Katelyn's Drawing

I'm going to make this blog post quick because I'll be late for school if I make it too long! We leave for school at 7:20 AM, but I always get up at 6:15 AM because I like free time to do things like this.

Back on topic, Katelyn recently drew a picture that she wanted on the blog! It's a little hard to see because she didn't use too much color, but it's still a good one.

"Me and my cousin Bre sliding down the stairs on a mat!!"

I'm surprised that the house is still intact after that sleepover with Bre that she had!

Don't forget: If I'm posting too fast for you and you want to see posts from the past, don't hesitate to visit the archive to the right! Just wanted to put that out there.

Thanksgiving in Iowa Part 2

Well, we're home. But we had a ton of fun in Iowa and Andy Barbour is here to save those memories by blogging about it! On that first night that we were there, I blogged, and I was right! That night, I did get to play Ping Pong against my dad and Nana B. Sadly, both of them beat me, but both also said that my skills were improving. When they left, I was going to try to play against myself by hitting the ball and then running to the other side to hit it back. Quite the exercise I had planned. Well, I hadn't hit the ball two times before I ran to the other side too quickly and nearly cut my chest open on the corner of the table.

This is what I get for playing Ping Pong.

Bre handled it well. The instant I get to the room where she was playing with Katelyn, I tell them about it and make them promise not to tell anyone if I show them. They promise, I show them, and then she goes bolting upstairs to tell my parents. Wow. All I can say. Wow. I guess it was better that way.

I also took some other pictures too! Check it out!

Here's Katelyn roasting a marshmallow.

Katelyn and Bre are going to have a sleepover! That was the best night I ever had!

Katelyn and Bre are playing a game with a monkey. I was never a fan of it. Wouldn't stay quiet.

We had to lock the door to get some quiet from the little ones.

I would rate this vacation an A++ on the successfulness of it! We did nothing but hang around all day and since Katelyn got a sleepover with cousin Bre, it was only fair that I got one with cousin McKinley. It worked out so perfectly! Katelyn gets a cousin exactly her age, I get one exactly my age!

I love this family so much!

Thanksgiving in Iowa Part 1

Happy Turkey Day!

Well, like many people here in the U.S., the first thing we did today was finish packing our stuff leave town, and in our case, go to Iowa. I spent the entire trip listing to music. As we always do when we drive to Iowa, we stopped by the Iowa 80, a.k.a. the world's largest truckstop! We hung around for about an hour and took some pictures.

Here I am with Katelyn's snake, Cornella, admiring the area.

Katelyn's a truck driver!

If you click on this picture and zoom in, you can see that the shirt that she is wearing is an Iowa 80 shirt!

Katelyn has found her happy place!

Well, it was fun to stop by, but we still had to get to Nana B and Nana C's house to see our cousins, Bre and McKinley and our Aunts, Jen and Dawn! The funny thing was, they live about 15 minutes away. We live about four hours away. Guess who got there first. (Hint, hint: There is irony involved here!)

We ate turkey, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, apple pie, pumpkin pie, pecan pumpkin pie, peach jell-O, green jell-o, cucumbers, celery, carrots, rolls, stuffing, and a bunch of other stuff. Afterward, I killed Bre and Katelyn at Ping Pong and so they locked us in a closet. Subtle. We also played hide and seek and McKinley and I almost caught frostbite because they decided to go inside. I might perform a little for everyone tonight on my saxophone!

On the serious note, I just want to attempt everything that I am thankful for. I am certain I will miss many things, but here goes:

I am thankful for my cousins, Bryan, Michael, Julie, McKinley, and Bre. I am thankful for my parents and sister, Katelyn. I am thankful for my grandparents, Grandpa, Jakcie, Grandma, Grandad, Grandma Paula, Nana B, and Nana C. I am thankful for my Aunt Jen, Aunt Dawn, Uncle Dave, and Aunt Billie Jo. I am thankful for my dog, Toby, my sister's hamster, Winter, and every other family pet.

I am thankful for the technology I have, my computer, iPods, iPad, video games, and video cameras. I am thankful for the house above me and the food I receive every day. I am thankful for my education and many friends that I have. I am thankful for my protection and love.

And I am thankful for cheese. Definitely cheese.

Turkey Bowling

Hello, everybody!

Today we went Turkey Bowling at school! And when I say that, I mean that every student in the whole school got to watch the teachers bowl using turkeys for the last half hour of the day. It was every grade level for themselves. The seventh grade sure had the most spirit, though! A couple of days ago, nine of us got together and made signs that spelled GOBBLE!!! - each person got a letter! I got to hold up exclamation point number two! Yay! Sadly, nobody knew who won because nobody bothered to keep score. But then again, it's a middle school. It's laziness all around.

