friday favorites #23: week of april 29, 2016

These last two weeks have been unusual. For whatever reason, I didn't have many pressing things at work (aside from the normal craziness that seems to spring up at this time of the year), so I spent most of my time fully immersed in yearbook--which is a good thing, seeing that speech brain (January through March) and Hashimoto's brain (a constant struggle) don't mix well! I'm not kidding you--I've found so many things on pages that I supposedly signed off on, that I gave my students good grades on, that are all kinds of wrong. Sigh. Suffice it to say, I'm glad it's the weekend. Here are a few things that I've been enjoying recently.

1. Planning a road trip
It's been three years since my sisters and I went away together. Sure, we've been together since then, but always with other people. Well, we're going to remedy that this year: We're spending a weekend in Nashville! We're not going until July, but this is a favorite because I just bought our tickets! We're going to Annie F. Downs' Looking for Lovely weekend. I'm super excited--and I love that it's going to be in Nashville, a city I've long wanted to visit! If you have any tips about places we should go or things we should see, let me know!

In Winona Lake on our last girls' weekend, which I sort of, kind of, not really wrote about here.

2. The Grinder
Rob Lowe. William Devane. Fred Savage. Boise, Idaho. Somehow, these four things combine to create the most consistently funny comedy I've seen in a long time. The premise is that Mitch Sanderson (Lowe), following the end of his successful law drama The Grinder, moves home to Boise and decides that playing a lawyer on TV has made him qualified to be a lawyer in real life, much to the chagrin of his lawyer brother Stewart (Savage).

Lowe may be the "big name," but Savage is the highlight of the show. He's really the stand-in for the audience--all this ridiculousness is going on around him, and he's the voice of reason ... who sometimes gets swept up into the chaos.

The Grinder still hasn't been picked up for a second season, and if it gets canceled, it will be a tragedy. If you have Hulu Plus, you can watch the whole season. And you should because it's hilarious.

Good afternoon with my mom! After Lone Tree Singers practice (the concert is tomorrow at 2!), we did some Christmas decorating, began our Christmas puzzle, and I introduced her to the hilarity that is #TheGrinder.

A photo posted by Becky Ritta (@beckyritta) on Dec 5, 2015 at 4:10pm PST

I tried to introduce my mom to The Grinder in December. As far as I know, she hasn't watched another episode. Don't be my mom! Watch The Grinder.

3. Being an INSPY judge ... again!
Last year, I was able to judge the Contemporary Romance/Romantic Suspense category of the INSPY Awards (awards for inspirational fiction selected by a group of bloggers). I recently found out that I've been chosen as a judge again! I had such a great experience judging last year, and I'm thrilled to be doing it again! You can read about all of the judges here.

4. Hanging out with the speech team
The end of the school year gets really crazy. So many things are hapening: music concerts (that sometimes get rescheduled multiple times due to weather), track meets, awards nights, and on and on. In the midst of that, we always try to have an end-of-year speech party. So last night, we went bowling. Only four of the team members could make it, thanks to the aforementioned crazy schedules, but those of us who were there had a blast! And, to top it off, I got what could be my best non-wii bowling score of all time. I really should go bowling more often. (My score is the middle one: 122. Yes, I still placed last among the other adults I was playing with, but I beat all of the speech kids!)

5. The Goodbye Bride by Denise Hunter

We're going clear back to late March for this recommendation. Denise Hunter is one of my favorite romance writers, and her latest, The Goodbye Bride, did not disappoint ... and it earned a place on my keeper shelf, which is becoming harder and harder to do now that I'm only keeping the books that "spark joy." The Goodbye Bride is about an amnesiac who can't remember the past six months, so she assumes she still belongs with the fiance she abandoned. Anyway, here's a snippet from my review:

Lucy is such an incredibly likable character that I couldn't help but pull for her happily ever after. Hunter did a magnificent job of portraying Lucy's confusion, fear, and determination, and, due to Hunter's choice to let the audience in on Lucy's past only when Lucy learns about it herself, there's a sense of mystery and suspense that runs throughout the novel, adding another layer to the story.

