Du Quoin vs. Herrin 6/22/10

  The Du Quoin vs. Herrin meet was our first home meet, and the most closest meet we ever had. The score started with us four points behind then three, then we were seven points ahead of them, then when we were getting to our last events, we were tied! Finally it was announced that we had won 139 to 143! I had swam the 100 I.M., the 50 back, and the 50 breast. I was also in both relays again. This time, both our relays won second. I won the breast and backstroke but I got second on the I.M.

Du Quoin vs. Salem 6/17/10

    The Du Quoin vs. Salem swimmeet was our swimteams first swimmeet on 6/17/10. It was hosted at the Salem swimming pool, they're pool was a new one and had a water slide and a small pool that had so much cool water equipment it looked like a waterpark! My events were 50 meter butterfly, 50 meter backstroke, and a 100 meter freestyle. I was aso the first person in two relays: The medley relay and the freestyle relay. The medley relay is that the first person swims backstroke, the second breastroke, the third butterfly and the last freestyle. We awon both the relays and I won my butterfly and backstroke, but I got second on my freestyle. We won the meet 351 to 321.

Christian Fellowship Church 2010 Conference

Every year at the Christian Fellowship church in Du Quoin, June 10-13, there is conference. People come from all over S. Illinois and other places too. The fathest a person has come to get to the conference Is Bro. Gabriel who came three years ago from Kenya, Africa. Last year he came with his wife and this year he came with his son, Sam. Other people come from Texas, New Orleans, and even Mexico. A fun person who started coming to the conference almost seven years ago is Bro.Doyle from Texas (He would probably telll you he was from Mexico because he is in love with that country). He taught me how to play guitar and many others too. he also teaches violin, bass, and mandolin. He is a very hyper man who is enthusiastic about the Lord. He even does front flips for Him. Beleive it or not he's 93 years old! The theme for this years conference was Renewing Your Passion for Christ. I think this was a very good topic. Well thats all I have to tell you on this subject.  

FCA: Unleash the Power

Hello. Today I'm going to talk about FCA. FCA means Fellowship of Christian Athletes. Tommorow is the first of the three days of the Du Quoin Power Camp at the Du Quoin Middle School. The theme this year is Unleash the Power. You can enroll for FCA at www.sifca.org. When you come to the school, you will get your name tag. On it will be the two sports you chose and the huddle you will be assighned to. A huddle is the group of people who will be your team in the competetive games which I will talk about later. The huddle leader is the leader of the huddle. A huddle leader can be aged 14+.  After you get your name tag, you will go into the main building for praise and worship. Then you will separate into your huddles for a short Bible study and prayer. After this you may go on a bus to your first sport. My first sport is Track and Field. When you finish your sport you will move to your second sport. You may use the bus, but my second sport was basketball and it was next door to the track. After the second sport you go back to the main building for the provided lunch. After lunch is another praise and worship and prayer. Then is the competitive games. Of what I remember, the competitve games are; Flickerball (basketball played with a football with a few different rules), Trashcan Football (Football with two trashcans as goals), and Volley Ball. After this you go back into the main building where they will announce the huddles that won the most games. Then the day is over.

