Last week Tegan and Riley had a speech and debate tournament in Colorado Springs. We are so fortunate to have access to Andy's mom's condo down there, so we could stay there, with a kitchen, rather than in a hotel room with the rest of the team - a much cheaper option. It was quite a tournament - long days, much judging, great kids. I ended up judging 12 rounds, which exhausted my brain :). Each round requires much focus and there was some very tough competition. On the third day Conner and I headed to Starbucks to work on his Essentials paper for the week, just to take a bit of a break from the tournament. We also stopped by Penney's to pick up some $2 matching ties for Tegan and Riley to wear during their duo.
Riley made some friends at this tournament and had quite a bit of fun. He ended up 5th in his Expos speech and received a 2nd "green checkmark". This qualifies him for Nationals! He's not certain he wants to go compete in this, but what an accomplishment just to qualify. Their duo didn't do so good this time around. The competition was much stiffer, the competitors more polished. They placed 19th overall, so they've been working hard all week trying to make little improvements here and there so they are ready for their next tournament. Riley also competed in Impromptu. His speeches all exceeded 2 minutes which is a huge accomplishment for someone doing Impromptu for the first time. He had to compete in Impromptu at at least one tournament this year. He decided to do that at this tournament in case he liked it and could then decide to do it more at future tournaments. Well, he hated it, but I give him much credit for trying. We'll wait until next year before he tries it again.
Tegan did a great job with his Storytelling event and his Extemp. He had some ballots placing him in the top three within a round, but not enough to "break." He also had some good Impromptu rounds. I got to observe one of his debate rounds. I'm so impressed at how much his speaking skills have improved, even since their last tournament. Unfortunately, he didn't do as well as he had hoped in his debate rounds, but loved the chance to debate nonetheless. In the end, he had a 2-4 record - much room for improvement that will come with experience and maturity.
We're off to our next tournament in Albuquerque next week.
On Tuesday I celebrated another year lived. It was pretty low key. I just asked for dinner from Chipotle and the bathtub to be cleaned :). We had a nice evening at home after our day at CC, playing a game of my choice - Rummikub. Sadly, the next morning we lost one of our beloved birds. It was a very difficult day for everyone, but we did have the opportunity to discuss God's sovereignty and His goodness even when we don't understand why things happen. By the afternoon we were out searching for a new bird just to make sure Whistler had a friend - they do much better with a partner in their cage. Previously, we had spent almost two years trying to find a female Bourke's parakeet. It just so happened that the Bird store across town had just received three Bourke's and one was a female - the boys really want a mating pair, so they can sell the chicks. We purchased one (all three of the Bourke's sold within 48 hours and these were the first they had received in their store in almost two years) and brought Whistler home a new friend. She is very sweet and actually cuddles a bit. She's young and her wings were clipped at the store, so she can't fly just yet, but she will be soon. We're still contemplating a name as it's rather difficult to find one that all five of us agree upon.
0 comments:
Post a Comment