Weekend in G-Burg

The CCYM is on a trip to Gatlinburg this Labor Day weekend. We made our way up here tonight arriving at about 12am. We are staying in this really nice cabin. It is pretty huge. I think i am really going to like this weekend. Peyton is complaining as he is getting annoyed by me blogging. He keeps going on being even more sarcastic with every minute. I guess I will go now and continue this tomorrow.

Found another internet connection

After searching every corner of my house I found a new open connection. I am very excited that I can surf the web again... For Free!!!!!

Commandos fall to Herding Bison

Last night was the season opener for the High School Football season. Hendersonville High played Station Camp High. This game was big for many reasons but mainly because it was a cross town rivalry. The game was CSS's game of the week. Hendersonville ended up falling short in the final seconds of the game with a winning field goal by Station Camp. This puts a damper the rest of the weekend.

The Neighbors Have Figured Me Out.

I have had the luxury of not have to pay for internet for about a year now. My neighbors were very kind to let me use there wi-fi. Well this past week they took a not so friendly turn and put a password up. So now I am out of internet untill I decide to buy my own. That is why the posts have not been up. Will try hard to blog when i have a conection.

Ipod calls it quits!

About a month ago I went on a youth trip and took my ipod with me. I put it in my backpack and to much weight was left on it for an extended amount of time. So I was left with a big black spot in the middle of my screen. This was very bothersome but I could still see the songs and make my way around my ipod. A few days ago the black spot took over the screen. Now I can't see anything. So now I am faced of sending it back and it probably not getting it fixed or buying a new one. This sucks!

My "Golden Oppurtunity"

Hendersonville High, my school, thought it would be a good idea to change things up a bit. They decided to set up times that you and a parent could come and get all of the first day school buisness out of the way so you wouldn't have to come the first day. BAD IDEA!!! The concept is good but the result was unhappy adults and kids. People started to arrive at 4 o'clock to get a spot in line. The event started at 5. The letter they sent to you in the mail said that this would be a quick and easy process. If quick is considered and hour and a half then yes it was quick. And if easy is burning up in a non-air conditioned space and waiting in lines, then yes, it was easy. I thought that the school would be a little smarter than this but I guess this is a little better than having to go to school on Thursday.

The Real HOT Story of Sizzler!

What I debated on telling you yesterday I am telling you know. Have you every played a prank on someone, and them not think it was as funny as you thought it was? Well this happened at Sizzler. If you didn't know Hendersonville UMC (my churh) and Hermitage UMC have had an ongoing friendly rivalry. It all started a while back with them stealing our Y-guy. Anyway, at sizzler they tried to get us by putting 20 trash cans in our room. This was funny. The non funny part was them leaving a note saying that a different church (Grace UMC) did it. So a few of our guys from hendersonville did the same to a Grace room. While this was going on, the Hermitage guys were in another room, a room that they thought belonged to Hendersonville. They were wrong! This room belonged to St. Bethlehem UMC, who has had no prior encounters with any of the other parties involved. St. Bethlehem thought that someone had stolen there stuff and freaked out. They threatened to call the cops if no one fessed up. It was an intense night at Sizzler. Luckily, things boiled over.

Final Night in the Sticks

Im sitting here in my non-air conditioned cabin writing this blog. This has been an interesting night to say the least. It all started out this morning with the realization that I might have to eat Jello with an assortment of different things such as Vienna Sausage, kidney beans, olives, pickles and pork rinds. Yum Yum!!! I dreaded it all day, to make a long story short I didn't have to consume this gross mess we raised more money than the girls and they had to enjoy the jiggly dessert. That has really been the highlight of my day, I should have more to talk about later.

Summer Sizzler post!

Hot... Hot.... Hot.... thats about all it is, It has been a blast so far. that is about it.

I-35 Bridge Collapse in Minneapolis

The Final Keva Blog

I promise this is my last blog about work. Tonight was my first real night of work. I was paired with Kristin. She is a vet in the world of smothies. She taught the basics of running shop, proper cleaning tips, short cuts, and dos and don'ts. She seems really nice and that goes for most of the staff as well. The job is very repeatative, make a smoothie, wash a pitcher. That was my day from 4-9.

Youth Lock-in... What a long night.

Its around 8:00am and I am sitting in the youth lounge about to pass out on a couch. Cole, a upcoming 7th grader is out cold sitting across from me in a chair. No one is making much since anymore. Andrea is babaling about family guy and saying how much she likes it but feels really bad about it. Gavin is trying to be theological about Mind of Mencea. Hunter's eyes are bloodshot and my fingers are hurting. 1 hour left!

