Becoming Virtuous

A blog sharing my thoughts on life and what God is teaching me

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  • Can’t afford the cost?

    I’ve been told by many people lately that it would be great to vote for a truly conservative candidate, but right now we can’t afford to take the chance. (Now, just so you know, I’m not picking on anyone in particular. 😉  I really think this a topic that needs to be addressed.)

    However, I have a question too.  When do you think the time will come that we can “safely” take that chance?

    You know trust is a funny thing.  We as humans don’t know what the outcome will be in any situation. 🙂  We may have some educated guesses, but God is really the only one who can see forever.  That is why we must trust him.

    Let’s consider, for example, the story of Gideon.  God came down and chose a little known young man, one who wouldn’t be considered qualified to lead the army, yet God chose him for such a time.  Then, God weeded out the army, taking it from 32,000 men down to 300.  As if that weren’t enough, God then sent them into battle with torches and trumpets!  Now these seemed like insurmountable odds.  300 Israelite men, who probably weren’t exactly trained for battle, against Midianites, trained fully for battle, who were “thick as locusts.  Their camels could no more be counted than the sand on the seashore.”

    Does this seem like a chance that Gideon really should have taken?  I mean, maybe being oppressed wasn’t really that bad.  Hey!  It’s better than being killed for a hopeless cause!  But that is using human “wisdom.”  Gideon trusted God, and a miracle happened.

    Shall we consider Joshua against the wall of Jericho?  David against Goliath?  Moses, Barak, Samson, Jepthath, Samuel or countless others who trusted God when things looked bleak and hopeless?

    Jesus told us, that if we just had faith the size of a mustard seed, we could move mountains.  What about

    “I can all things through Christ who gives me strength.” (Phil. 4:13)

    Or,

    “I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know  the hope to which he has called you, the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints, and His incomparably great power for us who believe.  That power is like the working of His mighty strength, which He exerted in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly realms,” (Eph. 1:18-20)

    Through the Holy Spirit, God can work through us the same power that raised Christ from the dead. (Of course this isn’t something we have in and of ourselves.  It is the Holy Spirit in us and working through us.)  You see, we serve a BIG God.  God can put Chuck Baldwin into office if he so chooses.  But, are you actually going to trust that God can do that?  Are you going to take a chance that God will work a miracle through you?  Or are you going to take the “safe” route and vote for a “comfortable oppression?”  Which will you choose?

    “Duty is ours, results are God’s.” John Quincy Adams

    ~Tee-Kaye

    (Ooh!  By the way, this is my 37th post! 😉 )

  • Memorial Day poem

    I Stand Before You
    I stand before you all today
    But not one eye can see my way

    My time arrived, to leave this earth
    A fact so planned, to every birth

    It happened where I had to go
    My torch for life was so aglow

    I transferred while in uniform
    Protecting freedom, through a storm

    Should I resent I died for you
    Not on my life, red white and blue

    Please help my family through each day
    Tell all my friends, try not to stray

    And of the country I did love
    Do think of me, through God above

    Your memories, brought forth this day
    Send love to us, who could not stay

    Roger J. Robicheau
    Former SP5 US Army

     

    The Unknown Soldier
    by Roger J. Robicheau

     

    You need not ever know my name
    This unknown soldier seeks no fame

    I’m here to bring out thought from you
    May your heart see more than your view

    America, we marched with pride
    We gave our life, for you we died

    How well we knew the time might come
    When life could sound that final drum

    Please think of us as life moves on
    We tried so hard till that last dawn

    Do let our spirit fill the land
    Pass treasured freedom, hand to hand

    God blessed this country with such love
    Hold in your heart, abundance of

    And when you stand before my grave
    Think not of one, but each who gave

     

    What Heroes Gave

    by Roger Robicheau

    Each donned their uniform to be
    Defenders of our liberty

    Their mission sure, their spirits bright
    Guard freedom’s home, be brave to fight

    One final day each faced their call
    Each gave their best enduring all

    We’ll never know what they went through
    But know they loved this country true

    Deep down inside we should all feel
    What heroes gave, their cost so real

    We must stay thankful, grateful of
    The gift of freedom through their love

    Their loved ones bore the gravest pain
    What we can’t know, some now sustain

    To God I pray their pain will cease
    And each will find long-lasting peace

    Remember this from year to year
    What heroes gave – shan’t disappear

    We’ll never let their special day
    Their time for honor slip away

    These brave fought for a nation free
    If not for them, where would we be?

