Hi, my name is Andy. I am a Christian. Thank you for reading my blog! I like short entries and comments. I am a storm spotter, a ham radio operator and a hard core LED-strobe lover! You should see my truck! I work at Ashworth Appliance and Audio Electronics. Also known as Radio Shack. I sell cell phones and wide screen TVs. I lead a boy's Bible study called Knights of the Kingdom of God. I am working on becoming a volunteer firefighter when I turn 18. I want to fly planes as well. Please feel free to comment and ask questions. talk to you soon! The 16 year old storm spotter http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/AndyBoy/ en-us Homeschool Blogger Mon, 27 Jul 2009 16:03:00 -0500 Mon, 27 Jul 2009 16:03:00 -0500 My name is Andy Misiura. I am a lifeguard and counselor at Christian camps during the summer. Last week, I worked at an inner city ministry. It was at this camp that I had an unexpected experience that made me see things differently. I would like to share it with you. The first day of camp, we arrive about 5:00 PM, get settled, have dinner and go over some rules. I give a quick devotion and the lights are out at 9:30. This was my fourth week and things seemed to be running smoothly. From experience, I expected that the kids would have a hard time getting to sleep the first night for obvious reasons like homesickness, nervousness, excited-ness, etc. So I make it my practice to stay up late in case any of my boys need me. It was about midnight and I was just starting to fall asleep when I heard a boy scream what sounded to me like "Mommy!! Mommy!! Mommy!!" It was from the bunk above me! I thought the whole camp must have been woken. I was able to calm him down and he fell back asleep in a minute. I figured he was homesick. Maybe he had a bad dream. I thought it was weird that he would scream bloody murder if he was just homesick. The next day went well. The boys made friends and had fun and fit in wonderfully. So I thought no more about his little panic attack. Until at about midnight. I heard the same scream coming from the same boy. I decided to let him work it out himself, this homesickness or whatever it was. Then I hear these words, "Mommy Mommy!!!! Please stop!! That hurts! Please Please!!! Stop!!" I was frozen. He was eight years old! He was not crying for his mom, he was crying because of his mom. What went on at his house every night that would cause him to wake up in a panic every night at midnight I could only imagine. Not cool! This happened every night for the rest of the week. The experience kindled a tender passion in me for the campers there and made me think how blessed I am to be in a home full of love and tenderness. These kids get that kind of love for just one week every summer, if that. I did get the chance to share the gospel with him one night and he accepted the Lord the last day of camp. He was given a Bible and he was excited to read it. When it was time to get on the bus for the trip home, he refused to get on saying he did not want to go home. On the way back I told him that he had no reason to be scared anymore because he had the Holy Spirit living in him. I had him memorize Hebrews 13:6 Hebrews 13:6 So we can confidently say, “The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?” Please pray that the Lord would comfort him when he faces abuse. Pray that he would grow in his walk with the Lord. Pray that he would be obedient and cooperative with his mom. Pray that his mom would use self control and seek help. Pray that through this boy's testimony his mom would also except Christ as her Savior.   If you could let me know you are praying for him it would be an encouragement to me. Thank you Andy http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/AndyBoy/711877/ Mon, 27 Jul 2009 16:03:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/AndyBoy/711877/ OK just an update for those that are interested. I did pass the lifeguard prerequisite! before the test I gave myself two options saying that I would either come out of the water a lifeguard in training or  stay in that pool and die trying...... It was oddly comforting. I think what I feared most was failure. And if I died I wouldn't have to experience it!  TTFN Andy http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/AndyBoy/698427/ Fri, 12 Jun 2009 14:26:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/AndyBoy/698427/ Hi everyone! I'll keep blogging but tomorrow I'm turning 17! I trust everyone is having a good summer vacation if they you do that sort of thing. I am really exited to have the opportunity to work as a lifeguard and a camp counselor this summer! (Lord willing) I will need to pass my lifeguard training course. I am not worried about passing the training. But I am worried about passing the prerequisite test. For that I must swim 100 yards in the front crawl 100 yards in the breast stroke and 100 more in the front crawl. all without stopping. I just swam that tonight. I felt like I was drowning. Two days after the lifeguard training I leave for camp! That's about it TTFN! Andy http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/AndyBoy/697879/ Wed, 10 Jun 2009 16:34:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/AndyBoy/697879/     In my boy’s bible study group I taught a lesson on the Armor of God. I brought my little brother's play armor set as a visual for the kids. I touched on each important piece and saved the sward for last. When it came time to place the only weapon a Christian has in to the volunteer knight’s hand I handed him only the handle of the busted sward and said “Jacob, how would you feel if a roaring lion came attacking you?” The class got a big kick out of that and rightly so. What good is a knight without a weapon? That was a rhetorical question. A rhetorical question is a question in which the answer is implied. The answer