A quick update

Went in to the airport for a 4-hour ground session with my instructor today. Also found out I'm going to be having a very full day tomorrow. The plan is to go in at 8, ground work with Steve (my instructor) until 11. Then, at 11, I'm going to be taking the written test for the Instrument rating. Basically, this is a 60-question test that I have 2.5 hours for. However, I'm only planning on taking a maximum of 2 hours, since I'm flying at 1 until 3. So, a very full day. If anyone sees this before tomorrow, I would really appreciate prayer that everything would go well. :)

Well, I should put up a non-test post...

So I will. There won't be a ton of time for an update, but I will be doing some.

Aviation has been taking up most of my life recently. I'm working on finishing up my Instrument Rating, which effectively allows me to fly in clouds/reduced visibility. Since having this rating would really make my flying a lot more useful for transportation, I'm looking forward to getting it. I'm also looking forward to getting done simply because the large amounts of study can be over. :D

Since I'm hopefully going to be taking the written test this week, I've been studying a ton for it. I recently bought a book that has approximately 400 pages of FAA test questions. It's interesting to go through it. Hopefully, it's also useful.

In the last month, I've learned a ton about flying. Working with an experienced pilot as my instructor is great, simply because he has so much time working in the system. I'm able to learn so much from him. About two weeks ago, for example, I got my first experience flying in IMC, instrument meteorological conditions. Otherwise, in this case, known as clouds. It was so much fun! Unfortunately, we were only able to stay in them about a half hour, since we started picking up a light amount of ice. When that starts happening, you really need to skedaddle outa there. Ice buildup can increase your drag and decrease your lift faster than you might think possible. The amount of ice we were picking up would have taken quite a while to do that, but, still, discretion is the better part of valor.

So, since that's it for the aviation, lemme bring you up to speed with Scouts. Not sure if I've mentioned this on my blog or not, but, since I turned 18 in January, I've been continuing to be active, right now with three different units. I'm officially an Assistant Cubmaster with Cub Scout Pack 51 here in Belle Center. Really enjoying it, too. I'm unofficially functioning like an Assistant Scoutmaster for my troop, but not officially. I am a registered Merit Badge counselor for a few things, though.

The new big thing with Scouts is that I've signed up with a new unit here in Logan County. I've joined what's called a Venture Crew. Basically, Venturing is a program for a little bit older youth, put on by BSA, designed to give teens a safe and fun environment to make new friends while trying out new outdoor adventures. It's for young men and young women ages 14-20. Since I'm leaving for college in August, I'm not going to be able to be active for long. However, since I have a lot of experience with Scouts in general, I joined up to be able to help get the crew started. So far, it's been plenty of fun, especially our first trip. It consisted of a 12-mile bike trip along a designated bike trail. Other than others being a little bit slower than I normally ride (14-16 MPH) it was great fun. The slowness didn't really bother me, but I teased a few people about it anyway. They teased back about something else, so we were even. :D

About the only other big exciting thing that happened recently is that I've been accepted to go this summer to a program called TFY. It stands for Theological Foundations for Youth. Basically, it's a 19-day program put on by our denomination at our seminary in Pittsburgh. During this program, everyone who goes will learn massive amounts about systematic theology, apologetics, evangelism, church history, etc. Effectively, it's a mini crash course in seminary. :D I'm looking forward to it a ton.

I believe that's about it for now. I'll do my best to remember to update more often. Instead of letting that be an empty promise/threat (however you want to take it), I'll attempt to fulfill it this time.

Testing Post

I’m sorry for no posts for such a long period of time.  Most of that time has been spent working on flying or accounting.  Right now I’m taking a quick try at a new program that should help with making the posting take less time.  I decided to try out Windows Live Writer, which means I can do all the formatting and everything like that on here, and when I’m done, it simply loads everything up.  We’ll see.  Let’s put up some random picture.

OK.  Hope that worked.  I hope to put up a little more substantial post later on.  Until then, e-ya later!

Job 1:21

I will put up more as a post in the next few days, since I've had several people asking me to. However, in the meantime, I really want you to see a video I just saw. A good friend sent it to me. Notice the title of the post here...