 If you're a fan of clean romance, you'll definitely want to check this one out!

As always, thanks for stopping by, and feel free to let me know your own favorites! I'm linking up with the usuals: Erika, Christina, and Karli.

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five friday favorites #15: week of march 27, 2015

I'm late on the Friday Favorites again because ... speech. We had state speech yesterday, and after I got home, I crashed. Because I'm not motivated enough to get the Friday Favorites finished before Friday, they're late ... again.

1. Getting retweeted ... by Sean Lowe!
As we all know by now, I love the Bachelor franchise. So of course I was going to read former Bachelor Sean Lowe's book! After I reviewed it, I linked to my review on Twitter. And then this happened ...

After having a fangirl moment, I went to my blog stats. Almost immediately, my review had more than 100 page views. At the end of the day, it had more than 300. At this moment, it has nearly 500. My stats are going to look really great this month :-)

Thank you, Sean!!!

2. These kids

As you've probably gathered by now, speech has been consuming my life for the last three months. The season ended yesterday with the state meet. (Insert happy dance here.) Last week, we had our district meet, and we had a completely amazing day. We took 14 entries, and 11 got medals. Of those 11, 8 qualified for state and 3 of those 8 were event champions. Because we had two duets and one OID (drama) in our state qualifiers, we ended up taking 12 kids to state! And on top of that, we won the district championship as a team!!!

We didn't have a great day at state from a results standpoint, but the kids gave it their all, and I think most of them really enjoyed the day. Also, we're a very young team--of the 12 kids who went to state, only four had been in speech prior to this year--so the future looks bright for the Nebraska Christian speech team.

3. Three healthy cats
Last Friday, I posted this photo on Instagram:

We all survived the vet visit and are now back in our happy places.
For the cats, that means basking in the sun. For me, that means #MarchMadness.
I swear, going to the vet is one of the most stressful things... #catsofinstagram

Unfortunately, I posted that photo too soon. About five minutes later, Skaara (in the top right corner) started throwing up. I ended up rushing him back to the vet, and he got a steroid shot that finally stopped the vomiting. Poor guy wasn't himself until about midday Saturday. I'm very thankful that the other two didn't have a reaction like Skaara and that he's feeling better!

4. "The Ballad of Serenity"
Basically, this is two fandoms colliding. After Joss Whedon donated to the Kickstarter for The Letter Carrier, Jesse L. Martin, Carlos Valdez, and Rick Cosnett from The Flash recorded this thank you video. All three are majorly involved in The Letter Carrier.
Actors from my favorite new show of the season singing the theme song to one of my favorite gone-too-soon shows? Magical.

5. For the Right Reasons

So of course this has to be my book pick of the week!

For the Right Reasons is such a fun book! Whether you love The Bachelor, hate-watch The Bachelor, or just wonder what all the hoopla is about, you should read this book. It gives a behind-the-scenes look at this fascinating series, and it's written from a Christian perspective, so there aren't any salacious details.

Check out my review here.

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five friday favorites #13: week of march 6, 2015

So, it's been 1-1/2 months since the last Friday Favorites post. I think we can still safely blame speech, but not for much longer, as we're in the home stretch! Beginning with this week, I'll be highlighting four random favorites and a book ... because you know I'm all about the book recommendations!

Today I'm linking up with Erika, Karli, and April.

1. TOMORROW IS OUR LAST SATURDAY SPEECH MEET OF THE YEAR
Can you sense my excitement? 'Cause I am very excited. After tomorrow, my Saturdays become mine again! We've had a good year, and I have high hopes for several of our kids heading into districts in a couple weeks and then state (God willing!) at the end of the month.

The team. Small but mighty!

2. Tea Samples from a cousin
As you may know, I love tea. I'm not really a tea snob at all, choosing to go for the cheap over the more expensive, high quality teas most of the time. I mean, one of my absolute favorite teas is Bigelow's Orange & Spice herbal tea. $3.00-ish for 20 bags at Walmart. But I may soon be purchasing more expensive teas. My cousin (once removed? I can never quite remember how that works...) recently sent me a package of tea samples she's received with her Harney & Sons orders.

