Football Dude

The Intervarsity Freshmen

2012-02-12T18:37:00.000-08:00

This year I've met quite a few people in college, but my closest friends are my fellow freshmen in Intervarsity. We've planned hangouts, text bombs, a Superbowl party and movie nights. I'm probably going to be talking about them often so I figure I'll introduce you to them. Oh and since playing mafia is kind of our thing I'm also going to mention some mafia facts.

First off the guys:
Zach, is a biomedical engineer major who like me is a gym rat, and despite his hectic schedule is finding time to workout 4 days a week. He's a very fashionable guy (in a masculine way) who I can totally picture as a successful engineer in the future.

Sean, is a pre med major who definitely is very serious about school. He's a whole lot of fun though and can always find time to play some mafia and support me in my killing sprees (during mafia of course). Sean and Po give me my polical power in mafia when we have to vote to kill someone. They usually just vote with me.

Josiah (Po) is a biomedical engineering major who I've posted about in the Halloween party post. He's 6-4 and rocking the fowe hawk which we have renamed the "pohawk". I have almost an identical schedule to him and we're always joking around. We already have a list of funny quotes. Po and Sean have my proclaimed as their leader of mafia.

Drew is a CIS major who unlike most of the previously listed guys is an introvert. He schedules a lot of our group hangouts. While he's very mellow at times, he will occasionally go nuts. He has some pretty great one liners. Drew has some pretty whicked deception skills when it comes to mafia.

Anthony is a computer engineering major who is always happy and brightens up everyone's day. He's one of those people who's laugh is contagious. At the freshmen hangout we were playing picto phone and I ended up changing his "Michael Jackson doing the thriller" to "A pagan priest sacrificing 3 people"

David is a very quiet guy. I actually don't know his major, but he's got some serious drawing skills. He also is good at mafia, he shows very little emotion so I can never tell whether he's the mafia or just a towns person. I'm always scared of him in mafia.

Elisha is a business major and is the guy who seems to have the worst things happen to him. He has had a few unintentional seductive winks at some girls due to some of the worst timing. He's probably the most innocent of the guys because he doesn't even talk about poop. Elisha is also a wizard at spotting out the mafia.
Now for the girls: (let's see if you notice a similarity between them)

Amy is a teaching major and a quieter girl but probably among the nicest people I know. She along with Drew help organize events. She has this nasty habit of dying early in mafia, so of course the one game I decide not to use my political power to kill her off she kills me as the mafia.

Bethany is a teaching major who is the leader of my small group. Bethany among with Amy are the only people who I feel sorry killing off in mafia due to their angelic personality. Bethany is extremely nice and a bit on the quieter side.

Katie is yet another teaching major. I met Katie relatively recently, but she's a bunch of fun. She has started several rivalries among the guys in mafia. Therefore she's usually killed off pretty fast. Whenever there's a dispute between two people and the town can't decide who to kill...they default to killing Katie.

Hayley is guess what? yes a teaching major, she doesn't quite understand the awesomeness in mafia and it requires me to unleash the puppy dog eyes to make her play. At the Superbowl party a nerf gun fight broke out and she was left without a gun...so I used her as a meat shield and as she got pelted by the darts I was safe! :)

Sam is a history....teaching major so yeah not too much of a surprise there. Sam is probably the most outgoing of the girls. She is almost as obsessed with Michigan football as I am, but she doesn't have a blog with a Michigan football banner at the top does she? Sam doesn't like mafia which is a major blow to her coolness. Sam is a goofball.

That's the core of the Intervarsity Freshmen for you! If you ever want to know the characters from my "College Chronicles" then they're probably involved in one way or another.

Michigan Football Blogs

2012-01-16T18:59:00.000-08:00

When I first started this blog I wrote only about Michigan football. I soon found out that it's way more fun to write about my life events and sufferings. This post is primarily for my dad who wants to know about which Michigan football blogs I like best. So I shall rate the blogs 1-10, 10 being unbeatable.

First off here are the blogs I'll be rating.
http://bighouseblog.com/
http://touchthebanner.blogspot.com/
http://mgoblog.com/
http://mgorecruit.blogspot.com/
http://thisismichiganfootball.blogspot.com/

Rate of Posting

Bighouseblog: 8
The bighouseblog gives a new post every weekday. For the most part I'm satisfied with the rate of posts. It's just that he usually doesn't post multiple times if something during the day happens.

TouchtheBanner:10
TouchtheBanner is the most consistent blog out of the bunch. There's usually 2 or 3 posts a day.

Mgoblog: 9.5
Mgoblog posts everyday, but it covers so much of a variety of information, most of it isn't interesting to me.

MgoRecruit: 6
MgoRecruit is a football recruiting blog, so there usually isn't as much information out there. There's about 2-4 posts a week, and some of them tend to be shorter posts.

ThisIsMichiganFootball: 6.5
The rate at which this blog posts is almost identical to MgoRecruit, except the posts are longer so I give it a slight edge.

Michigan football (non-recruiting) Content

BighouseBlog: 8
Bighouseblog gets a good amount of content out there, but its usually nothing I haven't read before.

TouchtheBanner: 9.5
TouchtheBanner has great analysis and does a series of "game awards" that he give Michigan football players for each game.

MgoBlog: 9.5
Great stuff I absolutely love the amount of information, but sometimes they post a bunch of charts about efficiency which I find really boring.

MgoRecruit: 1
Like I said, strictly a recruiting sight.

ThisIsMichiganFootball: ?
This is relatively new blog and I hadn't discovered it until a few weeks ago.

Michigan Football Recruiting Content

BighouseBlog: 7
The Bighouseblog is just a good all around blog.

TouchTheBanner: 10
This is where TouchtheBanner is the best. They create UNBEATABLE diagnosing of high school athletes.

MgoBlog: 9.5
Ace is their recruit ninja and he's great and is always posting interviews and keeping updated on recruiting with Wednesday recruiting posts.

MgoRecruit: 9
Great info, just not as consistent as I'd like.

ThisIsMichiganFootball: 10
They post interviews with high profile recruits a few times a week! While they don't post as often as touch the banner, they sure give some great quality.

Overall, I love all of these blogs. I only evaluated the best of them. My favorite is Touch the banner. And even though Big house blog came in lowest rated, I still thoroughly enjoy it.

Bathroom stories of Bryant Middle School

2011-12-28T20:40:00.000-08:00

Writing the post about unwritten bathroom rules made me think about some experiences in my life, particularly in my years at Bryant middle school.

At Bryant there were 5 urinals in the largest bathroom in the school. It was said that if you peed in the one that was in the order of the day of the week, (ex the one on the left would be Monday, the 2nd from the left would be Tuesday) then you'd have good luck for the day. If you were really a daredevil with a full bladder, then you'd attempt to pee in every urinal in one stream. This would be the equivalent to a whole week of good luck. It was not an uncommon sight to see a boy shuffling across the urinals.

When I was in middle school and people started implementing these motion censored toilets, I didn't know what they were. I thought they were little cameras trying to watch me do my business. I foiled the perverts plot though by covering my hand over the "camera" while I was going to the bathroom.

Another thing those middle schoolers did was go to the bathroom everywhere EXCEPT the toilet or urinal. Waste baskets often had more people pooping in them than the toilets!

One last story was probably the most deranged out of all of them. Some guys decided they wanted to see if they could all poop in one toilet and not flush to see how high it got. These guys managed to get it over the toilet seat!

I really feel sorry for the janitors at that school.

The Unwritten Rules: of the Men's Bathroom

2011-12-28T20:18:00.000-08:00

I've been thinking about what to post here lately with me being on winter break and nothing exciting happening lately and unfortunately for you this is what first popped into my head. I decided to write down the rules that every man knows when entering the wasteland known as the men's bathroom. Violation of these rules results in losing one's "man card"

1. All conversation ends upon entering the domain to focus on his "duty". It's surprisingly a very strange sound when you hear guys violating this rule.

2. If possible avoid taking a urinal next to someone. It's just wrong.

3. Beware urinals that either don't have shields or are faulty and reflex your pee back at you. You want shields because you don't trust anyone in the men's bathroom and I don't think I have to explain the last one.

4. What sounds happen in the bathroom....stay in the bathroom. If you have to laugh then walk out and enjoy a hardy laugh. This rule is necessary when one has the runs.

5. Pick the farthest stall from the door. It has a 26% chance of not being full of other guys poop and pee contrary to the .03% of the first stall.

College Chronicles: No Shave November

2011-12-04T15:24:00.001-08:00

As a male college student, you face a choice when the month of November comes around. To shave or not to shave. Not shaving means that you get to bond with your fellow men as you all develop your own patchy fur on your face. On the other hand, if you do shave, unless your face is just that ugly, the girls are going to be more attracted to you. At the beginning of November, I was interested in swooning a girl and I felt the best way to do that was by shaving. My lab group, Alex L, Alex N, and Alessandro all did no shave November. It was really interesting because both Alex N and Alessandro grow really fast beards, while Alex L....lets say had the face of a 5th grader.

Since both Alexs would get frustrated when they thought they were called but it was the other Alex, we decided to call Alex L "patches" over no shave November. Alex L could barely grow sideburns and had probably a combined 8 moustache hairs and 3 chin hairs. I once didn't shave for 3 days during no shave November, and I had more facial hair than Alex after 21 days. Sure Alex didn't like it... but since we were all bigger than him, he had to put up with it anyways.

Looking back, I wish I did no shave November, but heck I still have next year! Hopefully by then blond beards will be in style! Oh and for the record, I can grow a nice beard. I'm not "Patches 2.0"!

College Chronicles: The Story of a Nun

2011-11-06T11:37:00.000-08:00

This past week my calc 2 professor decided to give us a quiz everyday for a couple of weeks, and we have classes every weekday except for thursday. On Friday I was excited to finally have a break from the stress and go home and take a nap as soon as classes were done. Right before I went home though I wanted to workout. As I was working out I got a text from my friend Nia, saying that she'll be at school for a speech, and she asked me if I wanted to come along. Since Nia is becoming one of my best friends I decided to meet up with her at the speech.

I met up with Nia, we found a place to sit and then I found out who was going to be speaking...a nun. Now for some reason even the word nun makes me laugh uncontrolably, and unfortnately that word was used often throughout the speech. I'm not going to go into detail about what the speech was about, but it was about how she talked to people before they had the death penalty. Anyways throughout the speech I had a hard time to prevent from bursting out laughing whenever she said the word nun.

Afterwards I hungout with Nia for a little bit and it was a great way to start off my weekend!

College Chronicles: Halloween Party

2011-11-06T11:09:00.000-08:00

Last week Intervarsity (Christian club) had a Halloween party. Unfortunately I happened to have 2 exams the very next day, but I was still able to dance for an hour. At the beginning there were only 10 girls dancing and no brave boys dancing. I decided to be a man and live up to my gangsta dancer name flailing spider monkey! The girls had created a circle as I was arriving which was perfect, because as soon as I arrived I jumped in the center and started break dancing, soon everyone was saying the classic "Ohhhhh!" which confirmed their astonishment at these amazing dance moves that I preformed. Soon other people started break dancing, and my friend Sam claims that I was out danced by several people, but she's just a hater.

My friend and fellow freshmen, Josiah, and I, were really lighting up the dance floor. Me with my flailing arms and a variety of fist pump styles, and Josiah being 6-4 used his lanky legs to do the two step. Sam still thinks my dance moves are the definition of white boy dancing. God gave me the ability to wow people with dance, so I shall flaunt my God given gift!

The College Chronicles

2011-10-15T18:34:00.000-07:00

Hey guys, don't worry, my crazy life didn't get the best of me in the end. Still very much alive. I've been adjusting to college life at the University of Michigan....of Dearborn. I'm majoring in Industrial engineering and have been focusing on my classes for the past few months. Let me tell you about some of my college adventures.

The day before classes I went to this voluntary event called convocation, it's basically a lame ceremony where the speak at you for a few hours, but you still can meet new classmates. It started at 9 in the morning so most people were still sleepy, but thankfully I'm skilled in the art of giving the illusion that I'm a morning person. We were split into groups for icebreakers, and your group name was among "the things you need to survive college" I was group cellphone.

So when I see my group. I rally the troops with a moving speech that can be summarized as "Okay guys, I have no idea what games we're going to be doing....but whatever it is we're gonna win!" Unfortunately we played little games among our group so we weren't able to beat other groups, but one game we played did stick out to me.

We were in a circle with one person in the center and that person had to point to someone and say one out of about 5 set things (dog, elephant, bunny, jello, and cow) when they said their object then the person who was pointed at had to act with the 2 people beside them that animal or object. They had to do it before the person in the center counted to 10. The worst one was cow where the person in the center stuck out their hands with their thumbs down and the people next to them had to milk their thumbs! It was kind of an unwritten rule that they wouldn't use the dreaded cow on anyone, but soon I was in the center.

I only used the cow, and I would count really slowly so I was able to stay in the center and make everyone do the cow. It was so funny watching people's facial expression as they had to milk a strangers thumbs. Despite torturing group cellphone with my cow obsession, 3 members of it are now really good friends of mine and I see everyday at school.

I met a bunch of people through group cellphone and was quickly making a name of myself. Right after lunch I met a girl named Nia who is a transfer student from school craft. We hit it off pretty well and I'm so glad because we ended up sitting next to each other during the ceremony which consisted of an hour and a half of professor blahblity blah blah. We entertained each other by making faces at each other and simulate various actions like slitting our wrists, shooting out head, and other various ways of suicide to end our suffering.

I honestly thought this was going to be the biggest waste of time going to the convocation, but it helped me meet several of my friends including Marisa, Sara, Alfred, and Nia. In my next post I'll tell you about my engineering friends and some other adventures we have.

Summer highlights

2011-07-25T18:33:00.000-07:00

- Kentucky Hiking Trip: Unfortunately most of this trip wasn't funny story filled, it was more group bonding with people. There was a battle between me and the plant life. The trail had a bunch of overgrown branches doming over it, so I decided to break them out of the way...until I came to the part of the trail where the branches were enter twined with thorns! I quickly became a pacifist and loved nature...until the thorns passed, and I was shredding branches once again.

Then plant warfare came up with a new weapon whose sinister name was "stinging nettles"! These plants had thousands of little razors causing a very painful walk through part of the trails. Now you may think the plants had beaten me... oh are you wrong! Next time I had to pee, I paid a little visit to those stinging nettles. Victory is mine!

- Family Camp 2011: I was the 8th grade and younger, heart throb. I executed several assaults via super soaker. I have another post with much more details on this trip on the way.

- Anna, Emily H, and Emily M took me with them to the mall where they spent an hour at forever 21. I thought I was a goner. Now in my defense, I was hanging out with Anna before going to the mall and I went for their company not for forever 21! When we got back to the church (where we met up) a bunch of guys from youth group were playing basketball in the parking lot. They were pretty shocked that I went to forever 21.

