You know, I really like God's sense of humor. And I just happened to experience it this morning. As I was praying this morning, I was praying for my patience. You see, I'm not exactly the most self-controlled person in the world... someone can annoy me once and
BOOM
You'll hear my anger from three and a half miles away. I know that I need more self-control and patience with others, but it isn't exactly my strong point. But like I was saying, I was praying for self-control today, and I actually prayed that I would be given a chance today to have self-control. Of course, as I was praying I was picturing a perfect moment to show my own self-control. Mhmm. I was gonna see it coming. I was going to know it was coming. And then, like a little angel with a shiny halo, I would smile sweetly and be nice and kind.
Wow.
I apparently haven't learned enough about myself yet.
So just a few hours after this, I was at my piano lesson. I have a couple of piano competitions in about two weeks. Well, right before competitions and recitals, my teacher gets really super nit-picky. Which sometimes bothers me, and sometimes doesn't. Well this morning, it was bothering me. A lot. You see, me, I'm a perfectionist. So not only was I mad at myself for continually messing up, but I was getting unbelievably annoyed with my teacher for being so nit-picky. I was losing it. Obviously, with my piano teacher, I can't be bluntly rude, but I could tell my tone of voice was picking up a lot of frustrated sounds. Kind of a sarcastic tone. And as my lesson went on, my patience got more and more tried. And then, it hit me like a bullet, and I nearly started laughing. This was my opportunity to lose my cool or stay alert and honor God. Through my frustration I was just sitting there smiling. I was laughing at myself for thinking this morning that I could be self-controlled by myself.
This really taught me a lesson - this morning, even though I was sitting there praying, I was sure that I would be able to do it all myself. Well, I can't. I can't be patient through my own power. The frustration I felt at my lesson showed me only God can give me the patience and self-control I need to honor Him. I like how God continues to show me just how incapable I am to do good without Him.
Monday, February 28, 2011
Sunday, February 13, 2011
Starbucks & Other Doings
So. I've been thinking about so many things lately. Thoughts just floating around in my mind. Too many things really. I feel like my mind is about to bust with all the things I have been considering and turning over in my mind as of late.
Such as
Starbucks.
Yes, Starbucks is too big a part of my life. My mom and I go to a particular Starbucks every single Sunday afternoon/evening and talk for a good hour or two. It's just a habit of ours, and a very delightful one at that. But I have discovered we've been going there far too often. There is a nice young guy up there who almost always works Sunday afternoons/evenings, and so we see him all the time. A few weeks ago he commented, "I seem to see y'all a lot up here." We just chuckled and agreed. And tonight, I had the pleasure and yet almost horror of discovering he knows my name. You know, they always ask for your name so they can write it on the cup, and after I ordered, he looked at me holding his Sharpie and said, "Madison?" I just grinned and nodded. I find it somewhat disturbing that this guy who I know nothing about and who I've never had a proper introduction to or conversation with; this guy knows my name? Somewhat odd.
But that is the consequence of going to Starbucks too much, I suppose.
Other doings.
Well, we all know what tomorrow is.
Valentine's Day.
The big day.
That is, the day that MOST people freak out because they don't have a "Valentine." Well, I already had two nice guys be my "Valentine" this year. ;-) Hehe! Ahhh the joys of being loved. First of all, my wonderful Daddy, who always gets me
something, got me a huge box of Russell Stover chocolate and a card. =) I definitely have to say, my Dad has got to be the best in the whole world. Ever. The picture of what he got is over there. <----------
And then.... there was my boyfriend. :] He got me a super cute mug from Starbucks (if you've been to Starbucks recently, I'm sure you know one of the ones I'm talking about ;) and then some snack stuff from Starbucks. It made me sooopperr happy (yeah, I have to spell super wrong to make an emphasis. Sorry) SO. that is my Valentine's Day. Tomorrow, the actual day, will probably be relatively boring and I'll do school all day. Yipee. But at least I had some good stuff beforehand. ^_^
Now of course I've been turning over other things in my mind. Such as deep topics of interest that people don't typically talk about. I suppose part of the reason I've been thinking so much is because at church, my parents Sunday School class has been doing The Truth Project (if you've never heard of it, go look it up. It's a great, wonderful, awesome "tour", as they call it). But with such a name, you can expect deep topics.