I. Am. In. Love.

The Hot Cinnamon Spice black tea is my favorite so far. I've been disappointed by cinnamon teas in the past, but this tea I could drink every day. The only thing that has kept me from ordering already is that I'd like to try the rest of the samples first to see what else I should order! (One that I won't be ordering? Tilleul, which is apparently linden leaves. Blech!)

3. These Two

Last weekend, my parents celebrated 39 years of marriage! They were just kids when they got married, obviously, as they're not old now! I'm so grateful to have grown up with parents who have modeled a godly marriage for me and my siblings. They're still so obviously in love!

4. Fifteen Pounds
That's the amount of weight I lost in the three months between endocrinologist visits. My endo was floored. She told me that they always tell their overweight patients to loose 10 pounds before the next visit, and they never do ... but I did it! I'm still doing Trim Healthy Mama, though I am modifying it a bit to fit me. And I'm thisclose to convincing my mom to try it with me. Here's to the next fifteen!

5. An Uncertain Choice
On Tuesday, Jody Hedlund's An Uncertain Choice released. This is Hedlund's first novel for the YA market (she's most known for her inspirational historical romances, like the fabulous A Noble Groom). I reviewed the prequel novella The Vow a few weeks ago, I'll have a review of this novel up on my book review blog soon, and I'm also participating in a fun blog tour promoting the book. My post for the tour will be up on March 17.

Thanks for stopping by! Have a fabulous weekend!

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i am still alive ...

This blog has been silent for a long time. Too long. And it's not because Isis has decided to use my laptop as her personal heater. It's because we're in the middle of speech season. Only three Saturdays to go (plus a variety of other days, but things become way less exhausting once the Saturday meets are finished).

Christian Chick's Thoughts, though, has been hopping. Book reviewing is practically a second job--a job that pays in books rather than cash money--and I have several reviews going up each week. So here are some things I've recently posted on Christian Chicks Thoughts that you should check out if you feel so inclined.

• Top Ten Tuesday It's been a very long time since I participated in this meme, but today's topic was too good to pass up: what I like and dislike in romance. I had plenty to say :-)
• Heart of Adventure Sweepstakes
   If you're into entering giveaways, check out this great one from Dani Pettrey and Bethany House Publishers. Someone has to win--why not you?
• Always on my Mind
   Susan May Warren's latest book is fantastic, and I can't wait to continue this series! Also, Warren quoted my review in her latest newsletter ... I may have squealed a bit as I read it!
• Best Books of 2014
   I know I already linked to this once, but in case you missed it ...

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i'm not a momma, but i sure love my kids

This post is mainly a reminder to myself—I think everyone is more than ready for school to get out for the summer, and I've sensed it in myself more this year than ever before. At times, I hear my tone of voice when speaking to a student and inwardly cringe. So this look back at the kids I love will hopefully help me remember again why I do what I do!

I know I've said it before, and I'll probably say it again: The reason I continue to work at NC, year after year, is because I've fallen in love ... with a bunch of Asian kids. I distinctly remember the first time I realized just how much I cared about these kids who came from across the globe to learn English. It was in the spring of my second year working full time at NC. I was walking across the lawn from my office in the boys' dorm to the administration building. I don't know what exactly was on my mind, but suddenly the realization that I loved "my" internationals hit me like a ton of bricks. I even teared up, which is unusual for me. In all the years since that day, as students come and go, there's always a special place in my heart for our international students.

Here are a few of this year's special students:

Part of my Reading II class with The Light Across the River, our first book of the year. It's the sequel to Across the Wide River, which I reviewed for Kregel last summer. I have so much fun with this class! Left to right: Hannah, Mia, Rae, Natalie, Kyle. Poor Kyle was the only boy in the class for the first semester!

