Monday, November 2, 2009

Broken Leg

Well, for those who dont know, I broke my leg recently. I was doing a flip, and it snapped. so I had to go through a week of getting X-Rays and MRI scans, and all kinds of stuff. I was mad cuz it felt like they werent doing anything to help. Well, Friday I had a MRI scan because they thought a ligament in my ankle was pushing it apart. WE got results back, and they concluded that everything was fine!! It moved back, my ankle was fixed, and the bone is perfectly set for healing!! I have an actual cast on now, and only have to spend about 6 more weeks with crutches!! I'm so happy!!

Monday, March 16, 2009

St. Patrick's Day

Well, just in time for St. Patrick's Day, I found this old story I wrote about St. Patrick in 5th grade. Without further ado, here it is.

*Note: Grammar is not perfect.

Once there was a woman named Leah. She lived in Ireland. You think I am going to talk about an old widow who lives in a cottage, but no. That is not what this story is about.

A long time ago, there lived a woman. She was about 18 or 19 years old, and her name was Leah. She was an Irish woman. During her time, there was an levianthian that lived in a lake in New Ireland (Scotland). This giant snake was feared by all in Ireland, except for some people who wear funny little skirts with squares on them. These people called the lake Loch Ness. Every once in a while, groups of men, and only men, would try and fight the behemoth. None would ever return. Day after day she would watch the warriors go by, her silky black hair flowing in the breeze. Her hair seemed to be from the Loch Ness itself. Then one day, she decided to fight the monster. But how could she, for she was a girl, and girls were not allowed. Then she had an idea. She would use her father's name, Patrick. She would just hide her hair in the funny little square hat a friend had gave her. She got some provisions, and left. She left a clover on the table to show where she was going.
After a while she sat on a rock to eat some lunch. But the rock was real slippery. She looked at the rock and saw these curious little four leaf clovers. But what were they? Wait! She remembered reading about them. They are called shamrocks. They grow around rocks that have golden shamrocks in them. Then there was a sudden flash and in her hand a golden shamrock appeared. Then heared a rattle and a snake striked at her. She threw the shamrock at the snake and it turned the snake into stone with a gold shamrock inside it. With her new-found weapon she marched off to the base.
You'd think she would be shy with all of the guys there, but she wasn't. She had her father's courage. She marched up to the commander and said that she was going to slay the creature with her weapon. With this she held up the shamrock. At first he neglected her but when he saw the plant, he was shocked. He called her a saint and asked her her name. She said it was Patrick. "Saint Patrick, you are now allowed to lead our next army," the commander said. With her shamrock at hand, she went down to Loch ness. Along the way the funny scottish me got in the way. eventually, she told them to get lost.
They finally made it to the lake. Right at the right time, for the snake was just coming out of the water. She took action immediately, telling the troops to distract it. They ran around like some crazy scottish men. While they did that she snuck up to it and looked for the place where its heart was. Then she placed the shamrock on it and pressed down. The snake made strange noises but wasn't turning to stone. Then it hit her. A force shot through her and she fell. Then the snake picked her up, and her hat fell off. Her hair fell down and touched the water. This caused the ground to shake. Then water shot up. When it came down, the snake was stone. Then the stone burst, causing golden shamrocks to fly all over the world.
This explosion killed the Irish girl named Leah. She disappeared and the golden shamrock spread good luck everywhere. But no one knew St. Patrick's true name. He, or should I say she, is honored for slaying the snake of Loch Ness on March 17th.

Note: Every st. Patrick's Day it is said that golden shamrocks appear all over the world. This is also why shamrocks are said to be lucky.

Well, I just wanted to fill yall in on my perspective of this holiday. Its important to note, I disliked scottish people at that time, for whatever reason, and so portrayed them as bad people, and also I believe the Loch Ness monster does still exist, but at the time, I obviously different.
This story leaves much to be known, like why is there no evidence of the Snake rock formation, why her hair had such an effect, why you have never seen a golden shamrock, and why the Scots were so crazy. This story has sorta inspired me to go back and possibly fill in this missing information, and some other good points as well, and maybe it will become a great book. But until then, see ya.

