Choose Joy

One of my favorite songs lately is simply called "Joy" by For King and Country.  It's an upbeat tune that focuses on choosing joy in the midst of a trying world.  I run just a little faster, with a smile on my face, when it comes on.  The song starts with these two lines:

Lately, I've been reading, watching the nightly news

Don't seem to find the rhythm, just wanna sing the blues

I will be very honest here, I can hardly stomach reading the news.  Our world is crazy!  The realization that we are entering another presidential election time fills me with dread.  I know I need to be an informed voter, but the negativity is too much. So today I'm choosing to look at pictures that evoke memories of times that brought joy.  This little munchkin (who graduated from high school last month) jumped on her rocking horse one night and giggled and rocked as hard as she could for at least 30 minutes!

Mom's face as she held her three grand babies is one of utter joy!  She wrote about it in her grandmother's memory book "When I first became a grandmother, I felt like a Queen. I couldn't stop grinning; I got 3 grand babies in 10 weeks! Ryan, Krysten & Lauren."

 
The look on my face in this picture captures the joy I felt crossing the finish line of my first marathon.  There was a lot of pain getting to that point, but the joy I felt for finishing was worth it!

I wrote a post called "Don't Decorate Your Cell" in October 2010.  I focused on Rod, and how he lived a joyful life...

Nothing ever kept him down! He was determined that hemophilia was not going to keep him from life. Everyone who knew him saw him in pain more than once, but they also saw him singing, worshiping, participating in dramas, working in bus ministry, playing volleyball and softball. He did not decorate the prison of his diseased body.

I don't know how much pain Rod was in when this picture was taken.  My guess is he was in at least some pain.  He was obviously having trouble with his legs and required help getting around - he never just carried a crutch for attention.  But he turned his crutch into a guitar and chose joy!

If you've been singing the blues lately, I encourage you to choose joy.  Your circumstances might not change today, but keep looking up, keep choosing joy, a better day is coming!

June 16th ~ Storytime (Photo a Day)

We have one of the cutest little storybooks in our house.  "The Napping House" by Audrey Wood, illustrated by Don Wood. We were first introduced to this story by our niece, Hannah.  I think she was about 3 when she "read" this story to us.

It starts out with a snoring granny "on a cozy bed in a napping house, where everyone is sleeping..."  Each page adds another sleeper - a dreaming child, a dozing dog, a snoozing cat, a slumbering mouse... on a cozy bed in a napping house, where everyone is sleeping...

The final addition is a flea... Can it be?  a wakeful flea...  a wakeful flea that wreaks havoc in the napping house...  waking each member up!

And finally granny breaks the bed...  in the napping house, where no one now is sleeping!

It's perfect for storytime and kids of all ages will love it!

I Lied

My last post said, "Next post will come from Indy!"  Sorry, I really didn't mean to lie.  We were having too much fun and I decided not to be a blogging Martha (fretting over blogging instead of being present with the family.)  We had a fantastic time in Indianapolis with the Lance McElhaney family.  On Friday, Les and Lance rode bikes while we ladies went to the Indianapolis Zoo.

Hannah's hand with an orangutan's

New Orangutan exhibit

Baby African Elephant

Hannah trying to get a butterfly to land on her finger

On Saturday, Lance had a Junior Bible Quizzing Tournament.  Les tagged along and sent updates as Lance's team went undefeated in round one.  They ended up taking second overall, which qualified them for the national tournament, and Lance was Coach of the Year.

Hannah and I went for a short run (she's FAST!) then we ladies headed out for some shopping and ice cream at Mrs. Curl's.

On Sunday, Les had to get to work.  One of the reasons we were in Indy was for the IASA Conference.  I joined him at the Marriott until Tuesday morning.  While Les was listening to former president Bill Clinton speak, Monica and the girls picked me up.  We went to the Indiana Museum for a while before heading back to the house.

I didn't get a single picture of Monica!  She is such a wonderful hostess and amazing cook.  No pictures, but I did bring home four new recipes!  I'm sure they'll show up on Friday Foodie in the near future.

I'm going to continue my non-Martha blogging ways next week.  Pacific Coast Camp starts on Monday so I know there won't be much blogging going on.  I'll try to check in, but no promises!

September 5 ~ Bright

It's cloudy, with a 20% chance of thunderstorms today. Nothing bright outside.