One of the advantages of being assistant speech coach this year (as opposed to head coach, which I was for the previous seven years) was that I had more time to work with the international students on the team. This was a good thing, as we had 30 kids on the team, and 10 of them were internationals! I can't help but admire the students who will go out for speech—daunting for any student—when they'll be speaking in a language they're just learning! One of my favorite moments of the speech season was when Yena (front row, center, red dress and black shoes) won serious prose at our conference meet. I was so proud! Above are the junior and senior speech team members at Honor, the spring formal.

Some of my favorite times of the year are when the kids need to find homestays (American families to stay with over breaks). I love opening my home to one or two girls. This Easter, I had two girls stay with me: Mina and Lindsey. We had so much fun together, and we talked about some serious stuff, too. Here we are at the Advance Dessert the week after Easter: Mina, me, Lindsey.

These aren't the only students special to me. I could talk about Janet, a girl I'd been praying for ever since I met her, who called me one Saturday morning with exciting news: "Miss Becky, you'll never believe it, but I am a Christian now!" Or Joey, the boy who fell in love with speech and qualified for state each of his three years on the team. Or Elaine, the girl who learned she really could get good grades and who went from F's to B's in my class in less than a semester. Or Wai, or Jay, or Ency, or any of the other 35 international students we have this year. 

They have my heart.

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ain't no party like a speech party!

We officially, officially wrapped up the speech season last night with a party at my house. We started out with lots of food.

I think they were fighting about who could look fatter. All I know is Duy ended up looking pregnant!

Then we segued into The Paper Plate Awards. We did this at a speech party three years ago when none of these kids were in speech. Ruth and I remembered how much fun they were then, so we revived them!  We ended up with at least one award for each student. Some were more serious, like "Made Miss Becky Cry," but most were a bit silly.

Jane won the "Miss Becky doesn't know how to pronounce my last name" award because at one speech meet, she was going to get a medal, and the person who would be announcing asked me how to pronounce her last name. I blanked, said something stupid, and he butchered it from the podium!

Joey won the "Miss Becky can't watch me because she's going to laugh" award because by the end of the season, I couldn't listen to either of his speeches without cracking up. And neither speech was funny. So we decided I wouldn't go watch him at state, just in case I got the giggles!

After that, it was game time--some people played "Funglish," this word game where you have to get someone to guess a word by only using the adjectives provided (it's the one pictured below); others played "Swap," a very violent card game; some played Super Mario; and others played "Blurt!", one of my favorite word games.

Then it was time for more food--brownie sundaes--while Jessica "played" the keyboard for us.

We wrapped up with a sing-along and a massive game of "Swap." All in all, it was a great night!

They're all choir kids, and they burst into a rendition of "Rejoice," one of their favorite numbers. After that, we had a Les Miz sing-along.

I'd be remiss if I didn't post a picture of my partner-in-crime, Ruth. We coached together for seven years! (Too bad we weren't looking at the same camera!)

I'm so grateful my house hasn't sold yet and I could have this party. We had a blast!

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catching up

Speech officially ended on Friday with the state meet. I had three students compete, and one, a freshman extemper, got fourth place! (I think extemp is the most challenging of all our speech events because you draw a topic one hour before you speak and write a speech about it, using articles you've previously clipped from magazines or printed off the internet. Most topics are political in nature. Almost all the extemp speeches I listened to yesterday--and I heard twelve--were on the US economy or the recovery efforts in Japan. Since he made it to finals, Scott had to write three 5-7 minute speeches yesterday!)

Here's a look at the people I've been spending countless hours with for the last three months!

I have been doing a few things other than speech ...

