3 Time Zones in 3 Days

Today we left San Diego at 6:27 am to head to Tempe, Arizona for the Mizzou bowl game. We were all very excited about the six hour road trip we had to Tempe. It has been a very interesting drive as we have seen many different types of agriculture in the desert of California and Arizona. We also got to see lots of sand dunes. People will pull campers into these flat desert areas and camp and ride their dune buggies all day. We are anxiously awaiting our arrival to Tempe to get to do some tailgating with all of the Tiger fans!
Yesterday Mom, Dad, and I went and toured the USS Midway. It was built and completed ten days after World War II ended. It was a self guided tour and you could spend as much time as you would like on board the ship. The three of us spent two and a half hours and probably could have spent another hour and a half because we never even went on the lowest level of the ship. After the ship tour we met back up with my favorite Aunt Jean and ate some fresh sea food. In the afternoon we walked around downtown San Diego and did a little shopping. The weather in San Diego was amazing yesterday. If I had brought shorts I would have been wearing them! I am envious of Aunt Jean and the weather she gets to encounter every day!

A Busy Holiday Season

Today I left for San Diego with my parents today. I am so blessed to be able to travel so much over the holiday season and to have people who want me to travel with them. We are going to San Diego to visit my mom's cousin Jean and while we are out West we will travel to Tempe, Arizona to watch the Mizzou tigers bowl game.


We are only in Las Vegas and I have one funny story. Mom, Dad and I were boarding the plane in St. Louis this morning and Mom was behind Dad and me. Dad and I went to the back so we could all sit together and Mom was no where to be found. Eventually she got up to go to the bathroom and we was in the front seat on the plane. I told Dad before we got off I bet she would be at a slot machine when we got off the plane and sure enough she was putting her dollar into a slot machine as we were walking off the plane!

Road Trip

This morning at 4:24 am I started out on my yearly skiing adventure with Abbie, David, and Peter, David’s brother. We rented a vehicle to get us to Colorado this year. We have tried flying and driving and we all decided that driving was the way to go. The car that we got from the rental place was a Mercedes GLX. It is very nice and pretty comfortable!


I feel like I am part of the Griswold family Christmas minus a tree strapped to the top of our car. Although we do have the vehicle loaded to the max. Two years ago when we drove we secured our skies to the top of the car we drove. This year we put them stretched from the back of the truck to them middle console. We have had many funny moments on our trip so far and we are only half way at this point. One of the funnier moments was when Abbie started to drive and was not used to the breaks and violently slammed them on when a gradual stop would have done. Then as she veered onto the highway she jerked the car into the lane on the highway and said “I’m not used to such a fancy car” and David’s response was “what a car with brakes and power steering?” We all got a good kick out of that.

Another comical story was as we were driving along the Kansas flats Abbie made the comment that she thought she could probably see for fifty miles out here. David then informed us that if you are standing up on flat ground the horizon is roughly 2.5 away. We have laughed the whole way to Breckenridge joking with Abbie asking if she could see the mountains when we were at least two hours away from them.

The last funny story I have is from when we stopped for lunch. We all decided that we would eat at Arby’s. Abbie ordered a sandwich and fries while David was contemplating what to order. After David ordered and got the total amount he noticed Abbie had gotten a $3.00 sandwich and shouted out in the restaurant “A $3.00 sandwich!” We all burst into laughter including the lady that was taking orders. David was shocked because he had ordered from the junior menu and he sandwich was only $1.18. We have had a lot of laughs along the way and we are really enjoying ourselves.

Roughly eleven hours after leaving Kansas City we arrived in Breckenridge. It was a successful road trip and our condo is in prime location. We are able to ski right into the back door of our condominium building which is great.



Friends

Being in college at Northwest has been some of the best days of my short life. One of the main reasons it has been such a great experience for me is because of the people I  have met. I really feel that I have met lifelong friends. In high school you are forced to be around people, some who you may not have wanted to be around, for eight hours a day. In college if you don't see eye to eye with someone you simply go on with you life and don't worry about it. The friends I have met at college would do a lot for me and I would do the same for them. I have a group of friends that have been there for me through thick and thin while at Northwest. I was thinking about all the friends I have made and we all come from similar backgrounds which fascinated me. Most of us come from small towns in Missouri, Nebraska and Iowa. We all have a lot of the same core values. I found it interesting that out of 7,000 students at Northwest that my group of friends are so similar. I have the best friends in the world and wouldn't trade them for anything!

Finals Week

Tomorrow marks the end to another semester at Northwest for me. After, tomorrow I will only have finals remaining for the semester. It is a huge relief to be done with classes for this semester. My classes have been challenging,  but yet fun this semester and I am getting deeper and deeper into my major classes. I will be doing a lot of studying the next week or so to prepare for my finals. I will be done with my finals on Tuesday of next week. It will be a great feeling to be done with all my tests for a while. This semester really seemed to fly by. It was a good semester for me overall. I will have some time to relax this weekend because Northwest is in the semi-finals of the division 2 football championships. They have been in the semi-finals the last six years now and have never lost in the semi's. They are matched up against the number one team in division 2 though so hopefully that record stands after this weekend. It is on TV so I will be able to watch it from the comfort of my home. I am looking forward to getting to come home again for a bit to spend some time the the family!

