Let another year begin!

Today was Northwest Missouri State's first day of classes. Campus was so busy today. It seemed like there was a lot more people on campus than I remember. This morning I had an 8 a.m. class that is going to be very challenging so I will have to be well rested for that class. My only other class was Intro to Literature at 2 p.m. Two of my roommates are randomly in the class with me. We didn't even realize it until we were talking about our classes Sunday evening. Tomorrow I work at noon and then I have Tax accounting at 2 p.m. Also, tomorrow night I  have a night class. I have mixed emotions on night classes. While I'm sitting in class I wonder why I signed up for the class, but it is so nice only going to a class once a week.

I still love living in the house so far. We have been cooking family meals together at night and everyone contributes something. Also, as I am typing this email I am sitting on the deck that is attached to my room. I love being able to sit outside on my computer and get fresh air while listening to the crickets chirp. I'm looking forward to this year and I hope everything goes well!

Big Blue!

Some of my readers are probably very curious about the house I am living in. We nicknamed our house Big Blue when we first figured out we would be living here. This was a big transition from the dorms, but I love living in the house so far. I have purchased a bike and have been riding back and forth from campus. So far, I have not driven to campus. I live with three other guys named Brady, Matt, and David. Brady was my roommate freshman year. We were randomly placed together and we have become best friends since that time. David was our neighbor freshman year in the dorms and we hung out with him all the time and we are now the three amigos. Matt transferred to Northwest his sophomore year. He is from Brady's home town and he fit right in with all of our friends. Here are some photos of Big Blue! Enjoy!

The Living Room

The Dining Room

Dave and I in front of Big Blue

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The Kitchen

Back to work

Today I have training for my student mentor job. Last year this training was extremely intense. The person who lead our training had people laughing, crying, and he united our group of mentors together as one. I didn't know any of the other mentors going into the training, but when I left the training I felt like I had really gotten to know a lot of the other mentors. I love working as a student mentor. One of my favorite things is just being in the mentor room with the other mentors and joking around. It is almost like a locker room type atmosphere. It will be great to be back in the swing of things starting next week.

Relaxation

Last weekend I came home from St. Louis. I miss St. Louis a lot and being able to see my family so much. I didn't stay home long though. I got home Sunday night and was heading to Kansas City to see my sister on Tuesday. Tuesday night Abbie, David and I went to the Royals game. We had great seats compliments of Cindy Norton! Thanks Cindy! We then went back to there house and hung out before going to bed. I woke up Wednesday morning and met Uncle Craig for breakfast. We had a great visit and got to catch up on our busy lives. After meeting with Uncle Craig I then drove to Maryville! I unpacked a little and then enjoyed a night the house I will be living in next year. Thursday I went to Brady's with my friend Elliot. We had a great trip to Brady's house. Friday we all came back to Maryville. Since being back in Maryville I have done a lot of relaxing. I have had some meetings with different people, but for the most part I have simply been hanging out and catching up with friends. I have not been this relaxed all summer! It feels great to not have anything to do.

Experience and Connections

Tomorrow is my last day at my internship this summer. I have had great experiences there. Personally, I feel like I have learned more in the last two months than I have my first two years of college. Obviously I wouldn't be in the position I am today without those two years of schooling, but I have learned a lot over the summer. Not only have I learned a lot about accounting, but also how to interact in an office setting. Within our office we have many different personalities and they all mess together nicely to form a very strong team. It is going to be hard to say goodbye to everyone in the office because I have made a great connection with everyone in the accounting department. My internship this summer was an incredible experience and I wouldn't trade it for anything.

The final week....

This week is my final week in St. Louis. I thought I would be much more anxious to be leaving to see my friends, but I am really going to miss St. Louis. My internship was so much fun and I learned a lot. The people in the office were so nice to me. Today I was thinking about my summer and all the activities I had done.

The month of May I spent substitute teaching. This was quite the experience. I remember my classes, never me though, giving substitute teachers an incredibly hard time. Now, I have a new appreciation for substitute teachers. Overall I thoroughly enjoyed it though. I love being around kids and interacting with them. One day I got to substitute for my kindergarten teacher. It was weird, but very fun because she was one of my favorite teachers in grade school.

June was a busy month for me because I started two new jobs and also had friends come visit. On June first I started my internship. I had no idea what to expect really and I ended up loving it. The next weekend I started working on the golf course. That was interesting and I enjoyed having an outside job after being indoors during the week. Both jobs ended up being huge successes. Also during June my roommate Brady, his girlfriend Hilary, and my good friend Rosalind came to visit. We had a great time. We went to a Cardinals game, toured Busch Stadium and of course went to Ted Drews.

