I realized just the other day that this was my fifth Adoration Parade! Yipes. I hope to be in next year’s parade as well, even though I’ll be gone into November. The past years’ floats have been:
2005: I Believe in Bethlehem – nativity on both sides signing to the song. We also had an art float this year that Becky headed up but I was on the I Believe In Bethlehem float. Most people know how I feel about that song.
2006: Celebratin’ Jesus – nativity on both sides and mimes on both sides doing Celebratin’ Jesus while hopping down the road. As I recall the float itself wasn’t spectacular but the dancing around was really awesome. And we definitely stayed warm.
2007: Happy Birthday Jesus – mattresses making up a “birthday cake” on the float with the inflated nativity scene on the top. We – the eight of us – were walking alongside signing in our beautiful present costumes, decorated with bows and covered with contact paper in case it rained. It didn’t.
2008: Ozark Mountain Christmas – wooden replica of the nativity scene on Mt. Branson on top of the float. On the body of the float we had an old cabin with antique decorations and a modern house, representing Christmas through the ages. We walked alongside in old, Silver Dollar City era costumes and signed.
In my humble opinion, this year’s float was not only the most aesthetically pleasing, but the most professional and sharp float that we’ve ever done. It was very well done.
Yesterday – no, I mean Saturday – we spent the entire day (started at 9 AM and I left around 6) preparing for the float. The guys were outside in the blistering cold setting up the wooden frame to hold the banners that would go around the top of it, crafting a manger, decorating the poles, setting up lighting, and various and sundry other tasks. The girls were inside putting together all the stuff that would go on the float – banners, costumes, trumpets, and flags. The flags went around the top of the float, hanging from the banners that said Truth For All Nations (on the long side) and Christmas Angels (on the short side).
Most of my time was spent cutting out shepherd costumes with Emily B. The shepherds were students from CofO walking alongside each float, pacing them and answering any questions, stuff like that. Keeping people in line. We had the sheets donated from the Chateau and Emily and I cut them all out, pinned them, and gave them to first Tess, then Emily D, then Emily B to sew them (yes, Emily B cut and sewed – she’s talented). Courtney and some of her painter girls spray-painted the underside of the flags black early in the morning but we made the mistake of doing it inside and the smell was choking. We had to open the doors and of course it soon became very cold, but we figured freezing to death was better than being asphyxiated by spray paint fumes (I’m kidding).
It was a great atmosphere to work in. The guys had one of the speakers outside and we had the other one inside and for the first hour or so we listened to Christmas Angels. However, after we were sick of that we switched music and it ranged from instrumental Christmas music to tobyMac to Tim Hawkins. That was interesting. And there were so many of us so there was a lot of laughter and chatter. Not that there hasn’t been in past years… but it was definitely a good atmosphere and we all worked hard without complaining.
Emily with those lovely shepherd costumes (Tess later dyed them brown).
Right after lunch the Response Team (yes, I know that team changes all the time) threw together America Again and End of the Beginning for our presentation this Wednesday. The team consists of Jo, Alex, Jarek, Josh, Courtney, Emily B, Emily V, Madison and Maria, and they had both of the songs presentable in one runthrough each.
We went outside to split up by sides for the float and to practice and were very impressed with the progress the guys had made! I gave my camera to Britney shortly thereafter and she took lots and lots of pictures of outside and what the guys were doing.
That evening, when it got super cold, we made hot chocolate to take out to the guys. They were very appreciative and we ended up using some of the SA’s hot chocolate because of popular demand. We left around six because all had done that could be done. This in and of itself is extremely impressive. Last year we had to leave because it was late and we were still working on the float when we were called to lineup at 5 PM at the parade. It wasn’t slipshod, but it wasn’t prepared either. And that’s how it’s been for the past four years. This year, however, we arrived at the Salvation Army at 1:30 PM on Sunday and were told to go put on our costumes – there was nothing else for us to do.
WHAT?!?!?!
Yep, it’s true – the work that needed to be done had already been done and the float was practically ready to drive over as we spoke. Incredible. So of course the girls spent the next half hour trying to get all their costumes fixed while the guys worked outside on hitching up the float and Mrs. Voth made hot chocolate (which of course made her very popular later).
We're going to have a manger that we can use from year to year! Exciting, huh?
My allotted time in which to blog is out. I’ll try to write more later. Hey, at least I’m writing – last year I didn’t even write about the parade (can you believe it!).
What to say? So much is going on and when I think of blogging there is never enough time. I think I’m slowly realizing that there will rarely be time for what I want to do, so I just have to learn to carve out the time when it’s really important. And since I want to remember my life… journaling is a priority.
As I began to mention in an earlier post, our team has jumped into the Christmas session headfirst, working hard on our biggest Christmas event of the year (well, we don’t have a lot of Christmas events, but this one’s big): The Adoration Parade! This year our float will be playing Michael W. Smith’s Christmas Angels and the float will feature angels on the float and people in international costumes walking alongside it (our float’s theme being Christ For All Nations). We’ve had float days starting in October (practice going until 6) but we’re still not anywhere close to ready. Practice is going until 7 this Thursday and then we have the all-day float prep on Saturday.
