Mime4Jesus - Homeschool Blogger

A SKUNK!! (Part I)

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 10:53:00 -0600

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. :)

sniff Goodbye to presenting...

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 21:00:00 -0600

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).

Finishing The Started

Sun, 1 Nov 2009 08:24:00 -0600

(Written 10/31/09)

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!

A Great Way To Start

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 21:51:00 -0500

It was a great first presentation!

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)

The Purpose

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 21:15:00 -0500

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.

To be continued...

This is your life...

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 21:39:00 -0500

... I mean, mine...

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.

Today.

Fri, 16 Oct 2009 21:35:00 -0500

It’s only sixteen days until the mission trip gets back.
It’s only eight days until the ACT test.
It’s only ten days until our team’s first presentation.
It’s only two days until we have group (and the Madrigals will be there!).
It’s only four days until I get my mid-term score from School of the Bible.

All those things are exciting. But there are no days between me and the life God has given me to enjoy and use to glorify Him, and I’m trying to learn to seize those opportunities.

For the past few days I’ve been sick, which has forced me to slow from my break-neck pace and try to give my body a break. Instead of thanking me, it’s begging for more. Unfortunately, it’s not going to get that for a while, so it’d better take what it can get.

Clearly time (or energy) has been lax, as it has been almost two weeks since I’ve made a proper blog entry. For that I apologize. I frequently come up with things I want to say but the time in which to say them is what is lacking. I still have a blog in the back of my mind about past years with AIM that I want to write, so maybe sometime I’ll write that. I think it’d be fun. For now, though, I’ll attempt to write about what’s been going on.

I took the SAT test on Saturday. If I was running things, those tests would be formatted differently – I mean really, how much can one DO in a five-minute break? Anyway, I felt like I did pretty good over all and the essay went smoothly, so that’s good. I’m hoping for at LEAST a 1300. Been looking at colleges recently (finally) and 1300 is high enough for most of the big scholarships. That’s another news-worthy “thing” – now that I have to tell ACT and SAT which colleges to send my scores to, I have to figure out what colleges I’m considering. The process isn’t as daunting as it seems once one finally gets into it. I sure wish Katie were here, though. It’d be SO much easier with her. It has been nice to go through all of her college stuff – neatly filed – because it means I don’t have to neatly file stuff. =)

My SALT responsibilities in the absence of my three co-SALT-girls seem to be increasing, but I’m learning how to better handle them. So long as I space them out throughout the week and don’t try to do them all on Thursday morning, I can survive. It’s the calling the girls every week that takes the most time but I think it’s really important, so I’m going to keep trying to do that. Aside from that, I’ve been making up Bible study sheets, preparing “get to know you” games every week for the girls, sending out the announcements, handling birthdays (sort of), managing shirts, managing props, and co-leading the practices with Josiah. Now I know why we have four girls on the SALTeam.

I’ve figured out that in the roughly thirty weeks of school I have remaining (I blacked out Veteran’s Week and two weeks at Christmas), I have nine modules of science, 10 weeks of Chinese, 13 weeks of Sonlight, and 30 weeks of geography left to do. The science shouldn’t be a problem because I just figured out that even if I spend three weeks on each module (I’ve been doing a module a week) I’ll be able to get it done on time. So that’s a relief. Chinese is a breeze; I have another research paper in Sonlight but it’s still not bad. Geography is fun; I don’t mind doubling up on that. Actually, piano is what stresses me the most and it’s not even on that list. This is my last year and Mrs. Walker wants to make a big deal of it at the recital next year so I’m trying to practice hard. Plus Mom and I are intensely competing. =D

The other things that consume my time (I already mentioned the top two: school and AIM) are babysitting for Ms. Ginger – all day Tuesday – group – Sunday nights – School of the Bible – Monday nights – and maybe cleaning for Ms. Kelly. I’m going to be cleaning for her tomorrow and we’ll see if she has more jobs for me after that. It’ll be way harder and less fun than babysitting but it definitely pays better. So I guess there’s an exchange there.

Melissa and I went clothes shopping today. Definitely not my favorite thing to do (spending money), but my jeans were falling apart and I also was looking for long-sleeved shirts. We struck out at Vanity Fair but I found some jeans and a jean jacket at TJ Maxx and she found a top that she liked too. Also went to Rue21 (I decidedly don’t like that store) but Mom is kinda iffy about the couple of shirts I got there so not sure if I’ll keep them. At least they were only three bucks each.