- Last week it was crazy hot so I got a few of the guys together and we drove to girls from youth group houses and attacked them via super soakers and waterballoons. It was a complete success. We got Joy, Michaela, Emily h, Sarah, and Anna

Senior Boat Trip!

2011-07-03T21:55:00.000-07:00

A couple of my friends from youth group and I, won an afternoon on the Michalak’s (Church friends) Boat during the auction dinner in April. The day finally arrived, and it was fantastic weather, super hot and humid. There was a maximum of 8 people who could come on the boat trip it was me, Donnie, Travis, Chad, Jared, Anna, Emily H, and Emily M. We chose 8 of the core members of our youth group all of them graduating seniors.

Since the heat was intense, the first thing we did was jump into the water. They had this floaty which was just big enough for all 8 of us to squeeze onto. Half of it had this mesh, which was awesome because we could get wet while still being lazy teenagers! After our crazy splashing ended and we started to relax…they brought out squirt guns.

The chaos recommenced. Soon Emily M jumped on this floaty chair and decided to soak us. After several minutes of water warfare, I was planning on swimming to Emily’s chair and capsizing it. Right before I was about to initiate the attack Emily said “Hey! I’m not tied up to the boat anymore!” her floaty was untied and she was drifting farther away. And just like that, I went from attacker to liberator.

I brought Emily back to the boat, but that whole situation gave Travis an idea. He untied the big floaty with Donnie and Emily H still in it. As they tried to return back to the boat, we assaulted them via squirt guns. It probably took them a half hour to get back to the boat.

This is the way the after noon seemed to go. We would be together as a group for a while, and then the girls would be tired of the crazy rough guys and go somewhere else on the boat or in the water. We guys would then do something completely stupid and nearly break our necks like play “King of the floaty”. But after awhile of being idiots, we would miss the girls, so we’d go wherever they were and we were together…until the girls got sick of us.

One of these moments while we were together, Jared and Donnie were wrestling each other on the big floaty when the mesh broke! We were then trying to stay out of too much trouble, when the cops came! At first we thought it was because of us because the girls were laying out on the bow of the boat, and Wayne (the owner of the boat) said that it might be illegal but that we could do it anyways. The cop came because of registration stuff so it wasn’t us.

Considering the fact that we had many opportunities, we didn’t really flip the girls into the water often. But near the end of our trip, we did have fun doing that. We had just been soaking each other with squirt guns and were resting on the floaty when I realized that I had Emily M to my left, Anna to my right, and Emily H partly on me due to the lack of space. It didn’t take much encouragement to throw Emily H in the hole where the mesh was supposed to be.

Poor Emily M, she totally saw that I was going on a flipping rampage and that she was my next victim. There wasn’t anything she could do and with a flip of her feet she was in. Turning to my 3rd and final prey, I was about to get Anna when she said “No Connor! I’ll just go in by mysel…. *SPLOOSH!*” I didn’t let her finish that sentence. Oops.

I had a BLAST during that trip. I’m glad we had that day since we’re all going to college in the fall and everyone is going away except for Anna and I. I’m really going to miss these guys.

(I hope to put up some actual pictures of us, I just have to wait for Emily M to put them up on FB)
EDIT: got them up!

Grad parties

2011-06-03T09:17:00.000-07:00

With my senior year ending soon graduation parties are just around the corner. Infact I have one for 3 days in a row starting today. I haven't gone to too many grad parties in my lifetime, probably about 5 or 6 but that should change this year since my youthgroup alone has 13 or 14 graduates this year. Today I have Michael Kulaga's grad party, he's an old buddy of mine from the golden days of DFMC. He, Michael Bratt, and I made the "Michael club". Ironically I was the leader of the Michael club, but that was changed fast by accepting the club name of "Michael C".

We also invited Ryan Dennison to join so together we had Michael B,C,D and K. We caused havok among the elementary aged girls in the church who were Joy, Hannah, and Brooke. We would harrass them with whatever idea our 5th grade selves could think of! At somerset beach camp we would have massive sexist battles where we "Michaels" always triomphed!

Michael Kulaga moved away the summer inbetween 5th and 6th grade, and Ryan's family decided to change churches, but Michael Bratt and I never stopped attacking the girls! Anyway with the grad parties starting soon it means that summer and pool parties are right around the corner!

Ninja strike!

2011-06-02T07:56:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I had freshman orientation at UofM Dearborn. For the most part it was very boring and I just wanted to get home. I did get to meet a whole lot of new people though like 3 Michaels, 2 Alexes, Sierrah, Shannon, Aaron, Pat, Joe, Brian, Rachel, Allie, and Anitra. Meeting fellow classmates was actually pretty fun. Playing ninja with them was better!

I hadn't even thought of playing ninja until some of our leaders decided to play ninja as an icebreaker. I had a blast slaying enemy ninjas left and right! Unfortunately we weren't able to play it too long because we had to continue on our tour of campus.

Right after lunch I started up another game of ninja and was able to recruit about 7 other people to play. I used my sickly (I was really sick) squid style of attack and just slaughtered the other players! I was getting double kills in most of the games and only lost once in 10 games.

Wake up call!

2011-05-26T08:20:00.000-07:00

Mother nature once again threw a powerful blow to my dwindling pride. Yesterday I had just waken up when I looked outside. I saw a parking cop about to give us a ticket for parking in the street on trash day. Without thinking I bolted outside to the cop to try to keep from getting a ticket! It must've been a funny sight for the cop to see a sleepy teenager with bed head and just wearing basketball shorts, running in the freezing pouring rain, to keep from getting a ticket!

Yeah it was raining buckets outside and about 50 degrees! I didn't get the ticket, but I really was sick of all this rain we'd been getting. I have noticed though that all of these events have happened when I was shirtless...

Mother Nature Kicking My Butt!

2011-05-24T07:45:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I was mowing one of my client's lawns, and since he doesn't have much money I give him a great deal. I add more pressure to myself by letting his lawn grow for 2 weeks so he only has to pay half as often as everyone else. His grass is extremely long, especially this certain patch which tempts me to use a machete instead of a lawn mower.

Right before I went to work my mom told me that we were going to get a storm in about 45 minutes so I have to hurry up. Normally mowing a lawn in 45 minutes is a piece of cake, but not this one since it was so long. I had just finished the jungle patch in his backyard when it started to sprinkle. I thought, "Ok you have 5 more minutes just try to get as much done as possible." Then suddenly this fierce wind starts up and it was so strong that it even scared me a little bit. I remained calm and thought "It's ok, it's not raining hard, you have another minute or two"

Then as if God wanted to show me that I was a stupid teenager, he then smited me with a great heavenly thunderbolt!... Ok I wasn't struck by lightning, but right what happened was that I was instantly consumed by this massive storm! I grabbed my mower and started booking it for home.

Fortunately my house was just on the other side of the block. If you were driving by me at that moment you would see a shirtless dude tearing across the sidewalk, yelling at the top of his lungs, pushing a lawn mower, and keeping up his shorts with his other hand!

By the time I got home I was completely drenched. My family and neighbors had a good laugh though.

Lobster boy!

2011-05-23T08:33:00.000-07:00

On Saturday I was working for 4 hours in the blazing sun, and my back got burned REALLY bad. I was supposed to move these big bushes from the front yard to the back. I also had to get rid of these smaller bushes with prickles all over them. I knew I was going to get burned, and with this lack of sun lately, I figured to make the most of the sun. I put on SPF 4 sunscreen... yeah when my mom suggested it, she didn't know I was going to be working for 4 straight hours in the sun. I personally think 1 SPF per hour is plenty!

At least I'll be a nice bronze...eventually!

Summer Plans: Lifeguard Hiking trip

2011-05-20T08:34:00.000-07:00

I've had a quiet week so I decided to share with you some of the plans that I have for this summer. The first major event that is going to take place this summer is the summer trip for Lifeguards (my youth group).

We're going hiking in Kentucky with this organization called leader-treks. We're going be split into 2 groups of about 15 and go on 2 separate paths. We'll be only with our group of 15 people for most of the trip. There are pros and cons with only being with half of the group for most of the week.

Pros: You're almost forced to bond with the members of your group with that small of a number for a long like that. You will have such great memories and inside jokes with that group.

Cons: You don't have much of a chance to bond with anyone in the other group. The youth group as a whole has 2 different sets of inside jokes.

I'm totally syked for this trip. I love nothing more than having to test my physical abilities in a group effort. I plan on being a work horse for my group and helping out the people who are struggling under the workload. We'll be carrying 30 pound backpacks and hiking 4-6 miles a day. I want to be conditioned enough to be able to carry someone else's backpack for them, at least for a portion of the trip.

We'll be going hardcore hiking, no rest rooms, bathe in the river/lake, and eat crappy dehydrated food! The poop situation is "bury it or carry it" I wonder how many guys are going to end up carrying it...

Everyone in the group is going to have a chance to be the leader of everyone and will plot out the path for everyone else. The leader won't get any help from the guides, and have complete control of our path. Leader treks is about producing leaders and improving you spiritually as well.

I'm sure some of the freshmen are going to have a harder time being the "leader" over all of the Seniors and upperclassmen, so I'll try to show them that I back up their decision 100%.

Super Smash Bros

2011-05-17T12:15:00.000-07:00

My siblings, Hunter (age 13), Sienna (age 15), and I have become Super smash bros addicts. We just really enjoy the idea of beating the snot out of each other and nothing beats the feeling of sending your sibling's character flying across the screen. When we were little, we would physically punch/slap/maim each other during arguments. Now that I have a vast size advantage 215 lbs to about 140 lbs, we decide to take it out in mindless virtual violence. At least that's how it first started.

When we first were playing it was just Hunter and I. After a while Sienna decided she wanted to join in the fun and despite not liking video games, we all had a blast. Sienna's strategy is simple, just stand off to the side and watch Hunter and I beat the crap out of each other, then when we have less lives she comes in and tries to make an alliance with one of us.

Now sometimes these alliances work out successfully, other times there's back stabbing, and Sienna doesn't like treachery. If you betray the alliance before Sienna does, you usually get either a punch (in my case, to the face) or a nipple cripple. So half the time while we're playing we have mini fights between us.

Funny how we resolve to physical fights if Donkey Kong (me) decides to betray Zelda (Sienna) by beating her with a banana. You gotta love my family.

Needed: Sleep

2011-05-16T08:23:00.000-07:00

Ever since I went to Nebraska and only got 7 hours of sleep that weekend, I've been really behind on sleep. Normally I get about 9 hours of sleep per day, so you'd think that I'd catch up really fast, right? I haven't sleep too great lately and for some reason I can never sleep in too much on Saturday! I was just about caught up on sleep when I had to wake up at 5 am on Thursday for a minority summer internship interview.

I wish I was better at taking naps. I could really use one right now. Summer needs to come pronto!

The crazy games we do!

2011-05-09T08:25:00.000-07:00

On Saturday, we had the progressive dinner for lifeguards. It was really fun but the highlight of the night wasn't the food, it was the crazy things we did afterwards. First we just watch Nathan do flips and acrobatic feats. Then we came up with "jousting" which is when we have two pairs, have them get on piggy back, and run at each other until you knock the other team's "rider" off of his "steed".

Being one of biggest guys in the youth group I was always the horse, and let me tell you it gets violent down there, you're getting punched, kicked, and headbutted. People were always surprised if I lost, but my weight is more on my upper body, causing me to be top heavy! I still did good but I definitely got several bruises.

One match in particular, was when we played this round "Sibling grudge match" where we had the siblings team up. I grabbed Sienna and she got on my back, but at first she had a death grip on my shoulders, which gave me some pretty intense pain because I got sun burned there that day. There were at least 5 different teams and I realized with that many teams I could just plow through people to knock them over since they didn't have their full attention on me. So between Sienna pulling people down and me ramming into people we soon made short work of them. Except for the fact that they kept getting back up and trying again! We had to have beaten Michaela and Tommy 3 times but they wouldn't stop. We still ended up winning, but I was utterly exhausted by the end of it. And apparently instead of grabbing my shoulders Sienna had been grabbing my moobs (man boobs), thankfully I didn't really notice.

After the jousting, we decided to see how big of a human pyramid we could make. I was always the center base of the pyramid, which was understandable since I was the strongest, but after attempting to build this about 5 times my back started to get tender from having so much weight put on it. Most people were switching in and out being the base but I wasn't, and the person on me usually had knobby knees and liked to shift them around, which grinded my spine to dust!

Among these attempts there would be other distractions like once while someone was climbing to the top their foot went down my pants, or someone would set on my calf. I don't think we ever completed the pyramid, but despite the pain and suffering I endured, it was fun.

This whole time, our youth pastor, Brad is sitting in a chair laughing at us kill ourselves and is encouraging us to do it again. But while we were trying to figure out how to do a human janga game, he said "Dog pile!!" and he just jumped on all of us. After realizing that he was fair game we quickly turned the time on him and within 15 seconds, he was dog piled. We soon found out that Brad is claustrophobic because he started freaking out at the bottom of that pile!

I'm officially a man!

2011-05-04T09:18:00.000-07:00

As I mentioned in my last post, this past weekend, I turned 18. I would love to tell you that it was the best birthday ever...but that wasn't the case. I had a bunch of ups and downs that day. I didn't sleep well and had to take a placement test for college at 8am. I finished the placement exam pretty swiftly and my dad got me some new shoes. I had planned to take a nap from noon to 3pm because I had to help with the dinner fundraiser for my youth group. But before I could take a nap, Kate called me and was kinda spazing out how I needed to get there early.

Kate sounded pretty desperate, so I headed out there as quickly as possible. I soon realized that was a mistake, because there really wasn't anything to do. I figured that she probably needed some heavy things lifted or moved but I just stayed there and talked to Joy, Tommy, and company!

The dinner is a formal auction dinner, so we all have to wear dress shirts, ties, and black pants. I probably was the last one to get dressed because I frankly hate dressing up! I probably spent about a half hour to get all ready, because I totally was avoiding to put on the tie.

I eventually did get dressed and found myself serving my parents GREATEST. BIRTHDAY. GIFT. EVER! In reality it wasn't too bad because I got sent in the "Dungeon" to watch the muchkins of the parents because apparently there had been some fighting going on.

During the live auction portion of the evening I decided to start changing into my normal clothes. I was just finished putting on my shirt and was just about to put on my belt when all of a sudden, Michaela (pronounced "Makayla") opened the door, grabbed my hand and said "Come on Connor! They're waiting for you!" I don't think I was supposed to be in my casual clothes yet so I was thinking "Oh crap!"

Holding up my pants with one hand, I go throught the doors and everyone starts singing happy birthday to me! I was shocked. Then they made me walk to the front where I saw my dad holding a pie. I instantly knew what happened! At the end of the auction they give a "Pie to the face to a lifeguard of your choice!" to the highest bidder! Knowing my fate was sealed I sat down in the chair of eternal pie punishment and waited for the action to be preformed.

