Ainsley Turns One

A year ago today, I became Aunt Cait for the first time. It doesn't seem possible it's already been a year since I was sitting in a waiting room awaiting the arrival of my best friend's little girl.

Usually in a waiting room, it's packed with the parents and siblings of the soon-to-be-parents. It was just me, myself, and I though. Not that others didn't want to be there. It was the first grandchild on both sides. But a trip to Phoenix from Chicago and Eldon in the middle of March wasn't possible for the new grandparents-to-be. I was just lucky enough to be on Spring Break, and that Bart and Emily wanted me there. 

Last year was made extra special, because I got to be the first person to hold Ainsley after her parents. 

Sunday, in Idaho, we celebrated her first birthday. Emily and I worked all evening Saturday, after I arrived in Idaho, and all day Sunday until party time getting decorations and food finished. (First birthday parties take a lot of work!)

Party time finally came. Bart distracted people in the living room (he's really good at talking just for the sake of talking) while Emily and I quickly finished up in the kitchen. 

The party was a huge success. The kids played in the backyard. The adults all mingled in the living room. Feeling slightly out of place, I enjoyed being photographer and playing with the little kids. Eventually people caught on that I was Emily's "Spring Break Friend" and not someone who had become really good friends with the Shaws in the 10 short months they'd lived in Boise. (After four Sprig Breaks in 3 different states, I've become used to people referring to me as the Spring Break friend Emily has known her whole life.)

The party ended. Ainsley loved her cake and opening presents. She mostly loved when everyone left her house so she could play with all of her new toys with her mommy, daddy, and Aunt Caitlin.

Today we continue celebrating this precious little girl on her actual first birthday. 

The Shore

As Biddle drove past Eugene (the last exit before Eldon) he pulled over to the side of HWY 54. We were confused. We were so close to home and he was pulling over? (We wouldn't have put it past him to be finding a tree...) 

On the contrary, he stood and looked back at all of us. In all of the time we had spent, and would spend in the future, with Mr. Biddle, we had never once seen him emotional. Until that moment. He gave this remarkable speech as he choked back tears. Biddle, this big, strong, usually sarcastic, always wise, pillar of a man, Papa Parli, was choking up over his 7 teenagers. 

On our hardest days of practice, he would tell us to keep swimming. (No, not like the Dory, just keep swimming!) He knew studying Parliamentary Procedure was tedious, plus we were Seniors and could easily cave to Senioritis. So he reminded us frequently not to stop swimming just because we saw the shore (Nationals). Don't stop when you see the shore, stop when you reach the shore. He promised us that as long as we kept out-working our opponents that we darn sure wouldn't be out-coached either.

In that moment on the bus, he thanked us for continuing to swim when it got hard. In the two weeks leading up to Nationals when tempers flared, he was proud of our fight to keep moving forward and continue working as a team. When they announced the wrong teams in the Final Four, he was proud we didn't go in to finals defeated and still gave it our all. He thanked us for reaching the shore with him. 

Needless to say, we all ended in tears. The 10 minutes we had left on the bus we sat in silence, fighting back tears, and reflecting. I don't think there has ever been a prouder group of 3rd place finishers. Don't get us wrong, we ALL wished we would have won. But in our hearts, we felt like we had won. (We also thought there should be an asterisk by our 3rd place.)

Finally, we pulled into Eldon. We got to the street that passes the high school to the Ag. Department and there were people lining the street. They had signs and were cheering. It was as though we had just won the World Series and this was our welcome home, celebration parade. If you know anything about the small town of Eldon, for them it really was like a World Series Championship. 

Parli was so much more than just a contest. We were all part of something that was bigger than ourselves. For Biddle, it was years and years of dedicating himself to coaching young people and building their character. For some of us, it was continuing a family legacy. For all of us, it was living up to the 2000 and 2005 teams who made Final Four at Nationals, it was representing not only Eldon, but also Missouri, to the best of our abilities, and it was about learning to reach the shore. 

Parli reunion a few years ago. 

*Mr. Biddle retired in 2015. He won State and took teams back to Nationals in 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, and 2015. In 2010 and 2014, he finally got his National Championships. To be honest, I was a little jealous of the 2010 team, wishing we could have been the first to win it for Biddle. But in true Biddle fashion, he thanked the members of his previous teams, because he knew each of those teams had created the legacy and paved the way for others. 

2010 National Champions

2014 National Champions

**In 2017, continuing what Biddle started, Eldon FFA's Parliamentary Procedure team made it back to Nationals with a new advisor. They placed 2nd. I look forward to constantly updating the online judges card come end of April to see what Eldon does in 2018. 

