Challenge

I have a challenge to start the New Year.
Last Sunday James Faris said something about reading through the Bible in one year. I am going to do that. Jessica Young already said she would, and I want to know how many other people will make the commitment. It's only the 6th today, so you'd only be less than a week behind. I have a guideline thing that I can e-mail you or give to you if you decide to do it. It's not hard, you read one passage from the Gospels, one from Psalms/Proverbs, one from the Old Testament and one from the epistles. Please comment!!!!

Question of the Day

Read the following SAT test question, then click on a button to select your answer. Which of the following statements is (are) true of the lengths of the segments on line m above? I. AB + CD = AD II. AB + BC = AD - CD III. AC - AB = AD - CD I only II only III only I and II only I, II, and III

Happy Birthday Philip!!

Today is my little brother Philip's birthday! He's 10.
This weekend I have a big swim meet at the nat! I should be excited, but I'm not. This time Therese only signed me up for events on Friday and Saturday, and the one event that I really liked last time ( the 50 free ) is on Sunday! :(
So, on Friday I'm swimming the 500 free, for non-swimming people that is 20 laps. The time on the sign-up sheet thingy said 7:06:89, today I went and swam to see if I could make that time, and I'm not sure, I swam the 500 3 times, because I'm also having problems with the flip turns, that's 18 flip turns. So anyway you can pray for me that my 500 would go well.
The rest of my events: 200 free, 100 fly, 100 breast, 100 free, I'm not worried about, unless they are in a different order and I have to swim the 100 fly last, I don't think i'd be able to get my arms out of the water the last 25.
That's about all, I can't wait for Christmas break and WC! :) TTFN
Question of the day:
What's your favorite sport? - Swimming
Why? - Because I love it/ and I'm bad at every other sport! :)

Thursday

Thurdays are always busy! I usually go to swim-team from 5:15-6:30 because we actually swim on Tuesdays and Thursdays, but this morning I didn't go... I stayed home and studied for my Biology test, which went okay, but enough about school.

I read this story out of a Hebrew's commentary, I almost cried at the end... here it is:

Years ago a friend invited me to the kickoff luncheon for the Rose Bowl game in Pasadena where I heard a newscaster tell this story. He told of a famous football coach in the East. The coach had a player to was known for two things. The first thing he was noted for was his faithfulness at football practice. He was the first one our and the last one to leave, but he never could make the team- he just wasn't quite good enough. The second thing he was famous for was that his father often visited him on campus and they would be seen walking arm in arm across campus, very much engrossed in conversation. Everyone noticed that and thought it was wonderful. Well, one day the coach got a telegram saying that the boy's father had died. The coach was the one chosen to tell the sad news to the boy, and so he called him in and told him.The boy was greatly shaken, of course, and had to go home for the funeral. But he was present at the next game, sitting there on the bench. Then he came over to the coach and said, " Coach, this is my forth and last year, and I've never played in a game. I'm wondering if you could put me in for just a few minutes and let me play." And so the coach put him in because the boy's father had just died. To his amazement, the boy turned out to be a star! The coach had never seen anyone play a better, a more brilliant game than this boy played - so he never took him out of the game. When the game was over, the coach called the boy off to the side and said to him, " Listen, I've never seen anyone play like you played today, but up to today you were the lousiest player I've ever seen. I want an explanation. " And the boy said, " Well coach, you see, my dad was blind, and this is the first day that he ever saw me play football."

Isn't that a sad, but happy story at the same time? I really like it. That's about all I have to say.
Question of the day:
What is your favorite book of the Bible?
Why

Hello

Well, I know its been a while and I'm sorry, but no matter how much I wanted to post, my computer wouldn't let me post! It kept performing this "illegal operation" everytime I tried to go to the blogger website. I hope before Christmas we will get a new computer and then get like high speed internet so I can do this much faster and more often. Now that I've actually posted, I am going to do some work on the rest of my blog!

Question of the day:
Do you like country music?
If you do who is your favorite group or singer?

Swim Meet!!