The song we’re doing is super cool! It has all twenty-two team members in it and it’s a big production-y song (seems like almost all the songs we choreograph are like that), and it’s super cool! I hope to write a cue sheet for it sometime after it’s choreographed. The main problem with it is that it calls for at least six banners that we don’t have. J
The girls’ Bible studies have been pretty good lately. We upgraded the sheet from the really easy one after all the girls blew the top out of the I Chronicles 7:14 study (in other words, we felt they’d really outgrown the easy sheet). The problem now is that we have so many girls in our studies (usually around twenty, including LITE) that not everyone gets to share all their answers. We’ve had to take to picking certain girls to share their answers, and then whoever really wants to share an answer gets to share theirs as well. It’s worked pretty well and I’m definitely learning something even if the other girls aren’t.
In fact, the Bible studies every week have really turned into a mystery of sorts for me. I get out my two Bibles (I use my AMP for its concordance and Mom’s old NASB because it’s a lot easier to read), grab a pen, and set out to determine what it means to set the example in purity. Or life. Or what it means to humble myself and turn from my wicked ways. When I come at them that way, as if there is truly something to be discovered (not as if I already know enough about the topic), I’ve found God really obliging me by teaching me a LOT about His Word. It’s been a really neat journey and I find myself looking forward to my Bible study homework every week, regardless of whether or not I get to share it.
I think the coolest thing for me has been to realize that even though we have a lot of younger girls on our team, I can still learn from the Bible studies. When our team first started growing to include younger girls (way back in fall ’08), one of the things I’d resigned myself to was the fact that I wasn’t really going to be able to learn anything since we wouldn’t be able to talk about deep stuff with the younger girls in there. I guess I’ve just dragged that false assumption along with me – that my time to learn from Bible studies was over or something and now I just needed to teach others from what I’d learned.
Pish posh.
Of course I still need to teach others from what I’ve learned, but I’ve found myself learning more from the studies now than I did – simply because I’m not studying for what I can share, but what I can learn. What a concept.
In other news… Katie came home over Thanksgiving! We had a great time with her and her and I finally got to have a nice long conversation the night before she left, so that was great. I don’t realize how much I miss her until she shows up. J
Funfunfun! I think I can say definitively that the practice I attended on Sunday afternoon was the most crazy, abnormal and uncontrolled practice in which I have ever participated. And that’s saying something. The reason it was so wild is because all of us there – with the exception of the one who was teaching – had done the song so many times we could do it in our sleep. Except for Robby, a guy from the Browns’ church, who is probably going to do the song with us. What song? Oh, we’re going to present Still Her Little Child at the Browns’ church here in a couple of weeks. And maybe This Baby. I guess their song leader or something requested it.
Anyway we were practicing for that on Sunday. If I was Robby, I would have left fast and never returned… I mean, we were off the walls. Looking back I wonder how well we portrayed the ministry – of course, I know it was informal and Robby’s their friend and all that jazz. I just keep coming back to that “Model of Excellence…” well, I’ll do better next time.
At least we got the song prepared. Poor Courtney could never get into the mood to do the Mary part because somebody was always doing something amusing as she was trying to mourn her dead brother, but we definitely had that one down after three run-throughs. We had time for a half run-through of This Baby before the Lillys and Robby had to leave. This of course left Jo and I and the Brown kids with two hours before group. Oh yeahhhhh.
After standing around and looking at each other for five minutes, listening to Ryan’s speech for one of his college courses for another ten (it was on the Five Elements of a Gesture), and summing it up with a healthy dose of indecision, we all headed back out to the garage, grabbing Courtney’s hot pink speakers (it was the only color they had) on the way out. Emily set up the camcorder and we enthusiastically performed Virtuoso at some speed higher than 1 and less than 500 (I think it was around twice as fast as normal). Rachel was God; Courtney was Satan; I was Jesus. Emily was Adam, Ryan was Eve, and Jo was Mary (and everyone else). Quite funny.
After we regained our breath from laughing so hard, we attempted a rousing presentation of Freedom/Restoration at perhaps 3x speed. We all did the parts we knew except for… well, OK, so we didn’t. Ryan was Satan, Courtney and I were angels, Rachel was the person, Emily was a demon, and Jo was God/Jesus/freedom/whoever else he wanted to be. It was fun but exhausting. I now have a greater appreciation for whoever does the dancer part in that song. You gotta be buff, man.
We really laid on the indecision thick for the next ten minutes and several songs were proposed to do either fast, with mixed-up parts, or both (among which were Alcatraz, Devil is Bad, Stand, Spirit of America…) during which Josiah stood off in the corner and analyzed the Browns’ canned goods. We eventually settled on Go at 3x speed. Oh. My. Goodness. I was SO exhausted when we finished! Emily was Jesus and by the time Courtney and I put her down it was time for her to come back to life. Haha. We laughed so hard. We were so lost.
Anyway¸ that was a blast. At group, after the lesson with the kids and watching the Lord of the Beans, Courtney, Emily and I got to have a talk in Courtney’s room. I treasure those times to just be able to hang out with my girlfriends and see how they’re doing. Like I told Ms. Kelly, we rarely get around to praying, but the point of it is more to communicate. I pray for them during the week.
