Going home. Looking back.

(so really it's feb fourth, sorry didn't post this I was waiting for pictures off my moms machine...)

We are driving back to Virginia. Where after a few stops with the relatives, we will promptly be re-enrolling in three of Arlington's brightest schools including: an Elementary school, a Middle school, and a High school.
Us Yoests have pitched a tent down in Alabama for the night with our mom's brother and family. Naturally John and Gib are happy as ever to see their cousins and will be sad to leave in the morning.
So back in New Hampshire I wrote down all Mrs. Huckabee's stories she had picked up of a couple supporters and families who had gone the extra mile or something inspiring had transpired for Huckabee to gain there support. I left out one. The one I left out is a little different. The family actually had a member on staff for the Huckabees. They also had their three older children volunteer too. They came out to Arkansas early December to help at Headquarters, where their mom (the paid staffer) started out, her work was a bit more high level then the kids could help out with so they helped with answering the phones. After Christmas though, she was relocated and joined the Governor out campaigning in Iowa. Her husband then packed up the kids and drove 10 hours out to Des Moines to help out there as well. So their mom went out with Governor Huckabee and his entourage on the Huck-a-bus and the kids and their dad helped with calling local residents to remind them to come out and caucus for the Governor. Iowa was one big excitement after another for everyone. Till caucus night and everyone holding there breath all day praying for the Governor to win, he did not disappoint! After the big win and celebration, promptly the Governor and company (along with the press) flew off to New Hampshire. The family was a little slower following this time given to 22 hour drive from Des Moines to Manchester, NH. They made it though after a night stay in Erie, Pennsylvania. NH was a bit different then Iowa given the circumstances, so the family tried to inhibit the time old adage "children are to be seen, and not heard." Their mother did remain thoroughly active on staff with the Governor at that point though, and their oldest children tried to help as mush as possible with what ever work they could. Come primary night, the Governor came in third and off to South Carolina and Michigan he went. At this point the family had to clear somethings up back at home, and their mother had to return to Headquarters for some reason or other. Nevada and Michigan came and went, no surprises really, then the fight for South Carolina. Nail-biting all night since no one would call it, until finally Associated Press confirms their worst fears, McCain had won South Carolina. The following morning in the wee hours of day-break the family drove off (another 14 hour drive) for Arkansas again. They arrived only to pick up their mother after hearing the bleak news that she would no longer be on staff with the campaign.

SC primary pt. 2

AP called it, then Fox called it, McCain has won. I'm just going to go and sit in a corner and cry now.

Nevada

So Romney won. Oh well, luckily it seems to have no impact on South Carolina. This is going to be such a delegate race....

Huck and McCain are neck and neck. Let the blood-shed begin.

South Carolina Primaries. Pt. One

So it would be half an hour into the new day, but I figure it's enough to count and will show up under the 19th anyway. The future is looking very blurry for the Yoests and their always exaggerated road-trips. It would seem SC decides it all if we stay or if we go, now I would much rather we all just hop in the car first light this morning, some few hours away, but alas we have to drop off football gear. So typical. We are going to kill an entire days worth of travel and opportunity to make one stop in Maryland, for four hours, just to wait in line (or something, at this point I honestly have no clue as to just how long it will actually take) and drop off equipment, that we had already been reassured we could just mail in instead.

I hope he wins. I honestly and dearly wish and pray that he wins tonight. We are in margin for error poll rankings with McCain and everything hinges on tonight.

It is all good and set up right!

Hurray! I have won a tiring and tedious battle against the HTML of my site! I hope never to have to do this again. Ever.

Anyway today I started writing my daily 1000 words. It is harder than you would think, to come up with a decent plot and rising action with acceptable conclusion in 1000 words. Fiction writers of every genre have my undying reverence and profound amazement at their ability to captivate an audience and hold their attention in books who's length surpasses 300 pages. I have got a lot to work on my writing, vocabulary, and style. Tomorrow I will rewrite and write more!

Figuring out the "Classic" template.

Which I have already made clear is evil. But as you can see, I may have lost my original header, but it fortunately doesn't take long to create a new one. The time consuming part is figuring how to resize and place it correctly within the little bracket thingamabobs that hate me tampering with them and their nice pre-designed settings. I am getting better at this though. Working on the colors next, wish me luck!

New HTML.

It. Is. Evil. It destroyed all my beautiful settings and lovely header. Now I get to go and mess with the code to get it back the way I like it. Naturally this takes forever. If my background suddenly appears green or orange it is not intentional.

French.

Il homme mange.

I can say He eats in French. Such an accomplishment. And I have an accent! tres bad. Yes I have started my homeschooling adventures in French language skills! Great. Every day I have the privilege of staring dumbfounded at a screen showing me some kind of puzzle I have to solve, in French, for the sake of advancing my linguistics skills and homeschool resume. Then record down the grade the program gives me after an hour's worth of head aching. Afterward I go and ride herd on my siblings to get off Runescape and actually do some work, which is a battle I tend to lose. So I go and blog/write essays (some of which you will see tomorrow).