  • Preamble to the platform of the Constitution Party

    I thought this was just too cool not to post.  Please go and check out the rest of the Constitution Party’s platform.

    “The Constitution Party gratefully acknowledges the blessing of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ as Creator, Preserver and Ruler of the Universe and of these United States. We hereby appeal to Him for mercy, aid, comfort, guidance and the protection of His Providence as we work to restore and preserve these United States.

    This great nation was founded, not by religionists, but by Christians; not on religions but on the Gospel of Jesus Christ. For this very reason peoples of other faiths have been and are afforded asylum, prosperity, and freedom of worship here.

    The goal of the Constitution Party is to restore American jurisprudence to its Biblical foundations and to limit the federal government to its Constitutional boundaries.

    The Constitution of these United States provides that “no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States.” The Constitution Party supports the original intent of this language. Therefore, the Constitution Party calls on all those who love liberty and value their inherent rights to join with us in the pursuit of these goals and in the restoration of these founding principles.

    The U.S. Constitution established a Republic rooted in Biblical law, administered by representatives who are Constitutionally elected by the citizens. In such a Republic all Life, Liberty and Property are protected because law rules.

    We affirm the principles of inherent individual rights upon which these United States of America were founded:

    • That each individual is endowed by his Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are the rights to life, liberty, property and the pursuit of happiness;
    • That the freedom to own, use, exchange, control, protect, and freely dispose of property is a natural, necessary and inseparable extension of the individual’s unalienable rights;
    • That the legitimate function of government is to secure these rights through the preservation of domestic tranquility, the maintenance of a strong national defense, and the promotion of equal justice for all;
    • That history makes clear that left unchecked, it is the nature of government to usurp the liberty of its citizens and eventually become a major violator of the people’s rights; and
    • That, therefore, it is essential to bind government with the chains of the Constitution and carefully divide and jealously limit government powers to those assigned by the consent of the governed. “

  • “The lesser of two weevils”

    For those of you who have seen “Master and Commander” you’ll understand the joke in the title of my post.  For those of you who didn’t, you have to see the movie! 😉  While this joke in the movie was very humorous, you’ll remember, not much later in the movie, the captain had to make a really hard decision, one of life and death, between two evils.

    When I look at the looming election coming in November, I can’t help but think how the situation is so similar.  We have Democrats Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama on one side, and Republicrat John McCain on the supposed other side.  All three are flaming liberals, all three firmly believe that the government knows what’s best.  All three kind of scare me.

    Over the last several elections, people have been faced with a problem.  Instead of actually voting for someone, they go to the polls just to vote against the other option.  They have had to choose between the lesser of two evils.  Earlier this week on Rush Limbaugh’s radio program he summed it up nicely.  He essentially said that the American people are tired of voting against people and actually want to vote for someone again.

    However, in the past several elections, there hasn’t really been a candidate who actually represents the morals that many of Americans have, and if they have possessed some vague tintype of the values, they are too afraid to act on them.  In an effort to stand for everyone, they ended up standing for nothing.

    I know many people who are getting more and more frustrated with the Republican party.  How they have lost their backbone and are trying to please everyone so they can stay in office.

    Yet, once again we are being faced with a deja vue scenario.  It seems we must just vote for John McCain so Hillary or Obama don’t make it to the White House.  But just because McCain isn’t as evil, does that make him qualified to be the leader of our country?

