Tovin's Journal

December 31, 2018The End of a Chapter
Well, the last day of 2018 started out as any other day might. I got up, went over to Grandpa and Nana's, helped shovel, we came back and got the snowmobiles, and then in the afternoon I went to work from about 4-7:30, before coming home and watching movies with Grandpa and Nana until around 11:30, and then ringing in the new year with family. As I sit here writing this, 31 minutes into 2019, I look back on 2018 and I'm slightly unsure how to feel about it. In many ways, it was the biggest year of my life so far. I got my drivers license, I flew a plane, I've completed almost an entire year of keeping a journal, and I've also changed a lot, physically, emotionally, and spiritually. I've made some friends, and lost some too. But, as I start to think about the coming year, I can't help but smile. If I give it my best shot, I can make it an even better year.

December 30, 2018Reconciliation Sunday
Today was a special Sunday at our church, as we were having communion and such, seeing as how it is the last Sunday of 2018. Mom and I got up early and were at church around 8 AM where we got everything set-up and practiced all our music. Jevin and Enavi came to church with us, and then after church (with the service going fairly well), we went home where Doug (from camp) came and picked up Tevia before the rest of us went over to have lunch at Grandpa and Nana's. We hung around for awhile until everyone started to get home, and then Jevin and I went snowmobiling for awhile, only getting stuck once. Afterwards, we came back and everyone watched another Harry Potter movie while I helped Nana shovel, and then we had dinner, after which I proceeded to drive home, in the dark, with no headlights, on the snowmobile, also missing gloves and a hat. It was cold. Once I got home, I played on my computer awhile before bed.

December 29, 2018I'm A YouTube Cameraman
This morning was Saturday finally, but it didn't really make a difference as it's still Christmas break until Wednesday, so I just slept in and lounged around a while before going over to Grandpa and Nana's house. We didn't really have any huge plans for the day, except that Jevin and I were going to go outside and record his YouTube video, "LEGO Sled by the Sannes Bricks." We did that, and then watched Harry Potter before having dinner and going home for bed. 

December 28, 2018Back to Work
This morning I was able to sleep in a little bit, besides getting a call on my Alexa from Jevin and Nana telling me to wake up. I eventually crawled out of my bed and made my way upstairs. We went over to Grandpa and Nana's house, and just hung out there all day. Jevin and I played guitar for awhile, we went sledding, put together a puzzle, lots of fun things. Around 2:30, I went home to get ready for work, and then drove into town, and worked until 8. After work, I waited like 20 minutes for my food, and then eventually drove home and went to bed.

December 27, 2018Time to Calm Down
I slept in today, once again, and it was nice because I didn't really feel like getting up. Eventually, I was forced out of bed and I got ready for my day quickly before heading over to Grandpa and Nana's. I brought my electric guitar over, so Jevin and I jammed for awhile before having lunch, and then going outside to make a sled run. After a few failures, and a lot of snow down each others shirts, we decided to come back inside, where I sat downstairs for about 30 minutes on my phone, waiting for everyone to join my Minecraft game, even though they never did. After Davin and Mom got back from the grocery store, we watched Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone, as they hope to watch all 8 of the Harry Potter movies before 2019... there are a lot of better things to do in my opinion but ok. After the movie, we had some dinner, and then we cleaned up and played a really fun game called Telestrations. Then, the stress began. We had to drive home,…

December 26, 2018(not so) Little Jeremy's Birthday
This morning, I got up and actually woke up at a decent time, and I was pretty proud of myself. Didn't even need an alarm or anything. We got up, and then Dad dropped us off at Grandpa and Nana's. The girls went ice fishing, and I just stayed at their house and sat on the couch because I'm a boring human being. After awhile, the girls got back, and then Jen & Davin and family showed up, and so we had lots of hugs and saying hello to one another for awhile. Eventually, we had to go home because we were having Jeremy over for dinner. It was his 25th birthday, and so we had him, Sherri, and Dawson all come over for dinner, which I thought was really nice. After dinner, we went back over to Grandpa and Nana's where we all opened presents and then went home and went to bed. 