Such as
Where does evil come from?
Who is man?
What is truth?
Those get your mind working, let me tell you.
And the more I think about these things, it makes me consider what I usually think about.
Do those things really matter in the grand scheme of things?
Nope.
But do those things? Can these questions and the answers to these questions change someone's life?
Yep.
So what is more important to ponder and spend our time thinking about?
--
And really it interests me, because watching The Truth Project, you get to see videos of people from different world views talking about what they believe. Things such as - man is basically good, there is no free will, there is nothing but the cosmos and nothing outside of the cosmos, there is no evil in man, etc. And seeing these different world views, I have to wonder how people can possibly believe them. It's so difficult to see people fall for such awful lies.
But for now my mind is going dead. Next time I'll try to expound on one of these
And, as for more 'other doings'.....
Nail polish. Mock trial. Prince of Persia. Reading. Thinking some more. Piano. Friends. Bourne Identity. Laundry. My favorite socks. Pumps or flats? Sleep. Naps. Sleep deprivation. Music. School. Notes to self. Frizzy hair. Children. School vs. chilling out. Chilling out vs. naps. 1 hour long naps vs. 3 hour long naps.
Sleep is on my mind at the moment. Right now all I'm running on is the white chocolate mocha I drank earlier. Brain dead. Deprived of sleep. I'm becoming incoherent.
I think I'll go for now. And next time I shall try to expound on my deep thoughts.
Such as
Starbucks.
Yes, Starbucks is too big a part of my life. My mom and I go to a particular Starbucks every single Sunday afternoon/evening and talk for a good hour or two. It's just a habit of ours, and a very delightful one at that. But I have discovered we've been going there far too often. There is a nice young guy up there who almost always works Sunday afternoons/evenings, and so we see him all the time. A few weeks ago he commented, "I seem to see y'all a lot up here." We just chuckled and agreed. And tonight, I had the pleasure and yet almost horror of discovering he knows my name. You know, they always ask for your name so they can write it on the cup, and after I ordered, he looked at me holding his Sharpie and said, "Madison?" I just grinned and nodded. I find it somewhat disturbing that this guy who I know nothing about and who I've never had a proper introduction to or conversation with; this guy knows my name? Somewhat odd.
But that is the consequence of going to Starbucks too much, I suppose.
Other doings.
Well, we all know what tomorrow is.
Valentine's Day.
The big day.
That is, the day that MOST people freak out because they don't have a "Valentine." Well, I already had two nice guys be my "Valentine" this year. ;-) Hehe! Ahhh the joys of being loved. First of all, my wonderful Daddy, who always gets me
something, got me a huge box of Russell Stover chocolate and a card. =) I definitely have to say, my Dad has got to be the best in the whole world. Ever. The picture of what he got is over there. <----------And then.... there was my boyfriend. :] He got me a super cute mug from Starbucks (if you've been to Starbucks recently, I'm sure you know one of the ones I'm talking about ;) and then some snack stuff from Starbucks. It made me sooopperr happy (yeah, I have to spell super wrong to make an emphasis. Sorry) SO. that is my Valentine's Day. Tomorrow, the actual day, will probably be relatively boring and I'll do school all day. Yipee. But at least I had some good stuff beforehand. ^_^
Now of course I've been turning over other things in my mind. Such as deep topics of interest that people don't typically talk about. I suppose part of the reason I've been thinking so much is because at church, my parents Sunday School class has been doing The Truth Project (if you've never heard of it, go look it up. It's a great, wonderful, awesome "tour", as they call it). But with such a name, you can expect deep topics.
Such as
Where does evil come from?
Who is man?
What is truth?
Those get your mind working, let me tell you.
And the more I think about these things, it makes me consider what I usually think about.
Do those things really matter in the grand scheme of things?
Nope.
But do those things? Can these questions and the answers to these questions change someone's life?
Yep.
So what is more important to ponder and spend our time thinking about?
