Future =/

Lately I've been wondering what the big deal about grades was. I've been slacking a lot and I honestly just haven't cared as much as I used to. I keep getting the same score on my ACT and that is really beginning to frustrate me. I had decided that I wasn't really going to care about grades anymore and I was going to focus on getting at least B's. I wasn't ready for the bomb that my parents dropped on me today. We were eating Subway and all of a sudden my mom looked at me and asked, "Would you like to trade your old car in for a new one?" I was confused and asked her what exactly she was talking about. She said that they would give me a nice new car, whatever I wanted, if I could get a ridiculously good scholarship to college. That means that I have to improve my ACT score by a lot and get as many A's as possible. Right now I have a GPA of 3.97. My mom said that it has to stay that way and I don't know if I can do that. It looks like I have a rough road ahead of me, but if I work hard I will have a new car to drive on the real roads with.

Basketball Season Starts

We have been practicing and conditioning for the past few months and it is finally going to pay off. Our first official game of the season is tomorrow. We play Edmonson County and I am super excited. We've had a few scrimmages, but that's never the same as a real game. We finally get to see how good we are and how are season is going to go. I play JV and Varsity so I can't wait to play. I enjoy playing JV more because I feel like I have more control in those games, but the Varsity games are what I care more about. They are just more important and a lot more exciting to watch. I think we are going to be pretty good this season. Our 4 seniors are all just amazing. I can't wait to see how it plays out tomorrow. We leave right after school and it's a long bus ride there. I am going to have to bring my homework with me because I won't have any time to do it when I get home after we play. It will be around 10 most likely by the time I get home. I hope we play hard and win tomorrow!

Hanging of the Greens

Every year the youth group of our church hosts a special service. Its called Hanging of the Greens and it is basically the kick off to the Christmas season. We don't like to admit it, but we are always freaked out about speaking in front of so many people. There was about 60 people there tonight. We each get a few parts, some speaking and some parts that lead a song. I always pick speaking parts because I'm better at talking in front of people than singing even though we aren't required to sing into the mic. Regardless of what parts I had, I was still nervous. I was so freaked out that I started shaking. About halfway through the service my cousin started mouthing something to me. I looked over at Austin to try to figure out what he was saying but he didn't know either. He finally made a motion that looked like he was taking a drink of something and pointed at the pulpit. I then realized that I had left my water bottle on top of the pulpit. It wasn't too big of a deal, but when you are hosting a service the little things kind of get to you. We developed a strategy to try and get the bottle without anyone noticing and I think we succeeded. The next person up to speak took it down while he was talking. It went down very smoothly. After all of my parts were over I was able to relax. The only thing I had to worry about was keeping a straight face. Austin insisted on singing Joy to the World and Silent Night in his high-pitched voice. I wasn't able to sing along because I would've busted out laughing. We had to add a little bit of humor in order to keep from having panic attacks. All in all the service was a success. No one tripped and fell in front of the congregation and we got through all of our parts without messing up any words...too badly. Continuously gave one kid some trouble, but we got many good comments and were happy to have it all over with.

Genetics Update

Every year some students get the chance to go to the genetics update at Brescia to learn about new discoveries. Our Biology class was among these students, but I think the main reason for attending was the lunch we received afterwards. At the beginning of the lecture, we were told that we wouldn't understand everything and that we were college kids for the next couple of ours. I was excited about playing "college" but I didn't comprehend anything the man said. The only thing we had actually talked about in class was phagocytosis and he spoke about that topic for about 2 minutes. The highlight of his speech for me was when he used one of our vocab. words. He said fortuitously and my whole row looked at each other whispering "I know that word!" I think we were surprised and very proud of ourselves for learning something even though it had nothing to do with genetics. After the 4 hours were finally over we took the bus over to Buffalo Wild Wings and had a delicious lunch. Getting to eat here and getting out of class all day was exactly why we all went. I think it was worth sitting through that whole genetics update, but I still don't know if I will be going next year.

Dumplings

So for Thanksgiving the only thing I have really wanted to eat was dumplings. They are the best thing ever created. My grandmother made them all the time and they were delicious. I couldn't wait for Thanksgiving dinner this year. When I woke up yesterday I couldn't find anything that might be used for the preparation of my chicken and dumplings. I was afraid my mother had forgotten all about it, but she didn't. My mom asked me to cook them, which probably wasn't such a good idea. I can't cook at all. I burn just about everything I touch. Thankfully they turned out nice and everyone enjoyed them.