• I read my first non book review book since, well, I can't even remember when. I bought Dining with Joy a few months ago, but I always had just one more book review book to get through. On Tuesday, I read the last one I had, so then I picked up Dining with Joy. To be honest, I bought the book for its cover. I had read books one and two in the series, and while they were decent, I didn't love them, and I had no intention of reading any more of author Rachel Hauk's novels ... until Amazon started recommending Dining with Joy. It was the cover. Seriously, I've never been one to be influenced by a book's cover (though I've been embarrassed by one before--click on over here to see it!), but now it's happened twice--first with The Mountains Bow Down and now with this! Fortunately, the book was as enjoyable as the cover. I finished it yesterday ... the same day I got another book review book in the mail.
• Last week, I got an invitation to join the Amazon Vine program! This is Amazon's product review program, and you must be invited in order to join. I guess posting all those book reviews paid off :-) I've received and reviewed my first two products--a Jamba Juice energy drink and Lost and Found, a graphic novel by Shaun Tan. Here's a link to my review of Lost and Found. I may eventually start reviewing Vine products on my blog, but it's not a requirement of the program, so I'll wait for now.
• I now have five (yes, five) living plants! This is something of a victory for me, as you may recall. Granted, the aloe plant isn't looking too great, but it's still kicking. My newest plant I bought today--"Royal Hustler" Ivy. I've never had an ivy plant before ... let's hope it's pretty hearty!
• Thanks to Netflix, I've caught up on Parks & Recreation. If you ever enjoyed The Office, you'll probably like Parks & Rec. Many people (read: critics) say the first season is pretty rough, but I thought it was hilarious from the beginning. If you don't have Netflix, you can watch the most recent episodes on Hulu ... and I'll be happy to fill you in on any background you need!
• I've been asked to transition into a slightly different role at my job. I'll have more to say about it later, but I'm really anticipating the change!

I think that's about it! I'll have another book review coming in just over a week (the sequel to Hand of Fate, which I reviewed last year). I guess I've procrastinated long enough ... time to hit the taxes!

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why i haven't been blogging

(except to post book reviews)

There's a one-word answer: speech.

Our competitive season starts the first week after Christmas break and ends the 4th week of March. We go to eight Saturday invitationals, seven of them in a row (thankfully, this is the eighth Saturday after Christmas break and is a day off!), plus we have Conference, District, and (hopefully) State! It's an insane three months, and I spend many evenings at school, working with team members. Thankfully, we're on the downward slope now, with only one invitational, District, and State to go!

I hate that this blog has basically turned into a book review blog (five of my eight posts in 2011 are book reviews), and I do plan to remedy that ... it's just that I'm so tired when I get home, and I'd rather read a book or watch something on Netflix than actually have to think and write!

And as much as I'd like to write now, I have mountains of papers to grade. I'm so far behind. Like, I gave a test two weeks ago that isn't graded yet (hangs her head in shame). So, I'm setting myself up with a cup of Teavana tea (that's another post waiting to happen!), some relaxing music, and a purple pen (which is so much friendlier than red!), and I'm settling in for an afternoon of grading.

Hope to see you again soon!

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thoughts from the couch

We're a week into the new year, and I haven't posted anything but book reviews for about two weeks. I have another book review finished, but I thought I'd give you a different kind of post first!

We are headed into our third snow day in a row. While we still call them "snow days," these days have been more like "wind and extreme cold days." I am so excited to be able to sleep in again tomorrow, and I'm hoping for Saturday's speech meet to be canceled, too!

Other things that have happened recently:

• I hosted a Holiday Bowl party where we watched the Huskers obliterate the Arizona Wildcats 33-0.

Janet shows off the easy chocolate cookies we made. She said she never bakes because it's too hard, and she was quite fascinated by my cake mix cook book.

Scott & Levi "throw the bones" ... or something like that! I believe it had to do with the defense.

• We finally made it to Kansas (minus Dad, who had to stay behind to make sure sidewalks were cleared for the beginning of school on Monday). We celebrated Christmas with Grandma, and she was feeling well and was in a great mood. 

Grandma inspects the family calendar we made for her. She loved looking at the pictures of her kids, grandkids, and great-grandkids.

We had a great dinner and then watched a dvd of an interview done with my great-grandparents in the '90s.

Grandma & I pose with the yule log my uncle buys every year to go with our Christmas dinner. Because of our Christmas blizzard, he had to return to California before we could get to Kansas, so we had to eat the dessert without him.