Lately I’ve become increasingly frustrated with my lack of ability to do anything extraneous because of my extraordinarily packed schedule. In other words, I’m too busy. Therefore I’ve been trying to work extra hard to get my academics done so I won’t have them hanging over my head. I have 6 ½ modules of physics left and then I’ll be done with that (hallelujah!). I’ve been knocking those out in a week each, so if I continue at that rate I’ll be done with physics before the piano festival in March (I’d be done before then but I’m alternating: a week of science and then a week of Sonlight, because I don’t have time to do both in one week).
I’m behind in Sonlight and have this response paper to a Tale of Two Cities that’s supposed to be four to five pages long and I have no idea what to say or how I’ll fill up that much space, so that’s hanging over my head and I’ve got to get it done. I also was supposed to start my research paper two weeks ago. Guess I’ll just crunch that into eight weeks. Plenty of time. ‘cept for Mom wants this to be my major paper so it has to be at least 15 pages long.
Been feeling sick lately so going to sign off now and get some sleep. Nice to get some of my life out and on “paper.” Oh yeah – and working on my YWAM application and will hopefully send it in within the week. That’ll be nice.
I want to give all I have to chase Him. to catch Him.
Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me… I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
So I guess I still haven’t written about the Christmas training day! (too busy writing about my birthday party). It was definitely a time to be remembered.
Tess wrote this extensive “script” for the day in which everything was planned out to the smallest minute detail and everyone was assigned what to do and when to do it. I heard it was a lot a lot of work but it worked out nicely. We also had a SALTeam meeting before the day started, which was nice (even though it required leaving our house at 7:45 AM).
This was the plan. There were two songs that everyone would be in – Gloria and All I Really Want. All the rest of the songs would be done by half of the team, but different teams of people did the different songs (i.e. not the same two teams did all of the songs). The SALT and LITE were divided as the team was divided to teach the songs – some SALT were in charge, then some were next in charge, then the rest were just observers. The LITE just observed all day – which is becoming increasingly more helpful as we progress in this new layout.
An aside – we now have seven SALT and eight LITE. SALT: Amber, Jessica, Courtney, Madison, Josh, Josiah, and Jarek. LITE: Mr. and Mrs. Voth, Mr. and Mrs. Brown, Jorge, Kristi, Tess and Jory. Expecting to have new SALTnTs next session.
We started off with Jo and Jarek teaching Christmas technique. Correction – they taught some Christmas technique. They let the girls teach angel technique and baby holding (I wonder why?). Then Josiah and Josh were in charge of teaching Gloria.
During the SALTeam meeting we’d gone over the parts – specific people were assigned to pick parts for specific songs. Jo was supposed to assign parts for Gloria but we did it together. Doing Gloria with that many people is a headache to teach but it looks really cool. That’s generally true for all of the songs that have the whole team in them. So anyway we assigned parts for Gloria and Kyle was Joseph and Judas. Kyle ended up being Joseph a lot. Poor guy – I don’t think he likes being Joseph.
So Jo and I mostly taught that song – Courtney and I were the “assisters” but she didn’t really know the song, so Jo taught the guys and I taught everyone else. I have ended up being sort of the “go-to” person now – if someone doesn’t know what to do or where to go next they come and ask me. Guess it’s because I’m not presenting, so I’m more available. The good thing about having so many SALT is that teaching goes so much faster.
Then we taught All I Really Want. Actually, Jarek and Madison taught it. I was very impressed with how their teaching skills have improved!
Yes, I actually did finish this entry.... sorry...
So after dinner we were all way too stuffed to even consider dessert, even though we had that tasty apple pie in there. So we called Katie and then Melissa had to leave (sad day). Courtney grabbed her guitar and we all gathered around the now waning fire and sung worship songs. That was pretty cool. Just us and the leaves. J
We sang until we started goofing off too much to really be worshipful. The girls got out the s’mores stuff – graciously provided by the Brown girls – while I went hunting for kindling (because, as those who know me well will remember, I despise marshmallows). I think we were all pretty full but the girls did manage to put away several of the marshmallows while Madison and I snacked on graham crackers, chocolate, and Muddy Buddies. :) By that time the fire was practically dead so we left it to die and headed into the camper (it was getting pretty chilly by that point).
Inside the camper, we set up the table and Courtney got out her nail polish. The next hour (at least) was spent by Emily trying to decide what to do with her nails, Madison painting her nails pink and yellow, Courtney doing the designs on our nails with corn holders (she’d forgotten her toothpicks), and smatterings of random conversation. It was slowly getting chilly so Emily and I tried to start the propane heater. We eventually succeeded, but it took a looooooong time. Jo would have laughed at us.
After painting our nails and waving them to dry we headed to the bathrooms to get ready for bed, scurried back as fast as we could to bury ourselves under the covers. But there were still dishes to be done, so Courtney and Emily were outside with the lantern gathering dishes when they heard a rustling in the leaves, saw something small, black and white, and tore inside the camper with a bunch of stuff. Emily was saying “shut the door! Shut the door!” Courtney was protesting she couldn’t because her arms were full, and Madison and I were confused. Once the door was closed, Emily confided, “it was a skunk!”
