That Hits The Spot

I LOVE SNOW CONES!!!

Today, I was craving this great, refreshing treat...so I went and got one. My trademark treat (Strawberry, Pineapple and a dash of green apple) has been named after me by my buddies at the Monticello Hawian Ice...the AK47. I loved it. I wish I could go get another.

My Very Educated Mother Just Sent Us Nine...

"My Very Educated Mother" can no longer sent me "Nine Pizzas"


I found out at dinner tonight that Pluto is no longer a planet. It is considered to be in the Kuiper Belt (similar to the Astroid belt, the Kuiper belt is found beyond Neptune). When I heard this I was flabergasted. My whole life I have been taught MVEMJSUNP and now I have to relearn it (without the P). How sad. Farewell Pluto...I always enjoied getting pizza from my mother.

A Plan Backfires...

Today for lunch, Phil and I went and ate at the Patio Cafe (our alternative to the UAM Cafeteria). We each ordered a burger and fries. Well while we were sitting waiting for our food, Phil desided to go ahead and get his condiment: MAYONNAISE!

So I hatched a plan:

1. Wait until Phil puts the mayonnaise packet on the table.
2. Point the packet in Phil's direction.
3. Hit the packet and watch Phil get dowsed in the mayonnaise.

At least that was the plan. Everything was going accordingly until step three. As soon as I hit the packet it exploded alright, but not on Phil. The entire packet ended up all over ME!!! I was so embarrassed, but it was so funny. Phil and I were laughing for about 15 min. That'll teach me to never expect that a mayonnaise packet will explode in any direction (because if you do, it will end up all over you.

FYI...How to make it through a rough situation

So today, I was able to compile a list. It probably isn't a list that I wanted to complie, but I did. I compiled a list of what to do when you find out your major is no longer avalible at you college:

1. Stay Calm...hyperventalating and anger won't help anyone.

2. Find a professor who will listen to your problem and want to help (this might take a while, it helps if the professor actually likes you)

3. Sit down with aomeone who knows what they are talking about (this helps you from punching the wall)

4. Remain calm...every thing will turn out in the long run.

5. Go to the dean of your department, explain the situation and have him drop the classes you no longer need and add the ones you now need.

6. Sell back all book from the classes you dropped and buy the ones you need for your new classes (this will save you about $2.20...I'm rich)

7. Vent to your best friend...it really helps.

Needless to say I am no longer a math education major. I am a Math major with a history minor. When I graduate I will go through the MAT program here at UAM (which means after I get through the MAT program I will have a masters)

Now, if you ever find yourself in this situation, you will know how to deal with it. I am glad that I could help you.

Rain, Rain, Go Away...

So today at four o'clock it was sunny and 83 degrees.

Then we started to practice our music and our drill. And the Heavens broke loose and it started to pour down rain. Now I would say that it was a goo thing because we haven't had rain in a long while, but our pratice field is about a quarter of a mile from the band hall. We had all walked over to the feild, so guess what? We all had to run back.




By the time we finaly returned to the band hall, we all looked like we had taken a shower with our clothes on. I don't think we could have gotten any wetter. So all our prayers came true, it did rain and we didn't have to march...it just waited a little too long!

A LONG Day

PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE.



With the start of a new school year comes the start of a new band year. It always seems like I have no time to do anything for myself. If I am not in the band hall practicing my music and getting ready for pass offs, I am in the library or in my dorm room studying and doing homework. Band is my job, it isn't something that i am doing for fun let me tell you. Today was no different. After church, I came back and did about three hours of caculs homework and spent two hours in the band hall. Then I went back to my room and started to do laundry, but I fell asleep, and just now got finished with everything. What a day, what a day.

Well I guess I better get to bed, that 8 o'clock class is just calling my name.

Weevil Football

It's that time of the year again. Time for another round of Weevil Football!





UAM kicks off its season tonight @ Southern Arkansas University. You know what that means, college football season is finally upon us. Since tonight is an away game, the band doesn't have to go, but I am going. I love football games (as long as I am not sitting in those band uniforms).

GO WEEVILS!!!!!!!!


Ps-I already know that the boll weevil isn't the most might of team mascots (for those of you who don't know a boll weevil is an insect that eats cotton). I've heard all the jokes.