Courtney and I have been diligently exchanging letters – I’ve sent her three and received two – and we get periodic email updates from Ms. Sue, so I’ve been feeling pretty connected. I pray for them *almost* every day and am really excited by the reports they’re sending back. I know they’re having a great time, learning a lot, and making a difference – but I’ll be SO glad when they’re home. For more reasons than one.

I am learning a LOT during this time, because since people like Courtney and Katie aren't here for me to depend on, God and I have been spending a lot more time together. Finished reading Psalm 119 today. I went outside on the porch and read it aloud as a prayer to God. It was pretty cool and He taught me some cool stuff. Maybe I should do that more often.

The End.

Sat, 10 Oct 2009 20:16:00 -0500

If you don't care about baseball, feel free to skip this post. I'm venting my fanatical devotion to the Cardinals and then you won't hear anything else about it till March.

It was a pathetic way to end a pathetic post-season attempt. When Rick Ankiel struck out to end the ninth inning, the St. Louis Cardinals were eliminated from post-season play. I have to admit that while I had high hopes that the Cardinals and the Red Sox would face off in the World Series - I have high hopes about everything, regardless of practicality - after how we performed in the past two games I am disappointed but not surprised to see us fall for a third time in a row.

I've been following the Cardinals very closely this season, as anyone who knows me well could tell you. To say their offense has been stagnant would be an understatement. To say it's been grossly inadequate might come close to the truth. It's really quite sad... at least two of the games we lost, Dad's team (the Red Sox) would have won - we lacked run support. We ALWAYS lack run support. *sigh*

Admittedly, I can't say that our defeat was due only to our deficient offense (which can definitely be partially attributed to Albert Pujols' month-long slump). Chris Carpenter, one of STL's two aces and my personal favorite pitcher, was definitely not at his sharpest during game one. Why is it that the only time I can watch him on TV he pitches poorly? Mom says it's because the cameras make him nervous, but somehow I'm not sure that's it. Adam Wainwright was brilliant in game two - three hits, one run, no walks over eight innings - and definitely should have got a win. He was denied that pleasure by Ryan Franklin's less-than-stellar pitching and Matt Holliday's fielding bloop that cost us a run. Franklin did redeem himself tonight, tossing a scoreless inning, and the fans gave Matt Holliday a standing ovation his first at-bat, demonstrating that they weren't going to reject him even though he'd committed an error at just about the worst possible time. Pinero was average tonight but worse than he usually is, and - as is the case all year - didn't get any encouragement from the offense.

So... sorry, Cardinals. I guess we just didn't have quite enough this time. Better luck next year. In the meantime, the next-best matchup for the World Series is the Red Sox and the Phillies - de ja vu - and it's Boston's turn to win this time. So you can bet that tomorrow I'll be rooting for the Sox to win. It'd be kinda sad for neither of the teams I care about to make it to the championship.

Respond Post-Haste!

Fri, 2 Oct 2009 13:15:00 -0500

So back to a lot of AIM stuff that we did but I never wrote about.

We had THREE response team presentations in the space of a week and a half. Kinda nutso, but it was definitely fun. The first one was for a 9/11 memorial behind the Grand Palace. The guy called MY cell phone on Tuesday (9/11 was on a Friday) and left a message asking if we’d be available to do a song for their memorial at 7:30 in the morning (or some time like that). I called Tess and let her know about it, and hoped she’d deal with it. I also secretly hoped that I wouldn’t have to do it, because it was on my off day and I was still exhausted from the combination of schoolwork and Family Camp (in case you were wondering, those two don’t mix real well).

It ended up that I had to do the presentation. We practiced for it on Thursday after practice and the team consisted of me, John, Moriah, Jarek, Courtney, Emily, Rachel, Amber, Ryan, and Jo. The song we did was Always Been (with the small banner). We threw it together in a couple of runthroughs. I grabbed props as we left.