New Job... Great Success

Yesterday I started a new job at Keva Juice. Things are a lot different from behind the counter. It was all training and I only got to make one smoothie, but it was for me so I wasn't going to complain. There are a lot of rules and papers that you have read and sign that I had no idea about. On the flip side Keva is going to be a fun job, I can already tell. The managers are cool and everyone that works there seems fun to be around. I can see myself staying there for a while.

Starting Something New

So today I start a new job. For those who didn't know, I quit Kids Party Jumps about a month ago and began my search for a new one. Then about two weeks ago I found a place that caught my intrest. I went in an asked if they were hiring, they said yes so i filled out an application and returned it. I got a call a week later and was asked to come in for an interview. Then I got a final call on Friday asking if I wanted the job. I accepted and now I work at Keva Juice. It is a smothie place and you should come by and visit me sometime you might get a good deal.

Feelin' Fresh in the Methodome

So I have spent the past weekend and today in Brentwood at Brentwood UMC. I have attended a youth leadership conference event called FRESH. I was re-elected for my office of Communications Chairperson. My friend Peyton was elected vice-president. Now im sitting in annual confernce right now getting to know peyton and Gavin a little better and being extremely bored. Well that is all for now.
Johathan

I have turned a corner

So its has been quite a week... I have been in New Orleans all week on a mission trip. It has been a very cool expereince. We spent a day in the lower 9th ward delivering hurricane relief supplies. and 3 days in the outskirts of New Orleans gutting a couple of houses. This has been a life changing week, mostly because we did this trip though a mission organization. We had two great leaders, Mike and Molly, who witnessed to us and help us through this physical and mental journey.
The weather has been ok a little humid but besides that it couldn't be better. It has been great doing God's work this week. I know that we alone can not change all of New Orleans but we can make a difference to atleast a few people.
Click here to see pictures from this week

Succesful Night!!!

So today has been focused on finding a Computer desk for my room. We went to office depot and found one that we liked. The thing was heavy (160 lbs.) to be exact. So we get it home and open the box everything looks like it is there and is going to take a while to assemble. We get to step 3 and notice a problem, they put the wrong slider brackets in the box. We called down there and the voice over the phone said we would have to pack it back in the box and bring it back. That is a lot of pieces! So we called back and asked to speak to a manager. He was more sane and just told us to come back and he would open another box and get us the right parts. So we get back home with the right parts and start assembling. From 4 till 9:30 we worked and now I'm typing here at my new desk. Im still a little angry at Office Depot because I bought some speakers today to and they don't work so turns out I will be making another trip there tomorrow. I bet they can't wait to see me again!

I keep asking myself...

I keep asking myself many of the same questions everyday...
Where am I in my faith?
Are my friends really all that great for me?
What am I doing right/wrong?
There are more but these are the main ones. I am really confused. I don't know whats going on. Everything is crazy!

Back from Ski Trip

So Im a little sore but had a ton of fun! Ski Trip was a blast. I got to hang out with some friends that I haven't seen in a while. The weather was great. We had perfect snow and a great atmosphere. I took a little time to ski down the mountain by myself. It was really peaceful. I had time to reflect on many things. Im still a little tired so I will blog more later.
J

Ski Trip is comming!!!

I'm getting pretty excited about my church's upcoming ski trip. We are going to Perfect North. The snow report is looking really good. I can't wait this is going to be awesome.
Johnathan

Prayers for a bigger turnout

So last night didn't go so well we had a total of 5 people come to our Coffee House. Im praying that tonight we have a bigger turnout to make up for all the people that didn't show up last night. The show is going to be a little bit longer. If your reading this come out tonight to HFUMC at 6:30 or 8:30. Thanks!

Coffee House turns in to Abandend Shack

So I'm backstage at the NWG Coffee House. It's not going well. We had 4 people show up this is Sad!!!

Pictures of a Cold and Snowy Weekend

Colts Pull out Super Bowl Win!

For some reason it didn't rise to its expectations. The commercials were lame and the game, full of mistakes. At least Peyton got his win.

No School Because of Potential Plague

Sumner County is out of school because of "illness" for the next two days. I really just think it is because snow is comming and they just can't stand to say that we our out of school because of snow. So whatever the reason is im super happy!
Johnathan

Warmth In Winter

I have taken a few days to reflect on this amazing weekend which I just experienced. Warmth is always a refresher, it is a great way to start off the year. I went down to the convention center early Friday to start the set up process. My affiliation was with communications. We filmed some for our videos for that night. I started to get a little stressed when I looked at the clock and I saw that I was running low on time to edit. It was ok though everything went well that night. The session went great. I figured out that life at Warmth was quite different when you are on the management team.