Naturally I found this to be cool. Emily didn’t think it was very cool. We stayed inside the camper for a few minutes shining flashlights out to try to find the skunk, but no luck. Eventually I made the executive decision that, skunk or no skunk, the dishes had to be finished and we needed to get the rest of our stuff inside the camper. So Courtney and I ventured outside.
We were in the middle of washing dishes in semi-cold water when we heard the rustling again, turned very slowly, and saw the skunk waddling towards us. Emily yelled from the camper, “It’s the skunk!” Courtney and I looked at each other, shrugged, and hurried back to the camper.
After a few minutes of watching the skunk root around the bottom of our picnic table and discovering he was probably feasting on some kielbasa Emily had thrown out during dinner, Emily clapped her hands real loud a couple of times and that was enough to scare Stripy away. When Courtney and I went back out there was no more rustling, although I’m willing to admit we were plenty jumpy. I was pretty excited too – I’d never seen a real live skunk before.
It was a cold night, but not frigidly cold, and Emily reserved any comments she may have had about Jo and sandwiches. The next morning we slept in till about eight or eight thirty (we’d gotten to bed around 10:30) and then I got up to start a fire for the sausages. Courtney came and assisted me and although it took several trips to various campsites to find enough kindling and who knows how many leaves, we eventually got a fire started big enough to not only cook the sausage, but warm the apple pie.
Yes, we had apple pie for breakfast. Yes, we warmed it in a skillet over the fire. I mean, who wants cold apple pie? And it was fruity, so it counted for breakfast. That was one of the most delicious breakfasts I’ve ever had – eggs, sausage, apple pie and apple juice. Mmmm-mmm. Ate too much but hey… who cares? It was my birthday.
We had a lovely 3 mile bike ride along the lake in which we took pictures on the dock and jumped on dead trees. It was nice to get out and ride around. We swung on the swings and Courtney and Emily went for the baby swings, but I have to say that Emily handled them more gracefully than Courtney. We packed up the camper with no problems and then sat down for a rousing game of Apples to Apples, which Courtney won (surprise, surprise). Our friendly campground host notified us that we didn’t have to check out so after a lunch in which Emily ate the chips (!) we hooked up the camper with very little difficulty, loaded the bikes with substantial difficulty, and left.
People who remembered my birthday (other than my family, obviously):
Kaitlin
Maggie, my 13-year-old cousin
Emily D
Tess (she sent me a very enthusiastic email!)
Madrigal Family – they called and sang to me. I admit I teared up.
Molly – she called. So sweet.
Lori Ann – she chatted me. Still feeling rotten but wrote me anyway. I smiled.
Ms. Beth. So sweet!
Wow! So I just had the most radical and probably the most fun birthday party I’ve ever had in my life! (Pretty impressive, huh?) So for a long time I’d wondered what to do on my birthday because I wanted to do something special and I always do the same thing (sleepover). I talked with Katie some and Dad some and just couldn’t decide. However, after a conversation with Courtney, the idea that had been hibernating at the back of my mind for a few days finally came to fruition: we went camping!!
Yessiree, it was just the five – then four – of us facing the Great Outdoors. Courtney, Emily, Madison, Melissa and I hit the woods with only our very old and slightly rotten camper and the bare necessities (Muddy Buddies, to be specific).
I picked up Madison and John, then dropped John and Andrew off at home. I'd left my pillow (duh) at the house and also the cuppers court, so Jo came running out with them as we whizzed into the driveway and we stuffed them into the trunk.
Then it was down 65 for not very long to get Courtney. I realized as soon as we got to the light at CofO that I'd forgotten to tell Courtney that she didn't need to wait at the nursing home, so I drove through there looking for her but she wasn't there so I drove back to her house. Nobody there. Hmmm. Just as I was about to knock on the door I heard a honk and Ryan backed Mrs. B's car down the driveway with Courtney sitting in the front seat laughing at me.
We loaded Courtney's stuff in the trunk, along with several logs of firewood the Browns were donating to the cause. They didn't really fit very well but we got them in there eventually, thanks to Courtney's expert packing skills.
When Courtney, Madison and I got out to the State Park to scope out the campgrounds, we were pleased to find the place mostly deserted. We drove around for a while, and finally by process of elimination settled on a site in part one of campground one, in the middle of the circle and near to the bathrooms (we all decided this should be a priority). We were then supposed to deposit "significant personal belongings" on the site, which we did - in the form of all of our bags and sleeping bags. There could be no doubt that that site was reserved. :) We went to the campground office to register our site and the lady there asked us if we were college students from CofO. We found this to be amusing. It was also amusing the way she would shove the cash drawer back in as soon as it popped out (which it tended to do rather frequently).
Once we were registered we went back to the campground with little to do. Dad was supposed to get there at 1:30 with the camper to back it up and plug it in, but until then we didn't have a game plan. Melissa was supposed to arrive around 2 and Emily was expected from her violin lesson around 2:30. We had some time to kill so we played Swap, which kind of falls flat with three people, and pretty much sat around and looked at each other, eating Muddy Buddies, until Melissa and then Dad and Mr. Brown arrived (the latter were almost 45 minutes late!).
