Hello Everyone

Well hello everyone. A lot has happened since I have last shared anything, so I think it would be appropriate to do so.

First, School has started, and with it football, academics, FBLA, NHS, and of course social angst that is inevitable when it comes to school. :) I am a starting offensive lineman, right guard to be exact (the best of them are). I feel reasonably pleased with how I do. Playing football has been more fun this year than any year before, but the rest of it is harder. The kids and the language and stuff. But I have enjoyed it.

FBLA is going, slowly but surely. We had a conference in Casper last week that was good to be at. We left at 4:00 am, and got home at 11:00 pm. It was a LONG day.

For NHS (National Honors Society) we went to the Alberta Bare Theatre in Billings and saw "War of the Worlds" the same way it was first performed... on the radio. It was strange, but kind of cool. We are going back in February to see "La Boheme," and Ken or Kurt Peterson is the main character.

As far as things go in the world of academia, there is nothing to report. School work is the same as ever. I won't be a valedictorian because I ruined that a long time ago, but I am still doing pretty well. I am part of a "gifted and talented" group that will be attending a brain bowl at the college in Powell soon. I'm not going to lie. It made me feel kind of good when I was asked to be on it!

Social life has slowed down a bit since school has started, for a few reasons. Football takes a lot of time, and then I keep getting blown off. That last part may just be me, but I don't know! Tonight for instance, I planned for some friends to come up to the house to do stuff, but it didn't work out. We started out in Cowley together, and through each town on the way home I lost some. Well, all of them to be exact.

Last but not least, I have remodeled the bathroom downstairs, and well frankly, it looks awesome! I don't know how to get pictures off of our new camera onto the computer, so I will figure it out and get it done. We bought this new video camera that takes pictures too, but I am technologically inept, so it could be a while!

FarmTown

Have you ever heard of FarmTown on facebook? I get these Farmtown gift requests all of the time from a man I know on facebook. I block every application that this man sends me because he sends them to me all of the time! There is this guy at work who LOVES FarmTown. I laugh so hard on the inside when he talks about when his corn is going to be ready, and how Nick Wilson needs to harvest it for him so he can get points from him. Just now, "I'm thinking about buying a bigger place than the one I have now." This is hillarious. I love every minute of hearing about FarmTown. Nick Wilson's character is called "Jimbo." That makes me literally laugh out loud.

I got to work a half our early today, and that is why I am posting. I go to the HighSchool at 6:10 every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday to do p90x with Nick. It is awesome. It is tough, but I actually really like it. Forrest isn't the only one who can post pictures of what he is going to look like at the end of the summer! By the way, it will be the guy, not the girl. Although, she looks pretty ripped.I am enjoying work a lot. I have learned a lot and am doing a lot. It is actually really fun. One day something went wrong with the Cowley street project, and it was our fault. Nick was really frustrated and had to leave to go somewhere really quickly. I hear him go out the door, but I heard him come back in. He walks into the middle of the office and says, "Russell, go to law school," and walked out.

Accounting, Wow

So Here I am in accounting taking a test. It stinks. I try and try and try to understand this stuff, but it doesn't work. In fact, I don't think that anybody even understands it. Our teacher can only help one person at a time, so while I spend tons of time waiting, I get on the internet and enjoy everything that it brings me in while I am in this dreary place. Well I had better get back to my test. Mrs. Mader is coming.

I need to get a life...

This is kinda a LONG video, but Ryanne and I had way to much fun making these. I will post later, and look at Ry's blog. They are funny too. When we started we had 15 pictures on our computer, and by the end of the day there were 130. Ya, we need to get a life.

An Update

I am pleasantly surprised with how well I am doing with my blog. It is going well. My posts aren't long, but they are still there. Sometimes I feel everybody knows what is going on in my life, so there isn't anything exciting to write about and, like I have said in earlier posts, the only reason I really checks blogs is for the pictures, and I don't have pictures of the things I do. 

There is on piece of information that I would actually like to share with all of my avid readers:) Each ward in the Stake and a talent show. I won it in my ward with "Amazing Grace, My Chains Are Gone." The top 2 in each ward were taken the the Stake talent show. I sang the same song and was one of the top 2 there, so now I advance to the 4-stake Youth Conference this summer. I didn't really want to go just because it makes me really really nervous. There is no other news today that I want or need to share with anybody. That is my life right there. That and the play are what consume my days. I can't wait for Felin, Ben and Ry, and Tim and Rachell to get here though. It will mean I only have 2 days of school this week. Wednesday I get out early to get ready for the play, Thursday I go to Billings to pick up Ry from the airport, and Friday everyone will be here, and I don't know if I will have to go. Yay for family.

Just a news flash

Hey, really quick. I don't know how significant this is, but in the fundraiser we had for Mr. Collins, we raised over $5,000. It went SO well. I have to say I'm glad it's over, it was a ton of work, but oh man. It was excited to hear those numbers! We fed over 300 people at the bbq.

Oh, Life

Well, here I am at our computer enjoying "The Scarlet Pimpernel." I have to listen to it when ever I get the chance, otherwise it is off with mom somewhere.

