Chefa Kickoff

 Every year Chefa starts off with a yearbook signing, hang out day. It is generally held in August, or September just before school starts. yearbooks are revealed, and the circles of signing begin. We usually spend a large amount of time just hanging out with people we may not have seen all summer long. Though this year there were several games to play throughout the night As always there was a game of volleyball off and on the entire night.
Billy :D

C.J & His Pets

C.J has recently acquired several new pets. First he bought a snake, I think it is a corn-snake but I could be incorrect. He has had it for about a month and a half, and it has grown at least three inches since he first owned it. It is quite a pretty little snake.

The second pet is a two foot long Iguana. I haven't seen it yet except through pictures, but it seems like a pretty cool looking critter. Although the Iguana is pretty cool, the story behind it is even cooler. Apparently this particular lizard was quite the brat. It was just mean to everyone. But C.j eventually managed to tame it, so he decided to buy it from the store he works at. So he's like an official snake whisperer now!
Billy XD

Where It Be At

Choir update:  so choir is going good the songs are cool. But, you have to come to the concerts to find out what they are. I ain't sayin nothin'!!!

Music Update: Finished a Piano workbook & A Guitar workbook...onward & upward I march!

On being a gentlemen or cultured or something like that:  So my family went to see King Leer at the Woodward park Shakespeare Festival. It was about not being selfish. It was funny and was better than I thought it would be. Mom says this doesn't count for Shakespeare, I still have to study him in High School.

Outdoors: OK so I went camping with my friends in Monterrey. The first day we went swimming, boogie boarding, wake boarding & set up camp.  We had a good time at the beach but I pulled a muscle in my calf. Yeah that sucked but whatever. I still walked and played but it hurt a lot the next day.  Mr.Hays left a day earlier then everyone else because he is a pastor. He drove me home with him because I had a party to go to the next day....and the next day after that.

The Parties:  OK because my 2 cousins are never BOTH in the USA at the same time...and they were...this meant partytime.  It was so cool to see them again.  Owen "planned" the party and he had just got back from Germany...I mean that day.  Like I aid Eva was also back from Japan for a while. She had to straighten out some paper work. The second party was for Mr.Wynn.  It was a surprise party, which are always fun!!  It was nice to see all of my montain friends again. I am NOT city.

Dave

Feeling Awesome !!!

Last week I finally got all of my errands taken care of.  I got a new cell (don't even ask) yeah.  I got new glasses so now I can see ( again don't ask) I also got my Leatherman back from the company. I also bought a pocket clip for it ( much easier) Oh and I found my bros ipod that we have been looking for all summer (apparently the sofa ate it)

                                                                                                                         Ricky Vincent

A Job Well Done

OK, of all the piano playin' people I know Micheal Delfin is the best! The very first thing I remember him playing was "Happy Birthday" on my Granny's piano when I was like 6. I remember him talking about composers like they were his best friends, or like some guys talk about sports heroes. He has always been good at what he does. He is now in a college specializing in classic music. They are impressed by him as well. A few months ago he came back to Fresno to have a fundraiser concert.  It was held at Fresno State. He played amazing and he gave a speech thanking us for showing up. He also thanked his parents for homeschooling him, allowing him to chase his dream.


                                                                                                                              Ricky Vincent

Shugert stuff

OK so I decided to read all of the Beverly Cleary books we have, which is a lot. Now I am waiting to see the new movie with my cousins (I hope it is good).

So the Shugerts (the above mentioned cousins) come over to our house every week. We are helping them to Homeschool. Billy & I are trading off weeks teaching them P.E. Mom makes us write out a lesson plan each week. I am teaching Elizabeth to play the piano. Billy is teaching Trisitea to play the drums. Mom is doing here thing as well.

We also have a lot of fun, not just schooling. Something is always happening at our house anyway. But when the Shugerts come, because their family likes to be dorks too, we end up having more fun. We have had a huge Nerf war,  played boardgames, played the wii, laser tag, watched a movies, ordered pizzas, had relay races, puppet shows, comedy acts and on and on and on.


One Thursday I showed Trisitea & Elizabeth how to make Strawberry ice cream. We made a batch for their house & one for our house. Billy & I didn't really have patience that day, so we took our ice cream out before it was done. We had some AWESOME strawberry milkshakes.Mom doesn't always let us have sweets. As a matter of fact the Shugert kids say we are too healthy every week when they come visit us because Mom makes them eat fruit with their lunch.

Some days CJ gets to come too. We like that.

                                                                                                                            rickydave

PSCA Choir

OK so  I went to a choir work shop a month ago and it was fun. It got me all excited about starting choir back up again.  I got to hang with my friends and then we worked on singing. The guys had to learn how to do a falsetto, which is marking you voice high. I had fun, but I am not good at making my voice high. We also worked on reading music. It has now been about two months since I started back up in choir. I am now in the high school choir. It is a little more challenging, but it's still fun!




                                                                                              rickydave aka Ricky aka Eric David Vincent

Goods Times!!!

OK so I went to Laser Quest with Brannon and Mr.Goodbar.  We went with their Scout Troop before they moved. I should've written about it sooner, but life happens...Anyway I won the first round, which was awesome.  Then some other kid won the second one. It was fun and we all had a good time.

  I am working on a school cabinet for home improvement in Contenders.  It is a very needed project because the cabinet would not last another school year.

Another thing I meant to mention a while back was Jesse's awesome party! We hung around inside playing games and Rock Hero.  Then (when it was finally cool enough outside) we played tag, hide and seek tag and  ghost in the grave yard. Jesse is always a fun person to be around, so of course his party would be fun.

Dave



                                                                                                          Eric David Vincent

Tabitha and Crissy

My mom has recently found two of her stepsisters on Facebook. Tabitha lives in Fresno, and Crissy lives in Oregon. About a month ago Crissy came to Fresno, and we went to see her and Tabitha. We met at the hotel Crissy was staying at. We swam for a while, then left mom to catch up with her sisters. After a little bit we came back to pick her up.
Billy :D

Bobby's wedding

 This summer my dad's cousin Bobby got married. He decided to get married before he left for coast guard duty in Alaska. The ceremony was held at a church in Sunnyside. We all dressed up, and went over to view the occasion. After they walked down the aisle we had a formal dinner. Then there were several dances. We left while people were still dancing.
Billy :D

Camping by lake McClure/McSwain

This August we went camping up by an area most people know by the lake "Don Pedro". We didn't camp there though. We were at the side by side lakes of McClure & McSwain. We took C.J along, as we do pretty often on camping trips.

The first day we set up camp & just chilled for a while.

The next day we went to Knight's Ferry on the  Stanislaus River. We walked among the ruins, across the longest covered bridge in California and swam in the river. Before heading back to camp we had dinner at a 50's diner. Mom said if we were brave enough to swim across the river she would let us eat there. We think she was planning to eat there anyway, hmmm...When we got back to the camp Ricky & Mom went for a trip around a cove in McClure in our row boat. CJ & I played board games.