In the evening, we went to Wichita--to Target (yay!), Panera (double yay!), and the Warren (triple yay!). We'd planned to see Avatar in 3-D, but it was sold out, so we saw Sherlock Holmes instead. It was okay, but I would have appreciated knowing that magic played so heavily into the plot before we went.

Mom savors her broccoli cheese soup. Why don't we have a Panera around here???

• Engagements abound! My cousin Jon just announced his engagement to Lauren. Not that he needs or wants my approval, but I give it completely :-) Lauren will be a great addition to our family!!! Also, dear friend and college roomie Jen just got engaged, and she's giving me the honor of being part of her special day! I couldn't be happier for her!

Jen and I were last together in October--I can't wait to see her again!

• I've done a lot of reading recently, and I've started reading my first Blogging for Books selection--Dug Down Deep by Joshua Harris!!! You may recall that a few months ago I mentioned how excited I was about this book. I got so excited when I saw it was available through Blogging for Books! I started reading it in earnest today, and so far, it's excellent. I'm looking forward to reading more; look for the review the week of Jan. 18.
  

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what to do on a completely free day

These things I've done:

• sleep in
• watch Thursday's FlashForward. 
• rewatch the middle 20 minutes of FlashForward because I was distracted.
• watch Thursday's The Office.
• retake the Strong Life Test that goes along with my book review book. Get yet another result for my lead and supporting roles.
• finish my review of Find Your Strongest Life. Per Thomas Nelson guidelines, it will go up on my blog on Monday.
• write an expanded review to also post on this blog. Thomas Nelson requests that all reviews are approximately 200 words, but I had so much more to say about this book that I decided to write a regular review and an expanded review.
• work out while watching the first season of Fringe.
• make a better-than-Egg McMuffin out of a soft-boiled egg and an English muffin.

These things are yet to be done (and I can virtually guarantee not all of these will happen!):

• do the dishes
• go to the parents' for supper
• read Green
  
• take out the trash
• shower
• watch Ryan Reynolds on SNL
• search for speeches for the new speech season
  
• go to bed before midnight
  

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chemistry!

When I walked into my classroom this morning, I saw this on my bulletin board, courtesy of my speech and yearbook kids:


Do you think they're trying to tell me something?

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i love my speechers!

I haven't blogged too much about speech this season. But now that the season is over, it's time for a recap. We had the best year we've had in my five years of coaching. First of all, we were more successful as a team, placing second at both our conference and district meets and ninth at the state meet. But more importantly, this team really enjoyed being together. The members became great friends, and it was a joy to coach them.

Last week, the junior high and high school students washed all the school's vehicles as a service project. When they finished with the school buses, vans, etc., they moved on to staff cars. This is perhaps embarrassing, or maybe just indicative of my upbringing, but that was the first time my car had been washed since I bought it nearly two years ago! It looked amazing from the front . . . but then I saw the back windows . . . The elephant is because Horton Hears a Who was kind of our theme this year. I'm not exactly sure why . . . And "Godspeed" was our catch phrase for the year. Right before the first meet, the juniors had a discussion with one of their teachers about how Christians should say "Godspeed" instead of "Good Luck" . . . and it stuck! At our annual speech showcase last week, the team presented the assistant coach and me with copies of Horton Hears a Who that they had all written notes in, and one of the girls gave me "good luck" socks to wear at the state meet. (I wore them during the awards ceremony.) So here we are (minus 5): The 2009 Speech Team!

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my day (so far)

• oversleeping yet still making it to work earlier than I normally do
• giving myself a bad paper cut almost immediately upon arriving at work
• giving myself a cardboard cut (on the same finger!) a few hours later
• becoming horribly frustrated with Adobe InDesign
• becoming horribly frustrated with some of my yearbook students
• returning to the office for lunch, only to discover that the kitchen had changed the menu from hamburger helper (not ideal, but acceptable) to beef & bean burritos (completely unacceptable)
• listening to Jim Brickman's new cd while trying to fix yearbook pages
• running across campus in a downpour . . . in full view of the senior English class
• coming home to a very dusty-smelling house, thanks to the window I left open this morning
• discovering Phillip LaRue's new cd (thanks to Sarah)
  