I just got back from a Stake Youth Council meeting. It was my first one. I am really looking forward to serving on it. There are a lot of good experiences and pretty girls to become acquainted with! The 4-Stake Youth Conference was already getting planned, but I will be taking over. It will be fun. I have a couple of friends on it, but they are getting released. Kyle Peterson is staying though, so that will be good.

But what else? I am in charge of a fundraiser for one of our teachers, Mr. Collins. He has terminal brain cancer, so we are doing a BBQ and carwash for him. It is a TON of work, but I am glad we can help.
Well, have a great day everybody!

Pictures

We went to the King Tut exhibit. That was pretty awesome. There were so many things that I didn't know. I saw this small stone box, and when I read its title and little explanatory paragraph, it said how they were the twin fetuses of the dead king. That creeped me out a little. I don't know if they died, and then they did that, or the King died, so they did that. Nasty. There was also a sarcophagus with one of the Pharaoh's cats in it. Awesome. 

What a doll.

This is a Beluga Whale. They look like big, white, fat, sea lions with really small heads and bug bulging bodies. Funny. It looked to me like they were always smiling.

Kind of a cool silhouette of something big that was floating over my head.

Lydia "oohed" quite a bit. She was really cute.

This is an "aniname, an anenmine, an imininie."

What ever. 

Logan and I are about the same height. That was exciting.

In way of other news, Forrest and Elin sent me "The Scarlet Pimpernel". Thanks you guys! I am STOKED! I can't wait to dive into another exciting Broadway production. I'm going to do a bit of research on it and find out more about it. Once again, it was an awesome trip. I find myself missing it at random times. When I see a cute little kid, or smell something good that reminds of Atlanta. These were only some of the pictures I took on Paula's camera. Some of them really sucked, so I will keep those hidden.

Life Goes On

I am here at school washing basketball jerseys with one of my friends (Emily Bernhisel). It is really boring, but I guess it is what I signed up for.
Recently (yesterday) I got home from Atlanta. I was gone 5 days. It was awesome. It was really hard for me to leave. I had this feeling of sadness the entire trip home. It even carried well into the day at school. I loved just getting to konw them all a little better. It was great to spend time with the Atlanta Roberts Family. I think there is a closeness there that didn't exist before. But life goes on.
In other new,Lydia is so flippin' cute! Whenever I was in her room with her, she would pull all of the books out of her book box, put them on my lap, and then put them all back in the box. Sometimes we went through a few rounds of this before something else grabbed her attention. I went to Seminary with Logan every morning. It was fun. It was cool to see how the Church is the same everywhere you go. I made friends with some of the kids there. There was a boy there, Keaton? Doody? Duty? I don't know, but that was his name I think. He reminded me a lot of my friend Kyle Peterson. Another girl Andrea. I know that isn't how you spell her name because I saw it spelt somewhere. But you pronounce in (On-dray-a). She was cute. Another girl, Laura, and other people I didn't really talk to. I also went to a stake dance while I was there, it was a little akward, so I only stayed about an hour. It was fun though, I think the people I had gotten to know were genuinely interested in me and glad I went to the dance. There was a cute girl, Kayla, from South Africa. She had a cool accent. I didn't talk to her at all actually, but she was really cute (I thought so anyway). Sunday was their ward conference, so all the Youth met together for the 2 hours after Sacrament meeting. Anyway, there came a point where the Stake Young Men's President asked someone to sing a hymn. This girl Keagan got up and sang. She had a really nice voice. Then he asked for a guy to get up and sing. When I was at mutual and seminary, some of the kids heard me sing, so they knew I could. Keaton, Andrea, Laura, and other people encouraged me to sing, so I decided, what the heck? So I sang a duet with Keagan. I didn't think it was inmportant enough to tell anybody, but somehow word got out (Andrea) and then Logan knew, then my mom.
Other things we did. We went to a King Tut Exhibit that was really interesting. Didn't get to meet the guy, but we saw a lot of the nice things that were buried with him. It was fun to learn about that sort of stuff. We also went to the worlds largest aquarium. It was awesome. There were little sharks, sting rays, crocodiles, and tunnels you could walk through with thousands of gallons of water over you that the fish swam in. I didn't take pictures with my camera because it is so freakin huge, I didn't want to lug it around, so I took pictures with Paula's camera. It was awesome.
Paula, Lydia, and I took a trip to the mall of Georgia. It was quite large. It was cool to see.
I will try to post some pictures later, but maybe not.

Catch up time!

Here are a some pictures. I figure they make up for the last, I don't know, year and a half I've had this blog. I know I don't read blogs, I just check the pictures. So here are some.

Lydia Chowing Down on an onion. Yum.

Beckett and Lydia got out an onion and loved it.

Being the sweet and good kids they are, they peeled
the onion for Grandmas before they returned it.

Here are a some pictures. I figure they make up for the last, I don't know, year and a half I've had this blog. I know I don't read blogs, I just check the pictures. So here are some.

Sorry that they are sideways. Here is little
Beckett watching "Nemo"

Some ridiculously good looking teenager my parents
found on the street...

Mom looking super happy to be here!