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!