Dad backed the camper in, plugged in the electricity - which we didn't end up using - and set up the propane. He and Mr. Dave also unloaded the bikes, leveled the camper and then unhitched the camper from the van - after some debate. Mr. Dave prayed, Dad gave final words of wisdom ("turn off the propane at night, don't leave the campsite by yourself after dark, and have fun!"), and we were alone.
It didn't take us long to get the camper set up - there were five of us hard-working girls, after all - and during that time I realized how very decrepit our camper is and how much we need a new one. The nice thing about going camping for only one night with the girls was that we didn't have a lot of junk. We had clothes, food, and a few games - and that was it. Didn't have to set up the awning, didn't have to pump up the inner tubes (i.e. NO SHOP VAC), didn't even need the clothesline! Incredible.
After we got everything set up and lightened the Muddy Buddies bin a little bit we set off on an adventurous hike that would have proved to be rather boring were it not for the companionship. We took pictures by a sewer drain, a big cool rock, and various other places that begged for Kodak moments. Madison and Courtney got into a splashing/mud war down by the edge of the lake. It was a simply beautiful afternoon - about 65 with sunny blue skies and fluffy white clouds - but the trail left something to be desired so we soon decided to head back to the campsite for a rousing game of...
Dutch Blitz! :) Emily hadn't played before but caught on pretty quick. Everyone else had played and each of us were fairly vicious. Madison ended up with the crown of victory and we didn't drop even one card between the slats on the picnic table!
By this time it was about four or four thirty and we decided that, since we had no idea how long it was going to take us, we should probably get started on building the fire. Melissa had to leave at 6:30 to be at work (Peter Pan) by 7. And so began the grand fire-making excursion in which we proved that the menfolks' distrust in our wilderness skills was unfounded. Sort of.
Dad laughed as he was setting up when I told him I'd forgotten to pack an axe. We had a hatchet, though, so I figured we'd be fine... until we got the hatchet out. It was about as sharp as a butter knife. We had several large pieces of wood that we wanted to chop up but I pretty much ditched the thought when I saw how dull the hatchet was. Not Melissa. She was determined to chop up this particular log. She outfitted herself with an oversized pair of sunglasses to use as safety goggles and got right to work.
Courtney and I worked on the fire to the melodic sounds of Melissa thumping away on that log. Courtney actually was very good as nursing the fire along. We used a lot of fire-starter logs (well, only one whole log for the whole trip, but it seemed like a lot to me) and burned a LOT of leaves. The ladder to the old tree house burned relatively well once we got the fire going. It was super hard to find kindling under all the leaves but Madison mastered that technique quickly. :)
It probably took us about half an hour - maybe a little less - to really get the fire going but once it was going it was definitely a respectable fire. We stuck the chicken in Dad's little clamp griller thing, dumped some hot sauce on it - we didn't have a brush - and put it on the grill above the fire. We warmed up the potatoes and opened up the - still cold - cans of pineapple. As the chicken cooked it got darker and darker - the sky, that is, not the chicken - until we had to use a flashlight to see whether or not it was pink. We grilled a pound of kielbasa - the leftovers of which I'm going to eat tonight - and set it all on the table. It was definitely a feast fit for a king - or several princesses - and we were very proud of it. Plus it was yummy. :)
• Nov. 10, 2009 - *sniff* Goodbye to presenting...
Posted By Jessica
I think I last blogged nine days ago. Sad, I know. However, it can’t be helped. *sigh* When one is usually busy, it’s hard to find time to do something not justifiably “productive.”
Let’s see. Last Sunday was the day that the MT came home! Oh, joy of joys. It was wonderful to see Courtney and Emily again. We spent all night talking. Quite a relief to have all the SALT girls back as well, although it’s going to be a bit difficult to adjust to no longer being the sole “girl authority.” I think a lot of the parents still look at me that way, though, so I’m going to have to set them straight.
In other news… I got a laptop for my birthday!!! Well, it’s also my graduation gift, Dad says. It’s a Dell, running Windows 7. We also bought a copy of Microsoft Office because we decided it was finally time for me to graduate from using Office 97 – no, I’m not kidding. It was quite the shock, because I’d been planning on buying part or all of it myself. It came in the mail a week ago and I’ve been disciplining myself not to work on it ‘cause it’s not my birthday yet. However, I think I’ll be breaking into it pretty soon. I’m eager to get it set up!
Thursday was our first practice with the mission trip back. As expected, it was chaotic – but not as chaotic as I thought it would be, despite our lack of a SALTeam meeting. We spent our SALTeam meeting over at the Mansion setting up flags for the Veterans’ Week opening ceremonies. While we were there Tess held an impromptu SALTeam meeting in which she briefed us on the schedule, but that was about it.
It’s been very confusing recently who has been presenting what songs when. We have the Branson team, the MT team, the Response Team, and the various combinations of the three. Definitely a headache but glad we didn’t attempt to teach the Branson team all the songs we did today at the Red Roof – would have been way more of a headache!