--
And really it interests me, because watching The Truth Project, you get to see videos of people from different world views talking about what they believe. Things such as - man is basically good, there is no free will, there is nothing but the cosmos and nothing outside of the cosmos, there is no evil in man, etc. And seeing these different world views, I have to wonder how people can possibly believe them. It's so difficult to see people fall for such awful lies.
But for now my mind is going dead. Next time I'll try to expound on one of these
And, as for more 'other doings'.....
Nail polish. Mock trial. Prince of Persia. Reading. Thinking some more. Piano. Friends. Bourne Identity. Laundry. My favorite socks. Pumps or flats? Sleep. Naps. Sleep deprivation. Music. School. Notes to self. Frizzy hair. Children. School vs. chilling out. Chilling out vs. naps. 1 hour long naps vs. 3 hour long naps.
Sleep is on my mind at the moment. Right now all I'm running on is the white chocolate mocha I drank earlier. Brain dead. Deprived of sleep. I'm becoming incoherent.
I think I'll go for now. And next time I shall try to expound on my deep thoughts.
Monday, February 7, 2011
Mock Trial
Wow. I am pitifully behind in my blogging. I haven't blogged in nearly a month... this is quite pitiful. BUT. I do have a legitimate excuse. And that is - mock trial.
I think I have mentioned mock trial before, but I've never really gone into what it is. So in case you don't know, a very very brief explanation is it is a bunch of high schoolers doing a fake trial. In each state we have one "case" and everyone participating in mock trial in that particular state studies the case for about 3 months. Intensive work here. Each team has six attorneys (three for plaintiff and three for defense) and six witnesses (again, three for each side) plus two time keepers. So over the course of three months you study the case, and then in February you go to a regional competition. There are several regions in our state, but I think ours is one of the hardest regions. And I have reason to think this. Reason being, we go against a team every year who has won for 12 years in a row. 12 years. That's a long time. Every year they have gone to state. It's very intensive to go against them.
But before I go on to the competition, let me explain what part I have on the team, and what all we do. So, I am a witness, and given, one of the lesser witnesses. But I have a fantastically fun part. I get to be a political activist. In a major way. In fact, I get to rap... which in my opinion is pretty awesome ^_^ On my team I have a couple of my friends, Hayley and Aaron, who are also witnesses. Aaron is another relatively important witness, and Hayley is the main witness. And then for attorneys we have my brother, Spencer, another one of my friends, Courtney, and my boyfriend, Daniel. Spencer is the lead attorney (I'm so stinkin proud of him =). He does the direct of Aaron, the cross of the lead witness on the defense side, and he does the closing. Courtney does the opening, and Daniel & Courtney both have crosses and directs.And so on to the competition. So this year, on the 5th, we had our competition. Our team ran on adrenaline all day. We had to get up there at 7:45, and our first round started about 9. Well. We went against the team that I have told you about in the first round... which really isn't a good thing for us or for them. But we went against them anyway. Our team felt very good about that round, and we pretty much knew for a fact at that point that we were going to go to the final round. The next round wasn't quite as good. In my opinion... well.... let's just say I didn't like the team that much.
After the first two rounds, we had some suggestions from our attorney coach, Pete, and Spencer (my bro) gave us a speech like in the beginning of Patton, except a homeschooler friendly version. ;) Yeah, my brother is awesome like that. 
Anyway, after these two rounds, we go into this big room where all the teams get together, and we have an awards ceremony. In each round there is an outstanding witness award and an outstanding attorney award. I'm proud to say that two of our witnesses got one, Courtney got one, and another one of our attorneys, Steven, got two.
