Around the House

  As I wrote in my last post we had our desert auction last Sunday.  Here is a picture of one of the great things hat my mother made...

  On March 20 the grand first day of spring arrived.  To prove the reason why I was late in changing the background on the blog to something a little bit more springy I will show you a picture of what it looks like outside...

  I am going to end this post with a picture of what it seem that I talk a lot about.  I am not referring to the person in the picture but rather about what the person is doing in the picture.  As a teenager grows up he seems to need more of that certain thing that this person is doing and to make what this certain thing is a little less complicated I will just show you the picture...

Seeing someone else do it makes me what to do it more.  Some people don't realize how much I suffer from lack of sleep.  I am only able to sleep till 8:00am in the morning at the latest it is just terrible.  I try to go to bed around 10:00 pm most of the time sometimes with quizzing it is hard.  I don't know about the rest of you all but the time change really killed me.  I was just getting back into the swing of things here in North Dakota after being out in Oregon.  Hope you all are having a great day!

News

  Sorry it has been such a long time since my last blog post.  The starting Wednesday of the week that we got back from Oregon our church had our Youth Revival.  We had Bro. Matthew Tuttle preach it, who did a fantastic job.  I believe every night someone got the Holy Ghost.  This bring us to this week.  Nothing spectacular went on this week.  It was Jared's spring break and that is about the only thing to note.  Our church had our annual desert auction today, that went great.  This weekend we have a quiz tournament in Fargo.  The same Fargo that you may have been hearing about the possibility of it flooding.  We are going to also have our District Conference this weekend, Bro. Jerry Jones will be coming out for that.  Sorry for taking so long to post again. 

Mall of America

During our long layover we had the opportunity to go to the Mall of America.  We enjoyed our time there.  We all had the fantastic privilege to go to the American Girl shop.  We spent a few days there (the American Girl shop) and eventually a some food there.  We left (the American Girl shop) and walked our legs off.  I think that is probably all I can say about the Mall of America.  I could go into detail about everything we bought there but that would be greatly personal.  I might be able to throw some pictures on the blog at a later time.

Oregon Trip Day 6 (Updated 12:04)

(12:04 am)  We are home, finally.  GOOD NIGHT!

I truly did not expect to be blogging today about the fact that we are still literaly on the trip, but we are.  We had enjoyed our flight to its full extent, but when we were ten minutes out of Minot we were told by the pilot that we were not going to be able to land safely and were going to have to head back to Minnesota.  When we got back to Minnesota we were told that we were going to be on the first flight in the morning to Minot, which was at 10:15 am.  We arrived at the airport at around 8:00 am and had a great time going through security.  When we finally got through security we went to our gate and received the news that the flight had been cancelled and we were going to have the opportunity to stay in Minnesota awhile.  We were finally booked, after some confusion, on the 10:00 pm flight to Minot, the same flight we were on last night.  Some of the great things that have come out of this mess was the opportunity to go to the Mall of America and on our flight that got turned around we were able to enjoy some biscoff cookies.  Now that I have finished telling the good new I will get back to the other stuff.  We have been paying attention to the weather report and are sad to report that there is suppose to be some freezing rain coming down in Minot which may make it hard to land.  If we understand why these flights were cancelled were because of some mechanical issues in Minot.  Starting tomorrow we are going to have a Youth Revival.  We are definently hoping that we will be able to make it back tonight for the revival.

Oregon Trip Day 5

Today we are heading home.  I did not blog first thing in the morning like I did the other days.  There is a good reason for that.  Ronnie and I went and hit up the town by doing the likes of shopping and eating.  I am very thankful that he spent some time with me and therefore will give him a shoutout.  Ronnie you have now received your shoutout.  I don't even know if he reads this blog, he may never literally receive his shoutout.  My parents had the pleasure of going out to breakfast with a special member of the church.  We are going to be leaving for the airport soon and are excited about getting home.  I know several times I have said that, but in no way mean as if I have not enjoyed my time here.  We thoroughly enjoyed our time and were very thankful for the opportunity that was given to us.  I want to express much gratitude to the Bohde family for the much hospitality that was shown.  I am very thankful to the church also.  Our airplane will leave around 3:00 pacific time and will arrive in North Dakota around 11:30 central time.  It is going to be a long day that started at 7:00. 