An All Too True Fortune

Today for lunch, a few of the freshmen and I went to eat at the Fortune Cookie (a chinese buffet). We ate! We sat and talked for a while and right about the time it was time to leave and one of the girls asked if we were all ready to go, Nicole spoke up:

"We haven't gotten our fortune cookies yet"

"Your right," I replied.

"So she went and got four fortune cookies. After a period of giving out the cookies (your fortune won't come ture if you arn't given the cookie) I craked mine open and ate the first half (also tradition) then read my fortune. I burt out laughing, because it was the most true fortune that I have ever gotten. It read:

A move back to the south will bring you unexpected happiness.

How weird is that?

Post Card Pictures

I don't know about you, but I LOVE to take pictures. Every new place that I go to, or new things that I see, or just weird and interesting thing that I think would make a funney picture, I take a picture. But here's the question:

Have you ever gotten your print back to find that they look like those post card they were trying to sell you?

The following pictures are pictures that I have taken over the past two summers and I swear to you that they look exactally like post cards in the visitor's gift shops.

I Love to Sleep

Some People say that sleeping is an art form.



If you ask anyone, they will tell you that I love to sleep. I can fall asleep anywhere. So why in the world would I sign up for an eight o'clock class?...It was required! My Calculus 2 class is first thing every single morning. This morning, during Dr. Abedi's lecture, I nodded off taking my notes. When something happened. My cell phone (that was hiding in my front pocket at the time) started to vibrate. It scared me so much that my head fell off my hand and I smacked it on the table. Everyone started laughing, even the professor. I was so embarrassed.

The moral of the story: You can fall asleep in class, just make sure you turn your cell phone off!

A Great Laugh

This is really funny, hope you enjoy!

Every year, English teachers from across the country submit theircollections of actual analogies and metaphors found in high school essays.These excerpts are published each year to the amusement of teachersacross the country.

1. Her face was a perfect oval, like a circle that had its two sides gently compressed by a Thigh Master.

2. His thoughts tumbled in his head, making and breaking alliances like underpants in a dryer without Cling Free.

3. He spoke with the wisdom that can only come from experience, like a guy who went blind because he looked at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it and now goes around the country speaking at high schools about the dangers of looking at a solar eclipse, without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it.

4. She grew on him like she was a colony of E. coli, and he wasroom-temperature Canadian beef.

5. She had a deep, throaty, genuine laugh, like that sound a dog makes just before it throws up.

6. Her vocabulary was as bad as, like, whatever.

7. He was as tall as a six-foot, three-inch tree.

8. The revelation that his marriage of 30 years had disintegrated because of his wife's infidelity came as a rude shock, like a surcharge at a formerly surcharge-free ATM machine.

9. The little boat gently drifted across the pond exactly the way abowling ball wouldn't.

10. McBride fell 12 stories, hitting the pavement like a Hefty bag filled with vegetable soup.

11. From the attic came an unearthly howl. The whole scene had an eerie, surreal quality, like when you're on vacation in another city and Jeopardy comes on at 7:00 p.m. instead of 7:30.

12. Her hair glistened in the rain like a nose hair after a sneeze.

13. The hailstones leaped from the pavement, just like maggots when you fry them in hot grease.

14. Long separated by cruel fate, the star-crossed lovers raced across the grassy field toward each other like two freight trains, one having left Cleveland at 6:36 p.m. traveling at 55 mph, the other from Topeka at 4:19 p.m. at a speed of 35mph.

15. They lived in a typical suburban neighborhood with picket fences that resembled Nancy Kerrigan's teeth.

16. John and Mary had never met. They were like two hummingbirds who had also never met.

17. He fell for her like his heart was a mob informant and she was the East River.

18. Even in his last years, Granddad had a mind like a steel trap, only one that had been left out so long, it had rusted shut.

19. Shots rang out, as shots are want to do.

20. The plan was simple, like my brother-in-law Phil. But unlike Phil, this plan just might work.

21. The young fighter had a hungry look, the kind you get from not eating for a while.

22. He was as lame as a duck. Not the metaphorical lame duck, either, but a real duck that was actually lame, maybe from stepping on a land mine or something.

