Today my mom ordered another care package to send to Kacee. When we send care packages, we buy them off of this website that ensures it gets to the orphanage, and we've been using them the past few times, so they're really great. They're doing adoption stuff in China, though, so they won't be doing care packages again until after March 13th, so she won't get her package until after then. My mom is having them send a cake (because by the time she gets us, it will almost be her birthday)and a camera (which we are asking them to take pictures of her with and give back to us when my mom travels there to pick her up). And my mom is also writing a letter that we're going to send, and sent a list of ten questions to ask the orphanage about Kacee.
Oh, and more news! My mom's good friend, Donna, might be going with her and Keaton to China. That's good, that way my mom won't have to be there alone (well, she'd be with Keaton but you know what I mean). This summer is going to be so busy, between volunteering, and Camp Electric (please keep voting for my friends!), Boy Scout camp, and then going to China to get Kacee! Kenzie is completely in tune with the idea of getting Kacee, and frequently talks about being a "big sister" :) and my mom told her that Kacee will be sleeping under her bed (we're getting a pull-out trundle for her) so now Keenie thinks that Kacee will literally be under her bed. My mom tried to put some puzzles down there the other day, and Kenzie said "No don't put that there, that's where Kacee's gonna sleep!". LOL!(: I'm not sure if Karli completely understands the idea about Kacee, but I think the girls have a pretty good grasp of it, so it'll be interesting to see how they all get along! Kenzie also enjoys looking at and showing everyone pictures of Kacee. She is such a proud little girl. She and Karli are both going to be great big sisters. :)

Back At Home This Week(:

This week I have been back at home, getting caught up in school and recuperating from the TCHSSBC. I forgot how much basketball tournaments like State and Nationals will tire you!! Sadly, my team didn't do so great there, and the two games we lost (out of 4 games that we played) we could have won if we were more on top of our game. However, we did better than the guys our age, who went as a JV A and B team, and ended up having to play each other (How crazy is that?! The A team won, lol.). Even though we didn't do super great and take the championship, like I was hoping for, we took (I think) 5th place in the silver bracket, below our place from last year, the tournament was still fun. Several people on the team had birthdays around that three day time frame, so we went to the mall food court and brought cake and cookies to celebrate them all, and we had a party in the hotel on our last night there. We spent most of each day going to everyone's games, hanging out in the hallways, meeting new people, and reconnecting with old friends. Since I'm not going to Nationals with my team this year, and we just had our last game on Monday (we won...to the team that beat us in the first game of the tournament!!) the season is officially over for me (no more practices/games). I'm a little sad, because I have so many friends on the team, and I enjoy playing, but I'm somewhat relieved I can have a little down-time now. We have our end-of-year banquet coming up in April or May I believe (I think I made the quote of the year: "I stuck my butt out but she wasn't there!") and then we're done until summer clinics start. I'm going to practice a lot more this summer on my dribbling, and shooting, and maybe I can start next year (I'm a bit of a bench warmer mostly). This season has been great, and I can't wait until next year!

Leah, and Christa and I (:

Christa, Leah, Krista, Levi, Sam, and me hanging out in the third floor hallway on Friday evening.

wearing Ben's crazy glasses

My amazing coach, Janie!

Team photo after our last game :)

State Tournament Coming Up :)

Tomorrow morning, I am leaving with my friend and her family for Dallas, and we're going to be competing in the state tournament again! Last February when we went, we took our white (B) team there (which I was on) and we placed very well. This year, we only have one team and a lot of great players who were on the maroon (A) team last year, so I'm hoping we'll do even better this time. I believe I heard (not sure if this is true, however) that we are seated at #2 in the bracket, or at least very high, so we have a chance of taking first place in the gold bracket (last year we took first place in the silver bracket). I'm so excited!

Last year, I stayed with my friend Christa and her dad for the few days we were there (Thursday-Saturday) and it was a blast, and we're doing the same thing again this year, which is great because we always have fun together when it's just us. Our first game is tomorrow evening, and I'm heading out tomorrow morning at about 9:30. The tournament is in Dallas, so that's about a 4 1/2 hour drive from where I live in Houston. Christa's parents can't take us in the morning though, so we're riding up with my friend Leah and her family. It's going to be so much fun! (Btw, it is all thanks to God that Leah is healthy right now and able to still go to State, because she got a concussion at Thursday's game last week. Thank goodness that she is feeling great though, because we need her.) We will be back by Saturday evening, hopefully with an award for our team or something(:  Wish us luck!

Other news: 1. Valentine's Day is over and we're happy because we were a bit sick of parties and boxes of paper cards with cartoon characters on them.  2.  Keaton's birthday is Sunday!!  I'm happy I will not miss it like I did last year due to the state tournament.  He'll be 9!!!  I can't believe it! :D

Have a good rest of the week!!

p.s. please do not forget to vote daily for my friends' band Midnight Adrenaline if you get the chance.  Thanks!

Valentine's Skate Party!!

On Tuesday, we went to the annual homeschool Valentine Skate Party. We (Kylie/Keaton/me) skated, and the little girls enjoyed sitting down and watching us. it was pretty fun, and they all left with lots of candy and valentine cards!! This is just one of the many parties we have/will be attending this week leading up to Valentine's Day! Lucky us! :) haha

Please Go and Vote for my friends!

Hey, everyone, this is me again asking you to please go and vote at http://www.rtc.campelectric.com If you need help figuring out how to register and vote please leave a comment with your question. You can vote once a day. Please help my friends get to the final round. They're a great group of high school kids with a big heart for God and they're very talented musicians, and they deserve a chance at this.  If you log on and register, you can also listen to a media of one of their songs. Thanks!

Wanna help some friends of mine out?? :)

Please go to campelectric.com and click on Rock The Camp, register to vote, and then search in Midnight Adrenaline...there should be a song listed called "Break Me Free" that you can listen to/vote for. This is my friend Trevor, Matt, and Tyler's band, and they're a great group of Christian guys, so please vote and help them out! If they win they get to open for TobyMac and play with him, as well as many other prizes. :) Thanks!