Suave's Thoughts

2014-04-13T23:58:00.001-05:00

Hey Guys,

So, as I said I would, here's to blogging again!
I won't go over every single thing since I've last posted, this is just a quick catch up!

So where have I been? The better question is, where haven't I been? Well, the answer to that is...not a whole lot of places, haha.

I'm still residing in the wonderful city known as Memphis. The city of music, Elvis...yeah, that's really about it. It's by no means bad, but more of a touristy place, there's cool stuff to go to, but I've honestly not bothered.

I've been very fortunate and landed a fantastic full-time job, working as an IT guy, as well as a sound engineer. My fancy title? "Technical Support Engineer" so much fancy! I even have an office, with a nameplate! The job keeps me busy, sometimes I have some weird hours as a result of various events, but I love having a job that I'm not always doing the same thing every day.

I finally got to visit some dear friends a couple weeks ago, it was a great birthday gift to myself! My last night I finally got to really hang out with all of the family members. We had a great time playing Mario Kart, on the Wii (man I did terrible at that game.) We played a game called tenzies, we even playing the Awkward Family Photos game (love me some southern blood). Any way, it got to be late, so the kiddos went to bed, and we all followed suit. Have you ever gone someplace and have this weird feeling of complete belonging? I have to admit, I find myself feeling like I don't fit where I'm at right now. I'm working on that, truly, I have some great friends, but there was just something about this visit. There was familiarity, connections. I haven't had that feeling of belonging like that before, but I couldn't have been any happier in that moment. It just felt perfect, does that make sense?

Sadly that visit had to come to a close far too quickly, but the trip was so enjoyable. Friendships were taken to new places, and I even made new friends with the kids. I'm hoping to make that trip far more frequently than once every 4 years.

I think I've blathered enough here. I'll write more soon, I just wanted to get something out there again.

I'm back, with a goal

2014-04-09T22:53:00.000-05:00

What’s up guys? Here I am yet again trying this out.

I honestly cannot believe that it’s already been a year since I’ve last posted. Can you believe that?

So, let’s get down to it. My goal: blog at least once a week, even if it’s of little significance. Why? Well…why not? That’s the real question.

I’m trying to transition over to my website, found a fun template, and am trying to understand web development for the heck of it.

I will start out with another blog post, but I’m back, for realzies.

April 8th

2013-04-08T10:25:00.003-05:00

I decided to keep working with blogger. I figured out how to integrate it at my site, so that's great (blog.supersuave.net)
So what on earth have I been doing as of late?
These past few days have been extremely busy for me. I've been asked by at least 8 different people from school if I could run their senior recitals over the past few months. These concerts are the culmination of everything that they have learned while being in college. (I myself had a project that I had to do, since I was an audio student, and not a worship leader/musician.) So these things are very important and a mandatory requirement for graduating from Visible.
This year I'm running 5 of these things this year(bringing the grand total of being involved in 18), not necessarily my best decision, but I wanted to help out some good friends. It hasn't been bad until this past Wednesday, I have not had a break! Today is Monday though, and I can finally get some rest.
I got to hang out with one of the students that I was helping (he's my arch nemesis) and several other friends last night after his recital. It was a great time. It did make me realize that I could have done a better job at befriending these guys when I first came down here. They're good people. Yes, it sad that my nemesis is probably leaving after graduating, but man, I'm glad I finally put effort into making more friends down here.

Couple of short things:
You should watch this(Running sound in a Church): https://seeds.churchonthemove.com/blog/post/273
I just remembered, last week I turned 23, what on earth...it's just unbelievable.
I've been homesick lately.

That's it for now,

New Website

2013-02-25T16:51:00.003-06:00

So I know, I know. I said that I was going to post more often. So I lied, and I apologize for that. I just saw that I've had about 2,500 views. Now, does that mean that everyone's read my stuff? Probably not, but maybe they have and maybe I can say stuff that relates to them.
I'm going to try to transition to my own website here. I enjoyed the simpleness of Blogger, but I think it's time for something new. Maybe I'll have better quality stuff, maybe not. It's all new to me. So be on the lookout for new content.

Check out my new site at: www.supersuave.net

I'll also see if I can move my old stuff over as well.

Spring Break 2012

2012-03-20T14:18:00.000-05:00

Just a quick overview of what my spring break looked like this year:

- sleep

-food

-sleep

-Disc Golf

-food

-house work

did I mention the food? Mmmm….