is a knight would be no good at all. He would be completely useless to his king. Fortunately, we as Christians do have a sward that is sharper than any two-edged sward. It is the bible. I am reminded of when I ordered my knife from this police catalog. The company is called Galls for all you tactical people out there. In the picture it looked like a small, light weight, flip knife just like my co-worker has. On the description it said assisted-auto opening. I did not know what that meant but that did not matter to me. When the knife showed up I was shocked when I unboxed a huge blade! It was an inch longer than I expected folded! It felt a pound heaver as well! But the real shocker was when I opened it. I found that auto-opening meant that it was spring loaded! I was terrified and almost dropped it. I know that sounds dumb, but that is how it happened. The next few days I spent practicing on opening and closing the knife. It would drive my dad crazy hearing loud clicks all day. Soon I started to get the hang of it and I am proud to say that I am now an efficient switchblade carrier. At first the switchblade was not much good to me. It was not the switchblades fault it was completely capable of being useful to someone that could use it. I was the problem! I needed training. That training was important because if I did not train myself I would have never have been able to use it when I needed it. I would have hurt myself or someone with it or just never used it at all. Hey man, you know what? The same thing could be happening in your Christian life. Can you find books of Bible? Using you Bible could you show an unsaved person that being good will not get him to heaven? Could you defend your belief that Jesus is God? Could you fight temptation with scripture that would fit that particular situation? If not, you are like Jacob. You are just about worthless to your King. You know what? The bible is important to a Christian. A police officer would never start his shift without knowing how to use his sidearm. A knight would not charge into a battle with a sward he was not skilled at using. I would never use my switchblade at work if I did not know how to use it. Neither should a Christian charge into the spiritual battle without knowing what his bible says. This is not to say that you are useless to God until you have a PH.D in Bible. That is not true at all. But it is true that if you don’t know you bible basics you are unlikely to stand like a Bright Knight should. If you are not bible fluent you should be concerned. If you are always reading your bible and have verses memorized you are learning how to use that sward. Good job! Now we go back to Jacob. After the boys stopped laughing I was able to share the point I just shared with you. The image of a knight with no sward was I think a great touch. It is a great reminder to me, I am sure it was to them and I hope you too http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/AndyBoy/668734/ Sat, 14 Mar 2009 16:20:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/AndyBoy/668734/   Hey All! I just want to tell you about the book I read. I barrowed it saterday evening and was done reading it before we got back from church in the after noon! Wow! What a great book! In this book Alex and Brett Harris stress how important it is to do hard things despite the fact that others expect little if anything from us (teenagers). This was the perfect book for me at this time in my life. I am one that has done hard things, but lately I have been satisfied with what I have been doing. This book talks about the dangers of falling in to the “good enough” trap. What was remarkable but not surprising after thinking about it was that teens think they have to be recognized as an adult before they start to act like one. Like this book points out it is true that if people’s expectations are low we will shoot lower than if they were high. The book also points out that it use to be that teenagers were trusted with hard, tough adult jobs. Alex and Brett Harris say that this is because there expectations were higher. Well how did expectations shrink? I will be drawing my own conclusions for the answer to this question. You would agree that if teens had continued to do hard things public expectations would not shrink but stay. Ok, how did they shrink? If a well dressed young man walked up to me and introduced himself with a great looking smile and a short hair cut I would immediately start to develop expectations for this teen. If he did not meet my expectations at all I would have lower expectations for ones like him from then on. It is just like humans to fail you or not meet your expectations. This happens. Were you ever offended by anyone? Why? Never mind. I bet I know. They did not meet your expectations. If you think about it that is probably exactly what happened? I could give you some examples but I won’t. So if the world had high expectations would that solve our problem? Not completely. I know that Brett and Alex believe that. I like a book that does not say everything. It lets you connect the dots. That is what I am doing. So what would solve our problem though? Doing hard things no matter what the expectations are, high or low. Or if you are a Christian like I am, do hard things because God expects it. I have already started to do hard things. Starting with reading this book in 15 hours, that includes sleep time. I am doing hard things that take me out of my comfort zone. Like today, I greeted and introduced myself to a new boy that attended our church today. I am doing hard things that no one will ever see or appreciate. Today I set mouse traps when my mom asked without complaining (I hate doing that) and eating that casserole that no one likes without protesting. I also have goals for more hard things like my own business. I have large goals I can’t