Got there the next morning (a bit late) with John and Moriah and realized that we didn’t have the network signs. *sigh* Jorge to the rescue again. He took off back to the church to get those for us and ended up getting a larger flag too ‘cause Tess said the one we had was too small – child coffin sized. =) We stood around for almost an hour before we went onstage, but the presentation went impeccably. I feel that we pulled it off really well and it was a blessing to the people that were there. I’ve been to so many 9/11 memorials it’s easy to get callous to their importance, but the way this presentation went off was humbling (that sentence didn’t make any sense, but I know what I mean). This was humbling too:

http://bransondailynews.com/story.php?storyID=13234
http://hometowndailynews.com/content.aspx?module=ContentItem&ID=152278&MemberID=1191

So it was worth it to get up so early in the morning on an off day and stand around for a while.

The second Response Team presentation was even more fun. We met at noon at the church in full costume to get ready for a 30-minute veterans’ set at the Radisson (we did this in 2007). As I recall, the team was… Jo, me, Alex, Maria, Jarek, John, Moriah, Amber, Courtney, Emily and Rachel. We did America the Beautiful, Honor, Always Been, America Again and God Bless. Guess who was a Founding Father in America Again? That’s right, Master John Lilly himself. What a guy. I was really proud of him – he deserves it after so long.

So it was INSANE trying to throw together all those songs in the amount of time that we had. We weren’t really ready when we left (when are we EVER ready) but oh, well. Had a fun drive over – as those Branson-ites that have been there before know, the Radisson parking lot is impossible to navigate and nearly as difficult for mimes to locate each other. Amber and Courtney were telling me that they saw mimes “that way!” and “I think I saw Tess!” so I was going in circles around the whole parking lot, admittedly disoriented, and Jorge was following me. Poor guy. He’d have done better to trust his own navigational skills. I guess you’d have to have been there.

When we got there Jarek was standing in the middle of the parking lot looking for us (he’d gone with Tess, who of course was already inside) and waving at us to hurry. When we got down there he hissed, “They’re ready for us NOW!” so Courtney and I tore through the props and passed them out to everyone while people scrambled to find vests and get them on forwards. We stood waiting until Tess introduced us, then walked on and set props. Same stage as last time – on the floor, with everyone sitting at lots of tables. And we were presenting to military wives (a fact I didn’t know until I realized that there were only two or three men in the audience). Interesting.

Generally speaking, the presentation went off really well. There were a couple of whisperings onstage about what song was next, and Courtney and I had a couple of conversations in double zero relating to both our being too close to the audience (I think we were freaking them out) and how Tess said to hold the flag.

It was super fun to do Honor. I hadn’t done it since Veteran’s Week last year (due to some ministry concerns about the character of the artist, Ray Boltz). Jo got to do the Jeremiah Denton part (which he’d never done before) and Alex got to be one of the guards (ditto). I think both of them did really well.

America Again has got to be one of my favorite songs to present, and it came off really strong. Very proud of John and had a lot of fun with that song making up the gun poses almost ONSTAGE. God Bless got a standing ovation and applause during the middle of the song (once they realized which song it was). When we left they asked us to come back the next day to present for the military husbands and we were trying to pull together a team (which inevitably would have included Jorge and Tess) but then that presentation fell through. Sad day. It was going to be fun.

More later…

The Color Green

Thu, 1 Oct 2009 08:52:00 -0500

And the moon is a sliver of silver
Like a shaving that fell on the floor of a Carpenter's shop
Every house must have its builder
and I awoke in the house of God
Where the windows are mornings and evenings
Stretched from the sun across the sky north to south
On my way to early meeting
I heard the rocks crying out
I heard the rocks crying out:

Be praised for all Your tenderness by these works of your hands
Suns that rise and rains that fall to bless and bring to life Your land
Look down upon this winter wheat and be glad that You have made
Blue for the sky and the color green to fill these fields with praise

And the wrens have returned from their nesting and they're nesting
In the hollow of that oak where his heart once had been
He lifts up his arms in a blessing for being born again
And the streams are all swollen with winter
Winter unfrozen and free to run away now
and I'm amazed and I remember
Who it was that built this house
And with the rocks I cry out

Be praised for all Your tenderness by these works of your hands
Suns that rise and rains that fall to bless and bring to life Your land
Look down upon this winter wheat and be glad that You have made
Blue for the sky and the color green to fill these fields with praise