But then came the big deal. Who goes to the final round? You see, the final round is a huge, nerve wracking deal. It's when the two best teams out of the whole competition go against each other, and it is decided who goes to state. Well... it came time to say which teams were to go to the final round. And the coordinator for our region announced us and the team who has won for 12 years. Both teams were so excited... and we were ready.The final round, quite honestly, was when I was most nervous, and understandably too. What I did could have an effect on whether we won or not. My hands were clammy. I sat on the bench trying not to fidget. Finally, it came time to do the final round. And let me tell you, during the last round, we had some serious praying going on. I know many of the parents were praying, I was praying, and I heard several of our team members say they were praying. Not so much that we would win, but more that the evaluators and judge would be fair, that we would perform at our best, etc. I was the first witness and I went up on the stand, my hands still relatively clammy. I did my direct, which went pretty well. But even while I was talking, I was praying in my mind. I had my cross, and then I was done. I was down from the witness stand. And anything that I could do to help the team was done. It was a pretty big relief. The rest of the round went very well; better than I expected it to, actually. And finally, the closings were done, and the round was over. The evaluators went back to do the scoring, and then they came back about 15 or 20 minutes later to give comments. I listened closely for any signs that we won. We were all still nervous. We all wanted to know who won.
Then it finally came. Time for us to learn who had won. Our defense side came over into our court room, and we sat down. First the outstanding witness and attorney awards were given out. Now usually you can tell who won by which team gets the most awards. Well, you couldn't even tell from that. We had it split right down the middle - each team got one outstanding witness and one outstanding attorney award. Then it was time. We were about to hear who had won. The coordinator pulled out the piece of paper with the winning team name on it, and he said, "And the winner of this regional mock trial competition is...."
The first word out of his mouth was the first word of our homeschool organization. And with the first word of his mouth, everyone out in the crowd who had come to watch us, probably consisting of at least 50 people (parents, friends, extra team members, coaches, etc.), simultaneously jumped in the air and started screaming and hugging each other. I was sitting in my seat screaming and nearly crying. One of our coach's daughters, Molly, was sitting next to me, and she was crying by the first word. I have never felt that exhilarated in my life. After the first initial screams, we went over to the other team and told them good job. I honestly felt bad for them, because it was the first time in 12 years they had lost, and I know it was disappointing. It kinda hurt to see them so disappointed. But after they all left the room, we were once again hugging and screaming and crying and going completely crazy. I know it sounds kind of overdone, but unless you are our team, you can't even begin to understand the excitement that was felt. I'm not kidding when I say that we put literally hundreds of hours into practicing for this competition. There is nothing to describe how excited we were to win.
After we finally left the court house, we went over to one of our team member's house, and we threw a victory party. All of us were still so excited. I have never seen so much excitement and so much joy all in one place. It was absolutely amazing. I'm still amazed.
SO.
Now you know why I haven't been blogging lately. With three regular meetings a week going for at least 3 hours, and usually at least two extra meetings at people's houses, usually about 2-3 hours each, you know why I didn't have time. But I'm hoping to get a little more blogging in before the state competition, which is about a month and a half away.
Anyway, that is my very long explanation.
I'll try to write about something besides mock trial next time....
And so for now I'm signing off
~Madison
I think I have mentioned mock trial before, but I've never really gone into what it is. So in case you don't know, a very very brief explanation is it is a bunch of high schoolers doing a fake trial. In each state we have one "case" and everyone participating in mock trial in that particular state studies the case for about 3 months. Intensive work here. Each team has six attorneys (three for plaintiff and three for defense) and six witnesses (again, three for each side) plus two time keepers. So over the course of three months you study the case, and then in February you go to a regional competition. There are several regions in our state, but I think ours is one of the hardest regions. And I have reason to think this. Reason being, we go against a team every year who has won for 12 years in a row. 12 years. That's a long time. Every year they have gone to state. It's very intensive to go against them.
But before I go on to the competition, let me explain what part I have on the team, and what all we do. So, I am a witness, and given, one of the lesser witnesses. But I have a fantastically fun part. I get to be a political activist. In a major way. In fact, I get to rap... which in my opinion is pretty awesome ^_^ On my team I have a couple of my friends, Hayley and Aaron, who are also witnesses. Aaron is another relatively important witness, and Hayley is the main witness. And then for attorneys we have my brother, Spencer, another one of my friends, Courtney, and my boyfriend, Daniel. Spencer is the lead attorney (I'm so stinkin proud of him =). He does the direct of Aaron, the cross of the lead witness on the defense side, and he does the closing. Courtney does the opening, and Daniel & Courtney both have crosses and directs.And so on to the competition. So this year, on the 5th, we had our competition. Our team ran on adrenaline all day. We had to get up there at 7:45, and our first round started about 9. Well. We went against the team that I have told you about in the first round... which really isn't a good thing for us or for them. But we went against them anyway. Our team felt very good about that round, and we pretty much knew for a fact at that point that we were going to go to the final round. The next round wasn't quite as good. In my opinion... well.... let's just say I didn't like the team that much.
