Fires and Finals

Christmas break is right around the corner! We put a mini Christmas tree in our room for decoration. 

We also decorated Maddie's room to surprise her when she got back from Massachusetts. 

Just the other day, campus looked like this....

And then, on Monday night, it looked like this. 

     A huge fire started at the campground right next to campus. Campus got evacuated and we all drove to a church in Ventura. Then Ventura got evacuated, and the group I was in drove to the house of some alumni in Ojai. Late into the night, we weren't sure if we were going to get told to leave Ojai too, so we drove to Goleta, CA (near Santa Barbara) at 3am. We spent a couple days hanging out in Goleta until Emily's mom picked us up and now I'm at her house in Perris. On the way, we passed by some sketchy smoke-filled areas. 

     This fire is still 0% contained so far and has ravaged through 96,000 acres last I heard. They are calling it the Thomas Fire, which we don't really appreciate, since we didn't start it. Actually, campus is totally fine, even though everything surrounding it is burnt up and there's no power. So the authorities are trying to get us all back on campus in time to have finals next week. 

Marya put it well.

     Yeah, they still want to have finals. We've been without our books since Monday and had no classes, but I guess we could still take exams, right?

     We are all eager to get back to campus--and our possessions. It's been a rough few days, but we're counting our blessings. You don't realize how much you love everyone until times like these. I'm just happy I'll be heading home to SD soon, where there is no chance of fires. Until then, we're chilling with Emily's tiny dogs and waiting to hear from TAC.

18th Birthday Fun!

My eighteenth birthday was also the day of my last quiz bowl ever! I brought cupcakes and we had a bunch of fun, and at dinner Mrs. McLaughlin surprised me with a special birthday dinner, complete with tablecloth, flowers, and fresh fruit! It was such a lovely way to end the season!

Our team also won second place with 135 points!

Thank you, Mrs. McLaughlin!!

Solo & Ensemble Contest

Yesterday we were at Augustana most of the day for vocal and strings solo and ensemble contest. I sang sang a solo in the morning, then after lunch sang in a small group and accompanied Tessie for her solo.
My solo was "Weep No More" by George Frederic Handel, and I scored 29 out of 30.
Our small group sang "For the Beauty of the Earth" by John Rutter, and we got a perfect 35/35.
Tessie sang "Sento Nel Core" by Alessandro Scarlatti and scored 28 out of 30.
My favorite part was probably accompanying...I enjoyed being a part of a performance and helping the singer do well, but not being the center of attention.
Overall it was a good but exhausting day!

All in black...musician life!

Piano Festival

Last Saturday was my last piano festival! It's always fun to play on the really nice piano in the recital hall, where I will be doing my senior recital in May! The judge was really nice, and his pencil barely stopped moving while I played, so I'm curious to see what his notes were at my next lesson.
This year I played "Shadow Dance" op. 39 no. 8 by Edward MacDowell, and Nocturne op. 32 no. 1 by Chopin.

Last Quiz Bowl of the Semester!

Last Monday was our last high school quiz bowl until January. We had a different team than usual, and it was really fun. We won second place!

Things Galore

November always seems to be a busy month. What with NaNoWriMo, quiz bowls, choir rehearsals, standardized tests, and other random events going on, there hasn't been a lot of downtime. Today was a snow day for the high school so we had a relaxed "sweatpants day." The musical, Beauty and the Beast, opened yesterday, but they had to cancel tonight's performance because of the weather. Tessie was glad for the break.
On day 18 of NaNoWriMo, my current word count is 34,287. It's been a pretty steady climb. The most I've written in a day was 4,200-something, so I'm well ahead of the daily quota, but not crazy-ahead (like some of my writing buddies are). This book has definitely been more of a challenge to write than last year's, but I'm hoping the finished product will make it worth it. It's so cool to have time to write books in high school.
We have had three high school quiz bowls this year so far. My team has placed first, second, and third at each one, respectively. There were 46 teams at Monday's, so the competition was heated! The one scheduled for Monday will have 34 teams, so it shouldn't be quite so overwhelming.

