Every day is a journal page
Every man holds a quill and ink
And there's plenty of room for writing in
All we do is believe and think
So will you compose a curse
Or will today bring the blessing
Fill the page with rhyming verse
Or some random sketching

Teach us to count the days
Teach us to make the days count
Lead us in better ways
That somehow our souls forgot
Life means so much

Every day is a bank account
And time is our currency
So nobody's rich, nobody's poor
We get 24 hours each
So how are you gonna spend
Will you invest, or squander
Try to get ahead
Or help someone who's under

Teach us to count the days
Teach us to make the days count
Lead us in better ways
That somehow our souls forgot
Life means so much

Has anybody ever lived who knew the value of a life
And don't you think giving is all
What proves the worth of yours and mine

Teach us to count the days
Teach us to make the days count
Lead us in better ways
That somehow our souls forgot
Life means so much

Every day is a gift you've been given
Make the most of the time every minute you're living

Chris Rice - "Life Means So Much"

I admit that in my darkest hours I've asked what if,
What if we created some kind of man made faith like this?
Out of good intention or emotional invention,
and after life is through there will be no You...
Cause they want proof of all these miracles I claim,
Cause only fools believe that men can walk on waves... (Fool for You)

When mustard seeds made mountains move,
A burning bush that spoke for You was good enough.
When manna fell from heavens high
Just because You told the sky to open up....

Before rational analysis and systematic thinking
Robbed me of a sweet simplicity.
When wonders and when mysteries
Were far less often silly dreams
And childhood fantasies.

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.

For background, see entry above ("Miscellaneous Ramblings").

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dear [Sponsoring Cooperative]:

…Although I enjoyed the trip very much, there were a few aspects of it I thought were not as great as they could be. As my sponsoring cooperative, I thought that you should be aware of these issues so that you can take any action you feel appropriate, helping to make future Youth Tours even better than this one was.

 First, you should know that I have been raised in a strong conservative, moral environment. I have served as a student leader in a Christian organization, and have become accustomed to being treated like an adult and, consequently, being expected to behave like one. On top of all this, I have grown up in Branson, which, as you know, is a community that emphasizes conservative, traditional values. With this background, I was hoping a trip to Washington DC, along with 80 of the best and brightest young people Missouri has to offer, would be an environment in which I (and others) would be expected to behave maturely and professionally.

 I was somewhat disappointed when I found that a group repeatedly described as “the cream of the crop” was allowed to behave in an unprofessional, immature manner. I was disappointed that nothing more than juvenile behavior seemed to be expected of us. It was expected that we would be loud during meetings. It was expected that we would be late getting back to the buses or meeting other time commitments. It was expected that we would be flirty and show excessive attention to the opposite gender. And the delegates performed according to these expectations. However, I think the Youth Tour delegates were entirely capable of behaving more maturely – but they did not, because they were not expected to.

 I think the behavior of the chaperones also contributed to the lowering of expectations. For example, the chaperones were always the last ones back to the bus. They also took the lead in more significant matters. Before one of the dances, two of the male chaperones, wanting to make sure that we understood what types of dancing were banned, demonstrated “dirty dancing” for us. This escalated into a big joke, and certainly did not discourage dirty dancing! I was also concerned when all the chaperones went out to dinner on the night of the all-states dance, leaving the students relatively unsupervised during what several people later told me was a fairly risqué event.

 I understand that WRVEC is not the organization that plans or sets the standards for the Youth Tour. I also understand that my values and morals are not shared by every Youth Tour delegate – or by every White River employee. However, I was concerned by the way that the Youth Tour delegates were allowed to act, and I thought it would be appropriate to let you know about my concerns. I have also sent a letter to Mike Marsch, the state director for Youth Tour, informing him of my concerns. I want to do all that I can to ensure that Youth Tour is the best possible experience for each delegate, and I know that is your goal as well.

 Again, thank you so much for sponsoring me on the Youth Tour, and thank you for considering this matter.