• preparing to go back to school for an evening of winter awards (my least favorite responsibility as speech coach) and yearbook
  

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happy anniversary to me

Today is my three year blogging anniversary. I'd repost my first post here (I blogged on MySpace for two years before joining blogger), but frankly, it was depressing! My first post on blogger was in March of last year, so I thought about reposting that one . . . and it was lame, unless you love Dancing with the Stars. I wasn't yet comfortable posting as "me," so it was completely anonymous. It wasn't until May that I began doing all my blogging here (thanks to Jen's gentle prodding).

So instead of reposting anything, I'll give you the last sentence of the first post of each month of the last year . . . and I'll link to the original post, just in case you're curious. (Why the last sentence, you ask? Because the first sentence is too boring.)

• Steve because he's having so much fun . . . and because I loved the Three Men and a Baby movies.
• No blogger post in April. Sorry!
• You don't want the details of this recent bout with the stomach flu, but one good thing did come of it . . . I lost 13 pounds!
• Because why would we have a day with no rain?
• God is good!
• I wonder if I'd have the same reaction if I was married and someone called me Miss . . . I kind of doubt it!
• Sounds like a pretty good trade off to me!
• We'll see how I do.
• And no matter what happens, I'm so grateful to have a voice!
• After I watch it, I'll let you know what I think . . . and you can be sure I'll watch it--what a clever marketing ploy!
• When you think of me, I ask that you would pray those things for me, as well.
• But I don't know their rules . . .
  

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on cloud nine

I started this post on Saturday but didn't finish it. I almost deleted it, but, even though you may not understand, I still had to share!

Those of you who are unfamiliar with high school competitive speech might not quite get this, but . . .

MY OID TEAM CAME IN FIRST AT CNFL TODAY!!!!!!

OK, so now I'll explain! We go to seven Saturday speech meets during the speech season. The two largest meets are CNFL 1 & 2. (CNFL stands for Central Nebraska Forensics League. This name often confuses kids on my team because in Nebraska, we call it "speech" not "forensics," so many of them only think of forensics as that CSI stuff.) Anyway, the CNFL meets have literally hundreds of kids competing, so it's really hard to place, especially if you're varsity.

About halfway through the day, I learned that my OID (Oral Interpretation of Drama--think a short one-act play without props and where touching isn't allowed) had placed first in the second round. I was excited, but not overly so. In such a big meet, anything can happen, so I expected that they'd place--it's such a big meet that they medal to fifteen places instead of the usual six--but I was thinking somewhere around tenth.

So, of course, at awards time they handed out all the other medals before OID. My kids were so antsy! Then they finally called the OID medalists up to the stage, and my team was called. Teams from Minden, Fillmore Central, North Platte, and Loup City--speech powerhouses--were also on stage. As the meet director called out the places, each time I expected her to say, "Nebraska Christian." Each time, she said something else! Then it got down to four teams, and she said, "We have a three-way tie for second place." Surely this is it, I thought. But we weren't the first name called. Or the second. Or the third! Then it finally registered on the team's faces . . . they were CNFL OID champions! We all stood up and screamed--and I think there may have been a few tears, too.

It was definitely one of the most exciting and rewarding moments in my coaching career!

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a week of craziness

Monday

• Went back to school. Because we had a snow day on the day that was to be our last day before break, we ran our test block schedule on Monday. Only one of my students was back, though, so I didn't give my final.
• Had my big toe vaccuumed. Seriously. Val was vaccuuming, and I lifted up my foot to get it out of the way. She lifted up the vaccuum and charged my foot. She thought I was watching; I wasn't, so I didn't know I needed to move my foot. Let's just say that getting your big toe vaccuumed isn't a plesant experience!
  