I closed my eyes and waited...10 seconds... then peeked to see what was going on. My dad told me to stand up, still confused, I stood up expecting a pie to the face then. But he handed me the pie and sat down in the chair! Then I realized that he was giving me a birthday gift! To pie him in the face.

That had to be the best gift I ever got! Because I totally was expecting a pie in the face but instead I had it flipped. I accidently hit him with the pie a little hard, but it was awesome.

The Doctor!

2011-05-03T09:39:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I had to get a physical. Thankfully I hadn't had one in 2 years but unfortunately my mom made me get one. I had just turned 18 on April 30th but I went to the pediatrician for the last time. My appointment was at 2:15pm so my fellow patients consist of a toddler wearing a super man cap, and a 2 year old picking his nose. I got checked in and instantly realized how I long it had been since I had gone to the doctors and how I'm a little bigger than most of the kids that go through there.

I went in a room where you get your blood pressure, ears, and eyes, checked. It took the nurse probably 5 minutes to adjust the machine to test my eyes because I was so much larger than most of the kids.

After I found the room, I sat on the bed right next to the trash can that had a picture of pooh bear and said "Please don't throw dirty diapers in here" Yes, I felt right at home there.

My doctor, Dr Doss, is Egyptian and has a really strong accent and my mom has to translate for me. Dr Doss is really cool and likes to joke about how many girlfriends I have and what not. I'm going to skip the whole physical portion of the appointment but basically I ended up getting a shot.

As I was walking down the hall I also found a box of suckers, JACKPOT! I took one and walked happily away. As I opened the door to the waiting room, I saw about 6 little kids with the oldest being around 5 years old. I said "Hello fellow pediatric patients! Remember to always get the sucker!" I would like to say that my inspirational speech changed every one of the little kid's lives, even the nose picker, but I doubt it. Kids these days.

Sorry!

2011-05-03T09:37:00.000-07:00

Sorry for not posting frequently for the past few weeks. I've had a bunch of stuff going on from finals, and helping out the dinner, to a just being busy with stupid stuff. I'll try to keep the posts going.

Softball

2011-04-29T08:14:00.000-07:00

My church has a softball team and after a little bit of recruiting on their part, I said that I'd join. A few weeks ago we had our first practice, and I was a little nervous because I hadn't played softball since 8th grade so I was wondering if I still had it. It was 35 degrees, raining and really windy. I went up to bat and soon enough I'm hitting half of them to the fence! I wasn't sure how I'd do but I did better than I could've imagined!

I had a blast at softball practice, and we have our first 2 games today! Looking forward to the game.

Nebraska Prom Day 3

2011-04-26T09:36:00.000-07:00

On Sunday, I got my daily dose of panic good and early. I knew that it was my last day in Nebraska and that I was going to be flying back to Michigan by that evening. As I was walking to the bathroom to brush my teeth, I happened to glance at my watch… which read [11:15 pm]. I instantly remembered that Jana and I were supposed to go to church that morning at 10:30! The first explanation that popped into my head was that Jana must’ve just left without me. Sure I wanted my sleep, but with only one day left with her, I wanted to spend as much time as possible with Jana as possible. So I frantically looked for my dress clothes, but the hook I left them on was empty. Then I thought that Jana’s grandma might have been ironing them again (she was really nice).

Then I realized that I had never even confirmed that Jana had left. I then started running down the stairs to Jana’s room. The room was dark but open a little bit, I opened the door (in hind sight, I should’ve knocked but I didn’t expect her to be there) I looked in and to my surprise, there she was!

Apparently around 9:30 she had peeked into my room and saw me sleeping. She said I looked so peaceful and it was the only real sleep I had gotten all weekend, so she let me sleep more and decided to skip church. I’m glad she let me sleep more, I wouldn’t have minded going to church but sleep sounded pretty dang good!

After the relief hit me, we just sort of chilled at her house. Watched a bit of TV together (at least I think it was TV, maybe it was a movie, I don’t know. I wasn’t really paying attention to the TV)

Around 1:00 pm we piled into the truck to go to the airport. This time Jana sat in the back with me, despite the fact that she almost always gets carsick when she isn’t in the front. We took a bunch of goofy pictures, but soon it became evident that Jana wasn’t feeling good. We stopped at the gas station for a rest stop and switched seats.

Kelly had originally planed on eating at a nice restaurant, but we didn’t have enough time so we went to Wendy’s. While I had my appetite back, I still couldn’t eat much. So I wasn’t able to eat most of my food. At Wendy’s I realized that Jana was becoming really quiet. I just thought she still wasn’t feeling the greatest.

We arrived at the airport around 3:30 and my flight took off at 5:10. I had to call my mom for some information on my itinerary since I must’ve accidentally thrown it out. While we were waiting for my mom to get me the information I was secretly hoping that something would go wrong, and that I’d just have to stay in Nebraska for a few more days! This weekend had been amazing and I didn’t want it to ever end!

My mom got me my information so I was all set to go. Kelly thought we should take some last pictures before I had to go. So first I took some pictures with Jana’s little brother Jake. He really likes WWE, which is fake wrestling. So we did a flexing picture and a fighting stance picture. Kelly wanted one with me. And of course Jana and I took some together.

After pictures Kelly and Jake went to the car, leaving Jana and I alone. It was about 3:45 at this time, and I asked the security guard at what point should I go through the security process if my flight takes off at 5:10. She said 4:00. So I had 15 minutes left with Jana.

We sat down and were talking about how we both wished that I could stay for longer. I told her that I had the greatest time of my life and how I was going to miss her like crazy. Around 4:55 she started to suggest me going through security. Being a dumb male, I was really baffled by this. I fully planned on staying till 4:10 at least because I know that the security guard would give me a cushion for security.

I didn’t know why she kept trying to get me to leave. At first I thought I did something to get her mad, I just didn’t understand it. I ended up getting in line a little before 4. I saw Jana walking toward the door, and was waiting for her to turn around so that I could wave goodbye to her… But she didn’t look back. (I later found out that she was crying and didn’t want me to see her cry.)

I ended up getting through security in a whole 5 minutes. I was peeved at that security guard to say the least! I ended up sitting about a half hour before I was able to board the plane. I instantly regretted going through security when Jana wanted me to. Unfortunately there wasn’t any turning back.

The flight was rather boring, I didn’t have Oswald with me and I didn’t have much of a layover (whaoo!) I arrived home in about 4 hours.

Nebraska Prom day 3 (Post prom)

2011-04-18T17:44:00.000-07:00

For post prom, we were going to pile in the buses and drive 2 hours to the “family fun center” in Omaha. One of the best parts? We got to change into casual clothes! It was a 2-hour drive to Omaha, but I enjoyed every minute of it. I got to put my arm around Jana, so I was happy.

We arrived at the family fun center around 2:30 pm (3:30 pm my time), they were giving out free pop, nachos, and pizza, but we decided to wait for the food and do some fun games first. They had a whole lot of videogames there, laser tag, and even paintball! We were all given a bunch of tokens for the videogames, but our group went straight for the paintball.

It wasn’t exactly paintball, they shoot rubber balls instead so they don’t mess up your clothes, but they still will give you welts. While we were coming up with teams Jana was determined to be against me, since she likes to beat me at everything. She also knew that there’s no way I’d hurt her purposely, but she wouldn’t hesitate to shoot me. Fortunately we decided to have our whole group as a team, so Jana was stuck on my team.

We were placed in one room and each time you shot someone your team got 3 points, while there were sticks of “dynamite” lying around, and if you returned them to your base your team got 6 points. So it was sort of like capture the flag. I decided since I’m not the most agile person I’d defend while Jana went for the dynamite. I was flanking the left side of the room where I wasn’t seen for most of the game and I shot at least 7 people.

I wasn’t shot at all I had a few graze off of my helmet but none of them counted as points for the other team. Jana really did well as she cashed in 4 sticks of dynamite out of 6. She didn’t get hit either. We won 126-36. Next, our group decided to do some laser tag.

Their laser tag was a free for all. And I was just dominating except when I would see Jana, I’d shoot her like 50 times without her dying! For some reason, I just couldn’t get points off of Jana; it didn’t matter in the end, because I still came in first place.

Playing both paintball and laser tag was exhausting, so we decided to get some food and pop. For the first time that weekend, I finally felt like I wanted to eat! I wasn’t able to eat too much, but it sure was an improvement from that morning. I ended up giving my tokens to Jana, because I didn’t really care to play any videogames. She ended up getting a load of tickets and exchanging them for gummy worms, a ball, and some stickers.

At 4:30 am, we piled back into the bus to head back to Humboldt. It was a nice ride back, I was exhausted, but I had my arm around Jana and had a great night! We finally arrived home at 6:30 and I think Jana was sleepier than I was. I guess the new environment must’ve kept sleep from entering my thought process. We got everything from the car and put it in the house.

Jana told me that we were going to go to church in the morning and dress up again. It was a tradition for them to do it. Knowing that it was 7 and the service started at 10:30 I hit the bed and was instantly in a mini coma.

Nebraska Prom day 2 (Actual Prom)

2011-04-15T12:24:00.001-07:00

We decided to start getting ready about 4:00 pm for prom, and around 3:45 Jana decided to go to the store to get batteries for her camera. She told me to stay there while she makes a quick run to the store. Since I didn’t have anything else to do, I decided to start putting on my suit. I had gotten on my dress pants and my undershirt when Jana came back with her friend Jessie. She hadn’t planned on coming back with Jessie, but she tagged along.

It was 85 degrees and really humid outside, so I wasn’t putting on my dress shirt and jacket for as long as I could hold out. While Jana was getting her dress and makeup on, I was talking to Jana’s grandpa who was sitting next to me. I lost track of time and the next thing I know, Jana is all ready to go while I’m still only half dressed! After being told, “Hurry up kid!” by Jana, I ran into my room and started to get dressed as fast as possible for a man. I was in a hurry to tie my tie so I sort of made it off to the side slightly. But all was well and I was soon standing next to Jana who looked stunning!

As soon as I got dressed up I realized that I was scared to death! I don’t exactly like to dress up, and I don’t really know all that many people there. And I felt like I was going to die from the heat, so I started to panic. But then I saw Jana all dressed up, and how can I freak out when I have her looking all cute like that?? So I soon relaxed and was looking forward to the night.

Right after taking pictures at her house, we went to the school, about a small block away, to take some more pictures. They had some really nice backgrounds for the pictures that were all made by the juniors. It was about 60 degrees in the gym, which helped me feel more comfortable, and taking several pictures with Jana wasn’t too bad either.

Now last year, I didn’t like taking pictures much because my date was kinda crabby. It was really hot, and I didn’t exactly want to put my hand on her waist because we were just friends and her dress had really pokey diamonds which cut my hand! But I loved taking pictures with Jana, she was gorgeous, in a good mood, and you didn’t have to ask me to put my hand on her waist. If anything you would have to tell me to take a step away from her because I was blocking her out of the picture! Funny how a good date can make picture taking so enjoyable.

When I was still in Michigan and getting ready to leave one of the last things my sister Sienna asked me was not to take any corny pictures of me kissing Jana. I told her not to worry about it because I’m not that type of person. But while we were taking pictures and posing, Kelly said, “let’s have a kissing picture.” I instantly thought of what Sienna said, and chose to ignore her advice, because I sure didn’t mind taking those pictures!

After taking pictures at the school, we went to Jana’s house to get our casual clothes packed for post prom at the family fun center. While we were there, part of Jana’s dress came undone so we headed right for her grandma’s house to get it stitched. I was sitting down with Jana’s grandpa and brother Jake when Jana and her grandma were fixing her dress. Jake then decided it was best to tell me about all of Jana’s previous dates in the past, which sure made me feel special! Little brothers these days.

We went back to the school for the dinner part of prom. Unfortunately my stomach was still not doing too well and I couldn’t really eat much. But I got to meet the rest of Jana’s friends that I hadn’t met the night before, including 2 of Jana’s closest friends Lucas and Cody. Right after dinner, they had class pictures, which were taken by a hard-core perfectionist so the pictures took about an hour. When Jana had to go to get in the junior class picture she met a bunch of her friends, who then decided to group up and obviously talk about me with the occasional peek back at me.

Right before the music started, the girls wear their date’s tie, which I think is just perfect. Not only do I lose the noose on my neck but Jana really looked cute in it too! One thing that is different from Nebraska and Michigan is that everyone was shocked when they found out I knew how to tie a tie. Apparently they all wear fake ties there.

Eventually, the actual dance started and since these kids from Nebraska couldn’t handle my breathtaking dance moves I just pretended to not know how to dance, we all know how well I can move! Unlike my prom last year there were plenty of slow dances, which I definitely was a fan of.

Last year I was dreading slow dances because it would be with my crabby date, but thankfully I was in the bathroom during the only 2 dances they played. That’s fantastic digestive timing there. It’s crazy how much more fun it was with Jana because I actually loved to slow dance with her and couldn’t wait for another one to start.

The theme for the dance was “Neon Nights” so there were black lights everywhere and it really looked cool. Since I was wearing a white dress shirt, I looked like a radioactive albino Mexican! But being a living flashlight does have its advantages; I never had a hard time seeing anyone’s face when they were looking at me.

Before I knew it, it was midnight, and time to stop the dance, and start getting ready to go to post prom, which is held at a family fun center in Omaha.

Nebraska Prom Day 2 (pre prom)

2011-04-13T08:22:00.000-07:00

I had a pretty hard time to sleep that night, to say the least. I went to bed at midnight, but didn’t go to sleep till 3:00 am. There was a lot of stuff going on in my head, excitement for the weekend, knowing Jana was around, and my headache, which was making me hallucinate. I was actually solving calculus equations in my head, while trying to sleep; I wasn’t purposely doing it either! I also would occasionally forget to breath and had to manually keep myself breathing. I was a mess! I slept from about 3:30-6:30 and that was all I could get.

Jana had told me right before going to bed that when I woke up, to wake her up, unless it was a crazy time like 6:00 or 7:00 in the morning. So I tried going back to sleep but to no avail. I looked at the clock and it read 8:17. I was really tempted to wake up Jana but I knew she loves her sleep, and the fact that we were pulling an all nighter with prom and post prom, I figured I’d let her get as much sleep as she can.

I brought my MP3 player so I decided to just lie down and relax with my music playing. At 9:00 I heard someone walking around and I figured that I attempted to sleep for long enough. So I jumped out of bed and walked around. I was in the kitchen when Kelly came walking up the stairs. Kelly told me “I just woke up Jana, she’s probably just lying in bed. So go bug her.” I was relieved that Kelly had woke up so I went downstairs to Jana’s room as fast as I could do with 3 hours of sleep! I got in Jana’s room, the lights were off and she was lying on her side, facing the other way. I couldn’t tell if she fell back to sleep so I sat on the bed next to her, and asked her if she was awake. No response, so after giving her a little squeeze on her shoulder, I decided to let her just go back to sleep. But as I was going up the stairs I hear “Hey! Get your butt in here!”

