...................

And again, school has been caneled because of snow. I do wish I was at school rather than at home doing nothing. We were supposed to go to the mall today and sing...but that obviously couldn't work. I am sure I will get over my disappointment soon enough. Any ideas how? :)

School

Today school was dismissed early because apparently an awful storm of ice rain was going to kill us all so the people that run Creswell High School thought that we should not have school any longer. So we got out before lunch even started :) And then we go home and wait for this storm...and nothing happens. And we even had our winter concert canceled tonight because of the invisible frozen rain. So, since nothing happened I decided to go to volleyball practice. And that was MUCH more fun that going to a winter concert, which I would have had to have gone to anyways and miss out on practice. Well, I think I shall go take a shower now...later ya'll.

A Day in the snow...

Well, I take back what I said about my hopes leaving about not going to school on Monday...those negative thoughts were apparently unnecessary. And I'm very glad they were :) We had no school today. Instead I stayed home and read a book, finished White Christmas with my family, cleaned the pool, and slid down Tate Road. It was very fun...and very cold! Dad brought the tractor out and made a chute for our "sled" to go down in. We had gone down it enough times that by the end of the morning we were going super super fast. And it was super super fun! A fun day. Believe it or not though, I wouldn't mind going to school tomorrow. I have a biology test that I studied for this weekend and I kinda wanna take it :) Anyways, I must get going. I hope all of you 3 faithful readers have a safe week!

The movie...

Yes, I watched it. And I'm back to tell you about my experience. It's a brilliant movie, that White Christmas. :) However, I'm trying to figure out what this means...

"When what's left of you gets around to what's left to be gotten, whats left to be gotten won't be worth getting, whatever it is you've got left". ~Phil Davis

Ya...I'm confused :) But then again what's new?

White Christmas

I woke up yesterday morning, came downstairs, said good morning to my parents AND THEN looked out the window and behold...SNOW! It definitely snowed yesterday. And now looking out my window it's slowly but surely melting away, along with my hope for not having any school on Monday :( But I'll get over that. Anyways, all this talk about snow made me think of only the best Christmas movie ever...White Christmas. Which, by the way, I still have yet to watch. I might just do that this week. We'll see if it makes up for the snow that is melting. Maybe I'll drown my sorrows with candy canes and hot chocolate while watching it.

This picture makes me happy every time I see it because they all just look so cute and happy and warm in their dresses and hats and boots. Very Christmasy :)

I like this one too...don't really know why. I like black and white pictures.

And this is one of my favorite scenes in the movie. I like the colors and sparkles and singing and dancing and their tall hats!

Well, I must get going now. I have some biology and history homework to do...and we're also decorating our Christmas tree tonight! Until then...

Cell

I am reading a book right now by a very good author and I'm beginning to like him a lot. But this book that I'm reading (Cell) sucks. It just seems like he is saying "Hey I'm Stephen King and I'm so famous I can write whatever crap I want to and get away with it". And that is just super annoying. This book makes no sense. It's about a "pulse" that went through every cell phone in the country at three in the afternoon and is making everybody that was on their cell phone at that time go crazy. Absolutely insane! They start eating each other and ripping out chunks of their throats and snapping necks. It's truly bizzare. And I just felt the need to blog about my disappointment :)

English

Today was one of the best days in Honors English I think I've ever had. We walk into the classroom and our teacher yells "Everybody sit down! I have just been inspired!" He then tells us what we are to do. We were all to sit down for 15 minutes and sum up our entire life in 6 words and six words only. No more, no less. After we wrote them down, those six little words, we gave him our note cards and he read them outloud to the class. He asked us not to put our names on them because he wanted to keep them personal. It was very interesting. I wrote down my favorites:

Lacking the courage, smiling through it

Always finds life confusing, craves simplicity

I have a good friend who marches to the beat of her own drum and I love that...this is one of my favorites :)

Be pessimistic, lazy and boring....check
(She may or may not be all these things :) )


And the normal teen:

Stupid overly trusting teen in love :)

And others:

Still waiting for you to change

Messed up family, no father figure

Day by day to the fullest

That's life...just live with it

In our class there is a girl who is one of those people where you always wonder what's going on inside her head...well here's a glimpse of it:

bizzarly sanguin outsider afflicted with wonderlust

...couldn't agree more!

And one of my best guy friends who is very very athletic!!:

Run high, jump fast, rock off ...................................... haha

And mine:
Broken, amputated, sewn together again, adapted

What's yours?

