Unlike listening to a book on my Audible app and working around the house, watching a volleyball game on the computer lets me get NOTHING done! I tried to clean up a little and then quickly check the game, but volleyball is a game of ups and downs. Suddenly the score would be wildly different and I wouldn't know WHAT had happened. So I ended up sitting in a chair, watching the games and eating the Halloween candy that I had hidden in the cupboard after praying a silent prayer that I wouldn't eat it all. And the house sat messy and cluttered around me.
I watched Dixie go down in defeat, which put them out of the tournament. And I watched Desert Hills drop to the consolation bracket. We nicely came back and took third place in state, which was awesome, but no State Championship visit for us.
I didn't accomplish a whole lot today, but I did manage to make dinner for us and for our neighbors across the street. Kelsey woke up with a massive migraine, and she's still suffering from morning sickness, so I put a couple of roasts in the crockpot and set some rolls out to rise while I was stuck watching volleyball. In the afternoon, while the kids played in the backyard--the weather has been glorious--I whipped up some mashed potatoes, made some gravy (which wasn't my best, unfortunately, and I am usually really good at making gravy!!) and cooked the rolls. I delivered it to the neighbors and came home and fed my family.
Greg had a work meeting at Painted Pony, so he didn't join us for dinner, and he was sad to miss Austin's story-telling festival. But I got Austin all fixed up nicely and ready to go. He had practiced so hard, we had gone over the timing (it had to be between 3 and 5 minutes), and he was ready.
When Austin told me a few weeks ago that he had signed up to tell a story, I was a little surprised. He even told me he had already picked out a story. Again, I was surprised. I'm always amazed to see the different things my kids want to do. It is so neat to see their own little personalities emerge. We've practiced and practiced, and he's gotten so cute at telling his story.
When we got to the school, I was surprised to see what a big deal this competition was. We are new to this school, so we didn't know anything about this. There were a lot of students and their families at the school. We went into the library and waited for it to start. They had told us to be early, so we were. I could see that Austin was getting nervous. And to make matters worse, he was one of the last one to perform! We had to listen to other stories for an hour. And all of those kids did amazing jobs telling their stories! It was fantastic. Finally it was Austin's turn.
Austin went to the front of the room, took a deep breath, and started. I videoed him, so I could also see his time. He was doing a really great job, especially since I could tell how nervous he was, but he was going super fast! His story normally took anywhere from 3 and a half minutes to 4 minutes. But he was cruising through his story. As he went on, he relaxed and did all of his actions and added all of the excitement in his voice, but when he finished, it had only been two minutes and 50 seconds. As soon as he sat down, he was asking me about his time. I told him he went too fast, but I reassured him that he did an awesome job!!
Out in the parking lot, I said, "Austin, I'm glad you went fast."
He said, "Why?'
And I said, "Because we had been sitting there for so long and listening to so many stories, that yours was just the perfect length." I know some of those kids went well beyond five minutes, and it was LONG.
Austin was all smiles. He was happy to be done. And I am so proud of him for committing himself to this. I put my arm around his shoulder. We came home on this warm October evening with a skip in our step.
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