Jana and I went upstairs to get some breakfast; she had some eggs and toast sandwich while I had 2 pieces of toast. She was kind of chewing me out for having such little for breakfast, but my stomach still wasn’t doing well and I was only able to down 3 bites of toast because I felt like I was going to puke. Jana seemed pretty concerned about me, so I tried my best to down play how sick I was feeling, but it really wasn’t working too well. My headache wasn’t too bad but I really couldn’t eat anything, it’s not that I was hungry though, but I knew I was going to need to find energy from somewhere and it wasn’t sleep or food.

After breakfast Jana wanted to watch an episode of “Glee” that she had recorded on her DVR. She’s a big fan of Glee, while I never watched it, I didn’t think I’d like it since I’m not a big fan of musicals. Sure enough I didn’t really like it, but that was fine, because I still got an excuse to put my arm around Jana. I soon realized after the first few minutes of Glee, Jana had all of my attention.

When Glee was over, Jana and I drove 2 blocks to the flower place to get the corsage. I thought it was really cool how since they live in such a small town, everyone knows each other! I’m not much of a flower person, but the flowers she picked out, were really cool! They were a whole bunch of bright colors and were perfect for the prom theme of “Neon Nights”

Kelly wanted me to meet her boss because she had told him all about me. I didn’t mind going if Jana came with me. So we went to a farm where they milk cows, and I had a nice conversation with her boss Doug. They were joking around about my accent (I talk normally. They’re the ones with accents!) and told me to have a fun time at prom with Jana.

I had planned on being with Jana while she was getting her toe nails and hair done for prom, but she insisted I try to get some sleep since I only got 3 measly hours. Knowing that I was going to need more sleep, I agreed to stay at her house and try to sleep, while she got all dolled up.

Since I had my suit laid out on my bed so it would be ready to go for prom, I decided that the couch would make a worth location for my slumber. Unfortunately even though Jana wasn’t at the house, I was too excited to see her with her hair all pretty, to fall asleep. Especially since she hinted to me that it was going to be curly and I’m crazy about curls.

After about an hour and a half it became clear to me that I wasn’t going to get any sleep so I was just relaxing and looking out the window for when Jana comes back. Its about 85 degrees and humid, so I get pretty thirsty and as I’m getting a water Jake goes “Wow Jana’s hair is amazing!” knowing how little brothers always understate the way their sisters look, I instantly look to the door.

And wow! She looked incredible; Jake really did understate it when he said she looked amazing! I actually couldn’t think of anything to say at first, I was just trying to take it all in. She was so beautiful I couldn’t take my eyes off her; it was as if it was a sin to look away from such a gorgeous sight!

She wasn’t able to get her toenails done because her aunt wasn’t home, so she started doing them in front of the couch that I was sitting on. I immediately got off the couch and sat right next to her while she was doing her nails. I’m no fool and I wanted to be closer to such a great looking babe!

Nebraska Prom 2011 (Day 1)

2011-04-11T08:11:00.000-07:00

(Me and Oswald)

This past weekend I went to Nebraska to go to Jana's prom. I had to fly most of the day for Friday, but I found a way I could make the flights go faster. I decided to buy a Duck pillow pet (Jana's old pillow pet burned when her house caught on fire) for Jana and travel with it to Nebraska! Not only was it a great gift for Jana, Oswald (the name I gave the duck) was a great companion. I decided to just hold him through the airport so I could get a whole bunch of strange looks and I sure got them! I was told that pillow pets are amazing for 6-year-old girls and all of that, but it was all in good fun.

So I finally arrived at Kansas City, where Jana was going to pick me up, and I all of a sudden get very nervous! I haven't seen her in about 8 months and the fact that she's so beautiful doesn't help my nerves either. I wanted to be really smooth and kind of redeem myself, since the last time she saw me I was trying to get her number and really screwed up when I asked her if she had a phone, WHEN SHE HAD IT OUT IN FRONT OF ME!!

So I get off the plane and instantly start scanning my surroundings for her. I can't see her and then remember that she can't go through security since she isn't flying so I then look for a chair to sit at while I call her to find out where she's at. Just then, something catches my eye. A lady on the other side of a translucent wall was waving frantically at me. I quickly realized it was Kelly, Jana's mom, and then I noticed that she was more pointing than waving, she was pointing to my left. Then I saw right on the other side of the door is Jana!

If there was a wall in between me and Jana, I probably would have broken through it because I made a bee line straight for me and not even a soccer mom with a tazer would have stopped me! I ran up to her, gave her Oswald, and a big hug.

I then kissed her, that was when a wave of feelings hit me and the nerves that I pushed aside crashed on me full force. My knees buckled, my legs were shaking bad, and I lost feeling in my right hand! Good thing I replaced her last thought of me failing to ask for her number (yet succeeding since I got it) with nearly passing out after kissing her!

I kept feeling like I was in a dream, and that there was no way this beautiful babe is my girlfriend! We walked to the car together and immediately I felt completely comfortable around her, just like when I first met her. Kelly drove us to Taco bell/pizza hut to get something to eat, but the thought of food made me want to barf, maybe because of nerves but I feel like a big part of it was jet lag and air sickness. So I didn’t get anything to eat, but I got some pop because I was thirsty.

Jana was driving the rest of the way home and Kelly was nice enough to let me ride shotgun next to Jana. I was really sleepy and had a headache after flying most of the day and I could tell Jana was a little concerned about me because I think she sensed that I wasn’t feeling too great. She said I could go to sleep for the ride to her house, but I didn’t come to Nebraska for the weekend to sleep especially when Jana’s right there! So I stayed awake, every once in a while feeding her a breadstick while she was and talked to her the whole ride to her house.

Before getting to Jana’s house we stop by her grandma’s house to meet her grandparents and give them my suit to iron because her grandma was really nice and offered to iron my stuff. After meeting her parents and leaving Kelly there, Jana and I went to her house, where as soon as we parked were greeted by two shirtless guys jumping on the car who happened to be her friends Shaun and Nathan. A bunch of her friends had been staying at Jamie’s (another one of Jana’s friends) house, who happened to live just a few houses away! And they all were waiting to meet me.

We were all talking in Jana’s basement when her little brother, Jake, decided to play WWE on the wii. Soon Shaun and Nathan were playing along with him, so it was just me, with Jana and a bunch of her girl friends… they kind of looked at each other with their telepathic ways and Jana soon suggested that I play wii with the guys. Knowing they wanted some girl talk, I went with it and as soon as I left their group, they all bolted for Jana’s room! I still don’t know what they were talking about there, my guess is me, but I don’t know anything about girls.

After a while Nathan, Shaun, and I, got too curious about what the girls were talking about so we invaded their little pow wow. After a while Jake decided he wanted to be with us but we didn’t want him to come in. Jake said “I know what you’re doing in there!” we then asked him what he thought we were doing, since we were just talking. Then Jake said, “You’re kissing!” in desperation to get rid of him Shaun said “But Jana’s in here! You don’t want to see her being kissed.” To our shock Jake said “Yeah I do!!” Jana turned red after he said that.

After about midnight, all of Jana’s friends left and both Jana had a long day (in a good way) so we decided to call it a night. I was having the time of my life and knew it was going to be a very fun weekend, despite the fact that I had a bad headache.

30 Hour Famine Day 1

2011-04-04T09:04:00.000-07:00

This past weekend Lifeguards did their 30 hour famine. It was a whole lot of fun. The first thing we did was play this game called "bigger or better" where we were divided into teams, given a quarter, and went around the neighborhood asking people if they could give us something bigger or better than what we had.

My team cheated and we took our youth pastor's kid, Issac. We lost because we didn't exchange enough things. But the other teams got some really nice stuff! They got a DVD player, a red wings blanket, this big stuffed dog and then this one team totally screwed up and got an Ohio state buckeyes football jersey! I'd rather have a quarter than that stinkin jersey! One of the freshman, Sylus, put on the Ohio state jersey....I'm pleased to say that I had him pinned on the ground and was beating him silly with a pillow within the first 5 seconds.

After playing "bigger or better" we went to the wally ball court to play some wally ball. Wally ball is just like volleyball except there are walls on the sides and on the back so you can bounce the ball off of the walls. Our youth pastor Brad was picking the teams, he asked for who was good at volleyball and I raised my hand and next thing I know, I'm a captain. Unfortunately we still weren't able to pick our teams but it was nice knowing that I'd be in charge of my team.

So I'm standing off to the side waiting for Brad to give me the rest of my team. Brad grabs Kelsey, this girl who is one of the only people from lifeguards who drives me crazy. Immediately I start praying silently in my head that she isn't on my team. Then Brad sent Kelsey to a different team. I started thanking God for not giving me her, Brad puts Liz and Kate on my team. Both of whom have no idea what they're doing.

So I'm slightly bummed since most teams have 4 players and I was the only one who knew how to play on my team. As I looked at the other teams I could see that all of them [except one] had at least 2 good players on their team, so I soon relax knowing that Brad won't give me the short stick here. He has the last 2 guys left, one guy is my buddy Tommy who's a senior and we're pretty close. The other was Ian, a freshman who I really didn't know if he could play. Brad ended up giving me Ian. The first thing I asked Ian was if he was good at volleyball, his response? "Ehhh not really." Crap!

As I looked at the teams I could see that we were probably about the 2nd worst team out of about 7. The only team that had the least amount of talent was one with basically 3 useless players and Emily M. Emily didn't really want to be a ball hog, but I could tell she wished she had a better team. They couldn't even return the ball frequently. We beat them easily.

After the first game I was thinking "Hey that wasn't so bad. Maybe I underestimated our team. I haven't even broke a sweat!" That's when we went against the 2nd best team, with Brad (that booger stacked the teams!) Tommy, Nathan, and my sister Sienna. Their worst player was Sienna, and she would have been our second best player if she was on our team! We were slaughtered 9-15. That was the game when I discovered that Liz didn't want to hit the ball at all, Kate was scared of the ball, and Ian is an average player who was my only hope if I couldn't get to the ball in time.

I was soaked with sweat after that game and I knew that I was going to have to cover 3/4 of our side of the net in order to win. Now I hate ball hogging, because I don't like having people felt left out. But soon the girls made it clear that they were expecting me to get the ball if it came to their side. and the opposing teams soon found out our team's strategy was basically let Connor get the ball and if he can't get to it attempt to hit the ball straight into the air.

We then won our next 3 games to go 4-1 and we really started clicking as a team. By "as a team" I mean that Ian and I were starting to mesh into a pretty powerful tandem! He knew when I couldn't return the ball and would set it up nicely to me. It happened just in time too, because we were against the top team at 5-0 with 3 great players in Dan (a youth leader), Chad a 6-3 senior, and Sylus an athletic freshman.

They had a phenomenal strategy that worked really well against our game plan of me as the primary striker and Ian as my backup. They would hit the ball off the wall at a weird angle near the net so it was extremely hard to hit it over in just one hit. It paid in dividends for them as they got a 7-0 lead, very early. But after a while Ian and I got in stride with one another and he was able to give the ball to me in good position so I could strike the ball down with a large amount of velocity that made it had to return. Next thing I know, we're up 12-8!

That's when the hunger pains hit me like a brick wall! After not eating for 15 hours and running around for an hour straight, my body wasn't too happy with me. The pain affected my game and we were down 14-12. I decided to go all out for the rest of the game and was diving all over the place and just went completely crazy on them scoring 3 points to a 15-14 victory!... or so I thought. They played where you have to win by 2 points and we couldn't return their serves to lose 17-15.

Despite my disappointment to not knock off the top team, we still finished 3rd out of 7 and came closest to beating the top team than anyone with basically 2 useless players! Another thing is that we didn't have enough talent to really have a real strategy besides for let Connor carry this team on his back, and I fully believe if we had another player like Sienna, we would've came in first.

Get in line!

2011-03-31T09:14:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure if I posted about this yet, but Jana believes she can take me in a fight (more like wrestling). She isn't kidding either, she really thinks she can take me! Now let me first say that Jana isn't a girl that'll snap like a twig, because she's got muscle from softball. But I'm by no means a small guy either and I'm pretty sure I can take her. I was really shocked though, when I found out that she was serious because that's never happened in my life!

Then yesterday at youthgroup, one of the girls, Angel, said that she could beat me up and that if it was warmer out she'd wrestle me right at that moment! What is it with girls wanting to fight me all of a sudden and thinking that they're gonna win?? It doesn't really make sense to me since this didn't happen to me 9th-11th grade and that was when I weighed 160-200 lbs and they had at least a chance. So they just choose to fight the 220 lb guy? I don't think I'll ever fully understand girls.

The Countdown!

2011-03-30T08:13:00.000-07:00

(I apologize for the gay spacing, blogger has a glitch)

Late January, I posted about how I was going to Nebraska for Jana's prom, well that was 63 days ago, and now it's only 8 days away!! I'm so excited! I have my suit and I got a new dress shirt because my neck was too big for my old one. It kinda seems like this is just something we've been talking about but will never happen, but no it's really going to happen! I'm going to try to get some sleep on the flight from Detroit to Minnesota, because I know there's no chance of me sleeping on the flight to Nebraska. Hopefully I get some good sleep because we're going to pull an over nighter there. This is kind of an outline of what's the plan: (from what I know)

Friday

Jana will pick me up from the airport at 6:37 pm.

When we get to Humboldt (where she lives) we're going to hangout with a bunch of her friends.

Sometime late, we're going to attempt to get some sleep, (I don't think I'm going to sleep a wink)

Saturday

around 11:00 Jana's going to get her hair done. I really don't know what I'm going to be doing during this time. Maybe sleep?

Sometime in the afternoon we're going to get pictures taken for prom.

Attend prom from 7pm-12pm (Show off my rad dance skills, then blacking out and waking up in a hospital)

Sunday (Technically)

Get in the bus for the post prom party at this family fun center in Omaha. It apparently has laser tag and a bunch of fun stuff.

This is where it's a little sketchy. I don't really know the details but I know we're planning on hanging out at Jana's friends house after the family fun center. I hope I don't just crash in all of this because the time change, and jet lag has me a little worried. I guess I gotta start sleeping in a bit and going to bed earlier to make up for this drainage of sleep that's going to take place. Hopefully I don't look like a zombie when all of this is through.

How was I able to do that?

2011-03-28T09:07:00.001-07:00

This past weekend I found out that I could do, not one, but two things that I never thought I could do! The first was when I was babysitting my little cousin Christian on Friday. Christian wanted to show me how he could do a handstand for a few seconds. He then wanted to see me do a handstand. To my shock, I could do it for about 5 seconds! I never have been able to even do it for a millisecond in my life. But now it looks like my shoulders are strong enough to support my weight for a while until I lose my balance.