Sincerely,

Katie Roberts

There's been so much going on lately, I don't really know where to start. Jessica already covered the final presentation, so that's one thing I don't need to talk about. But that still leaves a lot of stuff to write about:

• the Red Roof Mall presentation
• end of AIM session
• lots of changes academically
• researching big position paper on flag burning
• I get my SAT scores tomorrow
• Saturday is Andrew's birthday
• Oh yeah, and Monday was mine
• you won't believe what my dad gave me
• my aunt is coming on Friday to spend a week with us
• and we're going to a Cardinals game with her!

That's a lot of stuff to write about, and I certainly can't cover it all in one post! So I'll have to choose one. I think I'll tell you about my aunt.

My aunt Kristy (that's her on the left), who's coming to visit us later this week, is my dad's sister. She's a lot like him in a lot of ways (can't you tell from the picture? She's his spittin' image!) - and I'm a lot like her. Ever since I was really little, everyone's always said that I look like her, and Mom says that as I get older I look more and more like her. We're pretty close, too. Our initials are the same - AKR - so we've got this thing going where we call each other AK. Actually, she's AK the First and I'm AK the Second, but we rarely use our full names. We have our differences too - you wouldn't believe how many conversations we've had about music. She likes BarlowGirl, I like Mark Schultz. We're... different.

Anyway, what's really cool about my aunt is not just that she teases me about my musical tastes, but that she's a missionary in Africa! She lives in this little country in West Africa called Niger. She lives in the sticks - the absolute boonies. Out in a village, in a hut, without another white person for miles. She speaks a couple of the native languages and is working on translating the Bible into one of them, as well as holding Bible studies and doing evangelism work among the people.

What makes my aunt even cooler is that when she was in Bible school, she was climbing a tree, fell out, and was paralyzed from the waist down. She's a missionary by herself in the absolute sticks... in a wheelchair! Of course, she's never let that slow her down. You know, I don't think ANYTHING could slow her down! She's like my dad that way.

So anyway, Aunt Kristy is coming to the US on furlough this month, and she's spending the first week of her furlough with us, while she gets a car with hand controls so she can drive. She'll be flying in to St. Louis on Friday afternoon, and Dad and I will go pick her up. Then, we'll go to a St. Louis Cardinals game that night! It's going to be so much fun! It's kind of a late birthday present for me, since my birthday was Monday. Aunt Kristy and Cardinals... what more could I ask?

While she's here with us, there's no telling what crazy things we'll do! Her and Dad are both totally wild and crazy! Last time we went to Silver Dollar City. It was really fun. Because she was in a wheelchair, we got bumped up to the front of all the lines!

So anyway, I just wanted to introduce you to this way-cool lady! Hope you think she's cool too!

Well, I have decided that I officially have a big mouth. Although I prefer to think of myself as simply having a large vocabulary, it sometimes gets me in trouble no matter what I call it. For example, the other day I used the word meticulous in Bible study. All the other girls just stared at me. They were completely... um, shall we say... befuddled.  Nothing against the girls at all - they're awesome. It just struck me funny. And that's not the first time it's happened.

I sent an email to Andrew Vandever the other day, and I realized why I like talking to him so much. It's not because of an emotional attachment or anything like that... it's that he understands my big words! Even better... he actually uses them! He speaks my language!  He's about the only person outside my family who I can count on always understanding everything I say!

Arduous. I used that word in a Road Report. Andrew laughed. He said he could tell that I wrote that road report, just because I used that one word! He said he couldn't imagine anyone else on the mission trip using words that big in normal, everyday life.

So, I have a big mouth. But I kinda like it that way. I mean, what if I had to say "paying attention to details" every time I really meant "meticulous?" Or "difficult and tiring" every time I meant "arduous?" There's a level of satisfaction that I get from using just the right word. So, I'm proud of my big mouth. Yes, I'm wierd that way.

As I mentioned a while back, the AIM Branson SALTeam is coordinating an outreach to Branson's visitors called Pennies for Heaven. Right now we're collecting money for this project through donation boxes set up throughout the community, and each of us is responsible for checking a box or two. Well, about a week ago, I went to check the box at Golden Corrall, and look what I found!

