Hola me peeples. =D
I know, I know I haven't been a very good blogger lately, and I am deeply ashamed of my lack of responsibility. =[ I sincerely apologize and am greatly determined to have higher standards when it comes to my blog. Honest!
Well this past weekend we were up north of the state at the State Shooting Sports competition. It was pretty awesome! The down side was that we had only practiced about 6 times; we used to practice at Dow Hall, but the hall is currently under major construction. Coach and the team could come out here as often as they wanted; except that we didn't have a safe place to store the equipment, and it was alot of work to keep loading and unloading it. Also, it was quite a ways out here, thus a bit inconvenient. So yeah we could have done alot better if we had practiced; but as it is, we did not have that privelage. It was however, an excellent experience, and I believe helped us all so that we could be even more competitive next year, accompanied with practice!!
So we went up there earlier than the team. Thursday afternoon, we left. It took us about 4.5 hours to get up there. Why did we leave to so early, you may be asking? Well there is a very excellent gunsmithing school near Raton, where State would take place; Raton is right near the border of Colorado, and we could just cruise on up there in CO and visit Trinidad, home of the best gunsmithing school in the nation, perhaps world! (So they say.) So yeah we reached the Whittington Center that evening with perfect intentions of grabbing our key and heading on up to our cozy little cabin for a good night's rest.
Ohhhh but no way! That would be
way too easy. Psssh.
We got our key to Cabin 3 and drove on up there (about 2 miles I'm guessing it was) to our little cabin. Well we just shoved that nice little silver key right in the lock, turned it, and....
Well. Nothing happened. The door refused to open. For several minutes we fought with that door; then we tried the backdoor. No luck. (Oh, and it was very very cold; not the perfect temperature to be standing around fiddling with a stupid cabin door.)
So we just cruised right back down there and told Roger (the guy on night duty) all about our cabin dilemma. Well he was real nice and apologized about it and all; he gave us a different set of keys for Cabin 3. Up we go with high hopes of a cozy bed (it was dark by now)... But nope. Stupid key still wouldn't do the trick. (At this point I suggested somebody hoisted me up and I could just pop through the window but neither Mama nor Tyler went for it.)
Back down to the entry gate, where he told us to just run into Raton and get something to eat, and he woudl go up and try all the keys for Cabin 3. Alright, so into town we went where we stopped by a little Subway and had us some supper. (Which was pretty darned good, if I do say so myself.) We headed back to the Whittington Center; I was pretty tired by now and dang sure ready for some sleep.
Roger told us that none of the Cabin 3 keys worked, so he checked us out of Cabin 3 (oh and by the way, our team had reserved 3 & 4) and we registered for Cabin 5. (Some cabins were used that night that wouldn't be the next day, including Cabin 4.) So we piddled on up there and guess what?
Yup. It didn't open. Down we go... again.
We were pretty dumbfounded by now. Cabin 3
and Cabin 5 had faulty locks. Eh?
He gave us the keys to Cabin 9 & 10.
Well heck, why break the pattern? Those didn't work either. It was absolutely ridculous, but to the point that Mama and I were almost hysterical with laughter. But hey, it was late, it was cold, we had no place to sleep, we were tired; it's better than the alternative- throwing a hissy fit and bursting out into tears.
Well poor Roger sure apologized and we were just all clueless. We told him that we would sleep in the gift shop if we had to, we just needed a cabin for
one night if they would fix the locks to the other cabins. Which they had better, because they had a LOT of people coming in to stay in those cabins the next day. So... there was a founder's cabin open that night. (Oh, and it turns out they changed all the locks but didn't get keys, so they had to get keys made on Friday, and it all worked out.)
See, there are 3 different types of 'cabins'. The first are 1500 sq. ft., with 5 bunk beds (meaning 10 beds); 4 of the bunks in the main room, and one in a tiny room off the main one. Then there was the bathroom, and that's it. They're kind of pitiful, but they hold us and it all works.
Then there are the founders cabins; these are really big and really nice, as we found out. (We got to stay in the newest one; it had never been slept in.) There are 4 bedrooms, each accompanied by it's own bathroom (complete with heat lamp!), 2 beds, and 2 nightstands. One of the bedrooms was the main one, and it had a
gigantic bathroom. The shower had one of those little benches and a hand-held shower head, it was just amazing. The furniture is really cool, all out of wooden posts; the main room/kitchen is enormous with a really long bar accompanied by swivel chairs (which really excited Mama, don't ask why, it was a strange fascination she developed while there). The view was spectacular from our cabin too; Whittington Center is one of the best shooting facilities with many ranges, probably a dozen, and is set up in the mountains.
