Nativity Scene

 One day I was staring at this little setup under the coffee table in our living room, trying to figure out what it was.  Then something clicked, somehow, someway my brain started working normally and I realized what exactly this was that I was looking at.  Of course, it would be a nativity scene.  You see Mary and Joseph sleeping over a crib, we are assuming that baby Jesus is in this crib, and you are also able to see some animals. The shepherds have not quite arrived yet, but it is still a few days before Christmas so they still have time to get there.  My sister was very creative in this setup, she was also biblical.  The shepherds may have not arrived yet but neither have the wise men.  In the setup you see above the wise men will never arrive.  One day while my dad was teaching or preaching she heard my dad make reference to the wise men not really being at the stable that Jesus was born in.  A lot of nativity scenes are setup with the wise men being there.  But for those that would have looked close at the scriptures they will have realized this tidbit.  Now I am sure that a lot of the people reading this blog are part of the upper echelon that realize that, but now you can count yourself reminded.

Sadly, this is what the nativity scene looks like right above
the one Jessica created.  But still, the shepherds are not there.
And there is one drunk wise man facing away from Jesus
and worshiping the ground. Hmmm...

  

Words With Friends

 As your chance to vote in the poll ends here pretty soon.  I figured I should write my post concerning it now instead of at midnight and risk the chance of getting fired tomorrow for being to sleepy and lackadaisical at work.  As of now, it looks like we got some great results from the poll...all of four votes.  Well, thank you to all the followers that did vote and to you that didn't...try a little harder next time to make a decision.  It really can't be all that hard to make a decision on a multiple choice problem.  To the people out there that has not been made aware of what Words with Friends is here, I shall explain and hopefully help you understand.  Words with Friends is a game that helps people to interact socially.  Some of you are saying "How exactly does that happen?".  Well it helps you use your brain with other people, potentially, around the world.  It also helps bring back an educational game to a generation that does not heed much attention to education.  Because of this game we will probably see one of the more educated and literate generations than America and the world has ever seen.  It really is a great game.  There is one problem with the game you have to have a device powered by either and android or mac operating system.  If you don't have either of those operating systems at your convenience than you have two other options...one of them would be using facebook because there is a way that you can play the game through that particular social-networking site.  There is also another option and that would be downloading the android operating system onto your computer, I am guessing that most of you that are reading this blog would rather pass up on that option...which I don't blame you for doing such a thing.  There is one more option, this one is probably the most complicated of them all...I tried to do it and FAILED!  Yeah, it was a sad day.  This option is loading bluestacks onto your Windows 7 computer.  Anyway, Words with Friends is a great game.  If you want to know my username give me an email at starrjon43@yahoo.com and I will fill you in.  If you don't have email then leave a comment in the comments section and I just might fill you and the rest of the world in on the big news.  Well, I guess that is enough of me rambling...

FAIL!!!

  So what do you get when I am baking in the kitchen?  Evidently, some awfully burnt cookies.  Yes, Sunday night I really felt like making some cookie dough so I could conquer my sweet tooth (where that saying came from I don't know...it don't make much sense when you think about it).  The cookie dough was great, I just had a problem switching the cookie dough to edible cookies.  They turned out more like hockey pucks...or if you must buffalo chips.  They were hard and not all that great tasting.  The good news is that, after burning two dozen cookies, I finally solved the problem and there turned out to be some half decent cookies.  I guess that is just another reason to stay out of the kitchen...

Way too long...

Wowser!  It has, as the title implied, been way too long since I have written anything about this on going story of this Family of Starr's lives.  That last sentence has some pretty pathetic grammar, but what is new?  Well, let me tell you.  A lot has happened since we had some family pictures back in September.  Some of those things would include General Conference, GAP Conference, and Thanksgiving.

  General Conference was a grand affair.  It was grand in more ways than a lot of you will ever know!  We flew to Louisville, Kentucky on a Saturday and left that state the following Saturday.  We stayed a quite Royal Plaza, which had a shuttle that could get us anywhere we needed within a certain radius.  The problem was, they had troubles getting us back.  We would go somewhere, call for the shuttle, and then end up having to walk back...it was quite exhausting.  The good news was it helped me work off all the food that I ate.  Which leads me to think about the restaurant that was in the hotel.  This was a very fine restaurant the only problem was...they had only about five viable options on the menu, one of them being a house salad.  It took me awhile before a cheeseburger sounded good again.  Overall, we had a great time.  Church was great, the travel was good, and seeing friends again was grand.

