Bit by Bit

I'm going to have to catch you up on my summer later when I have time to sit and post pictures. For now, I'm going to catch you up on the present.

Today we started school. I'm a junior this year and can't wait to go to college ... "it seems so long!" I'm doing some pretty interesting things, along with some not so interesting things, and I'm reading a bunch of good books this year, a bunch of classics that I haven't read before. I'm going to be in homeschool band, which greatly excites me! A few years ago I was thinking seriously about being in band at the high school, but I wouldn't be able to compete because I wasn't a full time student. I've dropped ballet and jazz, but I'm still doing tap because I love it so much:) Rebecca has moved into my class, so our Tuesdays are a little less vexing. I'm still taking flute and piano, and let me rant a little....I'm to the point in my piano playing that I love it so much I wish I could play much, much harder music....the only problem is, I can make my fingers do it sometimes, but my brain is too slow, and so my fingers move too slow and I get frustrated with myself. I'm going to stick it through, however, regretting every minute that I quit lessons when I was young. Auditions for Scrooge are next month, and I can't decide what to sing.

Watch for summer pictures and stories in the near future....or distant future, whenever I get around to it....

Oh, something I forgot!

My youth group and I recently (last weekend) went to a youth rally in Neosho, MO. We had a jolly old time singing, praising God, listening to great speakers and playing many games of Nertz, ERS and Spoons. We had been on the road back to Rolla for about an hour when suddenly it sounded like we hit something. The whole bus shook (even more than usual) and Mr. Bramlett pulled slowly over to the shoulder. A tire popped, and we were a little ways from a exit. We drove slowly on the side of the road until we took the exit and found a truck stop. Mr. Bramlett started the tire removal process and we all walked across the street to a McDonalds. We sat there for about 45 minutes until the tire was fixed, and we continued our journey home. Fifteen minutes down the road, the bus breaks down. Being a girl and not being interested in vehicle mechanics very much, I'm not exactly sure what the problem was, but it happens a lot to the poor bus and Mr. Bramlett quickly fixed it.

By this time, Mr. Bramlett is a huge hero to us.

But wait!! Fifteen minutes down the road, the bus breaks down again and Mr. Bramlett can't get it to start. About the same time we stopped, an accident happened about a third of a mile down the road. Traffic immediately started to pile up, so even if by some miracle the old church bus did start up again, we wouldn't be able to go anywhere because of the long line of traffic building up a few feet away from our stopped bus. It starts to rain. So we sit, we play Catchphrase, we watch the ambulances weave their way past us and to the accident site, we play mafia, Mr. Bramlett calls a tow, we sweat in the now really humid bus, we got outside in the drizzly rain to cool off and watch the sluggish line of traffic drive by a few feet in front of us. Nearly an hour later, the traffic is moving by at a normal speed and the tow guy comes. He tows us inside the bus for about a mile to the nearest gas station. We sat inside an (air conditioned!) Christian coffee house that was neighbors with the gas station, and we waited until my grandpa and Mrs. McKinney arrived in their minivans to tote us back to Rolla. Thirty minutes later, I'm sitting in my grandpa's minivan listening to the rain-delayed Cardinals game, playing many, many rounds of Mafia, and sighing in relief as we finally reached Rolla. We left Neosho at 11:30, and it's a 2 hour trip. We arrived at the church building at 5:30.......I was sooooo glad to be home:)