I brought up my friend Zac to good old Kenosha for break. It was great finally getting to hang out with him a lot more over the week. We did much; watching several Disney movies and getting my basement up to 95.5% complete!!

I was so happy, it has taken me so long to get my family a nicely finished basement. It looks great in person! Plus this was before all of the stereo system was set up. What’s left? A row of tiles in front of the platform still needs to be put in, and there is floorboards that need to be chosen and installed. Otherwise…it’s finished :)

So yeah, back in school, fist day of real classes again. Here’s to keeping up with all of my work on this last stretch of my college career!!

The Unexpected

2012-02-03T08:14:00.000-06:00

So, this week seemed like it was going to be like any other week, but once wednesday night hit, everything changed. I was in the process of writing a research paper, talking to a friend of mine on Facebook giving him some information for another class. During that, he apologized saying that he was told he needed to go to the dorms. I said okay, not thinking anything of it. Then, I get a text from him saying that he think’s theres something up at the dorms and that I may want to head down there. I said that I might and to keep me posted. I looked at my email, and saw that my president had sent out an emergency e-mail to all of the students. Then I got the text from my friend,

Come.

Now.

Immediately, Zak, Miranda and I headed down to my trailblazer and quickly drove to the dorms. From the hill that was above the dorms, I could see the dorm parking lot, full, of not only cars but students. I drove down the alley behind the dorms, I don’t think that I’ve ever seen so many cars there. So I found a spot, we got out and were met by a teacher at the gate entrance. He told us that about 30 minutes ago, a fellow student had been found dead in his apartment by his roommates.

We were all shocked...

There was a lot of mourning that night, while I didn’t really know the guy, I still felt the loss. Our school is very much a family and I love that. We were there together supporting each other, giving our comfort to those who were really close to him. The night was full of despair, and confusion.

The next day our classes were cancelled, but we had a community time that morning. We were there again supporting each other, and praising God through worship, thanking Him for who he is and what he does. To ease my mind and a couple of other friends minds, we went out to a park and played some disc golf. Very stress relieving. Later that night was a David Crowder concert. The day proved to be quite the roller coaster of emotions.

What came to mind out of this time for me is, that this was real. In our school community, real life happens, and it hurts at times. This, hurt us the most. No one was prepared for anything like this. This was a reminder to all of us that we’re constantly at war with the enemy. Unfortunately, in war, casualties are inevitable. We lost a fellow warrior, one who was greatly loved by many in the community.

Keep my college family and his family in your prayers as we go through this.

There will always be this mark in our memories of attending this college. Of course, there will always be the grief, but in the end, this will be used in some way for God’s glory.

https://www.facebook.com/visiblemc/posts/265023516900084

January 30, 2012

2012-01-30T23:45:00.001-06:00

Can I just say....this semester is going to be absolutely ridiculous....I have so many projects that I'm going to be doing. I'm also in a class that we're going to read several books by C.S. Lewis (which I'm pretty excited for) I've heard he's a phenomenal writer, but never truly took the time to read anything. I'm currently reading "The Pilgrim's Regress." It's an allegorical story essentially going over Lewis' conversion to Christianity, so it's going to be an interesting read.

I've been reminded several times these past couple of weeks. It's just a simple thing:

God

good.

For that I am grateful, but at the same time it reminds me of how often I take things for granted. No matter how many times I say I want to, I always fail at thanking God for everything, even if it's just a simple prayer in the morning thanking him for a new day. I want to change that.

A New Year

2012-01-07T01:26:00.003-06:00

Wow, it's been almost a year since I've last posted anything...What has happened in the last year?

A lot.

SO just a fast forward I suppose. I worked, full time, all summer. That was great, really helped me save up some money for this school year.

I, again, have a new vehicle. Grandma really wanted me to get a truly reliable vehicle, not that my jeep wasn't trustworthy. I'm still waiting for the jeep to sell...5 months later. This has been extremely stressful to say the least.

I bought an iPad 2….possibly one of the best purchases that I’ve made in a while. I’ve used it so much at school. Coolest part? Our new soundboard (Yamaha M7CL) has an iPad app that allows users to control the board from pretty much anywhere in the building. It’s awesome.