Oh, and there are also what they call Condos which are really cool looking with I think 8 bedrooms and a huge main room, and yeah. Never been inside of them, but they were dang awesome.
So we stayed in there for the night and in the morning packed up and drove off towards Colorado. I don't really remember all that happened that day; but the gunsmithing school ROCKED. Man the people were so personable, including the students, and it was really interesting, I loved it. Haha the lady we met up with introduced us to two of the students: Lyrch and Tank. =D Haha and one of the main professor's name was Speedy Gonzalez. It was just really really cool.
So yeah, Friday night our team came in and it was all good. The next day we were up at 5:30 for a light breakfast and to go shoot! We started out with Air Rifle which is my best event, same as Leanne. We were next to each other and able to help each other out; we were also on the first relay of 3P. Meaning it was very early. And very cold. Coach Hugh said it was 31 in that building, but I didn't really notice. Anyway, that went pretty well; there is this one girl named Bethany we were told to watch out for. She beat me by 10 points on prone, but Hugh said I beat her on kneeling and standing. =D Woohoo, go me!
Then came Air Rifle Silhouettes- which were
awesome!!! I love doing the AR Silhouettes. You have 5 little chickens on a little platform thing and you get five shots; if you miss one, you just move to the next one. And you have somebody scoring for you; my scorer was Jerry, Leanne's step-dad so I was pretty happy about that. Anyway, after your first 5 rounds, you go set the chickens back up (which are really small and made out of metal) and shoot your next 5. Then you exchange the chickens for pigs, and you move back. (I forgot the exact measurements, but you move back quite a good ways each time you change animals.) Then came turkeys, then rams. I got 26 out of a possible 40, which I was told was excellent. Yea me!
Then came .22 3P which really really stunk. It was very cold and very windy, which was just terrible. The last event for us was .22 silhouettes which was even worse than 3P- I think I got 8. Out of a possible 40. Craaaaap. But the scope messed me up! Yeah with air rifle we were shooting with iron sights and on .22 silhouette Hugh let us use scope guns. Leanne & I hated them stupid scopes. Anyway, yeah. Tyler, Cody & Wade went and shot shotgun too.
I could have done alot better with more practice, but that's okay, it was fun. The girls who won Air Rifle 3P got a 97 and a 98 on their prone targets. =O *faints* That is just... wow. But Leanne and I have already decided we are gonna be first next year. Heck yeah!! Cody got 4th high in air rifle, and I got 9th high. Lane, Leanne and Wade got 16th, 17th and 18th respectively. In .22.... I don't even know what we got, I don't think I want to. our team got 4th high in AR. And Tyler placed 10th in shotgun. Overall, it was pretty good.
On Friday night, after all the shooting was done, there was a dance! YEAH! We gathered up Dakotah, Cody, Wade, Tyler, Leanne & I and got in Lucy's vehicle and off we went on a grand adventure!
That was the most fun 10 minute car ride EVER. Wow I thought I was going to die of laughter. Cody, Wade Leanne & I were taking pictures of each other and... just... wow. Haha and Dakotah (who is a really big guy) had the classic rock station on and was singing to it in a high voice. Hahaha! We were about 1 mile from the cabins when he all of a sudden hit the brakes REALLY hard, swerved off the road, and totally unnerved us all.
"OH MY GOSH! Holy crap, did ya'll see that UNICORN?!?!?!?!"
Maybe it was one of those had-t0-be-there things but it was stinkin hilarious. Another half mile, and we came across an antelope right on the side of the road. (Oh, the wildlife up there are really tame; deer, antelope, rabbits, they're all tame; they have bears up in those mountains too.) Dakotah rolled down the window...
"And here we have an antelope, otherwise known as the two horned unicorn." =P
As we drove by, Cody stuck his arm out the window and gave the antelope the peace sign saying, "Peace DUDE!"
Wow it was pretty funny.
When we got to the dance it was barely 8:00, when the dance started, so it was pretty sad, but in a half hour it really filled up. I was kind of disappointed, it was just like the 4H dances; everybody joined their own little groups and didn't ask other people to dance. Me, being a girl, don't walk around asking guys to dance. The guys should ask the girls, IMO. But most guys at these dances just stink and won't ask girls they don't know to dance. Phooey on them.
So I danced with Wade twice. Some guy from Colfax County asked me to dance once. And Dakotah and I danced like... a dozen times. Seriously. It was insane. But see Dakotah is like 19 or 20. Meaning he can't legally go asking young girls at a dance to dance with him, that he doesn't know outside the building. Which really stinks for him. But Dakotah is like a big bro to me, so yeah... but he improved my dance skills! I can now spin and twirl. YAY. Lol. Thank you Dakotah. =D
We left the dance at about 11:15, after the last song, got home and jumped into bed. The next morning we had breakfast, went to the awards, then headed for home. And that was that. A fun weekend!!!