Tuesday

• Learned my reading class would be no more. Got three new students in my Intermediate ESL class, which will now be a writing class.
• Met with my speech kids. Found out I'd have eight entries for the meet on Saturday. (I thought I'd have two or three, so this was quite encouraging!)
• Stayed at school late working with speech kids.
• Stayed up late watching Jon & Kate Plus 8. (I get started watching episodes, and I have such a hard time stopping. And the show only appeals to me when I should be going to bed. I don't know why.)
• Missed my daily Bible reading . . . so I made it through 5 days before "falling off the wagon." Knew it would happen, but not so soon!
  

Wednesday

• Got home from work with only an hour and a half before I needed to be at an Awana directors' meeting. Opened up my lesson book and learned I'd need brownies for an illustration in the lesson. (Yes, I should have looked at my lesson earlier . . .) Since this year's book is on Bible heroes and goes in chronological order, I couldn't really skip the lesson. So I hurredly made box brownies while trying to cram the lesson into my brain.
• At Awana--our Sparks secretary couldn't be there, which always makes things a bit crazy. I made one girl cry during lesson time. After I announced that I had brownies for everyone, not just for the girl who got one as part of the lesson, the kids tuned me out completely. Plus, we didn't have a sound system like we normally do, so I had to try to yell the story. It hadn't occurred to me to put the brownies into plastic bags, so as the kids took them, they created a trail of crumbs going down the church hallway, and I had to apologize profusely to the church custodian.
• Val came over after Awana, and we watched Poseidon. It's not a very good disaster movie--Richard Dreyfuss shouldn't have a face at the end of it, part of it is a blatant rip off of Armageddon, and how on earth is there a life raft--with oars--just a few yards away from the overturned ship?

Thursday

• Val came to observe my yearbook class.
• Caught up on my daily Bible reading.
• Received my next book review blogger book--Rex: A Mother, Her Autistic Child, and the Music that Transformed Their Lives
  
  

Friday

• Got an email from my yearbook publishing company. Evidently, the cd of our pages that I sent them before Christmas was blank or broken. After a very stressful hour and a half, I got a new cd burned, and Val mailed it for me.
  
• Completely slid through a stop sign on my way home. Fortunately, no one was coming.
• Jon, Beth, Val, and Steph came over to watch Psych. (You really should be watching this show.)
• Made coffee for all. It was supposed to be cinnamon but kinda smelled like smoke.
• Framed my cross-stitch project.

Saturday

• Got up at 4:30 to get ready for our first speech meet.
• Spent all day at the meet. I judged twice--serious prose and poetry. I really love judging! My kids did well. I ended up having seven entries, and four of them placed! And our OID beat Minden's . . . which will probably never happen again, but it sure felt good!
• Didn't eat all day (until I got home), other than a piece of cheese at 5:30 a.m., a Kudos bar at 8 a.m., and some cheese crackers at 9 a.m. I was too busy judging and/or watching my kids perform. (That doesn't usually happen--I can only think of one other speech meet when I didn't really eat . . . normally, the coaches and judges are fed well . . . and I'm sure they were at this meet, too--I just never made it into the coaches/judges lounge!) I also didn't have caffeine all day, and I surprisingly never got a caffeine headache.
• Crashed on my couch after arriving home. Watched several Monk episodes and knitted a little.
• Watched an entire episode of SNL, perhaps for the first time ever. Neil Patrick Harris was the host, and he was quite funny. This part was my favorite:
  

Sunday

• Took Val to church with me. We sang one of my favorite worship songs ever--"You Are Holy (Prince of Peace)". Also, Pastor Paul played the pan flute.
• Went to Ritta Christmas, Part 2. We played this game where we all got presents that had a phrase from "Twas the Night Before Christmas" on the wrapping paper, and when our phrase was read, we had to yell "ho, ho, ho" and open our present, which Gram specially chose for each of us. I got a box of books and this note: "Becky, I know your love for reading. Maybe you can find some books here you haven't read. Enjoy. Maybe you can blog about one of these." Well, Gram, I'll do ya one better--here's a picture of all of them! And here's the wind chime I got from cousin Shawna--I love it!
• Stayed up way too late blogging.
  

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