School Starting

So school is starting on Tuesday less than 48 hours away. I keep thinking about what my classes are going to be like, and what I need to think about. My senior year should be pretty easy! I thought I took physics this year, but it turns out I didnt. I did take Pre-Calc which I think should be pretty easy. I also am going to be taking the ACT one of these days. I’m nervious to take it, but I guess everyone probably is.  I’m not sure why I’m nervous, because I always do the ACT question of the day and normally get the correct. I know…  I will find a question right now and put it on here, and we will see if anyone gets the answer correct, or if anyone even reads my blog. I would be suprised if somebody did!

ACT QUESTION FOR TAYLOR’S BLOG:

Christmas…

Christmas this year had lots of family, eating races, presents, and more family time. As you can see on the right hand side, we have lots of fun at our families homes. We play lots of games… This year it was a ping pong championship. Everybody in the family played and we did the entire braket thing, it turned out that in the end, my cousin Tyler won. This entire thing happened at my Aunts house, at the Olsons Chrismas Party. The Olson Christmas is on the 23rd, so Christmas for us starts on the 23rd every year. On Christmas Eve we went to the other side of the family- The Charboneau’s. The Charboneau’s Chrismtas is held at my other aunts house in St. Michael. The drive gets really annoying with Tanner and Aria (my siblings) screaming at eachother the entire ride about what station to listen to. When we finally got to their house we saw all of our cousins and all went downstairs to go play some Grand Theft Auto on the XBOX. They just got this new 65″ plasma in their living room- so their old 70″ rear projection screen TV is down in the basement for XBOX which is pretty sweet.  We played that for a while, then ate, then opened presents. This year I got a lot of money, and only two real presents- Apples to Apples, and pajamas. :] We used to get pajamas every year from our great grandma Irene, but she died this past year, so to keep her memory alive somebody gave us pajamas saying they were from grandma. After presents everybody starting singin’ Karaoke upstairs on their extensive karaoke set-up. Everybody sang for along time… we got home at 12:32 am. When everybody got home- we all said Merry Christmas to everybody, then went to bed. 

So I wake up to Aria this morning at 7:45 saying comon… wake up so we can open presents. Comon Taylor! After opening presents and sitting around the house I went into bed and had a 5 hour nap. No kidding- it was actually 5 hours. I was working for christmas all week, and didnt get very much sleep- so it felt really good to sleep. Hope everybody has had a great Christmas! There is only 40 minutes left of it- enojoy it while it lasts!

Commitment. [=

So… the past three months I haven’t been bloging (obviously) but intead working on this dumb thing called School. What a waste of time right?! [= No… I have just had alot of homework and been helping up at church here and there, helping my madre with events that she has coming up at work, and then when I’m not doing that stuff I just get to hang out or sleep. So there is an explanation why I haven’t been blogging- I am starting now. One post a day minimum.

My first EB weekend- solo…

I will be at the White BEar Campus doing lights this upcoming weekend! I invite you to come to a service!

Eagle Brook Church

White Bear Lake Campus

Saturday Night Services: 4:00 p.m. and 6:00pm.m

Sunday MOrning: 9:00 a.m. and 11:00 a.m.

My first Lighting Experiance at Eagle Brook- White Bear Campus\

So yesterday and today I shadowed at EBC’s White Bear Campus doing shadowing lights. I got to shadow this really cool guy named Alan. He is the Production Manager at the White Bear Campus. He does lights when they cant find anybody to do them. So here is a picture… This is actually taken at Lino- but looks preatty same at WBL…

So- my first solo week is coming up…. I will let you know which weekend it is once I know!

I will write more later- my fingers hurt right now… haha!

-Taylor

My friends Church Quest Blog- Eagle Brook

Yes, this is Part 1 of 2 for Week 2. I’m almost tempted to change “Church Quest” into “Hurry up and see how many services we can go to in one weekend!”. I think we could technical hit up five a weekend if we really tried and really rushed.