First semester of school went great. My school has moved into it's downtown location, it's an awesome building. There's a lot of cool new things for the audio department that I really got to enjoy. I was the first audio intern at the new building and man did that ever keep me busy.

I’m struggling financially again, but that’s the life of a college student right? (Still haven’t had to resort to a Ramen noodle diet!)

I moved into a 2 bedroom apartment with Sebastian and Zak for the last year of college. It’s not the greatest of places, but it’s definitely not bad by any means. It fits our needs. Plus hey, we had free cable for the first semester, ha ha.

Here’s a fun part of my blog…okay it’s not really fun, but I need to get a few things off of my chest, that have truly been bothering me.

First, I miss my home a ridiculous amount. More specifically, I really miss my grandma. I don’t know what it’s been, but these past 2 years I’ve been so worried about my grandma. Not that there’s anything to worry about. I just feel like I need to do so much for her now. Being down in Memphis has left my family having to do any work that needs to be done at the house. Really, my grandma has done a ton of stuff, and I feel terrible being down here knowing about all the stuff that I could be doing.

I don’t know what it was about last semester, but I really felt like I missed something. Honestly, I felt spiritually stagnant. Not anybody’s fault but mine. So far, this year, I still feel the same and something needs to change. I need a good kick in the butt or something...

Something else. I’ve felt isolated and lonely(a lot like my other post Alone). Now I want to clarify this before I say anything, I have absolutely no problem with the reason why I feel this, but I do feel it nevertheless…So, to the point, all of my good friends have found significant others(again, I’m happy for them). This means, I’m by myself a ton. That or, if the guys are at my apartment, they’re in their rooms with their girlfriends watching tv or just talking. I’m in the living room, on the computer/watching tv(writing this very post), practically everyday, by myself. We do hang out every once in a while, but it’s honestly taking a bit of a toll on me. I don’t want to say that I’m depressed, but I do feel that way at times. Am I wrong for feeling this way? I don’t think so, but that’s just the way I feel.

So yeah, good times right? Looking forward to what this year has in store for me. I’ve finally gotten some software for my mac for blogging, so perhaps there will be more of this. I at least hope to start getting some stuff going for it. We shall see tho right?

TLDR?
Good and busy summer. New car(again), new apartment, college student finances(or lack there of), things I needed to get off my chest.

Trying out a new layout...like it? I kinda do...

It's Been A While

2011-01-18T22:29:00.006-06:00

So I'm just gonna give up on saying that I'm gonna do a better job at blogging! It's just not gonna happen!

Any way, boy, it's been a while.

School has been quite busy to say the least. I'm still doing my internship, which I love. On top of that, I'm taking a bigger load of classes than last year. Keeping me up late, doing projects on the weekends. Just plain ol' busy.

One of my classes we're doing a full on Album production. We're recording my school's Presidents band. He's definitely got some interesting music, and the project is coming along as expected. Minus the ridiculous amount of hours that we've been putting into it, it's been a great experience.

So I've definitely found an extreme downside of not living on campus. I'm rather lonely. I also feel like I just don't fit in with the students any more. Sure I love talking to my family back home pretty much every day, but that's not the same as hanging out with people. I'm not saying that this is anybody's fault by any means. Just a result of me living by myself.

School is actually wrapping up in the next couple of weeks, which is quite exciting and going to be a huge relief. Downside? I still have several big projects to knock out, but they shall get finished! I just can't believe that next year is my last year of college...ridiculous.

I finally figured out a couple of weeks ago that I'm actually going back home for the summer. From what I can tell, I have a job going back home, so that's a big plus. I'm happy that I get to spend it with my family, I've really discovered that I'm a huge family person so I'm thrilled about going home. Don't have a ton of plans, mainly working, hopefully going to find out if my boat actually will float and run. Hang out with a couple of friends. That's really about it.

I suppose that's it for now, heading to Ardent Studios in a couple of hours to make up a missed session. Gonna be a good time.

SOS Service Over Self

2010-09-12T22:13:00.003-05:00

This weekend, I had to do an outreach event for my school. I chose to do something called SOS (Service Over Self) It's a missions organization focused on Memphis that renovates peoples homes that can't afford to do it themselves. So me and two other guys from the school spent the weekend working on a wonderful lady's home. We pretty much finished remodeling her kitchen, and almost finished her bathroom. There was a lot of work to get done in such a short amount of time, but it was a huge improvement from how it was originally. This weekend really made me appreciate the house I live in right now, and my home back in Kenosha. I have been truly blessed and taken it for granted way too often.