     

    So what are we to do?

    The biggest problem is the fact that the mainstream media has led America to believe that there are only two options.  Republicans or Democrats.  However, this is a lie.  Recently another option has come to my attention.  Someone I would actually vote for (if I were old enough. 😉 ).  That candidate is Chuck Baldwin, the nominee of the Constitution Party.

    Hearing that there might be hope of another possible option, I scurried over to the Constitution Party’s website and watched Mr. Baldwin’s acceptance speech.  I was very pleasantly surprised.  This is a man that knows what he believes, is not afraid to vocalize it, and not afraid to act on it.  In his 33 minute acceptance speech, he spoke more on what he would actually do if elected, then Hillary, Obama, or McCain have in the past few years of their campaigns… put together!

    Some of them include, putting an end to abortion, putting an end to the IRS and personal taxes, ending illegal immigration, ending gun restrictions, ending 501(c)3, and ending outsourcing oil.  These are just the ones I can remember off the top of my head.  His main platform is that of significantly reducing government control in people’s lives, which would instead encourage personal responsibility.  Also, that of returning back to the original intent of the founding documents and principles of our nation’s founders.  Go watch his speech for yourself! http://www.constitutionparty.com/news.php?aid=747

     

    But he’s not a big name, shouldn’t we still vote for someone who actually might make it into office?

    Mr. Baldwin recognizes that he is not a big name.  You can be sure that if the media knows about him, they’ll try as hard as they can to suppress word getting out about someone who has morals and is vocal about them.  However, as Mr. Baldwin stated, “We serve a big God.”  Nothing is impossible with him!  However, we can hardly expect anything to get done if we don’t step out in faith!

    This situation reminds me of the analogy in “Facing the Giants” that Mr. Bridges gave to Coach Taylor.  He said that two farmers prayed for rain, but only one of them prepared their fields to accept the rain.  Which on of the farmers actually believed that God could do something?  We can sit around and bemoan the fact that our country is going down the tubes, but if we don’t actually get up and do something about it, how can we expect our situation to change?

    John Quincy Adams once said, “Duty is ours, results’ are God’s.”  How true a statement for our current times!  We do not know what will be the results of this election, only God knows that.  We cannot sit back and cry over milk that hasn’t spilt yet!  We cannot claim that God cannot do a great and mighty work by overturning the reigning political parties!  Oh no!  Hope is ours, because we do serve a big God!  He can do whatever he wills, whether it be to punish our country for forsaking him, or giving us a leader who will build us back up again to the great country we once were.  It is our duty to act in faith.

    Something I just thought of that is very interesting.  God really doesn’t need us to do anything.  He is God, he can accomplish anything with or without our help. 😉  However, if God works a miracle out in this election and you didn’t trust God and voted otherwise… need I say more?

     

    How can we do this?

    Spread the word!  Mr. Baldwin said in his speech that, “I’ve found that the problem isn’t that most Americans have rejected our message, they haven’t heard our message!”  It reminds me of the passage in Scripture that talks about how can people know if they haven’t heard, and how can they hear without being told?  We need to get the word out about Chuck Baldwin.  Tell everyone you know about him.  Send out e-mails, do whatever you can think of to spread the word.

    I suggest you go to his website and learn more about him yourself.  I have a link to his website in my sidebar.  I also suggest you check out the Constitution Party.  Their link is also in my sidebar.

    John Quincy Adams also said, “Always vote for principle, though you may vote alone, and you may cherish the sweetest reflection that your vote is never lost.”

    This November, choose, don’t settle!

    Sola Deo Gloria!

    ~Tee-Kaye

  • He Is My Refuge

    by an unknown author

     

    The Lord is my Refuge,

    My Haven from storm,

    My Strength in all weakness,

    My Peace in alarm,

    My Joy in all sorrow,

    My Hope in despair,

    My Courage in conquest,

    My Helper in prayer.

