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I had the day off today which was really nice. I went to breakfast with Sarah today, it was nice to catch up and hang out with her since I haven’t seen her in forever. Lunch with Kate, then we went to her grandparent’s house for dinner. It was fun, we played games and had good food, her grandparents are neat. This photo is in front of Kate’s house, I made Kate stop and stand as I took a photo before she ran inside, so she got all cold and frozen. It was a nice long day, work tomorrow…but sleep before that. 

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It was a slower day today, I don’t think we did as many packages as I did by myself yesterday, but we got everything done we needed too. I don’t work tomorrow, although I should be because I could use the money. After I got off work I picked up Kate and we came out to my house. We had dinner: Pork Roast with Apples, Broccoli and Cheese Sauce, Smashed Potatoes and Gravy, and of course Salad…mmmm! A very good dinner to say the least! We opened presents from the Coffins, as did they from us, and then we played a game about guessing celebrities names, it was funny. This photo is, of course, my younger brothers, Matt and Seth. They thought it was painful having to stand and pose for me, but I eventually got them to stand still and do it. 

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It was kinda lonely at work today, because I was all alone all day long. Tony was there in and out for part of the day, but the rest of it I was solo. Jared was sick and Jake took the day off, then Jeff went to work at the shop, because they were slammed. It was fine though, I got a lot done; I think I did a little over 75 packages today, so that was good. After work I meet Kate at dinner and then we went and watched “Hitch”, Jake bought it on DVD for me for Christmas and Kate had not seen it. I got gas on the way home tonight, which explains this photo and the enormous price...it’s basically cutting off my arm every week to get gas, its not very fun, oh well. I am ready for bed; it’s been a long day. 

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We had a lot of work to do today since we have not worked for a few days. We shipped out all of the express orders today, but we saved the ground orders for tomorrow. After work I went and picked up Kate and we came out here to my house for dinner. This photo is of Kate, and she is wearing the locket I got for her for Christmas, I had it made up in Portland at a vintage jewelry place. I am really glad she likes it, it turned out really nice, better than I thought it would. The Coffins are here from Tuscan for Christmas and New Years. That’s about it…tomorrow I work again, and again, and again, and again…. 

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Merry Christmas everyone! I hope you all had a good holiday. Remember what we are really celebrating, the birth of Jesus Christ, who brings eternal salvation to all who will accept him. This photo is of my ornament from this year, a little skiing Santa…sooo cute isn’t it? Haha. I got some cool stuff for my camera, a shutter release cable and a lens cap, plus a book on black and white photography, pretty neat stuff. We had a nice breakfast this morning, and then tonight we had prime rib, ahhh! It was SO good, prime rib is pretty much amazing, especially compared to cafeteria food! 

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It is Matt’s 17th birthday today, so Happy Birthday Matt! He usually celebrates his birthday in June, since it is so close to Christmas, which means he gets a double birthday every year. We had a really nice breakfast this morning, and then hung around most of the morning at the house. This afternoon I went down the hill with Kate to her Aunt’s house in Apple Valley for Christmas with her family. This photo is the view from her Aunt’s house, I really liked how it looked, and the photo did not turn out to bad for not having a tri-pod with me. It was neat meeting her family and having dinner down there. Tomorrow is Christmas!!!! It’s not quite as exciting as it was when I was younger…like when it would take me a few hours just to fall asleep and then wake up at 6:00am because I wanted to open my presents. I guess getting older does that to you…dulls you out or something, ha. Well, Merry Christmas Eve everyone. 

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My Grammy and Papa came up today to celebrate Christmas with us, as did my Aunt and Uncle. It was nice to see them, talk, eat, open presents…you know the fun holiday stuff that everyone loves. The food was incredible; as usual…nothing beats a home cooked holiday meal. After my grandparents left I went to town and got packages from the post office before they closed, and then I went to see Kate. We got dinner from Maggio’s tonight, and then watched a movie. We went out to the store and then to the park to take photos. I took a bunch of us together with the long exposure, but this one of the lake by itself stood out a lot more than the others. The clouds and the glass texture on the water were so beautiful, I could have stayed there all night taking photos, but it was a little to cold tonight. 