Seneca...

In English we are doing some world literature and recently we are digging into some famous philosophers like Plato and Socrates etc. Seneca was a student of Socrates and killed himself because...well...Socrates told him to. He had so much respect and love for his teacher he thought it would be cool to kill himself. So..he did. And I find that very strange. Anyways, here is something that Seneca had written and I want to share it with you lovely people.

There is no such thing as peaceful stillness except
where reason has willed it to rest. Night does not
remove our worries; it brings them to the surface.
All it gives us is a change of anxieties, for even when
people are asleep they have dreams as troubled as their days.
The only serenity is the one which represents the free
development of a sound mind.



Lately I've been having 2 dreams repeatedly and I keep waking up thinking they're so real. I wake up sweating and sometimes in tears because they were so intense. And they don't go away. So I am agreeing with Seneca, this is exactly how I feel. :)

Santiam

Well, the game has come and gone. We didn't win, but it felt like it. Those are the best games. Where you just play your hardest as a team and feel good about every play. But no matter how hard you play, or how good your team is...there's always someone better than you. And in this case, it was Santiam. I was super happy though, I started. This is the best team in the league and our coach has me starting. It made me feel good about myself and it just made me want to play that much harder because I knew the coach saw something and put me in there for a reason. So I played my best. They played very well too. They have 2 players that are exceptional. Their Libero and their outside hitter. We have some good players too. Chandler Gabrio is our main hitter and she is so much fun to watch! Anyways, yes we lost to Santiam BUT we beat Regius on Thursday. THAT was also a tough game. We beat them in four. You could just tell we wanted it so bad. Chandler had 21 kills. Some boys were trying to get on her nerves and so the coach just told her to show them what she had and it definitely motivated her. Good job Chan!
Now, the best part of this blog. We had a tournament in South Umpqua this weekend. We won and brought home the trophy. Yes, we are the champions of the South Umpqua tournament! It's a good feeling. It was so intense and so insane at the same time. I enjoyed every second of it. Probably because I played every second, but also because EVERYBODY on the team was playing with passion and going all out. It was a blast. We didn't have 2 of our right sides, Briana Wipplinger and Ashley Kulm. Briana is out for a couple weeks due to a sprained ankle and Ashleys grandpa just passed away, so she was at the funeral. That left us with a main setter and no right side. Our coach, lately has been pushing me to play more and more right side, so I played LOTS of right side. It was kind of fun. I like taking the second ball sometimes and hitting from the right side you get lots more kills because people don't get set back that often and so the blockers aren't expecting it. Playing middle is my true calling, though. I like it very much. :) Well, it's definitely time for me to be getting to bed. Tomorrow's practice will be tough and I need rest. I also have a headache right now. So I'm gonna go pop some pills and hop into bed. I'll let you know how next weeks games go...Until then.

My oh so interesting life in a nutshell....

So, volleyball has been consuming my life lately and I'm loving every minute of it. Our varisty team is now 2-0. Our big game is on Tuesday against Santiam Christian. They are definitely our biggest competition. It should be pretty exciting. So, all of you readers out there! Come and watch...ok, there's one more fan in the crowd... :) Our first home game was last night and it was way fun. Chandler Gabrio and Chelsie Joyce...our top two hitters, got 12 kills each. That's pretty good. And our setter, Jamie McMahon got 25 assists. She's amazing. :)
School is going good for the most part as well. It's definitely more difficult than last year. But I guess that comes with the package of being older :) My classes are:
1. Choir
2. Geometry
3. Honors English
4. U.S. History
5. Biology 2
6. Spanish 2
7. Library Aid
First and seventh periods are obviously my easiest. Which is nice, because for volleyball and stuff I'm gonna have to leave early to go to away games and I don't do anything in 7th period. So...that's about it. I have nothing else to say that will be of any interest to my many interested readers. Until.....whenever.
JR out

:)