Oregon Trip Day 4 (Updated 12:13)

(12:13)  The day went by fast.  We traveled down to Salem and had a little guest name Abby with us.  We got back in time for prayer.  We were very happy that our Grandma and Grandpa were able to make with Talon and Kaitlyn.  We were also happy that Uncle Brian, Aunt Cora, and there kids were able to make to tonights service.  This weekend has come to an end.  It has been very much enjoyable.  We are very thankful for the opportunity that was given to us which enabled us to see friends and family.  We are looking forward to getting home safe and sound tomorrow.  Good night everyone!

This morning has been going alright.  I woke up had a little bit of breakfast and took my shower.  We are going to be very busy today.  We are going to Bethel this morning to listen to Bro. Langley preach, right after that we will travel down to Salem so my dad can preach at my Uncle Shade's church, and then we will travel back to Hillsboro and my dad will preach again.  After all this is said and done we will probably eat and not get to bad until after midnight.  Tomorrow appointments are already being lined up even though it is our last day here in Oregon.  We have had a great time and are very exhausted, we are definently looking forward to our trip home so we can catch up on some much needed sleep.  The time change will kill us again, but Paul said that we must die daily.  I don't know if I will be able to post again today.  As Paul Harvey would say "Good Day".

Oregon Trip Day 3 (Updated 11:50)

(11:50) We had a great service tonight at church.  The food afterward was very scrumptous.  Today we were able to meet up with a few family members.  We are looking forward to our last full day here in Oregon.  We did not have the grand opportunity to see any Portland Trail Blazers when we ate today.  We were blessed and only went to one store today, rather than the multitude of stores we went to yesterday.  The one store we went to was Target and we were only there for about ten minutes, most of those minutes were spent talking to someone from the church.  My mother and sister had a good time at the tea.  Jessica spent most of the day with her friend Abby, she had a great time.  It would be a great idea if I went to bed, I will post something again tomorrow.  Good Night!

I woke up around 9:00 pacific time.  I am feeling great and hope that everyone else across America is doing the same.  Like I said, in the last post service was great last night and Bro. Langely did a great job.  Today nothing much is going on until church tonight.  Hopefully, we will be able to hang out with some friends and family.  Have a great day today!

Oregon Trip Day 2 (Updated 12:12)

(12:12) Although it is officially Saturday I am going to act like I am still in Friday because I still have not got all the sleep I have been ranting about.  We enjoyed a great service and banquet.  Bro. Langely did a great job and we had much fun meeting up with some more of our friends.  The banquet was fabulous.  The food, especially the desert, was awesome.  Tomorrow my dad will be preaching.  Good Night!

(4:53) We just got done going around town and checking out the sites.  We had a fabulous time re-meeting the people from the church.  We went shopping, made it all the way out to Washington Square and had a opportunity to see the great starting SF for the Portland Trail Blazers Nicolas Batum.  The guy is tall and his mom (or at least I think his mom) is also very tall.  She went up to his shoulders.  You have to understand something here, this guy is 6'9, he is a giant in my world.  After we gorged ourselves in some fabulous food we went and did some more shopping.  If I thought that I was tired early today, I am extremely tired now.  On this note I will go ahead and take a nap.


Boy does that time change kill a man.  Here it is 8:47 I have already taken my shower and ate breakfast.  Seriously, this is suppose to be a type of vacation from waking up early in the morning.  The bad news is when I get home I will be waking and up at 10:30 and be extremely tired and realize that I am a couple of hours late for school.  But isn't that what we have to deal with in life, lack of sleep.  Right now I feel sleep deprived but know that I won't be able to sleep for another few hours.  Today there will definently be a nap.  On other news there may not be many pictures of this trip going onto the blog.  As it is I do not put a lot of pictures on the blog, but for this trip I forgot my camera.  In order to take pictures you need something to do it with even in this techno day of age.  I am sure I will post something else later, so until then I hope everyone gets some great sleep.

Oregon Trip Day 1

Here we are in the state of Oregon once again.  We are in our hotel room and are rather tired and ready to hit the hay.  But I figured I would crucify that thought and let it resurrect in the three minutes.  After starting out travels at around 4:00 pm Central Time we made it to Oregon at around 11:00 pm Pacific Time.  For all of you brilliant scholars out there that is nine hours of traveling.  We arrived at the airport and was greeted by forty degree weather, my grandma and grandpa, and Sis. Marita Buck.  After several long minutes we finally we able to steal away with our rental car and the luggage in the back.  After driving by the church we made it to our hotel room and are now starting to relax and relax and think about sleeping, but that is to much work.  I am going to put thoughts into actions and hit the hay.

