#9

I lost my lead due to lack of interest. Honestly, finals week makes blogging seem insignificant because everything ended up seeming the same. Study this, Lego that, beer, ugghhh... Stopped caring.
The past couple days have been nice. My sister is home with her hubby. We have had lots of family time, and lots of Conner time, my 9 month old nephew. Cutest kid in the world. I spent a good part of the day holding him up and walking him around, lifting him, swinging him, etc. It was tons of fun, but it makes me realize that I need to be in better shape before becoming a dad. That shouldn't be for a few years, so, I have time.
Yesterday, we made roughly a gross of cookies. Not gross cookies, they are quite delicious, but a gross, as in 144. It was a lot of work, but it was a fun afternoon with the wife and pup running around. We decorated the tree as well.
Now, I'm watching the Vikes suck. Must be Sunday night football. Geeze.

#8

I have to keep my lead secure.
I must say, I hate mandatory attendance policies. I understand that the college wants to make sure students are attending class, learning, and all that fun stuff. But, at the same time, shouldn't they be giving me enough for my 12k a year that I want to attend class everyday, opposed to the feeling of the last 2 weeks where I could have been more productive at home as opposed to trying to figure out what to do with myself for hours at a time on campus. I had class this morning, and tried to keep myself busy for an hour and a half, got out early, now have 3 hours until my next class, which is watching students read pieces they wrote over the semester. If my critiques with my classmate are any indication, it isn't going to be worth while. Next, I get another 40 minute break so I can go hand in a group critique sheet and listen for a little about the final coming up on Monday. I'm so glad is the last day of class for almost a month. Hello sleeping in!
In other exciting news, my sister should be coming home tomorrow night. It's almost Christmas. Insanity!

#7

Hey everyone,
Back from a weekend break. Portage was grand. I didn't get to spend as much time with people up there as I would have like, but most of that was for reasons beyond our control and homework. Anyways, Beth's parents got a descent taste of what Portage is all about, and after over 500 miles of driving, we got home just in time for me to do more homework. Yeah! The good, no, great news is that I am essentially done for the semester! I've got classes, but I just have to turn everything in and take on test next Monday that should be relatively easy if the last one was any indication. That leaves me here, sitting in class with nothing to do for two hours, so, I'm blogging to you. Yeah. Definitely makes the hour plus on the bus through snow and traffic worth it... not so much.

#6

Well, I am officially done with one class today. Whoop. 3 out of 4 of the others I just have to show up. The last one I have a group presentation and a final left, but neither should be too difficult.
We are heading up to Portage today. Excitement. It sounds like Beth's dad could have a fairly big crowd, but, we'll wait and see. People aren't always the best at following through.
I hate driving, but I thought I'd make it interesting by pulling out some old mixed CD's, and see what comes up. Should have some old punk and pirated stuff in there. Should be thoroughly entertaining and a bit nostalgic, maybe. My tastes in music haven't changed that much.
Well, I may not get a chance to post over the weekend, but at least I know I'm still beating my wife. Wait... that doesn't sound right. Aww, screw it, I gotta go start lunch and you know what I mean.

#5

Man! I had a lead in the Blog Off, and I let it slip right through my fingertips! Curses! It was my need for a day of laziness before the semester ends that did me in. After completely owning my presentation and gaining the adulation of my peers and prof, I came home to collapse and vegetate before Matt came over for our weekly Man-date. Unfortunately, he had the exact opposite problem of mine, and was overcome by homework. I instead had a Man-date with Beth, which was just as good, although I'm guessing she's not as good at Mario on Wii as Matt is.
The unfortunate news of the day is, Beth has the day off to sit at home relax and clean, and I am stuck at school for the entire day. Curses! It would not be so bad if it weren't for that blasted cold wind and having to walk back and forth across the East bank a 4 times. I was really hoping for more snow, so, color me disappointed. I think the color of disappointment is a brownish, greenish red. Coming home yesterday, before there was really any snow out, I did see the Blaine police truck sitting next to a red Caviler that apparently lost control and hit a pole or fire hydrant in our neighborhood. Oops.
Moose is enjoying the snow. He kept frolicking around eating the snow clumps he'd kick up, then stop, look up at me with white powder all over his nose. Addict.

#4

Aren't finals great? I've got a presentation tomorrow that I may very well have to battle my way through a blizzard. Sounds like fun. Maybe. I kind of wonder what will happen if I get snowed in our long dirt driveway because my little Focus can't make it the couple hundred yards over the dirt. I would hope there would be some sympathy.
Well, this weekend was rather exhausting enough as it stood, but accompanied by a bout of insomnia only helped make Monday a little more painful. I left for class at 8, got home at 6:30, played with the pup, made dinner for the wife and me, and sat down to go over my presentation and passed out for a half hour. Being semi-conscious now, I think I have it all wrapped up, and then I can get this done tomorrow, and shift my focus to a New Testament final. Wonderful, I know. Just in case you are interested, you can take a look at my online portfolio for class at www.jonsewald.weebly.com Let me know what you think. That's all for now, the sleepies are coming again.

