I'm a Dad!

Yep, that's right! I am a dad..... of my Family Home Evening Group! I just got sustained in church today to be group leader and I'm already going! I met with the female group leader and got some pretty good planning done. We have activities planned for the next couple of weeks and a big list of possible activities. I am looking forward to working in this calling and getting to know everyone better. I also started my new hometeaching route today. I am teaching Brandon Quinn and Dillon DeSpain--two of my good friends-- and Jessica Bodero and Emily Welch. I am not related to Emily, but there are some interesting coincidences! We'll be talking about our families and mention and name and the other will say that they have some relative with that name! It gets a little crazy sometimes!

For hometeaching today, I prepared my lesson from the First Presidency message in the Ensign. It's about the ABC's of living an abundant life. They are Attitude, Belief, and Courage. The story of my junior track season fit perfectly with the lesson, which is nice because I love telling it! I am always amazed at what people can accomplish if they decide to work hard, have confidence, and keep working toward the goal despite obstacles. If you want to hear the story about that season, just ask and I'll tell! It's a little long to put up right now.

I did finally get the classes I want, but now I have a lot of make-up work to do. I just need to buckle down and get to it. For my American Heritage class, I have to write my first essay. I'm not worried about choosing a good topic because they are provided. I'm not worried about not finding good support for it. I'm not even worried about not meeting the word count. I am worried that I'll write too much! We only have 750 words to make a convincing arguement about a pretty deep topic. I just hope I can defend my thesis well in that amount of space.

That's my church and academic life. Now, as far as social goes, I had my best bowling game this week at a ward activity on Tuesday. I bowled a 109, beating my previous record of 86. I think it was my dancing between each frame. It was just a bunch of fun being with a bunch of friends. Time for some bad news, now. I have not been on a date this semester. Don't worry too much, though! I'll do something this weekend!

Also, I was planning on going to Grace, Idaho for a friend's mission farewell. Parker, my friend who was going to drive me, checked the weather on Friday and saw that Grace had a severe weather warning. That night, a ton of snow dumped on us. We didn't even have any warnings! I can only imagine what driving to Idaho would have been like. I saw a pretty funny video on Youtube of a bunch of people driving in Bountiful, UT. There were plenty of small wrecks, tons of sliding, and even a 360 spin! If you want to check it out, you can search for 400 North Bountiful Utah in youtube.

Long Time, No See!

Wow! Thanksgiving was a while ago! I'm sorry I haven't posted anything for a long time. Finals started almost immediately after the break and I did lots of studying with my friends. And it was actual studying! I stayed in the library until 2a.m. a couple times! After last semester ended, I got to go back to good ol' Chesapeake, OH. It was great to be home, but not so great for keeping up with blogs. We only have dial-up and it takes half and hour just to check e-mail. So, I decided to skip a couple weeks there. I was working at Chick-fil-a almost every day during the break, so that took up a lot of time. I was glad, though, to have the time I did with my family! I had missed my amazing parents, my beautiful sister, and crazy little brother! I also got a cool surprise to see my big, married sister over the break too! It's still weird to think that she's married... I also got to hang out with my awesome Grandpa Bob! I missed his traditional Thanksgiving dinner and was glad to get to make it to Christmas. I'm grateful for all of the gifts I got from everyone, even if it was just a smile as I walked by.

It was nice to be home, but I'm back at school now. I moved into some new dorms at the end of last semester and they are like four star hotels! The bathroom lights turn themselves on and everything! They're not perfect and lack the "homey" feeling the last ones had, but I am glad to be in them! One downside is that there is almost no parking. It takes longer to walk to my car than it would to walk wherever I'm going.

As far as classes go, they aren't really. I wasn't able to make a payment at the end of last semester, so now I have a hold on my account. I applied for another loan, but it is taking forever to go through! Until I get the loan, I can't switch my classes. Until I switch my classes, I don't know what homework to do. I am going to start attended the classes that I want to be in, just so I don't get killed in the next couple of weeks. Even as it is, I will be in a social coma: dead to the world, but alive inside. I have gotten to go to my Book of Mormon and American Heritage classes and love them both! Everyone talks about how awful American Heritage is, but I have enjoyed it so far. I haven't had to write any papers or take any tests yet, but I don't think those will be so bad, either. I've already learned a lot about foundings of governments, problems faced governing people, and some basic motivations considered. I'm looking forward to a good semester!

In church today, I got to teach the lesson in Elder's Quorum. I taught with a partner about President George Albert Smith and the title of the lesson was "Love they Neighbor as Thyself." Reading and preparing for this lesson really encouraged me to be more like President Smith and Jesus Christ by going out of my way to serve others. It's so important to love and serve.

Hopefully, I'll be able to do better this semester about keeping up on this! I love you all!