The third and final day Mom, Dad & Ricky went down to the lake to "row" while CJ & I finished our game. Then CJ & I went down with Ricky for a while. Then we packed up & went over to Lake Mc Swain. While at McSwain Mom, Dad & Ricky "rowed" across the lake. CJ & I swam across. It took a long time to get there & back. By the time we got back to the picnic area we had to go home.
Billy :D

Best Back-to-School party

This years back to school party was held at the Pools house. We hung out, played volleyball, and some of us swam. About half way through the night we had a worship service. We sang several worship songs, and read a Max Lacado story. After the party I spent the night with Justin, and Cameron Pool. We hung out and played x-box for pretty much the whole time.
Billy :D

Computers, Chemistry, and Latin Jazz Ensemble

 This semester I have joined two college classes, and a chemistry class. I am part of the IS-15 class at willow international. This is a basic computer course, that covers internet, and basic computer usage. My second class is a Music ensemble at city college. This esemble focus's on the Latin styles of Jazz. such as Songo,  Cha-cha-cha, and Mambos. My last class is with Campus Christian Academy. It is a chemistry course.
Billy :D

Best Yearbook

   I was part of  two yearbook teams last year. One was with CHEFA, as I have already said, the other was with BEST which I will tell about now. The BEST yearbook team consisted of the Orazems, the Meyers, us Vincents, pretty low in numbers as you can see. We pressed forward regardless. We met every other week, and hashed out yearbook pages. One problem... we weren't getting enough pictures. So we eventually released ourselves to just do as much as we could, and didn't bother about the rest. Maybe this year the group will have more participation.
Billy Vincent :D

Driving & College

This August I got my permit, and I started two college classes. I've gone on my first drivers training lesson, and have driven quite a bit since then. I joined a Computer Class at Willow International, and a Latin Jazz Ensemble at City College. I'm enjoying both classes, and I really like driving so far!
Billy :D

Starting School & Chemistry

  This year we started school at the beginning of August. We had our annual giant breakfast and all the you-have-to-do-when-you-start-school-traditions. We usually get started in September, after Labor Day,  so this was a little earlier then normal. Bummer.

I also started Chemistry in early August. So far this class  hasn't been too hard, but it does involve a lot of math. Much like Physics does, except Chemistry doesn't involve (so far) as much thought in choosing your equation.
Billy :D

Going away Parties

At the end of summer several of my friends decided that they should leave for college. Richard and Weston both
had parties.


Richard
Richard had an open house, and invited a very large amount of friends from various groups he was involved in. These included CHEFA, Tower, PSCA, and Debate club. I knew almost everyone that came which was nice. We hung out, had dinner, played ping-pong, and just had a good time.

Weston
Weston had a party in his housing complex's park thing. We met about 8:30 and ate a potluck breakfast. We attempted a game of volleyball, but ended up just hanging out. I knew everyone who came, as they were all from our church.

Good Luck to all my newly graduated friends, those who moved far away, and those who stayed close by. 

Billy :D

Swimming with the Goodbars

Well Billy just wrote about scuba diving with the Goodbar family. Well my family also went swimming, BBQed & hung out with the Goodbar family several times over the summer. Until they moved to Minnesota last month.

Scuba at Central High

 Earlier this summer the Goodbars invited us to go scuba dive at Central High. Basically it was an intro program to scuba diving. I enjoyed this experience. It was a good simple way to introduce Scuba to random people. We went under, and then swam the entire pool length. On another point this pool was massive! I have never seen a pool that big in my life. I could probably fit our house into it. Oh and Central High also has a small water park in the pool area. Awesome day.
Billy :D

Millerton Lake Rocks!

We go a lot of places in the summer. But we most definitely go to Millerton Lake. Mostly because it's so close to where we live. This summer I was able to go with my church high school youth group 3 times. We went  rafting and the guys driving the boats were awesome. Then we eat BBQ.  Then we had a bible study. This was the schedule each time. It was fun to do this over the summer. Billy & I are taking a break from the youth group for a while though.
Rickydave

More memories of June

So I went to the San Joaquin River Gorge. As we were hiking I realized that my stamina has gotten better. I am usually in the back, but this time I was way, way  in the front. I was running far ahead of my parents and brother. Then we went on the bridge.  It was so hot so we did not go much further. But it was cool looking at the river.   After that we went to are Granny and Papas' for dinner and a swim.

For the Chitudo promotion we preformed for the parents and friends. Then all of us had turns trying to break bricks or boards. I  broke a brick yayaya!!! My dad broke 5, go Dad!!!


  I went to my first my guitar and piano recital. I did good, but my teacher did really good. He played a song his Dad wrote. We had junk food after we all played, which is always fun.

Dave



                                                                                                             rickydave

June.

In June I slept late, woke up late and generally laid around reading. I read The Inherited Series, The Redwall Series, The Rangers Apprentice Series, The Lord of the Ring Series and then a bunch of Garfield Comics. Now I did do more than read. It's just that Mom won't let me read these books during the school year. Anyway one thing that happened in June is that the Biggs girls (who live in Kansas) came to visit all of us friends in California. While they were here they had a swim party. It was fun!! We had pizza and of course swam. It was cool to see them again.



                                                                                                  Rickydave

CHEFA Square Dance

Last spring Billy & I went to a Square Dance with our home school group. I saw a lot of frinds and had a good time hanging out and dancing. The last dance we did was the waltz. I did not get all the dances, but it was fun...
                                                                                                                          Eric David Vincent

The Tale of Dads New Desk

OK so the guy that delivered my Dads desk thought he would be bringing it in himself.  Well it took my brother and I to get it in the house. We were doing pretty good, but there was one piece we couldn't get in. Just when we needed it my Dad showed up. The guy was really determined to have the desk go in the office a certain way.  As soon as he left my Mom had us move the hutch to a different part of the desk. My said the whole thing was a comedy.

Eric

Yearbook, CHEFA

This year I joined the CHEFA yearbook team. We met once a month to hash out the details of the yearbook. We gathered pictures at every event, and made then brought them to class to pool our resources. At some of the meetings we just discussed what we wanted the yearbook to be. Other times we would sit down, and get to designing. We ended the year with a pizza party. In the start of the new school year we will give out the yearbooks people ordered and have a yearbook signing party. It's called the CHEFA kick off!
Billy :D

Shakespeare In The Park

I was invited to go watch Shakespeare in the park with a bunch of my church friends. We met about an hour before it was supposed to start, and had a potluck dinner thing. I arrived a little late so about when I got there we started packing up to go to the play's location. I hurriedly ate, and grabbed stuff to carry. We arrived at the site of the play about 20 minutes early, and found a spot to set up our stuff. We then proceeded to hang out until it started. While we were chillin, we saw some CHEFA people, and talked to them for a while. The play was funny, and was well acted. We had somewhat of a difficult time hearing as they had little, or no microphones. They did manage to make themselves heard anyway. We watched "The Merchant of Venice."

Billy :D

Modesto Convention

  This summer my dad, mom, and I went to the Modesto convention. Ricky would have gone, but he was up at camp Chawanakee with his boy scout troop. We drove there, listened to several talks, bought some books and went home. The second day we did the same thing.
   The talks this year were pretty good. My parents liked so many that they bought the entire recorded conference on mp3. This included talks from Voddie Bachum who is a well known conservative, home-school preacher.
   We bought some books written by Voddie Bachum, and some by Todd Wilson. Other than this we bought books on science, and government.
Billy :D

Dakota House

   This summer I volunteered at the Dakota House. This is a safe house run by a lady in Bembe named Jaime Barker. Dakota House is an inner city mission. It is an outreach to less than fortunate children. These kids come twice a week to play games, and have fun, but the main focus is to teach them about Jesus. They get taught about what he did, and why they should care. Also at the end of every meeting they have a prayer time. Where they go around a circle, and everyone who is comfortable doing so prays.
   In addition to the normal meetings they had several extra activities they did. Which the kids who got in trouble the least were picked to go on. Such as going to wild water, & a movie day at at one of Jaime's friends house. They also had a camping trip in August.
Billy :D

psca choir concert

Last month we had the PSCA spring concert. It was so fun.  I had a good time singing, but also being with my friends. After cookies, punch and returning uniforms etc...we went to Starbucks which is a choir tradition.