Oh, and haha, Leanne and I renamed all the guys. With girl names. See, we were going to have an all girl team, and then an all boy team- Leanne, Cheyenne and I. Then Wade, Cody and Tyler. But Cheyenne couldn't come, so we had only one team: Leanne, Wade and I. (We ended up getting Cody too but we didn't know that at the time we came up with the girl name idea.) We were going to be the Chaves Chicks- and we were determined we still would be. We just had to pretend that Wade was a girl. So we gave him a new name, and then all the guys earned new names, and then most of the parents got them too.
Wade = Winona
Tyler = Tiffany
Cody = Cindy
Dakotah = Deborah
Jerry = Joanna
Tammi = Timothy
Coach Hugh = Captain Marshmellow
The last one is a whole other story in itself. Oh, and Leanne and I renamed ourselves as well- Leroy and Curtis. =D We walked around all weekend saying, "It's you, me and WINONA!" I don't think he'll ever forgive us for that.
Ooh ooh ooh ooh! Guess what happened yesterday?
I GOT MY BRACES OFF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Heck yeah! I have declared it a National holiday. Some things you just remember... on January 7th, 2007, I got Sassafras. April 15th, 2008, I got Dexter. August 4th, 2005, I got my braces on. May 7th, 2007, I got my braces off!!! Woohoo!It almost didn't happen though. See, I could have sworn the appointment was at 10:45, then back at 12:00 to get my retainers. But.... the appointment was at 10:10, back at 12:45 for retainers.Oops? As soon as we got in the truck at 10:03, Mama looked in her wallet for the appointment card and we kind of freaked. I called the office and asked if it was okay if we were about 15 minutes late; she said sure, if we were like 30 minutes though, they would have to reschedule.*gulp*
Reschedule? Getting braces off? I about passed out ya'll, I'm telling ya right now. That just.... would.... that would... be a tragedy!!!!So I demanded that Mama put the pedal to the medal and get to the office ASAP, cuz those things were coming off! My Mama doesn't speed, she just doesn't, she's a good little citizen. But it was an emergency! So yup, we got there 20 minutes late, but they took me! YAY!!!The first thing they did was pull the brackets off, and that was the worst part. They take these rusty-looking pliers and just pull them right off. Yes, it hurt. It hurt pretty badly, in fact. But I lived to tell the tale.Then Dr. Taylor takes this little mini grinder to grind off the cement while Nancy (one of the assistants) hold this little mini vacuum thing to suck up the cement. The grinder thing wasn't so bad as the vacuum. See it sucks all the saliva (ew) and cement out, and it really dries up your tooth and makes it cold. And my teeth are really sensitive... that part was pretty bad too. But anyway. Then Nancy takes this purple stuff and puts polish on my teeth. Then I go rinse and spit. Now for the mold.They put this pink putty stuff in a mold and put it on your top jaw and bottom jaw (a mold for each) and put it up there. Then I was told to go brush, then wait for x-rays and pictures.They took 2 different xrays of my teeth, but it was really awkward. Because of the radiation, pregnant women can't have x-rays.... So, as procedure they have to ask all girls if there is any chance you're pregnant. A little bit awkward, yes.... I was like HECK NO!Anyway, then they take pictures of you. One of your face, no smile. One smiling. One side shot. then they have to put these stretchers in your mouth to pull your lips away, and put a mirror in your mouth too (I have no idea why). I almost gagged on the mirror. Anywho. Then I was told we could leave.We ate at Pizza Hut- my first meal without braces!Mama said when she got her braces off (that was like decades ago, LOL) it felt like there was too much room in her mouth. But the braces I got are really small brackets, not the regular kind, so it wasn't that so much as my teeth felt really smooth and slimy almost. Just very weird. I kept trying to suck food out of my braces after eating a slice of pizza but... There was nothing to suck out! Hahah. =PThen back to the office where I recieved my retainers, my wonderful wondeful retainers. They just look like nightguards or something. I have a top and a bottom one. I have to wear them every night and one day a week. They're a pain to clean. I have to scrub them with a toothbrush and toothpaste, ugh it's annoying. Oh well.So now I have purdy, straight teeth!!! =D I took a piccie- ya'll wanna see?
So there it is. Anyway, when I left there, they gave me this huge thermos full of candy!!!! Laffy Taffy, Snickers, Caramello, Peanut M&Ms, Bubblegum, yummmmmyy. And we also picked up a big bag of chewy caramels on the way home, since I can't eat those with braces. I am munching on them now. =DOkay well this was a really really long post. So I'm gonna go eat more caramels. Adios!*-Ranch Kiddo
