August 25, 2010

The Christianville Spirit: (TCS Series) My Obsessions

The Christianville Spirit
The Spirit that Inspires You
August 25, 2010- TCS # 213

Ok, Everyone. It’s time for the 7th and final installment of The Christianville Spirit Series, “A Day in The Life of Christian and PTLS”. for this installment, I’m going to tell you the things I obsessed about when I was a child. So, without further a due, this is The Christianville Spirit Series, “A Day in The Life of Christian and PTLS”. Now, for those of you who are still learning about PTLS, We people, which I want to now refer to as PTLSers, have little sections of Autism-like and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. And, The Obsessive Disorder is what I’m going to tell you about. You see, when I was a child I would do things that people would wonder what in the world I was thinking about. The first thing I did was when I was a couple of months old, I would sit in V position and twirl my feet in circles. Then, a couple years later I would sit and rock back and forth and hum. Sometimes, I would rock so hard that I would fall over. Next, I would like up my favorite toys, which were matchbox cars and I would line them up as if they were in a Traffic Jam. Also, I would play with sidewalk chalk and I would draw roads, Road markings like Stop Lines or lane divider lines, and try to make signs. As I got older, they became more detailed, I could sit for hours doing the same thing over and over again. I would even ride my scooter on it like it was a road. Next, I would pace back and forth on a trail about 60 Feet, I would hippity-hop or just pace back and forth. Now, what I was thinking was I was picturing a road that I was driving on and I could see the signs. Sometimes, I imaged I saw the Skyline of Christianville, driving around the city on the other side of the Tennessee River in South Christianville, or driving in the City of Brooke which is just North of Christianville. The name of the Imaginary City of Christianville came about when I was 9 or 10. When I was 15, I made a map and put surrounding areas of Christianville that I named after people I knew and things I was interested in. It is in the area I now call, “The Christianville Metro Area”. When I was Younger, Humming was something I did a lot of was the sound of the road that I would hear when I was in car or on the school bus. The sounds of the highways in Dallas I would call “Holler Roads” because it sounded like someone hollering/screaming in a high pitch. As I got older, the humming was more used when I was singing a song. It would bother a lot of people in my class and they eventually knew why I would hum and that was because I was happy. All in all, Those are the things I did and what I was thinking.



Thanks for reading The Christianville Spirit. There is always a reason for what we do, you just have to ask.

August 18, 2010

The Christianville Spirit: (TCS Series) My Friends

The Christianville Spirit
The Spirit that Inspires You
August 18, 2010- TCS # 212

Ok, Everyone; It’s time for the 6th Installment of The Christianville Spirit Series, “A Day in The Life of Christian and PTLS”. For this installment, I’m going to tell you about My Friends. So, without further a due, this is The Christianville Spirit Series, “A Day in The Life of Christian and PTLS”. You Know, I have a lot of awesome friends, from the ones I grew up with to the ones I have now. So, I’m going to start out with My Childhood Friends, Brooke, Meredith, and Whitney Herrick. I have been friends with them since I lived at Mr. Jeff’s House with My Family. Them and I with all the Barsis Kids would jump on our trampoline nearly everyday. In Fact, at any point of the day, you would find one or all of us jumping on that trampoline. You See, the awesome part about our childhood was that we could run through 4 Yards without running into a fence. Another Childhood Friend I have is named Elisabeth or as many people call her, “Izzy”. Izzy, as I like to call her, lived with us at Mr. Jeff’s House, because she was his daughter. She was fun to play with and we would do different things like we would jump on the trampoline, run around the yard, go on Bike Rides, or play video games. Also, sometimes, A group of us would go up to her room with her and play with Toys and Barbie Dolls. Another exciting thing was that Every other weekend, we would go on a Bike Ride up and down on the trail by our house and to the park or we would go up to Our Lake House. One Time, The Barsis’ and US went skiing at Crested Butte, Colorado. Another Friend I have is Steven Vandeneykel. I met Steven while I was in High School. After I attended one of his Birthday Parties, He and I became really good friends. After that, We would do several things together like going to The Movies, seeing Christmas Lights, going out to Lunch or Dinner, and even going to Church together. We are such good friends that to this day we tell each other, “I Love You like A Brother” or just “Love You like a Brother”. Another Friend I have is Karleen Frishman. I met Karleen in P.E at Jasper High School in 10th Grade, I saw her talking to my other friend Patrick and I joined in with them. When we were in High School, the classes were set up in a block schedule. Like I would 4 classes on one day called “A” Days and 4 classes on another day called “B” Days. Anyway, on “A” Day I had Karleen in all of my classes so, I decided for me to remember which day was which. I called “A” Days, “All-Karleen Days”. She went to Jasper until Thanksgiving when she had to move to a town outside of Houston called Willis. When she lived there, Her and I tried to “Computer Date” where we would eat dinner and IM(Instant Message) each other. I have a lot of Friends that are Adults that I didn’t go to school with but, I met them via My Mom and Grandma Honey. In addition to them being my friends, they are also My Mom and Grandma Honey’s Friends. All in all, I have a lot of great friends who I love and they love me.