                                                                                                                  Ricky Vincent

Chefa Conference

  This year we went to the Chefa conference. Which in this case was more of a used book sale. The Chefa conference in years past has been much bigger, and I was somewhat surprised at this years diminutive nature. There were a few classes, but not many. Most of the time I stood outside, and hung out with my peeps. However my Mom did have a part in talking this year, so that was cool.
Billy :D

Shrek 4

 Since the beginnings of Shrek our grandparents have taken us to "the new Shrek movie" for our birthdays. We also go to pizza after the movie. This years movie centered on a twist of Rumpelstiltskin. I enjoyed the movie, and thought it was a clever way to twist the classic storyline. After the movie we went to pizza (cuz that's what you do after a movie) and then headed home.
Billy :D

Dam Diner & Lost lake

We have been trying to taste the food at the Dam Diner for years. This summer we finally managed to get to it for breakfast. We really enjoyed the food. After we finished eating we drove to Lost Lake. We rafted up, and down the lake (which is more of a small river) for the afternoon. At one point we ended up stuck and two drunk guys (who were really excited about life) helped us. Then we had a picnic dinner before heading home.
Billy :D

Movie & Game Nights

  The last few years we've been having movie nights once a month. Last year they ended up being a mix of games as well. I invited a bunch of people over, and we watch movies like hoodwinked, and then turn around next time and watch the Last Samurai! So we really don't have much of a genre. Oh yeah we also had everyone bring something for a potluck dinner.
Billy :D

Graduation Parties

  After the grad ceremony there were numerous grad parties I attended. In fact there were so many invitations that I had to choose between many parties. I did this by simply choosing the invitations that came in first. I enjoyed these parties a lot because they were just a gathering of friends there to celebrate the graduation of this person.
Billy :D

Chefa Graduation

  This years Chefa graduation was epic. I knew almost the entire class, and a lot of them were close friends. We went to the grad ceremony, and watched them all get told how wonderful they were by crying parents. It was a good night in that a bunch of friends are moving on in their lives, that they are commencing a new chapter. The sad part follows in the same wording!
Billy :D

TS3 & Jamba

  I am going back once again to the month of June. We went to see Toy Story 3 & had a jamba before we went in the theater. TS3 was a good adaptation to the first two movies. It had a deeper plot giving it a somewhat depressing feel. The movie was well done, and it followed the other two quite nicely.
Billy :D

Wgtb Camp

This summer I reinstated my career of teaching at we got the beat camp. I have been doing this for about 9 years, but I took a break last year. I came thinking I was only going to help teach, but Brenda (the camp director/my teacher) had other ideas. I ended up playing in three songs, and helping people all over the place! So it turned out to be a lot of fun =D

Billy :D

Scuba Diving

   It been a while since I've gotten on to post, so I'll be going back to the month of June. About mid-June I went Scuba diving. This time right off of Monterey. We could see the aquarium from where we anchored the boat. When I got to Monterey my Dad, and I just hung out, and ate lunch while we waited. When we started to see other divers we found Ed, (who is the owner of the dive shop I learned from) and asked him about the dive, and who he suggested I should dive with. He answered our question, and then set me up with an experienced diver.
We went diving twice, each time seeing a multitude of wildlife.
Billy :D

"Mommy rhapsody" by Church on the Move

Dad Life (Father's Day Opening 2010)

Praise and Worship - Part 2

  This is the second part of my series on praise and worship. In this article we will look at the roots of the word worship, and what worship truly is.

Worship

   Some Christians look at worship as a slow song or hymn that you sing in church. They portray it as a more methodical way of praising God. I believe worship is much more then that. Here are some Hebrew roots for the word worship that show why worship is much more important then just a slow song.

Shachah - To prostrate, reflex in homage to royalty or God, to bow down yourself, humbly beseech.

Cagad - To prostrate oneself in homage, or fall down.


   These two words have almost identical meanings. They both mean to become prostrate before God in reverence & awe. Notice that neither have any mention of music or praise. Merely to prostrate oneself is considered worship.
     The word Shachah  meaning to humbly beseech. You cannot lie to God about humility. Worship is internal! Worship is a state of heart not a slow rhythm that is "worshipful". We need to rise above the outward signs of worship and look inward. If your worship isn't true worship then you will never truly praise God. Praise is the outward manifestation of Worship.
     Look into your heart & look at what you truly worship. Do you meditate on God? Or does your mind wander to more trivial things?

Billy :D

To be continued.....
     

Praise & Worship part 1

   There are many ways in which praise and worship have been portrayed. Some Christians choose to say that worship is only useful for getting you in the proper state of mind. So that you can learn about God. Others claim that worship is the ultimate goal and that learning isn't nearly as useful as praise. I differ from both of these points, and I will show the flaws I see in each argument.

 Praise

    Praise is often associated with fast music and a more modern approach to worship. While this can be included in praise. Praise is not limited to it. Praise is simply the act of glorifying God's name and proclaiming his virtues. Some Hebrew words for praise are....
Halal - To Shine, boast over God, or celebrate foolishly. An abandonment of self , a boasting in the Lord,  
             and being in love with the Lord.
Tehillah - To sing Halal, a hymn, a song of spontaneous praise, glorifying God in song. This is the kind of     
                 praise God inhabits.
Shebach - To address in a loud voice, tone, or shout. To command, triumph, or glory; to shout    
                  proclaiming with a loud voice
Zamar - To touch the strings, to play with instruments.


    These are some of the most common forms of the word praise in Hebrew. Lets look at each definition one by one to see if we can come up with a working definition for praise . In the word Halal (Which is the root for hallelujah by the way) it uses praise as an act of boasting in God and being selfless. It also includes the love of our God and the reflection of his righteousness as a part of praise. Tehillah  states praise as a song that is a medium between God and Man. We no longer need this medium because Jesus has given us direct connection with God through prayer, but it still exists and is still a powerful way of coming in direct contact with our heavenly father. Shebach is a very interesting representation of praise. It includes speaking as praise. This opens up endless possibilities & puts a gravity on our words that would not be there without this avenue. It gives insight into the true job of a pastor. Their job isn't first to teach their flock. Their first job is to praise God, and the benefits of that include teaching a flock! Lastly Zamar tells us that music is an important part of praise as well.
    So If we look at these definitions and meld them together. We find that Praise in it's truest sense is an outward manifestation of the love and grace of Christ. Which permeates the entire being of a elect child of God. Which is displayed through song, teaching, evangelizing, and our every day speech.
Billy :D

To be continued.....