After the first two rounds, we had some suggestions from our attorney coach, Pete, and Spencer (my bro) gave us a speech like in the beginning of Patton, except a homeschooler friendly version. ;) Yeah, my brother is awesome like that. 
Anyway, after these two rounds, we go into this big room where all the teams get together, and we have an awards ceremony. In each round there is an outstanding witness award and an outstanding attorney award. I'm proud to say that two of our witnesses got one, Courtney got one, and another one of our attorneys, Steven, got two.But then came the big deal. Who goes to the final round? You see, the final round is a huge, nerve wracking deal. It's when the two best teams out of the whole competition go against each other, and it is decided who goes to state. Well... it came time to say which teams were to go to the final round. And the coordinator for our region announced us and the team who has won for 12 years. Both teams were so excited... and we were ready.The final round, quite honestly, was when I was most nervous, and understandably too. What I did could have an effect on whether we won or not. My hands were clammy. I sat on the bench trying not to fidget. Finally, it came time to do the final round. And let me tell you, during the last round, we had some serious praying going on. I know many of the parents were praying, I was praying, and I heard several of our team members say they were praying. Not so much that we would win, but more that the evaluators and judge would be fair, that we would perform at our best, etc. I was the first witness and I went up on the stand, my hands still relatively clammy. I did my direct, which went pretty well. But even while I was talking, I was praying in my mind. I had my cross, and then I was done. I was down from the witness stand. And anything that I could do to help the team was done. It was a pretty big relief. The rest of the round went very well; better than I expected it to, actually. And finally, the closings were done, and the round was over. The evaluators went back to do the scoring, and then they came back about 15 or 20 minutes later to give comments. I listened closely for any signs that we won. We were all still nervous. We all wanted to know who won.
Then it finally came. Time for us to learn who had won. Our defense side came over into our court room, and we sat down. First the outstanding witness and attorney awards were given out. Now usually you can tell who won by which team gets the most awards. Well, you couldn't even tell from that. We had it split right down the middle - each team got one outstanding witness and one outstanding attorney award. Then it was time. We were about to hear who had won. The coordinator pulled out the piece of paper with the winning team name on it, and he said, "And the winner of this regional mock trial competition is...."
The first word out of his mouth was the first word of our homeschool organization. And with the first word of his mouth, everyone out in the crowd who had come to watch us, probably consisting of at least 50 people (parents, friends, extra team members, coaches, etc.), simultaneously jumped in the air and started screaming and hugging each other. I was sitting in my seat screaming and nearly crying. One of our coach's daughters, Molly, was sitting next to me, and she was crying by the first word. I have never felt that exhilarated in my life. After the first initial screams, we went over to the other team and told them good job. I honestly felt bad for them, because it was the first time in 12 years they had lost, and I know it was disappointing. It kinda hurt to see them so disappointed. But after they all left the room, we were once again hugging and screaming and crying and going completely crazy. I know it sounds kind of overdone, but unless you are our team, you can't even begin to understand the excitement that was felt. I'm not kidding when I say that we put literally hundreds of hours into practicing for this competition. There is nothing to describe how excited we were to win.
After we finally left the court house, we went over to one of our team member's house, and we threw a victory party. All of us were still so excited. I have never seen so much excitement and so much joy all in one place. It was absolutely amazing. I'm still amazed.SO.
Now you know why I haven't been blogging lately. With three regular meetings a week going for at least 3 hours, and usually at least two extra meetings at people's houses, usually about 2-3 hours each, you know why I didn't have time. But I'm hoping to get a little more blogging in before the state competition, which is about a month and a half away.
Anyway, that is my very long explanation.
I'll try to write about something besides mock trial next time....
And so for now I'm signing off
~Madison
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