Yesterday the older response team minus Jo and I – see, what did I tell you? – presented at a Women Veterans’ thing at the Starlite Theater. That would have been – Jarek, Josh, Alex, Charleton, Emily V, Courtney, Emily B… gosh, not very many people! But then most of our team is under 14, and everyone that went had to be 14 or over. I heard it went really well. Apparently they had a theater full of very enthusiastic veterans who cheered loudly and gave them several standing ovations, so I’m sure that was super fun!
Today was pretty fun too. The entire team was in for a presentation in the “day room” at the Red Roof – apparently the band we usually open for was replaced or couldn’t make it or something, and the new band didn’t want/need us to open for them, so we were inside before the band started. We presented America the Beautiful (RT), Honor (RT), Soldier (Branson), In God We Still Trust (Branson), America Again (RT), and God Bless (all). It happened that Jo and I were in every song (as we are on both the Branson team and the Response Team), which was nice. I sure enjoyed it, seeing as it was my last official presentation… *tear*
Yes, it has finally happened… I have decided to step down from presenting. Tragic, but the right thing to do, I think. There are plenty of girls who can do my parts – who should learn my parts – it’ll be easier to critique songs, and a good way to start working me out of things for when I leave.
It definitely causes one to reminisce. I’ve been presenting for four and a half years (since February 2005). In that time I’ve gone on five mission trips – two with ACTION, three to China. When I started we had about forty people on the team – thirty on two older kids teams, and then on the younger team. We modulated to a team of sixteen and no younger team, then to a team of eight, and now we have twenty-two presenting members. I think. Let’s see:
Jo, Josh, Jarek, John, Caleb, Kyle, Alex and Charleton
Courtney, Emily B, Emily V, Emily D, Sadie, Maria, Rachel, Amber, Madison, Moriah, Britney, Jessica C, Amanda, and Makayla
Nope! Twenty-one. Emily D just does sound and whatnot and I’m no longer presenting, so 21.
I guess stepping out of presenting is kind of reminding me that in about six months I’ll be saying goodbye to AIM, maybe forever. It’s definitely a sobering thought. So I’d better enjoy the time I have and make sure the team can run smoothly without me (that’s not meant to sound like it does).
Well, gotta finish that presentation ‘cause we have another one tonight and then they’ll all run together. The lineup – which, incredibly, we had a few weeks beforehand and which everyone was to have memorized – was There is a God, End, Via, Courtroom, Heal Our Land. For There is a God it was just Jo, Alex, Charleton, Maria, Emily V, Moriah and John. Same for Via except plus me.
So they presented There is while Sadie and I tried to keep the rest of the team quiet “backstage.” Kyle knocked something off a desk, which made a big racket, and Jorge came out and gave him the eyebrow. Then we went on for End.
Tess placed me as a second stewardess in End because we needed someone to set the aisle, so I stand center stage and direct people to their seats and also set the aisle. In theory. It didn’t work real well at the presentation, though. Other than that and staging issues (we were too closed to the audience, not to mention too close to the audience) that song went well.
Via was weird and intense. I don’t think I’ve ever put that much into the Mary part, and Jo and Charleton had whipping issues ‘cause everyone was at tables and they were going to whip up but Charleton tied him down and then Jo swung the wrong way… it was kind of a mess. And we were too close to the audience. But no major catastrophes.
The jury had staging issues in Courtroom and we had signing issues but otherwise it was good. MAJOR signing issues in Heal Our Land… most of the newer kids were pretty clueless, and they didn’t see Tess in the back mirroring the sign language, so we need to work on that. Accordingly, we pulled more songs from the entire team’s repertoire so we can focus down on the few songs we have. They’ll learn more songs at the Christmas training.
All in all it was a very good presentation and very well received. Everyone there was excited to have us come back on Halloween night, which we did last night, which I’ll write more about… later. :) But when I do write about it, I’ll have pictures, thanks to Ms. Sharon!
Not, of course, that it was my first. However, it was the first for FIVE of the kids on our team, so it was pretty exciting! We presented in Kimberling City, at First Baptist’s “Young at Heart” event. We did it last year but apparently I didn’t write anything about it; I just posted a couple of pictures. Well, didn’t take any pictures this year (been kind of lax in that department lately) but have lots of memories so I’ll write those. They’re better than pictures. I think.
So when we got to the church the only people there were Alex and Maria, and they quickly left because they said Charleton was waiting over at a McDonald’s in Branson West (I guess he lives up that way) and they didn’t want him to be sitting there for an hour by himself. So they went over there to accompany him. We had brought John and Moriah with us so we stood around and looked at each other until the Voths and Duncans got there. Emily D wanted me to twist her hair and I’d gotten down to the bun before I realized there was no point my twisting it because she wasn’t presenting and I wasn’t that good anyway so I just took it out. Go figure. She had Tess do it later at the presentation place. Tess can do anybody’s hair and make it look good. So can Jenny. I can’t.
So when we realized we had a while to wait till Tess got there with the white van (yes, our old standby friend), we went through There is a God ‘cause John and Moriah were taking Sadie and Ellie’s parts in that song. That went fine but glad we went over it. Sadie and I grabbed props – which were the same ones that they used on Saturday and still stunk – and when Tess got there we loaded up and left relatively quickly.