December 25, 2018Happy Christmas
This morning I was awoken at like 7:30, which was super early for a holiday. I trudged upstairs and we had some amazing pancakes and eggs for breakfast. After breakfast, we cleaned up, and then we had our gift exchange. After all the gifts were opened and all the wrapping paper had been cleaned up, we had a little Christmas concert, and then we got into our snow gear and went out to explore. I went out with Jack and Elias looking for a area that would be suitable for ice skating, and we eventually found one on a beaver dam, about 20 minutes from the house. We went back for lunch, which was an absolutely phenomenal meal with punch and turkey and pickled green tomatoes and stuffing and it was really good. Then, we laid around for awhile, played a game of rook, went outside and played some yard hockey, and then finally after a dinner of leftovers, we packed all our gear and loaded up into the minivan again to trek back to our house. We got home around 8:30…

December 24, 2018Christmas Eve
Mom let us sleep in a little this morning, as we didn't have to get up until later. We got up, and got everything packed and cleaned up before Dad got home from work, and then we all loaded in the good old minivan and took off towards Isle. We got to Grandpa and Grandma's after about 3 long hours of driving, and it was so nice to get out and stretch. We hung out at their place for awhile, and then we got into our fancy clothes, took a family picture, and then went to church for the Christmas Eve service. It was pretty enjoyable and then we stayed and had some shrimp and stuff afterwards, before heading over to Ed and Debs for the Christmas Eve party. We stayed there and saw everyone and ate all the foods and talked to all the peoples for a few hours, and then we went back to Grandpa and Grandma's and went to bed.

December 23, 2018Christmas Eve Eve
We had to get up and go to church today, and it was rather interesting. The little kids were having their Christmas play, and it was very VERY fun to watch. Mom had made us learn a version of Silent Night, and so we sang that in church during the candle lighting, and then afterwards, we hung out a bit before going home. We had some lunch, messed around for awhile, Tevia and I went snowmobile racing, broke a snowmobile, I fixed the snowmobile, and it was a very eventful afternoon. After awhile, I ran the last of the cookie trays I had sold in to a guy in Detroit Lakes, and then we watched a movie in the evening, before having supper, doing advent, and then opening gifts with eachother. Afterwards, we went to bed. 

December 22, 2018Working All Day
This morning I had a great plan to get up at 9 and have two hours to get ready for work... well that didn't happen. Instead I ended up having closer to like a half hour. I eventually raced to work and got there on time, and then started my shift. Work went by pretty quickly and rather uneventfully. I only worked from 11 to 5, so as soon as work was over, I went home and relaxed. I only had about 20 minutes to relax however, as then people started to show up because everyone was coming to our house after caroling apparently. I stayed up and entertained people for a few hours, had some food, and then went to bed.

December 21, 2018ITS CHRISTMAS BREAK
Today was the last day of school for the year, so I was pretty pumped when I woke up. I had to go in early for school because I had Bible study before, where we basically read the Christmas story. Most of school was easy today, cause in first hour we were watching a movie, second hour we played bingo, third we just ate food and talked, and then during fourth hour I finished my registration for FaithFront Retreat in January and got that sent off to them. The rest of school was super easy, and then after school I ran home and dropped off Tevia and then went back into town and went ice skating with Katy and Leonie. Then I came home, had dinner, and then messed around on my computer a little before bed.

December 20, 2018I thought I worked...
This morning I had to get up kinda early for school, and then I got there and had a test and got 100% on it (I think... I'm pretty sure I did). We had Chinese food for lunch, and it was good at the moment, but came back to haunt me later. After school I went home, and then I got ready to go to work. I got to work, and delivered a bunch of the cookie trays I had sold, and then I got ready to work, but then was informed that I didn't actually work that day... whoops. I drove back home, and had some fun live streaming the hermit crabs on the internet, had dinner, took a shower, and then I went downstairs and had some Jesus time before bed. 

December 19, 2018New Roommates
This morning I got up and headed out to school. It went by pretty slowly, but eventually it was over. After school I went home and was chilling, and then I got a call from a friend, asking me if I could watch their hermit crabs while they were on vacation. I said yes of course because I'm a wonderful guy, and so I ran over to their house and picked them up. I brought them home (the hermit crabs) and got them setup in my basement, and then I went into town for our singing at the nursing home time, before going up to the church with Bradly to put all the cookie trays we had sold together. Ben made me fix the wifi at the church first as it had broken, and then afterwards we got around 39 of the 50 needed trays put together. Afterwards, I drove home, but then on the way home, while going through Frazee, apparently I had my headlights off, so the cop pulled me over and I almost died because I was terrified. I eventually made it home, and went to bed.

December 18, 2018Taco Tuesday 
This morning I slept in just a tad, and then I went over to Grandpa and Nana's with Jana and Tevia where we hung out for awhile before Tevia and I had to go to school. School was fun, except for I had my biology final exam, and let's just say I'm happy that it's over. After school, I went home for a wee bit, and then I went into work. Work was fun as usual, and then afterwards I went home, hung out for awhile, and then went to bed.