A Post

For starters, the Mortons tagged me in a posting game. You have to go to your pictures folder, 5th file, 5th picture, blog about it, and tag 5 more people. The only problem with that is that I don't really have 5 friends that actively blog... I'll do the best I can. :D

This is the small flower garden by our front porch. I took this in early April 2007. That day was something along the lines of 75 degrees. 24 hours later, the temperature was around 35. The flowers were nice until then. Oh well. :)

The five people I will tag... Nathaniel, Josh, Sean, Milkdud (who probably won't do it anytime soon :P), and *drum roll* Mortons. Backtagging isn't against the rules! :D

Well, of late, I've been doing a good bit. Schoolwork has been taking a bit of my time. I recently finished the second chapter of the second college course. So far, this course has been a little more challenging than the last one, which isn't surprising. However, thankfully, I've been able to keep up with the work. The grades are staying quite satisfactory. :)

I've started a weekly job here in town. I'm cleaning the local barber shop every Thursday. I dust, clean the bathroom, sweep, and mop. It isn't too difficult and provides a little bit of income. :)

We had a lot of snow lately. Early this week, Mom and Dad and I went out to Pennsylvania to pick up Nathaniel. We stayed at Grandpa's house overnight, and got up early the next morning to head up to Cleveland for a couple checkups for Nathaniel. Thankfully, so far, it seems as if everything is continuing to heal right along schedule. His restrictions have been removed (no bending at the waist, no lifting more than 10 lbs.) So, we got him back to Geneva, then started on our way home.

We made it about 100 miles. It was dark, the roads were starting to have snow drift on them, and the wind was picking up. So, we stopped, booked a cheap (but generally clean, except for the bathtup) motel room, ate a delicious supper at Bob Evan's, headed back to the room, watched a program on the Weather Channel called "Why I Love Winter", which we weren't right then, and then drifted off to sleep. Don't try to diagram that sentence. When we got up in the morning, the car had 4-6 inches of snow on it, and there was tons in the parking lot.

I got out and brushed most of the snow off, and scraped the small amount of ice off the windshield and windows. Mom came out and helped with a bunch of it. Just as we finished, an older couple from Ontario came out of their room and the husband asked if he could borrow our brush to get the snow off a door of their car to get out their brush. I offered to do the door for him, and he said okay. Well, he and Dad got talking, so Mom and I hurried up and did the entire car. He was pleasantly surprised when he turned around after finishing talking with Dad and found his car about ready to go. :)

We finally made it the rest of the 115 miles. We holed up in a McDonald's for breakfast. stuck around in there until nearly lunchtime, then struggled about 15 miles down the road (in about 20-25 minutes) and stopped for lunch. The place we stopped for lunch had free Wi-Fi, so, using my laptop here, we tracked the weather. Since the back end of the storm wasn't far away, Mom and Dad decided to simply wait until the snow was past us to leave. After it passed us, we got going, and had a relatively uneventful trip home.

Since there was so much snow, there were large piles. Well, large piles of snow, young neighbor kids, and me mix pretty well. :D Several youngsters from across the street came across and wanted to have some fun. So, I made a tunnel. Unfortunately, even though they loved the tunnel, they wanted it bigger. So, I tried. It collapsed. So, I built a little snow cave. Later on, I built them a bigger and better tunnel across the street at their house. I do have some pictures.

I love this look.

Everyone smiling.

A different angle.

And one is starting to move.

The tunnel was right in there... you may be able to see some of it. However, most of what you can see is the cave.

Another tentative grin.

I think she likes it.

Another view.

I know he likes it. :D

And she's in.

And still in.

She makes a great subject. Too bad I didn't quite have the focus right.

And yours truly.

That's it for now. I had a big day today with a scout event, but it's getting late. So, I will put that in the next post. Hope everyone has a blessed Sabbath day tomorrow!

Oh my. I really have to remember to post more often.

As is, unfortunately, often the case, I've been thinking a lot about posting and not doing it. So, here's the update.

Since my last post, I have (according to official standards) become an adult. I am now 18 and can legally do a lot more stuff on my own... such as buy ammunition. :D I haven't actually bought any yet but I'll get around to it eventually. :P Other than signing up for an adult library card at the Belle Center Library and getting out an R-rated miniseries (rated R for realistic war violence), I really haven't done anything much with my age. Well, I did register for Selective Service, but, God willing, that won't come into play at any point. The other big thing is that Mom and Dad are getting me a new Bible for my birthday. It's been ordered but not arrived yet. I'm really looking forward to it, since it's an NKJV (which I like a lot) and a study Bible, so there's a lot of other resources in there. :)

I've started back into school again. As before, I'm only doing one class with Clark State Community College. Thankfully, I can do everything online. That includes the homework, discussion questions, and even the quizzes. I just finished up everything for the first chapter today, and ended up doing quite well on it overall. :)

My time has been taken up some lately with looking around for a part-time job. My job at the airport wasn't available starting around the beginning of December, mainly because there simply isn't quite as much to do in the winter. So, I've been looking around for something. Unfortunately, there really isn't a ton around here for an 18-year-old guy that doesn't have any major technical skills and can only do part-time work. I would highly appreciate prayer that something would turn up soon! Until something does, I'm simply looking around and trusting God to provide.

