Pay It Forward
I have seen this on a few blogs and am super excited to start my own! (and super excited to get handmade stuff!)

1. Be one of the first THREE bloggers to leave a comment on this post, which then entitles you to a handmade item from me.

2. Winners must post this challenge on their own blog, meaning that you will pay it forward, creating a handmade gift -anything!- for the first THREE bloggers who leave a comment on YOUR post about this giveaway!

3. The gift that you send to your 3 friends can be from any price range and you have 365 days to make/ship your item. This means you should be willing to maintain your blog at least until you receive your gift and have shipped your gifts. And, remember it’s the spirit and the thought that count!

4. When you receive your gift, blog about it! If you are not one of the first three to comment on this post, you can still play along.Go ahead and start your own Pay It Forward chain, and encourage your blogging friends to do the same! It's all about paying it forward.

SVU Visit!

So, I spent Spring Break visiting the place I will call my home away from home, Buena Vista, Virginia! That is a little town of about 6,000 people and the site of Southern Virginia University. I went to visit the campus, sit in on a few classes I might be taking and finally to meet the football coaches and team and workout with them!

The SVU Main Hall

I arrived on a rainy and foggy Monday afternoon and met the guys I was bunking with. One prospective missionary (who just got his call to Honolulu - yay for Tyler!) and one RM that went to Mexico. Both really fun guys. Monday night we went to a makeshift family home evening with some girls. We met up in the main hall and when one of the girls saw my face she immediately said: "I haven't seen you on campus ever. Are you visiting? What is your name?" I was pretty amazed that she was that blunt and forward, but it was refreshing. She recognized that I was not a student there and wanted to know what I was doing. The FHE was fun. We played Mafia and had banana bread muffins. It was great.

Tuesday was cool because it was my first day sitting in on some classes. I also had my first workout with the football team. Dang it was tough. The ab workout at the end was intense, man I was in pain for a while afterwords. After the workout I pretty much just hung out with the guys I had been meeting.

Wednesday consisted of a tour and more classes. It was then during a class that I realized something: this would be the most bittersweet Spring Break ever. I got out of my own classes only to travel across the country to sit in on some one else's classes. I was enjoying myself but I was still in class! DOH! Anyway, I had a football team meeting followed by a service project the coach volunteered the players for; moving books for the library from one storage area to another.

Thursday I woke up at 6AM to go lift with the team and avoid the majority of the players that would rather sleep in and workout at 2. After lifting I put on my sweats and went for a stroll in town, it was pretty cool. I saw some really cool houses. I LOVE the wrap-around porches of the South. I saw a cute house on a street corner that had a porch that stretched from one side to the other. It was way cool. After walking around I pretty much just hung out in my dorm room and read an economics book. Around noon, my mom arrived from Baltimore and the football coach gave the two of us a tour of campus, it was fun. He grew up a few hours from the school and has this awesome Southern drawl accent. I loved it, it's pretty funny. Later, I had another full team meeting followed by a defensive squad meeting. It was pretty cool. After the meeting my mom and I drove across the highway to Lexington which is like 5 minutes away and a town of about 30,000 I think. It is the home to Virginia Military Institute and Washington and Lee University, the school that was started by George Washington himself. It was pretty awe inspiring. The main hall at Washington and Lee looked like a brick white house on steroids. It was HUGE! Note to reader(s), definitely check out their website to see pictures and read about the school.

Cute corner house in Buena Vista

Washington and Lee Main Hall

Frat House - Even the frat houses look tight!

Friday my mom and I took off for DC and stayed there until Sunday. On our way we stopped at Monticello, the residence of Thomas Jefferson. Wow it was amazing! His house was INCREDIBLY high tech for the era. It was pretty cool. Friday night I finally ate BRAZILIAN FOOD! Yay! After 7 LONG months I finally made it to a Brazilian steakhouse. Oh it was great. And I felt so stuffed afterwards. Mmmmmmmmm. Saturday we started our day by going to the Library of Congress and then the Supreme Court building. We made our way around the Presidential Mall to the Jefferson Memorial, something I hadn't seen before. Sunday was fun, we slept in a little and then just drove around and went to the Arlington Cemetery and then to Georgetown University, that was another sweet sight.

