Dare 2 Share

So the youth went to this awesome youth conference in Virginia(very close to Maryland)
We left around two pm on Friday and returned at eleven pm on Saturday. The Speakers included Greg Stier, Zane Black, Propaganda. The Band that lead worship was called, Shane & Shane. Dare 2 Share focuses on evangelism, getting out there and sharing your faith(the Title is kinda self explanatory). They had a really tragic skit(in a way), it was based on a true story of very inspired(to share their faith) people. I rode down in the Tweeds van with: Mrs Tweed, Sarah, Olivia, Ben and Daniel.

Back Track

Monday 1/24
Had a meeting with the pastor before my friends came over, I didn't mention that Before


Wednesday 1/26
(can't think of anything)

Thursday
Snow and ice and no Karate
We did go out to eat it was at Cracker Barrel, and the food was good, though I don't think I like dumplings.

Frydai
Miserable should have two "Z"s in it instead of that "s", but thats just my take on it.
So when I arrived at mime before I could even put my stuff down I was taken off [guard/]balance by leaders stopping me in the hall.

Saturday (1/29)
I just went through the whole basic Bo kata, so cool!
I learned all my strikes and blocks, now I just need to... practice, practice, practice.
I am the same belt as Lisa and Margaret, they go to the Community college, so they are my [best known] friends that I met at Karate. I enjoy both of them for totally different reasons. Lisa always had a sparkle in her eye I have never met someone that had that before, and Margaret Reminds me of the warmth of long friendship(almost like family ties).

Sunday
So I slept in since I don't have Bible Force for the next Six weeks, then when Blake got home he failed to inform me that I didn't have to go play bass at church(for worship)he seemed to recall it right when I said, "Blake I have to be at church at 4:30" Then he said "No you don't"... ...but then I talked to Jeff and his brother was in town and since this was a rarity they wanted him to play bass. A very heart felt story, Blake still needs to remember to tell people messages. But I just feel like razzing Blake for that...um forgetful...ness of his.

Well the really story starts when I get to church and go to help out with youth group... ...so I had some real trouble with that.

Monday
Slept

Tuesday
Slept

Wednesday
So I was going to go to Rise up but then my mother reminded me... and so I went to Jason Chaillou's Upper Room Bible study instead. There is a couple funny stories with this one. So Blake and I leave to go to this Bible study, but we can't find the place so we pull into a parking lot where we think it could be and people wave at us. Blake asks do you know that person, I say no, then two other people wave at us. So Blake call Jason and asks "...are we at the right place?" Jason says "Are there a bunch of mini coopers with Business Machines written on the side?" We say no, he says your probably not in the right place. It turns out that there is another Church meeting very close to Jason's, and apparently with many friendly people.
So then we get to the place and we are trying to find where to park when Daniel Blackburn pulls in and greets us. So then we go to the meeting and Daniel says he locked his keys in the car, so Blake and I walk out there and the car is running, it was running the whole bible study(I think that is a disadvantage of having a quiet car you don't even know if it is on.)So then we have the whole mess of us trying to get his car unlocked, it was funny by the end, and we were all frozen by the end.

A Repeat Week

Mon
So Publick Skools Had off Monday and Tuesday this week, unfortunately a majority of my friends are not part of the public school system.
So Today I had over the Skaggs and Olivia.(None of the rest of my friends could make it... Well there is always another day for that...Unless I invent the teleportation system of the future then no one would have ride and distance excuses...then I could build a time machine and there would never be any time excuses because they could leave before they came...but then one of the problems with that is the government would confiscate all that technology and keep it for themselves... now back to Monday...)
We played "King, Lord, Vassal, Surf". We being... Andee, Blake, Daniela, and Mitch played and Olivia and I watched. Daniela did very well at the game. Mitch was the most stable, he never changed positions... he was the surf.
Then we watched the opening scenes of Monty Python and the Holy Grail, along with some other Monty Python.
We all tried our hand(fingers) at "qwop"
Then we finished the afternoon with Phase 10.


Tues
Today Started slow for me. I went out and collected a couple Job application forms. I look Forward to having money again, I would like some prayer for my working and getting a job. Its all kinda new to me. Since I had such a nice first employer who was very flexible with hours and such. :)
Then my cousin Jessica came over and we watch Meet the Robinsons.