 After General Conference and a month, we had the opportunity of hosting our first annual GAP Conference at our church.  We were able to have Bro. Johnny Godair from Durham, North Carolina and Bro. Scott Marshall, from Russelville, Kentucky as our speakers.  They did a great job and I am sure that many of the ministers were able to go home refreshed.

 Thanksgiving was a wonderful time this year.  On Wednesday night, the day before Thanksgiving, we went over to the Pearson's home to eat a very fine dinner.  On Thursday, the day of Thanksgiving, we stayed at our home and had a wonderful dinner.  We shared memories or thoughts or something to be thankful about and really had a wonderful time eating food.  At eight o'clock that night I headed over to Best Buy so I could stand in line with a friend who decided that he was going to get a tablet.  Lucky for us, he was able to get two tablets for almost the same price as I bought my one tablet.  Yes, I have been hearing about that for the past couple days.  Black Friday is a blast because you are able to stay up all night walking around a mall and do stupid things.  When you do the stupid things people just think that you must be really tired.  Yes, I did do something stupid...I went to the person that works at Subway and asked if she would sell me some diet water.  She looked at me real strange and said "diet water" I said "yes".  She was like "we don't have any" I told her I was sorry.  As I was walking away I could hear her giggling.  She needed something to be able to tell her friends when she got off work.

Family Pics (Updated 10/2)

Thursday night was the time decided that we would go to the mall and pay for some misery.  Yeah, we got our family pictures taken.  It also just happens to be my senior year of high school, so, yeah, I got my senior pictures taken also.  Boy was that a long night!  But now it is all over and we get to show you the results!  Or maybe we should go without the exclamation point...I don't know.  But, hey, here you go...

10/2 - If you are having trouble viewing the photos here is a link to the photo album that they are in - JStarr Family Pics

Homemade Ice Cream

  I don't know how you all feel about ice cream, but I do know that I like the dairy product very much.  It helps me stay healthy and all that good stuff, so I believe that I should eat a cup or oversized bowl of ice cream a day.  Well, it just so happens that, in the past week, my parents decided to buy an ice cream maker.  The first batch of peach ice cream, well lets not begin to talk about that batch.  But ever since that first batch we have been having ice cream that would compare with the Tillamook Factory itself.  I would have a couple of pictures of the stuff but it dosen't stay around long enough for me to be able to take a pic, or simply I AM LAZY! But, yeah...the point of this post, uhhh, go to your local grocery store and get some ICE CREAM! But just remember that we can make the best chocolate ice cream with marshmellows or peanut butter, so in other words we make the best chocolate marshmellow ice cream and the best chocolate peanut butter ice cream.  Reason 101 to come to North Dakota for a visit!

Back to School

From what I have heard, there are several schools that are now in session.  I know that in Oklahoma, there were a couple schools that started in the middle of August.  Well, we here in North Dakota are starting to get prepared for the sacred lessons.  I am actually looking forward to school this year. I will be a senior and cannot wait till high school is over.  We are starting September 1st!

It is crazy how fast the summer went!  It all started with the threat of a flood and will end in the same state.  There are several predictions out there that Minot will flood again sometime in October.  All we can do is put our trust in the Lord and believe that he will bring us through it.  We were able to pack this summer vacation with loads of fun and travel.  We were able to see family in two states, something that dosen't happen every summer.  But all good things must come to end sometime.  Not saying that school isn't good, but...

Friends Night

  The school year is quickly approaching, I start September 1.  Actually, I am half excited about the school year.  But with order soon coming, some of us boys in the church had to have one last night of disorder.  We got together and played some Xbox.  This night started at midnight and the last kid did not go to bed until after 8 am!  They sure are some crazy kids!

  Nothing too exciting has happened since youth camp.  Things are slowing moving along after the flood.  There has been little progress from the city since the flood.  They have tried to keep things difficult for the citizens that were flooded.  They have been requiring certified contracrors to do the work on the house, rather than the homeowner being able to do the rebuilding, at least that is the way I understand it.  Keep us in your prayers please.

