...

Wednesday was my first day of Senior year and I would have updated this earlier, but... I was... grounded.

So anyway I like the new school. But they definitely have some kinks to work out. Like allowing people into the library, not having 90-100 kids per study hall in a big echo-y gym, evening up the lunches, getting a working kitchen, and just general fix up things. But besides that it is really exciting.

I added an extra course onto my schedule this year, besides the basics (math, science, Spanish), American Government. I really enjoy the teacher and having class in the auditorium. But it adds a whole lot more work for me to do. I am even doing all of my work this year, like I am actually trying to do well, and so far out of having school for three days I haven't had 20 minutes of free time (well maybe not that bad, but I have been hard at work.)

Speaking of which I better go read "Beowulf."

mtc...

DYE DYE DYE

So for my senior year I wanted to do something different.

And different I think is something I am going to achieve.

LATER...

So this is what I looked like after the first time Aimee dyed my hair. We decided to try again. So we went back to "Sally's" and got some hair bleaching stuff.

These are some pictures during the process.

This is a picture after I got out of the shower. I look so old and ugly. AH!

I didn't like the long hair, so Aimee attempted to cut it, and it actually turned out pretty well. I think so at least. This is a good picture, so I will take some more later.

And so it ends...

I meant to do this before I left Oklahoma, but now I have been gone for a couple of days. I can't believe how fast it went. Everyone else I have talked to said that it went by too fast also. It just isn't fair.

I might continue to update this every once in a while, but not that often. Unless I have somehting to say. Which I don't, I thought I did, but I don't...

I saw "The Invasion" tonight with Jon. It was really good, I liked it a lot...

Well I guess that is all I really had to say...

mtc?

*huff*

I can't believe that the summer is almost up.
Almost as depressing is that I am going to be leaving in almost a week.
Not that I am not anxious to get home, but...
I really love it here.
The heat is really growing on me.
So is the coffee...
I just can't believe that a month and a half ago I came out here.
In a sense it feels like forever ago,
but at the same time it feels like I just got here.
The Lowry's and I have done so much this summer,
It is hard to believe that it is almost over.
I just can't thank the Lowry's enough for making me part of their family this summer.
I also can't thank God enough for saving me, in more ways than one, and more than once.

I don't really have any big news to talk about,
this blog is more just for venting.
Although tomorrow we are going to a place called Woolaroc,
I think that is how it is spelled.
It looks really cool from the web site.

More to come...

Andrew['s been in Montana]

Wow... So where to begin... I am not even going to try and put this in an orderly fashion, but rest assured I had a GREAT time.

We left Saturday after the boys tee-ball game. It was a a fairly mild ride, but also only the first day. We stayed at a Holiday Inn Express, I think. We got in pretty late, well it was like 12:30, but in Colorado we lost an hour, so it was only 11:30 which was good.

Sunday we left around 9ish I think. It wasn't that bad traveling, but the kids were a little more anxious. We made it into Montana around 5:30. We went directly to a Church where Mike's Aunt and Uncle were having their 35th? Maybe 40th wedding anniversary. I met some of the family, but his immediate family I saw a lot more of during the week.

That night after we got all settled in and stuff Marissa took me out and let me ride my first horse.

Verizon is his name I think. It was so much fun, I could see why people would just want to ride for hours. I could have, but it was getting dark and the mosquito's were eating me alive! It was horrendous.

On Monday we ah... let me see. I tanned for the first time standing up... and we had a a BBQ at Joel's... It was only a week ago, but I am having a hard time remembering all that happened, because so much did happen.

Tuesday, Margo and I are having a hard time recalling what we did, everyday in my mind is kind of jumbled together, I think was a relaxing day.

Wednesday we hung out at Joel's, gallivanted, and carried on is in way or another.

Thursday we went to Red lodge, a town in Southern Montana. It was Mountains really close by, so after eating some lunch at a really nice pizza parlor and going to a big candy store, we drove up the mountains and had a grand old time. Oh and we also went to a zoo that has native Montana animals. A the little zoo they have some really pretty scenery. Here is a picture of me with the mountains in the background.
Here is a picture of a chipmunk halfway up the mountains. They were really awesome, you could hold food in your hands and they would come and eat right out of it. They were everywhere too. If they had conspired together they could have carried of Kyle and raised him as their own.

