a very long weekend

All of you know that D-now was this past weekend. It was the best D-Now I've ever been to. Ever. :)
Danielle was our leader; and Dellayne, Lacey, Christina, Marissa, Jessica (Sneezy, lol), Shelby, Jordan, Marissa, Elizabeth, and I were all in the group. I LOVED having Danielle as a leader! "We're all about winning, but if anyone asks, its all about Jesus!" <--- direct quote! haha We also got to use Danielle's house as a host home, which was super cool because there wasn't a family there and so we didn't have to be too quiet or respectful. Also Danielle has some very entertaining kitties.

Jessica and Shelby bought LOTS of food, including Cinnamon toast crunch cereal (which i love), so there was no lack of that. Also we stole some of Matt's Jones soda (clinton called it pillaging, lol) so that was cool. It tasted like Berry Ocean's Melon gelato. MMM!

We had already known what we were going to name our group: Ghetto Pirates. So we went out and each bought shirts and scarves and eye patches and whatever else we thought was cool (like Oswald the pirate duck). And then we all went and tied the scarves around our heads and wore the eyepatches, and we came up with a cheer and worked on it until it was time to leave. We didn't get points for it, though, until sunday. :P

After the first session (which was really good by the way) Jared said that our game had been canceled. But Liz and I didn't think he was being serious, so we got ready to RUMBLE! jk. We had all got in our cars and started driving, listening to M88, when suddenly Dellayne was like, why are we listening to M88 on a CD? cause it said "playing cd" on the thing. And then we heard Stevo say that we were supposed to turn around and gave us the rules of the game that we had suspected we were gonna play all along. It was a cool way to find out about the game. :)
It was an ok game too. We didn't realize that we werent supposed to pick up the glowsticks, though, so some people yelled at us and then we threw them all into a bush. lol. Then we were running, trying to be quiet so the "roman soldiers" wouldn't tag us, when suddenly I got grabbed! and I got taken to the jail but thankfully none of the other girls in my team did. They felt bad about "leaving me behind", but it was ok with me b/c I was nice and cozy in the jail. :) And they did find Jared in the end, only it was after a few other teams found him. Plus they brought me a glowstick. :P

Then we got our breakfast milk, and Dellayne and I carried it. And I held my glowstick and it was like the Evenstar, and we called ourselves the Milk-bearers.
So we went home and got ready for bed and ate some food, and we got lots of sleep.

We woke up the next morning pretty much fully energized. We got started kind of late though, and we started our sessions late and everything, and then Danielle was like, well you have 20 minutes to do this scavenger hunt we're supposed to do. So we split the list in half and split our team in half, and we went door to door asking people about the stuff, and ended up getting our stuff at only 2 houses. Then we found out that we were supposed to make a little statue of Jared out of the stuff we'd gathered, and we thought that we only had 10 minutes to do it cause thats how much time we had before we had to get to church. So we were frantically putting it together, and Elizabeth and I got super glue allllll over! including our fingers. Luckily they didnt stick together! but it was still weird. I thought our statue looked sooo cool! it had a wand and cape and everything. We didn't win, but it was fun making it and everything.

So then we ate and planned about what we would do during free time. I think we were going to go to Wal-Mart.
Olympics was after lunch. Our first game was up against The Knights of Pony Hills (Buddy, Clinton, Matt, and another leader named Richard), and we were like, this will be a peice of cake since we have 11 people and they only have 4, but we lost! It was really embarrassing, lol. So we were like, hey we cant lose any more games, and we won kickball next.
Also we won my favorite game played, the Prom Dress Relay. We were up against Fresh Meat, and they cheated horribly, getting in front of our inner tubes and pushing against them, and jumping all over Lacey once and hurting her almost to the point of tears. I wasn't very happy with several members of their team. It was a fun game though.
Another game was a relay where our team banded together with the sophmore girls team, and we had to carry Jordan Chavez a very long way up a very steep hill. I am not a fit person. We got some SPAM at the top and ran back down the hill, and we thought we'd lost since we were the last people to get back. But while the other teams were rejoycing, the leaders said that the game wasn't over and we had to eat the spam. So we junior/senior girls got our spam open and choked it down. I very nearly puked. But we WON! even against high school BOYS! it was definitely an accomplishment. :)
We also won: marshmallow wars, and the water-ball toss thing.
but we lost tug of war. Which meant we got covered in manure. sigh.
So we did really well at the Olympics, and we cheered our brains out. Then we went home and spent our free time taking showers (lol we STUNK) and french-braiding each others hair, and listening to Norah Jones, and helping Dellayne get ready for the Military Ball. I think that was my favorite time during D-Now, cause it was mellow yet hectic, and we "bonded". :)
The only thing was that I only brought a few articles of clothing. So I had to wear my PJ shirt that night, hehe!

So we went back to church and ate and had good times cheering and everything, and then we had a good session and some REALLY good worship. Asher, the singer guy, had a nice voice.
We thought we were going to play a game after that, but we didn't and were kind of disappointed. But we did go "home" and played Mafia, and ate lots of food, and cleaned up a little bit, and watched movies, and took crazy pictures. It was lots and lots of fun! And we watched movies until only Jordan and I were awake, and then we went to bed because we forgot about the time change and thought that it was earlier than it was. Dellayne ended up getting there from the Military Ball about 10 minutes later. It was 2something AM. blegh!

Then Danielle woke us all up early the next morning and said we had 25 minutes to get everything together, which we did pretty easily. We gathered everything up and drove to the church, at which point Danielle left us to go to a soccer game. We were pretty tired. We ate breakfast and then started playing Big Booty, which I honestly hadn't played in a loooong time! It was very fun. It woke everyone up. :P

After the session, which was really good, Danielle came back. She hadn't won her soccer game, and we told her we were in last place at D-Now, but we were still happy and in good spirits because we probably had the most fun out of.... EVERYONE!! :D

When it was all over I was pretty stinky. I'd taken 1 shower over the weekend. But I didn't want to go home, it was too much fun...

My dad picked me up (I was a bit suspicious that he picked me up and mom wasn't there) and we went to a Summit practice. It was kind of fun at first because I was wearing off on my last (and i mean my last) little bit of energy. But after a while it just wasn't fun anymore. I was running with a splinter in my foot- literally. (Never walk around barefoot at Danielle's house)

And after practice was over, Dad said we were going to Grandmas. He said there were going to be lots of people there. And that mom was there. Suddenly I was very afraid. I wanted to ask, "What happened?" But I didn't.
Then dad said that my Uncle James was dead. Is dead. He committed suicide.
So we went to my Grandparents house. I had just seen my Uncle a week or two ago. Now he's gone. We weren't very close. But it's still... frightening? I can't think of the word... crazy?

We went and I saw cousins that I haven't seen in at least 4-5 years. It was very... weird. No one was crying that I saw. My Uncle was not much of a speaker. But I remember that he taught Clinton how to shoot a BB- Gun, and once when I lost both my front teeth on the same day, he gave me 5 dollars and a wooden piggy bank. It still smells like his room- like roasted peanuts and smoke.
Everyone was wearing black, and I was wearing bright green. I saw Richard, and we hugged, and looked at each other, and he looked about as weirded out as I felt. So we ate chicken and cookies, and went to the living room and talked. And thats all.

It was a very long weekend. At first it was really fun, but on Sunday around 2:00pm, it was not good.

Don't worry- we're ok.
I love you all.