     

    The Lord is my Fortress,

    To Him I can go

    When all others fail me,

    And waters o’erflow,

    The Lord is my Buckler

    He’s strong to defend,

    My Rock of salvation,

    My Hope to the end.

     

    So what though the mountains

    Be moved tho the sea,

    Or the heaves above

    Should cease there to be;

    Or friends may forsake me,

    And Satan my foe,

    Be strong to uproot me;

    He’s with me I know!

  • “Our Great Saviour”

    Last night God answered one of the questions that’s been weighing me down for a few months now.  Unfortunately it was at 11:30 p.m. so I’m a bit tired now. 😉  I want to share what I learned with ya’ll.

    Now I have to go back a bit so you can understand what I’m talking about.  Throughout my childhood I was everyone’s last resort friend.  They only talked to me if they had exhausted every other avenue of entertainment. (Yes, I think I’m still holding on to some bitterness over this, but that’s a topic for another time.)  So when a few years ago I actually had friends who enjoyed spending time with me, I was a little shocked. 🙂  God has really blessed me over the past few years with wonderful, godly friends, and I think I appreciate them more now since I wasn’t real well liked earlier on.

    But then, over the past year and a half God has been methodically taking away my friends.  A year and a half ago a good friend and I grew apart, last June a very good friend moved all the way across the country, and in January my best friend moved out of state.  Needless to say, I’ve been getting sadder and sadder.  But when my best friend was moving, I felt like my heart would break.  I started asking, what’s the point of having good things, like friends and happiness, if you are only going to lose them?  Is the happiness you enjoy now really worth the eventual pain?  And what was the point of loving people?  You are only going to lose them eventually.  I’ve had these questions in the back of my mind for almost half a year now, but God has begun to answer them.

    It started yesterday morning.  We sang “Our Great Savior” in church and the third verse really hit me.  “Jesus what a help in sorrow!  While the billows o’er me roll!  Even when my heart is breaking, he my comfort, helps my soul.”  But I didn’t really let it sink in much at that time.

    My parents, brother and I have been listening to “The Giver” by Lois Lowry for a week or so now. (It was a book on tape.)  We finished it last night.  For those of you who have never read it, it is a story about a community that is completely run by rules made up by a committee.  The committee long ago, had decided that they wanted to get rid of every pain that was out there.  So they took away feelings, color, uniqueness, hills, they kept the population down, and set up all these rules that had to be followed.  Every thing was in complete order, but in the process of protecting the people from pain, they took away all their true joy.  They couldn’t enjoy the unique way God had created everyone, or the beautiful colors of God’s creation.  They also couldn’t make choices, as in what their career would be, or who they would marry.  The whole story was rather sad, but it didn’t hit me until last night that this is what a life without pain would be like.  I saw what a life without true joy would be like.

    While this was mulling around in my head the third verse of “Our Great Saviour” popped into my head again.  God has promised that he will be there in the tough times to carry us through.  Sure there are sad times in life, but God has given us true joy, and promised us eternal joy in the future.  It is the unbelievers who are the ones truly without hope, for they have nothing to rely on but themselves.  But we, who are in Christ Jesus, have the hope that He has given to us.

    I also realized how selfish my thoughts had been.  I didn’t want to feel pain and sadness, but didn’t really care about others around me, or about God.  My only thought was for myself, instead of glorifying God.  But God has convicted me on all these things, and has given me the desire to change.  So know I don’t feel as hopeless any more. 😉  My reliance shouldn’t be on my friends, but on God.  He is the only true foundation.

    That’s basically it.  I hope I wrote it in a way that can be comprehended. 😉  I would like to close with the words of “Our Great Saviour.”

     

    Jesus, what a friend for sinners!

    Jesus!  Lover of my soul;

    Friends may fail me, foes assail me,

    He, my Saviour make me whole.

     

    Jesus what a strength in weakness!

    Let me hide myself in Him;

    Tempted, tried, and sometimes failing,

    He, my strength, my victory wins.

