:)

Hey all,

I don't have much to say, but I just wanted to let you know I had a far better day today, and so thank you for the prayers. God Bless!

Can we not ever have today again? Thanks...

Today was stressful, and long.

Nothing turned out well in a way that could make you happy, and enough things were mediocre to make things difficult. It was long, with large spans of time left to just thinking. Things happened that shook my trust, and that caused smaller things to frustrate me greatly.

To top it all off, additional bits of news made the next couple of weeks something not to be looked forward to.

I really, really hope today is done.

Prayer would be appreciated.

The days in review...

Well the last few days can really be boiled down into two things:

Speech + Debate, and Church picnic :)

Speech and Debate has been going pretty well. I've been spending a lot of time recently working on my duo, which is coming along really well. The story is very clever, which makes it difficult to interpret, but the payoff should be really good. It's an entertaining story :)

I think the part I'm looking forward to is teaching Christian how to speak with a british accent :D

Other than that, debate research is more of a study day-to-day thing. I'll add a couple pages to the brief every couple of days, when I get a chance to sit down and focus on it.

Apologetics has been neglected for awhile :P Which means I probably should get back to it... it's so hard juggling six events because you get into duo-mode, or debate-mode, and you don't want to break out of it, but you must :P :)

Funny realization: Sometimes, just the knowledge of someone important in your life being closer to you is enough to lift your spirits. Even if you don't get the see them :)

The SDA church that our church rents from needed to use the facility on Sunday afternoon, so we moved the shared meal over to the Ko's house. Besides a good lunch (which is appreciated after no breakfast) the young people spent several hours playing volleyball, another sport I really enjoy.

May I just say real quick that the combination of Ben and Isaac is the bomb. Do not mess with us ;)

I just finally got around to listening to the song "Chasing Cars" by Snow Patrol. I really, really like it. It's a very... fitting song :)

As I type this, I realize I have a lot of planning for this late summer and fall (debate stuff, possible Teenpact trips, and Film festival stuff) so I'm going to go figure out what my life holds for the next few months :)

I don't have a title for this one :)

I don't suppose I have much to say.

But I really felt like I should post.

Tuesday: The beach! :) I haven't been there in quite awhile. Tuesday morning our family (Dad, Sarah, James, Alex, Courtney, Joel, Kimi, Elena, Tani, Zach, and myself) made the 2 hour drive to Cannon Beach.

I enjoy the beach, but it's so much more meaningful when you get to share it with someone special. I'm looking forward to going there again :)

Alex, Courtney, Sarah and I arrived at the beach a few minutes before everyone else, and so we walked down to the beach for 20 minutes or so. Alex and I spent that drawing pictures in the sand, and doing cartwheels to entertain Courtney.

We then walked into town to take care of my hunger headache (12pm, and nothing to eat that day) and we ate some really good pizza from a pizza parlor that is apparently rated in the top 50 pizza parlors in the country. Alex and I then went into a clothing shop and picked out the funniest shirts. I wanted to buy one that said "Real Men Wear Pink" but it was 18 dollars :P

We then walked across the street to the candy shop and I bought some saltwater taffy, and split a bag of cotton candy with Sarah (she's only had it once before in her life).

The rest of the day was spent on the beach jumping over waves, (I got soaked from my waist down, and I forgot to bring a second pair of jeans :P) stopping in the various shops, flying kites, etc.

That night we drove back, stopping for dinner at Camp 18, which used to be a logging station thing-whatever-you-call-it :)

The last couple of days have been laid back, and I've mainly worked on video editing, as well as speech and debate. I have some literature for my Humorous interp on hold at the library which I'm really excited about :)

The rain has been amazing. It's turning into an enormous flood, I've never seen it rain so hard :)

A wonderful day

I'm so thankful for today. I've been needing a solid day out, completely away from the house.

This morning the whole family went to Edgefield and ate breakfast at the Black Rabbit restaurant. Edgefield is beautiful, an old building turned into a hotel and restaurant, huge, beautiful gardens, vineyards, and a 3 par golf course.