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Camping

Yeah so last weekend I went camping. Again. And as most people know, it was below freezing that night. Yes I was very cold, and I even remembered my pillow and sleeping bag.
We went camping at Camp Patton, a scout camp that is way out of the way. It was a stake wide campout that the stake president asked us to do. We figured, hey, if the Stake president asked us to do it, we should. And we were blessed. It only got down to the teen's, instead of the possible below zero temperatures.
So anyway, we got there at about 6 pm or something. We found a spot to camp, and set up our tents. We ended up picking the spot that had the smallest firepit, so we ended up making a fire in our wheel barrow, and cooking in that. At about 8:30 or so, we ended up having a flag retirement ceremony. By that time it had gotten down to almost freezing and we were probably out there for an hour. It was a nice ceremony, but took forever because they had to cut each stripe off instead of just folding it up and burning it. It was still nice, even though I could no longer feel my hands.
After the ceremony, we went back to camp, ate dinner and tried to stay warm. Then at about 10:00 some boys from another ward came over and we played capture the flag til twelve. It was crazy because the whole time we played, I felt perfectly fine, but when we finally stopped, it was very cold. after the game, we climbed into our tents and spent the rest of the night trying to stay warm. I was perfectly fine, except for my feet, which had a pair of normal socks, my soccer socks, and a pair of wool socks on, and my head, which started hurting half way through.
We ate breakfast, which was french toast, at about 8, and then at 8:30, everyone came together to start the days activities. They had set up a problem-solving and orienteering activity for us to do. We sang happy birthday to Dave and Patrick, and then started our activity. We got grouped with the albany ward, and got the problem solving task first. Our first problem was tying a overhand knot. Sound simple right? That's what we thought. The director had all eight of us hold seven ropes between us, and we had to tie the knot in the middle rope between the fourth and fifth middle guy, without letting go of our ropes. It took us a little bit to figure it out. Everyone kept trying to throw in their ideas at once. i let them get their ideas out and try it, but none of them worked. So I decided to take charge. I had them start back, and then step by step, I had them go through. it was all about visualizing everyone as part of the rope, and then visualizing how to tie the rope. We were able to get it tied, and then we had to untie it the same way. It was easy to untie it because we just went in reverse.
After that challenge, we had another problem where we had to get everyone across a gap. We also had to get a magnesium stick across with us. The rules were that, in order to walk across, you have to be carrying the stick. Once you walk across once, you cannot walk back. It sounds complicated but it wasn't that hard. We figured out that people were going to have to be carried across. The problem was that two people had to be carried at once, and we were a group of extremes. It was either big, heavy guys, or really small, light guys. It was hard but we were able to get across.
After that challenge, we did a orienteering course, that I failed miserably on. Lets hope you never get lost in the woods with me as your guide. We will end up dead. The only way we made it through the course was because we followed the people in front of us. At the end of the course, we got asked how we could compare how we did to the liahona. I didn't want to answer because that would mean that the liahona gave bad directions and got you lost, which of course it didn't.
So after the courses, a guy asked us to help find wood so that we could build a fire for the next troops to use it. That was fun. We went into the woods and started grabbing branches and logs to buile it up with. Thats when I found this enormous vine. the vine stretched all the way to the top of a tree, and was strong enough to hold my weight. i would of climbed it but, everytime I moved it slid a little bit. I wanted to pull the vine down so badly, but if I did it would fall and I would have no where to run. After that we went up and everyone came back together so we could bury the ashes from the flag. That was a neat experience. It really made me feel important. They even let us keep rings from the flag, which are supposed to bring good luck. i got two so I should have extra good luck. After that we went and broke down camp and came together so that we could end the camp out. We prayed and some other stuff, then most everybody left. Except for us and the Valdosta ward.
We, the tifton ward and Valdosta ward, ended up palying Ultimate Frisbee for two hours. That was the best game ever. It was also a brutal game. I got elbowed in the head, slid many times, and got lots of scrapes. But my worst, and most amzing fall, was my diving slide. I was defending a man and the disk was thrown to him. I ran at him, trying to block the frisbee, but missed. I ended up falling to the ground, and sliding on my knees. Then, while still sliding I ended up rolling onto my back, and sliding a good ten feet, only to be stopped by a tree hitting my side. I hit the tree so hard, it rolled me onto the tree and I almost broke it. I was able to come out of the slide with no cuts or bruises, but it was still awesome. After the game, we finished the last of our packing and left. But the ecxitement didn't end there. Just down the road, around some extremely scary curves, there laying on the side of the freshly paved road, was a whole carcass of a deer. It was awesome. We got out and looked at it. There was still skin on it. Then fifty feet away, on the other side of the road, we found a part of its backbone. It was sick. After that everything was pretty uneventful, just Brigham wanting to take some old Mcdonald's signs and me half falling asleep.
It was freezing cold, but still a fun camp out. I wouldn't do it over again if given the chance, however.

Monday, January 5, 2009

The Wonderful Cat

So as everyone who has ever had a cat, and maybe even some other people, cats love to come up and just snuggle in your lap. Especially when you are trying to do something else, like read a book, fold clothes, or do something on the computer. Well, good ole Morpheus/Shanks/Cat didn't let me down.
For the past few nights, the cat and dog have been in the computer room with me. This causes a problem for the cat. She can not go off and sleep somewhere comfortable because the dog would bother her if she moved. She she had to settle with either sitting in my lap while I'm typing, Standing in front of the screen when I'm playing a game, or chasing the cursor around, trying to figure out how to get it.

Sunday, January 4, 2009

One Word

So, Jen and Mom has done this thing where you try and describe this year's goals in one word. I've decided that my word is Strength. This refers to my physical goals and my spritual goals. This year I hope to lose some weight and gain some muscle, and I also am going to strive to be as spiritually strong and righteous as I can be.