Wow, so it's been a while, huh? Well, I'm sure you've all gotten over it. I'm nothing too special. :) But mucho has happened since the last time I've written. I went to volleyball camp, Clear Lake...doubles have started and I'm loving it. Volleyball has definitely been a big hilight in my summer. Camp was incredible, lots of good memories. I think I can honestly say that this has been the best summer I've ever had. I've learned so much and definitely feel better about...things. But it has definitely had it's downfalls. Like work, I like actually working and earning money and working with people that I like...but, it's also just been hard trying to reschedule and reschedule when I shouldn't have to and junk like that.
The luau we had here last weekend was a blast. We danced and ate and chilled out on the tennis court. It was pretty interesting. I loved every minute of it. :) It also helped that one of the hawaiian dancers complimented me on my dancing skills. It felt good.
Well...I have nothing else to say. If you want to know anything else...feel free to ask. But no promises on honest answers.
~James

ooga booga

Most of these pictures can explain themselves pretty well, but allow me to illustrate anyways... This is Joey and I trying to show off our "sexy" face. Looks like they both need a lot of work. :)
Normal is good too...
Remember how I said pictures can explain themselves?...ya....I don't even know what's going on here
My bestest friend in the entire world! I like the fountain....

My first Gyro ever! By the way...it's pronounced Guy-Row...not Hero. :)
On our way to dinner.
We went to this awesome toy place called Magic Mouse Toys and look what we found!
Wow...
He was forced...sorry Joey

This is today. Jeanea and I went to Pike's Market and look what happens when we're by ourselves! I go kissing fish! It was awesome....
Jeanea liked the guy more than the fish....

The morning started out perfectly. I had a large piece of chocolate cake for breakfast. I love it here! Can I come more often?
And dinner was good too. :)
This is at Pike's Market. I bought myself a tiny little cheesecake. It's called quadruple chocolate. It was Amazazing!
Then we had some time to kill before she had to go to her job so we tried on dresses at this really expensive dress store. Apparently purple isn't my color.
This dress was fun. I'm going to wear it to prom next year! It was only $97. :)



I don't know what exactly this is....but...it's cute?

WA...

So, as most of you know, Jeanea works at Ann Taylor. Not Ann Taylor Loft. I just learned last night that there's a difference. And for those of you who don't know what the difference is...shame on you. :) Yes, she works at Ann Taylor. One of the most beautiful, expensive stores around. Anyhoo, she was at work and I decided to drop by and say hi with Jeanel and Alaina. Then Jeanea told me to try stuff on and I found this dress...observe... Isn't it BEAUTIFUL!!!!!!! $138
The shoes were pretty adorable as well, but I immediately fell in love with this dress. So, I decided that when I become rich and famous at whatever, I'm gonna buy this dress and say my thank you speech in it. That is...if it's still around. :) It was a good day.
And then there's Jeanea in her adorable, cute, lovely, beautiful, gorgeous outfit here. Does she not look amazing and skinny and....tall? The shoes just make the outfit. She ended up buying the outfit, not the shoes. So, our mission this week is to find a pair of black and red shoes that pull this outfit together. It truly does make her look very very cute. I love you Jeanea!!!!!

yay me

So, as of yesterday I am going to Washington tomorrow night and I am going to chill with Jeanea for an entire week! Just us! Well, Joey may hang out a little...anyhoo, I am uber excited! An Entire week with Jeanea!!! This is going to be a good week. I have no idea what I am going to do whilst she is at work, but I am very sure I will find something. I can't wait to see Arianna and Alaina, and Janelle (?) and Pastor Rob. I miss them all. I leave tomorrow evening with Joey right after I get off work. Which reminds me I need to call Joey. So much to do in so little time! I still have to pack and find my camera and I have to figure out this whole car sitiation and blah blah blah. I really need to find my camera so I can blog every night about all the fun I'll have with Jeanea. :) I should get on that right now. Well, after I finish blogging. So, tomorrow I have worship practice in the morning at 8:30, then church and I work at precisely 12 o'clock until 6/7. So I'm gonna have to ask my shift leader if I can get off at 6 instead of 7 so Joey doesn't have to wait all night for me to get off work. So, I'll have to have my clothes for work with me at church and then go straight to Washington after work. But I don't know if Joey is picking me up or if I'm going home first to take a shower (which is much preferable than just going straight to Washington in my work clothes in a stuffy little car...). If I am going home after work then that will give me about half an hour and then I can just leave my bags there and pick them up after work and have Joey pick me up at my house... You know what? Maybe I should figure this all out before I just waste time blogging about it. This blog in its entirety has basically been just me thinking out loud...or whatever. None of you can really "hear" my thoughts...just see them. Which is really weird. :) Oh well, I'm over it. Later!

