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!

UPDATE about our life

A singing Christmas tree

    Yeah, nothing too special about this post.  It's just about us again.  Were you really expecting an update about something that would really be beneficial to your every day life.  You were?  Oh, my bad, I misunderstood you.  I thought you said yes.  I will stop this nonsense and start talking about something more sensible.  As you may have noticed there is a picture of a Christmas tree with lights on it at the top of this post.  The Christmas tree is rather impressive because people can walk into this Christmas, sing and then it can be called a singing Christmas tree.  It is so creative that someone had to create it about thirty years ago.  God just doesn't make brains like he used to. 

  Last week our youth group went to the Dickens Festival in Garrison, North Dakota.  We went there for the parade and drama that happens there every year.  While we were watching the parade I did not have a chance to take a picture.  My excuse for this crime is because it was to cold and short.  The play, which was called "Tiny Tim's Christmas", did not allow for pictures to be taken during the action.  Every they do a play that is based on "The Christmas Carol".  This year they made Tiny Tim the Scrooge.  Tiny Tim owned a little toy shop but did not treat his employees or customers in a friendly matter.  Nonetheless the little shop was successful.  The Scrooge died about three weeks before Christmas Eve.  In the play the Scrooge played the role of Jared Marley and haunted Tiny Tim.  It was very interesting and enjoyable. 



Cherry Cordials



  I am sure that pretty soon people will be ranting about all their Christmas goodies that they are making.  That is good for you all and I will be happy that you have once again found a way to stock up on the goodies in the Christmas season so you can have a new years resolution to lose weight.  I think I do this every year.  This year I decided not only to rant about the Christmas goodies but also rave about them.  My mother has already make sugar cookies, snickerdoodles, peanut butter cookies, and ginger snaps.  Who in the world created the names of these cookies?  For instance, lets take sugar cookies.  Doesn't every cookie have sugar in it?  What does snickerdoodles have to do with anything?  I am not even to start talking about ginger snaps, I don't like them.  Today she started making cherry cordials, peanut butter balls, and coconut balls.  I understand that your keyboard is probably ruined right now because of all the saliva that has dripped out of your mouth onto your keyboard, but please hold with me until this post is over.  Some of these cherry cordials we are going to have to sacrifice and give them to the church for our Christmas cookie trays that are compiled every year.  But boy am I going to enjoy those peanut butter balls.  You put one into

The peanut butter balls are missing their chocolate

your mouth and let it melt away until it is gone, when you get to this point you put another one into your mouth.  We haven't even been able to get to talk about the coconut balls, but that is alright.  Somethings are better if you don't talk about them.  If I were to talk about those coconut balls you would become so jealous that you would come to my house and try to rob us.  I have one more picture I am going to put on this post.  It is one that might surprise some but is probably the starting of something new.  I am going to call this portion the picture of the post.  Remember the comment section is open to anyone that would like to comment about any of the pictures on this post or any of the random and confusing thoughts that I try to put together in a semi-sensible matter.   But anyways here is the picture...

That is my dad

Transition Ceremony

  Yesterday we became famous.  We took a trip down to Bismarck to be with now former governor Hoeven and then governor-elect Dalrymple.  We spent around 45 minutes listening to them talk about how North Dakota has improved since they became governor and lieutenant governor, respectively.  The meeting started at 11:30 but we decided that we would not be late and showed about an hour early.  During this time we were interviewed and are now an internet sensation with the two-line paragraph that was published on the Fargo Forum's (it is the third paragraph from the bottom) website.  After the meeting was over we decided to turn down luch with the former governor, governor, and lieutenant governor (Drew Wrigley).  We needed to get to other important things.  It was very interesting to see how things work in a meeting that all the congressman are at.  There were more standing ovations than I could fathom which were all put to the rest with the sound of a gavel hitting wood.  Everything had to have a second in order for it to happen all the way down to the governor-elect entering and exiting the room.  Good thing that is not the way it is at home because nothing would get done then.

Its not about the title, its about the post

  I am going to express my condolences to everyone that judges blog posts by its title.  This post practically does not have a title, but we are not supposed to judge things by the outside appearance because it is about the inside that counts.  Either way you should probably just go to the next post because neither side is very impressive.  But if you still want to read this post then read on and I hope that you are enlightened to things that are going on on this side of the world.