Youth Camp

  I had a wonderful time at youth camp this year.  Bro. Stanley Gleason from the state of Oregon did a terrific job.  It was great seeing him and I hope that he thoroughly enjoyed his time in North Dakota.  We actually had a baptism on Friday night of camp.  One of the campers decided they wanted to get baptized, so they talked to her Pastor and then it happened.  We were not able to play a staff versus campers softball game this year due to the weather.  It rained Thursday and Friday.  The rain did allow us time inside to get to know each other better, though.  I did not bring my camera so pictures will not be on this blog most likely. 

Thank You!

  I know that I mentioned something about this in an earlier post, but this thought deserves a post of its own.  I want to say a HUGE "Thank You" from Jared and I for the graciousness that was displayed to us on our visit to Oregon.  We would like thank everyone that made our stay enjoyable and pleasant.  It was great seeing everyone again, and hope to do the same next year.  You are all a great family (and I think we might have a couple of friends too)!  Thank you again from the bottom of our hearts.

VACATION!

  Amidst the flood and business of this life, our family decided that none was a better time than the present to get away for awhile.  We took off on a voyage, which would take us across the bread basket of America, through Abilene, Kansas and to Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.  All of our events cannot be expressed because we would not like any intruders invading our privacy (last statement is suppose to be a joke, please laugh).  We will have the pleasure of taking in two, not to be mentioned which particular nights, nights of Oklahoma Camp Meeting.  On this voyage we are having to endure sweltering heat in order to have a little bit of fun.  Air conditioning was a great thing.  On a totally random subject, we have already had the pleasure of meeting a rather famous person.  He is the man that wrote "I Can't Even Walk Without You Holding My Hand".  Joel Longshore both played and sang the song for us.

  Things are going great in Minot, considering the circumstances.  Jared and I were having to conquer houses which had been conquerored by water.  We were having to carry out black sheetrock (mind you the sheetrock was not black from mold).  We were having to do this on days which consisted of so much heat and humidity that if you were outside for more than half -an-hour you would probably be soaked, from head-to-toe, in sweat.  Not everyday was like that but it was some very hard work.  Things are progressing in all faucets, we are not sure what will happen with our particular house yet, but it will all happen in God's timing.  Continue to keep us in your prayers.  Thank you for all the support you have given us!

Family Camp

  For all of you that have blogs you will know what I just went through.  I logged into my account and it has been such a long time since I last did that I didn't realize that they had changed the dashboard. 

  Family Camp was a great time.  Coming off of vacation I was worn out on the first day which is never a good thing when you look at the the fact you are doing good to get seven hours of sleep a night.  But what can you do?  I was able to work through it, and let me tell you, I had an awesome time.  Bro. Ballestero did an awesome job in the day services.  He was hilarious when he was teaching and he was hilarious when Bro. Hamm was preaching.  We really enjoyed him being here.  The great thing about it is he is going to be preaching at our services this afternoon so the fun will continue. 

  Bro. Hamm did a spectacular job.  He was not about flash and glamour.  For thirty minutes of the first night you might would even have thought that it was going to be a long week, but then it happened.  When he gets excited you know something is right and that you are suppose to get excited too.  He did an awesome job.  Friday night the Lord moved and we did not have any preaching.  It was a great time in the Lord.  Several people got the Holy Ghost, it was awesome. 

  I would like to say a big "Thank You" for everyone that put up with us while we were out in Oregon.  We had a great time and miss you guys already.  Thanks for everything.

6/24

  I posted a picture in an earlier post of Jared going through some water.  In that picture you could still see a lot of green, that green stuff called grass is no longer visible.  If you have ever seen our house you will know that there are railroad tracks across the street.  The water is officially over the tracks and has made a lake of the rock quarry over the railroad tracks.  I am not in North Dakota at the moment so I do not have the greatest update on how much more water we are expecting but whatever it is, it is not good.

