Excitement!

Has anyone ever received words of wisdom that you thought didn't apply to you? Maybe something along the lines of the fact that the second semester of your senior year of high school keeps you REALLY busy, especially if you participate in Band and/or a spring sport?

Yes. That would be me. And after hearing that from all of my senior friends in the past, I just blew it off and thought that they didn't know what they were talking about and that they just mismanaged their time. I knew that that would never happen to me, so I went on my merry little way.

Lo and behold, here I am in the middle of Spring Break, and I am ever so thankful for it! The past few weeks have been a whirlwind of activity. No, I haven't forgotten about my blog, nor have I given up, but between Band, track practices (and being tired after them), and my concurrent class, it just hasn't been happening for me. I also realize that my last few posts have began in the same way, what with me rambling about how I haven't fallen off the face of the earth and all. Hopefully, I can keep up some posts in the coming months that won't include anything about that.

I'll begin with the best news! Last Tuesday, the Band made its annual trip to Cushing for the District contest. Of course, we ate lunch at the Steer Inn, and it was still just as good as I remembered. After a while of waiting (we got there about an hour ahead of schedule), we went on stage and performed. I felt like we had one of our best performances, and we ended up with straight ones in concert!!! We went on to the sight reading room, and we were faced with a daunting piece that left much to be desired. In my opinion, we did really bad. We left the sight reading room knowing that even if we knocked it out of the park in concert, we  just blew our chance at state. However, there were a two things that we didn't see coming. First of all, we forgot that the preparation time was most of our score, and we did well in that category. The other thing is that although we did not play as well as we could have, apparently, we were the best band that the judge had heard all day. (Makes you wonder how bad everyone else did...) After learning all of that, we found out that we also got a one in sight reading, which secured our ticket to State! Woo-Hoo!!! :)

Track is going okay. I'm not a big fan of my new coach at all, so perhaps that is my biggest issue. I would consider quitting, but I have invested a lot of time and some money into this since the 7th grade, and I can't live with quitting when I only have about 1 1/2 months left before I am done completely. Although I don't care for my coach that much, all of my best friends (Shea, Mary, & Tonisha) are there with me, and they are my biggest motivation and driving force behind me not quitting. At this point, I am not concerned if I make state or not, because I have been there once, and I'd rather run for myself than run to be better than everyone else. Sorry if this is becoming a bit cynical...perhaps I'm just venting...

On to better topics! My concurrent class is going quite well for me, thank goodness! Ms. McCoy is one of my favorite teachers and she really pushes me to be a better writer. I am uber excited because I got a 100 on my last essay! It was supposed to be a diversity/equity essay that essentially talked about how different groups are different or similar. I wrote my paper about common misconceptions between Catholics and Protestants, mostly from my Catholic view. Perhaps I shall post my essay on here sometime soon. My next essay is due next Friday (3/25). It will be a persuasive argument paper. I haven't quite decided if I should do it about the drinking age (in a revisit of the infamous Government argumentative paper) or how there is an unnecessary emphasis on standardized testing as means to college entrance. It only has to be two pages long, so either way, I should be just fine. Sometimes, writing two pages is no harder for me than writing a paragraph!

I will reach a resolution in my college dilemma in the next week, hopefully! Last Wednesday, I interviewed for the President's Leadership scholarship at NOC, and, if I get it, I would get a free ride to NOC. That would mean that I would have at least half of my college paid for, and that means quite a bit to me. I have yet to hear from UCO regarding scholarships, although I really don't anticipate hearing anything until the end of next week. Honestly, if I was to get the President's Scholarship to NOC, the only way I would go anywhere else is if I got all four years paid in full. I honestly believe that it would be just fine to stay home for a couple more years as opposed to leaving right away. However, nothing is set in stone, and I have yet to make any decisions, so I'll just have to keep waiting and praying! I know that God won't fail me!

My Spring Break is going quite well. It has been unlike my previous breaks in the fact I haven't spent the entire break wasting away at home! My time has been occupied quite well for the past three days! Monday was my least busy day, as I had an eye appointment in the morning, and didn't do much else for the rest of the day. That Shrek when I make waffles) Cody is quite handy in the kitchen, and he really did make the process go quicker. Right as we were about to feast on our waffles, strawberries, and chocolate milk, Wyatt and Andy came over for a little while. They joined Cody and me for some waffles. Eventually, Cody and Wyatt headed outside to soak up the nice weather.

After lunch, Cody and Wyatt went back to Wyatt's house with Jeremy, and Andy stayed with my mom and me and ended up taking a 2 1/2 hour nap! In that time, Kyle came home with my dad, and Jeremy swapped Cody and Andy. Cody, Kyle, and I went outside for a while after that. They accompanied me while I filled up the cows' water tanks and also picked up some sticks from around the yard. My dad was doing some spraying on the fence lines, and suddenly he pulled up and told my mom that we needed to go look on the north side of some trees at my house. My mom took the boys and me over to the trees, and we found a tangled mass of balloons and pieces of paper. We untangled it all from the trees and read that the balloons were released at a wedding in Okeene last Saturday (the 12th). There were a total of 14 cards, and what we assumed were the remnants of 14 balloons (actually, 3 were still mostly inflated). The cards gave instructions to send them back to the given address if they were found, along with the location where they were found. It really added a sense of excitement to my house!

Today, I finally got my senior pictures taken! I was pretty excited about getting my pictures done. After much deliberation, we decided to get them done at Moto Photo. As it turned out, my photographer was the same guy who took my baby pictures about 18 years ago! It was loads of fun, and we also got the proofs back today. We have two weeks to decide which poses we want, and it'll probably take that long to narrow it down, as there are 105 to choose from!

Tomorrow should be pretty exciting, because Tonisha, Mary, and I have planned a sleepover at Tonisha's house. (Shea is in California at the moment, or else she would've been invited too) Right now the plan is for us to meet at Tonisha's at 5:00, then go eat at Cafe Garcia, a local Mexican restaurant. After we eat, we plan to go rent some movies and get some popcorn and have a movie night at Tonisha's! We would've gone to the movies, but it is much more affordable to rent movies and stay home.

I'm not certain what Friday will bring just yet. I know that I plan to visit Mimi at some point in the day, because it is her 93rd birthday! Other than that, I have no idea what else Friday will bring. I am also excited because Tevis has been in Honduras for the past week on a mission trip, and he will be back on Friday! Perhaps I will get to see him at some point this weekend!

I've been mentioning lots of exciting things, but I feel like there's something missing...OH YEAH...My birthday is on Monday!!!!!!!! :) I will probably celebrate with my family on Sunday afternoon, just because it will be easier to get everyone together at a reasonable time. Right now, the menu is rotisserie chicken, roasted sweet potatoes, and some random veggies. My mom promised to make my traditional birthday cake, an Italian Cream wtih cream cheese/pecan frosting that is my absolute favorite! Also, I will have my other favorite, raspberry sherbet! Hopefully, I will have all of my family and Mimi there to celebrate with me. Also, if Tevis can come, it'll be just great!

Don't forget to wear green tomorrow for St. Patrick's Day!