Monday, March 26, 2012

Chapter #26 Arizona Part 1

This past week during my spring break from Kansas State I made my trip over to the state of Arizona for the first time. I went with 16 students college/high school/ youth. All of them I knew or had the chance to get to know them during the mission trip and all of them have different personalities. This trip had a little bit of everything that you would get from a week mission trip like this one including a new nickname, haha! I would say that I'm glad that I went on this trip. Originally, I wasn't planning on going anywhere but I change my mind about it and had some help along the way. Also, this a group that I go to church with on Sundays as well...Manhattan Church of Christ.

Saturday 3/17: It all started early in the morning around 6 o'clock everybody is in the vans ready to head out to Prescott, AZ. The original plan was to stop in Albuquerque, New Mexico for the night but because of a snow storm around the area (Prescott) and the unknowns of it we could most like beat the storm. So the staff changed the plans to try and make it in one trip which basically took us almost 24 hours to complete including stops. I helped drive out there as well a good 5-6 hours out there as well. My first drive through the state of New Mexico was good; all I saw mostly were big trucks driving down the highway...around 2 or 3am Pacific time we got into Prescott finally but we ran into the snow storm; the cabin was sitting on top of a mountain so we tried to drive our van through the snow and it wasn't happening. Our van got stuck on several occasions nearly hit the railing...most of us got out in the cold snow and push the van out of the hole that we dug ourselves in. Our group ended up staying at a church that one of the staff people stayed at while living in Arizona. Flip side of that there's a mini story behind staying there because we actually broke into the church, yeah that's right broke in. I'm not sure who but a few people help out with that and we let ourselves in and finally around 4 or 5am when to sleep...

Sunday 3/18: Because of the storm we thought that their wasn't going to be service the next morning but almost 15 minutes before I guess Sunday School started we got up in a hurry put the stuff away and went to the main service. We had potluck right after service with the members of church before finally going up to the cabin. A couple in Prescott helped us get all of our things together because he had a 4-wheel drive vehicle that can get us up the road even though the road were paved. At the bible base cabin with the snow starting back up again we made it there. Snow falling once again, a bunch of the guys including myself gone some or I should say a quite of but of firewood to put in the cabin because the place inside wasn't really warm. Others chopped wood at the same time. 

 (To Be Continued)

-Eddie III (EGIII)

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Chapter #25 Setting The Stone

All new chapter of my blog and here are the three big topics for this week's post covering the last 2 weeks or so...

Doing What's Right: A couple of weeks ago, I watched a movie called Courageous with quite a few friends from my group called 121. Before that we went on a run to Orange Leaf an ice cream shop in Manhattan. We had a chance to of eat ice cream from different kinds of flavors; plus their was a kids choir group from St. George doing a fundraiser deal to support them. That was cool...back to the movie if you haven't seen it then I won't give away too much information just an overview. Courageous is pretty much about 5 men 4 of the were in the police force, standing up and being leaders of their families, accepting the responsibility and honoring God all at the same time. All of these guys signed a pact that they would all do the right thing. Godly men need to take charge and be leaders of their own families and having faith especially with God. Great movie...

People that I was with 121:
Brian
James
Brandon
Megan W.
Caleb
Joee
Mark
Courtney
Hunter
Joanna

Getting Together: Couple Sundays ago I was celebrating my good friend Leon's birthday with his family. I met his Mom last semester and they seem pretty cool. And I have been hanging out with Nick playing video games...sometimes and then spending some time with my good brother Richie listening to his cool beats and eating lunch. The last few weeks when I have some free time during the week, I have more friend time with Kaci. I met her in one of my classes last fall during my first year at Kansas State. Going to IHOP and Noodles and Company. I'm really enjoy just hanging out and just talking about how our weeks are going and other things...awesome Looking forward to doing it some more before the school year comes to a close.

Others:
Leon
Nick
Richie
Kaci
Michelle
Brooke

Postseason Basketball: Last week I had the opportunity to go to Kansas City for the Big 12 Tournament for radio (K-State). Got nominated by staff to attend this event and it was awesome...not the game of course the K-State men's team lost to Baylor in the first round 81-72. I never been inside the Sprint Center and it beautiful. I was on the radio help calling the game with Brandon Tadtman and we were up there ways...not that far up but you can see the court well from there. The road trip there and back was a lot of fun; with interesting stories, haha!! Now, for the NCAA tourney K-State has a tough road ahead of them starting on Thursday morning to mid-afternoon in Pittsburgh the East region. It will be very interesting to see how they respond against Southern Miss and if they can get pass them.

Road Trip to Kansas City, Missouri with:
Brandon Tadtman
Mike Pereira
Daniel Flores

-Eddie III (EGIII)

Sunday, March 4, 2012

Chapter #24 Kansas State Basketball

This is kind of a special blog but I was at Bramlage Coliseum courtside for the K-State women's final home game against Texas Tech and the game was decided in the final minutes and it was Senior night for the 'Cats...

Manhattan, Kansas: On Saturday night, K-State seniors Jalana Childs, Tasha Dickey, Branshea Brown, JuliAnne Chisholm, and Emma Ostermann played their final home game at Bramlage as K-State lost in a tough game against Texas Tech 64-63 in which K-State lead early by 13 points during the game. It was really disappointing for the K-State to lose their final home game. Childs had a big night scoring  22 points on the night for the 'Cats. The Wildcats started out hot right out of the gate in the first half making shots and playing good defense and they led 36-30 at halftime. Then the second half, K-State left their offense in the locker room and Texas Tech began on a 12-2 run; following that it seemed like the 'Cats couldn't find their groove until about after midway in the 2nd half as began to fight their way back. In the final minutes, Texas Tech left the door open for the Wildcats to complete the comeback as the Red Raiders missed free throws with less than 10 seconds left. After a missed free throw by Tech Tasha Dickey couldn't convert a pass to Brittany Chambers as it just missed by inches as it went out of bounds (hail r the Wildcats as team to lose their final home game with the Seniors but you got to enjoy the fight that they showed in the 2nd half as they almost rallied from 10 down late in the game. Texas Tech hung on to win the game by one as Monique Smalls for TTU scored 15 points and Shauntal Nobles with 16 points to lead the Red Raiders. Texas Tech goes to 18-12 overall and 6-12 in the conference, meanwhile Kansas State and Deb Patterson falls to also 18-12 with a 9-9 Big 12 conference record as they both get ready to go to Kansas City, Missouri for the Big 12 Tournament next weekend. 
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Stat Leaders:
Texas Tech (18-12, 6-12)
Shauntal Nobles 16pts, 8rebs
Monique Smalls 15pts, 4assists
Kierra Mallard 15pts, 6rebs

Kansas State (18-12, 9-9)
Jalana Childs 22pts, 3rebs
Brittany Chambers 11pts, 8rebs
Branshea Brown 10pts
Tasha Dickey 6pts, 6rebs

 -Eddie Grier (EGIII)