23. The ballerina rose gracefully en Pointe and extended one slender leg behind her, like a dog at a fire hydrant.

24. It was an American tradition, like fathers chasing kids around with power tools.

25. He was deeply in love. When she spoke, he thought he heard bells, as if she were a garbage truck backing up.

Jericho Memory 1.2

At the block party on Friday night, my job was to man the bounce house (see Jericho Memory 1.1). Watching the kids just having a blast was so great. Their smiles were worth it. But my fun came at the end of the night, when it was time to deflate the bounce house and fold it up and put it back into the block party trailer. To see all the adults (and yes, even Kious joined in the fun) rolling on the ground was great. And we were laughing and just living it up.

You Know You're in Arkansas When...

While me and my brother were out driving around on our last day together, we went through the Arkansas side of downtown Texarkana. Wel lthere was a point when we knew we wern't in Texas anymore. A little down seventh street (about three blocks from Stateline) there is this road sign. These Arkansas people don't know where they are going. This one street is Highway 67 North, Highway 82 east and Highway 71 South. How can you be going north and south at the same time, let alone east as well. It is the funniest thing ever.

My Hometown Fun

My hometown is unlike any other (at least down here in Texas). Texarkana is a border city that lies on the Texas-Arkansas border in the northeast part of the state of Texas (southwest Arkansas). Texarkana gets its name from the three states that surround it (Tex-,Texas; -ark-,Arkansas; -ana,Louisiana).

Well the coolest thing about Texarkana is going downtown to the post office. When anyone new comes here for the first time, this is the place I try to take them. Right in front of the post office doors, there is a sign and a line that indicate the stale line of Arkansas and Texas. It is truly a time when you can be in 'two places at once'.

Me in Texas, my legs in Arkansas

David (my brother) in Arkansas, his feet in Texas

Jericho Memory 1.1

I know that I haven't had one of these in a while, so I thought that I would give you another. The last night of Jericho the church that we were working with that week hosted a block party in their town. At the block party, it was my job to man the bounce house. The bounce house was where the kids mainly stayed, therefore I was busy all night.

It was so much fun to just sit there and watch the kids having so much fun just jumpinf and jumping and jumping.

It was hard for some of the kids to stay on thier feet.

Instead of jumping, some kids just enjoied rolling around (probably tring to trip the others)

What amazes me about the bounce house is that, no matter what mood the child goes in with, there are nothing but smiles while inside (until you tell them it is time to get out, then you are the most disliked person in the world!)

I'M HOME!!!!

I AM BACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



So after all that hoopla at the airport on Thursday, I am finally at home sleeping in my own bed and taking a couple of days to relax before i have to go to school. I am going to use these next few days to get reaclamated to this horrid heat (its hard going from a place with a consistant high in the 70's to a consitant high in the 90's). Which reminds me of the last conversation that I had with Pasrtor Dan:

"Man Pastor Dan, those people are crazy. Its too cold right now to go swimming."

"Its not too cold. Its so hot out here. When you go you can take this heat with you."

"I guaruntee that it is way hotter than this where I am going."

"Pretty soon you're going to want this weather back."

"Whatever."

Needless to say that the man was right. I want it back so bad. This heat thing is not for me (and I haven't even been outside in the day time yet (because my plane arived last night at 10:30). I am home, I guess thats all that matters.

Hopefully Going Home

So today was the Annual McKenzie Road Church Picnic. I was so great getting to see everyone one last time. But the whole goodbye thing wasn't that great. I love this church family so much.

So hopefully tonight is my last night here in Olympia *fingers are crossed*. I can't wait to se my brothers at the airport (and my grandmother too). So once again, I hope that the next time I update you on my actions I am safe and sound in Texas.

Getting Prepared for Another Round of Final Good-Byes

So it has just come to me that I have to say good bye to everyone again tomorrow. I thought that I got this all out of my system last Sunday and Wednesday, but I guess I have to prepare myself again. But this time not only am I saying good bye again, I have to tell the story of why I am still here only about a hundred times. How lucky am I? I am excited though. I get to see everyone again you know. SoI am going to make the best of tomorrow and just hit it full stride. McKenzie Road, "I'm BAAAACK"

I HATE TERROISTS

Surprise...I am not in Arkansas. I am still in Olympia. You see I was the lucky on who chose the day that terroists would be arrested in London to fly home. Security was so hightened at SEA-TAC that I missed my flight by three seconds (and I was even at the airport three hours before m departure time!).