Mikado: Or the Town of Titipu

This post is all about the show I am in called the Mikado. It is at the Sesser Opera House and the shows are on Thursday (5/27/10) through Saturday (5/30/10) at 7:00 and on Sunday (5/31/10) at 2:30. Grace, Rachel, David, Jonnie, my Dad, and I are in the operetta. An operetta is a short form of an opera. The show is all about a man named Nanki Poo. He was the son of the great Mikado (Japanese for emperor.) and was told that he was to marry a lady called Katisha. But he did not like Katisha and instead fell in love with a beautiful young lady called Yum-Yum. But Nanki-Poo soon found out that Yum-Yum was to be married to a cheap tailor named Ko-Ko. He left the town of Titipu. Soon he found out that Ko-Ko was to be put to death for flurting, so he hurried back to the town of Titipu to claim Yum-Yum's hand but disguised himself as a member of the Titipu town band. Then a lad named Pish-Tush told him that Ko-Ko was going to die but was reprieved at the last moment and was given the title of Lord High Exexccutioner. Meanwhile, the Mikado was disturbed at the lack of executions in Titipu and wanted an execution immediately. Ko-Ko found out that Nanki-Poo was so sad that he couldn't marry Yum-Yum that he was going to kill himself, Ko-Ko thought that Nanki-Poo could, instead, be executed so he (Ko-Ko) wouldn't be in trouble with the Mikado. Nanki-Poo agreed but said that he would allow himself to be executed only if he could marry Yum-Yum for a month, THEN be executed. Ko-Ko agreed to this and the next day Nanki-Poo was married. The next week a law came from the Mikado that if a married man should be executed, his wife will have to be buried alive. Then the trouble came. Things turned out though that the Mikado found out that Nanki-Poo was his son and took away the law that any one should be executed. Everything was happy in the Town of Titipu once again.

Dollywood Trip

Hi there! On 4/28/10 we went on a vacation to Dollywood. The whole vacation wasn't in Dollywood though. First we went to Bloomington, IL. There, we went to Hilton's Doubletree Inn to a conference room holding the DAR conference luncheon. After the lunch, I read my winning essay about the transcontinental railroad. i later was give a certificate and $100! Then we haeded out to paducah, KY. When we reached we went to Drury Inn Suites and stayed in room number 215. The next morning we headed out to Atlalnta, GA. When we passed through Tennesse we saw that we had juust missed a tornado. It took all day to go through Tennesse and by the time we reached our hotel (which was named Holiday Inn and Suites) it was already dark. Our room number was 316. We stayed a week in Atlanta and we did many things there. First we went to the CNN Atlanta Studios and the Coca Cola Company (This was one of my personal favorites). The next day we went to the Atlanta Zoo. The next day we went to the Fernbank Museum of Natural History (This had a IMAX theater which was a wonderful experience) and the Atlanta History Center. On the last day we went to the Atlanta Aquarium (largest aquarium in the world). On Saturday we went on our way to Pigeon Forge, TN. While going there we wanted to bypass the Smoky Mountains and go around it. Instead we accidentall we went right throgh them. What made it worse was that it was raining. When we finally reached our hotel called All Season Suites we were exausted. The next mornin we found out that it was God's plan that we went through the mountains for the roads around the mountain had been flooded by the rain! We had a wonderfull time in Dollywood. Here are my favorites. First is River Rampage which is a circular ride that is made on rapids. This ride made us very wet. Next was River Battle which is a slow ride that has guns on them. You use the guns to shoot other people who are no on the ride and at special targets that may shoot back. We got thoroughly soaked on this ride. Next was Adventure Mountain which was a new attraction for 2010. It was an elevated challenge coarse that lets you feel how it is to be a mountain climber. first they put a harness on you then attatch you to the ride. then you walk on ledges across single ropes and so forth. It was very tricky at points but we managed to get through it. My next favorite is Blazing Fury which is a dark indoor roller coaster which is like a story with moving maneqins inside only it's a roller coaster with three drops. In one it simulates you crashing into a train and when you get right in fornt of the train, you drop. My next favorite is Thunderhead. This is a wooden roller coaster that goes over and under itself thirty-two times and has twenty drops, but amazingly takes only two minutesto run through the whole thing! Well that was our trip to Dollywood! The following is a picture of Thunderhead.

Du Quoin Swim Team

Swimming started June first and have had four swim meets so far. They were with Herrin, Harrisburg, Salem, and Centralia. We have won against all of them, The points of winning ranged from 120-260. I will post other meets and hopefully the Du Quoin Swimming Indians will win all of our future swim meets! Practices are from Mon-Fri, 1st session (for ages 10 and under) is from 9:00-10:00, 2nd session (for ages 11-18) is from 10:00-11:30. Go Indians!!




P.S. visit the Du Quoin Swim Team website .