While I was at youth group yesterday, I found out there was another thing that I could do. We were singing and praising God - I like to go crazy with dance moves, but they're usually just funny and take absolutely no skill to pull off. So after a while the song said "Dance with Joy for God" after it said that once or twice I decided I'd go all out and make a fool of myself next time it came to that part. So when it came again, I ran to the middle of the circle and started break dancing!

I knew I was going to look like a baboon there break dancing, but I was just having fun. Well after a few seconds, I realized that I was pulling it off! Of course this was probably the easiest move that you could call break dancing, but I didn't expect to do it. After a while it dawned on me, that I didn't know what to do next because I expected to crash and burn, and so I didn't even think about what other move I'd do!

I can't wait to try some other break dancing moves and get myself killed!

Stay tuned for the post: "I didn't know my knee could bend that way!"

I know how to fix boo boos!

2011-03-28T08:51:00.000-07:00

On Friday night, I was babysitting my little cousin Christian, who's 4 years old. While we were running around the house, he hit his elbow on a corner and started to bawl. I ran up to him and asked him if he wanted me to kiss his boo boo. He shook his head in disgust from his elbow being subjected to such a horrible prospect.

I was trying to think of something else that could cheer him up...when I checked my phone and realized my background was a picture of my girlfriend Jana. I then asked Christian if he wanted his boo boo kissed by "Jana" instead. Being a smart kid, Christian said yeah! So I then had my phone (with the picture of Jana on it) devour my cousin's elbow with kisses.

He was soon laughing his head off, but then that little booger kept asking for more! I soon had to "constrain" Jana in my pocket so she could stop kissing his elbow. It was really funny, and now I know what I'm gonna do when I'm a dad. I'm going to keep a picture of mommy on my phone in case our kid has a boo boo that needs kissed!

Ninja Fail

2011-03-24T08:10:00.000-07:00

A few days ago, my mom dropped off me and hunter to the house while she and Sienna could get Sienna's drivers permit. We almost always lock the door when we leave the house, and neither hunter or I had a house key. Fortunately one of the windows were open so Hunter went through but when he opened the door he said "It was unlocked!" oops I guess we kinda forgot to check the door.

Lifting update

2011-03-23T07:45:00.000-07:00

I haven't had anything completely embarrassing or humiliating happen to me lately, but I realized it's been about a year since I posted how much I was lifting. So here it is.

Biceps: the trophy for all weightlifters, I always focused on these even as a little kid. A year ago I was curling 40 pound dumbells on the preacher curl about 4 times. Now I'm curling 60 lbs and if I use a barbell I can curl 170 lbs. I have definitely improved with biceps.

Pectorals: I was benching 85 lbs dumbells 5 times with a spotter. Now I can bench 100 lbs dumbells 5 times without a spotter. I haven't been able to improve as much in this area as I wanted to because my workout buddy stopped coming and with benching you really need a spotter. I also use to lift 237 lbs 2 times on the butterfly machine, while now I can like 287 lbs 8 times.

Shoulders: My biggest improvement by far. I never even really worked out my shoulders last year, maybe once or twice per month. Now I'm shoulder shrugging 100 lb dumbells 10 times! I could probably go higher but unfortunately the gym doesn't have any dumbells heavier than 100 lbs! My shoulders are broader and my trap muscles are huge. I take some pride in my shoulder strength.

Back: In pull downs, I use to max out at 225 lbs and only be able to do one rep. Now I can lift the maximum weight (315 lbs) 8 times! Of course that's when I'm fresh but it's still a vast improvement from a year ago.

Overall weight: Last spring I weighed about 200 lbs and I'll admit that a pretty good portion of it was chub. Now I weight about 220 lbs and I have much better muscle to mass ratio.

McDonald's Love Strikes Again

2011-03-21T07:37:00.000-07:00

Yesterday My sisters, mom and I went to McDonald's for a little treat. It was all great fun and we were walking back to the car to go home when we noticed something. In the car next to us there were 2 people in their 30's just making out! The girl was practically on top of the guy, so much so they had the door open a little bit because they couldn't close it!

My sisters were joking around about how romantic it a McDonald's parking lot was. Then of course they tell me "Don't do that with Jana!" and I respond with "Oh trust me I can do way better than that! Like a taco bell parking lot, with the door closed! I have higher standards than McDonald's."

Except one thing that Taco bell doesn't have that McDonald's does have is a theme song that's "bababumpaba I'm loving it!"

Henna Tattoo

2011-03-18T08:12:00.000-07:00

As you probably know by now, I've had my fun with temporary tattoos and going to the gym to sport them off. I migrated from hot rod tattoos, to pirates of the Caribbean, and now to henna. Henna is a permanent dye that they use in the middle east, but it only affects the top layer of skin, so it can last up to a month or 2. Its a dark brown instead of black color. I decided to with a design that was a simpler version of Jake Long's tattoo (The guy in the picture) and I really like it! My older sister Katrina drew it on for me, and missed one of her favorite shows doing it so she must love me.

Technology Rules!

2011-03-17T08:30:00.000-07:00

My girlfriend Jana and I have been calling each other as often as possible, and it's really great, but there are a few catches. We have to wait till 11 to talk (she's in another timezone) for free without having to worry about minutes, but by then we're pretty tired and she usually cant talk much on school nights. And lately Jana has been extremely busy with school, speech, and homework so we haven't been able to talk much.

But on Sunday Jana got a laptop...with a web cam! So we were definitely going to web chat through skype lickety split! Unfortunately she wasn't able to get wifi till Tuesday, and she was at a speech meet all day. So yesterday we were finally able to talk on skype! Except, I was at a calculus session on related rates for a while. So around 5:00 pm I booked it for home.

So I get on the computer and make the "video call" to Jana. [ringgg.....ringg...ringggg...connecting...connecting....connecting (at this point I'm thinking "CONNECT ALREADY!!!") Connected!] So then I finally see Jana....except I can sense there's something wrong. She's looking very pretty and excited, but I can't hear her! Soon I gather that she can't hear me either. I ended up calling her for a few minutes until she figures out how to get it to work. I was afraid that it'd be one of those situations where I could either see her or talk to her, not both. But thankfully that wasn't the case.

I had a blast, and I can't wait to go skyping later today.

oh this could be interesting...

2011-03-07T07:28:00.000-08:00

Yesterday at Oasis (one of my two youth groups) my buddy Andy brought his girlfriend for the first time. He could have choose a better day to bring his girlfriend because we were talking about waiting till marriage to have sex! So on top of that awkward topic, we were hassling him like no other! Andy's face was probably blushing more than not during youth group. I'm kinda glad that I got to see that though, because now I know what to expect when I bring Jana to Oasis. Only I'm sure I'm going to get a whole lot more crap than Andy did. All I can say is "Bring it!" and I welcome the challenge.

You knew it was enevitable!

2011-03-02T08:49:00.000-08:00

I've been working out in the gym almost everyday, and I'm stronger than I've ever been in my life. I think it's time to do the ceremonial picture with my shirt off so I can show you all my muscles and make you all so jealous! Notice my massive cheeks of steel, and I'm talking about the cheeks on my face! And look at my rippling biceps of pure POWA! and my penetrating eyes of intimidation. No one's gonna want to mess with the hunk of man!!

Tattoos part dos!

2011-03-02T08:39:00.001-08:00

About 2 and a half weeks ago I posted about how I put on a bunch of temporary hot rod tattoos on my arm. Well they were finally starting to disappear, but then my mom got me Pirates of the Caribbean tattoos! and I decided to put them all over my arm, so now all is right with the world! I have to admit that I was missing my hot rod tattoos but now I'm as happy as can be! I have an addiction...of temporary tattoos!

I hate MONDAYS!!

2011-02-28T09:12:00.000-08:00

This morning I was walking to my calculus class, but I was just finishing up my goodmorning text to Jana, Which caused me to loose track of where I was going. there is this median in the parking lot that, when there's snow, is best to avoid. I sunk right into 3 feet of snow, but at first I didn't realize it because I was still finishing up the text. It wasn't until I stepped into a whole bunch of slush that got my feet soaked through, that I realized I wasnt in a good fix! I had to walk through a bunch of snow to get to the other side but man were my feet FREEZING!! Typical monday..

Marshmallow fight!

2011-02-18T09:12:00.000-08:00

On Wednesday, I had youth group. It was all a normal day at lifeguards, when someone found a bag of old marshmallows and started pelting people with them! I was texting Jana right outside the door, when the battle turned into a full fledged war. I went back in and realized there were two sides and before I could pick a side our youth pastor, Brad, said "Connor! You're on our team. We need more fire power!" The great marshmallow war probably lasted a half hour, while I really helped out team, there were moments where I was texting Jana back, while being whacked in the face with the occasional flying marshmallow! I actually was smacked pretty hard in the eye with one while I was texting her. I had a fantastic time in the war! Reminds me of the candy war we have on Halloween Wednesday, only less painful!

Temporary Tattoos Rule!

2011-02-14T08:16:00.000-08:00

Back in November while I was making my Christmas list, as a joke I put a tattoo as the #1 thing I wanted. As a joke my aunt Becky gave me a bunch of temporary tattoos of hot rods. Well a few days ago I realized that I had only used 1 of them and that I still had 13 left. So I used all of them on my arm! I then went to gym wearing a muscle shirt to show off my cool tattoos. The people's reactions were priceless! I did get laughed at a little bit, but I saw them walk away in shame when I a guy with fake tattoos, lifted more than they did and they have legit tattoos! I had a lot of fun sporting off these hot rods.

It's official, I'm a man!

2011-02-11T08:14:00.000-08:00

I go to the gym at least every other day, now that it's winter it's normal to have the temperature in the teens outside. But that doesn't stop me from walking in a muscle shirt and shorts (it's actually a pretty fair distance) from my car to the gym. Part of the reason is that I'm just too lazy to wear a jacket and put it in a locker, but I just say it's a man test! And another thing I might add, I don't run from the car to the gym, I walk since it's a test! Yesterday was particularly cold, with the temperature being sub zero. I passed this old couple walking while I'm freezing by buns off, the old lady points at me and says to her husband "See gilbert, that's a man there!" I knew eventually my stupidity would pay off in the end!

Super bowl Sunday

2011-02-07T09:58:00.000-08:00

This super bowl Sunday has been more fun that the last few years. Right after church the heisey's were running to their car, Joy and Catie were fighting over shotgun. I took the liberty of hitting them with snowballs to break them up. Joy ran away while Catie went in the car, Joy was soaked. Mission accomplished! Later that evening we had the youth group super bowl party, Which started with another snowball fight!

We were having a great time, then at halftime, we started having "skirmishes" during the commercials, where we would get 15 guys circled up, then throw a football in the middle and the person who had the ball when the game started again, won! I decided to sit out of the first few rounds since I have a hug size advantage at 220 lbs while everyone else weighs around 150-175. After a while though the guys wanted to go against me so that the winner could be the champion of lifeguards! I decided to wait for them to all pile up on the ball, but as soon as I saw it, I attacked. I dove after it and started tearing it away from everybody. It popped up into the air and landed in Chad's hands, when he saw me clawing after him he screamed and threw it as far as he could! I got it.

After I won another time pretty easily, we had another round. This time I was planning on diving on it then just holding on the whole time....it didn't quite work that way. Vargas got on top of the ball before I could, and I was dog piled. I had an arm on Vargas, but my other arm was caught underneath me. With great difficulty I managed to pull Vargas to my other side so my arm was free, and then I was up! I ripped the ball away from Vargas and held on it for the win.

I decided to stop playing after that because I was 3 for 3 and I didn't want to have all of the fun. It was a crazy evening, I loved it!

Bring on the Weekend!

2011-02-04T08:19:00.000-08:00

While this week has gone by fast, and overall has been really good, I'm glad it's over. I had a quiz and 2 exams this week for the same class. We only had 4 days of class today too, so we had 1 day where we weren't taking some sort of test. The stress was kinda getting to me near the end of the week. Thankfully the weekend is almost here so I can relax for a bit. And I'll probably be able to talk to Jana on Saturday and Sunday night! :)

Tomorrow is the Anniversary!

2011-02-03T09:16:00.000-08:00

Two years ago, my first shave, I had a lot of pressure on me, like a camera a foot away from my face!

Two years tomorrow, marks a great anniversary of man hood....the first time I shaved! Back then I only had to shave once every two weeks. Now I have to shave every 2 or 3 days, because my facial hair is blond, I can get away with it for a bit longer. It meant a lot for me to shave for the first time, since my sisters and dad were constantly calling me hairless little freak, or baby butt face! I soon realized how much I liked baby butt face when Katrina started to call me hairy butt face. As excited as I was to start shaving, there are times when I wish I didn't have to. One example is when my face was MAIMED! I cut myself 4 times, and nearly cut off half of the chin. I actually still have a small mark from where I cut my chin.

Blizzard? ehh not so much, but it was a good day!

2011-02-03T07:33:00.000-08:00

For the past week we were hearing that we were supposed to get a monster snow storm, with as much as a foot and a half of snow! Yesterday, we got 9 inches, not quite what we were expecting but I'm not going to complain. We had a snow day, and I got a lot of business. I made enough money where I have already paid off half of the plane ticket to Nebraska! The guys in the youth group met up at subway, and talked about manly stuff, like failed attempts of catching a raccoon. I then had an intense workout and studied for a calc exam (which I did great in this morning!). I had an hilarious conversation with Jana through text, that nearly had me in tears, and then I was able to talk to Jana on the phone for a while! Jana has been sick lately, so I wasn't really expecting to talk last night, but it was a nice surprise!

Drawn on eyebrows??

2011-01-31T08:46:00.000-08:00

Over the weekend my family and the Burkes went out to eat at Mongolian BBQ. Our waitress had drawn on eyebrows! It was kinda freaky, so we were talking about her drawn on eyebrows while she was away. Mrs Burke didn't realize that our waitress was behind her when she said "Eyebrows!!" really loud. No one at our table could control ourselves and we burst out laughing! It made my day.

Prom 2011 (the preview)

2011-01-27T11:30:00.000-08:00

About the same time last year, I wasn't sure if I was going to go to prom ever, but I ended up going as a Junior. Earlier this year I figured that I wouldn't go to prom because I been there done that, but God had an unexpected turn in store for me. Jana and I were kinda talking about going to prom together around early December. Then we became official, which kinda solidified that idea! The original plan was for her to come to my prom, but then she asked me if I thought I'd be able to go to her prom. The thought of her going to her prom with another guy, got me very motivated to get the money to fly over there. So now I'm looking at flights to get there! Jana's school starts earlier and has fewer days off in the middle of the school year, so her prom is on April 9th.

The only downside is that, I'll only be able to stay for the weekend because we both have school on Monday. But I'm definitely not going turn down the chance to spend the weekend with Jana and go to prom with her looking all pretty! :) So I'm going to prom in Nebraska! Funny how things workout like that.