July was also very crazy. I started the month out by traveling to Washington D.C. to visit Angela, another great friend of mine. It was an amazing trip. I got to see a lot of D.C. and also experience D.C. on the fourth of July. Being in D.C. is something I would suggest to anyone! It was incredible. The next couple weeks I got to enjoy some downtime. Toward the end of July my friend Ethan came to visit. We had a great time in St. Louis. We got to see Nelly in concert, go to our first casino, and also go to a Cardinals game.

One of my favorite things about this summer was how much time I got to spend with my parents. I got to see them almost once a week. Going to school so far away I don't get to see them much and it has been very nice getting to spend so much time with them. I also really enjoyed getting to play golf so much this summer. For a while I was getting to play almost twice a week. I got to play with Dad and Cindy a lot on Friday's and I loved it.  Looking back I am extremely lucky to have such good friends and family. I had a blast with them all summer long. I am going to really miss St. Louis, but I am looking forward to the school year and getting back to all my friends in Maryville.

Cardinals games

I want to apologize for neglecting to post lately. I have been very busy this week. Monday I worked at my internship and then met my friend Tanner and his family at Busch Stadium. It was my second Cardinals game in three days. It was great getting to watch another game and to see Tanner. The weather was beautiful, unfortunately the Cardinals blew a lead and lost the game.

Tuesday I had the day off. I worked for our family friend Victor in the morning and then my friend Kayla came to town that afternoon. We did a little shopping and grabbed some lunch at a Mexican restaurant in Kirkwood. That evening we went to the Cardinals game for my third game in four days. It was incredibly hot that night. It was still over 100 degrees when we got to the game that night. The Cardinals suffered their worst lost of the year that night. I believe the final score was 18-4.

Wednesday I worked at my internship. I am starting to get sad to be leaving my internship. I have finally started getting to know some of the workers well and we have a great couple of weeks. Also, I will miss learning about accounting. I  have learned more than I ever thought I would in the last two and a half months. Personally, I feel like my internship has gone very well. I hope that my employer feels the same.

Today I worked again at my internship. After work, I headed home to Vandalia. I came home to play golf with Dad, Kelly Anderson, and Coach Allen tomorrow in Jefferson City. This should be a fun round of golf. It is great to be home for a night!

Bittersweet weekend!

This weekend was one of the best weekends I have had in St. Louis. My good friend Ethan came to town on Thursday afternoon. The weekend was bittersweet because Ethan will be going to Mizzou next year and we had such a good time this weekend and did a lot of firsts together. I will really miss getting to hang out with Ethan whenever I want to.  Thursday night, we went downtown to a free concert and got to see Nelly. Seeing a rapper in concert was a first for both of us and we really enjoyed it. Once we got back to Aunt Carol's we wanted to go out, but couldn't decide where to go. We decided to go to a casino. Neither of us had been and we really wanted to go and try it out. We had no clue what was going on when we went into the casino, but eventually found our way to the penny slots! Once we sat down we simply started pushing buttons and losing money. I bounced back a little bit and came out twelve dollars ahead! We definitely enjoyed the casino.  Friday, we played a little golf and then we did some shopping. After shopping we went and relaxed a little at Aunt Carol's. We then went out to dinner with my Aunt Claudia, Aunt Carol, Uncle Chris, Emily, my mom, and Colleen. It was wonderful getting together with everyone. Ethan and I then hung out with my mom and Colleen and got Ted Drews. Saturday I had to go into work and mow greens at the golf course. After work I took Ethan to a donut shop that my grandma Klos used to love. We enjoyed some donuts and then got ready for the day. Mom came by and picked us up a little later and we then went to Gus's pretzels in St. Louis. It is a very well known attraction in St. Louis. I got a bratwurst that was wrapped in a pretzel. It was delicious! Next, we went and took a tour of the Anheuser Bush factory. At the end of the tour Ethan and I got to sample a beer of our choice. I chose a beer called Michelob Golden Draft. It is only sold in eight states. Michelob Golden Draft is the best selling beer in Minnesota. After the tour Mom dropped Ethan and I off downtown and we hung out downtown until the gates opened for the Cardinals game. The game was great we got to see two homeruns. Also at the game they retires Whitey Herzog's number. It was great seeing those festivities. This morning I got up for work and Ethan started out for Princeton. It was an incredible weekend and I will really miss Ethan next year.