6/23 Flood Watch

I guess you could kinda say that it is official that Minot is flooding.   Water is already close to our porch where we were building a house.  Our basement is most likely flooded.  We are expecting ten more feet of water.  AMAZING!  If California or Arizona or maybe even Texas needs some water please let us know.  It is unbelievable to think of what is going to happen.  If we truly get ten more feet of water our roof will be safe, that is good. The sad part is that our house would probably be moved off of its foundation which would mean we know exactly what our clean up plan is, destroy the old house and build a new one.  Please keep us in your prayers. Thanks!

6/22 Flood Update

Our city alarms are going to be sounding at any time telling residents to get out of their homes immediately.  In some places that water is starting to breach the dikes.  Close to our house-to-be the water is probably around six inches under the dike.  I will try to keep you updated as much as I can.  Thanks for all of your prayers!

6/21 Flood Watch

We are pretty confident, barring a major miracle, that there will be a new lake in North Dakota.  Lake Minot will start Thursday morning at 1:00 am and be here for the better part of the summer.  Sounds like a good time to go on vacation to me.  I woke up at around 8:30 this morning to go to work, I worked till 9:30 then was called to help people evacuate.  Just about now at midnight have we got everything accomplished.  There is a lot of danger and not much hope.  But we will keep our heads up and hope for the best.  Above is a picture of, at least we are assuming, Jared going through some water at our lake front property in Terracita Vellajo.

6/20 Flood Watch

  Well, it looks as though we may just be in the middle of another flood watch.  From my understanding, there is a higher chance that the flood will happen this time.  Last time we had one of these just a couple of zones in Minot was under mandatory evacuation, this time nine zones in Minot are under mandatory evacuation.  We are hoping and praying that everything will be fine once again, but at the same time we have to stay in reality.  We are having a lot of this trouble because of the Canadians.  They don't feel like flooding so they send their water our way and we can't really do anything with it.  But the Lord would suggest to love them anyway.  The city of Minot is raising the dikes three feet higher to combat against the water that Canada was originally plannig on releasing, but now them Canadians have it in mind to release double the amount of water.  The rain has not been going away so this has been adding to their trouble.  Hoepfully it will all work out in the end.

6/02 Flood Watch

  Well, we were told today that the river crested sometime around 2:00 am.  Hallelujah!  Now we have to wait and see what will happen when they release the water from Lake Darling.  They are planning on doing it in such a way that it will not flood Minot.  The other thing that we have to watch is to see how much rain water we receive.  If we get another big storm it could, again, jeopardize some homes.  We are still in a wait and see phase but things are looking like they will turn out alright.  Thanks for all the prayers and such!

06/01 Flood Watch

Today the Souris River did not crest.  It is expected to happen sometime tomorrow evening.  It seems to me that they hyped it up a little bit too much about it potentially flooding today.  I heard that they normally can judge when it will happen within a six to twelve hour conclusion.  Well, they were about thirty-six hours off then.   There main reason they wanted some places evacuated was to enable them to build seconday dikes which would enclose some people to their homes.  Right now we are just at a wait and see period.  Hopefully everything works out. 

Flood Update

  Finally got done helping people around 2:30 am.  It has been a long day, started off with putting up cabinents in the house and was finished by having to take stuff out of houses.  We are hoping for the best, but it looks as though there is several feet of water expected to go into the Souris River which is expected to make the city flood.  In some houses they are expecting water to be three feet or higher on the main level of the home.  You also have to realize that these houses are around four feet of the ground level.  That would be a seven foot swimming pool in your backyard.  Every bridge that I have seen, with water flowing under it, there is no separation between the bridge and the river.  It justs flows into the side of the bridge but not over it.  I heard a story today that in the great flood of 69' here they had to blow up a bridge because the water could not get around it and it was kinda acting like a dike.  That is all for right now.  Will post again when more trouble happens.  Got a few things to post now I am just looking for the time to do it.

Uh-Oh THERE IS GONNA BE A FLOOD

  There is a high chance that a portion of Minot will be flooded.  Just in case you are curious, our house is under the warning of major water overflowing the banks which is another term for flooding.  We will be alright but please pray. Gotta go!

Oregon Trip

  A couple of weeks ago my parents decided that it would be a good idea to take a train out to Oregon and see the family.  You may have already read the account of this story which was written by my aunt Candice.  She did a good job of staying on top of things and blogging about them right after they happened, unlike me.  Even if you read that story though that was only one side of the story.  Her account did not tell what happened from my point-of-view.  When this development started to happen I quickly realized that I was not going to be participating in this trip.  When I discovered this realization I started trying to think of stuff that I could do and still be considered out of trouble.