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I slept in so late today! I got up around 11:00, had a cinnamon roll and hung out till lunch, which was like an hour later. After lunch I made some Christmas cards and hung out around here at the house. After lunch I went over to Kate’s house. We rented a couple movies and went to dinner tonight; it was a lot of fun. We went to the Teddy Bear for dinner, they had clam chowder in bread bowls, ahhh it was so good! Then we had the rest of our peanut butter cameral apple and peanut butter fudge from North Pole Fudge from yesterday. It was a fun afternoon and night, I really enjoyed it. I kinda forgot about my photo of the day until pretty late tonight. I took a bunch of photos on my way home; this is the one I came up with: my headlights on the snowy dirt road, I think it turned out pretty neat. 

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This was my last day working until after Christmas, so I have a few days off, which will be nice, but a lot not so nice because I could use the money from working the four days I have off. We did not have much to ship out today at work, mostly overnight packages…after we finished shipping we cleaned, organized and I took a couple loads of cardboard to the recycling center. I came home after work for dinner, which was spaghetti…delicious, as usual. I went over to Kate’s after dinner and we watched the movie “end of the spear”, it was pretty good, intense…I liked it. This photo is from earlier tonight, I was trying to find a photo of the day, and the piano was elected as the winner. 

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Today was the last day we could ship out packages at work before Christmas, besides next day, which costs a lot more money. I think we shipped out almost two-hundred packages today; I had a huge pile to take to the post office at the end of the day. It was only me and Jake working today, so it was surprising that we finished all of the work we had to do. After work I picked up Kate and we came out to my house for dinner. We stopped on the way here and I took this photo of the sunset ending. We are out at my house now for dinner with my family. My great grandma, aunt and uncle, and cousins are here for an early Christmas dinner. 

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Another long day at work today…we shipped out a ton of packages since it is one of the last days to send before Christmas. I took this picture after work, I stopped by the lake, and I thought it made a cool picture. I went over to Kate’s again tonight; we decorated her Christmas tree and then had dinner. We watched a movie too…its nice to be able to sit and watch movies, because I don’t do that at school, so its great to relax and not think about any school at all, ah I love break! 

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Work was early today; I got there at 8:00 this morning. It was soooo cold all day long…the warehouse was freezing, I couldn’t feel my hands and feet for a while, it was pretty bad. We did a lot of shipping today; I took three full truckloads of packages to the post office this afternoon. Kate came and saw me at work, and brought me some sushi, she is amazing! It was fun working wish Jared and Jake, they are always crazy and it makes work fun. I got off at 4:00 and went to see the movie Eragon with Kate and her little brother Max. It was a good fantasy movie, made me wish I was a little kid again so I could run around pretending I was in some fantasy land. We went to Kate’s for dinner tonight; it was very good, as usual. This photo is from this morning before I left for work, it was snowing and the sun was coming up between the trees, so it looked pretty neat. 

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I had a nice long morning of sleeping in, which is much different than the week ahead of me is going to be…since I will be working almost every day. I worked on my truck this afternoon, changing the oil and fixing my door, because it was broken. We took some photos this afternoon of us four boys; we had to do them twice to get the right lighting, which would not have been so bad if it were not for the twenty-degree weather all day long. Tonight we went to the Kirkham’s house for a party for Jordan, Tom, and Kristan. This photo is from the party, they put a whole box of matches on the cake as candles, which of course went crazy with flames several feet high, it was pretty crazy! It was nice seeing Jordan and hanging out with everyone tonight. Tomorrow I work early in the morning! 

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I started work today, after Jared called me at 9:00 and told me I was supposed to be there working…J It took me a while to get the hang of things with the new warehouse at getboards, I got back into it after a couple hours I was back to normal as I was last year. It started snowing this afternoon, and has been doing so since, although it has not accumulated too much. I came home for dinner, and then went to Shane and Jake’s for poker. It was a fun night, this photo is from when we were setting up, before we started playing; I thought it came out pretty well; it looks like something old fashion, like something out of a movie. Matt drove us into town tonight, he did a pretty good job of driving in the snow for the first time, his new truck does pretty well. No work tomorrow, so I think I will sleep in…hmmm, yay for break! 

