Random Randomness

I haven't posted in a while cause of the holidays and whatnot...but I didn't know what to talk about so...I thought random randomness would be a good one...

• Snowboarding is so awesome...I bought a board today, crazy deal at Big 5
• I'm about to eat some chimichungas
• This weekend was sooo much fun, thanks everyone for coming out
• Last week was tons of fun to, Denver was nice
• It's nice to be back home though, gotta love Phoenix weather
• I'm addicted to Mountain Dew
• Who likes Egg Nog? I love it, but a lot of others don't
  
• I can't wait to start our small group this year, the Plastic Jesus book is gonna be awesome
• I need to start working out again...I gained 5 or 6 pounds this holiday season
• I really want to get back into hockey...but it's so expensive
• I hope I can make it to Vegas for Nathan's tournament in Vegas
• Does anyone like watching the World Cup? I love watching it, but that's the only time I ever watch soccer
• There's a tight race for 2nd in my fantasy hockey league
• Cam and Logan are so freakin' cute
• These chimichungas are good!!

Th-th-th-that's all folks!!

Peace

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Merry Christmas Everyone!!!

That's what we woke up to----->

We, up here in Denver, had a great start to the day today waking up to everything covered in snow and it kept snowing til probably 3 or 4...it was like 1 or 2 feet of snow...up to my knees...so sick!!

I hope everyone had a blessed Christmas with their family and friends...and remember to say Happy Birthday to Jesus!!

Happy Birthday Jesus!! Love You!!

Nathan Wiped Out

Here's the infamous Nathan Eating Snow video...thats me filming it and screaming...it was classic

Ama-za-zing

Christmas Eve was AWESOME!!!

We went snowboarding at A-Basin and it was soooo much fun...I can't wait to go again...and I'm thinking about buying my own stuff now

I finally learned the toe edge...it was crazy hard to figure out...it took quite a bit of crashing to learn it too

Now I can actually go down the mountain and carve instead of going back and forth on my heel edge

Anyways, I crashed really hard probably 10 times or so...but I guess that's how you learn..right??

My neck, shoulders, forearms, wrists, hands, chest, butt, thighs, calves, and ankles are all sore...but that's it

It was well worth it though, we got Nathan on video crashing on a jump (oh yeah I was actually jumping by the end of the day, I landed one, it felt like I was 3 feet in the air...but it was probably only 6 inches) the video is awesome...to Nathans credit he did land that jump the first time

Out of all the times I fell, I'm surprised, no one got at least one of them on video

I tweak my knee pretty bad on one fall...then smashed my ribs and lost my breath on another fall...other than that the rest my falls weren't bad at all

But...yeah...it was well worth all those falls...I think they actually made it more fun

I hope to go again soon

Peace

Yeah...that's me in the picture...Nose Grab

Here we go...

Were off to Denver...I wish we could have gone sooner, but this is still cool...I can't wait to hang out with everyone, especially Nate

I'll still try and get on and blog about whats going on...like the snowboarding or hockey or any of the other cool stuff we do

Until then...Merry Christ-mas

Peace

Pointless

I want to get to a point...where there is no point...

Let me explain...

In the shower yesterday, I got to thinking (I seem to do the best thinking there, for some reason)...Lately I've been trying to figure out where I need to get to have this awesome relationship with my Abba...For example...If I want to have this awesome relationship, I start thinking..."Well, if I do this and do this and get rid of that...then I'll have a good relationship with Him"

Then, in the shower I was thinking about all that

Why do I think there is a certain point?

Is there a certain point?

After pondering it for a while...I figured out that there shouldn't be a point

I want to be so in love with God to where that's all I focus on...not all the other things that fill my mind...

Of course I want to do a lot of amazing things for God and get rid of sin in my life...but I don't want that to be my focus...I want God to be my focus

Just my thoughts...

Peace

Random Randomness...?

I like Josh's Random Randomness blogs...I wish I could think of a original name...anyways I'll try it out...