My cookies vs. their cookies

  To start off we are going to talk about how cookies are best.  I really like to eat cookie dough without chocolate chips.  It is so delicious and soft, you have to try it some time.  I have now took this a step further and bake this cookie dough into just regular cookies.  My parents and siblings do not agree with my taste buds and so I tried to please them with these late addition of chocolate chips.  You can tell that the chocolate chips are on top of the cookies instead of in the cookies.  You can also definitely tell that the cookies without chocolate chips look better than those that do have chocolate chips.

church parking lot

  While all of you guys in Oregon are able to enjoy your showers of rain, we here in North Dakota are getting sick (literally) of these flurries of snow and temperatures, including wind chill, in single digits.  Sometimes those single digits have a plus sign but other times they have a minus sign.  It has been snowing all day today, at least as long as I have been awake.  My parents had to cancel some plans because of the snow and instead spend the day at the hospital, something that they have been doing a lot lately (not because of any illness within our family).  Today we are getting by without seeing more than a mile because of the snow.

  Last and definitely least I am going to bring you the picture of the day.  By the way when I said "definitely least" that was not referring to the person in the picture but rather this part of the post.  When you tell someone that you are attending college they usually either think that you are smart and intelligent and are in the process of increasing those attributes or that you are on the dimmer side of the world and are trying to figure out how to turn the light switch on.  They also think that you are in up-to-your-ears in work and probably do not have much time for sleep.  Well the picture of today is going to show you how college students really study.  Hope you all have a great Holiday season and that all the kids are able to get a couple of days out of school because of snow.  Here is the picture...

New way to study, have computer look at you instead of you looking at computer

Funeral

 Today we celebrated the life of someone that meant a lot to Apostolic Faith Church.  Sis. Olga Newman was one of the oldest saints in the church.  Not just in physical age but also in spiritual age.  She had been attending AFC for over 30 years.  When she passed last Tuesday she was 96.

  This is the second funeral that my dad has had to perform since we moved to North Dakota.  If I ever went into the ministry I would hate to perform a funeral.  It is one of the toughest times to be able to reason with someone because they are going through such a hard time in their life.  You have to be very careful with the words that you use because one wrong word could offend the whole family.  But he has managed and has done a good job.  The previous funeral was for a kid that was like seven years old, it was vastly a different kind of funeral than this one.

 

Black Friday

  Thing morning I got up around 3:30 am (the sun is not yet up) to go shopping at the mall and Best Buy.  I stood in the cold and the Best Buy line for around ten minutes.  I jumped on the wonderful opportunity to get my name out there by getting interviewed by two college students who were bored just like me.  After walking around the wall for many hours I began to become slightly delirious.  I had the wonderful idea to walk up to a random person in the mall and ask them the wonderful question of "You look familiar, I think I know you" they would always reply "You don't look familiar" and I would be like "I think I saw you at Disney Land" and they would be like "probably not" and then I would say "My bad" and walk away.  Some of you probably thought that I was joking when I said that I tried to cause trouble on Black Friday, you are wrong.  Another time we were standing in line in Scheels and the lady behind got on her phone and started to talking to her mom.  She said that she ddn't know what to buy of something and so they bought one of each.  She also said that they maxed our their credit cards and had to start using other people's.  Garret and I got the brilliant ideas to get on our phones and act like we were talking on the phone to our moms.  What we talked to our moms about was supposed to be funny and for entertainmnet purposes only.  Eventually, I made it home, read my book and then I CRASHED.  Now I am alive again and trying to cause some other trouble.  Hope you all got in the spirit and had a great time shopping on Black Friday.