Also going on in the world today:

• The marine who allegedly killed fellow pregnant marine is the subject of a massive world-wide manhunt.
  
• GOP candidates are trying to sway the votes of South Carolinians
  
• Huckabee did seven events today, flying back and forth. Fun.
• Tom Cruise is stirring things up with a new video on Scientology, that is all over Youtube and various other internet broadcasts.
• the Dow is way down. Which I gather is pretty bad since we can hear Wall Street's screaming and crying all the way down in Arlington... Virginia.
  

Very slow day

Today has been typical. I cleaned the house, while John and Gib played Runescape. We are packing up preparing to leave on Sunday (for Arkansas). Friday we are going to visit one of dad's tech dudes who has diagnosed a problem on their site Reasoned Audacity, caused by some evil bug-thing coming out of Russia. Sooo. In four more days, 10 hours and a whole lot of sibling rivalry, we will some how miraculously end up back on the road. But in the meanwhile:

Sad to say that I have also (once again) failed in my attempts to leave the confines of my house-turned prison in search for calm/productivity. We were literally inside Tyson's mall, we buy Rosetta Stone French edition and a whole five minutes later, are driving away. WE WERE INSIDE THE MALL, and only spend, tops, ten minutes. Painful. So that was my escape for the day, 30 minutes in a car with four kids and father, then a sprint through the mall.

Tomorrow John is going to the doctor to get his arm fixed, after a trip down a double-black diamond (one of the slopes in New Hampshire he daringly proclaimed as easy) he took the high jump, smashes his wrist and now I'm playing nurse. A look at the break:Tomorrow, then another day, and another day, and then finally take-off for the greater chaos of campaign life. I may actually survive.

Michigan Primary

So Fox just called it, Romney is going to win, McCain second, and Huckabee third. *sigh*. Super Tuesday is going to be one heck of a party. Huckabee's talking now, hurray!

There are to many surprises, and non-surprises. Wow thats nice they just cut off McCain to go to Romney--I guess he has nothing to lose by taking advantage of what winning will get him. wait... OH WHAT! NO! His hair is out of place (time stopping) He looks tired too. Oh what class, they are booing Hillary and Obama. His sleeves are rolled up? He looks so giddy! He looks like he's going to jump up and down, is he sweating?? He looks like he won, animated and happy about the out come. Would he stop going on about Washington being broken? He's totally attacking McCain, the Washington insider, but everyone is saying he's distancing himself from Bush--which he is, but still He is passively hitting McCain! 24% is in, it's over. We are back to the decision desk awaiting Fox's analyze. Romney has won because of his economics positions and promises to the state of Michigan (duh). This is so fun sitting at home watching history pass by when you know you had a chance to be apart of it.

this week

So tonight is the Michigan Primary, Saturday is South Carolina, and we'll be on the road driving to who knows where. This is so crazy. Super Tuesday is in such a fluid state of who'll win the nomination it's hard to believe it's only a few weeks away. Tomorrow I'm going to try and relocate if only for a few hours, I have been couped up in this house for somewhere close to 68 hours strait since the last grocery run we did for milk and bread and am in desperate need of a spark of outside energy. To the library, or mall, maybe Panera, somewhere. I have to go install Rosetta Stone Chinese on my seven year old sisters computer so that she can start speaking Mandarin...

Peace between Hillary and Obama, wow

So finally the Democrats are putting their differences aside and making up with each other saying it's all good, we're on the same team why fight, yada yada yada. Psh. I love this, I can see them all sitting around a fire holding hands singing kumbayya all smiling for the press. "And in that spirit, let's come together, because I want more than anything else to ensure that our family stays together on the front lines of the struggle to expand rights for all Americans," Hillary said. Yes Obama issued a statement and she naturally can't let herself be seen as the bad guy and comes out with her statement an hour later saying they all seek common ground. Watching the talking heads yesterday was like listening to a broken record, Hillary is a woman (*gasp!*) with feelings (*gasp!*) who wants to be viewed as a man in the sense of her capabilities to run the nation (what?). Obama is a man running for President who is up against a former President and Senator machine that is tag-teaming him; meanwhile they are the ones crying "oh have pity on me". Politics. funny, really in a sad sort of way. How did race even become an issue again anyway??? I think I missed that? And gender? Didn't we have a civil war back in the 1800's, I wonder if Susan B. Anthony is cheering Hillary on or hanging her head in shame. And why have the feminists claimed Anthony as their patron saint? Well I know the answer to that one, but still, Anthony was a woman after women's rights not the degradation of male progress. What about human progress? Now we hear California's taking control over your thermostat, and we're going to have to switch over to those funny looking light bulbs in a couple of years completely. Innovation at it's best, Big Brother watching every degree you lower or raise on your thermostat, minor as it is those few degrees to fit your needs or desire for comfort a destroying the ozone layer and making global warming worse and are wasting energy. It's like watching some Discovery Channel-conspiracy-horror-movie, where at the end you see a little mushroom cloud go up over the US viewed from space--caused by that family with six kids who own an SUV and the newborn who's parents turned up the thermostat because they didn't want her to catch a cold during the night.