• I'm really getting sick of the O key not working very good on my computer
• Have you seen Drew Carey on the Price is Right yet? He's pretty bad...maybe they told him he can't be funny cause Bob Barker wasn't...he just looks really uncomfortable
• I just finished chapter 6 of Plastic Jesus...it was probably my favorite chapter so far...it was about the different levels of where our relationship is with God
• We got Dad and Dane's x-mas presents in the mail yesterday...Thank you so much, Love you guys
• I really love that our family is blogging...I just wish we'd all do it more...I'm slacking to though
• I love that a lot of friends are too
• I just watched Lost season 3 with Tedd over the last week...such an awesome show...I don't know how they do it so consistently, but they always keep it so intriguing
• We watched the extras on the Lost DVD...A day in the production of Lost...it was crazy to see people so happy to do their work and be so productive without any supervisors around
• The Clapper commercial is on the TV right now...they haven't made a new commercial since this thing was invented...hahaha
• I really hope the Running of the Bulls thing works out and Stevie and I can go...I have some friends that wanna go to
• I really miss Louie, our last dog, he was the best dog ever (I know everyone says that about their dog), we had a good time
• I can't wait to get to Denver
• I wish I could hang out with Nathan more and play hockey with him all the time-toughen him up a little, jk he's pretty tough for his age
• Who's everyone gonna vote for...I don't have a clue...I'll figure it out after the primaries
• I suck at crosswords...I'm OK at Sudoku's...I'm really good at the comics
• Our Abba (Father God) is awesome!!
• Let's be "drunk" with God's grace

Peace

DUI...

Got your attention...hahaha...it actually does have something to do with this post

So...I've been reading a lot of this Plastic Jesus lately, I'll do another post later about some of the major things I've been learning from this book, about how we should be in our relationship with Jesus

But for right now I'm gonna focus on God's grace...which is talked about in chapter 5 of this book...and really been on my heart today

And...by the way the the O button is not working very good, so I might miss and o here and there

The author, Eric, defines grace as God's empowering presence in our life...I love that definition...Google defined it as under divine influence...I love that one too...Wikipedia says "without God's grace there are certain limitations, weakness, flaws, impurities, and faults humankind cannot overcome"

I talked to Josh a little bit about it today, I always thought that God's grace was something like forgiveness...I don't know why...I think cause Ephesians 2:8..."For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith-and this is not from yourselves, but a gift from God."...I always interpreted that like God gave us grace by forgiving us cause of our faith

Josh explained it to me like it is something God gives us that we don't deserve...we don't deserve it...after reading all this, though, I think, it is something so much deeper

Going back to the definitions...being under divine influence...that really got me thinking...it sounded like a DUI, but you would be drunk with God's influence...now I've never been drunk, but from what I know, people do things they normally wouldn't when they are drunk or under the influence of something...

So...when God gives YOU grace, he's empowering YOU, helping you accomplish things YOU couldn't do by yourself

It's like being drunk for God...doing things that you wouldn't be able to without Him, under His influence

That's gonna be in my prayers a lot...asking God to give me his grace (now that I know what it means-hahaha)

Peace

I hope this makes sense

Wow-e?!

So...Josh got me excited about the book Plastic Jesus...hang on...wait a sec...did I just say that...let me rewind..."me excited about the book"...I don't know where that came from...

But, seriously...he talked a lot about it, so I thought I would read a little bit of it...it is a really good book-well so far, at least...There's a lot of really good points the author makes about God and who we are in Him...

As soon as I gather my thoughts about everything he is saying...I'll tell you guys some of the awesome stuff I'm learning from it

Until then...

Peace

Another Blogger...

Tedd's blogging now...his our pretty long sometimes but definetly worth the read, if you know him check it out...if you don't you might still learn some stuff...good stuff.

Peace

Matt's Bloggin

Everyone's blogging now...pretty darn cool

For those who know Matt, give his site a check, there's a link on the side, it should be pretty sweet

Peace

Slap Shot!!

Me and Ryan got to go and play some hockey this morning...it was pretty sick...I was a little rusty, obviously, since I haven't played on ice in a couple years or so, but we picked it up pretty quick and had a good time

My stickhandling ability went down immensly, and my shot was just ok, but everything else was pretty good, the skating and stopping and so forth

I can't wait to get out there again and start getting better

Peace

Megan's Bloggin

Hey, I don't know who all reads my blog, but if any of you know Megan she started a blog yesterday...it should be pretty good...check it out

Peace

Ryan's Bloggin

For those who know Ryan Balliet he's blogging now, he's got a link on the right side of my page, check it out he's got some good stuff

Peace

Gingerbread House...