Admittedly, this isn't the exact coin. I went online and found a picture of it, and was too lazy to actually take my own. But this is it: a French two-franc coin from (you ready?) 1922! Pretty cool, huh? Mom says she wants it for her foreign coins collection, but I'm keeping it for mine. I looked it up, and it's not worth anything - about $2 - but I think it's pretty darn cool anyway!

I said I'd write a post about this... and then I actually followed up on it!!!  Aren't you proud of me?

So. SAT this morning. We got up at an ungodly hour to meet the Duncans to carpool to the test, and I actually felt pretty rested when I woke up! Those of you who know me know that that's almost a miracle! Prayer works.

We met Mrs. Duncan and Aaron (Duncan, a SALTeam member on the Branson AIM team, who was also taking the test) at the commuter parking lot - they were a little late, but that turned out to be good, because we got to the test center about 20 minutes before registration started. We occupied the drive up talking about a wide variety of different topics, mostly pertaining to homeschooling, and particularly the relative merits of various high school math courses. (Courses discussed: Saxon, Math-U-See, and Jacobs.)

After sitting in the parking lot for about 10 minutes, the three of us - Aaron, Jessica, and I - headed toward the building. It was the same place I had taken the SAT through the Duke TIP several years ago. They had us separated into two rooms by last name, so Roberts and Duncan had to part ways. Too bad; Aaron had the cell phone. Normally you're not allowed to use a cell phone in the test center, but this would soon become an important point. Keep reading.

We waited in the hall for about five minutes, then the test administrator (a young lady who I'm guessing was either a college student at MSU or just out of college) opened the doors and let us in. She checked IDs at the door, and, noticing that Jessica and I were sisters, asked the proctor (a young man who I'm sure was a MSU student) to seat us apart from each other. This he did. We had kind of been hoping we'd be able to sit together, but I understand why they had to separate us.

We were seated in a big classroom, with rows of tables with chairs attached, stepping down like an ampitheater toward the front of the classroom. We were seated in every other row of seats, and there was an empty seat on either side of each student. I guess that's to make it harder to cheat. I was seated in the very front row, right in front of the test administrator's podium.

We started by giving our name, address, SSN, and all those other vital stats... standard standardized (nice choice of words there, huh?) test stuff. Then came the first section: the dreaded SAT essay.

In anticipation of this wonderful section, we had borrowed a set of DVDs with tips on how to do well on the SAT essay. They were done by this guy whose name I can't spell but I can pronounce: Andrew POO-duh-wah (Mr. P). They were very helpful, and I don't think I would have done very well without them. There are a few points on which I disagreed with him, but for the most part it was good stuff. Jess and I watched those earlier this week, so we figured we were pretty well prepared for the essay.

I have signed my name and promised several times not to share ANY information with you regarding the essay section, unless I want the full wrath of the College Board to descend upon me. Well, I don't really want that, so I won't tell you what the question was. I will say that it was more difficult than some of the prompts that Mr. P gave us, but I thought I did an okay job with it. I took the minority position, which will hopefully earn me some points with the judges I used one example from literature (points with English teacher judges) and a couple from current events (points with journalist judges). According to Mr. P, English teachers and journalists make up the majority of the people who score these tests. My main concern is that the essay isn't quite long enough - I only managed to fill 1 1/3 of the two pages they gave me, and I was hoping to fill a good bit more than that. Oh well. I did my best. That's what counts, right?

It was nice to get the essay section out of the way first - for more reasons than one. First, you tend to be more brain-dead after answering four hours' worth of multiple choice questions. Second - and I found this out the hard way on the ACT essay - your pencils tend to be quite a bit duller by that time, too.

And then came nine - count 'em, nine - 20-25 minute sections, testing mathematical, writing, and verbal abilities. In case you're wondering - I'm still not entirely sure which ones were writing and which ones were verbal. The questions on them weren't all that different. The sections were pretty easy for me. For one thing, I've taken a lot of standardized tests, and for another thing, I seem to have a knack for standardized tests in general. Wierd thing to have a knack for, I know. It's pretty nice to have around, though.  I finished all the sections before time was called, and on most of them, I had time to go back and review all of my answers. So that was nice. It did get boring, though, after I had done the section and reviewed my answers, and still had several minutes to go. Jessica was usually done early, too, so we passed the time by making faces and shrugging at each other across the room.