1st day homeschooling

Wow. I am finally withdrawn from Yorktown. It is over and yet it has just begun. I also am pleased to say that I managed to dig in my heels and push my Art grade up to a B (still can't believe it was a D). Life is good, I learned how to disassemble a bunk bed while causing minimal damage to the walls and reassemble it after much collision with door frames, swearing, and chipped nails. This and getting my sister hooked up to the internet with Peter Rabbit Math Lab lessons, yes I am learning so much. Dad also wants us all to install his Rosetta Stone Chinese tapes on our computers and start learning Mandarin (I would prefer French or romance language, but oh well) I did manage to conjour up a few images and headers for some friends in Fireworks (really old version of Adobe) though:

Janet Huckabee: queen of the campaign trail

After the Cedar Rapids event in Iowa, Mrs. Huckabee took her three dogs for a walk before getting back on the bus to got to the airport
Below: Their wedding picture!
A few nights ago, before we left for DC, Mrs. Huckabee delegated me to record a couple of the stories she's heard or had told to her while on the road.
One she told about how this little boy had come up to her and handed her 35 cents and told her he thought Mr. Huckabee needed to win. Similarly a little girl, older than the boy, came over and gave her two dollars in support, saying the Governor should be President. One family actually drove up to Iowa in the middle of their vacation 6 hours just to caucus and help get people out to the polls, helping with volunteering; They were some of the last to get to the polls after their long drive.
Another family, and this one is truly inspiring, told Mrs. Huckabee that several years ago back first when she and Governor Huckabee had moved into the mobile home turned Governor's Mansion. They had a seven year-old daughter, who never paid any attention to the news or radio they played. Then one day out of the blue pointed to a picture of the Governor on the television and said that he needed to be President. This was years ago! And the parents believed and trusted their daughter enough to start to pray that Governor Huckabee would run for President. The things you'll hear. The things you'll see.
My baby brother and I were down doing laundry one night in the hotel in Iowa, and Mrs. Huckabee came in with a few things and we got to talk for a little while, which was fun. We got to see later she is an excellent public speaker and can hold her own in front of a crowd on stage, while at the same time being a presence and figure of dignity. She is working with the Red Cross, has jumped out of airplanes, battled cancer (and won), had tenure as first lady of Arkansas (future first lady of the USA!) and raised a beautiful and intellectual family. The modern day Renaissance Woman, Mrs. Huckabee is an amazing woman and role model. One of the guys in the office had been talking with her, and was relating back with some people afterward, he said talking to her he felt like he was that high-school kid trying to convince the mom to let him take the daughter out to prom. But no she's just like that mom, she just sees right through you. I like that simile/analysis because it fits so well and is true in the sense that she is a mom and has that command hardwired into her character. I can't wait to get back out there on the trail again, but John has surgery on his arm Friday, Gib chipped her tooth and has an appointment Thursday (that'll be a fun three hours), and in general we need to get a few things done with the homeschooling thing.

NEW COMPUTER!

Bursting with happiness! My grandparents are supporting the Yoest family free fall into the oblivion of homeschooling by providing laptops for older children! We are all expected to blog each day and write for 20 min. Still figuring out math and science but English and history are covered, along with public policy, economics, political strategy, campaigning, management, and the arts. Nothing like strong political upraising, and nothing beats immersion either. So Tuesday we will hit the highway and head for HQ to join our poor mother who is in desperate need of hugs and kisses from her babies.
But yes I am now in possession of a machine of my own on which to blog and rant my teen angst to all the world, highlighted by book reviews and political input/commentary, and don't let me forget continual school work which I'll be posting for the sake of my fathers precious time (this way he doesn't actually have to look at any papers, just comment how horrible it all is and tell me to fix it).

