UNO TOURNAMENT!!!!

We had the church-wide Uno Tournament today! It was so much fun. Too bad it's only once a year.
I got...what, 19th place or something? But not bad, and most of the people ahead of me were boys or littler kids (with parents to help them. No, I was not beaten by a bunch of little helpless kids! I'm better than that!), so there were still some nice prizes left when I went up to pick one. I found a very pretty wooden bowl, one that used to be part of a church pew! Someone took the ends of the bench, with crosses carved into them, and made them into bowls with the cross on the bottom. Apparently there's one as a prize every year, and they're usually 'fought' over by the women. :) I'm happy to have gotten one! I'll stick a few pictures up once I get them loaded on.

I had the little kids scared of me by the end of the first round. I'm Ruthless. I piled card after card on a little 5 yr. old and won the first round (Don't worry, she didn't cry! She ended up with only 3 points from that one, even though I had given her so many cards!), then won the second in just a few plays. After that, no one wanted to sit by me. =( And I lost the second two. =( =(
But I still won two. And a nice prize. =)

Bible study the other night was fun. I brought 50 pieces of our Secret Family Recipe Fudge, and 25 were gone in the first 15 minutes, wolfed down by 8 people! If THAT isn't a record, I don't know WHAT is! But, of course, they shouldn't have wolfed them down. The proper way to eat SFR Fudge is slowly, bite by delectable bite, savouring the flavour. O well. =)

Now I'm going to watch a short movie or two, and head for the hay. Toodleoo.

~Kiwi~

1 year anniversary!

When I first reminded my Mom about our first anniversary, Monkey got a big grin on his face. "You're married?!?" he teased. No, I'm not married. The anniversary I'm talkin' about is the anniversary of our moving to My-opolis.
I can't believe we've lived here a year already! I remember that weekend so well. Packing up everything within three weeks.....Stuffing our 'entire house' into a U-haul truck......Getting up at 4:30 am so we could get to WI on time.......Big Sis driving with me (her first time driving the car on a trip! She'd only gotten her license a few weeks before)......Listening to GO on the way up......
We had more comparative strangers show up to help move in than friends helping us move out, which was interesting.
I was the only person with a real bed a year ago tonight! Everyone else had to use air mattresses or the floor.


In the past year, the following things have happened:

• I've made numerous new friends. Let's see.....somewheres around 25. Plus new acquaintances, which are different....


• We went sledding multiple times last Winter with our new friends.


• I have played volleyball nearly every Sunday since late Spring.


• I've gotten much better at volleyball!


• My family and our friends have worked on practicing a play together. No, we haven't had a chance to actually perform it yet, but we did have fun practicing!
  
• Sis and I performed in the church's Talent Night, and did something for it we would never have dared doing at our old church! I don't think we would have done anything for a talent night in the IA church, just because....it wasn't something we'd be expected to do!
  


• I scored 4th place at the annual Uno Tournament! And won a Turtle. ------>


• I turned 17.


• My personality has changed a LOT; from someone too shy and scared of what others would think of her to a slightly more self-confident girl who speaks up a bit more. Sometimes too much, but at least I'm not mute anymore!
  I have moved one year closer to graduation!


• I have been accepted.
  
• I am a happier person because I've been accepted and, even though I'm new here, I'm not an 'outsider'.
  
• Oh, and I went to my first Cubs game last September 26th. 'Twas cool. :)

Oh, I could probably think of more things to add, but I'm running out of time. Maybe I'll save the other things for next year.
My thanks to all of you who have made this year so great! Did you know that a year ago, I barely even knew what you looked like, much less your names or anything about you?? This past year has been amazing. Let's see how great this year could be!

~Kiwi~

p.s. Don't forget about Talk Like A Pirate Day this Saturday!!