Magic Mountain

 I went with BEST to Magic Mountain for our 8th grade trip. The drive there and back was fun and we ate lots of snacks. A family with a full size van was driving a lot of us so that made it basically a party.  We went on all the good rides at Magic Mountain. Yep it was fun, we had a good time.

My church is going to Magic Mountain for 8th grade as well, but I can't go because it's on the same day as my family party for 8th grade.

DaVe

Fresno art hop - Fresno old architecture - Chicken pot pie shop

  For my art/photography credit we have done several things including going to art museums and going on photo shoots etc... One of these shoots included going to the Fulton mall to take shots of the different sculptures and art pieces stationed throughout the mall. We also drove around downtown and I took pics of historical buildings. We stopped for dinner at the chicken pot pie shop. Which lives up to it's name by serving amazing chicken pot pies.
Billy :D

Riverpark Banquet and Speech/Debate Open House

   A couple weeks ago I went to the Senior Banquet at Riverpark. It was held directly after church, and it lasted a couple hours. They showed pictures of all the seniors. Then Pastor Kevin talked about each of them a little. Then he sent them around to shake the hands of the different senior leaders. It was cool.
   The Speech and Debate club Open House was held today from 2:30 to 5:00. We still got to see a mock debate round, and hear several speeches on the benefits of debate.
Billy :D

This is what happend on my birthday

We had a little bit of time to play wii and watch a movie and have fun then (since we are just moving into our new house) we painted and worked on the house. It really all began by my parents waking me up with really load obnoxious voices singing the birthday song. They also had my dogs jump on my bed. They gave my a big banner that they decorated with all kinds of words and stuff including a $20 bill taped to it and some amazing cinnamon rolls. My big present was a Netbook. It is kinda for school and kinda for personal use. It was expensive, so I didn't get a party. Granny & Papa gave me money to go toward a goal I have set for myself and we had a BBQ.  Meme & Papa are going to celebrate our birthdays with us at the end of the month. We have the tradition of going to pizza and seeing the Shrek movies. So we are waiting a few weeks till it is in the theaters. I hope they want to go to Johns Inc Pizza because I have a birthday card from that place that I've been waiting to use. Okay so now I am 14.
                                                
                                                                                                                                     Eric David Vincent

Best Game Night

This time the game night was held at the Moriarty's house. We got there and chatted and ate. Mostly we just hung out. Though we did end up playing catchphrase and  little scrabble.
Billy :D

Policemen's Memorial

A few weeks ago I went to one of my favorite choir performances.  PSCA, the choir I'm in sings at the police memorial annually. Afterward they give us lunch, which was ok but not bad or good food.  Anyway we sang "The Star Spangled Banner" and "Land of our Dreams"  I like both of the songs, but hey I love singing. Poor me, choir is out for the summer.


 Eric David Vincent 

Bowen's party aka long time no see

 I went to my friends birthday party. I had not seen him for a while so I was really glad to be going. We hiked, played video games and had fun with nerf guns. It was great to be in the mountains again. It was awesome to be with Bowen. Oh and his mom made homemade pizza for his birthday, the best flavor was thai pizza. Good food, good friend, good time.                                                                                                                     Eric David Vincent

Spanish

I'm taking Spanish 2 this year. So for the cultural immersion part of that subject I have done several things. I have eaten traditional Mexican food and listened to live mariachi. I have cooked authentic Mexican foods. I have also listened to Spanish radio and watched Spanish TV shows. I toured a museum and two art studios of Mexican culture. Lastly I will be watching Spanish movies when they arrive in the mail from netflix.
Billy :D

A china cabinet in a small world

   My mom needed a china cabinet for her Grandma's china. So while we were searching for one we came across a piece that was being sold by the owner on Craigslist. We took a look and in the process found out that the person we bought it from is friends with some of our friends. Namely the Woolworth's. So we called up Weston and asked him to come help us move a china cabinet we were buying. We refrained from telling him that the owner of the cabinet knew him. So it was interesting as we knocked on the door and out comes Weston's moms friend! Anyway after the greetings we managed to get the cabinet out of the garage and transfer it to our trailer. Finally installing it into our dining room where the china etc..now resides.
Billy :D

Morro Bay with my cousins

        We went to Morro Bay with Bryanna, Andrew, Nicole, Johnny, Gabby, Ashley and Jessica, my cousins. Well and our parents too. When we got there we found CHEFA's high school group there too. We had a good time collecting shells and playing in the water at Morro Strand Beach. We walked to the end of Morro Rock to check it out. While we were at that section we flew kites, looked at the birds, fish, otters and sea stars. We walked to the other side and got some fresh saltwater taffy. We tried to play chess at the giant chess game, but we didn't get a turn. We just ended up hanging out and having a good time just being with my cousins.We did get to play the normal sized chess games and then we went out to dinner at their favorite restaurant.

                                                                                                                                    rickydave;)

Fresno Art Hop

A few days ago we went "art hoping" in downtown Fresno.  Most of the art galleys in Fresno take part in this. Anyway we toured a lot of them and had a good time.  Though a few of them smelled too much like wine. This is because the gallery owners had appetizers and drinks set out for "art hoppers" to enjoy. Some people enjoyed a LOT too much. We went to six gallerys my favorite one was a studio that worked with glass.

Rickydave

Yosimite Fitness & Sonic

About a month ago BEST went to Yosemite Fitness for a rock climbing field trip. We climbed for a couple hours, and chatted. Most of us also learned how to belay. After our climbing experience we walked over to Sonic and bought some snacks. We stayed and chatted for about a half hour sipping our drinks and snacking on fries. I'm just now writing about it cuz I've been too busy.
Billy :D

Chefa Banquet

    Last Friday was the Chefa banquet. I wore the suit we bought last year except I bought a new tie. It was held at Pardini's restaurant. First we talked and ate. Then they called up the seniors one by one and made them give answer a few questions. We finished up the evening by doing several contra dances.
Billy :D

A break from the city

Ok if you are going to Bass Lake you have to try this place it is called "The Forks" This restaurant is awesome. My  family likes the burgers and fries. It is right next to the lake, so we always order our food to go and sit by the lake to eat it, which is what we did this time. I hadn't been there in a long time, so I was really glad to be there.  On the way home we stopped at  an Oakhurst art gallery. The lady there told us all about native folklore. It was a fun day.

  rickydave ;)

On the minds of men AKA " I See...

Once I met a man who said to me
" how do you do". I answered " I live and I'm free ".
" We are glad " was his warm reply.
Quite perplexed I questioned " why
I see only you, but you speak of two"
" We speak as two merely because it is true".
" For I do not lie and neither does he".
With a look quite perplexed I managed " I see..."
         