Basically the moral here is happy day before Thanksgiving!

Our Weekend of Sickness, Boredom, and Harry Potter

Well, the title basically summed up the entire post. Yesterday, Katelyn said she wasn't feeling very well. I beg to differ. She attacked me and made me play a game of charades with her! In the end, we did realize she WAS sick. Call me crazy, but there is nothing better than being sick on a Saturday. It gives a perfect excuse to sit around and play Wii all day! I would rather be sick on a weekend because in middle school, if you miss one day, you come back to school with everybody talking about projects and major grades, and other stuff you missed, and it takes you about a week to get all caught up!

This has also been a weekend of boredom. All we did today was sit around and watch TV. So lucky Katelyn's sick. My mom got so fed up with me doing nothing, that she ASKED me to play Wii! That once in a lifetime chance, and I turn it down! Crazy me!

Even after all of this, the highlight of our weekend was probably that I got to see Harry Potter. Twice. We were going to have Katelyn stay at Grandma's while I went to see Harry Potter with Mom and Dad, but since she was sick, we had to take turns and I ended up seeing it twice, once with each parent.

I also took in my saxophone to the Music Shoppe and got it repaired. It was having trouble playing softly and couldn't get down to the really low notes. It sounds great, now! Just wanted to put that out there.

Lastly, this weekend has felt a little weird because this is the first weekend for a really long time that I haven't video chatted with Evan. We barely communicated once! Sorry that this post didn't have any pictures, but what would I have put up? Katelyn sneezing in slow motion? That actually sounds pretty cool . . . anyways, please don't forget to comment on these things! I love comments! Until next post, good night!

Dum - Dum Crane

Today in math, we had to do our Benchmark Test. They are always a pain in the neck. Sitting motionless in a chair, filling in bubbles and forbidden to do the one thing that we humans have spent so many millions of years evolving to do: talking. It's just cruel.

Fortunately for us, our math teacher decided to give us all Dum - Dum suckers while we tested. That was awesome! I realized too late that I didn't have a book to read for after I finished the test! If we weren't doing something, then she'd assign us extra credit or make us read a math book or something! I looked down at the trash on my desk from my sucker. I threw away the stick and folded the wrapper into a crane! I had to make it slowly so that it looked like I was working for the whole rest of the period.

I held up a quarter to it when I took the picture so that you can get a good scale of it. Pretty small, huh? Speaking of quarters, when I made it, somebody bought it for a full 25 cents! About one period later, they realized that it was a total waste of their money and demanded a full refund. Bummer. Anyways, I'm glad tomorrow's the weekend and I will see the new Harry Potter!

Maybe A World Record Trailer

Yesterday I looked at the poll and noticed that "Me breaking a world record" was ahead by one vote! Since I was kind of low on movies, I decided it was best right now to just make it! Now, I won't show the actual movie for a while. What I have done though is made a trailer!

Now, it isn't much, but it covered today's post.

I hope you enjoyed it! The actual movie, which is already done, won't be released to the blog or anywhere else for at least a couple of months. I can assure you, however, that it will be shown on the blog before it is released anywhere else, so keep checking back in! Until next time, happy blogging!

Jazz Concert Uh-Oh

Well, tonight was our first Jazz concert. To get you up to speed, I play the alto saxophone. As well as being in normal band at school, on Tuesdays and Thursdays I show up before school with a bunch of other guys for Jazz band. We do some new songs and then perform them at cabaret night, which was tonight. The order of the night was first some african drummers came and performed first, then drama club performed, then choir did their thing, and lastly, Jazz band.

Now, the deal is, for the past few months, we've been working on the same three songs over and over and over. Each day, I felt like I was progressing a little bit, but it wasn't until about half way through that I was assigned a written solo. Personally, I think that improvisation is easier than a written solo because you can fake a mistake better, so I was pretty nervous. This morning, I swear I played all three pieces perfectly, and was ready for tonight.

Unfortunately, as a superstitious person would say, don't play too good before a concert otherwise you will use it all up! Apparently, he was right. Come the big night, there were two reeds in my case. One beautiful one that I had been using for the past month and was in perfect condition and one that was not even close to broken in yet and sounded horrible. Guess which one I picked.

Yeah, I probably squeaked once every five notes. I was furious. Now, I am up to play my solo and my parents are videotaping. When I look back, I am so angry with how I played that I went into Garageband on my computer and rewrote the whole thing. This movie is completely edited, but this is pretty much how I played that morning.