Alright, so...My college group at church had their Christmas party tonight, lots of fun, it started it out kinda slow, but picked up some steam and we had a really good time

After dinner we had a competition between the four different small groups, a gingerbread-house-making competition

At first, I was thinking this might be a little gay, but I'll try and make the best of it (it didn't help that my small group forgot to bring candy to decorate it, except for one-Thanks Megan). So we only had a box of Snowcaps and Dots to decorate our house...we saw it as an opportunity to be creative

We had no idea what we were gonna do...So I started trying to put four walls together, but when I tried to lean them on each other they just fell outwards (stay with me...there's a reason I'm telling this story)

As soon as I saw the walls fall outwards I yelled out "It's Jericho" (from the story when the Israelites walk around Jericho one time for six days and on the 7th day the walked around seven times, etc. from Joshua 5 and 6)

So we went with it...don't know why...but we did

Our whole gingerbread house was four graham crackers laying down with frosting on the crackers with Snowcaps all over the place and the dots lined in a circle around "Jericho" representing the Israelites walking around the city...That's all we used...That's it

The other groups had like two or three grocery bags full of candy and different snacks to decorate their houses, and they did some pretty sick work on them, way better than ours...

After we were all done they were all judged, and I got to explain to the judges what our represented, and went on to tell them that they have to keep the creativity in mind when deciding

So they decided and brought everyone together to announce the winner...Jill did the presenting and gave the honorable mention announcements for the three non-winning groups and explain what was good about each one

But she didn't mention my groups...I was thinking..."uhhh...they can't be serious"...then she got to the final award and called me up to receive the award (which was a whisk), I was in total shock, I didn't think anyone would take our serious...let alone the judges

Our team/small group was pretty excited, it was a perfect way to end the party, we were all pretty shocked and excited

My heart goes out to the other houses, they were all done very well and were totally awesome, we just went the more creative route...I guess

Peace

Close Call

So...I called Dad yesterday, just to say hi and everything, and in the midst of our conversation I ask him how Uncle Archie was doing

For those not in my family, our Uncle Archie got his leg amputated a month or two ago because of diabetes

This was one of those things you say that your not sure about what the other person is going to think or react, but knowing Dad, I figured he would take it light-heartily

When we were talking about Archie, Dad was saying that he lost a lot of weight and now only weighs about 115 or 120, probably the least he has ever weighed

And my brilliant remark was..."Well, a leg probably weighs at least 15 or 20 pounds"

Then we went on making jokes like "Well, that's one way to lose weight" and "How about cutting the other one off, cause I need to lose another 15 pounds" and so forth

I was a little hesitant to make that remark, cause I wasn't sure how Dad would react, but it turned out to be a pretty funny story

We, both, laughed pretty good, and Dad thinks that Archie will get a kick out of it

There's one of those things that you may regret saying immediately (like my other post earlier), but thankfully we have a cool, laid-back family

Peace

Oh...no picture for this post, I thought about putting one of an amputated leg, but that might be a little gross

Talk About Love

How AWESOME is our God??

VERY!!

Not only does God help us out when were in distress, or when were on a "mountain-top experience", or when we need an answer, even for the little things we need help with

I was at Savers looking for something to help make a Christmas present (can't say more than that cause it might be for you, I'll tell the people who it's not for later) but I had to find something kinda specific, so I just prayed "God, help me with this, I know it's not a huge significant thing, but I know you're always there for me"

So... I'm looking around and I can't find anything, as I'm looking a guy randomly comes up to me and says "Hey there's this place on 59th and Bell, called Thrifty Joe's that might have what your looking for", at the time I was just thinking sweet I'll go check it out

It got me thinking after though...I prayed that little prayer for God to help me and he sent this guy to help me out, and I found something perfect at Thrifty Joe's...I was pretty joyful, that God had helped me out with that and answered my little prayer

There's other, more important things that I'm still waiting to hear from God on, but I think this was a little thing God did for me, telling me that "I'm still here"

Peace

Oh...I agree with Vicki (post-Psalm 55:3-5), there is a message that God is trying portray to us, every second of every day we can learn something from God, just being open to God and wanting his will for you, like in this situation just wanting God's help and him teaching and showing me something new

Career??

So...me thinking a lot lately about what I wanna do with my life, I have an idea that I think would be really cool as a career. I kinda got the idea from watching The Bourne Identity

And, no, it's not wanting to be a guy that really kicks some ASS!! although that would be cool

The career I'm talking about would be working in a U.S. Embassy, I looked up the Department of State website and read a bunch of information about it. It gave a list of things you need to enjoy in order to succeed in this job (ex. traveling, knowing other cultures, helping people with lost passports-hahaha-, etc.) and all the things were something that I enjoy



I took a test on their website to see what job would be good for me, it was saying a consular, by like 98%. A consular is the people that work in the passport office of the embassy, like helping Americans with passports, helping foreigners with a Visa, helping in emergencies, stuff like that

The cool thing would be to get to travel and everything and learn new languages, they send you to a new place every two years, so you get to see a lot of cool places

This is just something that has been running through my head, it would be awesome, we'll see

Peace

Slow...