                                                                                                                                            billy

House Projects

     We have been doing a lot of projects around the house. Mostly they were effects of the move, but there are some pieces that just needed to be painted and we finally got around to them. We have painted a headboard,  a large throne looking chair (a hall tree), and a bedroom. We have cleaned up around the yard and have emptied out and organized the garage. We hung all kinds of art and pictures (plus weapons). We have been running around like a one legged man in a butt kicking contest! The new house is beginning to look like it's actually livable, and we are getting up to speed on our schooling.
Billy  :D

San Joaquin River Gorge

I recently went to the San Joaquin River Gorge with my boyscout troop. It was fun to camp out there. It ended up being more of a drill though. We set up camp in the rain and the dark. We build a rain blocker to protect our food. This is a tarp with ropes thrown through trees. You have a tall stake at one end and a short stack at the other end, so that the rain would roll down and off of the short end of the set up. Unfortunately we learned all about scotch guarding our tents because even though we were under a tent with a rain cover on the CRAZY WILD RAIN seeped into our tent soaking us all. I was at the top of the hill, which meant the rain hit me first and then rolled down to the others. Eventually the Scout Masters called the whole thing off, because the rain got even heavier. I was bummed because my family has been trying to go here for a long time. My Mom said as I left to scope out some fun places for the family to explore while I was there. I also never got to see the gorge is the light. O well, I still get credit for a campout and drill to check of my list.
 DAVID

Hangin' with the fam

My cousin's came over and we had a blast! We played volleyball with a football, soccer ball and a basket ball. Because we couldn't find our volleyball. After that we went inside and played wii band hero. My cousin Bryanna has a good singing voice so she really likes to play that game.  Well we all like it really. After that we had pizza and then they went home.

RICKY

Saint Patricks Day

Well  it was last month and this month is almost over, but I'll write about it anyway. We were in the middle of our insanity issue so we couldn't really have a full on traditional Saint Patrick's Day feast. Especially if we wanted Ruben's the very next day, from the leftovers. So we decided to just make the corned beef and have Ruben's on Saint Patrick's Day. We ate our sandwiches and watched a new movie. We would have liked to go to our Aunt & Uncles party...sorry about that, maybe next year.

ERIC

Riverpark Jr High FUN Times!!!

First the Jr High guys had another night of Ultimate Frisbee, which is kinda like football but with frisbees. We had a good time. Then we closed the year at Laser Quest. This will be my last Jr. High Guys Night out ever! That's why it was such an awesome one. We had a good time here too. We do stuff with they girls too. It's just once a month we have a guys night out. With the whole Jr. High we went to Broomball. It was fun, to say the least!

Dave

Gleanings for the Hungry

  About a month ago we volunteered at Gleanings for the Hungry, which is an organization that in it's simplest definition hands out food to those who cannot buy enough food for their families. While we were there we cleaned and sanitized over two-hundred buckets!
  There were several stations of bucket washing. First they were hosed off. Then they were put in the awesome steam cleaner for a couple circuits. After that the buckets were scrubbed in soapy water. Next they were soaked in bleach water. After that they were dried up. Finally they were stacked in a pyramid.
   We all switched around on the jobs, but my favorite was the steam cleaner. It was a really cool machine!
Billy :D

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Mens Bible Study

  My dad, my brother, and I went the mens bible study at Riverpark this week. It was really good aside from the need to get up at 5:00. Pastor Micu was preaching on the trinity. He talked about how the trinity was         under-worshiped. Also how each part of the trinity has part in our salvation not just the Son. He also mentioned several other aspects of the Godhead. I really enjoyed it!
Billy :D

Running with Weston

  O.k, so I like to run. I'm not that good at running but I like it nonetheless. So Friday I went running with Weston. I mapped out a mile with Google pedometer. This is a really cool program that is run off of Google maps. We met at Peoples church, which is a mid way point between our houses. We ran it in 8 minutes which is better than I expected, but not great. I plan on getting my time up by running a mile at least once a week, hopefully more like three times, but I doubt I'll have time for that until the summer. Then I'll want to run at midnight or something. Even then I'll have to jump in the pool when I get home.
Billy :D

The craziness of washing dogs

Okay so this might sound CRAZY and it is, so you'd be right. My dogs are both CRAZY nut jobs! My Dalmatian Eddy is a whining and shivering and howling drama fest when I bathe him. Through the whole thing. From start to finish. As soon as he see's the soap and towels. CRAZY. Our other dog Leroy (a chocolate Lab/German Shepherd mix) is a growling and whining (even louder than Eddy) mess when I spray him off. He loves it when I dry him off and even when I'm soaping him up, again CRAZY! I always think animal control is going to be called or something when I bathe them. I know they are all mouth but I wonder what the neighbors think they are doing, or what I'm doing to them. So why do I bother? Well they smell better, so our house smells better, and I love them.

DAVE

Guitar @ Riverpark!!

I Started going to a guitar group put on by my church. Our teacher is GOOD! He is different then my other teacher who is also GOOD! It's kinda like I'm learning in traditional and nontraditional forms. I think they are both fun!

Ricky

Insanity update

We have been doing this for 3 weeks now. It is cool, but painful and then some!! I still say do it though, it's awesome because after we workout we feel great!!

Ricky

RP Guys Night Out

Okay so this time we played Ultimate Frisbee. We sorta played football with the Frisbee too , that was cool. It was kinda hard, but not really once you got the hang of it. You should try it with your family.

Ricky

100 Day of School

Dad got a Best Buy gift card from a client. He doesn't like to shop at Best Buy for work stuff because so many of his clients bring him stuff that is messed up that they got from there. So when it came around to our 100 day of school Mom and Dad decided to spend the gift card on something fun for that celebration. They bought a Wii Band Hero. We all played this game. It's the first time I ever saw my Mom play a video game. She normally doesn't like them. She sang into the microphone. The rest of us took turns playing the guitar, drum set and singing into the microphone. It is fun! Thanks Mom & Dad!!!

Ricky

Lunch with my church peeps

   This Sunday I went to lunch with my friends from church. We went to Wendy's & stayed for around an hour. While we were there I got in a debate with Bethany about the definition of predestination. Which provided amusement for everyone else at the table. I had water with my chicken sandwich to keep a semblance of staying with our nutrition plan for Insanity.

Billy :D

Spiritual Gifts

I enjoyed writing the last article on my thoughts. It was a new venue for the Vincent boys blog. So I will be trying to write more on the Christian faith, attempting to voice my opinions and why I hold them. 

  First I want to state what I do not believe to save time later in the article. I do not believe that God grants us everything we pray for. Second I do not believe that we can chose the spiritual gifts that we want granted to us. Thirdly I do not believe that Gods giving is controlled by how much faith we have in his power. God does not restrict giving because of lack of faith. I would go further & state that all three of these are blasphemous ideas. Each contradicting main points taught in the Scriptures.


  Now I will state that which I do believe. I do believe that God answers prayer. I believe that God gives us spiritual gifts so that we may further his glory while on earth. I believe that faith does not help or hinder Gods grace & perfect kindness in giving to us.

  To defend that which I have stated I will prove false the points that I do not believe in & by inductive reasoning prove that which I believe true. First I stated That I do not believe that God grants everything we pray for. God answers all prayer, but he doesn't always say yes. He might say yes, but often he says later or even no. God is not required to give you ANYTHING! He has already given us more then we will ever deserve. Yet we have the arrogance to tell our King that he will give us more!

We are completely evil according to Romans 3:10. Now to solve this problem for us God sent his only son to die a tortuous death to pay our death penalty. This is Grace! We should be thanking him constantly for what he has given us. Even getting up in the morning is a gift! We don't deserve life for even 10 seconds & he gives us years, but what do we do? We complain to him & have the guts to order the creator of the universe to obey our every whim! When you tell God I claim this car in your name or I am thanking you for this boat that your getting me. We are ordering our King to serve us!


   How is this obeying the Lord with all of our heart, mind, & strength? It isn't! I would say that it isn't honoring him at all. In fact it is dishonoring him. By doing this you are putting yourself over God which would be considered idolatry. Which is completely against all of the teachings of the scripture.