Well, it wasn't very much like I thought it would be. First I didn't have any events on Friday night, I had to be there for warm-ups at 5:00pm so it was okay. Today my mom was working in hospitality, so we had to be at the Nat at 6:15. Warm-ups were fine, you know its kinda funny we swim more in warm-ups then we'll swim in the whole meet! Anyway my first event was the 200 free, I was in the very first heat after warm-ups which I guess was a good thing. I wasn't very excited, and I almost cried before I started. I was worried that I would be swimming the last lap all by myself, but I got 2nd in my heat and got a 2:34:04, which isn't bad, but I swim that fast when I don't dive in, and by the way my dive was fine.
My second event was the 50 Free. I was more excited this time, because I now knew I wasn't as bad as I thought. I got first in my heat!!!! My time was 30:13, and I got 24th overall in the whole meet! I'm happy. I know that doesn't sound all so very good, but there are kids there who swim their 50 free in like 24 seconds, so I placed reasonably well.
My third event the 200 breast was okay. My breakstroke has some problems, my head goes up and down too much,( if you ask me I can show you what I do wrong. ) Anyway I got 4th in my heat, and everybody told me that was good because it was the first time I had ever swam it. Therese (my coach) said I looked good, little too much head motion, and my first hundered was fast then my second, and its supposed to be the other way around. So I'm fine with that - I have stuff to work on.
And my last 4 events are scheduled for tomorrow morning, and I'm just going to scratch. If they were in the afternoon I could still go, but I'd totally miss morning service, and I don't want to put swimming first in my life. It's a hard decision, but my parents agree.
Now, I'm sure to all you people who don't swim that sounds very boring, but I really don't have anything else to post about. I should re-tital my blog: How I swim or Swim News, etc.!!!
I'm going to the hayride at the Koss's tonight. I don't know how long I want to stay. I'm really tired. I might come for dinner and then go home!
That's it!!

I'm so busy!!

This past week end I went to Southfield Michigan with my Fall Ministry Team. I had so much fun. Our team was led by David and June Whitla. We had 7 guys,
Luke Long
Jay Neel
Kevin Fulk
Jason Sprou
Joel Edwards
Daniel Sturm
and Andrew Doerr, and 5 girls,
Charity Blackwood
Ellen Edwards
Laurie Filson
Alissa Magnuson
and Me!!! :)...
all of who drove up in the Long's big 15 passenger van. That was intresting, we only had fifteen seats and there was all of us, and then we all had sleeping bags and pillows plus all our junk. All the girls stayed at the Porter's house, and the guys split up and stayed at two other people's houses.
We worked at a older lady named Esther's House fixing it up so she could have an old peoples home in her house. I worked with Kaie Porter building these steps out of brick. And I'm not going to go over all the rest of the stuff we did because it might start being boring.
I think for our trip being in the car for 5+ hours helped us get to know each other better before we got there. I had so much fun with Charity and Ellen when we dyed our eyebrows blue in the car on the way home! :)
I think one highlight of the trip was when Scott Porter got out his guitar on Saturday night and played for us. You should all visit his blog at: http://thatminute.home.comcast.net .Charity and I both think he should make a CD!

This Friday and Saturday I have a big Rivi swim meet, and I'm not all that excited. I got the e-mail saying what I was swimming today,:
200 Free
50 Free
200 Breast
100 Free
200 IM
100 Breast
100 Fly
I know I've said this before, but I'll say it again, I can't dive off a block. I'm not worried about the swimming part of this meet, but I'm worried about me making a fool of myself when I dive off. You can pray that I can find sometime to work on dives before Friday.

And that's all I have to say, two busy weekends in a row, pretty much summed up in this post. The End.

Friday starts Fall Ministry. I'm really excited! Yesterday I got an e-mail from James sayng that if you wanted to go to Southfield Michigan you needed to e-mail him and then be at the church at 4 pm instead of 7pm on Friday. I e-mail him and then called him, and so as far as I know I'm going to Michigan. And I really wanted to go ever since I knew they were sending a trip there. I have no idea who else is going to Michigan, so if you are reading this and you are going to Michigan please, please comment!! :) The only down side to going to Michigan is that you have to leave earlyer and you don't get to be there when "everyone" is there on Friday night. :(

Okay, next subject. Next week end is my first Rivi swim meet. My coach told me that I either have to swim the 500 free or the 400 IM. I think I'm going for the 500 free, because at this point I don't know if I could complete a 400 IM, at least at a meet! My coach also told me that she will work with me on dives because all my swim meets before this have been ones where you start in the water. It will be exciting! :)

So I guess that's all I have to say for right now, our computer is kinda messed up right now, so it won't let me read anybody else's blogs, so if you feel like I don't comment on your blog and you comment on mine, I'm sorry! :

What happened yesterday!!!

