! lol Then we hit the arcade next door, Dude, we were on the Dance Dance Revolution thing like the entire time!!!! haha we actually got pretty good at it!!! lol
Then we went and got this amazing hometown fudge... It was sooo incredibly rich!!!!!! You only have to eat like a tiny slice and youve had your sugar fix for about a week!!! lol

So here is the Slideshow from the day

Anyways, I'm out... talk to yall later...
Love Always
-Andrew

Vacation... Day 2

2006-08-22T19:57:00.000-07:00

Well, day 2 of our vaca has past, and it was totally AMAZING!!!!
We went shopping, go karting, and of course SWIMMING!!!! YEAH!!!

Here is the Slideshow from the day... we had a blast!!!!

P.S. My blog was kinda screwed up because of the transfer to the new beta thing... but I got it fixed, (at the expense of my template... lol) lol But I will fix that when I get back home. So yall can actually comment now!!!! lol
Talk to yall later.... Love yall!!!

Vacation.... Finally... (Days 0.1 and 1) lol

2006-08-21T10:48:00.000-07:00

Right now I am sitting on the porch at the office of the resort that we are staying at cause this is the only place we can get wifi... lol

If any of you didn't know... We are on vacation in Lake of the Ozarks, Missouri for about a week, Our first vacation in about 2 years...

So on saturday when we were supposed to leave I couldn't get my mom and sarah out the door till like 6! lol Getting Sarah to work when she wants to be on the computer is like pulling teeth!!! haha lol

So we were finally on the road, and by about 11:30 we were in Litchfield, IL... lol about an hour out of St Louis. Sarah wanted to stop there, so we found a Hampton Inn to crash at for the night. The only problem was that the place was basically surrounded by cornfields so we had these little "visitors" in our room... lol they said that they were beetles, but I think they were actually high tech espionage agents for Iran sent to spy on me because of the *Cough*secret work I am doing for the government...*cough* haha so after I took care of the little spies, which took most of the night... lol (you have to watch out for their little tear gas bomb things...;) lol We were on our way...

So we finally got to the lake house at about 3 on sunday... and we like immediately hit the lake. lol you can see pix of the rest of the day in the slideshow

We went to coldstone, and this one guy who worked there was awesome!!! haha he was sooooo funny!!!! lol there are some pix of him throwing the ice cream around in the show. But I wasn't sure what to get, so I just told him to make me his favorite thing... lol he made me a "cookie doughnt you love it with cake batter ice cream... haha It was AMAZING!!! lol

Then after we finished our ice cream we went outside and took these awesome pix on these steps!!! then when we got home, me Sar and Nat all went out on the dock with my guitar and did worship for like 1/2 hour!!! It was amazing!!

Ahhh.... Family Time!!!!

2006-08-07T18:51:00.000-07:00

Well mondays are always our day off but usually they get all eaten up by different activities. So on monday we decided to just put everything aside and get some much needed family time.

First we were thinking about going to either Lake Geneva or Rock Cut State Park, but by the time we got out the door (2 PM) it was too late to go to either of those because we had to be back by 6 cause some friends were coming over.

Anyways earlier in the day, my dad had gotten an email tip about a man out in Geneva who was kinda going through some hard times and didn't have any food. So we got everyone in the van and headed out to help the guy out. So we picked him up at his house and took him to the grocery store and let him just go crazy and get everything that he needed for a while. It was awesome to be able to bless him like that!So we took him back to his house and then we went to Fabyan Woods, which is this awesome area on the Fox river that is just so amazingly beautiful!!!
We just walked around and were able to have some great family time. It was really refreshing!

Here are some pics from the day...

Me and JuliAnna
JuliAnna
My Brother Mark Thinks he is a monkey... lol

Man we got hops!!!! lol

Hilarious Video!!!

2006-07-28T15:42:00.000-07:00

iPod Flea

Haha, this video is hilarious!!!! lol

Debriefing...

2006-07-20T09:06:00.000-07:00

Well, 2 days and many many welts later we returned from the paintball trip. We had a BLAST!!!

Each person got 4000 paintballs at the beginning of the trip and I dont think anyone left with more than 2000. lol

So where we were staying there was no electricity, no toilets, nothing.... Just us, our tents, our guns, our balls, and a little propane stove for cooking.