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It was a nice long day today, doing nothing more than sitting and watching movies, eating, and more sitting. I went to Kate’s this morning and we went to breakfast. This afternoon we went and got Sushi and a movie, the Sushi was really really good, I loved it. Dinner at Kate’s was chicken and dumplings, which was so amazing…gosh, I love not having to eat cafeteria food! After dinner we went to get dessert and take pictures. This was a thirty second exposure. I took the picture and then ran into the frame, which made the cool effect of me being transparent. It was fun taking pictures, but it was freaking cold down by the lake. 

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Well, I made it to Big Bear in time for sunrise as you can see. I drove all night long, I was going to stop and sleep somewhere, but I didn’t get tired, so I just kept going. I took some photos of the lake, and stood out there for a half and hour freezing my toes off hoping that the clouds would light up more, but they did not. This shot turned out very nice despite the fact that the clouds were not as colorful as I had wanted them to be. After taking photos I drove around the lake and stopped in a turn out for a while. I listened to some worship music and read my Bible, it was really nice to sit there and watch the sun come up, God is so amazing. At about 7:45 I went over to Kate’s house to see if I could say “hi” before she went down to school. She was not awake yet, so I got to wake her upJ. It was nice to see her for a few minutes before I came home. Now I am home, it tried to sleep for a while, but I couldn’t really…so I am hanging out for the rest of the day I guess. It is so nice to be home, and on break…I have been looking forward to this for quite a while. 

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My speech was first thing this morning, it went really well for some reason, I got into it and it went very smoothly. After speech was my last meeting for Spiritual Life and then I was finished for the semester! As soon as I finished I hurried back to my room, packed my truck and got on the road. I wanted to get going on that long drive and get it over with. I drove for almost six hours until I hit Redding, where I stopped to see Kira and Josh at Simpson. Josh did not know I was stopping by, so he was really surprised. It was really nice to see both of them. We went to out and got burritos for dinner, and then they took me to the Sundial Bridge, since I needed a photo for the day. This bridge is really cool, you can’t really see it much from this shot, but it is actually a sundial, yes…it does tell time. It was rainy, and I did not bring my tripod, so I didn’t get the best photos of the bridge, but this one of us turned out pretty good, I was able to set it on the ground and get a good shot. After that we headed back to Simpson and I got back on the road to drive all night… 

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I got up early and studied all morning for my Old Testament Prophets exam. The exam did not go to well, I forgot a bunch of stuff, and I knew that I should have studied more. I did get my grade as of before the exam in the mail today for Old Testament, and I had a B, so I should at least get a high C in the class, which is good. It is nice to be done with all of my exams now. I only have a speech tomorrow morning and then I am off driving forever till I get home! I wish I did not need my truck when I was home, because it would actually be cheaper, and take me less time if I flew home, oh well. This photo is kinda random, and different. I took it while I was walking…yeah, but the detail came out really cool and it’s neat. I am so very ready to have a break from school; I am looking forward to seeing everyone in a couple days… 

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My first final was today at 8:00 in the morning, it was really early. My final was not too bad, it was not comprehensive, just an exam on the final section of theology. I got my midterm corrected, because they gave me the wrong grade, so it was nice bringing my grade from a B to and A. After I got back from my final I went back to sleep, because the only thing I had left for the day was studying and work. I slept for two hours, which was very nice. Nothing else besides studying all day…then I had work tonight, which was really slow. Tonight they had a thing called “smack down” which was a wrestling match for the guys in our lounge…it was pretty crazy. That is what this photo is from…I did not wrestle, because I had just eaten a bunch of food, but it was funny watching everyone. One more final tomorrow, and then another one the next day and I am done. 

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I went to the 11:00 service today at church, cuz I wanted to sleep in longer than usual…which was of course nice, for the third day in a row. Unfortunately I have a final tomorrow at 8:00 in the morning, so I won’t be sleeping in then. After church I came back to school and got some lunch and then did homework for a while this afternoon. The place I wanted to get my hair cut at was finally open today, so I went downtown and got my hair cut, it was getting a little to long. I got down there and had to wait for an hour, so I studied for Theology and talked to Kate until they were ready. I took this photo after getting my hair cut, I thought the wall on this building looked kinda cool with the faded painting. After getting my hair cut I came back for dinner…which was kinda disappointing, as usual for a Sunday night. Now I have the rest of the night to study and be ready for my exam tomorrow! 