Yesterday was almost the best evening of my life! I went downtown to sing at Conceco. I've been down there every night since Thurday, (except Sunday) singing the national anthums for the National Swimming chamipionships! So it was the last night of the swimming, and the USA swimmers were throwing shirts to people so my eveing started out by me catching one! The swimming was really cool, there were several world records set, and then it was bascially over. We were supposed to get dismissed at 10:05 pm, but the closing cermiony's were going on and everybody wanted to stay and watch the sincro swimmers.
Then I saw Jen, non of the people that read my blog know her, but she is Andrew's swim coach, and she and I are really good friends. Anyway she had been working down there, and was like, right there with the swimmers, like Jenny Thompson asked to borrow her comb. So I saw her coming towards me with Brendon Hansen. Now for those of you out there who really don't follow swimming you will have no idea who he was, ( don't feel bad, my mom didn't even know.) She started calling my name and I stood up and was like "Jen" she told me to come down, and this is the best part, Brenden gave me his flowers!!!!! Now if you don't know what that means I'll explain. When an athletic wins a metal, they recieve their metal, ( gold, silver or bronze ) and flowers. Sometimes, ( like at the olympics ) the flowers are in the shape of a crown, but here at the swimming championships it's just a boquet. You have no idea how excited and happy I was to recieve his flowers. The worst part is that our choir was leaving right after I got them, and I had to go so I didn't get to get his autograph.
After we got out in the hall, everybody in my choir wanted to know why I got a shirt and a boquet, and they wanted to know how I knew Jen, etc., but I was too excited to talk!
Walking out I saw some of my friends from Rivi and they said they would trade their autographs for the boquet, but I'm going to save it until I get my own!
Got to go!!! :)
ps. If I spelled stuff wrong I'm sooooooo sorry I'm in a hudge hurry!

I am so tired!

Today I had my Biology test. That went pretty well, then I came home and worked on a small amout of World View, I still have almost all of it to do and class is tomorrow. For PE we went biking. I rode really fast and got a good workout, but the I had to go straight to Swim team, plus we did a giant kick set, like 100 slow, 8 25's all out, 100 slow, 6 25's all out, 100 slow 4 25's all out, twice. Now my legs are really, really sore!!! Not fun.

CYPU Fall Ministry Project!

I just got the e-mail from Anna Fairs - actually from Pastor Johnston - about the Fall Ministry! I am soooooooooo excited. ECHO was my first CYPU event, and now I can go to all of the other ones!!! Anyway I would really like to go to Chicago or Michigan, but I don't know if we are sending trips there this year! And I want to go with my friends, hopefully they'll want to go with me. :)
My parents are helping with the fall ministry here, like they'll figure out what the jobs will be, and I think - I'm not sure if this has been okayed - but we are going to have the pastor's bring their cars and vans, and some of the big families bring theirs, and the youth are going to wash, vacuum etc. I think that is a cool job, especially if its hot weather.
Anyway I am soooooooooo busy,I have alot of school - alot more than last year. And then with all my sports, now I'm swimming with Rivi, teaching Andrew's special Olympics and running with Anna, I am soooooooo tired too!! I have to go!!!

Bread Alone!

It took 900 gallons of water to boil it, a crane to life it into a special 8-foot-by-4-foot cooking kettle, and 10 hours to bake it, but Brugger's Bagels finally produced an 868-pound bagel at the New York State Fair on Aug. 27. The company hopes to have the bagel, which includes 660 pounds of flour, 53 pounds of malt, and 12.5 pounds of salt, certified by Guinness World Records as the biggest ever!

Swimming News:

Yesterday I got my swim team letter. I am on the Gold team as before and Steffi Pok -some of you people know her - is on Sliver! I am really excited for this semester to start as we now have morning practices Monday - Friday. Though I am not a morning person, I will make myself get up at 5:00 am to be there at 5:15. (Actually I might have to get up even earlier. :)
I might still be able to do the afternoon practices on Monday, but if they end up having soccer for the high-schoolers, I might do that too. But I'm going to do the Rivi swim meets, and I'm not so excited for that. My whole swimming career I've gotten in the water and started, but now you have to dive off the block! Exciting! Not!!!! So I get to work on dives.
Anyway today I was working on my world view and found this quote that I wanted to post:
The Gospel is not a set of swimming instructions to a drowning person. It is the God-man jumping in and rescuing a drowning person.

Sorry!