I haven't blogged in a couple days...I was wanting to do it everyday, but I guess I've been too busy. There's a few things I wanna blog about, but it's to late right now and I'm too tired. Hopefully I'll have time tomorrow.

Peace

El Enceirro!!

I don't know why this has been in my head lately (I think I told Josh, Tedd, and Tayler about it), maybe cause I've been talking about traveling, I don't know...

Anyways, what I'm talking about is I want to go to Pamplona, Spain. Why...? Does anyone know what goes on in Pamplona?

The Running of the Bulls!!

That would be one of the coolest things to do!!

Yeah, it's dangerous and people get hurt and maybe die, but I think it would be worth it. How cool would it be to be able to tell people, "Yeah, I ran in that." That would be one awesome experience

If I were going to go (I'm already kind of planning it, just out of curiousity) I would want to fly and have a long layover in London or Frankfurt, Germany (so I can leave at least for a couple hours to go see something) then land in Toulouse or Bordeaux, France (both of them in Southern France) then take a bus down to Pamplona, which is in Northern Spain. Three awesome countries

I found a website cheapflights.com and they have tickets to Toulouse and Bordeaux for about $370 (CRAZY!!) then taxes on top of that which are $300-$400, but still a flight all the way out there for $700...awesome!!

I would like to go next July, but it'll probably have to be in '09. If anyone would want to go with me, let me know, that would be awesome (I'll go by myself to, though). Who knows if I'll even go, but I hope so

Peace

What do You want?!

It's so hard, at least for me, to figure out what God wants me to do with my life. I, sometimes, wish that he would just come to me in a dream or a vision or an angel...ANYTHING!!!

That seems like it would make it soooo much easier

I can say, I'm just being patient to hear what God wants for me...I'm trying that...it doesn't seem to be working

Maybe I'm not fully opening up to Him...maybe I'm sticking to my own agenda and not trying to follow His...I keep praying for Him to show me His will, His plan, His agenda for my life

God is a HUGE God and I'll praise and worship Him all my life...I know his plan is perfect and His will for me is awesome!! I just wanna know sooner than He wants to tell me

Please pray for me, that'll I'll stay patient and keep loving God and love the way he does things

And...If you have any advice, it would be greatly appreciated...Thanks

Peace

Oh...if your wondering what this is regarding, it's regarding, I guess, a few different things, but mostly school and what God wants to do with my life, in that area

Worst Shower Ever...

I just had the worst shower experience...ever

So I got home and I took a shower before I went out to go see a movie (Bee movie by the way, which was pretty funny). I got into my shower and closed the curtain...

(For those who have the opinion that Josh and my house is always dirty, this story isn't gonna make it any better)

Right after closing the curtain, there's this HUGE 2 or 3 inch cockroach on the curtain...I don't think I've ever jumped out of a shower so fast...my heart was racing, and I still had to go back in there and kill it, after calming down a little I finally killed it

But then I had to actually take my shower, I was lookin' around the whole time to make sure there weren't anymore that were gonna get me, you can't enjoy a nice, warm shower like that

It was pretty much the worst shower I ever had

Stupid bugs

Peace (without cockroaches)

Re: To Fargo

So Steve wants to know why we blog...

He gave three reasons pretty much on why he blogged, all good reasons to, even though I can only say one of those works for me...since I don't have a clue how to create a website and I hate English and writing. But it is nice to be able to keep in touch with everyone and just do a blog instead of calling everyone

I didn't really think about why I'm blogging now, everyone else in the family was doing it, so I figured I might as well join the bandwagon. It's been really cool too, I wasn't sure if I'd like it, cause as I said before I hate English and writing, but I actually like doing it, a lot

I guess some reasons why I would say I'm blogging...I think it's fun, I like sharing stuff going on with my friends and family, I like to be able to share stuff about God and maybe even encourage others, those are pretty much the main reasons. Also I want to do something like Vicki and post some blogs about what I've been reading in the bible, but I haven't done one of those yet

There's my reply to the one in Fargo thats askin

(My money is on Josh on answering you last, lol)

Peace

Tug-O-War

So...the other day Wendy was telling me how she thought that I named this blog East to West because I love to travel. I guess that could be another reason why I called it East to West(thanks Wendy)

So...what's been on my mind the last few weeks and especially the last few days, is I feel some sort of "tug" on my heart from God to go on another mission trip next year. It's kind of a different feeling than before though, like I absolutely love going on mission trips like this, but I don't know exactly if God wants me to go (I know that totally just contradicted that last sentence). Let me explain...

