Well, it would be completely hopeless to try to post about EVERYTHING that has happened since I last posted! Let me just try to hit the highlights...

June 8-14 was the Youth Tour in Washington DC. I won a trip to DC through my local electric cooperative, as did about 80 other high school juniors from around the state, and nearly 1400 from around the US. It was… um… interesting. We got to see a lot of cool stuff, but the atmosphere was… not great. Well, you know what? I’ll post the letter I wrote to my sponsoring co-op. That can give you something of an idea of what it was like. One good thing though – I got a chance to witness (kind of) to one of my roommates. And I actually did it! It was so hard, but so worth it. Anyway…

I got home on a Thursday not. Actually the chaperone who drove me and two others home dropped me off at Dad's church league softball game! So I changed out of my stuffy traveling clothes (dress pants and shoes, plus nice shirt) and into a t-shirt and shorts, and watched the game. It was a thriller! Dad's team was playing the second-best team in the league, and they were neck and neck for most of the game. Dad's team eventually won, and I told him afterwards, "There just might be a new second-best team in the league!" They were playing really well - everybody was hitting, everybody was fielding well, good baserunning. The whole package. It was a really fun game to watch, especially considering that his last 3 games have been blowouts against really terrible teams.

Friday was off day! I enjoyed it thoroughly.

Saturday. Yes, Saturday. Well, we had a camping trip planned for Sunday thru Wednesday, so I helped get everything packed for that. And then we had an AIM presentation that night at a 4th of July celebration. (Don't ask me why the people of Forsyth decided to hold their 4th of July celebration three weeks early. They just did.) We were meeting at 4:00 to practice for it, but there were some new girls who needed to learn a dancing part that no one had been able to teach them at training camp (that Thursday), so they came over to our house at 2:00 to learn the part off of a video recording Jessica had. They did really well.

Then for the practice at 4:00. Let me say this: I AM SOOOOO PROUD OF OUR TEAM!!!! Total honesty here – I did not have very high hopes for our team this session. We had several new people, including several younger guys (age 10-11). I just didn’t think we would be able to attain a high level of professionalism and excellence, either onstage or off. I was wrong. Totally and completely. The team blew me away. They presented with excellence – heck, they even PRACTICED with excellence! And that’s saying something! It still remains to be seen how the will do in Bible study and mentorship time, but I have high hopes. I was especially impressed with the way they signed. They signed with emotion, with passion, like they really believed it. Two of the new younger guys – 10 and 11 years old – were awesome. The two new girls did well. Even Missy, who has been on the team for a while but really struggles with getting signs down, did a great job. But the one that really stood out was Madison.

 I have been mentoring Madison pretty much forever, and we’re pretty close. In the past, she did sign with expression, but it was just really big and uncontrolled. When I watched her sign on Saturday, it was like night and day. I don’t know what happened to her, but she was like a different person. She was out in front in one of the sign language songs – sharing the center with Jessica. Those of you who have seen Jessica present – well, you’ve seen Jessica present! And you know how most people look when they’re signing next to Jessica. ;) But as Madison signed, I could see that she had earned that place. Her emotion was up a level, or maybe two. The actual physical signing was excellent. But there was something more – she was really putting her heart into it. She was just a joy to watch. I think she may be rivaling Jessica as the best signer on the team! (Well, on second thought, she might not be quite up to that level yet. But Jessica better watch her back!)

 They did one song I had never seen before – Grand Old Flag. They made me cry! I was so happy, because I knew if they could make me cry, they could really make a great impact on their audience. And by all accounts, they did. I was just bursting with pride!

 Whew. Well, after the presentation Saturday night, we had a camping trip Sunday thru Wednesday of the next week. I certainly don’t have time to write all that out, but Mom has been blogging about it: http://walnutshademom.wordpress.com. If you want to read about the camping trip, you can get all the gory details there.

 Well, there’s more to write, but it’s getting late. I’ll try to post the rest sometime soon. Plus some stuff I’ve been thinking about lately.