I haven't posted in a long time. I have been really busy. School started as well as choir and though swim team is on break almost all my time is occupied. :) Anyway David's party was AWSOME! And I'm going to do David's soda diet till Winter Conference! I have to go!
Quote:
"Cats are smarter then dogs. You can't get eight cats to pull a sled through snow." - Jeff Valdez

Quote:

"It's so simple to be wise. Just think of something stupid to say and then don't say it."
- Sam Levenson

Hello!

I'm sorry its been so long since I've updated.
Michael Phelps now has 5 golds and two bronze. When the US team lost to South Africa in the Free Relay there was a pretty slim chance of him wining 7 golds.
Today was our first World View Class. It was very interesting. I know everyone in our class execpt this Danny guy who wasn't there. Mrs. Judd taught today since Mrs. Long can't come. And I think this might be because it was the first class, but we weren't doing that much talking. We answered the questions that we were supposed to answer and sometimes had a small amount of discussion, but other then that we didn't talk very much at all.

"Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend, inside of a dog, it's too dark to read" - Groucho Mark

1 down 7 to go!

Last night Michael Phelps won his first gold metal! He won the 400 IM and set a world record of 4 minutes 8.26 seconds the third time he's broken the record this year. When Phelps saw he had won in world-record time, he put his hands to his head and unleashed the widest smile his coach has ever seen.

"I've thought about this every day for my whole entire swimming career," Phelps said. "Standing on the Olympic podium is something I've always wanted to do. It's an amazing feeling."

Last year, Phelps signed his name to a contract with swimming apparel sponsor Speedo that gives him a $1 million bonus if he matches Mark Spitz's 1972 haul of seven Olympic gold medals. But coming into the Games, his mantra was that his only goal was to win one gold medal.

"My gold is right here," he said Saturday, lifting it off his chest. "I'm perfectly happy right now."

Phelps is entered in four more individual events in Athens and is eligible for three relays. Two of his most-watched events begin Sunday, as he swims qualifying heats for a possible showdown with Australian Ian Thorpe in the 200 freestyle and possibly competes in the 4x100 free relay. The question of whether to include Phelps, who didn't swim in the 100 free at the U.S. Olympic trials last month, has been a source of minor controversy on the U.S. team.

``He has set the bar extremely high for himself,'' said Bob Bowman, the man who has coached Phelps the past eight years. ``If it were any one else, I might tell them they were being totally unrealistic. But there's something special about this young man. He has the perfect body, mind, skills and motivation to give something like this a legitimate shot. It won't be easy, but it's definitely not unrealistic in his case.''

So I really, really, really, a million reallys, want Michael Phelps to win his 7 or 8 gold metals. He has to win at least 6 to get put on the last relay!

Concert Tickets

Anybody fans of the Newsboys or Tait? Cause I have 6 free concert admission coupons! Good for tonight at 7:30 pm at the March Grandstand at the Indiana State Fair! Interested - call me!

Josh Groban!

Last night I went to Josh Groban's Concert at Verizon Wireless Music Center! It was awsome - Josh sounded amazing. Out of all the songs that he sang, I loved "remember when it rained" and "my december". It was somewhat cold, and there were so many people there that it took forever to get out afterwards, but I am sooooooooooo glad that I went! I think I need to go to concerts more often! :)

The Swiminator

Everybody needs to read this article!
Go to : www.usaweekend.com.

And guess what my parents might let me have a party to celebrate the Olympics and everybody can come over and we can watch TV, play games and eat! If you think this is a good idea, please comment cause then my parents might be more likely to let me! :)
Also, I am sooooooooooooooooo excited for school to start! (for once) Usually I'm not excited, but I'm taking Biology and we have the coolest class! :) Plus we have Alaina as our teacher which should make it even more cool! My only issue with Biology is that I won't be good with the dissections (sp), I've gotten sick and fainted before in that kind of situation, so I kinda need a lab partner who doesn't mind that kind of stuff!
ATTENTION THURSDAY CLASS PEOPLE: the final word on the state fair is that we're meeting at 2:00 pm on Tuesday August 17th inside of Edy's Grand Hall! I hope all you guys can come! It should be tons of fun! :)
And I only have one more thing to say : Josh's Concert is on Wednesday!

Sorry!

I haven't posted in a while, but I've been quite busy! :)
Yesterday was our last swim meet! We got first in the city and the whole thing was really exciting. After that our family and the Pulliam's went to the Edward's lake! First we went tubing. Anna and I did it at the same time and it was really fun! :) Then David and Anna tried to go water-skiing, and now that I'm home I wish I would have, cause I think I would have done better then I thought I would. Anyway it was fun, but today my arms and back hurt! :)