Vacation

2010-07-19T12:11:00.006-05:00

Man, my summer vacation has just flown by!
This past weekend Tony, Adam and I went camping up in the Dells, and boy was that a trip. After much going back and forth, we decided on a weekend, and the place that we were going to stay at. We were planning on taking Adam's trailer, but the tires had dry rot, so we decided on tenting it. Finally Friday came and we had everything packed into my jeep. We take off around when we wanted to, and get onto the interstate. We had my bike up on the roof, with a blanket that Adam's dad had us put on the roof to keep it from getting scratched up. Well, driving at 65-70mph seemed to be impossible, that blanket was acting like a parachute and causing a ton of drag...We made it up to Milwaukee, we were in the left lane, then out of no where, my jeep makes a terrible grinding noise. Pushing on the gas pedal did absolutely nothing, and there was a bad burning smell. Thank God that happened right by an exit, we made it right where the exit split off. I couldn't get the Jeep into park, so I threw the transmission and transfer case into neutral and shut it off, then put it into park. My heart sunk, I just bought this vehicle and it decides to die, NOW? So Tony, Adam and I get out and pop the hood no steam, no nothing...look underneath, nothing. I honestly don't have a clue what happened. We prayed over the Jeep asking God for help. We closed the hood, hopped in the Jeep, started it. No burning smell, no grinding, I got it into gear, and took that exit to let it cool down. We found a parking lot, and immediately took that blanket off. After sitting for a minute or two, the Jeep finally cooled down. We decided to continue our drive up to go camping. Taking that blanket off made a HUGE difference. Only, my overdrive gear wasn't kicking in, so I mentioned it out loud. A few seconds later, it shifted up to that final gear. We made it safely up to our destination. The Jeep ran as if nothing ever happened to it the entire weekend and is still running just fine. God was definitely with us on that trip. Prayer does work, that was one of my first experiences of God immediately responding, and I must say it was incredible.

Suvee

School's out

2010-05-15T02:16:00.005-05:00

They've always said that time flies when you get older, and wow...did this school year just

disappear. I've been home for 2 days now. Visible was an absolutely awesome experience. I gained friends, and great relationships with them. I became someone's main wingman, and was the one to have snappy comebacks, and comments in the audio department. My roommates Craig and Sebastian were awesome, and I really enjoyed hanging out with them this school year. Zac "Cheesecake" Goraczewski became one of my best friends, and I thoroughly enjoyed spending time hanging out with him.

So yeah, awesome school year, definitely had it's high's and it's lows. Main highs: I managed a 3.84 gpa for the school year, while working 20-30hrs/week. It was amazing how I managed to never be late to any classes, and never hand in a single assignment late the whole year. God was gracious to me and gave me the strength to get everything finished.

My two main lows: first, my truck was broken into, that wasn't too bad of a fix. My second low...I lost my truck to the flooding that happened in Tennessee 2 weeks ago. I drove down south with a $3,500 truck that I paid

for completely, and came back with a $81 U-Haul trailer being pulled by Zak's truck. Now while that may be bad, there's something miraculous behind it. I got insurance only 5 days before this happened. I was going to just do liability on it, but my Dad decided to just do full coverage. I will be getting more money back for the truck than what I paid for it. Talk about God making sure everything will be alright! Now I'm looking for a new vehicle, and wondering how I'm going to be getting around town, but down deep, I'm gracious for God's provision.

Here's a picture of my truck in the flooding, water up to it's headlights:

That's what I learned this year. God has, and will always provide for me. I hit a few financial rough patches, but God just proved time and time again just how much bigger he is than my little problems. I've become more faithful when it comes to my finances, and I just trust that God will, somehow, provide for any of my needs. Not necessarily just financially, but for a lot of things.

Back to the Grind

2010-03-22T22:49:00.007-05:00

Well, I can't believe it's already nearing the end of March. It's pretty ridiculous actually. Today was my first day back at school from a wonderful spring break. On the 12th, Zak and I took an adventure to good old Indianola, IA to visit Jon. After about 10.5 hours we made the long trek from Memphis. We were greeted by everybody in the kitchen and not a moment too soon, Jon broke out the wonderful sparkling grape juice. The weekend was comprised of food, stupid youtube videos, food, movie, food, disc golf, jamming and I think some more food. All I know is I miss the wonderful Jon, and Anthony. After visiting Jon's we headed back home. Not a whole lot has changed there, I finally started tiling our basement. It's been 7 months since the flooding and nothing had been done because of me being gone. This time everything I needed was there so I wasted no time and almost finished half the work that needed to be done. It's looking good if I may say so. I spent some quality time with my family and eating out a ton. I miss them greatly...