Turkey Trot and Stuffing Strut

Happy Thanksgiving to all! I made it back to Farber Tuesday evening for the first time since August 16th. It has been great being home and getting to relax some. One of the best things about being home is sleeping in my own bed!

This morning I woke up early to run the Mexico YMCA Turkey Trot and Stuffing Strut. I ran it with my mom, sister, and brother-in-law. It was only my second 5k ever and it was a huge success. Mom won her age division and her prize was a pumpkin pie. David won his age division and also got a pumpkin pie. I got third in my age division, which David won. My prize was a box of stuffing. It was funny that I won a prize because technically Abbie beat me and she did not place within her age group. We had a great time running the 5k and it felt awesome to run another race.

Arrowhead

This weekend Northwest played Pittsburg State at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City. A bunch of my friends and I went down for the day to tailgate and go to the game. We had a lot of fun. We grilled ribs, hot dogs, burgers and potatoes. Leftovers were plentiful because we had about five deserts as well. Northwest ended up winning the game. It was a lot closer than anyone thought the game would be because Pitt State was not very good this year. We now play Missouri Western next Saturday in the Division II playoffs.

The Rivalry

My girlfriend Kelli is from Omaha and is a true Nebraska fan. We watched the Mizzou Nebraska game together. We tried to keep the atmosphere friendly, but that was very difficult. It was a lot of fun watching the game with all of our friends because about half of my friends are Nebraska fans!

Northwest Homecoming

 This weekend was Homecoming at Northwest. It is a tradition at Northwest that there are no classes on the Friday of Homecoming week. It was really nice not to have class on Friday. I spent my day helping my roommate Dave strip shingles off of our sun room. Dave's dad is coming down this week to put on the new roof. Saturday morning I got up and went to the Homecoming parade with Kelli. After the parade I went home and started making some food because we had people over to watch the Mizzou vs Nebraska game. Unfortunately Mizzou did not put on a good showing. I will be wearing a Nebraska shirt Monday for placing a bet with Kelli. Saturday night we had a costume party at our house. It was a great weekend and now it is time to get back to school work.

Pictures of the semester

I have not posted much this semester and I definitely have not posted many pictures. I decided to do a posting of pictures from the semester.

The picture on the left is from family weekend. The Udelhoven's, my mom and dad and my roommates parents all came to our house for a large family dinner. We had a great time that weekend!




This picture is from the football game on family weekend. My friend Ethan who transferred to Mizzou came up on family weekend and visited all of us. It was great getting to see him!

As some of you might know I do have a girlfriend. Her name is Kelli and she is Omaha. At the beginning of October I went to her informal for her sorority. It was a great time!

The last picture I am going to post is of our house on a beautiful fall day in October. It has still been incredibly warm this fall in Maryville. Last year Maryville's first measurable snowfall was on October 10th. I do not think it has been below 32 degrees here yet.

Deactivated

Last night I deactivated my facebook account. I felt like I was spending waaaaay too much time on there. I have wanted to do this for a long time now and I finally just did it last night! It has been nice not having it, although it has only been a day. We will see how long this last because it is very easy to reactivate your account.

Homecoming!

I have not blogged in forever, but I have been incredibly busy with classes as well as work. My classes are going well this year so far. I am really enjoying my Intermediate Accounting 2 class. We have been talking about pension plans for the last week and I find that very interesting. I am also taking Tax Accounting and that class is very challenging. There is so much information that you need to know for that class.

This week is Homecoming week at Northwest. Everyone is always excited for Homecoming because we never have classes on the Friday of Homecoming. I will probably get up early Saturday morning and check out the parade this year since I have never experienced our Homecoming parade. Unfortunately, I will not be attending the football game this weekend since Mizzou will be playing Nebraska during that time.

Family Weekend!

This weekend is family weekend at Northwest. I am really excited about it this year as my mom and dad are coming up for the weekend! There will be a weekend full of fun in store for them once they get here. Friday night we don't have much planned. Saturday morning there is a pancake feed and then the big family weekend game starts at two. Our good family friends the Udelhoven's are coming up mid morning to experience a Northwest football games. It is a huge game because we are playing Missouri Western, our hated rival, this weekend. They have been selling standing room only tickets for at least two weeks now, good thing my mother loves a good standing room only ticket! After the game we are all going back to my house and are going to enjoy a big cookout. Also, my friend Ethan is coming to town from Columbia for the game Saturday. It should be a great weekend and I really am looking forward to seeing my parents this weekend!

Weekend Success!