Eagle Brook Church – Lino Lakes
Yes, we’re at Eagle Brook again. This evening we visited their largest campus located in Lino Lakes. It is so big. It is probably one of the few places in Minnesota we use and apply contraflow traffic patterns and its just to get in and out of the parking lot. I brought my “crew” today: a teenage techie and an eight-year-old. They are excited for this Church Quest and I’m excited to test out Eagle Brook’s children’s system. We can see the kids area through the windows. It looks like an arcade! They even get free popcorn. Yum! She gets checked in and we each get a matching sticker for a secure pick up (I better not lose this). Between dropping the kid off and finding our seats I run into three people I know and have a quick chat. At a church of this size I am surprised at the familiarity. We sit behind the tech booth so the teenager can observe all technical aspects (which are all way above my realm of knowledge). The worship and sermon are pretty much the same caliber as last week though Pastor Bob weaves God in a lot more this time around. Church ends quickly. We go to pick up the kid and I am surprised at the quick and efficient pick up process. She has had a BLAST!!! She begs and begs to go back next service (no, not next week, next hour, as in 40 minutes from now). She had fun and loves it! Never in my life have I imagined I’d be standing in a church lobby with an eight-year-old setting my foot down and saying, “No! We’re not going to church again!” I stop, in shock at my own words and the teenager and kid laugh at me. I see why parents love this church. Well, this is Church Quest and the teenager begs me to visit EB’s other campus (he wants to see the synchronization in action). So, I give in.

Eagle Brook – White Bear Lake

We arrive at Eagle Brook – White Bear campus to test out the integrity of their syncronization process. Is this really “one church”? I was here last week, but my crew is new to this campus (and they’re hungry). We give in and buy a delicious, healthy enough, inexpensive dinner from the cafe. Its basic, good, and a thrifty deal (maybe we’ll eat here more Saturday nights just for fun). This campus is smaller than Lino, but still has all the amenities (cafe, bookstore, incredible kids area, welcome booth with flat panel tv, computerized check in, fog machine, intelligent lights, the works!). The kid nearly drags me to the check in station to go to Sunday school (Camp KRock!). I’m impressed that it is so clearly marked even she can find it. She runs up the stairs and I know she’ll be just fine (the woman greeting children reassured me as well and informed me how to pick her up…a refresher really, I did this an hour ago). The auditorium is smaller and set up different (less screens, all seating on the same level, AV booth in the very back). This campus feels more like a church, smaller, cozier, homier. The sermon is nearly word-for-word the same (we would know, we heard it an hour ago). The music is different, but good and its fun seeing this service from two different angles. The worship pastor at this campus weaves the Gospel in as he talks in between the songs…I love that. When I pick up the kid, she is coloring the same picture she colored at the other campus. They learned about self-control today and from the bulletin I read they learned a story about Lot’s family. I love that bulletin blurb. It gives me a clue as to what she learned and allows me to ask more probing questions so I can get more out of the kid than “what did you learn?” “nothing”. She’s excited because she knew all the songs (the same ones she sang at Lino). I learn from this evening, I could have been a much better children’s pastor. Children need a fun, exciting place to learn about a fun, amazing, exciting God and his fun, amazing, exciting Love! If they love church, parents easily love church.

So, I’ll combine these two. This whole evening has taught me:

The church is beautiful when…it shows God’s amazing love and welcoming spirit to children.

Church Quest Website

Fall Kickoff- Eagle Brook

So last night I went to EBC’s Lino Campus for Fall Kick off. Im just gonna say it right now… it was AMAZING! It was the best service I have ever been to. It was better than Willows Arts confrence- yes, i’m serious! So since I am starting to do lights at EBC, I kinda knew what was going to be happening… well a little of what was going to happen. I almost always go to Lino, because I like the enviroment the best there. So I walk into Lino, and I see this little news looking set to the right, and I figure that t ehy will be broadcasting from Lino to all 3 campuses a little news show. So when they open the doors to the worship center, the countdown wasnt on the screen, so I knew that something was going to happen. Then all of a sudden they have a guy come on the screen, and the newscast is called EBC- LIVE! It was really cool because they interviewed the pastors from all three campuses, and they were all talking to each other at the same time. They showed EBC’s best videos and made it feel like ONE big church service. I was really shocked to see when I walked in that the room was “Hazed” aka- fog. Typically they dont haze at Lino because Bob gets stuffed up. -Thats what I heard, I could be wrong.- But I am really excited that they now haze at all of the campuses! So they start the service and right off the bigbang- house lights go to 0%- that never happens. Then the kick drum goes and lights flash. It was cool! Then we had amazing worship as always, and had Bob speaking live to all three campuses. It was really cool during worship beacuse they would show the other campuses live, and they were playing the same songs as us. After Bob was done, they did a song called God of the City. They had a choir come out with the band. IT WAS AMAZING! I have never been to a more powerfull service! It was great! Great job EBC! Great Job!