Gabriel and I had the most interesting conversations on the way to Kimberling City. It was about forty-five minutes total travel time so we had a lot of time to talk. He was telling me about dinosaurs and that he played baseball. Lily was ducking down every time a car drove past because she didn’t want them to see her and eventually Nicky joined in (there was nothing else to do). She and Gabriel also took to calling me a “jumpamen” – Gabriel’s version of “gentleman.” Kyle was sitting in the back with the amp on his lap. He named her Abigail. Beware of Abigail the amp. That’s all I’ll say.
We picked up Maria, Alex and Charleton at the McDonalds, drove past our destination on accident just like last year, turned around in the same parking lot, and arrived only seven minutes late (not bad at all, considering all the issues Tess had with the van before she got there). Tess went off to figure out what was going on as always and directed me to start twisting hair. I recruited Emily V’s help and we tackled the four girls’ hair. The moms watched closely and caught on pretty fast! I was really impressed. I just love Amanda’s hair, by the way. So beautiful… so easy to twist. =)
After everyone was twisted we got some food – just a little ‘cause they weren’t expecting so many of us – scarfed it, and then crammed into the bathrooms to put on makeup. You should have seen the girls’ bathroom with ten girls in it trying to put their makeup on and three or four other people standing around watching or helping. It was a zoo. I felt bad for the few women who ventured in there to use the restroom for its intended purpose. I think we made it pretty difficult.
I only helped other people put makeup on instead of doing my face, because Jo and I were supposed to teach some technique to the audience. The lady who booked us wanted us to teach some technique-y things the attendees could learn sitting down and then show to their grandchildren or something, as a conversation starter for witnessing or something. So Jo and I were going to teach that but we ended up not doing it because Tess knew how to do it and we didn’t. So she taught and held the microphone and Jo and I demonstrated. It was fun. She taught toc, leaf, butterfly, ball, and balloon. I killed my butterfly and they all thought that was funny. Jo pitched a ball at me (we were playing catch) and I ducked and they all thought that was funny. They thought most of what we did was funny and definitely made it fun to teach.
Then Jo and I tore out of there and banged open the doors to the bathrooms and smeared on our makeup. The team was watching as we rushed in. I’m sure they were laughing at us… oh well. I wasn’t keeping time but I’d say three minutes is a pretty accurate estimation for how long it took. (to be continued... man, I've written a page and a half and haven't gotten to the actual presentation yet)
This blog has been in the back of my mind for a long time. We’ll see how far I get on it now.
I think I can safely say that the past five weeks have been the toughest of my days as a SALTeam member. I guess I’ve been SALT for about two and a half years. So much has changed since I started… there’ve been a lot of tough times. But this has been the toughest.
All the other times, when mission trips went out, they’d take a couple of our SALT members, and one time they took three – Amber, Ben, and Kristina – but I wasn’t on the SALTeam then and even if I had been, I would have had Katie. When Katie went on mission trips there was always Melissa. When Courtney was gone on the CAMT Melissa was still there.
When Courtney, Amber and Madison go on the ECMT, Melissa is gone working and Katie is in college, guess who’s still there? NOBODY.
You may or may not recall the struggles I was going through about a year ago when the first wave of new people hit our team. We’d been basically the same team – Jarek, Madison, John, Melissa, Jacob, me and Jo – for over a year, with a few additions at different times (Jonathan, Missy and Simone). We’d all been anticipating what it would be like to open up and accept new members. It was really rough. We knew it’d be rough. We knew we had to open up. We knew all that… but it was still rough.
In those months I often longed for “the old days…” way back when, when a presentation consisted of eight people who knew the songs and each other like the back of their hand. Way back when, when our Bible studies were deep and challenging and intimate. I often felt guilty about these reminisces because I knew I was supposed to be content with where I was at. However, I couldn’t help looking back at those months with longing.
It was only a couple weeks ago that God showed me: there WAS a purpose to those months, and there WAS a purpose to now – to being here relatively alone with a lot of responsibilities.
What was it that I missed so much about those months? It was the intimacy of the team. We knew each other. We weren’t afraid to share our struggles and challenges with each other. Many tears were shed in the Bible studies… ‘cause it didn’t matter. We could be vulnerable with each other.
It was the depth of the team. One summer we wrote a Bible study. Just the five of us girls wrote a… I don’t know, ten page Bible study on “Stand!” The Bible studies were relevant and challenging. Tess pushed us. We didn’t talk in makeup – it just didn’t happen. We toced. We practiced. We had passion contests. Our presentations were sharp. Why? Not because we on our own were great, but because we as a team were great.
It was the ability of the team. I’ll never get over the thrill of Response Team presentations thrown together on the spur of the moment with no practice. I remember one time we presented One Time Show at Branson Fest and Tess had to take all of Jacob’s parts because he was gone. She couldn’t find Katie, our audience plant. It was wild, but it was awesome.