  The day finally came in which it was time for my parents and lovely sister to depart from North Dakota and go across the long tracks to a place which is know to you all as Oregon.  They did not know for sure if they were going to have a place to stay at or not because no one knew that they were coming.

  It happened at piano lesson after we had dropped our parents off at the station, I figured out what I was going to be doing the next couple of days.  I was going to be climbing a ladder about an hour away from my house and roof a friends house.  That is a good way to stay out of trouble.  If you do anything too stupid you will end up with a very fast and expensive trip to the hospital.

  The day finally came when they were going to be able to knock on the door of their parents home and deliver some "Sunday School Literature".  They definitely surprised their parents and, from the sounds of it, they had a great week.

  You guys are probably really feeling bad for us boys right now because we had to roof a roof, imagine that.  Well, you guys can't stop the tears because it was a blessing in disguise.  The good news was that we were going to get fed.  We ended up having to roof this roof for two days, Tuesday and Wednesday.  Amongst this craziness I was having to study for a tournament that weekend.  The sad thing was now we were really have to scrounge around for some food.  The tournament came and went.  There was a good church service that Sunday.  It was now Monday again.  One week had taken place since dropping the parents off at the station. We were invited over to Preston and Garret's house for dinner and to spend the night.  We were aware of the chance of there being a nice snow storm, but we also were aware of the fact that we are North Dakotan and are suppose to be able to plow through stuff like that.  It turned out that the next day Jared got school cancelled, something that is very unusual.  Preparing for the worst we dropped off a vehicle at the train station just in case we were not able to make it into town and pick up our parents.  The unexpected happened and us boys were not there when our parents arrived back from Oregon.  We were still at our friend's house enjoying ourselves.  Wednesday we were able to get home and life went on as usual.  Here are some pictures that my mother took while she was west in Oregon...

Jessica's Birthday Party

  When you are turning eight years old and are accused of being spoiled a princess by some then I guess you are eligible for two birthday parties.  That is just the way it happened for Jessica.  She was able to enjoy a little birthday tea party with her friends at a place whose name just slipped my mind.  Then, two days later, she was able to again have a birthday party which attendance was limited to those simply in her family.  Well, I hope she had a great time at both...hear are some pictures.

Baby Doll

  If anyone knows my sister just a little bit they know that she just loves little things that are made out of pretty much plastic that are unable to move, breathe, talk, bring any sense of intelligence to a conversation, and are unable to do anything else for that matter.  A simpler way to describe something of this sort is to say that it is a baby doll.  Well, it just so happened that when she went on a trip to Oregon with her parents that her little cousin , whose name is Kaitlyn, had one of these things.  It also happened to be one that my sister did not possess.  I don't know if this story is still believable but there are a couple of more important details.  My sister wanted to have a baby just liked her cousins.  At this time I would like to give a considerably loud shout-out to my Uncle Anthony and Aunt Candice for finding such a baby doll that my sister both did not have and liked at the same time.  It is getting considerably hard for such an occurrence to happen unless you are willing to spend in the three digits before a decimal point is even considered.  In layman's terms that would be over $100.  It just so happened that here Birthday was around this time also.  She happened to receive some money for getting older, isn't America weird, and was able to buy this baby doll.  Here are the pictures...

Quick Review

As you all know, I did not blog about Christmas and several other things.  The sad thing is I do not have pictures for of those other things so they will not be mentioned.  I do have pictures for Christmas though.  I have created a little video that summarizes the beginning of this year.  I will be actually blogging about some of the more recent things that have hit the back burner because of the one pertinent thing in my which is called quizzing.

Recap of Extravaganza Trip

  We had a great time on this trip.  It was long, and sometimes goofy, but a lot of good things were able to come out of it.  I believe that it gave our quiz team confidence, it gave some of us some much needed rest, and we were able to make new friends and renew some old relationships.  I am very appreciative to my coaches for all their hard work.  They did a get job of keeping us focused on the task at hand.  We definitely have some things that we need to work but we also have a couple of months before finals to get all the kinks out.  The shopping was great.  I don't think you could ask for much more except maybe getting the first place trophy or something.  I want to say a BIG "Thank You" to every one that made this trip possible.  I do really appreciate you all! 