#3

Today has been an interesting day. I've spent most of the day crafting presentation for Tuesday on an ad campaign for Lego. I've spent a lot of the last couple days making giant posters with colorful blocks. I never realized how hard it was to draw legos! Holy crap. Corners, little bumps, vague facial expressions, not fun.
The other half of my day has been researching Budweiser for a presentation on their advertising and marketing campaign. I am currently watching a video at insidebudweiser.cnbc.com about the history of Aheuser Busch. Apparently during the 14 years of prohibition, the company switched to selling grape soda, yeast, refrigeration units, and more! The also cryogenically freeze beer so they can comparatively taste test current beers with those of 20 years ago. Freaky! The whole thing is making me thirsty, but I hate Bud and Bud Lite. Someone buy me a Killian's!
In other news, Beth and I are prepping for another trip up to Portage next weekend. It should be fun. Beth's parents are going up and her dad is going to do a two part series on Biblical history and the truth of Christmas. Interesting stuff.
Finally, although I wasn't at church last week, I got to listen to the podcast, and it is rather enticing. Brian has started a series about sex, which Beth and I both thought the American church is too conservative about. They play it out as some evil thing, and try to scare kids away from it with statistics of STD's instead of focusing on how sex really is a great gift from God, and an amazing experience within the marriage context. Sorry to any parents or siblings reading this, but sex is great, I have it, deal with it.
Well, I'm going to wrap up some work on this project and spend some time with my wife, who I believe I am 1 blog ahead of at the moment.

#2

The blog-off continues, and I'm not sure what to say today.
I can tell you I discovered something that scares the crap out of me. A 45 plus pound dog barreling at me full speed and hopping up on the bed when I have a bowl of hot soup in my lap. It was a Rameny mess.
So, the weekend is here, but I'd be a little more excited if I wasn't going to be do homework the whole time. It'll be all about Lego's and Budweiser this weekend, and not in the fun way that it sounds like it would be. Sunday should be interesting and exhausting. I have to run sound at church in the morning, meaning I have to get up earlier than normal, than come home for a couple hours and leave for youth group. Hopefully I can get home in time to watch most of the football game. FOOTBALL!!!
That's about all for now. Off to work on Lego's.

1

So, it is official, Beth and I have started a blog off. Yeah, I know, not the most typical marital activity, but we're not the most typical married couple, so suck it. The rules go as follows, we see who can post the most blogs starting today until Jan 3. 2010. We can only post one a day, and the most by the 3rd wins. We're not sure what they win yet, but bragging rights are the most important aspect... I think. It's hard to say. As far as I'm aware, this is a relatively new concept. Competition blogging. I think I prefer football, but playing football left me unable to walk normally for 4 days, so this may be better for my health.
I'm not really going to launch into anything revolutionary, but just a recount of the last couple days. So, apparently, Beth and I are being highly sought after. Seems weird, but Jake has talked to some higher ups with Native ministry organizations, and they're very excited about us. I'm not sure why, because I have no idea what they are looking for, but we were contacted by two different people within hours of Jake giving them our info. So, that's cool, I suppose. Everything is still up in the air, but it seems we're gaining a lot of support for our eventual move to Portage.
I caught another mouse today. He was Brown. He has a new home by our mailbox.
I rode a bus that smelled like horse poop today sat behind a woman with horse teeth. I'd blame her for the smell, but she got on after I did.
I stopped at target to look at legos for a project with the intention of buying a cheaper set to help me figure out how to best advertise them. All the cool sets are 100 bucks not happening.
My overheard line of the day today was also at target between a mom and her young son. It went something like this.
Mom-"I need you to use a lot of self control right now. I want you to walk right beside me."
Son-"What if I walk backwards?"
He got her there. She never specified how to walk next to her. Just another reason why I want to wait to have kids. I'd rather be the one laughing at it than wanting to strangle the kid.
K, I'm done.

A long time...

Man, it's been a long time for a blog that I had intended to do daily and secretly hoped to do at least weekly. Oops.
This blog is going to be dedicated to my bride. She recently took to trying to blog daily, whether significant or not. While I enjoy reading her posts, sometimes it seems as if they don't really hold much pertinent information. Today, she couldn't have inadvertently proved me more wrong.
Her post today was short and sweet, but in it she posted the link to her old blog, that conveniently runs for about 2 years up until a month before we met. Talk about historical. While to most of you, most of the stuff in it is probably pretty pointless, to me in was priceless. This was near two years of my wife's life documented for me to look into. While a lot of the stories I've heard before, they are the refined, sometimes edited versions from her current self. I was able to peek in at some of these stories from 18 year old Bethany's point of view, and it was pretty crazy. I could see a lot of her that changed, and parts of her that stayed the same. For one, while she may not be a great speller, she's definitely improved (that or spell check has, but I'd like to think it's the first one). I got to take the journey of her taking a photography class, which I was also in, but we didn't know each other. I could envision us working in that darkroom, aware but oblivious of each other. I was the guy with the flamed hat and the headphones with the read light, and she was the skinny quite girl that was almost always in there when I was.
Besides that, I got to see her progression from the awkward teenager to the not-quite-as-awkward confident young woman I was tripping all over. Her very last post was one claiming she was happy with being where she was in life, including being single, an epiphany moment she is convinced lead to us being able to be together. It was very poignant and inspiring all at once. So, thank you blogging for letting me see that small part of her life. It was an experience I much enjoyed, with exception of a few comments about an ex-boyfriend (but hey, I won that one, so, I can't complain too much).
First, I love you Wife, the 18 year old you I never met, the 23 year old you, you are now, and the 70+ years of you you've yet to be.
Second, I propose a blog off. We can see who can be the best at posting regularly over a predetermined amount of time, prize to be determined later.
That is all for now.
Hopefully the next gap will be a little smaller between posts.