  My second statement was that God chooses the gifts that we will receive. This is much the same as the previous statement. God is supreme over man not the other way around. We can't decide that we want to serve a different purpose. We are part of a body, & God decides what part of the body we are to be. You cant decide that you want to serve another purpose. Each Christian is given a part in his plan. Think of it as an honor that you a sinner are allowed to serve in the plan that GOD devised!

  The third and maybe the most important point is that our faith has no influence with Gods Grace. Many Christians believe that if they only had more faith that they would get the truck they've been praying for. This is absolutely ridiculous!  Do you think that God waited till we had enough faith in him to send Jesus? NO! He decided that he would extend mercy to us so that we might be saved! Yet we claim that we have the power to decide to get something from him. This is not only false teaching but is amazingly arrogant! It is stating that you have the power to command the God of the universe tho obey your summons. It's ridiculous!

  This point is very personal to my family. It influenced both of my aunts lives very heavily. Two of my moms sisters have Muscular Dystrophy. This is a muscle deteriorating disease. My aunts grew up in a church where they were taught the name it & claim it philosophy. This philosophy states that if you pray for something & have enough faith that God will grant it to you. My aunts told my Mom that they truly believed the only reason they weren't healed was because they did not have enough faith in their savior! The older of the two  DIED still believing that she did not have enough faith! Rebekah died in sorrow, that she couldn't trust her Lord enough to be healed. Bethany is still alive, but has to live with the burden of thinking that she is less than a truly faithful christian. She tells my Mom this every time she sees her.

  I see the unnecessary pain this doctrine causes, & see the complete futility of it. It is just one more way for man to try to gain control of their king!

  Again GOD is in control & he will give or take away as his holy will dictates. We can do nothing to influence this. Our desire shouldn't be to control God it should be to surrender & let God control us.

Billy :D

Insanity

Okay so we started "Insanity" which is a work out, diet plan thing. We have been doing it for about a week. It is hardcore! My brother Dad and I thought we were in good shape...well not good enough. The Insanity people say if you follow the program it is supposed to make you buff in 60 days. Well we are doing it for 120 days so we better be buff !!! The madness ends for us in July. So July 1st and I are all about the pizza!                          
                                        
                                                                                                                                               rickydave

wood carving

Well my brother and I  have started our wood carving projects. As of now I am carving a candle stick engraved and I will be staining it. Billy is making a wooden chain. This is awesome-fun! You should give it a try

Dave

BEST GAME NIGHT

Okay, so  I went to my school groups Game Night it was fun.  We played  Spoons, Apples to Apples, Uno, BS and many other games as well as eating lots of junk food (that is not allowed at my house), like I said, it was fun!

                                                                                                                                                   rickydave;)

Abortion - A Poem

Can you feel it?
Can hear it, can you touch it?
I can
Do you see it?
Can you taste its stench?
Death
but no not of men or women
asleep in their beds.
No, it is much more filthy.

Death
The death of thousands
In my mind i see death.
Death of hundreds nay millions!
They block all other thought.
Do you feel their terror?
The terror of those destined to die
But no, not even in battle do they die
Nay they get no such honor.

Innocent people die
In their beds, in the field of battle
Still others die of sickness.
not these
Do you see them?
I do
They are murdered, with no chance to cry out.
Murdered in the dark.
Do you see them?
The unborn, the slain.
                         B.V

Update on the finer things in life..you know "Fine" Arts

Okay so I have been getting guitar and piano lessons for two months now. I am doing okay. It's awesome-fun! 

I am in the second semester of CHEFA choir, which is also really fun!

In Art class we had a Valentines party. It was no big deal. We basically did our project while eating junk food shaped like hearts in shades of pink. It was still fun though.


Dave


 

Dentist

Last week Billy & I went to the dentist. It was the first time in like five years for both of us. My parents don't bring us unless we are like dying or something. It's the same with the regular Dr. We do go to the eye Dr. more though.
I basically have awesome teeth and gums, amazingly after not going for so long. The dentist did say I might need braces and that I might have a microscopic cavity. Not sure on how the Dentist doen't KNOW if it's a cavity, but that's what she said. I'm ignoring the braces thing..lalala I can't hear you..........
Eric David Vincent

Philosophy - Doctrine - Faith

   O.k so I am going to be writing an article that is on a more traditional blogging subject. My thoughts...... scary stuff there! I will be writing on Philosophy, Doctrine, &  Faith . I believe that if you aren't grounded in these 3 subjects that you cannot live a Godly, Christ-centered life. Also without a healthy knowledge of all 3 evangelism is impossible! So anyway here goes....
   Philosophy- Many Christians believe that philosophy in of itself is evil. They quote Colossians 2:8 "Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.". I disagree with this idea for one reason. THE VERSE DOESN'T SAY PHILOSOPHY IS EVIL! It merely states to beware of "philosophy & vain deceits". In other words beware of bad philosophy.
    Now that this issue is cleared up I can move on to the definition of Philosophy. The word Philosophy comes from two Greek words. Philo meaning love & Sophia meaning wisdom. So Philosophy is simply the love of wisdom. I go back to my previous point and ask " Is the love of wisdom evil"? I would assert an emphatic NO. Proverbs 2:1-6 clearly states that the love of wisdom is inspired by God!

1	My son, if thou wilt receive my words,          and hide my commandments with thee;
2	so that thou incline thine ear unto wisdom,          and apply thine heart to understanding;
3	yea, if thou criest after knowledge,          and liftest up thy voice for understanding;
4	if thou seekest her as silver,          and searchest for her as for hid treasures;
5	then shalt thou understand the fear of the LORD,          and find the knowledge of God.
6	For the LORD giveth wisdom:          out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding.

 I state again " Philosophy is NOT evil"

  Now I will get into the many uses of Philosophy. First & foremost Evangelism is practically impossible without philosophy. To evangelize is to recruit unbelievers to the Christian faith. How do you tell someone that they need to accept God into their hearts if they don't believe in God??? You have to prove to them that God must exist! The easiest way to do this is to meet them halfway. Secular authorities love to discuss philosophy so let them! It is far easier to prove God exists through Philosophy then prove he doesn't! Look at the works of Socrates. Known as the founder of western philosophy this man proved that God must exist, but that before we could know about him we must have someone sent by him to tell us. Socrates was Christianities first martyr.... this man who knew almost nothing about God died for his refusal to honor the traditional Greek gods!
 
     Now to get on to Doctrine-  Doctrine can be a believers most powerful tool! Repeat =A believers most powerful tool. Which is  Not a tool for evangelism!!! Many strong Christians go out to call unbelievers with zeal for Christ, but they consistently fail. Why? Well in part due to the sin curse and non-elect men & women that cannot accept Christ, but I believe there is a second reason. I believe that we( Christians ) are approaching these people the wrong way. We beat them over their head with their sin. Let me ask you a question " Would YOU accept a person you don't know walking up to you and pointing the finger of shame at you"? If so you are a very rare person. I believe that doctrine is meant to exhort & strengthen already believing Christians! 2 Timothy 3:16 states "All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness". This verse places doctrine among other things such as "instruction in righteousness" which are relating only to born again Christians. We must use the tools God gives us for the purpose they were designed for. We do not have the authority to use his gifts for whatever we want. In the same way we must use our spiritual gifts for his purpose not our purpose. Use his gifts as they were meant to be used!