Thanks for Reading The Christianville Spirit. Cherish The Friends that You Love and They will Love You Back


August 11, 2010

The Christianville Spirit:(Special Edtion) PTLS Gathering and My Birthday Party

The Christianville Spirit
The Spirit that Inspires You
August 11, 2010- TCS # 211

Ok, everyone, this week’s edition of The Christianville Spirit going to a little different this week because this is going a Special Edition of it. Now, over the past couple of weeks I’ve writing on The Christianville Spirit Series, “A Day in The Life of Christian and PTLS” but, there was a special event that happened this past week that I’m doing a Special Edition on. You see, it all started several weeks ago when My Mom and I decided to come to Atlanta for vacation around My Birthday. So, one night I was talking to one of the PTLS Families, Samantha on Facebook and I told her about this Atlanta Trip. I told her that since she lived near Nashville and she could come to meet us. The next day, My Mom looked at her Facebook and found that she had wrote on there about this trip. To my amazement, within 3 or 4 days, there were already several families that wanted to come. So, on this past weekend, we had 5 Families come to my Uncle Bruce’s House to have both a PTLS Family Gathering and a Birthday Party to celebrate my birthday. As I told My Mom several times, this week “I can’t believe that families are coming out of their way to come to Atlanta to celebrate my birthday”. So, this thing started on Friday where we met 2 families at a Beattlemania Concert and ate at a place called The Train Station CafĂ© on D-Town Norcross, where my uncle lives. By The Way, D-Town is my way of saying “Downtown”. Anyway, then on Saturday we had a party at My Uncle Bruce’s House that so awesome that it lasted from Noon to 9:30 at night. It was amazing to see how all the families, the siblings, and even my own Smith Family interact with each other as if they had known each other forever. It was really great to see the dads of The Families talking to the other dads, being there to help, and understanding their children. A lot of the families by the end of The Party referred to me as their child’s “Big Brother” because there were a couple times, I had to make sure some of them were all right. So, a couple days later, My Mom, Grandma Honey, My Cousin Gram, and I went up to a place in the North Georgia Mountains called Amicalola Falls State Park, There they have a tall water fall which is really awesome but, the more awesomer part was that Amicalola Falls State Park is the unofficial end of The Appalachian Trail which I was ecstatic to see. I even got to see the registry of the thru-hikers that left from that spot to hike all the way to Maine. The Guide that I met told me that there was one person who hiked from Maine to Georgia and he left Maine in August 2009 and got to Georgia on December 31, 2009. so, this has been as awesome trip which by the way I’m still on. In Fact, not only is this the first time I’ve written my newsletter out-of-town but, also as I write this newsletter, I’m sitting in My Grandma Honey’s sunroom or as I call it “The Tree House”. Now, to the other families who couldn’t come, I’m Sorry and We will meet if I hadn’t already soon. Also, please know that this was not a Conference, This was a little gathering as well as it was a Birthday Party for me. Finally, I would also like to thank Grandma Honey for our transportation and of course, my uncle Bruce and Aunt Carolee for them letting us have the party at their house. All in all, It was and still is an awesome trip and All this stuff was the best birthday ever.




Thanks for reading The Christianville Spirit. Love is Thicker than Blood.

August 4, 2010

The Christianville Spirit: (TCS Series) My Family

The Christianville Spirit
The Spirit that Inspires You
August 4, 2010-TCS # 210

OK, Everyone. it’s time for the 5th Installment of The Christianville Spirit Series, “A Day in The Life of Christian and PTLS”. For this installment, I’m going to tell you about My Family. So, this without further a due, This is The Christianville Spirit Series, “A Day in The Life of Christian and PTLS”. To me, Family is the most important thing in your life. In my case, I have 3 Families which are My Immediate Family(My Mom, My Brother, and My Dad), The Smith Family(Grandma Honey, Uncle Bruce, Uncle Craig, and Uncle Brian and their family) and, the one I already mentioned, My PTLS Family. So, First off I’m going to tell you about my immediate family. So, I’ll start with the people I live with, My Mom and My Brother. My Mom is really awesome because she does a lot for My Brother and I, She cares about us so much and she really loves us. Like, there are times when she’ll take me on Drives to places because I like to go on Drives to see new Road Signs or Roads. When My Brother has little struggles in life, She is always there to give support. Also, She Understands my Special Needs and helps me when I need it. Many Years Ago when there were just a few PTLS Families, She offered herself to Baylor to run The Outreach Program. Since then, Many Families have looked to her for support and guidance, she calls this her passion and calling in life. My Brother, Michael, is also awesome because he is there for me and My Mom. He Understands me as well. He’s always asking questions to learn more about me. Last Year, He went with us to Houston for The 1st PTLS Conference and It touched me that understood them and me. The other PTLS Kids loved him, in fact they loved him so much that they sat down quietly so he could read them a story. The one thing I’d like to thank My Dad for is giving me My Special Needs, because it came from his sperm. My Grandma Honey, who is the capitol of The Smith Family, is really wonderful because She also understands me. When we go to her house, we get to stay in her sunroom, which we like to call, “The Tree House”, because when you wake up in the morning, you have tall trees surrounding you. I love that part of her house. Grandma Honey also the master of getting the family together like sets us up with going to our annual beach vacation in Gulf Shores. My Uncles are really fantastic because they really care about us. They are men of great character, class, good looks, and moral values. They are the best representation of what us in The Smith Family call “The Smith Charm” and “The Smith Curse and Blessing”. All in all, My Family is quite the awesome family and I couldn’t ask for more.


Thanks for reading The Christianville Spirit. Life is a Highway. So, Drive it all day and all night long.