I am sorry for putting so much text in this post, but thankfully, I am almost done.

I am also kind of happy that nobody really noticed too much even though I sure did. Anyways, I promise to do better at my next concert and I severely punished the reed. Until next post, good night.

Fall and the Tradition of Leaf Jumping

Well, it isn't fall until you make your first leaf pile. Oh, by the way, happy veterans day! Anyways, we made ours today, and it is probably the biggest one we have ever made! We took several pictures!

Here's me doing all the hard work.

Here's Katelyn standing on my back after I jumped in. Such a nice way to repay me.

Good thing I took that allergy pill this morning. You wouldn't believe where I found leaves.

This didn't end too well for her. I was laughing so hard I fell down though!

Her body is halfway across town by now.

Dad couldn't resist the urge to jump, er, skip into the pile!

We had a great time today! Much progress was made, and we helped to put them into the bags too! Fall rocks!

Poll of the month

From now on, every month, I will put a new poll up on the site. Sometimes it will be useful, sometimes it will have no point but just to know what kind of things you guys are thinking out there. This month's poll is "What should my next Andy Productions 3000 movie be about?" and is located at the very top of the right hand column next to the posts. Please, if you haven't, feel free to vote! The more I get, the more accurate it will be! Oh, by the way, the picture to the left of this post is just a picture. Clicking on it won't do anything. Thanks!

St. Louis - Six Flags!!!

Okay, totally kidding. Six Flags is closed. All we did today was ride in a car for a few hours. That's it. I wish we could have gone though. This post was utterly useless.

St. Louis - Day of the Arch

Day three of being in St. Louis was a success! Pretty much the entire day was dedicated to the gateway arch! We first walked right over to the arch and into the secret museum! Dad, Katelyn and I all went up in the tiny capsule and to the top of the arch! Mom stayed down on solid ground. It's not that dangerous! It only sways about 18 inches during strong wind! That's safe, right?

Speaking of which, we all took some pictures! Enjoy:

Katelyn is happily frolicking through the grasses.

She also bought a new shirt in the gift shop!

Katelyn and I are standing in front of the massive structure.

Mom is taking a picture of dad taking a picture of me taking a picture of the arch.

Dad sure seems happy to be here!

Why not?! Why can't I bungee jump from there?!

All we need is a supersize hamster wheel and she could power our house!

Dad, Katelyn, and Mom had fun on the riverboat. I took a nap.

Katelyn likes to take pictures on the arch.

We are atop the arch and looking down below.

Awesome shadow that can only be seen from sky level!

Still can't see Six Flags . . .

Well, it's pretty obvious what we did today. That' s about all we did today! We did go swimming though, and almost missed dinner! Katelyn and I had the pool all to ourselves! Oh, and another thing! Since from the arch windows, you can clearly see our window, we all decided to put the giant box of Cheese Balls in our window to know which one was ours! Up in the arch, we could see them using the binoculars! All my idea. Not Mom's.

Well, I'm dreading tomorrow because tomorrow's our last day. Even so, it will be nice to get back to school. Not.

St. Louis - Zoos, Shoe Shopping, Pools, and More!

Well, this has been day two of our St. Louis trip. Quite the crazy time. We woke up and were almost late for breakfast! After breakfast, we decided to explore the pool deck thinking maybe we should go down there later.

Anyways, the first actual thing we did today was go shopping. The highlight of my vacation: Shoe shopping. Not really. Dad broke his shoe and mom wanted new ones as well. As I was browsing, I realized that they made my exact shoes in a size two and in in dad's size. Talk about awkward.

As well as shoe shopping, we decided to go buy one toy for the pool. It turned out that pool season was over, so we got a tiny basketball. Then we decided to look around for something to get for our room. We got a packet of sour patches. Then a box of Oreos. Then another box of Oreos. Then a six pack of Orange Crush. Then an industrial size box of Cheese Balls. Before long, we realized that we were buying a party.

We also got a good look at our room for the first time. Not too bad huh?

The view is priceless!

Once we bought our treats and had breakfast, we headed out to the zoo. If there are two things I despise, it's zoos, and cold. Lucky me.

Sweatshirts sure helped!

Katelyn and the puffin tank taking a picture with her camera.

Nice picture, dad!

Katelyn takes a liking to taking pictures with her camera.

Those are actually hippos behind her!