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Today I got up right in time for brunch at 11:00, it was once again very nice to sleep in. I then went to the bank to deposit my paycheck, proceeding on I went to Buffalo Exchange to look for some clothes, but I decided against purchasing anything, since I kinda need to money to get home in a couple days. I stopped by Stumptown and got a mocha and then did the rest of my Psychology midterm while sitting in my truck, drinking coffee, and listening to Tom Petty. I got back to my room to hang out for a while before work. Alex gave me shirt he did not want anymore, which was nice, since I always like new clothes! Kate called when she got off work and we got to talk for a few minutes, it was really nice. Jeremy wanted to pick up a lazy boy recliner he found on Craig’s List, so I drove him out to Beaverton to pick it up. When we got back I hung out with a couple of the guys in our room for a while, before I headed to work at 5:30. Work was pretty slow, especially for a Saturday night. The end is near, I can’t wait! Only 4 days 15 hours 43 minutes until I am home! Ha…can you tell I am ready to not do school for a couple weeks? 

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It was very nice only having one class today, because I was able to sleep in for quite a while, almost to lunch in fact. It was nice sleeping in, but it also made me feel kinda lazy wasting most of the day away like that. Psychology was really short today, I just went to pick up my final exam, which is take home obviously, and fill out a teacher evaluation form. I have been working on my final for quite a while today; I am about half way through now. Work was good tonight, I made a bunch of money in tips it was nice. I made a $25 tip on one run today; yeah I know that’s a big tip for two pizzas. I don’t know why they gave me so much money, I asked if they wanted any back, but they said to keep it, so it was fine with me! This photo is basically the story of my life until Wednesday when I finish my last final. I am so very ready to be done…I passed ready back in November sometime…well in August to be more precise, haha. Needless to say, break is going to come with much anticipation and appreciation. 

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This morning started off with my public speaking quiz, which was not to hard. My classes were fine today, just the usual. I had my final in World Christianity today and it was really easy. Work was really slow for the first half tonight, luckily it picked up and I made decent money. I took this photo when I was delivering today. I saw this coffee shop and it, of course, made me think of Cooper, so I took a picture of it and it turned out pretty good. My friend Chase just saw this photo and he told me this was a really good coffee shop, so I may have to go try it out sometime. Now I am back, doing homework, hanging out…tomorrow I only have one class, I am pretty stoked about that. 

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We finished all of our notes in Theology this morning in class, which is exciting, because the teacher is giving us Friday off from classes, which in turn means I get to sleep in! I am so excited about that, you have no idea! My Psychology teacher brought her sister to class today, who has multiple mental disorders, so it was interesting hearing her explain the way she thinks and lives with her disorders...I was not quite sure what to think about it, some of it seems like a crutch to not take responsibility, but then some of it seems legitimate, it was interesting that is for sure. I went to work tonight, but I was only there for two hours, because we were really slow. It was an interesting night, even though I only had two deliveries, they were kind of crazy deliveries. It was nice getting off early, because I was able to do a bunch of studying for my speech quiz tomorrow. This photo is from out in front of our dorm, by the security building. Believe it or not this is a self-portrait! Ha…well if you can see me I am the little black dot in the mirror, not sure if you can recognize my face though…haha! I am off to bed, goodnight world! 

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I had an early start with speech at 8:00 this morning, like every Tuesday. It’s weird, being the last week of the semester; I can’t believe how fast this time has gone by. I am really excited to be done, to be able to not be stressed out and to be able to see Kate whenever I want. I did not work tonight, so it gave me a little break, especially since I did not have to much homework tonight. I went downtown this afternoon to see if I could get my hair cut at this place my friend recommended, but they were closed for no reason. So instead of getting my hair cut I took photos. This photo is of a church right by the place I was going to get my hair cut at. I really like how it turned out, the sky was really neat today. I had a couple photos of the sunset tonight, because the clouds were amazing, but they did not turn out exactly how I wanted them. Tonight we had our dorm Christmas party…they had a keg of root bear (yes…you can tell it’s a Christian college when they try to fake a kegger.) They had a ton of food at the end, which was very good. I ate way to much junk though, now I am feeling a little fat! What a start to the holiday season eh? Now to bed…and another day ahead, which is another day closer to the finish.