Tennessee or BUST!!! It was more like BUSTED!!!

OMG!!! what a week! This will be the longest post ever I swear! First and foremost we made it to TN safely and thank God we made it home safely too despite a few extra stops along the way. But we'll get to that later!

Day one: Tues the 19th. We took off at about 8 AM after getting Starbucks and stopping to plug the DVD player back in in Bob's van. Bob's van had Katie, Marissa, Brenna, Lauren and Kaitlyn. Tracy and Bob were the adults. They led the pack. My van had Mikayla, Meghan, Zoe, Kelsi, Sheri and I. We drove long and hard the first day and made it to Seymour, IN that night about 12:30. That left us about 4 hrs and 45 minutes left the next day. The girls were all awesome or assume and Chris would say and they spent their time playing their Ds's, and watching movies.

Day two: off to KNoxville at about 8 AM. We arrived at about 1 PM. Kelsi and I got the teams registered and then it was off to the dorm rooms. We came out of registration with so much stuff. Holy cow! It was all very organized though and we were lucky and got our Dollywood tickets for Friday. Got put in Hess Hall on the 4th floor. Which unfortunately for the 11 of us girls was a male bathroom floor for Globals. So the 11 of us had to go to the 3rd or 5th floor for bathrooms and showers. UGH! but we got everyone settled and Sheri, Bob and Tracy took the kids and their pins to the Global pep rally while Kelsi and I tried to find where to bring my props for our challenge the next day. That's when the trouble started. We couldn't find out where to take my props. I got yelled at for driving where I shouldn't have in front of the convention center. No one could tell us where we were supposed to go. We finally started talking to the cops instead of the UT people cause they had a better clue. So we ended up at the loading dock at the KCEC building where my kids were supposed to perform at 11 the next day. The guys at the loading dock had no clue where I should put my 2x2x2 box and when I went in there was no other 2x2x2 boxes so I knew I wasn't supposed to be there. SO that was when I first started crying and called our AD Roxanne. She came down and we figured out where I was supposed to go. Meanwhile Kelsi and I are missing our team manager meeting. Got the props stored, got hugs from Roxanne and from big barrel of a guy from NY and then Brian took Kelsi to her meeting and I got to mine.

So after our meetings we made it to supper then I went off to the dorms to get our opening ceremony tickets and met up with Brian our other AD for ND and turned Mikayla, Meghan, Lauren, Marissa, Brenna and Katie over to him so they could march in with the other ND teams for opening ceremonies. And all I can say is WOW!! All the kids and people. The Stadium was packed! It was so awesome watching our kids walk in opening ceremonies carrying our State Flag! They had a lazer show and speeches. The kids were on webcam and then they dumped confetti on them afterwards. They were so thrilled and happy and what a cool experience!

Afterwards it was back to the dorms and showers for all 8 girls. What a chore that was! But got it done and was in bed by at least 11:30 PM. Right? UGH!

Day three: The Dotties - 4th/5th graders had their instant challenge early that morning so they were off to breakfast by 7 I think. They did a good job and their ending TaDa was awesome. Mystery Inc which is the thrid graders and my team ater breakfast and then headed up to the KCEC for their main challenge. They went through their box again and then we chilled till challenge. We got checked in at 9:50 and they showed their appraisers their stuff in their box and then it was off to the Studio to prepare their challenge solution. They got 30 minutes in there and it was the longest 30 minutes of my life. Sitting there not saying anything or reminding them to check their notes again was nerve racking. But we made it through and then they got to make sculpture out of playdoh for another appraiser while they waited to go in for their challenge. They made a question mark, octopus and a few other things the appraiser hadn't seen that day so that was fun for them.

So in for the challenge they went. I was extremely nervous for them. It was a big room and there were lots of people. The Dotties all showed up to see their challenge and they thought it was great. Their detective was Nate the Great played by Marissa, Brenna was Annie and Katie played a crazy talking flower. Their superstition was flowers on a ship bring bad luck. Their surprise element was a invisible padlock. I was so scared they wouldn't know what a padlock was, but they did and figured out how to put it into the play. They didn't go over time, and they had a blast, were loud enough too. The appraisers talked to them and then we all went upstairs for team pictures.

We had lunch at the World Fair Park and it was great. Pulled beef sandwiches. The food was endless at every meal, tons to eat, tons of drinks, water everything you could want and more. And there was hardly any waiting to get your meal. Very well organized and managed. After lunch Sheri, Tracy and Bob took the girls swimming while Kelsi and I attempted to drive to the convention center to pick up my props and drop hers off. That went a little more smoothly than my props trip went. We got the scores for Mystery Inc. They almost earned half of the 300 points they could have gotten getting a score of 147.96. I was very proud of them. The appraisers loved Katie's flower character. Kelsi picked up the pictures, I got the scores and props and then we made our way over to the KCC, where I realized I had been driving with my parking break on. UGH! I swear I am so stupid sometimes. But Chris assured me I would be fine. We dropped off the props and were dumbfounded by the other props. OMG!!! They were amazing compared to ours. Our teams have a lot of work to do next year. WOW!

We had dinner next and then went back to the dorms to let the kids work on what they were going to do for their Improv skit at the Improv Fiesta that night. They fought and disagreed, cried and finally got something together. They dedicated it to Chris because he couldn't make the trip. And they were great, again another proud moment for us. They then went over to the other Improv stage where they did challenges with a college Improv team. And what a blast. They all got to go on stage and perform and recieved a pin for doing so. They also got a pin from doing their skit too. Man were they excited.

Another late night and they made it to bed by 11 PM, Kelsi and I a bit later. Sigh!

Posting part 2 of the story later. Stay tuned!!!