Rustling Thoughts

I find it strange how one minute you can be completely brain dead, but the next you can talk a mile a minute. Friday started at 4:30 in the morning for me, because despite all my preparations the night before, I still had not packed my debate bag or straightened my hair, plus I have a legitimate fear of being late for anything and everything, and thus plan extra time for almost everything. Check in was at 7:30. We only lived half an hour away from the building (everyone was excited about that!). They were running a little late, so the first round wasn't until about 8:15, whereas under normal tournament circumstances, it would have started at 8. Christian and I were affirmative that round. It ended at about 9:35, leaving us 10 minutes to prepare for the next round at 9:45. Usually they plan two hours for each debate, however, they decided to give us 15 minutes between the first two rounds for some strange reason. We rushed back to the student area to wait for postings to g...

SOON. THE MOMENT WE'VE ALL BEEN WAITING FOR. THE FINAL TOURNAMENT BEFORE NATIONALS. IS TOMORROW. ...wait...  TOMORROW!? *internal screams* *flails arms* *goes into hyper-freak-out-ation*  *calmly and peacefully completes math lesson* Last week, I planned out what I was going to do today.  FREAK OUT 1. Take deep breaths- check 2. Drink tea- check (also had some coffee) 3. Listen to music- check 4. Read- does a blogpost count? 5. Go to bed early- well, I am quite obviously awake at the moment, however, I shall endeavor to go to bed at a reasonable hour 6. Laugh hysterically at nothing- I've snorted a couple times 7. Try not to cry- Lydia and I went to go see God's Not Dead 2 , but a couple tears slipped out. I haven't cried about the tournament yet though Normal things: 1. Complete math lesson- check 2. Grade Christian's math- check 3. Put the chickens up for the night- check 4. Kitchen clean-u...

So, uhhh... We ended up coming home from the tournament way earlier than intended. In fact, we were back home again the day we left, last Thursday. Story time: Thursday dawned bright and clear; a beautiful day for a car trip to Tyler, Texas. This time, Ava was tagging along with us, so she could watch, and see what a tournament was like, since it is possible that she will be competing next year. We were taking the family truck/suv type-thingy, so we all had plenty of room. Ava had mentioned to Mom that she didn't want to sit in the back all by herself; 1, because there is about 6-8 inches of legroom, 2, because you can't hear what going on up front as well, and 3, who knows (?). So, I chivalrously claimed the entire back row (all three seats people!) all for myself. 1, so I could stretch out my legs in a reclining position across them, 2, so I could sleep in a much more comfortable position than I could have in my usual seat, 3, because I didn't want half of m...

When was the last time I posted even? *checks the archives* January first.  *slaps forehead* Good gravy! I promised to have snippets posted, questions answered, and the last time I did Movie Quotes was in October! That was not how I planned to start the post, but oh well, this thing has pretty much flown out the window, and there is no bringing it back now. What a rather awkward situation to be in. Anyways, if you've been hanging around the family blog (you can find the link in the Sometimes I hang out here page), you've probably been hearing about this new thing we've been doing as a family called "Cize".  The first routine was fun; lots of moving around and eight energetic dance steps. We all loved it, and even invited a friend over to do it with us.  The second routine, which we started yesterday, was clearly more advanced. Not everyone had the easiest time catching on, since there wasn't as much repetition as the first one, and the...

The tournament is over, the results are in! Our duo didn't do as well as we had hoped, we got 8th out of 14. However, we are ranked 7th in all of Texas, and 15th nationally. But, if we want to go to the huge tournament at the end of the season known as nationals, we have to go to at least two more tournaments, because we didn't do well enough in this one, and you have to have two green checkmarks (explanation coming), and you can only get one per tournament. Ok, green checkmarks. There are a limited amount given out at each tournament. If I remember correctly, you have to be in the top 40% of you event to earn one. It takes two checkmarks to qualify in an event for nationals. You can get more than one checkmark at a tournament, just so long as they are in separate events. Does that make sense? If not, please tell me in the comments so I can further specify! Christian and I won two of our six debate rounds. The average novice team only wins one, or none, so we're ...

So I've heard a lot of rustlings of NaNoWriMo in the blogosphere during the past few weeks. Maybe a week or two ago Lydia asked the question that had been rolling around in my head for a few days: "What if we did NaNoWriMo?" So I mulled over it some more, and long story short, I think I'm going to try it! I've already got the makings of a plot, I'm going to see if I can weave "Robin Hood" with "Sleeping Beauty". I wrote (in my head, mind you) the first chapter/prologue when I was trying to sleep, and was quite pleased with it. I've got a  Pinterest Board  set up for it. I've got names picked out. I'm starting to get super excited! Now, about Speech and Debate. Lydia and I are doing a duo for Speech, if you are unfamiliar with what that is, just look up "speech duo" on Youtube. We are doing "The Tiger, The Brahman, and The Jackal", a fable text from India. But we've reworked it to take place i...