Monticello

The Library of Congress

Inside the library

Another shot from inside the library

The Supreme Court Building

The Jefferson Memorial

Inside the Jefferson Memorial

Arlington National Cemetary

The flight home the the worst I've ever had. Because of the wind in California (my aunt said that the beach was terrible in Cali, something like 100 mph winds!) there was SO MUCH turbulence! Landing was quite the ordeal, but it was pretty dang smooth; kudos Senhor Piloto.

I'm glad to be back though. I need to keep working hard in school so that everything will begin to fall into place.

Wow I'm lazy!

Ok, I am getting pissed off! This is the third time I've tried to post on this blog and each time it's quit on me! UGH!
Ok, well, I really should use this thing more often to give updates on my life. Anyway, many things have changed in since my last post and so to give the lowdown, here is my current life in 60 seconds. Ready....go!

- Briana and I broke up. There's really no good way to explain it.

- Before Christmas I applied to ASU's Global Business program. But due to the current state of the economy and the budget cuts in Arizona the program was closed (dang house buyers with NO credit buying houses they could NEVER afford!).

- Due to sudden changes in my plans, I began looking for alternative schooling options. I settled on attending Southern Virginia University this Fall! I am super excited!

- I will be leaving in the middle of July to begin training with the football team, which I am also excited about!

- I am job hunting again, which is always a wondrous time. Riiiight.

- I joined the MCC Model United Nations team and will be the Representative on the General Assembly for the Russian Federation. So comrades, I hope it all goes well!

- I got a guitar for Christmas and began taking classes at MCC, it's pretty sweet.

- Cameron introduced me to the coolest pizza joint in the valley. Cassanova Brother's Pizza on Val Vista and Guadalupe.

Well, that's all I can think of right now. If anyone has a specific question feel free to let me know!

Another year in the books, and pondering a skydive - weird

Ok, so, it's like 3 am right now and sleep deprivation has yet to fully set in. My fam and I, like usual, were up really late and then I just kept it going and well, here I am.

Well, even though most of you have probably already figured it out by the title of this entry, today is my birthday. Please, do not ask me if I am excited or anything like that. My girlfriend has been spending like the last 3 weeks trying to get me somewhat excited for this day and today I told her that it's not the day that makes birthdays so great, it's the fact that tons of people are thinking of you and wishing you the best. The real excitement comes when some of those people visit or call to wish you the best and take part in that inanimate day. That's what makes birthdays so great.

Anyway, yes, as you all have probably thought, I am totally lazy about this blog. I really do need to be better since I have stopped keeping a journal as well, so I need to be doing something! I feel bad for those who actually look at this page with anticipation only to find nothing. I tend to do that soemtimes with the bloags of others (Sheri), and I know how it feels. So, I am going to make an honest effort to update this bad boy at least once per week. And you all can hold me to it.

I am excited for later today because Bri is taking me out all afternoon and night and other than lunch I have no idea what we are doing. I asked her to not go all out with this birthday stuff but it seems as though she may not have listened to me. Actually, I think she's more excited for my birthday than I am! Weird. Oh well, I love being around her and that's just enough birthday wish for me!

School is going well. I raised my schedule to 18 hours and added a United Nations study class. It's pretty cool. Now that I have switched to International Business/Relations I am really getting into my classes. It's just something I have always been interested in and now I am learning to love it. I just hope that I am able to find a job pretty soon that will allow me to still keep up my grades. I feel like a social outcast in the sense that I have still yet to find a job. Pretty sad if you ask me. But, if anyone knows of something, please let me know!

Well, I'm really tired righ tnow and I am going to need some energy in the reserves just in case Bri takes me to do some REALLY crazy stuff like skydiving or something! Dang that would be sick! I want to go skydiving now!

Ode to Brazil

So, I finally found the last of my picture cds form my first two areas. I was going through them and found a few things that really made me miss Brazil even more. I just wanted to show a few pictures and you all can now see why I have missed my soul's home so.