Here is one picture that I took of the mountain range. As you drive up the side you can see in the distance some ponds. It was a really awesome place to visit.

On our ride back to Oklahoma we stopped a couple times just to let the kids blow off some steam. One of the places we stopped was at Mount Rushmore.

It wasn't at all what I expected. I was just expecting some parking places and a trail to the cliff, but I was wrong. As you pull in they have a couple parking garages, as you get out of the garages you come up to a walkway with all 50 state flags and the years they were fonded, as you walk up they have some stores you can go shopping for food or souvenirs, you continue walking and you come up to the museum type things and the theaters. Then after that they have the faces of Washington, Jefferson, Roosevelt, and Lincoln. It was more than I expected.

We also stopped at Storybook Land. Here is a picture for you Mom!

We got home around 11 o'clock. We watched "The Last Mimsy" on the ride home the last night, horrible, creepy, messed up philosophy, and just down right stupid and anti-climactic.

It was good to be "home." This bed is now starting to feel like my own. I can't believe that I am going to be leaving in less than two weeks. I am really anxious to get home and see my family, and friends, and Rajah. But I really love being here. It's kind of sad actually.

Oh, and so you know Aimee, I just got my first "sunburn" of the year today. And it is not even a sunburn, it doesn't burn, it is just red.

I know that that this blog was kind of a disappointment, but when so much happens in a relatively long amount of time, it gets kind of hard to write about it all. Plus these blogs are more complicated then they look.

mtc...

Here are the other pictures that I had wanted to add before.

Here is Liberty? I believe that's what her name was. She is an American Bald Eagle that was in the zoo we went to in Redlodge Montana.

Here is me feeding the natives and Kyle photographing them. They were so much fun to play with.

This is a picture of me at the point of the mountain.

These are the fifty state flags as you walk up to the mountain cliff.

I like this one. It is a custom made Coke machine as you leave the parking garage to go up to the upper levels.

And here is one just for creeps.

As I was updating this Kyle started to pick up the yellow paint can that Margo had bought to paint the home-school room with. You can see how it ended.

Margo was at a mothers home-school meeting and Mike was at work. I am soooo glad that Rita and Walter were here, Margo's parents. I don't know what I would have done if they hadn't been here.

A lot/most of it came out. I didn't even notice it was that yellow until I looked at the picture that I took. Maybe tomorrow we can attack it with some carpet shampoo and stain remover. Hopefully it will all come out.

Tonight for supper Rita and Walter treated us to Fuddruckers. It is America's favorite burger. I have to agree, it was quality stuff.

You order you burger, I ordered Southwest burger (cheeseburger with bacon and guacamole), and then you go up to the bar and add your own condiments and toppings. Not only that but they had really good potato wedges and onion rings.

... Well this is going to be one of the last entries I have while I am out here.

mtc(2)...

Everything is up to date in Kansas City!

These past couple of days have been non-stop intensity. It was so much fun, not soon to be forgotten.



Tuesday


We left Tuesday from the Freedom Church at noon and started heading to Kansas City, Missouri. Just for the record i finally got the city thing straight. Kansas City is in both Kansas and Missouri. Even though they are across the river from each other and in two different states they are still the same town.


After numerous hours of traveling in the car, I don't even remember how long it was, we arrived to the four star hotel that we were going to stay in, I believe it was Regency or something. We stayed at the hotel just long enough to sign in. After we got the keys we went to eat supper. We decided to eat at Arthur Bryant's BBQ restaurant. The place was really packed, but extremely good.


Once we finished eating we heading to the Royals stadium. It was evident from the moment we got there that the place was going o be packed, but it was ok because we already had our tickets. That didn't hold for long. Once we parked and walked back to the stadium we soon found out that the stadium accidentally over sold tickets. After checking out some scalpers, we realized that we wouldn't be able to see the whole game that night. We could come back at 7th inning and see it from there, but we wanted to see the whole game. We bought some tickets for the next night, knowing that we would then be getting back later then planned. A lot later.