Recap

Monday
So Today I invited people over. These People being, Andee, Daniella, Logan, Maddy, Mitch, Olivia, and Pat.(totaling, 3 Skaggs, 2 Collins, 1 Lanman, and 5 Logan Adams)
We Played Games

Watched "Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy"(Maddy had to leave during the movie)
Then The Skaggs Left, and the rest of us Played lair's dice.(or was that Tuesday)

Tuesday
Schools were closed for snow so I invited people over once again.
This time my guests Were Katie, Kristen, and Olivia, with Pat showing up later(and Logan had spent the night)
We Showed the part of Monty Python and the Holy Grail, up to the Black night scene.
We played games again, Apples to Apples, But the Bascoms had to leave for small group so we didn't watch a movie with the guests.

But I watched Logan's second movie. I have to admit, the movie is really strange. And I think Logan was in more of the second one.(Logan isn't the main character.) He and his classmates wrote and recorded the movies. So Logan was very involved in the production.

Thursday
I tested for Green Belt today, I failed my 3 Kata, but I passed, though I will have to show my Kata before I learn my Brown Belt Kata.

Friday
I did the Angry Car in Angels. I have never performed that part before, so I know it needs work.

Swing Dance was fun, I danced many...many times. I felt like I knew so few people. Katie of course dissed me a couple time. And I Danced with Sarah and Sara and Molly

Saturday
I Showed up late to Karate(early class) and did forty push up for my lateness. (They don't have that rule for the other classes. Thursday and Saturday Normal class 9-11)
I showed My 3 Kata and Did good on all of them. And I was given my actual green belt.

Sunday
Today Bible Force Praise Band played at the Sunday night service. I think we did really well, Dave said my bass was really overpowering...oops. But he told me that while we were rehearsing before hand so I turned it down, Jay said it was too quiet when I turned it down. And all the drummers agreed they didn't think it was overpowering in the first place. I think that means the rhythm section was awesome tonight. We had Three drummers. And this Piano player ?Jeff? played with us, he was really good. (The reason ?Jeff? was filling in was that Daniel was at the Meyerhoff)

Decied To still use this Blog

So I guess I will still use this blog even though The vacation is over.

Arriving Home

The 12th
Today we drove the rest of the way home from Winchester, Virginia.

Falls

The 11th
Now in Virginia we visited the tallest waterfall-ish thing, it is more a steep incline, there is no actual cliff drop off. What made this falls really awesome was it was frozen, and huge. There was a fellow that was climbing up it while we were there; he had ice climbing gear, picks and spikes. Blake and I walked about half way up the trail to the top we stopped when the trail resembled that of the falls, one big sheet of ice.

I took a bunch of pictures I hope some of them turned out okay.

More Travel

The 10th
So today there were reports of mixed conditions, not just snow, so we didn’t rent the canoe. We ended up staying at the hotel a little longer, then we started driving, we went to multiple visitor centers and are now in Virginia.

We went to taco bell and Blake and I both had five dollars worth of dollar food. It was like a buffet, we just kept going back to the counter time after time. I found that the Fire sauce was not as hot anymore, so I ended up mixing all three, mild, hot, and fire; and that gave the most spice and seasoning flavor.

Love you guys!

How I felt When I Went Postal... eh...when I posted

The Swamp

The 9th
So today we went to Congaree National (Swamp) Park(AKA, A Swamp). We first went to the (swamp) visitors center and it was cold getting out of the car (going to Florida was a weird shift, going back north is worse). So we went to the (swamp) visitors center and watched a video about the (swamp) park. The (swamp) video was relatively (swampy) interesting; (though I felt many of the opinions were bias,) it ended very well (I trust that the last person was a true believer).

So we walked down the (swamp) board walk (In many parts the (swamp) board walk is about seven feet above the swamp). My mom went back to the car relatively early(she was cold), then after we found the small lake my dad went back. So there I was walking around a swamp and Blake was telling how wonderful he thought it was, and all I am thinking is SWAMP (well I might have been looking for Shrek (and Donkey) too). Actually I have to admit it was very… naturey. Though in the summer they have terrible misquotes, and in the winter they have flooding, other than that. But I can show you some pictures it was neat (I don’t know for maybe two, three, minutes. I needed a book. Instead I had numb fingers and a camera).

Well I think the only reason I was disappointed was we were supposed to go canoeing when we were in Florida and then we were going to do it today, but up here it’s cold again… so we went and bought gloves… so we can canoe tomorrow. Well I ranted long enough about Blake’s dream home so here are those pictures

Swamp

Frozen Swamp

More Swamp

Look Swamp!



Wet Flip-flop


(Oh, and… No one knows how to spell genius. Just a bunch of Geniuses, right.)

Floating Gray Rocks

The 8th

So Today we went to see Manatee, at Blue Spring State Park. The manatee were not very exciting. The first one we saw didn't move for fifteen minutes and when it did it simply lifted its head so its nostrils were above the water then immediately went back to the position it had been when we arrived.

