New Semester=Endless Possibilities

Well it has been a great start to a new year thus far and am HAPPY to say Hello 2010!! Over the break I spent some well needed time with my family and got to take a ski trip to Crested Butte Colorado (my first ever) hitting up the blues and blacks by the end of my first day.... ok maybe not! Never the less is was very pretty up on the mountains and we were blessed with white shiny snow the entire week we were there. To top off the break I traveled to Austin to see MY TEAM!! We got to meet with Lt. Governor, David Dewhurst, Commissioner of Education, Robert Scott, and Commissioner of Agriculture, Todd Staples. We also started on convention logistics which is crazy to think that is just around the corner. This past weekend I went home to the Lubbock-County Stockshow to watch my younger brothers show pigs. I really enjoyed getting to be back in the barns helping wash, and prep everyone for the show.

State LED's Preview

Just have to drop in and say that I am extremely excited about this upcoming weekend in Huntsville! I cant wait to see all the teams that have advanced and will be competing (:

To get everyone updated about the last couple weeks, I went to National Convention in October for a great week, then a few weekends ago the team and I went to TExas Roundup in Dallas getting to attend the Rodeo and have front row tickets to the Pat Green Concert. I then was able to go to the Area I LDE contest before Thanksgiving getting to see all of my Area 1 people.

There will be a follow up after LDE contest this weekend and I wish everyone the best of luck!!

Area I Traveling :}

Well the best thing about this week was that I got to travel and see MY AREA I FOLKS :) Definitely one I am glad I didnt miss out on!! The travel team and I started off in TEXLINE .... approximately 1 mile from New Mexico and 10 miles from Oklahoma..... yes way up in the panhandle. Not to mention, in the house we were staying in, we would be in one time zone in one bedroom and a completely different one in the bedroom across the house! Yes it messed Kaleb up pretty bad but not nearly as bad as getting whooped at some B-ball by those Texline members :Laiken, Glenn, Clint, Sierra, CJ, Cody haha. From here we traveled down to the little one way hallways of Hartley and Channing. Stopping in to grab a bite of Blue Bell ice cream for Allison (and the rest of us) we got to partake on one of the neatest opportunities. Of course most everyone has heard of Boys Ranch but not many people have ever been to it. Because it was on our way and because we had some extra time, we decided that we would stop in for a bit. It was amazing to get to see where our top dogs Tom Maynard, and Aaron Alejandro grew up along with meeting some of the greatest students. From here we hit Amarillo/Riveroad, the big townCanyon and Nazareth, where your Area 1 Vice President Kenley Kleman lives. It was great to see some friendly faces!

And this is where it all turned UGLY.........

So we barely made it through half the week when we realized that are su

pplies were GONE. This meant that we had to drive back to Amarillo to get some rubber bands... not a hard concept just rubber bands. Well we stopped at over 7 different places and NO ONE had rubber bands. Ok so we needed over sized rubber bands but still how hard is it to carry this kind of merchandise??? WEll needless to say after almost 2 hrs of yelling at each other, being dissapointed over and over again a

nd looking for some we finally got pointed in the right direction. Yes I waited in the truck while Allison and Kaleb ran in an REJOICED when they saw that there was a whole aisle full of the oversized rubber bands that we needed. Yes and they spent $60 on these rubber bands buying the store out. What can I say but that sometimes we have spontane

ous fun?! haha

Alright getting back to where we left off: the next school up was Lazbuddie. First of all they had one of the coolest painted murals on their Ag buliding wall and second, they decided to take us out to a well known mexican food place in Muleshoe called Leals the night before.

I had eaten here before and had to agree that it is some of the best mexican food. Kaleb and Allis

on didnt hesitate to also agree even saying that we should

definitely eat there the following day for lunch. Ha well after visiting with some of the Muleshoe classes that next day they decided to take us out for lunch.... to LEALS! It totally made all of our day to eat that great authentic food again. Oh happy day. From here we were off to the big city of Olton, yes they even had carpet in their hallways...hmm never seen that before! and then to Littlefield to stay the night and clean out the FFA Truck. Whoa did we ever do some major cleaning! No joke we threw away 2 BIG trash cans full of stuff and let me mention that afterward is looked like a totally different truck inside and out. Bad luck #2: Allison gets sick :/ I swear they poisoned her (jk jk) but we left this poor sick girl in the care of the sweetest Littlefield chapter officers thus Kaleb and I made our way south to Whiteface and Whitharrel. Small schools yes but some of the most passionate FFA members. 4 da

ys down we only had that night and one more day to go.