The Ride Home

Leaving Indy we were on top of the world. We had accomplished our goal set many years beforehand. We had extended the Bever and Shad legacy in FFA as well as solidified Biddle as one of the top Parli coaches in the country. 

We had made memories that were going to last a lifetime, but they weren't quite finished yet. We still had an entire bus ride home together. We had stopped not far out of the city for lunch (I think Arby's). When we were leaving a family from a town that neighbors Eldon walked in. We all knew each other so we chatted a bit. Then our team gathered on our short bus to make the trek back to Missouri. 

We were a few miles down the interstate when Lauren asked Chris a question. We thought it was strange he had fallen asleep so quickly and didn't answer. But then all at once the 6 of us and Biddle thought aloud, "Wait! Has anyone seen Chris since Arby's?"

I suppose this would make sense if we were on a regular sized bus and had 60 other kids on it. But there were 7 of us and it was a short bus. PLUS, Chris typically sat on the cooler next to the driver's seat (this should not be tried at home) talking to Biddle. So how we didn't notice is beyond us. 

We turned back around and picked him up. When we pulled in, our friends from Eugene were waiting with him and all were laughing hysterically. (For whatever reason Chris hadn't tried calling any of us!) 

Biddle quickly asked what he planned to do if we hadn't come back for him. He said he would have just hitched a ride with the Bashore family. (Gotta love small towns.) 

Chris got on the bus to all of us making fun of him. That's what he got for going to the bathroom. He also never let us live it down that we almost left him in Indianapolis. But it was just another memory to add to our Parliamentary Procedure adventures. 

The Banquet

It took a lot to convince my parents we had indeed made the Final Four (eh, five?). They thought for sure I was pulling their leg. Finally they believed me when they heard everyone in the background cheering and screaming. They were going to do their best to get to the Convention Center in time.

Meanwhile, our team had to get prepared. We were emotional and out of focus. To add to the pressure, they escorted us into the Final Four waiting room and we could feel the other four teams staring at us. We knew what they were thinking. What are they doing in here? Are they lost? Don't they know they didn't make the finals?

The officials had decided to make it a Final Five since it was their mistake. They announced to the room that they had messed up which only made it more awkward for the Missouri team. I can only imagine the other teams must have wondered who wasn't supposed to be there.

We had to focus and get ourselves back in the moment. This would be the biggest audience we had ever demonstrated in front of. Thanks to our siblings before us, we were aware that finals was in front of a couple thousand people. We circled up to pray and headed to the stage. (By the way, my parents and sister had made it just in the nick-of-time! They only opened doors in between demonstrations, and they got in after the first team finished.)

I think we could all tell in the middle of our demonstration, it was far from our best work. We made all of our motions without mistake, but our debates weren't as strong as usual. We made it through the end of round questions. I took one final look out into the audience, knowing it would be our last ever Parli demonstration. We turned and walked off stage one final time as a team.

Biddle met us in the hallway. We could see the look of pride in his eyes. He gave us the option of watching the other teams demonstrate or going to wander the convention center vendors. We were done and fate was out of our hands, so we elected to go have fun. (Plus the banquet to announce final placement was hours away!)

Finally banquet time arrived. All of the National Parliamentary Procedure teams got to attend the banquet. It was a fancy multi-course meal.

Three things I remember about the banquet:

1. The dessert was a delicious chocolate cake and there were fancy balls of butter in glass dishes on every table.
2. For the life of me, I have no idea why or how, but my best friend Emily got to attend the banquet with us. (She's the one I'm visiting for Spring Break.) She was a year younger, and knew she'd be on the Parli team come January. She was attending FFA Convention with others from our Chapter, but none of the others got to come to all of our demonstrations. None of our family members got to come to our banquet, but she did. I suppose, looking back, even Mr. Biddle was aware of how close Emily and I were, more sisters than friends. Regardless, it made my Nationals experience all the more special being able to share it with her.
3. Our table had a perfect view of the New Mexico team. Far enough away we could whisper and not be heard, but close enough we could see their faces.

Dinner was over and it was time for awards. First they give Silver and Gold ratings to the teams not in the Final Four. Next they awarded Outstanding Chairman and Outstanding Secretary. Lauren received Outstanding Secretary for her minutes during our demonstrations.

The moment we had been waiting for was here. The Final Five placements. We were all holding our breath, hoping and praying we didn't end in fifth. (The embarrassment!) 

Fifth Place? You guessed it! New Mexico. Whew. (To this day I wonder if they realized they were the mistaken finals team. I actually kind of feel bad for them.)