There was one incident that disrupted an otherwise ordinary testing day. About 10:30, just as I had finished checking my work on a verbal section, the fire alarm started going off! We all tried to ignore it and concentrate on the test, while the administrator rushed out of the room. She returned about 30 seconds later, paused the timer, and told us that we needed to evacuate the building. We all filed out calmly, out onto the porch of the building. We were there for about five minutes, wondering what was going on, when we heard the wail of a fire siren, heading toward the university campus! WOW! Sure enough, the fire engine pulled up right next to the building, and we were all ordered to head toward the parking lot. As we walked toward the parking lot, Jessica and I spotted Aaron on his cell phone, calling his mom to tell her what was going on. Man, it would have been nice to have a cell phone to call our mom! (But Miss Brilliant here left it in the car. )

About fifteen minutes later, the fire truck left, and we all went back into the building. Evidently there had been some electrical malfunction that had triggered the alarm, but there was no fire in the building. Whew! We continued with the test as if nothing had happened. We're pretty sure the test will count, but there's a chance that because of the craziness, College Board will decide that our scores won't count. I sure hope that doesn't happen! I'm ready to be DONE with the SAT!

After our test finished, we waited for a few minutes until Aaron's got done, than headed out to the parking lot, where Mrs. Duncan was waiting. We drove through Wendy's, again enjoyed a varied conversation, this time ranging from essay contests to the fat content of French fries to Josiah's vocabulary, and got back to the commuter lot at around 2:30. And that was that. We get our scores on May 24. I'll let you know how we did!

Well, Jessica and Kaitlin are putting me to shame in the blog-post-regularity arena. And that "I'll tell you tomorrow" that I posted three weeks ago? HA. HA. HA. Yeah right.

I can't promise daily posts or anything, but I will try to be more diligent about getting more posts in.

Let's see. A week or so ago, when I was originally thinking that I really really REALLY had to post, I figured I could use busy-ness as an excuse for not posting in forever. Well, not anymore. Life has really slowed down recently, and I'm not entirely sure why. Part of it might be that all my essay contest award ceremonies/competitions/luncheons have finally finished. I had one basically every week in April... one week I had three. But they're done now. And I finally mailed off my last essay of the spring... I don't have another one due until JULY (*gasp*). The deadlines tend to come in spurts - 2-4 deadlines at a time. There was one in December, one in March, and there will be another one this November. But for now, it's just school and chores and AIM. Which actually leaves time for other stuff! Actually, I've had time to get a whole week of school done in THREE DAYS! Yeah, I don't have any more school to do this week! Well, except one paper on "The Essence of Marriage." But I already pretty much know what I'm going to say, so that shouldn't take too long. Anyway.

Sometime I should post all the essay contests I've entered in the past year or so. The list is on my computer at home, and I'm at the library, which is why I'm not just posting it now. It's a pretty long list. My latest one was on the Holocaust. But I've been doing topics as diverse as Christopher Columbus, the Bill of Rights, and the Hungarian Revolution.

Jessica just came up. She agrees with my title.

I'm trying to think of wierd/funny/interesting things that have happened lately. Usually the boys provide lots of fodder, but they've been pretty ho-hum lately. Oh, here's one. Dad was coming home from work late, so we were going to wait dinner on him. I went upstairs to break the news to Andrew that we wouldn't be eating for an hour and he could have an apple while he waited. Before I could even get out the part about the apple, Andrew was throwing a fit, kicking and pushing his feet against his bedroom window. (People with little brothers, you know where this is going!) Crash! The window shattered, shards went everywhere, and Andrew was in BIG trouble. He told me today that he wishes he could rewind life like a movie, and how he would do it differently. I told him that he couldn't rewind, but he could make sure the rest of the "movie" of his life was really good. He said yeah, but he still wished he could rewind.

In other news, I've had so much time on my hands that I got the pictures from our recent Colorado ski vacation up on the website! Here's the link: http://www.teamroberts.org/pictures/skiing. Enjoy!