Whats Going On

We are preparing for our trip to Oregon.  I have not yet started packing but there will be time for that later.  We leave tomorrow at 4:50 in the afternoon so no need to worry about packing today.  We will be in Oregon over the weekend and will head home on Monday.  Other than that there is nothing much going on. 

February Quiz Tournament

This quiz tournament did not go as well as the last.  I was not ready for the tournament and it turned out that nobody else on the team was as well.  Jared was the only quizzer on the all-tournament team from our church in the experienced division and rightfully so.  We lost our first quiz 100 to -45, won our second quiz, and lost our third.  We had one experienced team and one intermediate from our church.  Both teams took second.  We are putting this tournament behind us and looking forward to the next tournament.

South Dakota Trip Days 2 and 3

I did not mention in my last blog post who all came on this trip.  Those that were involved in the crime were Bro. and Sis. Dennis Sletten, Jason and Shawna Sletten and thier daughters Leesha, Taneil, Jaylynn, Germain, and Myka, Bro. and Sis. Landers and there daughter Rachel, Sis. Wendy and her two sons Preston and Garret, Guy Pearson, Clarissa Pearson, Jim and Misty Pearson and their two kids Brian and Kaya.  It was very interesting and sometimes scary.  It is fun to be out of control going down the side of a mountain with the only things to stop you are other people and trees.  Day 3 was a much better day than day 2 except what happened at the end.  There was a minor or major knee injury that happened to Taneil, we do not know yet.  Skiing actually turned out to be pretty fun and I hope that I will be able to go again sometime. 

South Dakota Trip Day 1

I am not sure if I will be posting everyday that I am down here, but I was bored so I will write this post.  We travel the seven hours plus stops down here to Spearfish, South Dakota.  We had great adventure which included someone locking their keys outside inside the car.  This person will remain anonymous.  We got in around 5:15 which is including the hour change that we gained.  Tomorrow we are going to be leaving around 7:00 in the morning to travel to somewhere around Leads which is in the Black Hills of South Dakota to ski.  This is my first time attempting to ski and very well could be my last.  I will try to write again tomorrow.

~Jonathan

Recapitulation Time

  Friday night we had our first Quiz Tournament of the year.  It turned out to be quite exciting with lots of competition.  Our church had two experienced teams and one intermediate team.  Jared and Preston were Minot and Clarissa and I were Minot two. Our intermediate team consisted of Garret, Anthony, and Guy. 

  In the experienced division all the quizzes but two were good close quizzes.  Minot 1 lost their first quiz to Bismarck 2 on question 20 and Minot 2 lost their first quiz to Bismark 2 on question 12 (or something like that) I accomplished the task of quizzing erring out that quiz.  Both teams had to move the problem was only one team from would literally be able to.  It was the battle of minds, brothers, cousins, and pride.  Minot 2 was able to pull it out.  Minot 2 moved on and quizzed Bismarck 2, I got question 19 right which sealed the quiz.  It is now Bismark 1 versus Minot 2.  I was able to quiz out on question 19 to ice the quiz.  We had to play again.  This time it would be just as close.  When question 16 rolled around I already had seven correct but our team only had a 20 point lead.  Our team called a timeout, the quiz was seemingly over because I had to many correct.  Question 16 went to Bismarck, question 17 I interrupted on accident (I was trying to hit it on the last word and get it incorrect so that they would not be able to answer it) gave the wrong information on purpose to throw them off, it almost worked.  We are now going into the thirty point questions down by thirty and both teams top quizzer with seven correct.  London, Bismarck's top quizzer, quizzed out on question 18.  There are now two question left we are down by 70 points and there is hope.  We had to let Clarissa get question 19 and then I would be able to get question 20 and force overtime.  Clarissa hit the buzzer on question 19 and would have been correct if she would have been able to remember the reference before time ran out.  I got question 20 wrong anyways.  The question was "which two word phrase ends which two consecutive verses of chapter three and begins which verse of chapter two?"  It was a very interesting question, which I now know the answer to. 

  I didn't watch the intermediate team quiz much but they did finish in first place.  I must give them a big CONGRATULATIONS!!!!

Wowser!