Fourth place... Oklahoma. Sigh of relief. (After being outcasted and stared at awkwardly in the finals waiting room, our goal was to not finish 5th or 4th. We wanted to make sure they knew we belonged.)

Third place... Eldon FFA Chapter from Missouri. 

We walked to the front of the banquet hall, received our plaques and individual pins, and got our picture taken. We were beaming. Our parents met us after the banquet to get pictures. They were proud, too.

Even though most of our parents were in Indianapolis, we all chose to ride the bus back to Eldon together Saturday evening. For one last Parli hoorah!

*For curious minds, Michigan finished 2nd and Arizona became Natinal Champions.

The Final Five

Thursday was the first big day of competition. Prelims. We got to the Hyatt Regency Hotel early. Advisors aren't allowed back in the waiting room with the teams, so Mr. Biddle dropped us off and headed to our demonstration room.

We studied and waited for our turn. Since Area we had one ritual we did before every competition. We joined hands and prayed as a team. Knowing our time was coming, we joined hands, prayed, and settled our nerves. Out we went.

I don't remember the main motion, or any motions for that matter. I remember going to the conference room after all prelims were over for the announcement. They announced the 12 teams that made it to Semi-finals, and we were one of the twelve! One step closer to our Final Four goal.

Waiting in the hotel lobby.

Friday came. We got to the Hyatt. Biddle dropped us off at our waiting room.

Turkey Sandwich Bowling.

The wait on Friday seemed to take forever! We had studied and practiced so much that week, we were tired of studying, so we reverted back to our old state habits. The boys took our Robert's Rules of Order books and set them up like bowling pins. They used their saran wrapped sandwiches as bowling balls. Thus the infamous turkey sandwich bowling was created. Our fellow competitors looked on in confusion at the idiots from Missouri. (California specifically turned their noses up at us, but we had been warned about them already. They are also known to be top competitors at Nationals.)

Our time came. We prayed, then in we walked to our demonstration. I was disappointed to see Object to the Consideration of the Question was on our card. I had grown to love being "The Objector." Then I realized it was bolded. Meaning it was my motion! We had this in the bag. Hello, Final Four!

We stood in front of the judges for our post demonstration questions. Since I had Object on my card, questions about that motion went to me. I could see the flabbergasted expression from the judges as I recited the answer word-for-word as Robert's reads. (That was one of two compliments they wrote on our feedback. Needless to say it was a proud moment for my Parli days.)

Going into the room where they were to announce the Final Four, we felt confident. We had done our best demonstration to date. Squatty, bald guy was there, and he even told us he was shocked, and pleased, at how far we had come. (Considering he was currently a judge, this reinforced our confidence.)

The announcement came.

Advancing to Final Four: Michigan, Oklahoma, Arizona, and New Mexico.

We were crushed. Tears flowed down all of the girls cheeks. We couldn't get out of that room fast enough.

Mr. Biddle grabbed all of us and took us to the conference room next door. He had the privilege of watching the other teams demonstrations and even he was amazed we hadn't made it. A few of our teammate's parents had come to Indy as well (mine were on their way, hoping to get to watch us in the finals), so he snatched them into the room, too. He consoled us, told us how proud he was, and that not making it to finals wasn't something to be disappointed about. We had still made it to Nationals. He hugged us and dismissed us one last time.

Parents headed to the escalators, so they could go back to their hotels and get a head start home to Missouri. I called my parents letting them know they could slow down. We hadn't made finals. (They were bringing my sister, because she was getting her American Degree the next morning. It just worked out that I was competing the same year.)

Our team stumbled our way around the hallway and waited for Mr. Biddle. He had gotten called over by the announcer guy.

Biddle must have had a sixth sense, because before the guy said anything to him, Biddle yelled to us to stop our parents. We began screaming across, and down the hotel escalators for them to come back up.

We didn't wait for them to return, we just followed Biddle to the announcer guy. He apologized profusely. He had made a mistake when reading the Final Four teams. Missouri was supposed to advance to finals, not New Mexico! (I'm not sure he should have revealed to us the team who wasn't supposed to advance, but at that moment, we could care less.)

Our very confused parents had arrived by then to find us crying even more, but this time with smiles as wide as the Missouri River. WE MADE IT!

They rushed us to Finals Hall. (It was in the actual convention center, connected to the Hyatt, but still a decent walk away.) We had lost a good chunk of time compared to the other four teams. As we jogged, I called my parents back and told them to put the pedal to the metal.

Right after finding out we had actually made it to
the Final "Five" Four.