The "Quick Update"

Well, this week has been very interesting, what with Shelbea and Crystal and my friends gone and all. Jeanea, Crystal and Owen and Joey left on Sunday afternoon. So did Shelbea. My best friend Briana left for Arizona on Monday and Katie Annett, another good friend left on Sunday. Which left me practically all by my lonesome this entire week. But, miraculously I got through it! I worked on Monday and I had a volleyball camp to go to. I also had the camp on Tuesday, but I was pretty bored after that. So I had Kirstin come over and we rented "The Eye". It was basically the lamest movie on the face of the planet. I didn't get it at all. But, whatever. Wednesday I worked from 7 to 2. It was fun. I didn't get any tips though, like I did on Monday. On Monday I got four dollars in tips. It was amazing! Let's see, what day are we on now? Thursday! I worked at a different volleyball camp with little kids. And then worked in the afternoon, but that was after I went to Valley River to watch my brother Shane's grand opening for his digital advertising thing. Good Job Shane! It was very cool. There was free food. :) Don't worry, I didn't eat it all...:) And today, Friday, I worked at the camp again and I am going to work in less than 2 hours. Yay me. Well, that's my life for now. We'll see what new adventures come my way next week. Until then fellow readers....

American Gladiators

So, since Crystal has moved back, she has gotten me hooked on the show American Gladiators. Just watching the show inspires me to look like this...but we all know that's never gonna happen. :) Here are a couple of my favorites. This is Crush. She has never been beaten in any game ever! She has never even touched the water. She isn't arrogant in any way, she doesn't talk smack about her opponents and I think she's really pretty.
Her real name is Gina Joy Carano. She is 5'8", 140 pounds. Her specialty is Muay Thai Boxing. Her dad played quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys. And she's in the coming up movie "Blood and Bone".

This is Phoenix. She's pretty insane. Her real name is Jennifer Widerstorm. She's 5'6", 155 pounds. She set the record for Hammerthrow at her high school.

Meet Helga...she isn't one of my favorites...but she's pretty.....huge. She's 6 feet tall. And huge!

My all time favorite (Hurricane), I could not find a picture of. He's one of the newest Gladiators. He's a former Olympic Javeline thrower. And really hot. :)

A Day at the Beach...

Yesterday, our pastor took the high school sunday school class to the beach. It was kind of a good turn out, after all. There were 5 boys and little 'ol me, so I called up my friend Karisa and she happily came to my rescue. We had a blast. We went to Honeymen Lake and even though the temperature was below 65 degrees...Karisa and I went swimming anyways. There was a dock out in the middle of the lake..well, kind of in the middle, and we swam out to it and jumped off the dock several times. Then the boys thought they'd come and jump off the dock too...or rather push us off. Either way it was great. The water was warmer than the temperature was outside so we stayed in the water as long as we could...which lasted about 45 minutes. :)




Here we are jumping in and there we are under the water...

There was a lot of bird poop on this dock. It was honestly everywhere, so we had to be super careful not to step in it. It was disgusting.

This is after we got out of the water. We went to go watch the boys and pastor Brent and his kids play some football.

At the beach.... We were scouting out a good place to hide our shoes and cameras. It wasn't very successful, because we just ended up spending 15 minutes looking for our stuff when it was time to go. Maybe next time I'll just put a stick in the ground with a white shirt tied on to it. Yes, that will be much easier.

Our feet were pretty gross, and I made the mistake of wearing my hemp anklet. There is now sand stuck in every part of the anklet. My bad....

The boys. Jared (right), Chevy, and Andy (Left). Andy is practically glowing in this picture, he's so white. It was a terrible trip home for him because he decided to go a little farther than all the rest of the boys in the ocean and a huge wave just came and ate him. So, then he decided to pretty much swim for the next hour. Poor guy.

Anyways, the day was pretty much awesome. On the way home, the sun was so bright and beautiful I wanted to take a picture of it, but I was in a moving vehicle and apparently it's pretty difficult to take pictures whilst you are moving. So I was dissapointed. OH! And we also saw a baby skunk on the way home. It was so tiny. It would have fit in the palm of my hand. It was adorable. But I didn't get close enough for it to spray me... :)

Ya...I miss then

He looks good with a guitar. Without one too...

Whoa...he's come a long ways. I like his hair MUCH better now. :) Good job, Cook!

This picture is...very emo-ish. But I still think he's pretty cool.

I found this picture and thought...wow, there really is somebody else out there more crazy about David Archuleta than I am.... :)

This night was my favorite performance of his. He sang...something like... "Imagine no posessions...I wonder if you can......You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one..." I loved it.

