A fun (and warm) Saturday

On Saturday Nicole and Mrs. Gerdes came up for the event downtown known as the "Arts Crawl," or something like that. It was pretty laid-back and fun. There was a piano you could paint...

Nicole and I wondered what they do with the piano afterwards.

We played Heart & Soul, obviously.

And also my piano teacher just got a new studio, which was about four steps away, so we visited her and played some duets on her really nice new Boston piano. We strolled along, checked out the new cute kitchen store and sampled pies there, watched the street musicians, did chalk on the sidewalk, browsed for a while in the consignment shop, accidentally walked through a skit which was being enacted by the high school Improv Club, and saw this:

We enjoyed reading the different thing people had written, and added our own.

After a while we walked back home. Then after dinner Mrs. Gerdes got on the piano and Nicole and I sang some duets, apparently spending way more time than we realized, because I almost forgot to skype with the writing group. Thankfully I was only a half-hour late for the meeting and they hadn't done very much by the time I got there. So all in all, a very enjoyable day!

Various

September is humming along at quite a pace. Things have been picking up speed.

In choir, robe sizing was today. Our first concert is less than a month away!

First algebra II test was submitted. 

Russian Lit started on Thursday and is proving to be quite enjoyable so far. We'll see how we feel when it's time to write papers...

Speaking of which, I'm entering an essay contest: HSLDA 2015 Essay Contest

Chemistry is getting to the bad part...the part I call "math disguised as science." Scientific notation, significant figures, unit conversions, and I think the gas laws are looming on the horizon.
German is slow but fun! I like cringing at the outdated photos in my textbook.
Religion is awesome. I did the chapter on Revelation today...*sigh*
I'm preparing for the PSAT this year! I'm not worried...it doesn't seem as bad as the ACT.
Latin American History is as cool as I expected so far. Today we talked about Pre-Columbian peoples in Latin America.
After my daily writing today my word count is 87,717. It's getting hard to write the end!
Also about writing, I've been fleshing out some new characters who took up residence in my brain sometime during the winter...or was it November? Anyway, they are definitely out of my comfort zone, and it's been fun.
Tessie and I are preparing to audition for North Central Regional Honor Choir! Which is conveniently located in Sioux Falls this year. Recording is next week.
As of Friday I'm going to be playing piano at a nursing home once a week...should be a good experience.
I'm looking at the clock and realizing I should stop blogging and rejoin the humans who live in my house...then go to bed.
Over and out!

Writing Update

Well, I passed 80,000 words a while ago, but I'm definitely not finished with the story. Can't say I'm surprised. I have a lot of stuff to cut, revise, etc., especially towards the beginning. They say the first draft is the easiest...gulp.
Anyway, this week work has been on the climax! Yeah, finally! (I would tell you what happens but then you wouldn't need to read my book.) I've also been doing some work on worldbuilding (pretty much the bane of my existence right now) and characterization.
Ideas have been simmering for novel #2...I'm making myself finish the current WIP first, otherwise we all know what would happen. Novel #2 becomes novel #1 and novel #1 becomes Unfinished Endeavor.
Lately I've had a lot of inspiration...maybe it's the changing seasons? Regardless, I'll take what I can get! It's so satisfying to have really productive writing time.

Grandparents visit!

They are here for a week and it's been lots of fun so far! We haven't really done much, since Tessie and I have school all day, but it's nice to have them here. 

Last night Kanes and Gerdes' came for dinner. It was very buggy. 

Family Camp 2015

It was another wonderful year at Family Camp over Labor Day Weekend!

(All photos from Mrs. Scott's Facebook)

Riding in Mr. Benz's truck bed.

Mr. Scott brought his drone and took some cool aerial shots.

Every year the adults have a massive beanbag tournament...

And the kids like to watch.

Saturday morning is Stations of the Cross.

The little kids always run ahead to sit on the rock in front of each Station.

Mrs. Gerdes gets the girls to sing for Mass on Sunday morning.

This year Fr. Haggerty came down to say Mass for us.

The dreaded group photo was mercifully short this year.

Sunday evening is the kids vs. parents volleyball game. The parents always win.

Some of us preferred to watch.

Compliment Strings: you tie one on someone's wrist while complimenting them.

We celebrated Mrs. Knigge's birthday over the weekend.

Mr. Scott photobombing our corn picture

On the last day was the annual picture of the highschoolers at the tower.

I'm already excited for next year!

The Beginning of the End...I mean, the school year

Yesterday was the official First Day of School for my one-student academy. (Needless to say, this highly specialized school includes an ultra-customized curriculum and 100% one-on-one time with teachers. Yeah. Homeschooling.)
I had my first day of class for Algebra 2 and Chemistry (history doesn't start until after Labor Day). I'm in the third section of Algebra 2, so there are only six students. Yay for small classes! Chemistry has 18 students, the vast majority of whom I remember from last year or even two years ago, so that's cool.
Concert choir is going well...we just received our permanent seating arrangements (finally). I got a copy of the audition music for All-State Chorus, so I'm having fun working on that in preparation for auditioning!
And and and! Family Camp is this weekend! Hooray hurrah!
Yep, that's all for now. Except that I read about Hernando Cortez yesterday.
The End
I mean, Beginning.