Epic Spanish Project!

2011-01-26T10:23:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I had to present my Spanish project which also is my final for the semester. We had to make a timeline with 3 things from our past, 3 things in the present, and 4 things in the our future. Now since the future isn't here yet I could just give the year things are gonna happen. But no, I figured that I mind as well pick the exact date I'm gonna get married, and a bunch of other important dates! I said that I was going to get married on April 1st (yes I realize that's April fools day) 2021. I actually am planning on getting married before then, but I forgot the numbers 15-20 so it's in 2021. I'm gonna have a kid on April 6th 2025 (again, I'm planning on this being earlier in my life but I don't know enough numbers in Spanish!) and the next day on April 7th 2025, I'm going to get a piranha named Dexter.

Now I got some criticism for getting a piranha the day after my kid is born, but I think of it this way, since some families get puppies when they have a baby so they grow up together, why can't my son grow up with a pet piranha?? I mean Dexter could teach my son to swim, how to love meat, and how to take on animals much larger than him in a fight! I think it's a good idea and I'm sure my wife will understand my genius plan. Look at the picture on this post, he's smiling! How can you not want a cute smiling piranha in your family??

Spring Hill 2010: Broom Ball

2011-01-24T12:14:00.000-08:00

Broom ball, as I said in the post below, is very similar to hockey. The main differences are that you don't have skates and its a small ball instead of a puck. Now most people think broom ball is dumb and if you aren't playing then you're standing around in sub zero temperatures which isn't fun! This was my mindset. I could be tubing, swimming or just hanging with my friends, but no I had to play this dumb game and freeze my innards solid!

So anyways this year we were in the second round of the playoffs when that mindset changed! I had to wear this dumb helmet which covered my eyes so I couldn't see where the heck the ball was. They scored a goal on us then I found out that you really didn't have to wear the helmets! I was pretty peeved about them scoring because in a ways it was my fault because I couldn't see anything! That was when something inside me snapped! So I threw off the helmet and went ape on them! I nearly even scored and I was playing defense. Despite going off like a possessed freak, like only an albino Mexican can, we still lost. I was pretty upset...until I found out there was Mexican food for dinner!

Spring Hill 2011

2011-01-24T07:49:00.000-08:00

(I had a picture with me smiling, but you couldn't really see the beard too well)

This weekend I went to spring hill with my youth group. I had a blast tubing down their massive hill and just hanging out with my friends in general. In case you were wondering, I did wear a fake beard this weekend. I went with Brad's (our youth pastor) beard this time.

Right after I had put on the beard for the broom ball game (similar to hockey) some of the freshmen were having a snowball fight. Brad told them that if they over threw and hit a girl with a snowball then he was gonna "let Connor go loose on you!" You knew it was going to happen eventually and Sylus hit one of the girls with a snowball. Then Brad said to me "Get him little Brad (Because I had his beard)!" At first I was just going to hit him with a snowball but he didn't run or anything, so I decided to tackle him in the snow!

A bunch of the upper classmen went tubing together so we could climb on top of each other's tubes while flying down the hill! My last time ever going down that hill was definitely one to remember. There was a huge group of people on just a few tubes right in front of me, and right as I take off I see that one of them fell off and without even thinking, I stuck out my hand and next thing I know I'm dragging him down the hill with me! When we finally stopped this kid looked like a snowman. It was fun though because he didn't know what was happening, he fell off then all of a sudden this strange guy with a fake beard is holding on to him!

Now since I had a fake beard I got some pretty odd looks from people passing by. I was getting breakfast when one of the kitchen ladies came up to me to tell me to be careful at the broom ball game, and then she turned to me and kinda froze. Then she looked at me sideways, obviously perplexed by the amazing artistry of such a beard. Eventually she realized it was fake and had a great laugh at me. Then at lunch I was getting some milk when I noticed that people at this table were staring at me, trying to figure out whether it was fake or real. (Which is funny because when I first saw my girlfriend Jana I was also trying to figure out if her glasses were real) It must have taken them about 10 minutes to be satisfied with an answer. I sure hope they found out it was fake!

Every year we take a picture near this billboard and this year with 50 kids it was kinda hard to get everyone in the picture which means the picture isn't too close, so my beard looked very legit! As soon as that picture is posted on facebook I'll be sure to put it up here, but until now you're forced to see this picture I took with my phone.

Amongst all the things going on I was even able to call Jana for a bit at night! Which I really needed because I wasn't able to have my phone with me until that point. I called her in our cabin which was empty because it was free hour, as soon as I dialed Jana's number, one of our youth leader Kevin came in. Fortunately Kevin was cool and didn't make fun of me...much. He was a little confused about the fact that instead of swimming or tubing, I was talking to someone (by the end he knew it was my girlfriend).

Overall this weekend was amazing! Spring hill didn't disappoint me!

hit the panic button now!

2011-01-21T09:42:00.000-08:00

Ever feel like you have a whole bunch of things to do in a very short amount of time? That's kinda how I feel like right now. I'm leaving for Spring hill at 5 and am going to be gone all weekend. Unfortunately I have a bunch of homework to do! Along with that I have to go to the bank, and get packed for the winter retreat. I needed something to calm me down a bit, and I decided I'd write on my blog! I hope you enjoy the picture of the kid, that probably looks just like I do at this moment! except of course, you can see his eyes.

Jana's mind games

2011-01-19T12:10:00.000-08:00

I wanted to shed some light on Jana's manipulation skills. Before we were officially dating, around mid October, we were talking about what we were going to do together when I visit her over the summer. Now after we made a plan to do something like have a movie night she'd confirm it by saying "it's a date!" when she said that, I figured "Hey she used the word 'date' so she must like me!" but she squandered that thought when she referred to just hanging out with her friends as a date. She did this on purpose! After she first told me "it's a date!" she decided that she liked that phrase.

This is one of the many mind games she played on me. It's because of manuvers like this that caused me to have a hard time sleeping and figuring out what our relationship was! I know she'll never bore me! :)

Ice: 1, Connor: Zippo!

2011-01-18T08:10:00.000-08:00

This morning we got some icy rain, and as I was about to leave the house to get to my car so I could get to class, my mom warned me about the ice. But it sort of went in one ear and out the other, well I made it half way to the car then I slipped a bit, but I didn't fall. Thankful that I didn't fall, I took another step. It happened so fast! I was on my back and wondering what had happened. Now that I think back on it, I had my mind on other things, and hadn't been ready to balance myself when I slipped again. I was alright, just a little surprised.

Interrogation and harassment, gotta love it!

2011-01-13T09:03:00.000-08:00

( My Dad's harassment of choice? kissy faces!)

Since Jana and I have become officially dating, several of my friends have stopped me and said "So Connor, I hear you have a girlfriend! what's she like??" I've been asked about Jana at least once every other day. If they ask me for a picture of her the response is always the same "Oh she's really pretty! [looks at me, then back at the picture] You're dating her?" My friends really enjoy giving me crap like that.

They aren't the only ones either, my family has a good time poking at me too. Whether it's my dad making kissy faces and kissing sounds while I'm talking to her on the phone, my mom saying that Jana has odd taste [Then looking right at me] or my sisters consistent badgering. I'm completely fine with them doing that because I know that they're only doing that because they care about me...or at least that's what I tell myself at night. Maybe they just think I'm a dweeb...well I guess that's true.

The O'l Asian Evil Eye!

2011-01-10T09:33:00.000-08:00

We live next to an elementary school, which at times can be frustrating when some dumb parent decides to park at the umbrella of your driveway preventing you from leaving your house. This morning I was getting ready to leave for to my calculus class, when I realized that some arrogant lady parked in our driveway! It's one thing to block off the driveway, it's another to deliberately park in someone else's driveway! I was kinda peeved to say the least, so as soon as I walk out side I look right at the lady and give her the Asian evil eye! While I may not be Asian, my eyes are small enough where it gives the same effect. That lady booked it out of there. While I might not have the puppy dog eyes anymore (or ever!), the Asian evil eye, if unleashed properly is effective as well.

Oh the Irony Hurts!

2011-01-07T09:29:00.000-08:00

Jana has been getting a lot of homework this week, which has prevented us from texting much and kept us from talking long or in some cases, at all. On Wednesday, we weren't really able to text much or even talk. It made me really sad, so on Thursday things looked pretty promising, she didn't have as much (she still had a lot) homework as she had earlier in the week. I had just sent her a text about how even if we weren't able to talk that night, I'd still be happy with texting her most of the afternoon. I was waiting for a response....nothing. Thinking that she was doing homework I disregarded it and figured that she'd text me when she had time. I go on facebook and I get a message from her. Basically she left her phone in the car and her mom took the car to work and wasn't going to be back till 9! At that point it was about 5:00. Needless to say I was pretty upset, but we did get to talk last night! :)

I've been having an off week

2011-01-07T09:16:00.000-08:00

Sorry that I haven't been posting that much this week, despite just getting off of Christmas break, surprisingly I haven't had any near death or morbidly humiliating things happen to me this week. I haven't shaved off my face, bought a pillow pet, or obtained super human powers in the past week. I'll make it up to you next week though. I'll be sure to double the acts of complete unadvised stupidity. And you shall laugh hardily at my expense!

New Years Party

2011-01-04T11:51:00.000-08:00

Lifeguards had a new years party from noon to midnight. It was super fun! We played whiffle ball which is a combination of bumper cars and lacrosse. I was really bad at it, so after a while I just would ram people. After Whiffle ball we played lazer tag at zap zone. It was down right amazing, and unlike whiffle ball, I'm good at lazer tag! There were about 50 people there and I placed 6th in both matches. The only problem was that it was extremely hot it the lazer tag area.

After lazer tag we had tacos, which was good because we were all famished and were about to start eating each other. We had a little bit of free time after dinner so we played dodge ball for a bit before service. During the church service I nearly fell asleep while praying because I had been up till 3 the night before talking to Jana! Following the service, we started another onslaught of dodge ball! Now I was still pretty sleepy...until a dodge ball planted me in the face! When I woke up from my coma (sarcasm!) I was wide awake!

When the ball dropped, I vowed to completely change every part of my very being. Just kidding! I'm not changing, I'll still be the same guy who entertains you with his painful experiences!

The early (and the best) events of christmas break

2011-01-03T06:09:00.000-08:00

Christmas break is over now, it was the best I've ever had! Unfortunately it never lasts long enough. Jana was able to open her gift on December 22nd, and she loved it. I got her 2 Michigan shirts, Michigan beanie, aviator sunglasses, and a duck pillowpet. Since Jana and I didn't have school for 2 weeks we were talking till 3 in the morning most nights, I believe we talked for at least 20 hours during break!

Well I'm sure you want to hear about the part that makes this the best Christmas break ever. So while we were talking one night, Jana was helping one of her friends to make cookies and other desserts. While we were talking I could hear her friend saying something to her, after a while I found out that he was saying "make it official" after a while Jana asked me the dreaded questions..."Can I ask you something?" through my childhood I've learned to fear this question. It's usually a big deal when you actually ask..if you can ask them something! So I'm instantly nervous, and I respond "sure, go ahead" I can tell by the sound of Jana's voice that she's nervous too, then she says "So are we like dating? Because my friends keep asking me if we are...and I just don't know."

In panicking insanity I blurted out "I don't know, you decide!" as soon as I said that I was thinking "Whats wrong with you?!? You know that you want to date her!!" So as fast as I can, I add, "But I would like to date you...." So that's when we decided to be official.

We were talking about some subtle hints that we left to try to find out whether the other liked us back. And you know what I found out? Jana was playing a lot of games with me! For example, when we planned to have a movie night at her house when I visit, her response was "It's a date!" So when she first said that I figured "sweet so she likes me back!" But then she follows up, by using the word "date" for just hanging out with her friends. She did that sort of thing during the 5 months we've known each other! This caused me confusion, so I was never positive whether she liked me. But she does keep my on my toes!

Christmas break!

2010-12-17T07:09:00.000-08:00

Christmas break is right around the corner, and I'm loving it! Unfortunately this will probably means I won't be able to post much on my blog the next couple of week. I'm planning on sending Jana's gift today which is gonna be awesome! Christmas will be here soon as well. The Ford Fiesta will be here soon, so I'll have a car to drive at most times. Without school, Jana and I will be able to talk till 2 or 3 am every night! I'm planning on having an epic snowball fight at grandma's house. This break is going to be a great one!

Random discovery of the day!

2010-12-16T07:17:00.000-08:00

While talking to Jana on the phone yesterday I made a big discovery. The identity of the person that always tickles the Pillsbury dough boy! Jana admitted to it last night! This mystery has torrmented my whole childhood. Who's hand was always poking the Pillsbury dough boy! I thought it was my responsibility to share this ground breaking discovery with you, so now you can live your lives. Your welcome!

Time to start preparing!

2010-12-15T07:51:00.000-08:00

I decided to make sure the aviator sunglasses worked

I realized something today, that Jana's birthday is only a week away! I definitely want her to get my present before then. She doesn't want to open it until Christmas but I really would like to send it without having to worry about it getting there in time. I know that sending it is gonna take a few days probably 3 or 4 days, I'm pretty good with the presents I just need to find out which senior pictures she wants. I'm sure that I'm going to have to send the senior pictures late because they need to be edited by Bob (The photographer). I think I'm going to need to get a box at the post office because I can't find a box that will hold the pillow pet! They're really bulky and we don't have a good sized box around. I need to kick my rear in gear to get this out in time.

God is good!

2010-12-15T07:44:00.000-08:00

You may or may not know that I have my own business with snow removal and yard service. This winter I've been busy and haven't really been able to pass out fliers to promote my business. We had our first snow fall a few days ago and a couple of my old clients from last year have contacted me and said they would love to have me clear their driveways for them. Just the past 2 days I've made over $80 and that's without even passing out fliers! This money has come at a good time too. I'm going to get a ford Fiesta for lease and it's going to cost me a little over $100 a month. I was worried about how I was going to come up with the money if I didn't get my fliers out in time. So for the past week I've got a car to drive, and I've got my business off to a great start!

I now know what eskimos feel like!

2010-12-14T07:17:00.000-08:00

Yesterday we had a snow day. It was your typical snow day though, it wasn't due to large amounts of snow, it was because it was -10 degrees out! I had to shovel snow outside for 2 hours and let me tell you, even though I was shoveling during that whole time I nearly froze to death. Then I did something even more stupid. I was going to workout at the civic center, but instead of bundling up and just changing there, I decided to just wear a sleeveless shirt and shorts! It was slightly cool walking to and from the car to say the least. Unfortunately today we weren't able to get a snow day even though it's -6 degrees outside! Oh well our school district is stupid.

It's my jam!