I also found this little phrase.... "No one does it betta, than David Archuleta" The things people come up with.... :P

Hey! I can play the piano too! How funny...we have something in common. (hint, hint)

And then it was summer...

So this summer has basically been...ya, I don't even know. I've been trying to keep myself busy. I supposedly got a job at the gas station a little over a month ago and I'm not even on the schedule yet...which then led me to drive around Creswell and Cottage Grove yesterday to pick up applications at coffee shops. I think I would do much better at making coffee for happy people than pumping gas for angry people. People who usually get gas are more likely to be angry than people who buy a drink at a coffee shop. These people have a choice whether or not they want to get coffee and they can chose whatever they want and it's usually a fun thing to get good coffee at a coffee shop. People who get gas are normally angry, and I think it's pretty obvious why. They don't want to pay over $4 a gallon for gas. And, it's something they need to get, so they don't have a choice. Unless they just start walking or riding bicycles. But then that would make them more angry because they're excercising against their will. Or maybe during this whole process of walking or riding a bike, endorphins will be unleashed and then they will become happy again and go back to driving their cars. It's a pretty vicious cycle. :) In the words of Elle Woods... "Excercise lets off endorphins...endorphins make you happy...Happy people don't shoot their husbands! They just don't!!" She is a very wise woman. I look up to her. :)

Anyhoo, I have to rill out a resume or make one or whatever and I don't know how. And in order to work at....4 different coffee shops I need to turn in a resume. So, I'm kinda in a spot right now.

I'm also sad...because last night was our last night of summer league volleyball. It was fun while it lasted, though. We beat Willamette in 3 games and murdered North Eugene in 2. It was great fun. And the best part was I actually got to play my normal position last night. Tuesday night I had to play right side for a whole game and I hadn't played it in so long that I sucked. It was then I realized that playing middle is my true calling. I hate just standing off on the right side and watching the outside and the other middle block a ball when I could be that middle and block that ball. Blocking just gives me warm fuzzies inside.

I've also been playing some tennis with Crystal and other random people. That's fun...even though I have no idea what I'm doing and I probably look like a complete idiot out there, but I still enjoy it. I found this picture and decided that it's scary. I would never play on that tennis court even if I was paid...less than $1,000. Apparently it's the worlds highest tennis court.

An Ode to Dad

First off, Happy Father's Day to all you dads out there. Well, it will be father's day in precisely 9 minutes...but whatever. Second, I don't even know what an "Ode" is, or how to even spell it...so I hope that's correct. And third, I love you Dad! Here's a list of 10 really cool things about you...

1.) You adopted me. That's probly one of the best decisions you have ever made. :)

2.) You look great in this picture...

3.) You are super generous and never like to take advantage of people. i.e. when you turned down Aaron's offer to just take the private jet down to Disneyland.... :).........:(

4.) You love coming to watch my volleyball games and try to give me tips when I already know what I'm doing wrong and when my coach has already told me 3 times that night. And you took me to all 4 of my Washington Webfoot tournaments...I don't know how you did it. You're a real man among men, I guess. :)

5.) You take me to Duck volleyball games because you know I love the sport, and afterwards you would take me to go get a frosty from Wendys.

6.) You always make sure I'm never bored by putting me to work. It makes my day go by faster. :)

7.) You don't care if I can't play tennis worth the life of me, you still don't mind playing me...even though we haven't really gotten around to that yet this summer. (hint, hint)

8.) When I was first learning to drive, you were so patient in the passenger seat. I loved it. Mom was always on the edge of her seat...thanks dad.

9.) You want me to be the best I can be, no matter what. Even if it's just washing a car, you say to do the best job on it. Don't just wash it once...wash it twice.

10.) And last but not least...you are my ping pong buddy. Playing ping pong is my favorite thing in the world to do with you. Not just because of that one time when I MASSACRED you by beating you 21-8 (remember, the day before you left for Hawaii...), but also because it's our little thing. You even stop watching the sports channel to come play with me. Thanks Dad!

Happy Father's Day Dad! You deserve the best!

The small things in life...

Sometimes the best things in life are the small things, the little things that just bring a smile. Like giving someone a gift....

Or taking a corny picture with your brother....
Getting a "Happy 16th Birthday" banana...thanks Haylee!
Figuring out the easy way to do a puzzle...
Seeing old friends at prom...
Or just being silly. I did Jeanea's hair in this picture...

I think she looks like Gwyneth Paltrow off the movie

Emma. It doesn't look as good on me I don't think. Haha.