I brought this idea up to my small group, for us to all try and go on a trip, and they were really excited...some more than others of course...but since I know how amazing these trips can be it got me really excited that others in my small group wanted to go. That brings us up to date

The things going on in my head are I'm wondering if God wants me to go next year or just make sure others can get a chance to go, cause this can change their life, and I don't want to go just because it would be cool (and it really would be AWESOME!!) I want to go because God wants me to go. If God didn't want me to go I would still be excited to see others go, that have never had a chance like this before, and I would do everything I could to help them go on the trip (even though from my experience, if God wants you to go, he'll make sure you get there)

What I'm dealing with now and praying about is wondering what exactly is that "tug" on my heart is. If it were up to me I would be flying over the Atlantic already, but it's not up to me, as much as I wish it were sometimes

Peace

Oh...and if you ever do go on a trip like this...HOLD on to your passport

Whoops...

Here's a funny story....it happened last Saturday night after church, a few of us from the college group went out to eat at the Fox and Hound, a sports bar, we went there so we could hang out and watch the ASU-Arizona game (Which ASU won by the way!!). Anyways, our waitress was wearing a Arizona jersey, and one of my friends, Justine, who was going for Arizona, told the waitress she liked her jersey

(Do you ever have one of those moments where you say something and you immediately realize that it was a dumb thing to say)

Then me...Whose going for ASU obviously has to say something...So i Say "I don't like your jersey", but I couldn't leave it at that. (For those who know me, you'll know that I try my best not to offend people) SO, me, trying to not offend her with that, in my head I'm like I have to say something nice to make up for that so she's not offended.

So I say..."But, I like you", Immediatly in my head I was CRAP!! She's gonna think I'm hittin' on her, she then gave kinda a weird look and didn't come to our table much after that

We all just laughed at the stupid thing I had said

Then it got me thinkin, in a joking way...What if I was hitting on her? She totally just blew me off...that sucks...

GOOD thing I don't care...

So there's my story from this weekend...it was worth a good laugh

Peace

Re-Sparked...again

So after watching Nathan play hockey a week or two ago, all I've been thinking about is getting back into some how or some way. I think it would be awesome to coach a team like Nathans age or maybe even high school. I found out my old high school has a team again and I think that would be sweet to help them coach it. We'll see

It also got me thinking about wanting to play again, if I really got into training again I could probably play for ASU next year, that would be so awesome!! I'm starting a training program to work out 3 times a week to do some off-ice training for hockey. Hopefully I can keep up on it...

I miss it and would love to get back into it, but as Josh was saying everytime we see Nathan play, we get all excited and want to get back into it. Which is true. So...I don't know...I'd like to think I'll stick with it

That's what I've been thinking about a little lately

Peace

East to West

So why is my blog called "East to West"? The title of my blog came from the Casting Crowns song East to West, an awesome song, it's been my favorite song for awhile now

The song was written based off of Psalm 103:11-12

Take a minute and read through the lyrics

Why is it so hard for us, as humans, to understand that God doesn't hold anything against us (Ezekiel 18:22)? Why do we let things hinder our growth and not move forward (Philippians 3:13)? He forgives us, He lays our sins as far away from us as possible, as far as the East is from the West

Satan likes to hold us down and keep us dwelling on the fact that we are sinner. Yes, I know we are sinners, but if we dwell on what is of the past we won't fully experience what God has planned for us (Jeremiah 29:11-12)

So what this song means to me is to not be held down by anything or anyone, especially Satan, and to live the life God wants you to live and He set forth for you

Beautiful song...Beautiful God


Peace


Oh...that first link is a link to my Myspace page which you can play the song from and take a look at my page, which I'm never on


And...if you have time check out this article about Casting Crowns and their new album, The Altar and the Door, which includes the East to West song

How Cliche...

How cliche is it that when someone gets their new blog page they have to have their first blog talk about...their first blog. But here I am doing my first blog on...my first blog

So, anyways, here I am...I gave in...everyone else was doing it...I created a blog

It should be pretty cool, we'll see if I can keep up on it

I hope for my blog to be entertaining, inspiring, alot of things-HA!!! We'll see how that goes

Peace