2010-12-10T07:58:00.000-08:00

This morning I dropped my mom off at work and was on my way to HFCC for my pre calc class. While I was driving the song "Just a dream" by Nelly came on, and I absolutely love that song! So I was fist pumping while driving! That's when I realized movement in the car next to me.... Lisa Westra (one of the leaders for lifeguards) was laughing at me and mocking my fist pump! Apparently I was also rubbing my chin before Nelly came on because she was also doing that! This isn't the first time I've been made fun of for dancing in the car, but it's the first time that it's been by someone I know!

Branson Missouri Part 5: the forgotten memories

2010-12-07T08:18:00.000-08:00

I can't believe I forgot about this part of the story! I was just looking through my memories and I realized that I never got into too much details about Jana! So Jana and I hung out for as much as possible before session and in between playing ninja we'd talk together so it was a good combination. Now after the first 2 days of knowing her I definitely knew that I wanted to get her number, but one thing that I'm just down right horrible at is asking for numbers. Even if we're good friends it makes me a little nervous.

I had been thinking about how I was going to plan it the last few nights there. I was just going to casually walk up to Jana as usual but I was going to curve the conversation to her phone and then say "Hey, can I have your number? So that we can keep in touch after this week?" I had simulated it about 100 times in my head before our last session of student life. As soon as the doors opened I flew down the stairs and went right to where we always met up at! I needed to have enough time to smoothly turn the topic of the conversation.

The doors open an hour earlier than the band starts playing which is the beginning of the session. So when I first get to our spot I can't see her there, which worries me at first but I convince myself that she's just running a little late. A half hour later, my head is on a swivel I'm constantly on the alert because I'm starting to run out of time. 15 minutes later I'm starting to kick myself for not asking for her number earlier because I really liked her!

Finally 10 minutes before session, Jana arrived! I frantically ran over to her but just then a ninja game started so of course we jumped into the game. We didn't do too well in the ninja game and were quickly eliminated. Now we only had about 7 minutes left before the session would start. Jana was late because her youth group had gone cliff diving and they had lost track of time. She was telling me about how she had been more nervous about climbing the cliff than jumping off of it and how fun it was. Now we only had 1 minute left, I started panicking because I was running out of time and my nerves were going completely bonkers!

I was trying to curve the conversation but it wasn't really working! Soon the music started playing and I was having this civil war going on in my head! Should I ask her for her number? We probably wouldn't talk too long anyways, and I already had her facebook information, why get her number? But she is not like normal girls! She likes football and wears fake glasses! We had totally hit off too!

Fortunately the latter won and I asked her in a very smooth way "Hey Jana can I have your number? Because I feel like we really hit it off and I want to keep in touch." and she responded "Of course Connor I thought you'd never ask!"......okay I may have changed that a little bit....this is what really happened....

She pulled out her phone as the music started to text one of her friends from her youthgroup to find out where they were. I saw her phone and totally went for it! So I asked "Do you have a phone?" considering she had her phone right in front of me, I looked pretty stupid. Luckily she still gave me her number despite looking like a blubbering fool!

I'm pretty sure I didn't post this with the other Branson posts because I was embarrassed about it, but it's all good now! Looking back at it, I'm very glad that I did too because here we are 5 months later still talking for about an hour on weekdays and 3 hours during the weekend! And for the record, Jana had to remind me about my little blunder when I was asking for her number.

Christmas Gift

2010-12-06T08:25:00.000-08:00

This year Jana and I are exchanging gifts for Christmas. My mom says that my "love language" is gifts, which basically means that I love giving and receiving gifts. I believe that this is true because I always try to exceed people expectations when it comes to giving them a gift! Now this is what I've got for Jana so far....

Duck pillow pet: She's aware that she's getting this since we agreed to give each other pillow pets

Michigan beanie and shirt: she has a slight idea that I'm getting her these

Space pen: It's really just an awesome pen that folds out and she has no idea about this

Aviator Sunglasses: I'm probably most excited about this one because she doesn't know I'm getting her this and it's how we met!

Senior pictures: She knows I'm getting her these because I wanted her to pick out which ones she wants!

Another thing to put into the equation is the fact that Jana's birthday is the 22nd, 3 days before Christmas! So really this has to account for both Christmas and her birthday. I'm really excited for Christmas!

Shaving: 101

2010-12-03T09:23:00.000-08:00

Today I really screwed up the simple task of shaving. I decided to get a quick shave before class but in my haste I grabbed a different razor. That razor was new and quite different from my dull old one. I cut myself not once, but TWICE! I took a pretty nasty chunk out of my chin. It really does hurt a bit too. It seems like I screw up something everyday. But lucky you! You get to hear about all my trials and errors without having to live through them!

Bad Choice of Words!

2010-12-01T09:38:00.000-08:00

On Monday my sister, my mom and I went to the mall. Now I had hinted to them that I was probably going to get something for Jana for Christmas. So we got to the mall and right before we went our separate ways my mom asked which store that I was going to be at. Since I really had absolutely no idea where I was going to go, I said "It's a secret place!" Then my sister Sienna looked really shocked and said "You're gonna go to Victoria's secret??" Turns out, there was a Victoria's secret right behind us! I couldn't stop laughing for 10 minutes! In case you were wondering what I got Jana, I ended up getting her a new pair of aviator sun glasses. She lost the pair that she brought to Branson, and I figured it'd be a good gift since those glasses were how we met!

Did I Seriously Just Say That??

2010-11-29T08:05:00.001-08:00

A few nights ago I really messed up. I had just dialed Jana's number into the phone and I was thinking about what I was going to talk about. I then thought about something funny that my Grandma did that day. While I was doing that, I kinda forgot I was on the phone. So Jana answered the phone and said "Hey Connor!". Without thinking, I blurted out "Hey grandm.....oh crap!". Now Jana was really tired, so she was like "Wait what did you say??......did you just call me grandma???" Yeah....I really screwed up there. She really had fun teasing me about that!

Happy belated Thanksgiving!

2010-11-29T08:03:00.000-08:00

Sorry I'm late, here's a funny picture for you to laugh at!

Floor hockey!

2010-11-29T07:49:00.000-08:00

Over thanksgiving break, my family and I stayed at my grandma's house. While we were there, my cousin Jeremy invited me to play floor hockey with his youth group. Hockey in general is definitely not my strong suit, but it sounded fun. There was about 28 people who came, and let me tell you, it was a blast! It took me a while but I soon got the hang of it. I used my size to my advantage by shielding the players with actual skill away from the puck. There were 3 tournaments and I won 2 of them. Not that I'm saying I was a key player to victory or anything, but I could bruise a few people.

Right before the Championship game for the last tournament, the best player on the other team named Ryan came up to us and said "Just to let you know, if you have the puck then I'm gonna check you into the wall." Now there's a considerable difference in size between me and Ryan. He's about 5-9 170 lbs while I'm 6-0 215 lbs. And I'm not going to just wait for him to check me into a wall! So at the first opportunity I got I just nailed him into the wall! But it didn't stop him much because before we knew it, we were down 2-0 (the first team to score 3 point wins) Then I decided to match up against him. I told the other defender on my team Jordan that I was matching up against Ryan and he had to cover the other two forwards.

The plan worked because I knew that if I could get into Ryan's head then we'd win the game. So at every opportunity I gave him a nice jab. After a while I notice he started being hesitant to chase the ball if I was around because he knew I would slam him into the wall! We ended up coming back from being behind and winning 3-2!

I'm a super hero!!

2010-11-23T11:44:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I discovered that I have a super power! The ability to control the weather! When I was walking to my car and I was just thinking how great it was that it wasn't raining, and just then it starts pouring rain! Then I think wow this really needs to stop, then poof it suddenly stops raining! I displayed this power throughout the day and it never failed. I need to continue to develope my powers till I'm a super hero!

Bubbly Red Bull: The Discovery!

2010-11-22T07:41:00.000-08:00

My post on Friday was telling you about the details of bubbly red bull and what I thought it could possibly be. Well I'm glad that I posted it on Friday because if I had waited one more day then I'd be hard to write about bubbly red bull before I found out what it was.

So anyway I had the 30 hour famine on Friday evening and Saturday morning so when I finally got home after that, I was too lazy to bring my bags in from the car so I just left them out there for a bit. A few hours later I remembered about the bags so I went back in the car to get them. I grabbed them out of the car and was about to go in the house when something caught my eye...it was a package! I was a little curious about it but I was tired and was gonna take a nap so I turned back to the door but then something else caught my eye. I noticed that on the package was there as plain as day [Jana Joy, Humboldt NE] so it took me 3 looks to finally realize the package was for me!

I nearly died laughing when I saw the package because it had drawings all over it in marker! I was very confused because as I'm sure I posted in my other post that I didn't give Jana my address. I opened the box which contained Nebraskan red bull and toothpaste (the toothpaste is an inside joke) It took me a while but I found out that Jana had messaged my mom on facebook to get my address! I didn't even know you could do that without adding the person as a friend on facebook!

I couldn't stop smiling for the rest of the day!

The butt dial incident!

2010-11-22T07:28:00.000-08:00

About a week ago I had the day off and it was a particularly boring day. That is until a certain event happened. I was drinking pop and due to my lack of hand-mouth coordination I spilled some pop on my pants. Nothing big but it still looked like I peed my pants. I get up to change my pants and as I walk by my sister, I decided to beat her to the punch and say "Hey Sienna, look I peed my pants....AGAIN!" a few seconds later I heard a weird voice in my pocket. I looked at my phone and it said [Call Alex Jones: time 4:58] what I heard was her voice mail!

At first I just thought "Oops oh well." but then it hit me! I had just said that I had peed my pants again while it was recording the voice mail!!! Alex texted me right after wondering why I called her. I told her but fortunately it was muffled enough so that you couldn't hear what I said, except you could hear me yelp in surprise when I saw the call! I've got some bad timing....

Bubbly Red Bull

2010-11-19T11:26:00.000-08:00

Jana and I have been talking for a pretty long time now. A few weeks ago, she told me something about how she had a secret thing that was really funny that was for me. She gave me very minimal information on it. I decided to come up with a cool nick name for it so now we call it "bubbly red bull"! Basically she's been holding this over my head for this whole time. I know that it's really funny, she no longer has control over when I find it, and that it's not a post on MLIA.com. I've thought about everything, facebook, email, and other websites I just can't find it! Well lately she's been hinting that I'm finally going to be able to find out what it is, very soon! I have absolutely no idea what it is and I'm used to be able to find things out relatively fast but I have a feeling there's no way I can find out what it is until the moment comes!

*Sigh* I really wonder what it could be........

hit the panic button!!

2010-11-15T07:39:00.000-08:00

Yesterday while we were waiting for the church potluck, a bunch of us from the youth group were talking. We were talking about college and then one of our youth leaders told us that she only went to college for one semester because she got married. Then all of the girls (I was the only guy in the group) started talking about how half of the reason they're going to college is to get married! And they were talking about how they would love to get married in the first year of college! Then they looked at me, I had this expression of pure horror at the idea of getting married in the first year of college!

They thought that I didn't want to get married ever! But while I do want to get married eventually it's not exactly part of my plans for the next few years! If I do get married in college it'd be my senior year, not my first year in college! Just the thought of marriage makes my liver quiver!

Embarrassment event Codename: Pillow Pets!

2010-11-10T07:18:00.000-08:00

You probably have heard of Pillow pets! They're these fuzzy animals that can transform into full sized pillows! When I first saw them I categorized them under "dumb stuff that I would never have anything to do with in my life" along with the snuggie! I'm pretty sure you can see where I'm getting at here....but lets start from the beginning.

In late July or early August, when Jana and I first started talking on the phone I found out that she owned a pillow pet frog named George! I told her that was really funny because I would never get one! That was when she said that she was going to get me one for Christmas! I was kinda thinking "yeah! it's not like we're going to still be talking to each other by then!" she also told me that she wanted the duck pillow pet! So that's when we first came up with the idea!

She brought it up about once every week how I was going to get the duck pillow pet and she was going to get me some mysterious pillow pet that she found at the pillow pet website! To this day, I still don't know which pillow pet she's getting me! But I still wasn't convinced that we'd still be talking by then so I didn't really think about it much!

Now we fast forward a bit to late October, we were still talking a long time and having good wholesome conversations! Then she brought it up once again about getting me some mysterious pillow pet! That's when it hit me! I had to go through with this! I actually had to do what I thought I'd never do in my life.....buy a pillow pet!

So the past week I'd been searching for a duck pillow pet! I checked Target, Walmart, Walgreens and Toy'sRus! I could not find that elusive duck pillow pet! I had sort of a "DUHHH!!" moment at that moment, I could check the mall! So I drove to the mall, and as I walked through the entrance I saw this HUGE display for pillow pets and right there looking at me in a mocking way was the duck pillow pet!!

I had a problem though, It was right near the food court which was packed! I also could see some of my friends from school there too! In a panic I walked past the pillow pets. It took me a whole hour to gather enough courage to walk up to the lady and ask for a pillow pet! I figured that I had to do it sometime! So I walk up to the lady who is on her phone and that's making my nerves fly through the roof! I spent probably 3 times as long to buy that duck pillow pet since she was on the phone! I still remember what I said when I walked up to her "How much for the duck?" not really too cool of a 6 foot, 220 lbs guy.

I did end up getting that duck but it took a lot of guts to get that darn duck pillow pet, who Jana recently named Fred! It was probably quite a site to see me buying Fred! I wish I wasn't seeing it through my eyes!

Can you say bad timing??

2010-11-10T07:06:00.000-08:00

2 nights ago I was texting Jana but she decided to go to bed early and I decided that since I was pretty tired I was going to sleep too! I brush my teeth, put my phone on it's charger, then walk to the opposite side of the room to my bed and climb up to the top bunk! After about a minute of laying there I hear "buzzz buzzzz buzzzzzz!" My phone had gotten a text message! So I climb down to the floor, walk over to my phone and the text message was from Jana telling me how she got shocked by her lamp and couldn't feel her arm! I texted a quick response but figured that she wouldn't respond again. So I walk back to my bed climb up and as soon as my head hit the pillow I hear the infamous "buzzz buzzzz buzzzzzz!"

Once again I get out of bed walk to my phone, text a response but this time I decide to be smart and just unplug my phone and take it with me to bed! So I lie in bed waiting for a text.......that I never got! So after trying so hard to respond while having my phone charged by the morning, it didn't get charged! I swear Jana must have a tracer on me or something!

All I wanted was an ipod!

2010-11-09T09:18:00.000-08:00

As I posted earlier I went to a Hispanic engineering conference in Cincinnati last week, well apparently I got more than I bargained for! While I was at the conference there was a time where different colleges had booths and you could get a bunch of information on what they're about and other junk like that. For the booth of Army if you signed out this piece of paper to them and turned it in you would have a chance of getting a free Ipod! I'm not the kind of person that fills out everything to get a chance at a great prize but a bunch of army Representatives convinced me (Probably because of my size) to fill out the card! I kinda thought "What the heck! If I win, great! If I don't then no big deal!" I didn't end up winning the Ipod.....