With the whole no liquids thing, I took everything out of my carry-on and placed it in my checked bag, or so I thought. When I finally got to the security checkpoint, they saw that I had deodorant and chapstick. So they went thorugh my entire bag. This held me up for like five minutes, therefore causing me to miss my flight. (everyone around me in line that was on my flight also, made the flight) If it wasn't for those stupid new security measures, I would be in Arkansas right now. But for me its back to Olympia.

Time to Say Good-Bye

Tonight was my last night here in Olympia. I hate saying goodbyes. They always seem so final. And no matter how much you tell yourself 'I'm no going to cry' you always do.

So I'm leaving. Man how fast this summer flew by. As much as I am going to miss being in the Northwest, I can't wait until I get home. So hopefully the next time I post, I will be in Arkansas.

A Day At Mount St.Helens

The beauty of this world continues to amaze me. We just spent the day at Mount St. Helens. and I have never seen anything so facinating. We started out watching a video of what the mountian looked like before and after the explosion. But to acctually be there and to see with my own eyes what the eruption did to the landscape was mind boggling. I will never forget the images of what I saw. What a great day.

A Moment to Remember

So this story starts on Wednesday. Jim (my crew encourager) started building a relationship with our home owner Ms. Bonnie. They just talked every chance that Jim got to just talk to her. That day, on the way back to the school, Jim told us that Thursday would be the day that he would try to find an opportunity to share the Gospel with her.His opportunity came when Ms. Bonnie went around the house to grab something for us and we were wating patiently for the supplies to finish our job. Jim turned to us and said:

"Could you guys go away for a minute? I think that now is the time."

"Sure," we answered.

So the three of us (Amy, Joe and I) went around prayer walking, praying for Jim and Bonnie. About 45 minutes later, I got a phone call:

"Hello?!"

"Hey Chief, are you guys ready to come back?"

"Only if you are ready for us to come back."

"I am, Ms. Bonnie just prayed to recive Christ in her heart!"

"That's amazing, we're on our way."

It was so cool that she accepted Christ. If only that was the end of the story. Later that night, Jim went back over to Ms. Bonnie's house to talk with her more about her decision and about baptism. The next day, she cam to him and told him that she was ready. So we had a baptismal service...right there in her front yard. It was the coolest thing that I have ever experienced at a World Changers. It made the whole week worth while. At that moment it didn't matter how much work we did. It was all about God's mercy.

Jim addressing the 'congregation' in the front yard

Preparing for the dunk

What an amazing moment

Family is Everything

Today was a very great day. I got to see my baby brother Cody while in Spokane. My brother was put up for adoption when he was born and lucky for me my mom's sister (my aunt Yogi) adopted him. She is the track coach at the University of Idaho in Moscow, ID. Moscow is only an hour from where we were staying so she brought him up to see me. I had so much fun with him. We went to the park and just had fun running around playing tag. He turns six in October. What a great thing to see family.

Cody Sliding down the Slide

Cody and Payton

Cody, Haming up for the camera

Kelly's WOW Moment

Well while we were at Siverwood on our day off, my friend Kelly had a great WOW moment. Kelly is this fourteen year old kid that looks like he is ten. He has a really great heart and he reminds me of my little brother. We were in line for the Antique Car ride and the two of us were joking around and sudenly the girl in front of us whipped around:


"Are you two brother and Sister?"

"NO!," we exclaimed in unison.

"Well then are you best friends?"

"UH...No."

"Then how do you know each other?"

Kelly went on to explain that we were part of the World Changers group and what WC was all about. He then gave her his John 3:16 card and told her to read it and that if she had any questions to ask him. She then got on the ride while reading the card. What guts. Kelly is a great kid. I really miss him.

You're TOO OLD!!!

So I do have to say that there comes a time in everyones life when they finally feel old, and I think that mine came way early.

We arived back at the school about an hour before any other crew and this is what happened. We desided to have a crew basketball game. So after messing around a little bit, we finally picked teams. We made Mark and Joe our team captians and they began picking. I waited and waited and waited It came down to only me. When Mark exclaimed

"You take Amanda and we'll play five on three."

To which I replied, "Why do I have to be the last one picked?"

"You are too old to hang with us," was the next thing out of his mouth.

I was determined to change their minds about that one. When Joe passed me the ball I took a step behind the three point line and let her rip. *the sound of the net echos in the gym as the kids stare at me stunned*

"Look who's too old to get picked now," I said, my arms up high.