It was the hard times we went through together and how we came out stronger and closer. One spring I sprained my ankle at a service project the day before a long presentation in Springfield. Tess took my parts but the ankle didn’t fully heal till a month later (‘cause we had a bunch of presentations). We presented at YCW two weeks after the sprain and I hobbled through Silver Dollar City to get to the Saloon, leaning on Melissa. One time we presented in the rain… and I don’t mean just drizzle. DRENCHING rain. That was one of our best presentations ever. One time we presented in a parking lot with an audience of about seven to try to draw people to a fundraiser for an African ministry. In Spirit, Jacob couldn’t get the crown and the boa apart so he gave them both to Jarek. It was a catastrophic presentation! Hence, we grew closer and learned from it.
One of the hardest times was in summer ’07 – half of the team dropped out. Suddenly. Those of us that remained were left looking at each other… but we didn’t stay there. We picked up the pieces and moved on.
Innumerable memories. Birthday parties. Golfing with Melissa and the team at one of the most pathetic courses in Branson. Sneaking away at the end of practice across slippery roads to Melissa’s church to practice the song we were putting together as a Christmas present for the Rolfs and Madrigals. Celebratin’ Jesus in the Adoration Parade. Those blankety-blank present costumes and trying to move in them. Covering them with contact paper before the parade. Jorge running back to the church to get yet another prop I’d forgotten. Girls’ night at my house with Tess’ Bible study and oatmeal illustration with too much salt that she made us taste.
It was good. It was a good time. But it’s over now. So a couple of weeks ago I was talking with God about all that time and how much easier things were then and how much I liked it then, blah blah blah. And He basically stopped me and said, “that time is over.” And I basically looked at him and said, “duh, God. I know.” And He told me that I didn’t know as much as I thought I did and if I really knew I wouldn’t be griping to Him.
On Mondays I have School of the Bible in Springfield from 6:30 – 8:30 PM (a time commitment from 5:45 to 9:30).
On Tuesdays I babysit from 9 – 5 (roughly; it changes).
On Wednesdays I have piano lessons in the morning, church in the evening, and sometimes errands before church.
On Thursdays I have AIM from roughly 11:30 to 5:30.
On Fridays I have nothing.
On Saturdays I have nothing but school.
On Sundays I have church in the morning and group at night.
The only time commitment that’s going to change in the foreseeable future is that School of the Bible will be over in a month or so… so I’d better get used to this schedule.
I’ve been doing it for a month now; you’d think I’d be used to it by now. Alas, I’ve yet to become accustomed to this whirlwind life. I know I keep talking about it, but this IS my blog, and what’s going on in my life right now is… well, life. So that’s why I’m talking about it.
Tomorrow I’m going to take the ACT and be done with it. That’ll be nice. I’m moving along quickly in physics and though it takes me a while to get the concepts; once I get them I tend to do pretty well on the tests. I’m on module 8… halfway done!
Cleaned a lodge with Ms. Kelly and another lady last Saturday. The place was HUGE – it housed 30 people – and it had 6 ½ bathrooms. I cleaned them all, plus some other random work. The bathrooms took the bulk of my time. Look it up – it’s breathtaking. The Rusty Moose Lodge in Branson West.
We had practice yesterday. Our team’s first presentation is tomorrow – I’ll miss it – but it doesn’t really count because none of the new team members are going to be there. The first one with everyone will be this coming Monday. Anyway, all that meant that we had a LOT to cover and polish and prep this practice. Ryan showed up to help, which was super nice. Jo and I kept asking him to clean up various parts. It was almost like having three SALT people (man, what a novel thought). Eight days till the MT gets home…
The review Bible study went really well. I was definitely pleased that the girls seemed to have learned something and it was really encouraging to see that the Word was changing us. The guys study must have gone well, too – they spent the whole hour and a half on it. Bummer for discipleship time but good for Bible study. We only spent half an hour on the Bible study – the girls aren’t real verbose – and half an hour on discipleship. The other half hour we played Ducky Wucky. I’ll never let Tess spin me in that game ever again. When I went to find someone to sit on, all the chairs were empty. I stripped off my blindfold and found that Tess had told all the girls to leave the room while she was spinning me. They were all giggling at me and I immediately attacked Tess. It was fun.
Practice went pretty well. We really polished End of the Beginning and then realized that we didn’t have time to polish the other songs like that so the rest of them we kinda flew through. We threw together Via Dolorosa with Alex, Maria, Charleton, Emily, Sadie, John, Moriah, Jo and I. It was super interesting since Alex, Maria and Charleton didn’t know it at all and Alex and Charleton had to do the guard parts. Ryan marched with them and tried to explain the song while telling them what to do while Jo asked if someone was going to put the crown of thorns on while I tried to tell Maria what was going on and do the Mary part at the same time. It was maddeningly hilarious.
We also threw together There is a God with a similar bunch but without me since I won’t be at the presentation tomorrow. Virtuoso was super easy except for we just picked places in the circle and they weren’t exactly right. Oh, well – we’ll work on that next week. I am TERRIBLE at the zoned out part in that song. I’ve got to get someone else to do it.
Then we did the patriotic stuff. Gotta go to bed. Hope to write more soon. Getting tired of this “weekly blog post” thing.