Faith- Again a very powerful aspect of our Gods religion. If you don't have faith then you are not a Christian. Christ calls the disciples "men of little faith", but not men of NO faith. To be a christian you must believe in Christ. You must have faith to believe for faith is just another way to say you believe in something. Faith is what brings us through the hard times of life. It gives something to lean on when their is nothing else. God is ALWAYS here & will never leave us. He will always encourage us & will help us to conquer every piece of sin that we have.

  So there is my thoughts on Philosophy, Doctrine, & Faith concerning Evangelism & the Christian faith.
Billy :D

All Nations Church

 I had the opportunity to attend and also practice percussion with the All Nations Church. I went there after attending my own church last Sunday. The congregation is made up of mostly Nigerians. I loved everything that I saw, The prayer, the songs, the benediction of the babies. It was awesome! The pastors prayer was even rhythmic! He would say something either about God or asking something of God & finish in time with "In The Precious Name Of Jesus Christ". It was sooooo cool! The baby benediction was also spectacular.  They had the elders of the church dress up in traditional African garb & dance in a circle around these babies while singing praise to Jesus Christ! Even after the benediction the pastor kept a baby in his arms while he finished preaching.... I thought it was all very cool.
Billy :D

Broomball

  Last Friday I played broomball with CHEFA youth. Broomball is a game in which you use plastic sticks to smack a ball down an ice-skating rink. You do this while wearing normal everyday shoes not ice-skates. I had a lot of fun hangin out with my friends, and playing 5 games of broomball.
Billy :D

KLONDIKE

This weekend I went on a boyscout camp out called Klondike. I had a fun time gathering all the new backpacking stuff and figuring out how to pack it all into the army back pack I borrowed from Papa. It turns out I didn't really need all that stuff and it really weighed down my back pack. It was my first time going and I was told if I didn't have all that stuff I couldn't go.
We were hiking down hill in the snow, in the dark, with a heavy backpack and also pulling a sled with all the troop equipment. We hiked 2 miles, which is not much, but it feels like 1000 considering...
We played games along with other scout troops at Chawanakee. Then we packed up camp and hiked up hill back out to the parking lot. It's no easy task but I'm already looking forward to going next year!

Ricky

12 Things To Do In Snow Season

1. Climb A Glacier
2. Snow Camp
3. Snow Ball Fight
4. Snow Bike (Montecito Lodge)
5. Ride A Snow Mobile
6. Ice Skate
7. Ride A Sled Or Tobaggan
8. Build An Igloo
9. Snow Board
10. Snow Shoe
11. Ice Blocking
12. Ice Fishing

  Dave

12 Things To Do While It's Raining

1. Go Mud Boarding
2. Drink Tea While Reading and Every Now and Again Look Out the Window
3. Go Mud waring
4. Put Together a Puzzle and Then Glue & Frame It
5. Go Mud Sliding
6. Pop Some Popcorn, Boil some Hot Chocolate and Watch a Movie
7. Play Video Games or Board Games
8. Make Up A Skit & Act It Out
9. Have A Pillow Fight
10. Listen to Music
11. Play Nerf Football or Basketball
12. Lift Weights

Ricky Vincent

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Sierra Summit and Danny's Party

I went snow boarding with our homeschool group. No one in our family but me was free to go, so I went with Cedric's family. We were snowing boarding from 9:50-3:50. After that we came down the mountain and went to Danny's house for his birthday party. Cedric was going to that too, so I road with them. We ate pizza, played video games and played air soft. It was fun. I was wearing my plain black hat at Sierra Summit, but when we got to Danny's and changed our clothes I put on the hat Aunt Ceci made me. It's kinda cool to have an Aunt who can knit like that. Everyone at the party was all like "that's an awesome hat" "Where did you get that" Your Aunt made that?" ...Yeah.

Eric David Vincent

Tamerack Ridge & Winter Awareness Program

I went on a day trip with my boyscout troop to Tamerack Ridge snow park up by Shaver Lake. It was a trial run for the Klondike camp coming up soon.  We went sledding, had a snowball fight, dug some tunnels and went on a snow hike. I had a good time with my friends.

All the local area scout troops got together for a Winter Awareness program to prepare for the Klondike camp out trip. I'm glad I went because I learned some things about camping in the snow that I didn't know. I also got a shopping list of things I need for the trip. It's going to be awesome!

Eric

Bookcases & chicken pot pie

The last week my brother and I were busy washing, puttying, sanding and painting three bookcases. We took some funky furniture pieces and made them into shiny new furniture, if I do say so myself, and I do. Of course we did have the help of our Mom & Dad, but mainly they just gave us advice because they wanted us to do this ourselves. So I say much thanks to them for it.

Also last week, I made a huge chicken pot pie. My top pie crust came out mutated but it was really good,. I also made a double portion of the inside stuff because we like it so much. It was basically like a thick soup. We didn't have any leftovers from the pie or the extra inside stuff.  My brother and I poured tones of the soupy stuff right over the top of our piece of the chicken pot pie. I will definitely make that again.

Dave

Art Co-op with Mrs. Mag.

Well we are in an Art class this year with BEST. We have done some painting, sketching, drawing and other things as well. We have fun learning art types and doing the projects. It's cool to be with our friends.
Ricky

Winter retreat!!!

  Last weekend I went on the Riverpark High-school groups winter retreat. We got to go up to shaver lake, we stayed in some amazing cabins. We also rented the community center so we could all meet somewhere. A friend of Pastor Kevin's came from so-cal to give us the weekends message which was on leadership. We went tubing.... and played a lot of blink! I played once or twice for the morning worship services. The meals were awesome & I had an amazing time hangin with my friends!
Billy :D

Chili

  O.k so if you don't know I like to cook, now you know. About a week ago a made some chili. Here the recipe I used. It is the combination of a couple different recipes. It's really a simple recipe so you should try it. Cornbread is great to eat with it too. My family all liked it and best of all I didn't use any tomato products, it can be done.

Ingredients

• 2 cans of kidney beans( unless you want to cook the beans yourself which I didn't have time for )
• 2lbs of ground beef
• bacon( put whatever you want in.. I put in an entire package )
• beef stock/water
• chili powder
• cumin
• cinnamon
• garlic powder
• onion powder
• celery salt

Methods

• Brown the beef
• Add seasonings to the meat
• Dump everything into the crockpot
• Add more seasonings to the mix (by taste and only if needed)

Billy :D

BEST Game Night at the Tipton's

  Last night we went to the BEST game night at the Tipton's house in Raymond. I find it quite funny that as soon as we move to Fresno they have an event in the area we used to live in..... but anyway. We got there around 5:30 and listened to the worship & had a devotional. After that we ate......& ate some more...... Then we hung out played some music, played  board, card & video games in addition to playing air soft.
Billy :D

Riverpark Bowling Night

   This week the Riverpark high-school group had a "Thursday night special". That just basically means doing something other than the regularly scheduled program for Thursday nights. We went bowling at the Fresno State bowling alley. We rented out the entire bowling alley..... yes we have a large youth group! I personally did really bad, but there were some people who did pretty good. I used to do a whole lot better. What happened to me!
Billy :D

THINGS I HAVE DONE THIS MONTH

This month I have had the pleasure of doing many things such as going to the glow in the dark indoor miniature golf place with our homeschool group(Maximum Putput).
I went out jogging with a friend. It's nice to live close byu so many people. We can just pick up the phone a say hey lets go jogging.
 I got to make a brochure and present it to my boy scout troupe as my way of representing the town I choose to research for my citizenship badge. My troupe said I did great with my people skills, you know speaking to a crowd, eye contact, reading well out load etc.. So I passed that part. I need to work on getting more information written down though.
Last but not least I got to go to the 80th birthday of one of the Grandmasters in Chi tu do!  He is our Yoda or Mr. Miyagi!  He has been teaching fore 65 years and is the first Filipino in the world hall of fame for Martial Arts.  It is so cool to know somebody like that!!! We were able to give him a special presentation to show him the things we have learned because of him. We also ate lots of Filipino food.