Speaking of Him, I had the privilege of attending the presbytery Winter Conference from December 29-January 1. The conference was... well, I can't totally explain it. It was incredible. (Just about) everything there was the best I had ever had it for WC. Since this was my 5th year, it was my last, and I sure went out with a bang. Gordon Keddie, the pastor of the Southside Indianapolis, Indiana, RP Church, was the speaker. He gave four messages on Ecclesiastes. They were quite useful. It's not a book of the Bible that I'm very familiar with (or was), but it's one, like all the others, that is INCREDIBLY useful.

The one verse that particularly struck me was 11:1. "Cast your bread upon the waters, For you will find it after many days." The author of Ecclesiastes is saying here that we must have complete and total trust in God to work in our lives. We have to give our all to Him, and simply trust Him to keep us. That struck me, as a great-aunt of mine would say, right between the nose. I'm worrying too much and trying to do too much by myself, instead of giving it to God. Since WC, I've been trying to work on that a bunch. Spending more time with Him every day in His Word and prayer has also been a big emphasis. I learned so much about God and His Word there at WC. The time spent with about 10 other guys my age and a counselor, discussing the messages and other edifying topics helped tremendously. I came away from the conference feeling that I had matured a year spiritually. It was great. Thankfully, many of my other friends had the same experience, more or less. :)

One of the biggest parts that was a blessing was the chance to, with three other guys, witness to a young man on the last night. Please be praying for him, that he would come to Christ!

I haven't been doing much of any flying lately. Due to weather, lack of income, and being busy doing other things, it's kind of fallen by the wayside for now. Hopefully, that will be "taking off" again soon.

Thankfully, we're all staying warm. The weather is the coldest it's been around here since 1994. Last night, in north-central Ohio, a town got down to -28 Fahrenheit. That's actual temp. We had some snow, but it was light and fluffy enough that I cleared most of the sidewalks with the gas leafblower. THAT was fun! :D

Nathaniel is continuing to heal up very well. So far, there have been almost NO side effects/complications. He's to have the six-week checkup on the 27th.. I think. It's sometime around there. Hopefully, at that point, the only restrictions he has (no carrying anything over 10 pounds and no bending at the waist) will be lifted. The sutures were taken out successfully by our family doctor ten days after the surgery, and things seem to be healing up perfectly there. :)

I think that's about it for now. I really need to get to bed soon, so I'll do this, change the music, then head upstairs to bed. Good night everybody!

Lots of news

To start with, as you have most likely seen on Nathaniel's blog, the surgery went really well. It was, by all preliminary indications, very successful. The doctors are hopeful that the surgery has taken care of all the epilepsy problems. It's quite possible that, after a few months, he'll be totally off the anti-seizure medication. Even if that doesn't turn out to be the case, it will almost certainly work to take a very low level of the medicine, a much lower dosage than what he's been on for a while.

Our entire experience up at the Cleveland Clinic was wonderful. The people there were simply amazing. Everyone seemed to be smiling all the time... everyone was willing to help you if you were lost or needed anything at all. It was great.

So, that's it for Cleveland. Let's update everyone (if anybody still reads this) on some other stuff.

I'm down near Kingston, OH, between Circleville and Chillicothe. It's south of Columbus, OH. The reason I'm down here is that I'm at my uncle and aunt's house for Christmas. Because of a few schedule conflicts, the big Christmas dinner and gift exchange is later today.

Our immediate family already gave each other stuff. So, what I've gotten so far is a Land's End microfleece jacket/shirt that is sooooooooo nice. It's a 1/4 zip that so far, I've worn about the whole time since I unwrapped it. I also got a nice book, and a Leatherman Micra multitool. The latter is a small thing... about 2 inches long and 1/2 inch wide. It has about 10 different tools in it. It's reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeally nice. :D

So, that's my update for now. I'm going to a presbytery high-schoolers' winter conference next Monday, and getting back on Thursday. There probably won't be any more posts until after that. Hope everyone had a great Christmas!