This weekend was a huge success. My goals were to study for a test I had this morning, relax, and run a 5k. I achieved all of my goals this weekend. Friday night my roommates and I made homemade pizza. I was very excited about this as it was something my family did often while I was growing up. One of our friends turned twenty-one so all my roommates and I went and saw him then came home and just hung out. Saturday morning Brady, Hilary, his girlfriend, and I got up and we ran a 5k. None of us had ever ran one, but we did very well considering the circumstances. We then went to the library for most of the afternoon. Saturday night I went and hung out with some friends. It was a pretty uneventful night. Sunday was a day of watching football and studying. I am finally done studying though as I finished my first test of the year. I think I did okay, but I really shouldn't second guess myself as I know I changed some answers that I had right. I am looking forward to a pretty easy week. I am really looking forward to this weekend because my parents are coming up for family weekend!

5k Success!

This morning I got up with my roommate and his girlfriend and ran my first ever 5k race. We had very low expectations of ourselves as we had not trained a minute for the race. We jokily did some stretching before the race poking fun at the serious racers who obviously finished before us. As soon as the race started it started to rain and about a half mile into the race it started to pour the rest of the time we were running. It was also in the upper forties lower fifties while we were running so it was very cold.  Our only goal was to complete the race in under thirty minutes. We thought we could keep a good enough pace to run ten minute miles. We did achieve our goal and crossed the finish line at about the twenty eight minute mark. We felt great after we completed the race. It was much easier running a 5k than I expected. I had always been intimidated by the race. I finally found a great running partner in Brady and we had a great time. I would hope that anyone who wants to run a 5k would do so. You feel great after you get done running the race.

Funny Story

This morning I was working for the grounds crew on campus. My assignment this morning was to go mow the alumni center, the President's house, and the recruitment house. While mowing at the recruitment center, a lady comes out and is waving a Northwest shirt at me. I was very excited as I am a sucker for the free T-shirt. She proceed to tell me that they couldn't stop laughing in her office because I was wearing a Mizzou T-shirt while mowing the recruitment house. She continued to inform me they thought it would be difficult to tell prospective students how much everyone loved working and going to Northwest when the grounds crew kid was wearing a Mizzou shirt. They jokingly gave me the free Northwest shirt and I put it on just for them. It was quite funny.

The end of another week

This week was a great week for me! I have had great classes including Tax Accounting where we are learning the tricks of completing our own taxes. It is crazy how many exemptions and tax credits there are that I had never heard of. Also my night class this week got out an hour and a half early. I am really glad I decided to take that night class as it seems to be much easier than going to class three days a week. Since we have been in school roughly a month tests are starting to pop up. I will have my first Intermediate Accounting 2 test next Friday. It is a two day test so Monday we will also be testing. Things are starting to get very busy in my classes, but I am really enjoying my classes so far this semester. This weekend I do not have any big plans. I have a lot of homework I need to get done so I doubt I do much. Tonight my roommates and I are going to have one of our family feasts!

The Weekend!

I can't believe the weekend is already over with. This weekend was pretty busy. Friday night Dave and I went to the Natalie and Angela's and barbecued hamburgers. Angela is a conversation partner for foreign exchange students and her two girls came over for dinner. It was fun trying to communicate different things with them.

Saturday morning Dave and I were both up before 8:30. We sat around and drank some coffee until 9:30 or so then decided to give the house a good deep cleaning. We started in on the kitchen and finished with the upstairs bathroom. We did not sit down until 5:00 p.m. We did things such as scrub the bathtub, mow the lawn, edge our sidewalks, and we capped off the day by cooking a casserole my father would have loved. It had anything and everything we could think of in it. Saturday night we had a few people over to the house and just relaxed.

Today I finally slept past 10:00 a.m. at the new house. Once I got up I laid around until lunch and then I ate and started in on homework. After I finished my homework I went to church with my friend Jordan. Dave and I ate leftovers for dinner and then we watched the VMA awards. It was a great weekend and I got to relax a lot!

No complaints!

Working at Student Support Services is sometimes the funnest part of my day. The people I work with and for are just awesome including our secretary.  Our secretary is like the mom of the office. She is always a voice of reason and you can talk to her about anything. During training she announced she had been diagnosed with breast cancer over the summer. She has started her treatment and she is still at work everyday that she can be. She never complains about anything. She likes to talk about her treatment with us and keeps us informed. Her big word she uses is that this is "doable." As I walked into work today my allergies were bothering me and I was feeling a little sorry for myself and then I saw our secretary sitting at her desk working away and I decided that I can have no complaints. I am a very lucky twenty-one year old. I am healthy as a horse and I have an amazing family that does a lot for me. With all of that being said I will not be complaining about a few allergies!

Getting in a groove

My first week of classes went pretty well last week. I think that my schedule will work out nicely for me. My Monday, Wednesday, Friday schedule includes Intermediate accounting at 8 a.m. and then I work from 9-1 and I then have class from 2-3. Then I get to go back to the house and relax. On Tuesday and Thursday I work on the grounds from 7-12 and then at my student support services job from 12-2. After working all morning I then have class from 2-3:30. On Tuesday's I have night class from 5:30-8 which makes for a long day. My classes are going to be very challenging this semester, but I am only taking twelve hours. I am glad this is a short week because I am already looking forward to the weekend!