That was a week and a half ago. Now back to the present! This morning the army called me because apparently the card that I filled out said that I was interested in learning more about the army! Fortunately I was at my class so I didn't have to tell them that I wasn't interested and that I just wanted an Ipod, without thinking through what I was going to say! Apparently I should start reading what the card says that I'm turning in to get a free Ipod! It's all good though! It's just a speed bump on the life of Connor! Getting calls from the Army is just another little obstacle in my way!

Jail break!

2010-11-08T07:43:00.000-08:00

I was talking to Jana last night and once again, we got into some really weird topics! Jana was telling me about how mean her band teacher was, then I suggested that she and her band teacher should come to Michigan, where we were beat her band teacher up and leave her body in Canada! (We aren't some psychotic murders or anything we're just joking) Then if we got caught we planned out how we'd escape!

When I first met Jana she was wearing fake glasses, and by the last day I wore fake hair. (Look up "Branson" for details) So we used this information to our advantage! Once we got the keys and captured the guards, We'll handcuff them with Jana's fake glasses by putting their hands where the lends would go and we'll gag them with my fake hair!

Of course we didn't think out several things, like the fact that they probably wouldn't put partners in crime in the same cell or even in the same prison, or how we would get the keys, but I'm sure that if we did get thrown into jail it would all play out to our favor!

The weekend is here!

2010-11-05T09:23:00.000-07:00

Whew! The weekend is finally here! This week has gone by fast, but it was stressful with a big math test this morning! I'm really thankful for that day off that we had on Tuesday! While I'm super glad that the weekend is just about on its way here, I'm sure that by Monday I'll be asking where it all went!

I lucked out there!

2010-11-04T09:01:00.000-07:00

Next week Spring arbor university has a senior expedition. Unfortunately it's on a Thursday and Friday so I wasn't going to be able to go to it for the 2nd day because of my college class. But today I found out that we have those 2 days off next week because my professor has a conference to go to! I'm going to be able to go for the whole event! I'm also going to meet up with my friend Alex who I met at the junior expedition in April! I'm pumped for the visit to SAU!

What a great anniversary!

2010-11-03T08:23:00.000-07:00

This was Halloween 2008 the first beard ever! *sniff*

Now 2 years later! (Notice awesome eyebrows!)

Sunday was Halloween, and the 2 year anniversary of the beard! 2 years ago I was trying to find something to wear when I came across my old eye black from football. Since at that point in my life I couldn't grow a beard I decided it'd be fun to wear a fake beard! Well the rest is history! Since then I've worn fake beards out of duct tape, toothpaste, and of course eye black!
(Which reminds me of a story that I need to post soon!)

So this year I decided to go as a biker! The mission was very successful, if the mission was to make a complete fool of myself! It's all good though, after wearing fake beards randomly I don't have anymore pride left! My brother went as a Jedi and my sister went as the original sleeping beauty!

We have some weird topics!

2010-10-26T07:30:00.000-07:00

Last night I was talking to Jana and we had some pretty weird topics come up in our conversation! We were talking about the best ways to torture people, she came up with tying them to a chair, throwing them in the closet and only feeding them frozen TV food and not giving them a fork!

We also were talking about great stories for the death of people in mafia! I came up with being trampled by a herd of wild Pokemon, but she beat me with being stabbed by a unicorn horn! Then we were debating whether the death by unicorn was too hardcore for mafia since most deaths are complete jokes! We came to the conclusion that if you die from something imaginary then it's too much of a joke to be hardcore!

Then she told me that the koolaid man is apparently from Nebraska! overall, very crazy and corrupted conversation!

SCARY NIGHTMARE!

2010-10-25T09:39:00.000-07:00

You know when you have a nightmare but kinda forget about it until something reminds you of it? Well that has recently happened to me! This is my nightmare:

I woke up and started to get ready for school. I realized that I needed to shave so I went to the bathroom to shave but as I looked into the mirror, I had a black beard!!!! I was freaking out! The main reason I was freaking out is because with blond facial hair I don't have to shave as often because it doesn't stand out, but with black facial hair I'm gonna have to shave everyday! Looking back on it, I realize that it isn't too bad because I wear fake beards every so often but it scared the crap out of me in my dream! After yelling my head off I walked to the calendar in the kitchen and it all made sense! It was Monday! I remember saying "Oh its just Monday! At least nothing worse can happen!" just then ninjas appear and attack me! Then I woke up!

You were probably shaking in your boots as you were reading this right? I know pretty freaky right? Beware the black beard......

I needed that!

2010-10-22T07:51:00.001-07:00

In one of my previous posts I was talking about the lifeguards football game. Well unfortunately that game got canceled. But on the bright side I did get to play some football yesterday, just not in the same way I thought it'd be.

While I was in the middle of studying for my math class a neighborhood kid named Seth knocked on the door and asked if my brother and I could play football (I would be all time quarterback). Naturally I'd rather play football than do math so I jump at the opportunity! Normally playing all time quarterback is fun but there was something different this time that made my day! This 16 year old guy named Joe stopped by and he wanted to be quarterback too! So I really didn't car too much about that at first, but then he said the words "You and me are gonna play tackle with each other" before I'd just play two hand touch but as I've posted earlier I have a lot of aggression to get rid of!

So we kick off the ball and Joe starts returning the ball, I thought this was kinda stupid because he's 4 years older than most of these kids and it wasn't fair! I usually just give the ball off to the kids so that the game can be between all of them. But I kinda thought "Okay Joe if you want to pick on kids younger than you, try matching up against me!" he comes up to me and I just blow him up! I drove him into the dirt and let me tell you it felt GOOD!

After that I just wanted to hit him as much as possible! He kept taking the ball himself which got me kinda mad at him but I made sure to punish him for his selfishness! I made sure not to just tackle him but to crush him to the ground! After roughing him up a bit you could tell he was starting to feel it! Halfway through the game he was returning the ball again and I wrapped him up but I decided to gain momentum by spinning him around then throwing him to the ground! He didn't take that too well so he got up and says to my face "Hey man, if you break any of my bones I swear I'm gonna beat the $#%^ out of you!" Now honestly I laughed at him because this guy is a year younger than me and about 180 lbs max! He wasn't small by any measure but he was just average while I have been crushing him all game! He still hadn't recorded a tackle on me and trust me he was trying but I'd give the ball off to someone before he could! But my response to his threat was "If I break one of your bones and you try to hit me then I'm gonna break the rest of you!"

After his threat to me I got MAD at him! Before I was just trying to neutralize him so that the kids could play more than him but not I really wanted to hurt Joe! I took his threat as a dare to break him in half! One time he got a break away on a kick off and I caught up to him and stripped the ball just to teach him a lesson! It was funny because as hard as he tried to win the game on himself he never scored a touchdown or recorded a tackle on me! If he hadn't left home (he was limping off) early I would've let him blitz while I was quarterback and I'd just be able to break his tackle and show him how to stiff arm a defender!

Things are Looking up!

2010-10-20T09:45:00.000-07:00

Last week was a pretty bad week for me. I just had a whole lot of homework, and wasn't able to hangout with my friends as much as I wanted. Michigan lost, and so did the lions. And if that wasn't bad enough I wasn't able to talk to Jana over the weekend! The worst part about not talking to Jana all weekend was the fact that we could have twice!! It just seemed like nothing was going my way! Well its funny how your week can totally turn around! My classes have been easy and yet entertaining enough for it not to borderline torture, youth group was fun, my sister is coming home tonight, and I was able to talk to Jana the past few nights! This weekend we have fall retreat which should be a blast! I'm liking the way things are looking for the next week!

"Dee" Hart is gonna beating at Michigan!

2010-10-18T09:13:00.000-07:00

Michigan has recently secured a commitment from one of the top running backs in the class of 2011! Demetrius Hart is from Orlando Florida and he plays for one of the top schools in the country in Dr. Phillips! "Dee" Hart is 5-8, 190 lbs and he's extremely quick, he's also the top ranked all around back. Hart is a special talent and has been on commitment watch for over a year now! With Hart and Denard in the backfield together it should be a deadly duo! This also opens the door for Michigan to snag some recruits from Dr Phillips in the next coming years which should prove helpful!

It has been way too long!

2010-10-15T09:31:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow the lifeguards are going to have another pickup football game against the youngish old guys from the church! I've been waiting for this day since the last game we had which was in early may! I've gotten a whole lot stronger since then and I want to start dominating people again! After the duct tape game that was in my previous post, I have been hungry to just go ape on people!

Another thing is that after this game with guys bigger than me or about the same we have Fall retreat in which we almost always have a football game! Last year in that game which was just lifeguard on lifeguard I just dominated! No one could even slow me down besides for Kevin (a youth leader) and it was amazing to play my sport once again! I'm so pumped for these next few weeks it's hard to contain myself!

Unlike the duct tape game it's better if I just go crazy and go all out! Football is meant to be physical and that's where I excel at!

RIP shirts sniff

2010-10-14T07:25:00.000-07:00

Yesterday at Lifeguards we played a really fun game! We are split into 2 teams, then everyone gets a piece of duct tape and puts it on their back. One team puts on the duct tape vertically and the other team puts it on horizontally. The object of the game is for you to take the tape off of the opponents back while still keeping your tape on your back. Once you lose your tape you're out of the game. I personally really love this game because by the end of the game it turns into a brawl which is the way I like it!

So the first game I got 2 people out but then Chad came behind me and ripped the tape off of my shirt! I was pretty peeved that I got out so early because I'm really good at this game and I got blindsided! While I was watching the game go on and planning how I was going to survive the whole next game but at the same time still be a force on the game!

The new game starts and we have a great game plan! Our 4 best players gathered together and decided that we were going to have me in the front line and the other 3 were going to be in the middle of "our" side of the room. My job was to basically grab the best players as they came close to me and throw them to 3 of our best players. While they were maiming the guy I threw to them, I would prevent anyone from attacking them because normally they'd be extremely vulnerable!

Sometimes while they were attacking someone our other teammates were defending our "lions" which gave me an opportunity to attack solo! My first target was Alex who is probably the only guy who's bigger than me at lifeguards. We were going at it when I saw a glimpse of his tape! I instantly snatched at it with my hand! I got it.....and some of his shirt! I unknowingly grabbed a chunk of his shirt along with the tape and just tore it off! He was kinda mad about it so he jumped at me and my instant reaction was not to get crushed so I pushed me away from me! Unfortunately since he was in mid air he fell back on the floor HARD! He was alright but I still felt pretty bad.

After getting Alex out I went back to my duties to defend 3 of our best players maiming other players! Chad decided to try to defend his teammate by trying to bull rush through our line and at least free his teammate being mangled! I saw him running by and I also see his tape so as he's running I make a grab at it and *riiiiippppppp!* Once again I had ripped a shirt! Only this one was way worse! I basically ripped Chad's shirt in half! He was kinda mad too because he got that shirt on a missions trip! I was also getting kinda tired of ripping shirts too!

After Chad I decided to attack my sister because she proved to be a sneaky one in the last game. I made a weak attempt to get her out of the game because I didn't want to rip her jacket.....*riiiiippppp!* too late. I ripped a hole in my sisters jacket, it was old so she wasn't mad at me.

After all of this I decided not to attack girls for the rest of the game, surprise surprise! I ended up ripping Andrew's hoodie a little bit too! It was in the armpit and it wasn't too bad so it's all good! We ended up winning by quite a large margin! After I ripped 3 shirts everyone kept a radius around me so it was easier to defend my buddies! I was attacking a freshman named Ricky and his shirt looked just like Alex's shirt, so I thought for sure I was going to end up ripping his shirt too! Fortunately I didn't rip a 5th shirt!

I loved that game! And for the record Alex actually hung up his ripped shirt in the portable! After he cooled off a bit he actually was proud of it! Which is good because I felt bad for all of the shirts and jackets I destroyed that day! Overall very fun game and very interesting results!

+1 For Jedi Mind Trick!

2010-10-08T09:39:00.001-07:00

Yesterday I was hanging out with Andrew and he's been debating recently whether to ask one of his friends Chelsea, to homecoming but homecoming is only a week away! So he was running out of time fast! I used my Jedi mind trick of manipulation to get him to think about the positives and the negatives of asking her to go. He soon realised that the positives out weighed the negatives by a wide margin! He was about to text one of her friends to find out if Chelsea was going with anybody, when he was like "Whoa, how did you do that?? I was just on the fence about this like 15 minutes ago!" I used my powers for good! Well after about a half hour he gets a text from Chelsea's friend saying that Chelsea wasn't planning on going to homecoming. I instantly felt really bad because everything pointed to her going to the dance! So Andrew asked her why but the reason was because she didn't have anyone to go with! It was perfect!

Andrew even came up with an "out of the ordinary" way to ask her to homecoming too! He made a sign and put it on her porch then texted her to go to the porch! I have taught my young apprentice well.....

Curse You Pop Nazi!

2010-10-06T11:42:00.000-07:00

Today my family and I went to Pizza Hut for lunch! All was going well until the waitress told me that I only could have one refill! I haven't been cut off from my pop in years! We tried everything to come up with a loop hole! We tried having my mom use her refill on me but the lady just topped off her half empty cup! I now know that she is definitely a pop Nazi! She cut me off of my supply of pop and then prevented any loop holes!! I take this pretty personal with pop being one of my true loves in life! The food was good, but I wish I had more POP!!!

Who's the lucky one here??

2010-10-04T08:37:00.000-07:00

While talking to Jana last night I found out that they don't have white castles in Nebraska! Now she was really disappointed that they didn't have white castles for a while, until I told her how horrible they are! Now I have to wonder, Who's the lucky one here? I'm thinking that not hearing of white castle is a pretty good thing! The only person that I know who actually likes white castle is my dad!

Ricardo Lopez!

2010-09-30T09:11:00.000-07:00

My freshman year of high school we took this test that's very similar to the ACT only it's an easier version called the explorer. Now since this was my freshman year I kinda thought the test like a joke, so I purposely goofed up the information that I had to give them! I told them that I was 23 my name is Ricardo Lopez I want to be either a clown or hot dog salesman and a bunch of other crap like that! I thought it was really funny at the time but I forgot about it until recently! About a month ago I got a letter in the mail from a college only it was addressed to Ricardo Lopez! It actually took me sometime to remember what I did freshman year! At first I just thought it was a misprint but after the 2nd and 3rd college sent Ricardo info on their college I realised it was because of that!

I definitely wouldn't do it over if I could because it's just hilarious getting letters for Ricardo! I was a smart freshman!

Subway!

2010-09-29T07:35:00.000-07:00

Today is Wednesday! Therefore we're gonna go out to eat and have a jolly good time! Every other week we go to subway to eat subs until we burst! This happens to be subway week, and I can't wait to get my hands on a footlong!