Last Weekend, Part Two

As promised, I will continue on in my saga of last weekend, what a glorious weekend it was!
Last Saturday was the Regional Quiz Bowl tournament at Fairview, that added to another of my "Senior Moments". I love the Quiz Bowl team, especially this year. I have lots of fun being around all of them! As the only senior of the group, I am embracing my senior leadership role with open arms...As it turns out, I love being a leader, it fits me well. I also enjoyed the day because I got to be with my favorite junior and sophomore, Darian and Blaise, respectively. The three of us are much like sisters; we just "get" each other without trying, I love it! Anyway, after we arrived in Fairview, we made a pit stop at the Karl's Apple and stocked up on "brain food" for the day. Darian, Blaise, and I decided to pool our snacks, so we ended up with quite the mix: Chocolate Chip cookies, Pumpkin Seeds, Gummy Worms, Chocolate-Covered Raisins, Town House Flip-Side Cheese/Pretzel Crackers (Those are both yummy and amazing!), Chicken in a Biscuit Crackers, and a can of Spray cheese...The Food of Champions, What can I say? :) We got some strange looks as we were checking out, but it didn't matter. When we got back to the High School, we had a Bye round, so we got to sit and enjoy our goods. After our Bye, it was go time. The specifics of the tournament really weren't too exciting, so I'll spare you those, but I'll give the Highlight Reel:
-We took a speed round on Saints, which I would have rocked, except they decided to put three different St. Thomas's in the mix, and I couldn't keep track...But there was one about St. Christopher, which I was very excited about because I have a medal of him that I wear almost every day, so I was pretty thrilled!
-My math skills aren't as quick as they used to be, which I am thinking is a sign that I need to brush up on some math again.
-I think my fast buzzer skills were irritating a girl from Fairview, who apparently had a guess on many of the same questions I buzzed in on, but I didn't let that deter me at all
-The bracket wasn't set up in a very effective manner, and the team that was the runner-up, definitely shouldn't have been there.
-On a related note, we placed third overall, and we qualified for the Area Tournament in January!!!!!!!

That night was the annual fundraiser for the St. Joseph's School in Enid ( where Cody attends school), better known as the Taste of St. Joe's. It is a wine tasting and silent auction event that is apparently a load of fun, but I wouldn't know, since one has to be 21 to enter. Because of that, the boys and I all went to stay at our cousins' house, since our parents were at the Taste. I love going to Joe & Vickie's house, particularly because their kids, Liz, Jake, and Evan, are among my few cousins that are actually my age. The boys and I went there last year, and we had a blast, and this year was just as fun! I was introduced to marshmallow guns, which are very fun to use! It is my kind of gun, the marshmallows don't hurt very much if you get hit with one, and if nothing else, you have a yummy treat! Evan and I had a bit of a marshmallow war; that was quite the time, let me tell you! The only bad part was the fact that little Andrew was very upset for about an hour so, after which we had to call in the reinforcements (aka Mommy!) Upon her arrival, Andrew was completely calm. After that, we continued to have a good evening.

There was only one bad part to the weekend:
After I got home from Joe & Vickie's, I came to the realization that my beloved St. Christopher's/Pope Benedict necklace was nowhere to be found! I was beside myself, not necessarily because of the necklace, but because of the sentimental value behind it. I searched high and low, and then the next day, we happened to go to town (I'll explain why in a moment) and we looked at Joe & Vickie's. Jakub was even nice enough to get out his metal detector and search their leaf-covered yard for it. No dice there, but I'm fairly certain that they have a fortune in coins in their front yard. As it turned out, my necklace fell into Andrew's diaper bag, safe and sound...Crisis averted!!

Sunday morning after church, my parents, Gina, and I made a trip up to the hospital to do some visiting...no bad news here, because our good friend Robyn had had her baby on Friday afternoon! She had a beautiful, healthy baby girl named Natalie Kate. I was thrilled about her name...her middle name in particular, because we happen to share middle names!!!! I love my middle name of Kate, because it is uncommon as a middle name, but that's the thing. I have never met another person in the world who shares a middle name with me! I am aware that I am most definitely not the first or only person to have that middle name, but nonetheless, I have never met anyone else...Until Sunday!!! I was even lucky enough to get to hold her, and she smiled for me a few times! Before I saw her, I considered Andrew to be little, especially in comparison to the rest of the boys, but Andrew seemed like a giant compared to little Natalie. She was so small and delicate, with the smoothest of skin, and beautiful bright eyes, just perfect!

Shortly after I got home, I decided that I couldn't put off the inevitable for much longer...I had to find a starting point for that silly Argumentative Paper. I was irrationally upset by the thought of even writing the paper, for reasons that I am not even sure of, but I knew that if I wanted a good grade, that I had better get cracking. I, being the organizational person that I am, set up a basic outline, where I could organize topics that I wanted to include in my paper. By the end of the evening, I was satisfied enough with my progress. After doing about two and a half evenings later, I had my finished product. I am very glad that I have a way with words that enables me to write a large amount with no problem. It can be a curse (during my Amer. History tests with my extensive essay answers that make me nearly run out of time), but mostly a blessing, considering how much I love to write!

With all things considered, I definitely had all of the elements that added up to be a great weekend!