Our first-place win in Brookings.

Both our teams at Roosevelt--we got third, our other team got second.

Yesterday we went to the opening night show of BHS's fall musical, Beauty and the Beast. It was a fantastic production, as always. I'm looking forward to going again tomorrow. 

She was such a cute piece of silverware! This is her smile after three performances in one day!

I've dug out the Christmas music books to start practicing for the season, and I'm enjoying it! We have some good repertoire in concert choir, and the Youth Choir Christmas program at church is going to be adorable. Now I just have to learn that music...

Next week is the flood of siblings for Thanksgiving. We're excited to have all seven kids together for the first holiday in two years!

First (...and maybe last?) College Application

I wrote and revised all five essays, completed the forms, and lined up my letters of recommendation, so I was ready to mail off my first college application! I applied to...wait for it...Thomas Aquinas College! (Shocking, isn't it?)

Mom insisted on a photo when we dropped it off at the post office.

Now begins the waiting!...

Piano Festival

Piano festival was yesterday, and I guess it went pretty well, because I got superior in both my categories (songs and hymns).
I played "Cantico Iberico" by Eugenie Rocherolle and the first movement of "Sonatine" by Maurice Ravel.

Various Life-y Stuff

Wow, all my recent posts have been about writing or books. What else is happening in my life?
Thinking about it, I almost said "not much." But then I remembered...
-I'm working on several essays for contests, in addition to editing my book and freewriting.
-I received the "official" (mail) report of my PSAT scores today, and overall I'm in the 94th percentile, so that's cool.
-Thomas Aquinas College notified me that they are reviewing my application for the Summer Program so I should receive something about that soon.
-In piano, I'm working on memorizing pieces for Festival in early March.
-In voice, I'm working on my solo for contest, which will double as my solo for the Senior Honor Choir audition. Plus learning music for Regional Honor choir, which is next week!
-Preparing for Lent, which is weirdly early this year! I like it early, though, because that means my birthday isn't in Lent.
-Still slowly teaching myself German for fun, and trying to catch up in American history. In Church History I began the chapter on the Protestant Reformation today.
-Online classes (algebra 2 and chemistry) are plugging along at a good pace. We get a nice break for Presidents' Day, during which I'll probably work ahead in chemistry.
-I've been baking a lot recently, but expecting that to slow down with the beginning of Lent. Every year Mom and I do no desserts. Plus, I'm excited for lots of vegetarian dishes! For some reason I really like vegetarian food.
-Patrick is coming for a visit the day after Mom's birthday!
-I did a cool braid thing in Tessie's hair today.
Well, I think that about catches you up for the non-book-related things I've been doing. But really, it's mostly writing. And missing summer.

Quiz Bowl Win Number Five

3rd Place at Brandon Valley. Our final score was 105. 

It was (finally) my turn to take home the trophy.

A thought while reading history...

"All men...have certain inherent rights, of which...they cannot by any compact deprive or divest their posterity. [These rights are] the enjoyment of life and liberty, with the means of acquiring and possessing property, and pursuing and obtaining happiness and safety." Virginia Bill of Rights, signed on July 12, 1776 (italics mine)
The Virginia Bill of Rights was the first of its kind in the newly-independent United States. According to archives.gov, "It was widely copied by the other colonies and became the basis of the Bill of Rights." The Bill of Rights is the first ten amendments to the United States Constitution.
Our constitution looks pro-life to me.

Another quiz bowl win

On Monday was the fourth quiz bowl of the season, and my team's second first-place win! Our other team got second place. It was a huge quiz bowl--36 teams in all. I was happy because there were some great literature questions, including ones about Jane Eyre, Gone With the Wind, and The Divine Comedy, with side stuff thrown in about Faust and Paradise Lost. And it was light on the math and science. My kind of quiz bowl!

Photos courtesy of Mrs. McLaughlin.

Accomplishments

They've been rolling in at a good pace this past week.