Thanksgiving Day

  Sorry about not posting and telling you all Happy Turkey Day (there are certain restrictions on this blog and I am not allowed to say that other term) (Just Joking).  I stayed up until around 5:30 and welcomed in the great day with a smile.  Preston and Garret Pearson were over at our house and spent the night.  We had a great time.  We woke up for a great "Thanksgiving" (Excuse me) Breakfast around 11:00 am which consisted of potatoes, french toast, pumpkin scones, syrup, utensils to eat the food, and that was about it.  At around 4:00 o'clock we went over to the elder Pearson's house and enjoyed a great Thanksgiving Dinner.  After we left the Pearsons's house we searched around town for a Thanksgiving Day Newspaper and were unsuccessful.  The whole Pearson family receives a big shout-out on the world renown blog for giving us an invite to their house to enjoy a great Thanksgiving Dinner.  What made it even better was the fact that they did serve Ham which would almost account for them worthy to receive a double shout-out.  Pigs are much bettter than turkies in my world.  I have a million dollar question with no reward.  Why in the world is Thanksgiving Day called Turkey Day and Christmas is called X-mas or such but Black Friday is not called "day you wake up early in the morning and spend lots of money and are really tired" Day.  Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving!

Home School Field Trip

  Last week we took a trip down to Bismark and visited our state capital.  It was a very interesting tour that we went on.  Personally, I think that it would be very cool to go to a state legislative session.  It is very interesting how everything works.  Back a long time before I was born they decided to build this new capital building.  They decided that it should be the tallest building in North Dakota.  Even before they decided to build this mini skyscraper for our capital building they had another building that served as the building for our capital.  In one of the legislative sessions there was something proposed to build a new capital building this proposal was shot down but soon after that the capital building just happened to burn down.  Now the state of North Dakota had no other option but to build a new capital building.  It was then decided to build this capital building.  This all happened right around the time of the great depression.  Our capital building is the tallest building in North Dakota with a total of eighteen stories.  When you are on the top floor you can see for around thirty miles.  After that we went to the Heritage Center which was not quite as interesting.  Here are a few pictures of this adventure...

Corn Maze

  Now that it is almost December and fall here in North Dakota is well behind us.  I decided that it would be a good job of posting about the trip to the corn maze we took around a month or two ago.  We had a fun time playing on the hay bails and somehow figuring out the maze without taking any wrong turns.  We had a blast.  It turned that we would go again a second time with our youth group.  It was my mission to get lost and try to scare other people. Here are a couple of pictures of the big ordeal...

Hunting Trip

  A couple of weeks ago we went on our hunting adventure.  We drove almost two hours north to a campground that is close to Bottineau.  We stayed the night in a cabin that is at a campground.  There were a total of two deer shot, both of them were does.  Garret and Nate, respectively (always wanted to use that word probably not a good time to use but I am in a free country), were the hunters that accomplished this feat.  We had a great time which included great fellowship, good food, and excluded sleep. 

Time flies by...when you are busy

    It is November and we have had only one snow storm.  There is not much to show for that storm right now because the sun is trying to get us warmed back up again.  With the sun still showing, people have been trying to do as much as possible in the little time they have before winter really hits.  That would include doing small things like building houses and stuff like that.  Yesterday we drove about an hour south of Minot and helped someone lay some concrete for their basement.  They knew that we are really skilled in this area and were very glad that we were able to make it...or maybe not.  It did not take that long with all the help that was there.  It really is not that hard to do if at least one person knows what he is doing.  This weekend hunting season starts.  Last year we shot at some animals but they ran away, this year we are going to try not to let that happen.  While we were at the farm my dad was able to sight in the devices that are used to spew a bullet  out of its muzzle at a very fast pace.  He found that one of the guns definitely needed some help, it was way off target.  After some adjusting, it can now hit what the person holding the gun wants it to hit under one condition.  This is a condition that is known to all mankind, it has to be aimed at the animal.  Next week we are going to take our trek out in the wilderness and hope to bring something dead home .  We will definitely need a lot of prayer, you all may be able to accommodate us in that area.

  It is crazy to think that Thanksgiving and Christmas are right around the corner.  It seems like yesterday that I woke up at 3:00 in the morning to go cause some trouble in the mall on Black Friday and now I will have another opportunity in about three weeks.  Life does not get much better than that.   Christmas, for us, will be a month after Thanksgiving. After Christmas we will have the wonderful opportunity to start doing quizzing once again.  I am sure some of you are thinking that I don't really sound all that excited about quizzing, I would say that you are wrong and that I am definitely excited about quizzing this year.  Things are coming up, happening, then becoming history.  And now this post is officially history.