So on Friday we got there around 3 and set up our tents, got all of our stuff out of the car and immediately hit the field. We found this wheat field right by our site with really tall wheat and these huge haybales that we used as bunkers, it was an awesome paintball spot!!! If someone spotted you out in the open, you could just hit the deck and be totally safe because of the height of the wheat.

A lot of people had some pretty bad gun problems, it seemed like everything was going wrong for my friend Luke on this trip. lol The $110 gun that he bought brand new wouldnt fire at all, then on the second day he went into town and bought a $40 gun and then when he got back he dropped it and the air hose broke right off!!! It was crazy!!! I felt really bad for him...

Bathroom Break

Well seeing as how there were no toilets (that we could use) within 40 miles of us, lets just say we had to make do with the, uh... natural facilities... lol

Cant you see how happy Ernesto looks to get to be able to use these lavish facilities? lol

So basically what we came up with was this little foot bridge where the boards were just about as far apart as a toilet seat!!! haha lol. So most of the guys made use of this method of relieving themselves... lol

Others who wanted a little more privacy ventured off into the woods to make their own little impact on the world... haha

Personally, I went on the way up, and I was able to hold it till the trip back... lol

Gucci!!!!
Or whatever it is that you people call it... lol
On the way up to the place we stopped at this gas station to fill up (and unfill... lol) and we found this stand of sunglasses... so we decided to try on these "gucci" sunglasses... lol

Ernesto...

Luke...

Cracker Barrel!!!
We almost always go to Cracker Barrel at some point on the trips with my friends... so to continue the tradition, on the way back we stopped in...
We got the absolutely funniest waitress!!!! lol She was like 80 and she kept cracking jokes the entire time!!! But they were actually funny jokes!!! She had the entire table laughing!!! lol

So far noboby had played any really good pranks on the trip so me and Mark and Luke snuck over to the waitress and told her that it was Adam's birthday!!! haha!!! So all of the waiters and waitresses came over and started singing to Adam!!! haha It was great!!!

So overall we had an amazing time on the trip!!! It was a TON of fun!!! But we decided that doing it about once a year was enough.... lol

Paintball Adventure Prep...

2006-07-07T10:58:00.000-07:00

For the past couple months my friends and I have been trying to plan a paintball trip, and it's finally all coming together!!!! Woohoo!!!! So next Friday about 8 of us are driving up to my friends 90 acres in Wisconsin and camping out for 2 days and playing paintball the entire time. It is like a 3 hour drive, and if anyone knows my friends then you know that just the drive will be a crazy adventure filled with dangers such as toxic gas attacks, van bouncing, crazy dancing, and lots of lethal singing... lol (yes, it can get that bad) haha and thats before we get to the paintball spot... lol

So today I cleaned my gun and I have to try to find a place to get some bulk paintballs for the group...

WOOHOO!!! I am so stoked about the trip!!!!!

So Sick of Love Songs??? I Don't think so...

2006-06-23T20:49:00.000-07:00

Friday nights... Some party; Some get dead drunk; Some, well... do other things...
So I decided, hmm how about a nice date? But one problem, the only types that would go out with me on such short notice were my sisters!!! haha (I don't really date at all... lol) So we went to "The Lake"... but instead of just walking around like we usually do, we decided to after we walked around, to go sit on the dock... so after just sitting there for a while doing nothing we all started to sing! lol We sang like every single love song that we could think of, then after we ran out of those we started singing worship songs. lol Everybody who was walking around the lake got a real treat!!! But then some guy came over and started making out with his girlfriend like 10 feet away from us, but I think we scared them away, cause like after one kiss they left! lol

But anyways that is what us dorky people do for fun on Friday nights... Join us next time for the next edition of Friday Nights Dork Edition - Fun at Kiddieland!!! haha ttyl

Karitos (pronounced kair i toss)

2006-06-06T19:36:00.000-07:00

Well I play guitar in the worship team at our church while also being the audio ministry director, so when one of these worship conferences comes around guess who is forc... I mean invited to go??? Yep you guessed it! Yours truly... But I kinda came along willingly seeing that the church was paying for it I would get to take off school and get free food and stuff... lol

I'm just messing around with all that... lol I really did want to go.... I knew I would learn a lot.
So anyways there were a bunch of different workshops on many different topics, most of the ones I went to were on audio stuff... but I also went to an amazing workshop on worship leading taught by Cory Ratcliff It was amazing and very insightful!!! But here are some shots from the conference...