Well, I'm back at school now, and actually still working at Wendy's, I've been waiting to be kicked out by now but it hasn't happened, thank God. Today I was completely stressed out because of the days that I had to ask off for next month. Surprisingly, my manager asked me if I needed any days off, so I presented her my list, and she marked down all that I needed. Sooo freaking relieving...

Time is flying by way to fast for me, I only have around 50 days till I head home for the summer, I'll be 20 in 10 days, it's too fast!!

Well, that's a bit where I'm at right now, I'll try to be better at this.

Work and Such

2010-01-30T03:03:00.003-06:00

Man, time just keeps flying by and it's getting to be a bit ridiculous. I've been at Visible for 6 months now, a half a year...I love the school a lot, and have been enjoying all the classes, the rest of the audio guys, and my room mates. Work, up to a month ago hasn't been bad. Recently we got two new general managers. One of them is responsible for scheduling which has become a nightmare. She began scheduling me at 4, but I couldn't get to work until 5 every weekday, so I finally got that straightened out. Then on top of that, she scheduled me on a Sunday. When I applied for the job, I put that I couldn't work on Sundays (church and homework to do) so I talked to her and questioned why I needed off. I told her and explained that it's on my application and that I have not worked Sundays for 5 months. Well, I had to work that Sunday, then the following week...scheduled Sunday...I had to find someone to replace me....Then the following week....scheduled Sunday...this time I had to make an unexpected trip home, but still had to find someone to cover me. Guess what, this week, I'm scheduled to work Sunday...I'm not showing up. I've told this woman multiple times, and even wrote down several times, I cannot work on Sundays, what's so hard about that? I've been looking around for different jobs, I'm getting too stressed over there, and starting to have problems with the other managers. I know that I'm one of their best employees and don't give any trouble, but apparently that's not good enough.

Thanksgiving break (a bit late)

2009-12-27T17:41:00.004-06:00

Wow, it's been a while since I've blogged. I'll tell you what though, I have been quite busy lately. So I'll start out with Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving break was a very hectic break, I was on the constant go for a couple of reasons. First reason, my 3 month old external hard drive crashed and I lost all of my pictures and music. Not happy. Over break I was planning on working on a school project that I had to record everything but vocals to compose a song. Well, I went to record and my laptop then decided to crash. So I drove over 3 hours south and north to Apple stores trying to get it fixed, but I was left with no laptop over break. So I had to get it taken care of down in Memphis, and I had to come up with an entire song in one week, and I also had a song to mix in less than a week. Thanksgiving was, of course, filling, unfortunately I didn't really get to enjoy the break. I'll post on Christmas break when I get back to Memphis.

Update

2009-10-09T00:10:00.002-05:00

Man, it's been a little while since I've last blogged. School has been keeping me quite busy lately. I'm learning a ton. Work also adds to the load. I'm keeping up with all of my homework, but doing a horrible job getting to bed on time. On Monday Tuesday and Thursday, I have rather long days, and I'm sure it's obvious that I'm not getting enough sleep. Work hasn't been helping with that, especially since I need to stay up afterwards to do my homework. Work has been alright, nothing too special, I've been working in the kitchen area more than the cashier areas, which I am not too thrilled about. It's keeping a steady income tho, and I need that right now.

There have been some hard times already being down here. I found out about a week or 2 ago that my kinship scholarship ran out of funds before they got to me, so that put me $2,500 behind from what I thought I'd have. Thank God, today I found out that my case worker has been digging around as much as she could to find funds, and she's found $1,332 that's coming to me! I may still be $1,200 short but God has already provided for more than half of what I was missing, and I have faith that he will provide for the other half.