  You probably remember the post that I wrote around Christmas time of how bad of a storm we were receiving.  We are receiving another one of those types of storms; however, it is not as bad.  We are home bound, listening to XM radio, and feeling rather lazy.  The best news that came out of this whole ordeal was Bible Quiz Practice was canceled today.  The bad news is our Quiz Tournament is Friday.   In the picture below you can see a dark spot to the left of the house and just before the third telephone pole down, it is a car.  Some brilliant person, probably a native of Mississippi or Arkansas, thought they could make it through a snow drift.  They probably had four wheel drive and was feeling the kind of adventurous feeling you feel when you jump a clothesline.  When they were coming upon the snow drift they probably realized that the snow drift was bigger than their car, but then they remembered that they had four wheel drive.  The brilliant person probably put it in four low and took a plunge.  They are probably at home realizing that they might not be able to get their car back again until the winter in North Dakota has passed.  They got stuck yesterday before the toughest part of the storm came.  I wish this person the best of luck.

  The next picture that I am going to show is a picture of our gym door.  It has not done such a good job of keeping that snow on the outside instead of the inside.  We would fire the door but we are in the middle of winter and realize we must wait till summer before we do anything about this problem.  When summer comes we probably will forget about the whole scenario and the door we keep on making its millions.  The good news in this situation is the door is not next to the basketball hoop.

 

  One more thing that I am going to say in this long post.  Jared took today off school because of the storm, I already had the day off because I live in a free country and with my parents permission choose to go to school four days a week just like I did it when I went to a christian school in Oregon.  Jared must feel honored to be paying for school and taking days off at the same time, but if he does not go to school tomorrow then there will be a petition thrown by the home school students of this home school.  Let us all hope and pray that if this does happen the educators will grant the petition and we will once again be able to listen to XM radio and not accomplish very much work.

~Jonathan

Nothing Much

There really has not been anything of interest that has happened over the last week in a half.  Quizzing has started, school has resumed for all of the us kids, and the pace in life has started to pick up again.  Probably the most interesting thing that happened was last Saturday.  Here at our church we have a thriving bus ministry.  One of the kids on the bus after Sunday School on the 3rd had a seizure and died. Last Saturday was the funeral, he was only 10.  It was held at our church and around 200 people came.  Other than that it has been life as normal. 

Youth Retreat 09'

It was great!  Bro. Chuck Coburn from Orlando, Florida was our speaker and he did a phenomenal job.  He was a great basketball player, ping pong player, beat boxer, and, I almost forgot, great preacher.  There was a challenge issued for someone to beat him in ping pong after he pretty much beat everyone there including myself. On the last day I was able to pull of the upset.  Later on that day we played some basketball.  The big game was between the campers and the staff.  After Bro. Coburn missed a game winning three and the campers won, my Youth Retreat was awesome.   The services were awesome.  Bro. Coburn had a great testimony of how he got into the church after being recruited by the UNC baseball team.  He went on to backslide and be a drug dealer.  After getting busted and surviving a few scares he was able to get back into the church.  I am sorry that I didn't take any pictures.  My brother took a couple though, so here you are.

Happy New Years

I stayed up way past midnight, matter in fact it is 6:23 as I am starting to write this post. This fact I will not be happy about when I wake up this afternoon with half the day gone. Right now I have a couple of friends over and they have been playing video games both on the computer and on the 360. Finally given the chance to get on the computer I took advantage. As soon as I get back off the computer my friend will regain his position in playing video games for the rest of the morning. We had a good "Wash Night Service" my dad spoke on sleeping, which sounds pretty good right now.  I hope you are all enjoying your sleep.  I was at Youth Retreat between the 27th- 30th and was not able to post anything.  My friend is having withdrawals from his video game so I must end this post.  Happy New Year everyone!

Christmas 09

We had a great Christmas.  We definitely missed not having the opportunity to enjoy this Christmas with our extended family, but nonetheless it was great.  Jessica's job was waking everybody up early in the morning to open gifts.  By her standards she did a great job, she woke us all up before 10 o'clock.  After the gifts were opened we had breakfast and a few hours later dinner.  Once all that was pretty much settled in our stomachs my dad and I played a few games on one-on-one to work it all off.  Jared has been battling a little bit with his knee lately so he was not able to play.  After that we wasted the last few hours of the day and went to bed.  This was our Christmas.