After we left the stadium we had a couple hours to kill. Brian found a fun park near by and we consented to going there. the had go carts, mini golf, batting cages, and an arcade. First we did the go carts. I was towards the back of the line when another group of people joined in. I guess they had a 13-14 year old son, and if he wasn't theirs, I don't know where he came from. But he started talking to us telling us about the "Simpsons Movie." After he was done he slowly and surreptitiously made his way up our line. We saw him doing it at one time, but we didn't saw anything because we thought that he might be disabled or something, so we let him go on donig his thing. We finally got to go on the go carts and the kid was in front of me. The race started and he throttled every attempt I tried at passing him, but not on purpose. Everytime we went around a corner he would fish tail around, I tried to pass him, but he almos tmade me crash, and if you crash then you get a strick, two stricks your out. I was getting really annoyed when he suddenly spun out, or someone spun him out. It was good to be free of him, I then got to go and actually race.


When we had all gone around the go carts we went over to the mini golf. That was one of the worst hour and half of my life. I got five's, which is the highest you could get, on almost half of my score card. i never want to mini golf again.


Once I was done being tortured by attempting to golf we went back to go carts. There was about 20 minutes left, about one time around because of the line. So Trevor and I used the time as bumper cars instead of go carts. At one point I had sparks flying after me from him hitting me into the side so hard. When I had passed him I started going after one of the youth leaders, Zach. I got passed him and was trying to stop him from passing me when he spun me out. But of course at the end of the run I was the one to get a strike for this offense. Not that it mattered because we were leaving.


We got back to the hotel about 40 minutes later. When everyone got settled in and stuff all in the rooms a group of us all went out and explored the hotel. It was connected to another building that had a bunch of stores, none of which were open, that would be cool to look through, but we wanted to get to Worlds of Fun early to maximize our time we had there.


When we got back to the room some of us started playing an X-box 360 that one of the guys brought. We didn't get to sleep until probably 4 am or so.



Wednesday


It is hard to keep track of the days because they all blur together, but I know that we went to Worlds of Fun. It wasn't too hot of a day, and there weren't to many people there either. Perfect combinations.


They have this ride called "The Patriot" which is a ride where your feet are hanging down and you are strapped in from the waist up. From the moment the ride starts you are whipped around and spun in different directions in an intese fashion. After riding in the front, you never want to ride in the back again.


We went on a bunch of other rides, but none of them were as smooth as "The Patriot", least of all "The Timberwolf." "The Timberwolf" is a all wood roller coaster and it just thrashes you to pieces. It bangs your head back and forth and shakes you all around, not to mention the insane noise it makes as it goes around. But besides that ride the park was wicked fun.


Once we left Worlds of Fun went to supper at "Uno's." While we were waiting we took some apples that they had for people to take and we tried splitting them in half with our hands. It's not to hard, but it is still kind of a challenge. One of the employees saw us doing it and went back and tried doing it herslef. She ended up doing it after getting most of her co-works to do it with her. The pizza was good too.

We got to the stadium, and this time we had seats. Here is a picture of our seats.

I am not really into baseball, but I defientely started to enjoy the game. The Yankee's sadly one again, they play the Royals the night before, and Thursday night also. We left before the game was completely over with because we wanted to start heading home and not get caught in the after game traffic. Over all the game was a lot of fun.

We started to head home around 10-10:30, when we finally made it on the road. We stopped at 1:30 and got a couple of motel rooms so that Brian could get some sleep so we wouldn't crash. I think everyone ended up falling asleep even thoughwe told him we weren't really that tired.

Thursday

He woke us all up at 5:30 and we started to go home the last two hours that we had left. We got to Freedom Church at about 7:50-8 o'clock.

Once the van was cleaned out Brian started to drop the ones of us who didn't have rides off. I finally made it home around 8:45, and didn't wake up again until around 2.

The trip was a lot of fun, and we got a lot out of it. I don't think you could cram anymore into a 48 hour trip.

More to come...

Eggfest.

The last couple of days I haven't been able to update my blog (mostly because I have been absorbed in Harry Potter, but dad you'll be glad to know I finished it last night and have started socializing again), but a lot has been going on.