Visible

2009-08-05T09:53:00.003-05:00

So I've been at Visible for a couple of days now, and kind of feel like I've been here for a while already, and I still haven't even unpacked everything! The dorms here are, as Zak puts it "SICK! with a capital SICK!" There's 4 people to a dorm, but it's really not that bad. Bedrooms have 2 bunks, both me and Zak are on the upper beds. The kitchens are fully equipped, which is just awesome, leaves us a lot of options for cooking. Altho it's mainly been hotdogs and frozen bulk

So yeah, met both of my room mates, they're both nice. They're gonna be entertaining for sure. One's in my major, and the other is into WOW (world of warcraft) like crazy.

So the real complaint....it's freaking hot down here! It's okay tho because our dorm is at like 68 and the school is also air conditioned.

We've visited Beale Street a couple of times so far, pretty cool place. I've had a couple of days of orientation, and those haven't been terribly exciting. I'm not starting school until the 24th, so I'm gonna be loafing around and sleeping for about another week :)

The other day I got my new 13" MacBook Pro...which is just phenomenal!! The wireless at our dorms are finally back online today so I'm not completely bored today. I have an interview today with Zak over at CSC which is an events security type thing. (bag checks and wanding and other things) hopefully that comes through for both of us, kind of need a job down here. Also working on getting a job at a church, hoping that they'll be able to pay the students this year!!

Keep me in your prayers as I continue on this new adventure, and learning about what the real world is.

Be Visible

2009-07-29T21:24:00.002-05:00

Today was one of the most stressful, yet most exciting days I've had in a long time. Today I realized, Visible was not happening for me. I just couldn't afford it, and I wasn't getting any other help financially. It wasn't until my g-ma said something about trying a semester and seeing if I get any other scholarships while there. It was then that it hit me...take less credit hours!!! At Visible they have students take 20+ credit hours to finish the school in 3 years instead of 4 years. Since I'm transferring, I would've been there for only 2 years at 20+ credits, but I realized I could drop down to around 12 hours and stay for 3 years there, and still have my kinship scholarship, and have school paid for.
I'm hoping that this is what God wants for me, I know I want to go there. A way has been made for me to attend the school, and I'm hoping this was provided by God. I would've never thought of dropping hours if G-ma had not said anything about trying a semester.
Pray for me as I take my first steps into the real world. Away from my family, providing for my own self. I'm praying that this will be a challenge for me to grow closer to God, something I haven't been doing to well this past year. I'm hoping to get out of my shell and become a bit more sociable. I will be leaving in 10 days, and I know they'll fly by fast. I need to buy somethings to be ready. I'm ready to Be Visible.

Oh Deer

2009-07-09T23:41:00.004-05:00

Ahh, it's been an interesting week. Rosemary and Sarah headed to Red Lake, MN for a missions trip for the week. So me and G-ma have been at the house by ourselves for the week. Yesterday we found out that our pool is no longer usable, after we just filled it back up. So...we just drained out half of the pool. Today, me and g-ma headed up towards the Dells to go see my uncles property and to clean up some brush. After a few hours, we headed back to our motel in the Dells. About 15 minutes into our drive back to the motel, I hear a THUD, and my truck shook a bit. Right when I heard the thud, I looked immediately to the left and saw a deers face appear and disappear at my window. I needed to pull off the road, so I turned down a street to try to calm down and see the damage done to my truck. Being in the dark, I had to wait till we got to the motel parking lot. At the motel, I saw the damage, it's a good amount. I saw under my window, streaks where the head dragged along my truck, and where the body hit my truck. The body hit just after where my truck cab ends, and around the gas cap(in the black circle of the pic). So yeah, I'm not thrilled about that at all...

Recap

2009-07-06T11:13:00.003-05:00

It's been a little while since I've last blogged. So here's a recap.

I'm still working 8hrs/week at Beckart, and got the mowing job back at church for some extra income.

I spent a week with the Gerlach's up at Eagle River and really enjoyed that. Spent time together, did a lot of fishing, did the most bike riding I've done in a couple of years. Became jealous of the 28" Walleye that my aunt Terry caught on the last day that we were there. Returning from Eagle River, we were told that Kenosha got hit pretty bad by water...and boy was there a lot. We made it in town around 11p.m. and I decided to stay the night at the Gerlach's house to help move stuff off of the basement floor, they, luckily, did not get flooded. I went home the following morning to a dry house, all the water in our backyard had disappeared, we made it!! However, the next day, Rosemary went downstairs to have her socks soaked by water...we didn't make it. All of our flooring was ruined, along with some furniture, and 16" of drywall in some areas. So we vacuumed what we could with a steamvac, but in the end we had to tear it all out. Bad thing...me and Rosemary had to leave at 5:30 in the morning to head to Visible School down in Memphis (10 hour drive) and we were working off of 4 hours of sleep. We made it into Memphis around 4p.m. tired, and uncomfortably hot at 101 degrees!! Thank God everywhere we went there was A.C. I had my audition and interview the following day, and am looking forward to hopefully going there. They bought new dorms, which are studio apartments with full kitchens and baths!! The audio program I'm hoping to enroll in sounds really cool, and I should learn a lot of stuff there. On July 1st I got my acceptance letter from the school and am waiting on financial aid to see if I can go there.