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Hold on, Spider monkey!

So everyone knows about the pecan tree thats in the front yard. The one that is the source of money in the fall, acts as a second player in volleyball, is the place where everyone meets in case of a fire. Well, since I was, I don't know, 9-10 years old, I have always wanted to climb that tree. I would stare at that tree, seeing the perfect hand holds and foot holds sticking out, and think, " One day, one day I will climb that tree." I would try and try, reachnig up, and grabbing the limbs, but I was never tall enough and couldn't pull myself up. Well that changed today. I went out there, rope in hand, at noon. I tied the rope around those stubby limbs, and hoisted my self up. Slowly I worked my way around to the fork in the tree, and sat down. Then I stayed like that for three hours, enjoying my accomplishment. I finally scaled the great giant. Since three, I have been going up and down the tree over and over, perfecting my climb. I now can climb like a spider monkey up the tree. All I need now is some boards, nails, and food, and I could live up there. I looked like I was an extreme tree hugger, stradling the tree limbs. Here are some pictures.

Saturday, October 18, 2008

Camp-out

So yesterday I went on a camp-out with the troop. We went over to Florence Marina State Park and Providence Canyon State Park. We got there and then went around and explored the Marina.After that, we went and set up camp and then prepared our dinner. We had fresh fish brother Thibault had recently caught. And when I say fresh, I mean with scales, guts, and everything. We learned how to scale and clean a fish. It was quite gross. And then it started.
Heavenly water started falling from the sky. It was raining. At first it wasn't bad, and so we went to the campsite and got the fire going. Once the fire got going, we prepared the second part of our dinner. We had hobo dinners, which is meat, with vegetables mixed in, wrapped in tin-foil. All you have to do is just wait for 15 minutes, and you have a perfectly cooked peice of meat. While we were waiting for our food to cook, Bro. Burns was frying the fish we cleaned. After everything was done cooking, we ate, and boy did we eat. The food was great, better than some food you get in resteraunts. After that, the rain really started coming down. We went out and was playing in the rain, but after a little bit it was getting to cold for everyone but me. I took my shirt off and kept playing in the rain. Although, because of serious back problems I'm suffering through right now, I couldn't enjoy it as much as I wanted. Oh, by the way, this brings up one of my pet peeves. At the park, every wherever you look, all you could see was white. Big white things with wheels and windows, and satellites sticking out of roofs. That's right, im talking about RVs. Gosh I hate those things. No, actually I hate the people that use those things. They say they're camping, but all they are doing is staying in a temporary home. Seriously, why do people even buy houses, when they have RVs? That is not camping, that is luxury hobo living. I thought of all this when I was sitting on the back of the truck looking in the window of a person's RV, trying to figure out what they were watching on TV. (By the way, it was the news.) So after we spent some time out in the rain, I decided to finally go to sleep. It was 8:30ish, and because of my back, I couldn't really do anything, so i got changed and was ready to lay down. That's when I realized I didn't have my sleeping bag. I didn't even have a blanket. So I had to curl up on the hard dirt, and use my bag as a pillow. It didn't work well. So I was lying down for about three hours or so, never fallnig asleep, when it really got exciting. Two of the scouts got a little wet surprise when they climbed in to bed. At about that time, the rain was coming down hardest, and it ended up getting under their tent. Everything they had was completely soaked! I was lucky and got a spot that stayed completely dry. When we took the tents down in the morning, there was a big rectangle of dry ground under where I slept. They ended up getting Bro. Thibault's tent, and Bro. Thibault slept in his truck. I had been thinking about getting in the truck or in the Scout trailer, but never did. So from 12:30 to about 3:00 it was kinda quiet and I think I dozed off a little bit then. But that was the only sleep I got. At 3:30 or so, I kept rolling around trying to be comfortable, but just couldn't. So I decided I would go out and make a fire, and just sit out there. So I grabbed my knife and fire starter, put on my hats (note the plural) and put on my three pairs of socks. I walked outside, and Bro. Thibault was out there too. We got the fire started, and then sat in front of the fire for a little bit. After a while, Bro. thibault got up and climbed into his truck again, and went to sleep. So I curled up and closed my eyes, hoping to fall asleep, but evertime I did I had this overpowering urge that something was right behind me, and I couldn't fall asleep. So from about 4:00 to 7:30, the onlything I did was wait for the sun to finally rise. After everyone was awake, we ate our breakfast, and prepared to leave. I walked into the restroom building,(which is also a laundromat, so sickening) and discovered Heaven. There right against the wall, was a huge, very cushiony couch. I could of come in there and gone to sleep. I was upset, to say the least. So after that, we left and went to Providence Canyon, and spent some time walking the trails, and exploring. Then we left and finally headed for home. Needless to say, I slept the whole way.

Inspiration

Inspiration