The manatee did move more after that, and we saw others but none were that exciting. The Plecostomuses there were huge and they were clinging on to the manatees. I have pictures of schools of fish just sitting on the bottom of the stream. The Spring was the coolest part it is just like this rift in the ground, like it opened up out of nowhere. And it was flowing enough water that you could see the rising current coming out of it. And under ground there is this really deep cavern, and divers are allowed to go down into the cave and explore it

Here is a diagram they had posted of the cave

And you can barely see the huge rift at the bottom of the water


There is one of those gray floating rocks

This poor one had a buoy attached to it

Do you see the Plecostomus?

This is the school of fish

On our way

The 7th(pm post)

So we are now on our way home (stopped at a motel currently)

So after I found out I didn't have to leave at nine I went back to bed. when I reawakened I packed and listened to Alter Bridge.

We spent the early afternoon at the the house, playing connect four and I made a smoothie. I also took some pictures today. not really sure how I want to upload them, should I just put a few on the blog?

We left at three or four this afternoon and drove for about four hours, then stopped for the night at Orange county Motel.

Pictures from the Seventh

The 7th

This is just a picture as we were driving.

Leaving... maybe not.

The 7th

So we were going to leave at nine this morning, but my mother was sick so we postponed.

I have been tasting metal So I have no idea what that's caused by.

Beach

The 6th
So today Maddox and the MDers went to a beach in a national park. I tried to splash everyone and Blake chased after me. Then He jumped in the water too, though he didn't do a spread eagle belly flop, like me. I lost a hair-tie in the ocean. I also drew paw prints in the sand. as well as walking funny to leave strange tracks.

The beach landscape was crazy, where we first walked out to the beach there was about a five foot drop-off so I walked up to the edge and the sand was packed so well that it could support my weight all the way at the edge. we walked further down and the drop off turned into two steps about four feet wide each. There the top sand was a little looser and it had smoothed slightly from the previous drop to a steep slope between the steps. There was also water oosing from the sand(drop off) that formed a puddle like waterway on the wave smoothed sand that was a distance from where the waves hit.

Unfortunately I have no pictures for I was wet, and couldn't carry my camera.

Then, we ate tacos.

I Know, A Day Late and a Dollar Short.

The 5th
So yesterday We went to the put-put course in my brothers neighbor hood. It's nine holes long, we played through one and one half times. Though both the nephews played each hole three times before we moved on. Brock plays hockey more than put-put, he also has a habit of moving everyone elses golf ball around. Either stepping on, kicking, hitting with his golf ball, or smacking with his hockey-putter style, Brock would move every golf ball from its spot. The second time through Blake played with his shoe, and Maddox and myself used the wrong end of our putters like pool cues. I was actually more accurate that way.
We ate chicken and quinoa.

Rubric's cube

Start

Today is The fourth of January 2011.
Marking the start of this blog.
This blog is created for the express use of the Tellups
I will start by going back to last year(aka: five days ago)
To tell the story of our adventure…

The 31st
So On Friday, the 31st of December 2010, in the morning and early afternoon I packed. Then around four we left, driving in shifts we drove straight through to Florida. We crossed into Florida in the morning, around nine, New Years Day 2011. We continued driving to my brother Jason's house near Miami. Arriving around noon we Unpacked, and went to walmart.

That night I watch a Twilight zone marathon that I thought ended at midnight, but it didn't. So I thought I should turn it off at one...but I didn't. Then I thought I should turn it off at two...but I didn't. Then a little after two I decided it was far to late and turned of the television.

Then after trying to sleep for maybe... twenty minutes I logged onto mail, and ect.
At four I decided i should go to bed... but then i heard foot steps.
So at around four Blake came down and joined me.

Then Blake went to take a nap before he left and I passed out on the other couch.


The 2nd
I woke up about eleven ate and left on a bike ride just before noon.
I was biking toward the ocean, though at about 2:34pm my mom called and said time to come back, so I did start heading back.

I was picked up and Blake was home.
So then we spent the late afternoon, and evening with my brothers family.
We ate Chinese takeout for dinner, it twas good.

The 3rd
We except Maddox(at school), went to target and then the mall.
Then we all went back to the house and just the MD Olenicks went to walmart and sam's club. Blake and I found a Rubric's cube at walmart, there was only one so Blake took dibbs.

We ate pizza, Chinese leftovers, and some frozen Chinese chicken(general tso's, I think?).

Then I solved the Rubric's Cube. I have never done that before it was awesome

4th
Today We went to a few national parks, I slept most of the time in the car, I solved the Rubric’s cube two more time.
We ate sandwiches.