During that week, me and Dan (the worship pastor) redid the moldy drywall downstairs and it's ready to be primed and painted!

For the 4th, me and g-ma spent time with the Gerlach's had a delicious lunch, played some ladder ball and talked with each other for a little bit. After that, me and g-ma headed to see Up, and that was a fantastic movie, it was only us and another family in that theater.

Yesterday, I spent a majority of my day helping tear apart some of the stage in the Sanctuary, and rewire some of the sound equipment. We're hoping to have electrical outlets and sound inputs built into the stage...finally!! After 5 hours of working, we called it a day and headed to Luigi's for a delicious pizza dinner, laughing with each other and figuring out a material list for what is needed to finish the project. I dunno if I'll be helping with that later today or not. But it should be awesome finished!

So yeah that's where I'm at, me and G-ma are home alone for the week(quite peaceful and quiet). Rosemary and Sarah are up at Red Lake, MN on a missions trip. I guess that's it, I'm outta here,

Alone

2009-05-30T01:37:00.006-05:00

I don't know what's going on, but lately, I've been feeling extremely isolated and alone. I expected that as soon as I went into college, I wasn't going to be able to hang out with my friends as much. But come on, I have more friends than those who went away from college, but I feel so left out. I'm not really invited to anything any more, I'm left out of activities that I would love to join, my friends just seem to have forgotten me or something. Yeah I'm in college, but I'm also the only one who stayed in Kenosha the entire school year. Even Rosemary and Sarah who are actively involved with the youth don't even tell me what's going on, I didn't even know about the last Gathering until the day of....what's happening here? I don't feel like I've isolated myself, I want to do things but I'm obviously easily forgotten here. Sometimes I wonder if I'd be missed if I moved for college. Would I be missed because I was fun to be with, or only because I do stuff for people? So at the end, I don't really have a social life any more, my spiritual life isn't growing as much as I would like...I'm just not getting fed. I was attending youth group at Crossway with Adam, but he seems to have dropped out of that. It's a fantastic group, wonderful people, I just don't want to be by myself.
Sorry if this seems self-centered, but I needed to let this out.

First Year of College

2009-05-12T16:50:00.003-05:00

Ahh, it's finally here. Summer! So, my first year of college is over with, how was the experience? I rather enjoyed it, the schedules I had were good, and I loved how often class ended before it should. Main complaint, all the swearing that goes on, even in the classroom with the professors. Now, I have to worry about next year. I'm filling out the application for Visible School, Pensacola Christian College, and UW Whitewater. I would prefer not going to a public school, but I still have to worry about my financial situation. I'm still planning on pursuing Multimedia Production or being a Worship Pastor. There's a lot of praying and thinking that has to go into my decision. While PCC is a fantastic school, and extremely low tuition, I really don't want to travel that far away from home and be isolated. If it's what God wants, I'll follow Him. Visible is the dream college for me and really hope that God would provide a way for me to go there, it offers both things that I would like to do, but once again if it's not God's will, I'm willing to follow Him wherever he leads me.

For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.
Jeremiah 29:11

What to do?