This was an urban hip-hop group called Joshua Generation.

This was a very interesting group that did Native American worship dance... lol

But being a dork must run in the family (Thanks a lot Sarah!!! lol)
Mark Collins one of my sister's photography assistants was attending the conference with me. So, we had a break on the last day of the conference, and instead of getting some much needed rest somewhere, guess what we did??? Yep, a photoshoot... lol Here is the SLIDESHOW

P.S. Ever get that insatiable desire to do One-handed push-ups on a train track??? For those who can relate... I fulfilled my desire... lol

Photos taken by Andrew Barlow and Mark Collins

Graduation Parties...

2006-05-31T06:19:00.000-07:00

I love graduation parties!!!!
But this one was especially awesome!
My friend Bethany Newell was graduating, so on sunday they had a HUGE party at their house, unfortunately I had a lot of stuff going on sunday so we weren't able to go till like 9:30 and it had started at 2... But when we got there the party was still rockin'!!!! lol We started by playing volleyball in the complete darkness... lots of fun! Then we had a gotten really hot and sweaty so we went and dunked our heads into a big bucket of ice! lol Talk about brain freeze! haha
But the best part of the party was when we all went out on the front lawn and I got my guitar and we sang praise and worship song for about an hour... It was really awesome!!! There were like 20 people all singing, it was amazing!

Unfortunately I wasn't able to get any pics at the party, but here is a pic of Bethany from her senior picture shoot that Sarah did.

Church!

2006-05-22T08:21:00.000-07:00

Yesterday at church we had an awesome guest speaker, his name is Pastor Samuel Patta, Pastor Patta pastors one of the largest churches in Hyderabad, India. He preached an awesome message about being a "Giant Killer" You can click here to listen to the message.

At Praise Fellowship we have been putting together a game room area, It is actually turning out pretty awesome! here are some shots of the room. We have Ping Pong,

Foosball,

And this awesome new game that we built called Kingball. This game is so popular at the church! Right after the service ends kids are racing to the game room to try to get the first game. lol

Well, thats just one thing that has been happening lately in my crazy busy life... lol ttyl

Maximum Impact!!!

2006-05-05T17:01:00.000-07:00

All I can say is WOW!!!!!! We went to an amazing conference today!!!! It was called Maximum Impact, It was a power packed conference with speakers like John Maxwell, Dave Ramsey, Tim Sanders, and many more... Anyways we had a great time and learned a whole lot!!!

Photoshoot!

2006-04-14T15:31:00.000-07:00

Well, the other day the weather was AMAZING!!! So our family headed out to the park to let the kids get some energy out. So Sarah, Nat, and I all decided to do a photoshoot! lol

JuliAnna Therese Barlow

2006-04-11T09:44:00.000-07:00

Well my parents finally decided on a name for the baby!
JuliAnna Therese Barlow!
She is such a cutie!
Click here for the Slideshow

The new Barlow!!!

2006-04-10T17:25:00.000-07:00

Well... we have added another Barlowgirl into this world!!
After alot of waiting and praying, my mom had the baby at 1:39am this morning!!
Coming in at 8lbs. 6oz and 20in. long:) She is sooooo adorable and looks just like my little brother Johnny!! It is hysterical!!....of course a pretty version! The doctor said it was like a picture perfect birth!! Thank God!! Actually the reason it has taken me awhile to get pics up is because I was waiting on my parents until they name her...but they are still trying to figure it out:)!! lol! I decided to post a couple and then when they actually come up with a name I'll post more with a slideshow!! Any name ideas???? Let me know!!!

Model Shoot

2006-03-28T08:45:00.000-08:00

Well the other day, My sister Sarah (The photographer) shot some model pictures of me.

Here are a few shots... enjoy!

It's a GIRL!!!!!

2006-03-24T13:16:00.000-08:00

Well my parents just got an ultra-sound done on my mom, and they found out that....
I'TS A GIRL!!!!!!

I am super stoked!!! She is due anytime!!!

OKC!!!

2006-03-24T12:45:00.000-08:00

Well we just got back from Oklahoma City, we had a blast! Our team came in 6th in the nation!

This is us just chilling at the house that we were staying at.

This is the outside of the house

We are going into one of the games

Coach Benny getting us psyched up. lol

The whole group at Chili's

So, we had a great time! I am kinda sad that the season is over though. But I can just look forward to next season.