Extravaganza Trip Day 4

  Sorry about not saying anything about what happened yesterday at quizzing.  It turns out we lost our first quiz of the day yesterday against Bismarck.  Our last quiz was cancelled because of the time.  We had to quiz the first quiz of the day today.  We came out on fire.  And won.  That quiz we played against Hazelwood, Missouri.  The next quiz we had to quiz was against Denver 1.  That quiz we were not as fortunate in because of me blowing it at the end.   It ended up that we finished fourth place out of thirteen experienced teams.  I was able to finish first place on the all-tournament team with 112 ppq.  Our fellow North Dakota team finished 2nd place after being the undefeated team in the first round.  London was the only person from that team to make it on the all-tournament averaging around 75 ppq.   After quizzing we hit the road and made it to Minneapolis.  We enjoyed a great meal at the Cheesecake Factory.  Before we left we walked all around the building.  Very comical.  Tomorrow we will be enjoying ourselves at a certain mall which is rather famous but I will not tell so that we do not disclose our location. 

Extravaganza Trip Day 2

Today we finished the trek over to Moline and are, at the moment, enjoying ourselves in a fine motel.  Quizzing orientation started at 5:00, which we were late for.  We ended up having to quiz Indianapolis which we were able to beat.  Our next quiz was against a team from Oklahoma which we also beat.  Tomorrow we quiz Bismarck in the second quiz of the day.  All for now.

Extravaganza Trip Day 1

  Today was an adventurous in the life of the quiz team.  First of all, after leaving on time from the church, we stopped in a place called Minot and had some lunch.  Then, we started our trek to Moline with a slight detour in a town which, for the sake of time, we shall call Fergus Falls.  We stopped there to eat at a place which would be known to you all as Arby's.  We had to take one more stop at a place which would be considered a "rest stop".  Around an hour later we arrived in a small town outside the metropolitan of Minneapolis called Bloomington.  We stayed at a motel called the "Le Bourget Aero Suites" which turned out to be a very nice place to spend the night.  Tomorrow we will continue our trek to Moline and start the extravaganza, hopefully we will end it on top.

Sorry

Since last time I posted things got a little bit out of control.  First, there was nothing to blog about.  Then there was Jessica's Birthday, but nearly immediately following that there was District Conference.  We got back from District Conference went to church Sunday and when we got back we learned that our internet was down.  We just got back our internet today but I am leaving.  Today Jared and I are heading east to go to the North Central extravaganza in a particular place called Moline, Illinois.  Now before you get an idea that perhaps just me and Jared are going to Moline please remember that our Quiz coach (Vaughn Pearson) his wife and Garret and Clarissa and Guy are also going.  Just a thought.  Hopefully I will be able to post something interesting while I am gone.

Recapitulation Time

  Saturday we had a very interesting quiz tournament down in Bismarck.  After making the two hour drive and arriving at the church it was time to get serious.  The first quiz we almost lost on a mishap.  I quizzed out in the 20 pointers and the quiz was not yet locked.  It was very scary, but the other team ended up being one word away from winning.  The second quiz, against Bismarck 1, we had the lead going into the thirty pointers and just needed one to clinch the quiz.  Well, I did not convert and we lost.  We had to face Bismarck 2 again and won.  It was again time for the battle between us and Bismarck 1.  Again we just needed one thirty pointer to win the quiz.  London interrupted question 18 and got it wrong on the reread somehow I did the same thing, we still need a question to win.  On question 19 London hit the buzzer and got it wrong which made us victorious.  We still had to beat them one more time though to claim the first place spot.  I don' t know if you could believe this or not but once again we just needed one thirty pointer to win the quiz and again I did not come through for my time.  DEVASTATING!  I ended up with 117 ppq, London (Bismarck 1 ended up with 113 ppq, and Alyssa (Bismarck 2) ended up with 77 ppq.  It was a competitive quiz tournament but now we turn toward the extravaganza and look to be even better prepared for that quiz tournament.