do by myself like producing a film. And speaking of hard I am going skiing tomorrow and I am running on low (having stayed up last night reading Do Hard Things). Plus CowboyKing is staying the night so who knows, I might not get any sleep tonight either. You know what happened last time. J P.S. Thanks JessLBee for the use of your book! I really enjoyed it! TTFN Andy http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/AndyBoy/667777/ Wed, 11 Mar 2009 16:24:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/AndyBoy/667777/   Hello everyone! I am so regretful that I have not added an entry in such a long time. I was about to write an excuse but I will not. I need to take full responsibility for this. Oh well. Hey here is an entry for yah! I went to a youth conference in ND with a friend of mine. While we were there we staid at host homes. The last night we were talking and when we looked at the clock it was 2:45!!! We decided to stay up till 3:00. The next time we looked at the clock it was 5:00. So we decided to stay up the rest of the night! At around 7:00 the host came down the stairs to stoke up the fire before leaving for work that morning. We both in a flash dove for our own sleeping bag and laid there with our eyes shut as he walked into the room. I wonder what he thought when he saw us laying on top of our sleeping bags fully dressed in exactly what we were wearing the day prior with the lights still on. After placing a log on the fire he came over to where we were and stepping right over my friend he turned the lamp off. As our host exited the room I could hear my friend start laughing all most uncontrollably. It was pretty funny!   You may know my friend as cowboyking   Here is a photo we took that morning. We were feeling a little crazy as you can see. I had some fun with this picture as you can see. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/AndyBoy/665330/ Wed, 4 Mar 2009 18:46:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/AndyBoy/665330/   I think it is about time I did this tag. I really like tags, but I forgot about this one. Sorry it's late! I was tagged by NeaNut 1. What time did you get up this morning? 6:00 2. Diamonds or Pearls? Diamonds 3. What was the last movie you saw in a theater? Boy oh boy, I don't remember 4. What is your favorite TV show? The Andy Misiura Show!!! 5. What do you usually have for breakfast? I don't eat breakfast 6. What is your middle name? Thomas 7. What food do you dislike? That would be what my mom calls "Yummy Casserole" 8. What is your favorite CD at the moment? The Song of the Piper 9. What kind of car do you drive? The Fire Truck!! I wish! 10. Favorite sandwich? The 6" sub from Pizza Barn 11. What characteristic do you dispise? Good question, I don't know! 12. Favorite item of clothing? Switchblades 13. If you could go anywhere where would you go? Australia 14. Favorite brand of clothing? 5.11 Tactical!! I love those guys!! 15. Where would you retire to? Heaven!!!! Home Sweet Home! 16. What was your most memorable birthday? 11th 17. Favorite sport to watch? Football 18. Are you a morning person or a night person? Night, but I am trying to be a morning person 19. Shoe size? 11 20. Pets? 1 dog too many!! 21. Any new exciting news? My mom just went shopping and bought chocolate ice cream!!! 22. What did you want to be when you were little? Lots of things. *sigh* 23. How are you today? Loved with an everlasting love 24. What are you listening to right now? My dad is listening to K-Talk 25. What was the last thing you ate? Ice Cream 26. Do you wish on stars? Nope 27. If you where a crayon what color would you be? Yellow or Red the same I painted my room with! 28. How is the whether right now? 31 and sunny! 29. Who was the first person that you talked on the phone today? Nathan, about 4-H 30. What is your favorite soft drink? Mountain Dew 31. What is your favorite place to eat at? Subway!!! 32. Hair color? Brown is what they tell me 33. What was your favorite toy as a child? What's a toy? 34. Summer or Winter? Summer!!!!! totally! 35. Hugs or kisses? What!!!??? That would depend, Big Time!!! 36. Chocolate or vanilla? CHOCOLATE!!!!!!!!!! 37. Coffee or tea? Iced Tea 38. When was the last time you cried? I never cry!!! Actually I cried listening to a song yesterday come to think of it! 39. What is under your bed? Over 20,000 Basketball cards 40. Salty or sweet? Sweet 41. What are you afraid of? Messing up at Radio Shack 42. Do you make friends easily? I don't think I do. Making friends with boys are much easier Thanks for the tag Sarah! I tag anyone that has not done this one yet! Bye Bye!! Andy http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/AndyBoy/655940/ Sun, 8 Feb 2009 14:24:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/AndyBoy/655940/ Hey Everyone I just got done painting my room red! I love how it turned out! This all came about because I was getting a set of 5.1 sound surround speakers and a receiver. So I was cleaning my room and while I had everything torn apart I thought I should paint it. I am glad I did! Here are some pics I took.     