Today was a van-schoolin' kind of day.  As I was preparing lunch, I got a phone call from a friend who had a spur of the moment, last minute opportunity I would not want to miss.  She had found out about a Speech and Debate Club for high schoolers being started and would any/all of my children be interested? 

I hung up and queried the kiddos and got a lukewarm response.  I decided that, yes, this was an opportunity we would go for, so I called Martha back and we arranged for me to pick her daughter up (their house was on the way) and I would carpool us on over to Dunwoody for the intro meeting.  This was wonderful except that the meeting started at one and it was after noon and Dunwoody is a good thirty minutes from our house!  Yipes!!  I left lunch on the stove and we sprinted out the door. 

Well...I had Mapquested the directions and let me tell you, Dunwoody must have been nutso when they named their streets because in one intersection there were SEVEN signs with DIFFERENT street names on them!  I called Martha, hoping to get some help in finding the dadgummed church, but she wasn't sure, so she called another friend who called me and finally, we arrived! 

We were a tad bit late and the room the club was meeting in was small, so I decided to wait in the next room where a bunch of kids were eating lunch and having "study hall".  The meeting was an hour and a half and for the first hour I sat in a not-so-soft folding chair and read a PG Wodehouse novel I happened to have in my purse and all was calm.  In the last half hour there emanated from the drama club room a series of thumps, some of which reverberated through the floor quite strongly. 

I immediately wanted to burst into the room and yell at my dear son because I just knew he was the source.  But I held my seat and spent the next fifteen minutes or so wincing whenever another thump shook the floor.  What on earth requires an earthquake simulation in a speech and debate class?!

Finally, the director of the home school program asked me if I'd like to accompany her into the class to hear the spiel she was going to give the kids about attendance, fees and such.  I walked into the room expecting to see some blood or at least a few bruises, but all of the kids were seated, angelically listening to the young college student who is their instructor.  He was assigning homework and ALL of the kids were feverishly writing on the papers he had given them. 

I figured I would get the story on the way home, so I held my tongue and listened to the director.  After she was done there was some spirited discussion about where they could possibly meet the next time because the room was just too small.  Apparently speech and debate needs space to move about! 

Finally we left and all four of the children bubbled over with enthusiasm.  My lukewarm children were on fire to come back for the next class!  And the thumping, I'm still not sure where that came in, only that it DID involve my child who was apparently miming the ogre Shrek saving the princess, Fiona.  I'm not sure I want to hear the rest of that tale! 

After returning home I ran Josh to Target because he actaully got some work hours this week--YAY!  Rebecca and I then took off for Robotics at 5:00.  She had a great time and I met up with the coach for her FLL team and we heard more of her plans for expanding the program.  She wants to rent a space and she's found a couple of possibilities.  I'm REALLY glad because part of the expansion is an FTC team and Rebecca is really excited because she ages out of FLL this year. 

I wanted to leave the meeting early, but Rebecca had prepared cupcakes to share with her team members, so I waited until they were passed out, consumed, and then we left and rushed over to our church.  They are holding a series of "Preparedness" meetings to help members and the community to prepare for emergencies and such and to help build food storage. 

Today's topic was storing the government recommended amount of water for each family member.  It's really not so hard!  Here is a web site that was recommended. 

http://www.ready.gov/

And here is a phone number you can call to get a handy-dandy book entitled,  Are You Ready?"
that walks you through the whole gamut of being prepared. 

1-800-BE-READY

You could download it here:

http://www.ready.gov/america/publications/allpubs.html

...but it is 204 pages long, so you might just want to call and order it!