     

    Jesus, what a help in sorrow!

    While the billows o’er me roll,

    Even when my heart is breaking,

    He, my comfort, helps my soul.

     

    Jesus!  I do now receive Him,

    More than all in Him I find;

    He hath granted me forgiveness,

    I am His, and He is mine.

     

    Hallelujah!  What a Saviour!

    Hallelujah!  What a friend!

    Saving, helping keeping, loving,

    He is with me to the end.

  • Courtship, what is it?

    I have a friend who is currently going through a courtship, so I’ve had this subject on my mind quite a bit for the past few months.  I’ve finally decided to share my own views of courtship.  Please feel free to discuss your own in the comment section. 😉

    I was looking at an article today that was comparing a few of the different schools of thought on this subject.  For one word, courtship can sure have a lot of different meanings, depending on the person.  My views were a little bit different than most of the ones in the article.  Here’s the article for you to check out yourself. http://www.unlessthelordmagazine.com:80/articles/Courtship%20Approaches.htm

    The article talks about the major catagories of differences.  To quote: “These include: (1) The degree and form of parental involvement; (2) How to choose whom to court/betroth; (3) the timing of romantic emotions; and (4) the timing of forms of physical contact.”  I’m going to go through all of these and give my own take on them.

    1-The degree of parental involvement

    I believe this is very essential, on a high level.  More that just supervised dating, the parents need to be actively involved, talking with their son/daughter about the relationship, and accessing the relationship constantly.  I don’t quite believe that the parents should initially propose the courtship, but I like how in the case of Kelly Brown, her dad had completely evaluated Peter Bradrick before she even knew anything was going on.  I am a firm believer that the guy should go to the dad first, before any intentions are known.  This shows that he has respect for her dad, and for her.  He wants to protect her from getting attached if the courtship isn’t meant to be.

    2  – How to choose whom to court

    I agree with the parent-directed version quoted here.  “Those advocating more of a parent-directed courtship encourage looking for mates through other families the parents become acquainted with – families similar to your own with many of the same beliefs and convictions. Those teaching more of a youth-directed approach speak mostly of finding candidates at Bible school, at church groups for college or singles, or at work or ministry activities.”  Something I also am more conservative on is when to court.  I agree with S. M. Davis on this area.  That, as far as is possible, you should be absolutely sure that this person is the one that God has designed for you and that this courtship will end in marriage.  I don’t believe it should just be checking the other person out.  That’s what dating is.  No matter what you do, there will be emotional ties made as you get to know the other person, and I don’t think those ties should be with anyone but your spouse.

    3 – the timing of romantic emotions

    I believe that romantic thoughts and emotions are meant only for your spouse.  You should not allow these to be kindled until you are positive that the relationship will end in marriage.  Generally this means after engagement.

    4 – The timing of forms of physical contact

    With this, I believe kissing is not even something that should be debated as being before the wedding day.  I don’t believe light hugging or holding hands is even something that should be done before engagement.  I’m not even sure there should be physical contact before marriage.  You do not really belong to each other yet, so you should keep your hands off so to speak. 😉  But I haven’t thought that through as much.

    So that’s my basic thoughts on the subject.  Most of my convictions came from S. M. Davis’ sermon entitled, “Seven Biblical Truths Violated by Christian Dating.”  This really opened my eyes to how close to dating some views of courting actually are.  I would highly recommend everyone to listen to Mr. Davis’ sermon.  It’s available at visionforum.com.

