Tuesday Tidbits

I've managed to stick to that whole no-soda thing. I miss how I think my caffeine free diet mt. dew is going to taste, but the one time I gave it a shot, I almost spit out the first drink and definitely didn't go back for a second.

Other foods have tasted different as well. For instance, those cookies I mentioned yesterday? They were my first taste of chocolate since prior to surgery, and they were a.m.a.z.i.n.g. The Mexican food over the weekend? Super salty. It's strange how your taste buds reset themselves.

I am super proud of Brian for getting up and running 3 mornings last week. When you've got 2 jobs and a family, it's hard to start up a new habit. Me, on the hand? Well, I did 10 minute of yoga 3 days last week. I'm working up to working out.

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So Camden and this speech competition last night. It was the 3rd level and involved all the counties surrounding Nashville, including Nashville.  We had absolutely no idea what to expect, and it was definitely an experience.

There was choreographed pacing, creepily perfected politicians in 9 year old bodies, inspirational quotes, etc. The phrase, "the burning question of the day is . . . " came out of a 9 year old's mouth, as well as another contestant asking us to stand to honor the flag and recite the pledge of allegiance during his speech. Without a flag present.

The girl who received 2nd place spoke on perseverance and quoted a business journal, Maya Angelou, Rosa Parks. She wore heels and had a very slick, polished routine that there is no way under the sun she put together herself without an official coach. I spoke on perseverance during my high school graduation so clearly kids are smarter today.

All that to say Camden placed 10th out of 22, and while I think there were about 3 others ahead of him that absolutely should have been behind him, there were also some very clear front-runners (who will obviously be future politicians and CEO's). He prepared well (and the parents survived hearing that speech approximately 612 times), was age-appropriate, wrote the speech himself (which most of the others clearly did not do), performed well despite some nerves, and should feel good about a speech in front of 100 people. I mean, seriously, how many of us are willing to do that?

And you know that phrase about a child being your heart walking around outside of your body (or something like that)? That has never felt more real than it did last night watching him speak in front of all those people.

You can watch his speech below.