Books I'm starting/reading:
Leonardo Davinci, Flights of the Mind; Charles Nicholl
A Return to Modesty, Discovering the Lost Virtue; Wendy Shalit
and a couple others

Running around

Huckabee is on the road again folks, well he was a day ago now he's down in NC campaigning and apparently my mothers down in Little Rock working on a couple papers. Anyway I'm back in Arlington and it has not changed a bit. Cleared things out with the schools, or are in the process of doing so, I still have to return a calculator and find a self portrait I did a month ago in an effort to save my Art grade which in my absence fell to a D, kind of weird too, since I kept A's and B's in all my other classes. Plus it's Art class, art is my good subject, my soul talent and one class I actually want to expand on beyond school/pursue as a career. Of course I would be failing. The irony is only natural. Besides these pesky little details I will officially be withdrawn from school and free to begin homeschooling. OH! and while I'm on a roll about the art situation, turns out I did not submit anything in the Scholastics Competition since my teacher called and left a message on our home phone (or somewhere unaccessible) waiting to see if I still wanted to turn in my second piece, of course I find this all out a little late in the game i.e. this morning--four days after deadline *sigh* It's all for the best I suppose, Scholastics would have held onto my work for two years before returning it, this way I keep both and can sell, frame, or otherwise deal with them--along with all my other class work which was hiding in a portfolio somewhere.
Whatever, I have the whole year ahead of me and a whole life to submit work in competitions of my choice.
Moving on, in a few days we'll head back on out to Little Rock and Headquarters roaming like the gypsies much to my pleasure. When mom clears up her work in HQ hopefully we'll be out following the bus again in NC, Michigan, or Florida. I miss everybody out on the trail already.

Go Huckabee Go!

I haven't put up an actual post in lord knows how long and now I'm going to have to give you the watered down version of months worth of campaigning and endless road trips, terribly sorry and I want to fully-disclose that you would be bored to tears if I gave you the full picture of the last few weeks and that it is for you health that I am going to leave out so much.
We began our trip in D.C as always packed up taking care of as much school work as humanly possible (i.e. I took three exams four days early and turned in several papers unedited--in hind-sight probably not a very good idea). So we get out on the road and in nine hours we end up in Little Rock, Arkansas at Mike Huckabee for President headquarters in the middle of the night, (the first of many nights we will all go without sleep or a real meal) seriously awesome to see downtown, misty, horror-movie-quiet, unsettling and disorienting Little Rock, we were out on the campaign and it felt real to be out there just going up to the office for the first time-we were on the campaign trail. Couple days later I was tethered to an evil reception desk answering calls from all sorts of fascinating individuals; there are apparently a lot of unhappy and angry people out there, and naturally it would be all be the Governors fault, so they have to call and complain about this injustice, but then again there are the wonderful few who call in to say we're in their prayers and we're doing great. Maybe we aren't all crazy after all!
In the meantime we had moved into Ms. Huckabee's lovely estate for Christmas and had our selves a little different, if not completely unorthodox, Charlie Brown holiday. We did manage though, with a branch fallen from a tree in the back yard procured for our lovely Christmas tree, and a wicked awesome Christmas Eve service at Rock Creek Bible Church, we focused in on the true meaning of Christmas. And naturally just as we got settled in and finished the yard work, off to Iowa we go!!
So another 10-hour trip proceeded and we arrive in cold, cold, cold Iowa. Talk about climate change, we went from 65 degree sunshine to foggy, minus 4 degrees and falling. As usual my immune system protested with a harsh cough and swooning headaches. This is Saturday night, and week and a half ago. We got settled into our current living quarters and prepared for the oncoming storm of caucus fever. This last week is all but a blur, and I can barely remember what I did this morning so if you really want to know what has transpired from then to now just grab a news paper and/or tune into the latest news updates. There really is a first for everything, everything that happens or happens in result of the campaign is defiantly an adventure.
And I'm just now realizing the reason it doesn't feel like a whole week has past since last, Saturday is because it was really only five days, of course. Sleep deprivation, mal-nutrition, total mental exhaustion, and a little too much coffee does everything you'd expect it: complete loss of physical capabilities and human-like qualities beyond breathing.
Pretty much the most interesting/engaging experiences since arriving here I've encountered are: running around with Senator Hutchinson, his wife, and entourage courtesy of the campaign as they did TV spots in downtown Des Moines; then there was the press conference--that was an experience, the whole thing really really shot some adrenaline into everyones veins on the campaign; the Governors hair-cut--that was crazy with all the press all crowding in; Cedar Rapids event--very sweet; the Huck&Chuck event--awesome; then that brings us all the way around to this morning were we we're all calling to remind residents of Iowa to attend Caucus, like crazy, and I ended up working and designing the banner for tomorrow night, but my starter images were over-ruled by committee opinion so now the backdrop is going to still look sweet just different than planned, with the logo and web address checker-boarded (so that no matter what angle the press shoots at, you have both in the picture) and the middle is faded with "I Like Mike" in the center. So here I am sitting in the lobby of a hotel in the smack dab middle of a Presidential campaign blogging so I can procrastinate that much longer before actually writing my exploration paper which was technically due today...or considering it's half past midnight yesterday. The sheer enthusiasm and optimism (which in some of histories greatest minds was thought of as mania-ism) of the whole environment here is awesome and I wouldn't trade the experience for anything. Pic Below: Gov getting haircut, He's somewhere in there...