I would love to take my future wife here sometime :) Random fact.

After breakfast, the family headed off to Multnomah Falls for a while, but Alex and I stayed back and decided to play the 3 par course. We both are rather bad at golf, but it was fun, and we enjoyed heckling each other as we played. In the end our scores were nothing to brag about, as expected ;)

We came back home at around 3:00pm, and I took care of some emails. At around 4:30 we all hopped back into the car and headed off to India Oven, one of our family's favorite restaurants. I ordered Chicken Makhanwala (kind of a curry chicken served over rice). We ate and talked for over an hour, and then all caravanned over to Papa Haydn's for dessert. They have AMAZING desserts. I ordered Boccone Dolce, which is meringues layered with whipped cream and fresh berries. It's like eating heaven, I swear :)

We ate our desserts outside and then said goodbye to the Josh Harris family (they're leaving tomorrow morning.

After getting home, I spent the evening on Gmail, facebook, and getting my daily dose of NBA news :)

As well as talking to a dear friend.

All in all, a wonderful day :)

And a wonderful day is never without bucket loads of rain.

::laughs a little::

This week has been extremely emotional.... like nothing else I've ever experienced. From the tears of loss, to the joy of memories and family and friends.

I have reached a time in my life that is so confusing, a time where I'm sometimes unsure as to what is real and certain. And among the many things I have learned is, when everything is shaky, I must remember that this time is difficult for others too. So when they make mistakes, I cannot judge them, because the pain they are experiencing is great as well.

Rain is an interesting thing. It can be light and almost cheerful, the kind that you want to run outside and dance in. It can also be heavy and dreary, rain that drops your spirits, that seems to whisper hopelessness. But there is one thing that always remains the same, regardless of what kind of rain it is.

It's always rain.

It will always be raining. Just today, the dreary rain stopped, and the refreshing shower started again. The most wonderfully refreshing rain I have ever known. :)

Leave your umbrella inside, it's better that way :) :) :)

An Update

I felt like I should post an update.... sorry it's been awhile, I wasn't really sure what to write, I didn't really have anything to say.

The last couple of days relatives have gotten in. Grandma, Uncle Steve, Aunt Susan Aunt Tani, cousins Annie, Joe, and Lisa. It's been wonderful to get to see them again :)

Preparations for the memorial service continue, Alex is creating a slideshow, we have guys from the church cleaning the decks and getting everything ready. Ties are being bought, suits are being dry-cleaned, and everyone is doing very well.

Thank you all for your prayers. They have been felt and appreciated.

::taps:: Is this thing on?

::smiles::

::smiles wider::

::smiles really big::

I'm happy. And I really don't know why. There are things going on in my life that, for most people, would be considered one of the biggest trials you could go through. But (if you saw my last post) I have this.... calm surrounding me. I know everything is going to be okay :)

The last few days have consisted mainly of writing my persuasive, hanging out with the family, spending time with Ben and Christian, watching Toy Story 3.... which was amazing.

Pixar, it's almost unfair. It's unfair that a production company can be so good that they can take one of the greatest animated films of all time and make it into a trilogy that's 2nd and 3rd film are just as good as it's 1st. Then doesn't happen. Like ever. Pixar is amazing at creating a human connection. Creating animated moments that are so realistic that you connect with the characters. Whether it's a plastic space ranger, a cloth cowboy doll, or an animated teenage boy.

Pixar, I love you. Please never change.

Speaking of movies..... though I haven't seen it yet (and still plan to) The Last Airbender was a major flop (9% on Rotten Tomatoes :P). This made me incredibly sad. Way to ruin a great TV series, M. Night. By the way, if you haven't seen the anime TV series, you need to :) It's called "Avatar: The Last Airbender." You can spend hours watching them. Seriously. Be careful :P :D

Wow, this post actually turned into a post of reasonable length. ::gasp:: I AM a debater. I'm able to talk about nothing for extended amounts of time :P

Before I bore everyone, I shall leave. Hope you're all having a wonderful time, wherever you are :)

I'm just here enjoying the rain.

Isaac Franklin