    I’ve ordered a book on courting, so after I receive it and read it I’ll probably have more to say on the subject. 😉

    ~Tee-Kaye

  • Update: Adoption

    I went to the orthodontist this morning.  I’m in a lot of pain right now.  They put rubber bands on my teeth again, this time they are bringing my molars down so they actually meet in the back. 😉  But moving teeth around hurts.  A lot!  And it’s a pain to try to open my mouth wide enough to talk.  So I will probably be taking a vow of silence pretty soon! 😉

    Anyways, to get to the subject of my post.  So far everything has been going quite smoothly with the proposed adoption!  Last Friday, Mom and Dad met for the first time with her lawyer, caseworker and therapist.  It went extremely well!  They said that we seemed to be the ideal family because we were so different.  We are openly Christian, homeschoolers, and aren’t going to be sending the girls to college.  They all thought this seemed perfect for this particular case.  Praise God!  What we were afraid would be roadblocks, ended up being slides! 😉

    An interesting turn of events was hinted at though.  Her lawyer mentioned that they could get a court order to get her into our house very soon.  Dad said it sounded like it could possibly be by the end of this month or next!  Wow.  I have a lot of work to do on my room to get it ready so there will be room to share. 😉  We also need to find a bunk bed, as a twin isn’t a very comfortable bed for two. (Trust me, I know. 😉 )  And if ya’ll wouldn’t mind praying that God would make His will perfectly clear to us.   That, if it His will for us to adopt, that the process would continue to be blessed, and would continue smoothly.  Also, that our hearts would be prepared to accept, and support our new sibling.  She comes from a troubled background, and it will be an adjustment to say the least, for her and us.  But I know that with God’s grace, we will make it through. 😉

    Sola Deo Gloria!

    ~Tee-Kaye

  • Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed

    My family went to see Expelled last night, and we all loved it!  It was amazingly well done, and very thought provoking.

    It was basically a documentary done by Ben Stein about how our freedom of expressing our views, and of questioning evolution is slowly and methodically being taken away.  Mr. Stein found out that there are many people in the U.S., scientists, journalists, teachers, and others, who are losing their jobs or chances for tenure just for mentioning Intelligent Design.  Some of those interviewed didn’t even agree with ID, but just because they mentioned it, without doing it in an unfavorable light, they are now “suffering the consequences.”  Mr. Stein was curious why evolutionists were so afraid to have their supposed “fact’s” authority to be questioned.  (I never caught in the movie if that question was answered, but we know why.  Atheist’s don’t want there to be a creator, otherwise they would have to be accountable to him.)

     An interesting turn was when one of the interviewee’s mentioned how the Holocaust was Hitler acting on his worldview of Darwinian theory.  How Hitler was just taking what Darwin said to it’s logical end.  Because Mr. Stein is Jewish, he was especially interested in checking this out.  After doing research, he found that in one of Hitler’s speeches, he had talked about how in recent decades we had been working against natural selection by aiding the weak in living.  How we needed now to help nature along by getting rid of the handicapped, less than perfect and unwanted.  With the worldview of evolution, this makes perfect sense.  We don’t want the weak and those who are drains on society to have children and make more like themselves, so we should get rid of them.  But God tells us that we are supposed to protect these people.  Instead of being descended from an ape, we are created in the image of God, and we have a purpose on this earth beyond living and dying.

    Anyways, Mr. Stein had an interesting illustration that he shared.  He equated what is going on today, with how evolutionists are suppressing our freedom to question Darwinian theory, with the Berlin wall and all it stood for.   We are not being allowed to think anything other than Evolution is a undeniable “fact.”  The evolutionists he interviewed claimed that the debate of origins was fought many years ago, with evolution coming out the undisputed victor.  Mr. Stein disagrees.

    Mr. Stein’s reason, it seems, behind this documentary is to spread the word about this “wall,” and to encourage people to take measures to start to bring it down.  Here is Focus on the Family’s Plugged In review of it http://www.pluggedinonline.com/movies/movies/a0004010.cfm .  I strongly encourage everyone to go and see it.  It is definitely well worth the money!