Friday

Mike and I got to Wal-mart at midnight and we stood in line for less than an hour, someone was saying that we were going to be there till 3, and we had Harry Potter. While we were waiting in line we started talking to the people around us, everyone was really friendly, and we talked about the book and other stuff, like J.J. Abrams upcoming movie http://www.apple.com/trailers/paramount/11808/ (Looks amazing!)

Saturday

On Saturday the boys had a couple tee ball games, which of course meant that I was reading Harry Potter, we also went swimming, precious time away from the book! (But I spent some of the time talking to another fan about the book, so it wasn't completely wasted.)

Margo's mom came up Saturday morning to watch the kids tee ball games, and also watch the kids while Mike, Margo, and I got out of the house (Margo had been talking to her mom on the phone a few days before and was asking her what there was to do in Oklahoma before I go home, and of course Ritta, Margo's mom, came up with the idea of going and seeing Oklahoma).

I wasn't really that pleased with Oklahoma at the Opera House in Waterville, I don't know why, but I really liked the one here! We went to an Amplitheater way out in the boonies, I wonder if they say that here?, and we got to see the authentic Oklahoma. Maybe it was the believable set, or the live horses on stage, or the peepers all around that made me like it more. I don't know what it was, but the only thing that could have gone wrong, well if you know me, it did.

Five minutes before intermission it started to rain! The show went until the end of the scene and lasted for about an hour. During that time most of the audience was under the roofed in concession area, which was really crowded. But besides that little downfall it was really awesome!

Before the show started Mike, Margo, and I went to this little picture area and had some pictures taken for us. See for yourselves...

Authentic cowboy, just don't look at the clothes.One happy family! (Of course my arm is sticking out, not that the man taking the picture centered at all anyway.)Haha...And here I just goit done plundering a neighboring Indian village, cause you know, I'm an authentic cowboy.Here you can kind of see the set. In the background you can see the horse and buggy, real by the way.

BUT the fun was just starting. After the play we went to Mike's work so that he could finish up on something. However when we got back in the car and tried to start it, it wouldn't turn on (Mike diagnosed the problem as something to do with the gas pump, which turned out to be true). But before he figured out the problem we were sitting there, Mike was trying to start the car, and Margo and I started singing "I've been working on the railroad." (Well it was really Margo singing.)

The play didn't get over with until about 11. We didn't get to Mike's work until about 11:30. WE didn't get home until, I think it may have been 1. Margo called her neighbor and had her stay with the sleeping boys while her mom came and picked us up. At one point I said that things were exciting, I only have meant it, but then again I have never been stranded somewhere before either.

Sunday

Sunday morning I was surprizingly awake, and even got to Sunday school on time.

After Church Ritta's mom, who also paid for the Oklahoma tickets, brought us out to lunch at an authentic Maexican resaurant. It was really good, everyone really enjoyed it.

When we got home, you guessed it, I went back to reading HP. I stopped when it was time to go to youth though, so it's all good.

At youth we played a water volley ball game, similar to the one we play in youth, except you split up into pairs. At one point we started just throwing the balloons at people, I don't know why, but some guys targeted this one kid. I went along and did it, but only because i was aiming for the person next to him and could blame the throw on bad aim. However I hit the kid that everyone else was targeting... right in the balls. Morter attack to the balls is got to hurt, and it wasn't even the first time that night that it happened.

After the official youth a group of the youth got together and went to a park and started worshiping God through singing. There were only nine, I think, of us who got there to start with, but were soon joined by three more adults. It was the first time they did this, but it was really awesome and meaningful. They/we are now going to try and start doing it on a regular basis.

Monday

Nothing much happened yesterday, besides the usual, but I did finish HP in the wee hours. 12:10 maybe. Margo and I also made this really good Rookie Road bar dessert... yea it was good.

Today and Tomorrow

Today at 12, in a couple hours, the rest of the youth and I are setting out to go to Kansas City, Missouri. Tonight around 7 we are going to a Yankee's and Royal's game and spending the night in a hotel. And then tomorrow going to an amuesment park and getting home around midnight. I can't wait, it should be loads-o-fun!

more to come...