Trip to Bismarck

As you all, or most of you all, are well aware, I am trying to use as many commas as possible in this sentence, we make an almost annual trip to Bismarck every month,.  Well, it just happened that when my mom when into a couple of stores, I thought it would be a great idea to sit outside in the van and listen to Gaither Homecoming Radio. Oh, yea, by the way, Jason Crabb is coming out with a book that is sub-titled "Through the Fire", I forgot  what the main title is.  Back to the subject, in my delirious state of mind I heard the radio hiccup once and thought nothing of it.  A few minutes later it happened again and again and I thought that it would be a great idea to turn the van off and not kill the battery any more than I already had.  There was only one problem, I had already killed it enough so that the van would not start under its own power.  So now what do you do other than jump-start the crazy thing.  I finally put on enough bravery to go stop a guy after he parked his car and ask if he would be willing to loan grant us some of his battery juice, being the kind North Dakotan he was, he did.  The only problem, which was not much of a problem, was that we had to get our vehicles close together.  That would of course involve the pushing of our vehicle because we were surrounded  by cars.  That would have to look really funny to someone that from the 1800s that would somehow appear in our age. They would be like I never had to push my horse close to another horse for CPR.  After that we had a merry time in Bismarck, or as merry of a time you can have in Bismarck, enjoying the rest of the festivities our day would present.

Recapitulation Time

  Last Saturday, we had our second quiz tournament of the year.  Our high expectations took a hit right away with a small gaffe.  We were not able to recover and we lost our first quiz to Bismarck 1.  We beat Bismarck 2 and then we had our second encounter of the day with Bismarck 1.  This quiz I blew in the 30 point questions and it is officially history.  The all-tournament team consisted of three quizzers.  Receiving the first place ribbon was London Pace with 106.6 ppq, second place was yours truly with 103.3 ppq, and third on the all-tournament team was Alyssa Chuppe with around 50 ppq (if I remember right).  We have had a rough start but we are looking to finish strong.

Riches to Rags

  Dakota Square Mall here in Minot seems to be a very nice, family friendly store.  But as things are in life, this is deceiving.  Yesterday, Jared and I took a venture to this place to get some shopping done.  Why else would I got to the mall?  We decided to leave and then once we had exited the mall decided to go to one more store.  After his happened you just knew something special was in "store" for us.  We just entered the Barnes and Nobles entrance when I found one of those strollers that if returned you would receive a $1.00 in quarters.  Feeling a little on the crazy side of things I decided that this would be just dandy.  I could go buy me a pop without noticing on the bottom line at the end of the month.  As soon as I came up the crazy idea Jared decided that walking with me through the mall would not be a good idea.  Let me explain the layout of the mall before I go any further.  On one side of the mall is Target, on the exact opposite side of the mall is JCPenney.  Foot Locker is about three stores down from JCPenney and Barnes and Nobles is about the same distance from Target.  With the destination of Foot Locker in mind and knowing that there was a return place for such strollers very close I decided that I would return it at that end of the mall.  Trying to downplay the effect of having two teenage boys pushing a stroller through the mall I told my brother "I am bringing this to mom" to which he replied "You would seriously lie about that?". After enduring the question "Do you have a license to drive that?" from a Barnes and Noble employee and many stares I made it to the return place.  I was trying to get the crazy stroller back into the return thing and it would just not go.  For some reason the pieces were just not adding together.  Some gentlemen, seeing the state of distress that I was in, came to me and said "that stroller is suppose to go into the return place by Target".  Talk about embarrassing?!?!? I had just pushed the stroller through the mall to realize that it needed to go to the opposite side of the mall.  No, I did not endure any more stares.  I just walked away from the naughty thing.  I think I learned my lesson, or at least till next time.