We had our first choir concert on Monday.

I also finished the first draft of my book on Monday! I can't believe it's finally done, after over two years of planning and writing. Now I'm planning to do NaNoWriMo, after which it'll be time to put on my editor's hat! I sadly don't have a photo of this momentous occasion, but I will say that in my excitement I forgot to type the words THE END.

Oh, and in passing, I received a 100% on my first chemistry exam.

On Tuesday was our first quiz bowl of the season. It was a success, and as usual a ton of fun!

And then yesterday I took the PSAT/NMSQT. The English part was very easy, but the math part was harder than the ACT in my opinion. I was exhausted for the rest of the day. I always like checking the boxes at the beginning, though, saying both my parents have a graduate degree!

I hope things keep going this well!

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!

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.

Drama Camp

This past week was the 15th annual homeschool Drama Camp--hence my silence. I stayed for three days at the Gerdeses' house, came home for a day to take my math final, then spent another night at the Kanes' house before performing last night. It was an exhausting but incredibly fun week.
My play was called Loonies & Snatchers, and it was very complicated but funny. We got to perform at Augustana this year, so we had a real theatre, which was super nice. Our director was awesome as well. Now I have a busy weekend of packing before going off on the nun-run...when I get back we'll be living in the new house!

AP Latin test

Well, Latin ended yesterday. I took the AP test. It really went better than I expected, so that's nice. I also got a pretty cool award:

The National Latin Exam Committee sent it to me as a prize for getting a gold medal on the National Latin Exam four years in a row. Apparently I'm the first in the state--not very surprising, since few people take the National Latin Exam four years in a row. But cool all the same. It's a very heavy book.

I can wave good-bye to the *ahem* lovely writings of Caesar and Vergil. For now, at least.

My ACT Score

The score came in! I'm pretty happy with it, for being my first time. I need to improve on science and math.

Dinner-Dance!

Saturday, in addition to being the ACT, was the annual homeschool dinner-dance. (Yeah...I'm sleep-deprived.) It was tons of fun, even more than last year!
A bunch of the girls went to Nicole's house to get ready. Tessie and Hope plus Hope's sister Annie and Katie were all there just to help us. We spent about three hours getting six people ready...but hey, getting ready is one of the best parts! I brought a batch of chocolate-chip cookies for sustenance.

Ten minutes before we left, Mrs. Gerdes got some photos of us. We would have gone outside, but it was raining and most of us had way too much hairspray in our hair to risk it.

We actually ended up getting there a bit early, which was cool because we were the first people they let in. The theme this year was the Academy Awards, so they had a red-carpet-looking entrance, and all the adults were pretending to be paparazzi with their phones, cameras, etc. The whole room was decorated very impressively.

We had a lot of fun, laughing, talking, playing games, and dancing. I am sore now! 

I will post some photos Mrs. Scott took (she was there) once I have access to them.

I can't wait till next year--Tessie will be able to come!

A birthday and a quiz bowl

On Monday was my sixteenth birthday. It was as lovely a birthday as I could wish for.

The day began with a cute trail of cards from Tessie, then a breakfast burrito from Mom (along with the necessary cup of English Breakfast tea). I opened a present from Tessie: a sun hat; and a present from Mom: the newest book in the Penderwicks series. 

After doing rather a skimpy amount of schoolwork (Holy Week is off for most of my classes) I hitched a ride with local fellow-homeschoolers to the last high school quiz bowl of the season. There, our best team won 1st place, my team won 3rd place, and our other team won 6th place. So, a very successful end-of-the-year quiz bowl.

Once the quiz bowl was over we headed over to the Kanes' house for ice cream, to celebrate my birthday plus the last quiz bowl ever for the seniors. We talked and ate and laughed and it was tons of fun. I was sleeping over at the Kanes', and we stayed up far too late not coming to decisions, but I guess that meant we slept well! 

Over all it was really fun and memorable, and I'm glad my 16th birthday happened just the way it did. 

Thank you to everyone who participated in making it an awesome day!