Even though we lost Katelyn's camera and had to retrace our steps four times before we realized that it was in lost and found, missed our ride that we paid $40 for, and paid $8 for a cheeseburger that you could get at McDonalds for $1, it was all worth it when we got to the pool - and couldn't use the pool toy.

I guess the point is that even though almost every up had a down today, it was still a pretty awesome one!

St. Louis - The City Museum

Hardly anyone knew this, but we took a vacation to St. Louis, Missouri! Surprise! We got to skip school today and take a ride! But before that, we had to spend a few hours getting ready. We planned to leave at 10:00 AM. Instead we left around 1:00 PM. Since I was blasting my eardrums with music while being under a blanket half asleep, I don't know what anyone else did on the car ride to St. Louis. When we finally arrived, we checked in and rode to the only thing that we were going to do that day: The City Museum.

Now, chances are, if you're my age, you have been to the City Museum. Just to clarify, the City Museum is the farthest thing from a museum that you can get. It is a huge playground of a building made for half-monkey people like myself. It is based upon secret passageways half a foot wide so you can abandon your parents with ease. Climb in one hole, end up three stories down on the other side of the building. With a fork in the path every five feet, it's a child's paradise.

On the other hand, If you're like dad, you think that it is a nightmare come true. I told him that I found an area where we could climb down it and it would take us to the exact area where mom and Katelyn were. Oops. I realized too late that it didn't go anywhere really. I could climb through the vertical six inch exit fine. Dad couldn't. Once he was down, he was stuck. I planned to stay in the giant unbalanced room with him until he got out. Until I got hungry that is. He was persistent though. I admit, it was rather funny how he tried and slipped, tried and slipped. It was every fiber of my being not to whip out my video camera. Eventually though, he forced himself out and scared a couple of girls.

We also took a few pictures while we were there! Check it out:

Here's Katelyn and I running in a giant hamster wheel. On the interstate highway, we'd be speeding.

Such fun when all the lights go out at 10:00 at night.

11 floors up on the roof of the building, a ferris wheel! That's not dangerous at all!

Nothing stops me from using my video camera!

That streak of a person is Katelyn, and that black hole thing is me.

Freezing cold out. Nothing but a sweatshirt. Climbing stepping stones through a pond with water shooting at you.

Smart.

I'M GONNA GETCHA!!!

Looking at these pictures, you haven't seen the half of it. Not even a single passageway is revealed here. Nor is the aquarium, the ten story slide, the climbing pipes hidden in the ceiling, or the random coils that you can climb through. Even though I nearly broke all of my fingers, a leg, and received dozens of scratches and bruises, I can't wait to come back in the future.

You should too.

JMS Fall Dance Ad

As you know from my last post, I recently made an advertisement for the upcoming Fall Dance at my school. This video was shown to the entire school over the massive lunch TV! I decided to put it up on the blog. Here it is:

Feel free to comment on it! We could have done a little better, but we were a bit pressed for time. Unfortunately there was no sound, but it still looked good.

Evan and I are really hoping in the future that we can do more of these! But since they are for the school only, I don't think I will put it in the AP3000 (Andy Productions 3000) DVDs.

Andy Productions 3000

To all of those who have subscribed to my Andy Productions 3000 DVDs, we have finally mailed them out! Every time they are sent to everyone, I will post my favorite movie from the package onto the blog! If you haven't received it yet, think of this as a sneak peek.

Not too bad, right?

Anyways, there is plenty more on the Andy Productions 3000 2010 Season 3! And speaking of movies that I recently made, Since I have made so many video presentations for school (Five in the past nine months), the teacher in charge of JagTV, the school media that broadcasts on the schools TV in the lunchroom where everyone can see it, has asked Evan and I to make an awesome advertisement for the school's upcoming Fall Dance! Knowing us, we couldn't say no. We got some kids to act in it, and then Evan and I (mostly me) walked over to my house and edited it. I put it on a thumb drive, and hopefully tomorrow will be able to show it over JagTV.

Wish us luck!

Halloween is Over

It's the day after halloween!

Katelyn and I both got mountains of candy! Unfortunately, we started half an hour later than the trick or treat time began and 10 minutes earlier than it really ended. Even so, enough is enough right? Plus, before trick or treating, we DID get some pictures of the zombie houses! Check it out!

Also, a few days ago, we carved some killer pumpkins such as this one down here:

Nine total! Well, sadly, our three day weekend is over and it's Monday. I sure hope I am not as packed with homework as I was last week! That would be even scarier than halloween! On the plus side, even if that happens, I know that I get to miss friday because we're taking a trip to St. Louis! St. Louis!