The Road to Nationals

We won State in April. Nationals wasn't until late October.

Mr. Biddle, for the most part, gave us the summer off. Summer is an extra busy time for FFA with County, District, and State Fairs, and various other events. When we were on trips he would pick our brain to keep us fresh, but mostly he didn't want us to get burnt out on Parli.

Come August, when school started, we brushed off our Parli Bibles (Robert's Rules of Order) and hit the ground running.

Practices were a little trickier in the fall. The boys all had football right after school and the girls all had early morning band before school. Luckily, band didn't meet on Monday mornings, so we saved that day for Parli practice. We usually met after the boys were done with football and at least once on weekends. Some of them also had jobs, a few lived on farms, and I had cheerleading. Our juggling act was quite impressive. There was no rest for the weary!

Come early October, nerves were settling in. Gone were the days of the boys not taking Parli seriously! They had gotten a taste of winning and wanted to continue Mr. Biddle's legacy.

We hit a bump in the road 2.5 weeks away from Nationals. Our chairman got into a tiff with Mr. Biddle one morning before school. He decided he was done. By the end of the school day, our team had already made necessary transitions. I would take over Lauren's role as Secretary (that was an added role at Nationals not used at State), Lauren would move to Chairman, and Chris (our alternate) would fill my role as the opposer.

(Side note: Mr. Biddle had given me the motion Object to the Consideration of the Question way back in January. Unless it was given to someone else on the card, I made it every time. He knew I was typically a positive person, so he wanted to challenge me.)

We already had a scheduled practice that night. So we met a little early, expecting Avery might show up. We planned to stick to our guns. If he was going to let some petty quarrel cause him to walk out, we didn't need that on our team. Sure enough, in walked Avery. Sure enough, by the end we exhausted all of our emotions. Sure enough, our team went back to the way it was, because we'd learned a thing or two about debating and none of us could argue with Avery's reasons for wanting forgiveness.

He knew he had gotten caught up in the heat of the moment that morning. Biddle had become like a father to all of us, and what teenage boy doesn't argue with their dad. Throughout the day, he thought back to his freshman year. He had the opportunity to go with the Chapter to National Convention. That happened to be the year mine and Lauren's siblings were competing at Nationals. He remembered getting to watch their Final Four demonstration and thought, "I want to be them someday." As he told us this, it was like a shot to the heart, especially mine and Lauren's. Like us, he wanted to continue the legacy our siblings had started with Mr. Biddle. That was the kind of Chairman we wanted on our team. So we welcomed him back. (Poor Chris! Although he was relieved he didn't have to study as hard as we did.)

The following weekend we were having a well known National judge (from Missouri!) come observe us. (We referred to him as squatty, bald guy. Actually Biddle gave him that moniker, and we ran with it. Biddle has a great sense of humor!) He and Biddle knew each other well, and Biddle knew he'd shoot it to us straight.

Oh boy did squatty, bald guy hit us where it hurt! He informed us we needed about 30 more demonstrations before Nationals, and he didn't know how that would be possible. We did a second demonstration for him that night, so one down, 29 to go.

While squatty, bald man was blunt, he probably wasn't wrong. Little did he know of the debacle that had occurred earlier that week though. We were still ironing out our personal issues. However, we did take what he said to heart, and you better believe we set out to prove him wrong. We started tallying our demonstrations the next 2 weeks. I don't remember our final count, but I do know we got at least 30 more demonstrations before we hit stage at Nationals!

Brandon curled up with our 

ghetto blaster on the 

floor of the bus.

Nationals week finally arrived.

Monday we loaded up our short bus and headed to Indy. (Perks of a short bus, it has air conditioning and it was new. Disadvantage, it had no radio. We still get a kick out of Biddle's packing list for us. Amongst the essentials: FFA official dress, extra hosiery for girls, ties and ascots, and a ghetto blaster for the bus. Ghetto blaster?! We informed Biddle this was the 21st century; then continued calling it a ghetto blaster.)

MISSOURI!

Tuesday we adjusted to Indianapolis, made a Walmart run, had a picnic, and practiced. Then practiced some more.

Wednesday we had picture day, our written test, then more practicing.

Thursday would be Prelims.

Friday would be Semi-finals and Finals, back-to-back. Our goal was finals. Both teams Biddle had ever taken to Nationals had made the Final Four. We didn't want to be a disappointment. So the Final Four is where we set our sights.

The Forgotten Second

Parli practice started in January. Lauren and I made the team along with our friends Avery, Trever, Brandon, Meagan, and our alternate, Chris. We practiced demonstrations most mornings before school, studied Robert's Rules of Order during our ag. classes, and practiced occasionally after school.