Notice I went though great pains to hide all the wires and cords and some how a whole mess of them show up in the picture under my desk!!!! http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/AndyBoy/654027/ Tue, 3 Feb 2009 12:24:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/AndyBoy/654027/   Here is an entry about all the weird things that happen at Radio Shack (where I work). This may cure you of any desire to work retail!!!! LOL  It is really not that bad. I really enjoy it. But, to borrow a line from an old TV show, "you meet some pretty weird people in this business." The stories of today are still fresh in my head although today was not that unusual here are the highlights. I walked in the store at 8:59 and I see one of my co-workers across the room. His back was turned and I saw out of the corner of my eye MONSTER GLASSES!!! You know like what the clowns wear to look silly. I thought he was just playing a joke on me which is not so unusual. The other day he said "I bought you a truck." My heart starts pounding. "Wow" I said to myself "this guy really does make a lot of money here" He reached into his pocket and pulled out a pair of keys, placed them on the counter, and reached in his pocket again and pulled out a match box truck and handed it to me. You see why, now, I would not be surprised that this dude would try to play some kind of a joke or something so I played along. Well...... It was not a joke. Those were his glasses. But I am starting to get use to them now. Today (the day I penned this post not the day it was posted) I sold a 40" TV, laptop, and a T-mobile family plan 2YC in a 3 hour shift!! That does not happen often. Today my co-worker, (this is a different one not the one with the really big glasses) walked in carrying a dying poinsettia. I asked him "is that a poinsettia". "Yep" he said and continued to place the plant on the counter. "Those taste good" I said jokingly of course, but by the tone of my voice he did not know this. He paused in mid stride holding the highly poisonous plant an inch off the counter. He moved only his head to look at me..... "Oh," he said "that explains a lot." Ouch!! He was joking of course. I think. But we all laughed hard. This happened along time ago. One time this guy came into our store and was looking for a Bluetooth mouse for his phone. (there is no such thing) there are Bluetooth mice and keyboards for laptops. Nothing for a phone. As my co-worker was trying to explained this to him I was congratulating myself because I was not the one that had to deal with this customer. And all of a sudden this guy said "Shhhhhh!!!!!!" We all froze. What is this guy's problem? The whole store was completely quiet, except for the TVs and the radio. they kept on blaring. He waited about five seconds then said "The Lord just told me to read though the Bible again." he paused as if in contemplation, then said "where should I start Lord?" waited again and said "He said to start at the beginning." Me and my co-worker just looked at each other not sure what to think. He got the impression this guy was making fun of him and wasting his time so he walked away. And the guy, now calling friend on his phone to tell him of this religious episode walked out the door. That was probably the most uncanny thing that happened at radio shack since I have worked there. One time there was a shoplifter came though the store after shoplifting at another store. I was not there unfortunately. A co-worker answered the phone. It was the store that got burglarized. They described the man that just walked though the store as the thief. So my co-worker ran him down and turned him over to the cops who were right behind them. I wish I could have been there!! Every day there is a blast! Just when it gets to be same old same old an uncustomary customer walks in. I began this entry a few weeks ago but did not finish it till now so not all the information is current. Thanks for your comments! Andy http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/AndyBoy/646058/ Thu, 15 Jan 2009 20:44:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/AndyBoy/646058/ Tagged by NeaNut Ten things you do every day: 1 Work 2 School 3 Sleep 4 Eat 5 Blog 6 Work on laptop (not to be confused with playing on laptop) 7 Memorize the Bible 8 Read books 9 This is harder then I thought 10 Think   I am not sure who has been tagged and who has not. So if you would like to do it consider yourself tagged!       When I got up this morning (I have lots of time in the morning I get up at 6:00) I got online and the temp outside was -26. -COLD That reminds me of the time I needed to take this test called the "PLAN" It was at the public school (I am so glad I am home schooled) so I had to make a mental note to remove from my possession all of my knives before I went into the school. Nobody at that school goes out of their way by any stretch of the imagination to make life any more convenient for you. And some of the kids there looked so scary for a second I wished I did bring my switchblade just for a little peace of mind. Anyway, I found a fellow homeschooler friend from my Biology class and we both felt better after that. But what I was going to tell you was after the test my mom was not there to pick me up. So I walked from the high school to Radio Shack were I work in -15 temperatures. It took me fifteen minutes to get there and I had no hat or gloves just my storm spotting jacket and my basketball shoes. When I got to Radio Shack and told my boss what I did.... My boss never gets mad (at least not at me) but some times she pretends to get mad. This was the day I found that out. She said that if my ears fell off she would fire me. She was joking of course. It's funny but Minnesota is the coldest state besides Alaska. Here all the Minnesotans are always complaining about the cold to each other but when talking to people from out of state we are always bragging about how cold it gets up here. "One morning it was so cold my coffee froze and I had to eat it like a Popsicle!" or "when your breath stays in the air for about 15-20 minutes you know your in Minnesota." also "Hey Pat! is that a weird looking dog or a penguin standing over there? What did you say Eddie? I can't here you my finger's still frozen in my ear."  and also "-20 what is this, a heat wave?" and finally "I don't see why all these people are trying to stop global warming." Yesirey bob! Minnesotans have bragging rights!   http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/AndyBoy/638764/ Thu, 1 Jan 2009 11:31:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/AndyBoy/638764/