Out of the Loop

It seems like it's been forever since I've blogged although it's only been a couple of days. I have also missed reading my favorites and had to take some time to do that before posting myself. I'm still exhausted but overall we had a very good weekend.

We left around 9:30 for Lubbock on Friday morning. We got there and the bus driver took the long route to the restaurant, but we made it and the kids got their hamburgers & fried cheese that they hungrily anticipated. We then headed to the hotel. We checked in with no problem other than the water had been turned off because the were working on something. But that was no big deal since they just had to change and then get back on the bus. We made it to the tournament on time and my kids did an amazing job. We only took 14 students, but we had 26 entries in semi-finals and from there we had 21 of them in finals. The team won sweepstakes (again) and one of my students was a surprise as the top interper. (She beat another student on my team that generally takes that spot.)

It was a very late night for us. We didn't get to leave until 10:30. We got to the hotel at 10:45 and they decided to order pizza instead of going to a fast food place. Mine came rather quickly, but the boys pizza didn't arrive until midnight. Needless to say, we were all pretty tired on Saturday morning and my kids weren't as successful. They still did o.k., but we only ended up with 8 in finals.

My son Josh went with us and he is now qualified for state in oratory. I also have another student that qualified in the same event and then another two that got the points they needed in duet. One of my other students who did not want to comepete in foreign extemporaneous speaking (she usually competes in domestic, but is already qualified) ended up qualifying in that event as well. I entered her because they needed to make numbers for full qualification points. (Don't ask... it's confusing)

We got in very late. We didn't get to leave until around 11:30 after stopping at Wendy's for food. We got back to Hereford around 1:45 and I didn't get to bed until 2:30. I got up at 9:00 to go to church, but just felt exhausted. I picked up lunch after Mass and then I went back to bed. I slept another four hours. Now I probably won't be able to sleep tonight. I still have a million things to do. I didn't get a single paper graded this weekend. After my nap, I loaded the dishwasher because we had a mountain of dishes left undone. (Now it's down to the size of a hill.) I still have to go to the grocery store as Josh is finally going to cook! He's had this long-standing "thing" about not learning to cook until he gets his driver's license. Well, now that he has it, it's time! I have no idea what he wants to cook, but it will be his choice. That will be a nice change... Josh can start dinner (assuming we have clean dishes) from time to time.

So, grocery store, dinner, grade papers, do laundry (so I don't have to go to school naked tomorrow), clean out my car (I'm driving the carpool in the morning), figure out my lesson plan for tomorrow, and I'm sure there's more that I haven't thought about yet. Well, it's back to being busy as usual. I have a Christmas party on Tuesday, instrumental rehearsal on Wed., choir rehearsal on Thurs., Lock-in at the school on Friday, speech festival on Saturday afternoon. On top of that, I have to get trophies ordered for our tournament, create my semester tests, catch up on all my grading, and figure out a day to do my observation at school. I haven't finished my Christmas shopping so on the 20th (pay day) I will have to get that done as well. I'm ready for Christmas Break!!!