Coolness Unlimited

  Last week I did something that may seem out of the ordinary to some, but it was something that I hope becomes ordinary about me; I went skiing.  Yes, I did the same risky business last year and I survived to tell about it.  Yes, I did go skiing down a couple of inclines in Bottineau early this year.  There is just something about going to the real mountains in Montana and risk life and limb for a little bit of entertainment.  Last Thursday we started the trek west to Red Lodge we made into the small little town very early Friday morning.  The fellow maniacs that made the trip would include Bro. and Sis. Dennis and Cindy Sletten, Sis. Wendy, Preston, and Garret, Bro. and Sis. Jim and Misty Pearson, Brian, Kaya, and last but definitely not least myself.  Later Friday the Jason Sletten family would arrive in Red Lodge.  Saturday morning we took to the slopes and had a great day skiing.  No one got hurt and everybody had fun.  Sunday we once again risked our lives and went really fast down really steep mountains.  We all had a great time.  I am definitely looking forward to my next opportunity to go do that awesome thing called skiing.  But for now I must once again turn my mind towards Bible Quizzing and hope that the verse implant operation that I had earlier this year will pay off.  It is the steroid for Bible Quizzing and it is a good thing that such a thing does not exist because I do not need the temptation.  I wish that all of you would trust me and realize that even if such a thing existed I would not use it.  All for now!

Recapitulation Time

  Yesterday, our first quiz tournament of the year was held down in the city of Bismarck.  We were very courageous in our trek down to the capital city having to go through a collision course that included snow, water on the roads, and much wind.   The temperature rose over 30 degrees for the first time this year which was not necessarily a good thing.  About the tournament, there was three teams in the experienced division for this tournament.  Our first quiz was against Bismarck 2 whom we beat in just 20 questions.  Our next quiz was against Bismarck 1 against whom we were not as successful.  They beat us by a very fine margin.  In our third quiz we were faced off against Bismarck 2 once again.  This time it took us 23 questions to beat them.  A couple of errors by me enabled them to be able to lock the quiz and then get a re-read wrong on question 20 to un-lock the quiz and force overtime.   In our fourth quiz we faced Bismarck 1 for our second quiz against them.  We had a chance mid-way through the quiz and then on question 18 I blew all chance of us winning.  They were crowned the champions of the tournament.  I was able to get first placeon the all-tournament team with 98 ppq.  Over all I would grade the tournament for our team as a C+.  Our team needs to get our material down a little bit better to be able to go on to greater things.  It was a fine first tournament with a lot of room for improvement. 

The Problem

I have been doing this blogging thing for about two years plus another half of a year.  It has really taken off into something that hasn't gotten very far.  From almost the very first post I ever posted I have had problems with spelling.  I have problems with the words that are words but are not the words that I want them to be.  I don't really like proof reading my work, it is a major problem.  After I publish a post I just don't find the time to edit the crazy thing, so life moves on.  I am aware of this problem, how could I not be with Jared around telling me about the problem all the time.  But we always have to hope for the best.

Winter Youth Trip

Earlier this week our youth group went up north of Minot to a little town called Bottineau.  We went into the Turtle Mountains (which are actually hills) and skied for a day.  The next day we went to the State Park there and went sledding down an even smaller hill.  It was fun to be able to get out in the snow and play around. We never got to cold. At the state park we were able to build a fire and enjoy ourselves.   We played a game of football in the snow.  Problem was that the snow was not deep, but it was packed down so it made it very slick. It was extremely hard to cut on.  Jared was unable to make the trip because of his school.  I said forget about school.  I kind of enjoy going outside in the cold for a whole day and playing in the snow rather than doing schoolwork.  But that is just my personal opinion.

The Sky Light

  The church here in Minot decided, when they built the parsonage, to put skylights in the kitchen area of the upstairs so that way there would be some real light instead of that artificial stuff.  That was great and worked well for years until we moved here.  This year after every snow storm we have to go up on the roof and sweep off the sky lights to make sure that when it is zero degrees outside we are not having links inside the house.  Isn't that weird how that works?  It is so cold outside that when you spit your saliva freezes before it hits the ground but you have leaks inside your house.

In other news, we did have a Christmas here in North Dakota.  I have been busy the last little bit with sleeping and everything so I have not had a chance to blog about that.  I would blog about it right now but my mom is not here and she has her camera which contains some pictures in the memory card which is in her camera. Very complex.

Goodbye 2010

Yes, I did read this blog before I posted this post.  Yes, I did get the idea from them when I read that they titled their New Year's post "Welcome 2011".  Yes, it is 2011.  It is kind of exciting and depressing all at the same time.  It is exciting because of the fresh new start you get.  It is depressing because, I don't know it just sounded good to say.  Hope you had a great New Year's Day and have a great 2011!