Funny Baptists

So the other day Gavin and I were hanging out in his office and i asked him what Clarity was. If your not from Hendersonville you probably don't have a clue. Clarity is like a "warmth in winter" of sorts. It is a convention that travels on a tour that is put on by Student Life. Now that you know what Clarity is I will continue with the story.
So i said "Why didn't we go to this Clarity event. Is it a Baptist thing? He says, "No, but it is baptistcyntric (i know that is misspelled). "I almost went with some friends from First Baptist, it was down in Alabama" I said. "I thought it was at long hollow baptist, (right down the road)" said Gavin. I said no but we got out the tour dates and it turns out that instead of going to Long Hollow that was right down the road they went to Alabama. We both got quite a kick out of it because it seemed like First Baptist was afraid that if they took there kids to another church they might lose a few. Baptists and numbers.
J

The Cornercast is a go!

Youth Group has started this new thing called the cornercast. It is a bible study podcast. Last week we tryed it but we only managed to fool around with it and get a feel for everything. Im almost done with the editing part of it and it will be up on itunes a little bit later. I hope you all enjoy it!
Johnathan

Challenge Day

I heard about this from Oprah, no, I do not watch Oprah. A teacher showed me a segment today. It was an experiment called Challenge Day. The point of it is to help break down social groups in schools that help decrease bulling, racism, and general hard life that comes with high school. They went to a school in Boston and the responses that came from the students were quite surprising. Deep sercrets were told, barriers were broken down, and friendships were built. It was a life changing day. We have thought about doing this at our school and I think it would be great. I don't think that we have as many problems at our school that some others have but it would be a great way to bring people closer. We do have many different social groups, racism isn't that much of a problem though and niether are fights or gang activity. If we do do this activity I am curious to see what would come out of it.

Testing My Limit

Tonight I played in another one of our church leauge basketball game. By no means are we the best team out there. We played Merrol Hyde's Hawks (the person not the school). When we arrived we realized that we were in for a tough game. Not because the team was undefeated but because of why the team was undefeated.
Since Merrol Hyde is one of the big time guys in Hendersonville, what he says goes. He has rigged almost all of his games. Now the question is how. Well, it's very simple.
1. He picks his refs, then gives them insentive to call the game in favor of him.
2. He stacks his team with the best players that signed up to play under the parks department.

Let me take you to tonights game. 10 people on the court, 2 refs, and lots of anticipation. From the first wistle the calls were bogus. We were called for a foul that didn't happen. Then we didn't get a foul when it was obious and instead got a technical. Things escalated and were soon getting pretty heated. 3rd quater, one of the refs winks at the other coach and tells one of the other teams players that he can't call everything because the game is already one sided. Lane violations were also called because the other team missed a foul shot. It just wasn't a good night.

If someone wants to win that bad to say that they are champions of a church/parks team and get a slightly bigger trophy then I guess you have to do what you have to. Were I get tested is when the other team starts talking smack and showboating. If I wasn't wearing a church jersey then things might have been different. I realize things aren't always fair, but its church basketball. We must move on.
-Johnathan

I'm Heading in a different direction.

We all have a group of friends that we hang out with on a normal basis. To say it simply, I fell like I am falling away from my group. We have different interests and on different maturity levels. They are great guys don't get me wrong, but I feel like are priorites are in different orders. Maybe this is just one of those growing up things. I feel like I'm always the guy that takes control, and sometimes I don't like that. Sometimes I know my way is the right way but the others don't want to follow it because it might be to "safe" or "gay" as many of my age group would call it. Alough, maybe this is why we are all friends, we all have something different to bring (athletics, music, smarts, etc.). I guess I'm the guy that tries to make since of it all.
Johnathan

The First Day Back

It was a little bit harder to wake up this morning one because it was 6am and also because I had to go to school. Once I got there though it wasn't so bad. My classes aren't going to be as had as I expected. My teachers all seem pretty nice. Coach Rob seems like his class will be the most interesting. Although, Ms Moss really knows how to make learning fun. This is already a better semester than last.
The ball once again didn't drop our favor... again. We lost 54 to 6. I was leading scorer though, thats a plus. We did hold them though for a good 4 min. After that it was they just keept putting it one. At the end of the game they hit a fast break and jumped off one guys back and dunked it. Rediculious!

Keep you updated,
Johnathan

Great New Years Break!

My New Years/ Christmas break was very pleasant. Did a lot of hanging out with friends and just relaxing. I have to say that I'm bummed about going back to school. I hope that this sesmester will be better than last.
I rang in the New Year over at Sydney's house. It was really fun. Sydney is always a great host. I also did some bowling to, just because we got so bored I guess. I am alright I average in the 140's.
I thought there would be more to this blog but I guess not. I'll tell you how school goes tomorrow.
Johnathan