A White Christmas

How many times have your heard the song that contains the words "I'm dreaming of a white Christmas"?  How many times have you said the words "I'm dreaming of a white Christmas"?  How many times have you had a white Christmas?  This is what our Christmas looked liked

You may be thinking "Whats so special about that?  You live in North Dakota."  What is so special about this is the fact that visibility is less that a quarter mile.  According to our mathematical calculations it would be around 400-800 feet.  All you see there is the church parking lot, nothing more.  Here is a picture with snow, but pretty much full visibility

Now that you can see the difference I must say that it is actually quite amazing and awesome.  This is what makes Christmas memories.  This is the opportunity to play more basketball, eat more food, and listen to more XM radio.  I totally forgot to answer the question that someone earlier asked about us being able to listen to the XM radio.  The answer after much suspense and delay is YES!  It has been a staple so for this winter.

Merry Christmas

Right now I am sleeping, or at least hope that I am sleeping.  I scheduled this post so that I could be the first to wish you Merry Christmas on the day of Christmas.  You may have woke up and a family member told you "Merry Christmas" but I still said Merry Christmas first.  I hope you all have safe and Merry Christmas.  Hopefully all of you that are out west are able to get a little bit of snow.  Perhaps this could happen on the first week after Christmas Break so you can get a few days of school.  But through all the hustling and bustling remember who made this all possible.  Remember who came to this earth and sacrificed his life so that we could have the opportunity that we have today.  MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Just a Little Something

Here is a picture of some Norwegian cookies that a lady in our church gave us.  They look very intriguing.  I have not yet tried one, but if they taste as good as they look than I hope she makes some more.

On an entirely different subject, I though you all might want to know what our entry way into our house looks like.  The only way for it to look like this was for us three boys men to go outside and freeze ourselves until we started to turn blue and then come back inside and feel the warmth upon our frozen bodies which hurt like getting poked with needles.  Nonetheless the work needed to get done and is done.  Here is the picture...

Update

Earlier today when I walked out side and took those pictures it was around 24 degrees and it felt like it was over 30, it was warm.  Now, just a couple of hours later, the temperature is 19 degrees and the wind chill has it marked down to 4.  Visibility is just over a mile, we will still be having church tonight.  In some parts of the parking lot you can actually see the blacktop, not a good thing, because the snow is getting blown around so much.  It is actually a pretty cool site to see.  Hopefully, we are not home bound the next few days.  We have a Youth Retreat starting on Sunday and we have to drive a couple of hours to get to it.  It would be a terrible thing if that was canceled.

It's Here

I am obviously not talking about Christmas for that is still a day and a half away.  I couldn't be talking about Christmas Eve because that is half a day away.  I could be talking about December 23rd, but I am not.  How about the mailman?  Well he just left a couple of seconds ago, so I could have been talking about him.  But with a logical conclusion I am not.  Has anyone seen the news headlines lately?  They probably said that snowstorms were hitting the west and the mid-west.  To all of you out west, even though North Dakota is east of you we are still in the mid-west.  Matter in fact here is a link to the article that I saw on the front page of Yahoo.  For us in North Dakota it has arrived and will keep on arriving.  It is sort of like the gift that keeps on giving.  Once the snow starts to melt then we get flood, TERRIFIC!  Or maybe I should say horrific, I don't know.  But none the less I braved the snowstorms and took a couple of pictures which may not excite you at all.  Here they are

These are deer footprints in the snow

Thank YOU!

We would like to thank you all for coming to our blog.  We would like to give an extra special thank you to Sis. Cheri Witmer for all the comments she has left.  We really do appreciate your thoughts via comments.  Thank you all for coming!

Goofin' Around

  The worst thing about Christmas Break is all the excess time that you have on your hands.  Not that I don't enjoy that fact because you sure can dispense of this time by doing bible quizzing, playing Xbox, being lazy, or possibly even playing a game with the family.  Last night we started a game of rook around 9:00 pm and got done with the same stinkin' game around mid-night.  If you looked at the score sheet you probably would have been surprised by how many times the game could have been over.  My dad and I won by scrapping for every single point possible.  On the winning hand if we would have lost another five points we would have gone set and played another hour.  But instead we were able to overcome the fact that we did not have the rook and the trump black one was captured with the rook.  This is simply Christmas Break.  Not many other times during the year would I tell you about a rook game, but this just happens to be the time.  When we finally accomplished the feat of finishing the game we looked outside and the ground was covered with a sheet of snow.  I hear that supposedly we are going to have a blizzard sometime this week before Christmas.  With the thought that we might be going to the mall pretty soon I must end this post, probably to your delight.  I have said it before and will say it again, MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Christmas Party

We had our home school Christmas Party Friday and as you can see these are the pictures.  We had a great time and the fact that Christmas Break is here is really settling in very nice.