                                                                                                                          ricky vincent =)

BEST YEARBOOK

This year I am part of my home school groups yearbook team. We get to take pics of people and make pages out of them. We will eventually  put them all together in the year book. We like to be nice to people and not put bad pictures in, we try real hard to find good shots of everyone. Oh and we also get to make up cover design. Tt is a lot of fun!!!

                                                                                                                                             R.V.

Movie Night at My house

  I was finally able to find a time to invite peoples to my house! I invited a bunch of my peoples to a movie night. We watched "Hoodwinked", played twister,Uno, Blink and Speed Stack. And we ate. I asked people to bring a potluckish dish, we ended up with lots of food...plus CJ's BOX of candy.

     Most of the people I invited were church friends, but I also invited some other home-school  friends. One of these friends was C.J who I have known since I was 3 years old!
  C.J (who keeps trying to change his name to Chad) spent the night after the party because he lives in Lemoore. Besides his family was coming to visit the next day anyway.
  So he, of course, went to church with us the next day. Our youth pastor gave CJ the 20 questions, you know what's your name? What grade are you in? Where do you live? CJ should have just said Lemoore. For some reason he said Hanford...and then the teasing began. Like...You don't really drink that water do you? and on and on.....
After church and lunch we finally finished a Risk game ( we've been trying for years), & played some brawl on the wii. My mom & Jenny ( his mom) went on a walk, drive thing while we were zoning out on those games.
Billy :D

WOW

Well I was just looking at our blog and I realized that in January alone we have almost a third of the number of articles that we wrote last year! Thats a lot of growth for our blog =)
Billy :D

Chefa Yearbook

   So I'm in the CHEFA yearbook team this year. We meet once a month & work on different pages & ideas. We also discuss what pages should be where & that type of craziness. Thiis month we worked on the order of the pages..... & pricing. We also worked a little on the pages.
Billy :D

Josh's B-day party

   A week or so ago I went to my friend Josh's B-day party. We met up at a BEST event called maximum putt putt. It was a glow in the dark mini-golf course. After that finished we left to go bowling. The first bowling game we played I failed........ miserably.... but the second game I did a lot better! After we finished our three games we went back to Josh's house & played wii. I finally beat Cameron on brawl! Around 3:00 or 4:00 we went to sleep. We woke up at 8:00, & had chocolate pancakes & sausage! After breakfast we played a game of 3 on three football with Josh, Cameron, Justin, Tyler, Mr Babcock, Me. We stopped that a little after 12:00 & walked back to Josh's house. After we got there Josh, Cameron & Tyler played a little wii. While me & Justin worked on the treadmill. Then the parents started showing up......
Billy :D

CHITUDO & PE

This month we went to Chitudo three times...instead of just once like we've been doing since we moved here.  That is because we went to a special Black Belt Test night, we went to dinner at Alfonso's afterward, yeah I know. The black belts all had a push-up contest, my Dad and I tied. Go ahead bask in the glow of my awesomeness. We also went to a huge belt promotion/test night. We had dinner at a celebration they had afterward. My brother and Dad broke through bricks with their hands. You can check them  out on Facebook and You Tube. Next time hopefully I will.
Since we moved to Fresno and can't go to class every week it's cool that we live with one of the instructors. Dad teaches us at home so we can stay current with our strength and skill. We also have been doing the Billy Banks Ultimate Boot Camp DVD workout video, which is pretty intense. Dad is ordering us a program for our P.E. called insanity. I think its like 10 DVD workouts. It's supposed to be ummm well insane!

Ricky V.

NERF WARS

Riverpark Jr High Guys Night Out was all about Nerf Wars this month. We had a fun time with this activity. We got to shoot each other with Nerf guns. Pastor Joey, our Jr High Pastor, went all out and got a nerf machine gun! We all had a good time eating snacks and pizza. Then we set up a barricade for the next round. It was fun to be with friends. Everyone said they would like to do air soft next time.


Ricky V.

Night Games & Waffles

   Last Sunday I went to the freshman/sophomore night games. It was awesome, we had waffles & we played murder in the dark! The games consisted of turning off or covering all possible light sources, & then hiding hoping that the murderer wouldn't find you. Then the "detectives" had to figure out who the murderer was.
Billy :D

Jogging w/ my dogs!

   Finally! yes, finally. My dogs are finally "city-fied" enough to jog with! I have been jogging with them almost every day, which is awesome. I was jogging alone & the dog helps me to keep my speed steadily increasing.
Billy :D

Poetry!

    O.k so I was dreading the approaching start of the poetry class....... It is now here, but I found out that it isn't that hard! It's actually pretty fun, So far we have studied Hebrew, Chinese, & Japanese Poetry.
Billy :D

Stuff with my grandparents

   Earlier this month we had them over for a movie/pizza night. We watched the new Star Trek on blue ray, and had Round Table (our Moms favorite pizza). When we need to do our yearbook pages we go to their house because our Grandmother has a few photo programs on her computer we like to use. So anyway we just went over there to do our pages for that and a project my brother had.
Billy :D

Avatar

Last month we went to see Avatar with our cousins Chloe & Jacob, this was our Christmas gift to them. It was a really good movie. The plot was new agey, but it was still fun to watch. The CG was outstanding, being that  most of the movie was CG, it's good they did it really well. After the movie we went to Me & Eds to pick up some pizza that we took back to our house. After dinner we played a little wii & then our dad took them home.
   If you are looking for a movie to see I  recommend seeing Avatar. It is highly entertaining! it's even more fun when you go with cousins!
Billy :D

Project 100

    I played my first Sunday with Project 100 this week! I've been wanting to join for months, but I've been too busy. When I turned in the form I was invited to the monthly meeting, held at the Sees house. We played family   (or empire), ate (an Italian themed potluck), & practiced some songs! I'm going to be a more regular player in the worship group, &  I am looking forward to playing on Sunday mornings & Thursday evnings as well!
Billy :D

Fine Arts Fair etc.

This year for the Fine Arts Fair, the one in Southern California & for my schools open house I am making a .....

•  metal sword 
• wooden stilts
• mosaic bird feeder
• bird bath 
• beeswax candles 
• stained glass piece 
•  wooden box 
•  wooden frame & calligraphy words 
• wood burning plaque 
• wood carving project 
  

 I don't normally do this much, but we are studying Art this year. So my mom is making us do it. But they all look fun. So there you go.
      
                                                                  Davey wonder =)