December 17, 2018Oof
It was time to go back to school this morning, but I felt kinda sick when I got up but decided I was still gonna drag myself out, but then Dad told me that he was gonna give me a ride into town today so I went back to sleep. After having some food, I felt better and went to school which was boring as usual. After school, Dad picked me up and brought me home, and then I played around with my computer for awhile and went for a walk and took pictures of my cat and it was a nice day. Then I played some piano, had chilli for dinner, and went to bed. 

December 16, 2018 I got left. 
This morning we had church and I woke up nice and early and got dressed and was all ready to go. Church was interesting except the internet had somehow broke over the week, and I couldn't fix it and it annoyed me. Anyhow, after church we had fellowship dinner and there was a lot of good food, and then afterwards we went home. I worked on my computer for awhile, and then Dad was going to take me into town with him BUT HE FORGOT. HOW COULD SOMEONE FORGET ME!?!?! Anyway, instead of going into town with him, I Facetimed with a friend for awhile, and then afterwards I attempted to go to bed.

December 15, 2018 I Need to set an Alarm
I woke up this morning to the pleasant sound of being yelled at... because it was almost noon. I quick got up and did all my chores before Mom even got home which was pretty impressive. After my chores were done, we made more cookies... and then more. Eventually we had baked all of the cookies (wow I'm impressed with me) and then I got dressed and took off for work. Work was pretty interesting, especially because Isaac randomly decided to come through the drive-thru and order nothing except a water. After work, I grabbed a bite to eat and then went home. I slept good.

December 14, 2018R-Rated movies in school
Today was normal, except it wasn't really. I went to school, and in history we've been watching Gladiator and it's really interesting but it's pretty violent too... after 3rd hour, I went home and made Christmas cookies with Mom for awhile, and then I went back to school for math, and then went back home again after school and decorated more cookies, as we need to have 25 dozen cookies at the church by next Wednesday. After that, I went to bed, pretty exhausted.

December 12, 2018 It's Thursday
I got up and did the whole school thing again just like every other morning. After school, I went home and chilled for a few minutes, and then I went into town and worked on my homework at Taco Johns until it was time for me to work. Work went pretty fast as usual, and then afterwards I grabbed a bite to eat and went home.

December 12, 2018A Different Youth Group
I slept in a good bit today which was so nice and I loved it, and then just made it to school before class started. School was fun and all, and then afterwards, I went home. Dawson was at our house, so I played with him for awhile, and then Jeremy came and picked him up and then Dad left and went to the church for a meeting. Around 6, I took the girls and dropped them off at Harvest Fellowship, and then I went into town and met Hannah and Hope at Caribou where we hung out for awhile, and then we ran to Wal-Mart to grab a gift for the Alliance Youth Group gift exchange that night. We headed over to the church, and youth group was a lot of fun there. It was the Christmas party so it wasn't a normal youth group, and I knew like half the people there because they were from Frazee, but it was still fun. After that, I had to go meet Jeremy at Holiday and give him some gas money, and then I went home and slept really good.

December 11, 2018Taco Tuesday
I got up this morning I went to school with Bible study before as usual. All my classes went well and nothing out of the ordinary really happened. All we did was mess around in my first few classes which was nice. After school, I swung by home and grabbed my ice skates,and then went into Frazee and went ice skating with Becca and one of her friends. Afterwards, I went into town for work. Gabe stopped by and said hi to me, and then after work I went home and had the girls try and fix my back cause it hurt and then I went to bed cause I was tired.

December 10, 2018 My Choir Concert
I woke up this morning a little late and rushed to meet Caleb, Matti, and Zenia at the Palace for breakfast. After breakfast, we went up to the school where everything went well, and then after school, I went to see Reierson to get help for the test tomorrow, and then I went home. I chilled at home for a few hours, then got dressed for my choir concert. We got there and I warmed up my voice with everyone else, got into our robes, and then went out and preformed. Everything went well, at least from our perspective, and then afterwards I said bye to all my friends and went home where I worked on my computer for awhile before going to bed.

December 09, 2018 Mah Nephews Are Cute
We had church this morning which was interesting, and then after church we went home and hung out for awhile. Jeremy dropped off Dawson and Steven for awhile, so we played games and had food and then we went ice skating and snowmobiling a bunch, and then we went inside and ate more food. After they left, we watched Wolverine which I hadn't seen before, and then I worked on homework until bed.