Quizfest 2009

Another Quizfest has come and gone. This year I felt more involved than last year, much to my stress. I took Friday off because I knew Ryan would need me for the last minute details. It didn't help that Ryan was sick. He went to the doctor and was basically told that "he was allergic to October". (Thanks to Uncle Chet's recent message, we think it maybe our air ducts blowing allergens around the apartment. Something that we didn't have in our last apartment.)

Friday was the first of hours of registration, getting housing settled, and the "Old-Timers" quiz. Ryan has wanted an Old-Timers quiz for a long time and since he was in charge, he organized one. I was stuck at registration, but was relieved for a while so I could watch him quiz. There was the whole craziness of getting host families and quiz teams connected for the night. I made the executive decision NOT to sell lunch tickets while getting housing settled. I did not need that extra stress.

Saturday started at 7:00, finalizing registration, selling meal tickets (which I delegated to our quiz teams), and getting everyone settled for the day. I had to coach a team in the Novice (Rookie) division. I am definitely feeling more confident in my coaching "strategery". While I had my team to worry about, I was still having to deal with questions about the day (oh, the life of a wife of the Quizfest Director). I was really proud of my kids. On top of quizzing to an 8th place finish (our other team got 7th in the Experienced division), they did the 30 Hour Famine.

30 Hour Famine is a fundraiser done by youth groups and other Christian organizations to raise money and awareness of World Hunger. Sara and Scott felt that our kids needed food to quiz. So we gave them a poverty meal...they could only have water or juice and one peanut butter sandwich. They did it willingly although it was hard for them to smell the pizza that all the other quizzers were eating. And you could tell it effected their quizzing. They would get the jump and just draw a blank.

After all was said and done and the church was put back in order, we left at 6:30, just shy of 12 hours. We went out to eat with several of Ryan's quizzing friends, who are excepting me into their group. We discussed how the day went and of course swapped stories from quizzes past. Ryan and I got home at 8:30 and were in bed by 9:45. I didn't get up until almost 9:00 (and that was just to get the crockpot started), I went back to bed and slept for about another hour. So, yeah, Ryan and I slept for 12 hours. And have cat napped on and off all day. What a great day!

~Lori