Beginning of April we had our first competition, Area. We placed 1st. Tipton placed 2nd. (Whew. One step closer to our goal.)

Mid-April was Districts. Again, we placed 1st. Tipton placed 2nd. We both advanced to State.

We had 2 weeks to prepare for State. By then we had added weekend practices.

Side Story: One weekend between Districts and State, two of the boys thought it would be funny to show up suuuper late for practice... they couldn't have been more wrong! They got a very stern lecture from Mr. Biddle and the cold shoulder from their 3 female teammates. (The wrath of Mr. Biddle probably hit them harder than our cold shoulders.)

Lauren and I were competitive and felt a weight on our shoulders to do well. We were concerned about how seriously the boys were in it to win it. (High school probs!)

Missouri State FFA Convention arrived. It was a rainy day. (Going back to our sibling's superstitions, this was great news! Each time they competed, some sort of force of nature had occurred, so we welcomed the rain.)

We made it through prelims and on to the Final 6. To ease our nerves in the waiting room before our final demonstration, the boys used the girls' heels as soccer balls. We think it threw off our competition. They sat nervously studying, looking at us like idiots, as we played soccer in the front of the room. (The girls' outlook had changed since the weeks leading up. By then we figured we knew all we could know!)

At some point, there was a loud crash of thunder that caused the entire building to shake. Our team squealed in excitement. Only adding to other teams thinking we were a bunch of bozos. Surely, this wasn't Eldon's team. They're known to be the best. (We later found out that thunder was actually an aftershock felt from an earthquake in Oklahoma.)

Our final demonstration ended. The wait began. (Parli is the only team that doesn't find out their placement until they are on stage in front of thousands of fellow FFA members during the evening session.)

While we waited, we ate lunch and discussed with Mr. Biddle how he thought we did and how we thought we did. The three concerns we had:

1. We were way under on time. There wasn't a minimum time to use, but we were afraid that meant we should have debated better.
2. We had forgotten to make a 2nd. We thought and hoped we had talked the judges into why that forgotten 2nd was indeed excusable. However, Meagan had, had a dream the night before that we placed 2nd (no Nationals for us). Therefore, we were certain that our forgotten 2nd was going to cause us to place 2nd.
3. Tipton, our rival since Area competition, whose advisor was Eldon alum, had told Mr. Biddle they performed their best demonstration they had ever done.

After a very long afternoon it was time to head backstage at the Hearnes Center. As we approached the stage, Mr. Biddle headed a different direction. Seeing our confusion of his abandonment, he said he was going to watch from the floor in front. (That's weird, but Biddle wasn't known for doing normal things.) The seven of us stood on stage in front of thousands of people. To each side of us were our competitors. The announcement started.

6th place... not us. 5th place... Chillicothe. 4th place... not us. Our anticipation grew.

The man in the normal looking suit... Tipton's advisor.

3rd place... Troy FFA. Whew. Okay, here's our fate. 2nd place it is.

2nd place... Tipton FFA.

I'm thankful for the graciousness Tipton's
advisor showed us.

Screams. Hugs. More screams. More hugs. A blur. 

I'm sure at some point they announced, "1st place, the 2008 State Champions, Eldon FFA!" But we were too busy partying on stage, like we had just won the Super Bowl, to hear. (Since that moment, I've witnessed numerous other Parli teams win State. Not a one of them celebrate like we did. I'm not sure if we should be proud of our very genuine, overjoyed reaction, or ashamed because we looked foolish.)

They ushered us off to the side of the stage for a picture. I was in a daze. The next thing I knew, this bear of a man was jumping on stage and embraced me from the side. It was Mr. Biddle, beaming a smile from ear-to-ear. (He had accidentally found out how we placed beforehand. Since he knew, he wanted to have a front row view of our reaction. Boy did we give him a good show!) 

The next moments were pure chaos. We were all busy calling our parents. Lauren and I were also calling our siblings. We had to get pictures taken for archives. In some ways it really did feel like we had just won the Super Bowl. 

By the time we won State, the 7 of us high schoolers had spent more time with Mr. Biddle than we had our own parents, from January to April. He trusted us. Even more importantly, we trusted him.

Lauren and I had changed our mindsets. We no longer wanted to win for our own glory. We wanted to win it for Biddle. We wanted to continue HIS legacy. HE had earned it. HE deserved it.

By the time our heads hit the pillow that night, we were elated. We were sending Mr. Biddle to Nationals once again.

*I'm really thankful Lauren's older sister was there to capture our winning moment.