Gingerbread House

It is that time, or maybe I should say past that time of the month when all gingerbread houses need to be made.  Jessica and my mother accomplished the job last night.  This was also the night that their was a five part Johnny Dollar series, but that is a different subject.  They did a great job and I took a couple of pictures to commemorate the moment.  Here they are...

 

 

Something Interesting

Yesterday there was a surprise for us all, Jessica won a coloring contest.  We went to a restaurant called "Badlands" and Jessica entered the picture that she colored in a drawing contest.  Now she can go to "Badlands" and eat for free, one meal that is.  I do not have a picture of the picture that she colored.  Sorry!  I do have a picture of this up north and to your right though.  Everyone is making that last second phone call, getting Christmas gifts, and in the midst of all that getting a picture together.  Hope you all have a blessed Christmas - or as the stores say it "Happy Holidays"!

Christmas Program

In the midst of the cold, hustling and bustling we had our Christmas Program last Sunday.  It went great!  In the picture on the top and to the left you can see my dad and sister all dressed up for church, something I didn't do.  Due to the fact that we were having our Christmas Drama we did not have to dress up for church.  In the second picture  to your right you can see Jessica and the many other Sunday School kids performing their performance.  They did a fantastic job singing "Joy to the World" and giving us the legend of the candy cane.  I would say history but as we all should know a legend could very easily be a myth so it possibly could be inaccurate to call this the history of the candy cane.  After all the kids were done performing they thought that it would be a nice time for the youth and adults to perform their drama.  We could and probably should end this post here, but I must go on.  On the third picture to your left you can see Jared playing the role of Joseph.  Every boy has to play that role at least once in his life just to build memories it seems.  Jared did a fine job, I would expend some more time on him but I think you all know what Joseph does in every single Christmas play.  One thing that was different in this play unlike a lot of other plays was the fact that there was a lot of music (they are holding mics in the picture because they are singing).  Next, we come to the role that I played in this play.  I also was a husband, except my wife was bossy.  I am trying to sleep and she come and tells me to get up and get to work.  In the bottom left picture you see me talking with a friend about how we always are getting told to get up and get to work.  The play turned out great. It never ceases to amaze me how you can go through practice for one of those things and everyone will be goofing off and having a grand old time, but then the Saturday before the play when you have your big practice they all settle down and you are able to get it all together.  This year I had to wonder whether or not it was all gonna come together but in the end it was fantastic.

Merry Christmas everyone!

~Jonathan

Christmas Cookies

This past week the ladies of our church have been making cookies for some cookie trays that we sell.  Let me say this, when they broke a cookie I was happy because they were quite delicious.  My mom, obviously, makes the best Christmas cookies, no one can compare.  They can spend all the time in the world, they can make the cookies look like they are for royal company, they can spend all the money in the world for that matter, but it will never compare.  As many of you know, I am not a biased person at all :).  But anyways back to the topic of the article we enjoyed the cookie tray that we received and, of course, my moms stuff on there was the best.  Who could ever beat homemade cherry cordials?  Who can beat homemade chocolate peanut butter balls?  Anyways, they were able to finish the trays and pass them out.  Now to go eat some peanut butter balls.

                   

Annual Weather Check-up

As I am writing this post a nice drizzle of snow is coming down.  Most of the estimates that I give on this blog should probably be considered hope estimates.  Right now I would estimate that there is slightly less than a foot of snow that has fallen.  Considering that fact that the wind is constantly blowing it does not look like much until you mistakenly walk into a drift and it goes up to your knee.  The last few days the straight temperature has been in the negatives.  This is not a bad thing until the wind starts blowing and you freeze into a popsicle.  Now that I mention that about popsicles,  ice cream does sound pretty good about now.

Dickens Festival

This year we had the pleasure of attending the Dickens Festival.  The Festival take place in a small little town in North Dakota called Garrison.  During the day they will have a tea, a house tour, bus rides around the town on a really cool and old bus, and food.  The tea was a fine thing, about as good as a tea could be for a teenage boy.  The house tour was very interesting considering the fact that the house was probably built in the early nineteen hundreds and was completely renovated.  We never actually went on the bus ride but it looked really cool.  It is the only double decker bus in the Midwest.  The opportunity to talk about the food in finally here.  The first few words that would come to mind would be grand, delicious, interesting, and decipherable (OK maybe not the last word).  I had the pleasure of eating some Swedish Buffalo meatballs which were very good and I was able to try this hamburger which was inside some deep fried sour dough bread, or something like that.  But again it was all very good and I believe we all enjoyed ourselves very much.