That night was a different story all together.... I better leave that between Kaleb, myself and those Levelland chapter officers: Jake, Lisa, Mckalee, Tyler, Paxton and good ole Area 1 Sentinel Tanner Saunders. Ah I might as well give a sneak preview! Well we all hopped in to Keisha Jones (tanners car) and headed to the Walmart to do a little "paper" shopping ;) yes "paper shopping" and spent the night throwing "paper", hiding in a maze field and finding a missing camera, phone and hat. We found all and found ourselves hav

ing one of the best nights ever. Never did I think I could have SOO much fun in L town!

To finish up the week we hit Levelland, Ropes and Roosevelt. It was great to end on a good note and to finish up close to mi casa. Allison made a full recovery and Kaleb

and I found ourselves taking pictures in the cotton field with the FFA Truck to fully end the week. I want to give a shout out to all of the Ag teachers who made this a great EXPERIENCE for all of us:

Mrs. Martin, Mr. Bell, Mr. Hawkins, Mr. Caldwell, Mr. Heck, Mr. Morris, Mr. Biggs, Mr. Bowman, Mr. Lopez, Mr. Seales, Mrs. Wilson (:D), Mr. Gillit, Mr. Patterson

Keep Truckin Area I and love all of you!

THE State Fair of Texas

Yep I have to admit that I had never been to the famous State Fair of Texas..... until this past weekend! You have no idea how excited I was to actually get to go and I fully enjoyed myself besides a few "embarrassing " moments! (those will definitely be mentioned) We started out by driving to Dallas to meet at the hotel to get change and look sharp in Official Dress for a get together at the Cotton Bowl Arena. 1) we were running late so of course everyone was upset 2) it helped that we had a funny cab driver that got us to our destination in 10 min when were were previously told that it would take 35 3) we got dropped off at the wrong gate so had to run half a mile down the side walk in panty hose and heels in hand to gate 6 where we were suppose to be 4) in the process of running I got a rip in my pantyhose :/ so was completely mad because I looked so unprofessional and we were even more late 5) It was hot and we were VERY flushed in the face when we finally arrived but....... things were quite okay after that. We got the chance to meet the FCCLA state and national officers along with the 4H officers and some great people who put on the fair every year. The night only seemed to escalate in goodness because the next thing we know we are shaking Laura Bush's hand and taking a picture with the ex First Lady. Pretty exciting! The next day would have been Saturday and it was a day to be spent at the fair grounds, spent eating all the fried food we could find, spent playing basketball against some college kids, spent watching the dog show, riding the gondala and eating more fried food. :D I have to admit that the fried peanut butter and jelly banana sandwich was the best! Next we are at a reception put on by Texas Tech and a banquet that followed. Of course the best part was the dance afterward. Yes us FFA kids know how to dance. Let me just throw in that Miles flipped Jeremiah not once but TWICE!

Well this last week I have gone from one extreme to the other it seems like. On this past Tuesday I found myself driving to Glen Rose to hop in with Dakotah to attend the Area 8 Banquet in Waco. I got to see some new faces which always puts a smile on my face not to mention running into my good area officer friends down in the Area :D It was great to get to talk on a personal level with one of our major sponsors David Waggnor, and his brothers Dan and Lance Waggnor. This leads me to this weekend where I made a day trip to the LBK to do a workshop with my Lubbock-Cooper Chapter Officers. Our organization's power and success starts at the chapter level and having chapters that desire to better themselves and the members around them in turn makes our organization one of the best ones to be apart of. This upcoming weekend will bring many students, Ag teachers and business officials to the Dallas area for the State Fair of Texas. It will be exciting to see my team once again and to experience one of the biggest events in the state of Texas.

[Passion] is what I live my life by.

The FFA is that [passion]

Phase III

This life never ceases to impress me and I love the busy"ness" of it. This past weekend I flew into Austin to be picked up and put in a 15 passenger, white van with 8 of the team: Aron, Jeremiah, Layton, Miles, Tyler, Miles, Dakotah and of course Blaze. A short time before this I got to tour the FFA Building in Austin that houses the FFA Foundation, VATAT Staff, the FFA Association and Ag Credit Union which was exciting to see where our organization productively does business out of. After piling into the white, unmarked van we pulled out and headed down to the south south part of Area IX where we finished up our Phase III training at Carlos Guerra's Ranch. This was a great place to be at and get away with the team for the weekend not to mention getting to meet some WONDERFUL south Texas members and eating some of the best legit fajitas and cake :0) We went over our team goals for this next year, assigned committees and prepared ourselves for National Convention also getting a chance to watch some college football, cook "early-morning" pancakes, and laughing at our selves giving our election speeches again. Today we had our first Board of Directors Meeting and got quite a bit of business done....... after quite a while in the board room! Well I am headed to Waco tomorrow for the Area VIII Banquet :D

Until time stops , I will not Stop,

Until someone else smiles, I will not stop smiling :}

Until a life is touched, I will not stop reaching

& Until June 5th, I will not stop serving the Texas FFA members