2009-04-19T21:26:00.003-05:00

As I said in my last blog, I am sitting in a very bad spot. I need to figure out where I'm going for school next year...and quickly...Going into high school, I didn't really know what I wanted to do later on in life, but towards the end, Electrical engineering was what I wanted to do. Today however, I'm not sure that's what I should get into. Sure I'm great with electrical stuff, and have a curiosity for stuff like that, but I don't know about that any more. I'm also really into music and playing instruments and would love to do something with that for a career, like a worship pastor. I also love photography and filming / editing videos. All of these careers...not offered at Parkside. If I go to any private school, or any school out of Wisconsin, I lose all of my scholarships...I'm taking a Computer Science class and find it interesting, but I don't want to spend the rest of my life sitting in front of a computer screen. I'm where I am for a reason. I've been given more than enough money to have a free ride at Parkside for four years, but they don't offer anything that I want to do for a career.
Now I'm being constantly pressed on for what I want to do for a career by my family, but they don't seem to grasp the concept that anything I want to do will cause me to lose all of my scholarships. I'm being accused that I don't appreciate my scholarships...I worked my tail off for 4 freaking years to graduate with honors and to keep a 3.8/4.0 GPA during high school. I don't know where they can get off saying that I don't appreciate my scholarships when I did so much to earn them in the first place...Today I was even told that I might as well drop out and just get a full time job, what the heck?!?!
I'm in a bad spot and really don't know what to do any more. I'm just really down because I'm not getting any support over here and I feel like I should just give up and drop out. I know that I shouldn't but the way that things are going for me here it's not looking good....
I know that I need to be praying, but keep me in your prayers too. I'd greatly appreciate it.
~Suave

School

2009-03-23T21:39:00.002-05:00

My first year of college is a little under 2 months away from being over, and it's been pretty good. I adjusted fairly well to my new schedule, and how the professors and students interact. I'm sitting in a tight spot now though. I want to decide what I want to do in college before the end of the school year. I have been looking at a school called Visible School about a half hour away from Memphis Tennessee. It's a distance, 10hrs away from here. My main problem, the money. The school costs $19,200 per year. As of now, if I was to stay at Parkside, I would have a free ride. Both of my scholarships (I have about $30,000 over 4 years) are only valid in Wisconsin, at a public school. Well...Visible is in Tennessee, and it's a private school, meaning that I would loose all of that money....It's a tough decision, I would really like to get into either their Media Production Ministry track(filming), or their Modern Music Ministry track (worship pastor type thing). I need to do some praying about this, and would appreciate it if you'd pray for me too. I need guidance, I need to figure out where God is leading me, and what I need to do to follow Him.
~Suave~

Spring Break

2009-03-23T20:56:00.002-05:00

So last week was my spring break, and boy did it ever fly past. Before I knew it, I'm back in school today, going back into my normal routine until the end of my first year in college.
Last week on Friday and Sunday, me and David J put together a small video to begin Matt's middle school youth group lesson. I think it turned out pretty good. On Monday, I worked in the morning and then joined Pastor Leigh, Megin T, and Shannon in a fun adventure of keeping Kenosha beautiful. I picked up over 750 cigarette butts by the parking lot at Tremper, ridiculous. Tuesday I really didn't do anything, I did purchase a nice 10" table saw to begin our projects in the house. On Wednesday, I began cutting some wood to get ready for making a plate rack above the kitchen sink in our house. Later on in the afternoon, I helped Rosemary lead the TNT boys and girls in some music, we sang God of Wonders and He Was There (they need to yell on that one!). Later that night, I found out that Tony had made it to town, so I went over and visited for a while. On Thursday, I took Tony with me to the DMV to get my license renewed, and then we headed out to Sam's Club (one of my favorite stores now). From there we went to Parkside to see if we could get a few holes of Disc Golf in, but sadly...the baskets weren't out yet. After that, we went back to his house and just hung out.
Friday to Sunday was just horrible, several years ago g-ma bought a bathroom vent/fan , and it had never been put in. So, my uncle Gary decided to do it on Friday....the job just got longer and harder to do....altho, it's somewhat worth it. We finally finished the job around 4ish on Sunday. For the first time, I got to go into our attic, and go onto our roof, nothing exciting, but having lived here for 14 years it was cool. Tony came over, and we headed over to Menards to say hi to Adam, and then we went to Target to look for a new keyboard. From there we joined the rest of my family up in Racine at Home Depot, headed over to Sams Club, and ate a delicious, cheap hotdog combo(under $9.50 for 5 people!). After the delicious meal, we went to Target and Walmart where me and Tony decided that we were professional Parkours (free-style walkers) That was fun. After that, we went home, Tony to his, and I began to do some homework...finally. Only to find out that I screwed myself over by not doing any over break, this is not going to be a forgiving week.....So yeah, break was okay, it would've been way better if any of my friends actually shared my break, I was right inbetween everyone, kind of annoying, oh well.