Brothers

There are so many famous brothers in the world.  You have the Wright brothers who were able to fly the first airplane, you have the Duryea brothers who set up the first American car manufacturing company, and you have the two homeless brothers in Budapest, Hungary that just got amazingly blessed by their grandmothers death.  I was looking at some news headlines and read one that said "Hungary brothers in line to receive 6.6 billion dollars".   They will no longer have to live in a cave on the outskirts of Budapest.  From being hungry in Hungary to potentially living in a mansion, what a story.

~Jonathan

A Plain Day

Today I woke up and was told that it had snowed the night before.  My first worry that hit was whether or not the skylight (I think that is what it is called) would be covered and we would not be able to get reception for our XM radio.  After looking at the weather forecast it looks like winter is upon us for good and if everything stays the same, we will be having another white christmas.  The good news is that less than an inch has fallen, hopefully it stays that way. 

Black Friday

I woke up this morning with my mind on getting more sleep and how I turned off my alarm clock in my sleep.  I quickly dressed and was ready to go at 4:35 am for shopping.  It turned into a long day at the mall and Walmart.  At Walmart it was interesting when they opened up the deals for everybody, I could definently see how someone could get trampled.  My friends and I went into the food section where there was nobody.  After all the shopping we went and had an Xbox party which was a lot more fun.  Hope you all had a great Black Friday.

Thanksgiving Day Trivia

Did you know that the Canadians celebrate Thanksgiving on the 2nd monday in October?  When I read this I found it very interesting.   Thought you might all want to know.

Thanksgiving Day

Hello everybody and how in the world are you anyway?  I stayed up till after midnight just so I could say that I was the first to wish you a happy turkey Thanksgiving Day. 

  Today I was at the store and couldn't help overhearing an employee telling someone happy turkey day.  Later I went to the lady and said "Happy Thanksgiving".  She stumbled over her words and finally said "you too".  This bothered me because shouldn't we be able to say "Happy Thanksgiving".  Aren't we thankful that the Pilgrims came over to the "New World" and eventually started America?  Aren't we thankful that we live in a some what free country?  Aren't we thankful that we have a roof over our head this thanksgiving and a turkey to eat?   After mulling over these questions I came to my conclusion, you can actually find it in the Bible.  In Psalm 106:1 you will find the words "O give thanks unto the Lord".  I challenge you that for this one day in the year 2009 you be thankful no matter the circumstance.  When it comes down to it you probably don't deserve to be where you are but the Lord has been merciful to you and has put you in your circumstance for a reason.  So I challenge you, in everything give thanks.

~Jonathan

Friends Day

We had a friends day at our church last Sunday.  There were over 170 people there.  After church we had a potluck and at the potluck we had a clown

And the clown had a show

I will say this, the people that helped the clown were tired after they were done.

The Farm

The last post of these continual postings is here!  In October my mom went up to the farm to prepare some apples for applesauce.  After a full day at the farm they realized that they were still not done.  But eventually we got our applesauce and apple butter.  Here are a few pictures.

It's Official

While I am here trying to get caught up on blogging, I have been told by my sources that I am cleared to resume all my physical activities.  The doctor said that there is a chance that my spleen will stay bruised for a long while.  If only the gym was not set up for the Thanksgiving Potluck I would be playing basketball tonight.

Tea Party

Our local library held a "Fancy Nancy Tea Party".  My sister, as you might of guessed, had to go.  She went to the tea party and it turned out that one of her friends from the church went there also.  I suppose that she had a great time.  Here are a few pictures.

The Farm

Yes, I have posted once about the farm and I will do so again.    We made lefsa at the farm and had a great time.  Here are the pics.

 A few minutes ago I was thinking "Man, I really should update the blog more often".  I figured I could check my mother's camera and see if there was anything interesting on there.  Hopefully something that would make a post.  What I did not realize was she really has been taking a lot of pictures.  I now feel obligated to catch you guys all up on what has been happening in North Dakota.  Enjoy!

40th Anniversary

In the month of October our church held its 40th anniversary.  Why I did not blog about then? I don't know.  But now I am, here are a few pics.

The services went great.  I will give you a rundown of all the people in the pictures. The top picture is my mom and dad (just in case you guys didn't know).  The next one would be a picture of the Budgells from Canada.  On to the next picture.  This picture is a picture of our family.  The next picture from left to right contains Bro. Bollinger, Bro. Gilbert Pearson, Bro. Vaughn Pearson, and last is our Pastor.  The last picture is Vaughn and Wendy Pearson.