    ~Tee-Kaye

  • …trip continued…

    Okay, sorry for taking a while to get back to this.  I’ve been very slowly recovering. 😉

    Day 4 – We basically got up, got ready, packed everything up, took it to the campground we were staying at during the tournament and went to the tournament to register.  At the tourney it was kind of boring since we hadn’t signed up for the meal and the entertainment, but had to wait for my dad to get out of parent orientation.  We got in trouble for skipping down the upstairs hall and were told to go downstairs.  😳  Unfortunately, I had taken my shoes off to skip and upon coming back to where I had left them, they were gone.  My brother and his friend proclaimed their innocence, but I knew they had done something to my flip flops.  I looked in various trash cans, and under the stairs but couldn’t find them.  I decided to frisk my brother, but didn’t find anything.  (Unfortunately, at that time a group came out, and a girl was looking at me really weird after I frisked my brother. 😉 )  A little later, my brother pulled my flip flop out of his pocket!  Guess I didn’t frisk real well. 😉  His friend pulled my other shoe out of his pocket, and all was good again. 🙂

    Day 5 – The tournament started.  It didn’t get off to a real good start.  Our first debate was against a good team, and our rounds went downhill from there.  Throughout all four of the debates that day it was a constant struggle for me to try to get my mind in gear.  It would just start, and would go ka-put.  I haven’t had such bad rounds since my very first tournament.  At the table, I would know where I wanted to go with a certain argument, and when I would start to speak I still remembered.  But all of a sudden, it would vanish, and I would try to remember where I was going with the words that were attempting to come out of my mouth.  It was awful.  As far as speech goes, my first round was pretty bad.  Everyone watching looked extremely bored.  They only laughed once.  It was quite disheartening.

    Day 6 – Went pretty much as bad as the prior day.  My mind finally started to run a bit in our last debate, but we had gotten a bye the fifth round, so we knew we weren’t doing so well. 😉  Tab had promised that they would get breaks out that night, so we had to wait around for 2 hours before that finally happened.  We didn’t get back to the campground till around 11:00.  But we found out that none of us had broke in debate, and only my friend with his OO and myself had broke in speech.  It was disappointing, but not bad for our first year. 😉

    Day 7 – We got to sleep in a little since we were no longer debating!!  We got to the tourney around 10:00 so I could do my speech.  It went pretty well, though my speech hasn’t been going so well the last couple of tournaments.  I think I’m getting to bored with my speech, because I’m not as energetic anymore.  Anyways, I didn’t break to finals with my speech.  It was pretty sad.  I kind of had a hard time acting like it wasn’t a big deal, but I was disappointed.  After doing so well at all the other tourneys this year, it was a bit of a shock not to make it.  But, I didn’t do too bad for a novice.  I made it to Regionals!

    Unfortunately, more happened that day to make me sad.  I found out that even though I was going to be able to go to the Chec Conference now, my only friend there wasn’t.  Sad day.  And then, that night, my poor debate partner had an allergic reaction to some tree nuts in the salad, and she missed much of the awards ceremony. 😦  The whole fact that this was the last tournament of the year, and the last for many of my friends, hung over everything like a cloud.  As if it couldn’t get any worse, awards went so late that we couldn’t have a ballot party afterwards!  All the pent up emotions just about spilled right there.  On the way back to the cabin all I could do was stare out the window.  I hardly talked.  The fact that I was extremely tired also probably had a significant factor to my overreacting. 😉  So, the whole tournament ended with kind of a depressed air.

    Days 8-10 – Were spent in driving back home.  Nothing much happened, except for spending the night in a hotel that had bars on the windows.  :shivers:  But, God was faithful, and we made it safely throughout our entire trip!  And even if it was sad and depressing, I suppose it was cool overall.

    The only thing I have left to add is, on the afternoon that we returned home my dad received and e-mail from Mrs. Pitchford.  I had been offered an at-large slot!!!  After some deliberation, it was decided that I can go with my mother.  So I qualified to Nats after all!  Truly not bad for a novice. 😉

    Excuse me.  I’m going to check on how the deliberation on what transportation we are using is going. 😉

    ~Tee-Kaye