Fall Festival

We had our Fall Festival way back in October.  It went well and
here are a few pictures.

The Clothesline

Figure you might want to see what caused me all the trouble in the first place.

The Farm

Saturday we woke up and traveled the fifty miles south to the farm. This time it was much more enjoyable than last time. We made some lefsa, which is extremely good to eat fresh of the grill, and had much fun. I took a nice little trip on their four-wheeler, took a little walk which turned into a long one, and tried to stay as far from the work as possible. Jason, Leesha, Garret, and I left a little bit earlier to go hunting. Leesha was the one who was trying to fill a tag. She tried to shoot a deer at around five hundred yards, but missed. Later on she had another chance. The doe was running up a hill trying to escape, Leesha jacked her chamber and out came the bullet that was in the chamber. Her dad was getting very frustrated, yet she was able to stay calm. She reloaded the gun, looked through scope, and knowing that she did not have another bullet pulled the trigger. The deer was in mid-stride when she shot. Jason, being the master hunter he is, saw the deer drop its head. We all rushed up the hill to see if it was there and what we saw was very interesting. We saw the deer on the ground squirming around like it had been shot. Jason calmly walked up to it, raised his shotgun, and POW. The deer was dead. The rest of us walked up to it and saw the deer on its side, and the deer’s legs moving as though it was running away. I really wished I had my camera with me at that moment, but if whishes were horses beggars would ride. It was around this time that Garret and I had the pleasure of watching Jason and Leesha gut out the deer. Oh yea, I almost forgot to say that Leesha's shot was a perfect headshot that knocked out some brains, any eye, and part of the nose. 

Life

It is crazy that is already November. To think that I already need to buy Christmas presents again. Nothing amazing has been going on up here in the land of the North. This weekend we are going to the Sletten's farm to make some lefsa (something like a tortilla that is really good with butter and sugar). I told the Sletten's that they need to put a "No Jumping" sign on their clothesline because someone could really sue them over that.

Update

I went to the doctors today and there was some good news. Dr. Lane Lee said that I would need to come back in two weeks and we would have a CAT scan with a chance for me to be cleared.

Now I'm Back :)

Fall has taken on a whole new meaning for me. To the people that are not in the north it is rainy with the leaves turning colors and football season starting, but for all of us up north fall is just snow. The other day our church was having a family day at the Sletten's Farm. We were having a great time going on scavenger hunts in 30-degree weather. Until I got the brilliant idea I could jump over a clothesline. I successfully made it over the clothesline but unsuccessfully landed. Monday we set up an appointment with a pediatrician who then sent me in for an ultra-sound who then sent me in for a CAT scan. After that I went to the ER and then they put me into my room. The results were that I fractured my spleen in half and then in half again. This morning I was released and am feeling pretty good. I do not believe I am destined to be Superman though:( Here are a few pictures of me in the hospital room. Thank you for all the many prayers that have been prayed.

Guess Whats Here?

I am sure that most of you do not know the answer to the question. Most North Dakotans do not want to realize the answer to the question. The answer is
Snow!
We have had about two weeks of spring a few months of a cold summer and now a couple weeks of fall and it is already winter again. In the picture you can see the white stuff on the fringe of the field that is the snow. The crazy thing is that some of the snow melted away. Right now it is 29 degrees outside and with the wind chill it is about 15. Tell me how that snow melted.

They are BACK!!!!

Dad and mom just got back from General Conference yesterday. The good news is we are going to have some really good food today. They had a little bit of fun at the Mall of America and at St. Louis. Dad, mom, and the Pearsons stayed at the same hotel. The hotel room that the Pearson's had overlooked the St. Louis Cardinals baseball stadium. Here are a few pictures...

General Conference

With General Conference coming up the boys are home alone. Jess and Ruth headed East to Minnesota and the Mall of America Saturday and will turn the sights south toward St. Louis probably sometime Tuesday. Jessica is having the pleasure of staying the week with someone in the church. The boys are getting the opportunity to see what it is like being bachelors. They get to try their best to make macaroni and cheese different ways and eat some good ol' hamburgers.

News Update

Jared was spotted playing one-on-one basketball Tuesday night. Come to find out he was cleared by his doctor earlier that day. Jared is now able to play contact sports. His next goal? A slam dunk!