But inside, I'm wearing these bright beauties:

Compression leg sleeves.  I wear them after I run to improve blood circulation, performance and muscle recovery.  I really do feel like they help.  Some people wear them while running, I've only been wearing them post-run.   I ordered them about a month ago when Lance and Hannah were here.  Hannah chose the color and they are as bright as they appear!

A Great Time Had by All

We had a great visit with Lance and Hannah. The only regret was that Monica and Claire couldn't come.

Les and Lance rode four out of five days:
Thursday in Santa Barbara - 72.6 miles
Friday in the Santa Monica Mountains- 47.3 miles
Saturday in the Santa Monica Mountains - 61.4 miles
Monday in the San Gabriel mountains including a trip to Mount Baldy ski area- 71.7 miles

Total miles ridden- 253!  Yes, they both love riding their bikes!  I'm so glad they are so close to each other, even living so far apart.

Hannah and I filled our days with laughter and more laughter! She is such a fun girl to be with. We took Amtrak to Santa Barbara on Thursday. Then took Downtown-Waterfront trolleys to get around Santa Barbara (50 cents each way!)  This included a trip to the zoo and up State Street. Old Spanish Days was going on, so we got to see some of that as well. There was to be a parade on Friday and we were surprised to see personal chairs being set up on Thursday.  These people were serious about their parade!

We tried to count how many times we said "Eeeww!" while walking through the reptile house, but lost count!

While the guys continued the male bonding by bike, we did some mall bonding on Friday!  She is quite the shopper. It was Hannah's first time in Anthropology and she loved that store!  The Coach purse she is carrying is mine.  I thought it might escape to Indiana, but it's still here!

We spent quite a bit of Saturday in the pool. We were inspired to start our own Olympics, starting with Float Running. Line up as many pool floats as you can, take a running start on the sidewalk and see how far across the pool you get.

Sunday was pretty low key with church, then Lance and Hannah visited the Reagan Library.  Les cleaned the bikes up a bit preparing them for the final ride on Monday. (I may have taken a nap...)

Yesterday was not only their final day with us, but also Hannah's last day of summer vacation. She said we needed to make it a good one and we did! She wanted to go for a walk, so I suggested a trip to our local trail - Las Llajas. It was in the high 80s by 9:00, so our walk didn't last long. But we knew we had the pool waiting for us!

Our Olympics continued and that was when I was reminded that I am no longer 11. We were discussing different dives and flips when I told Hannah how is use to be able to do a cartwheel off the diving board. We don't have a diving board, so Hannah headed for the grass. Unfortunately, so did I. My cartwheel was executed perfectly until I started the descent. My left hamstring went one way while the rest of my leg went another!! OUCH!! After a brief timeout, I was able to get back into the game.

We took a midday excursion to Target then it was lunch time. Hannah's choice - Taco Bell. Not typically on my radar, but I am a fabulous aunt, so to Taco Bell we went.  I tried the Cantina Bowl and told myself I would work off the calories in the next round of our backyard Olympics! Yogurtland was our next stop and we really enjoyed that!

We spent a couple more hours in the pool, continuing to wrack up gold, silver and bronze medals like the champions we are!

After homemade ravioli for dinner, it was sadly time to take them back to LAX. Their flight was to get into Indianapolis at 5:17 this morning and Hannah would be heading to school and her first day of sixth grade at around 8:00. I hope she was worn out enough to sleep on the plane!

A Lack of Posts

Does not mean I have nothing to say and that I'm just sitting around. On the contrary, we're having too much fun! Later today I might tell you about our trip to the Santa Barbara Zoo yesterday, but no guarantees between now and Tuesday...

Corn dogs for lunch on Stearns Wharf in Santa Barbara!

Fun on the Train

Santa Barbara bound with Hannah.

Indiana Bible Quizzing District Finals

Our niece, Hannah, just finished her third year of Bible Quizzing.  We are so proud of her!  She has chosen to stop at district finals each of last two years, no matter if her team qualified for nationals.  It gives her a chance to enjoy her summer after working so hard for so many months!  Here is the recap from the tournament from her dad, Lance:

Yesterday was our Indiana Junior Quiz State Finals.  10 teams participated, with 4 of them being from Calvary.

Hannah had decided that she didn't want to quiz past this weekend.  Though she likely would have been placed on the top Calvary Junior team, her decision meant that she was put on another team.

Her first quiz was against Lawrence, a team that had beaten our top Calvary team in the previous tournament.  Hannah got 2 ten pointers and 2 twenty pointers and only trailed 65-60 going into the 30 point questions.  Unfortunately, Lawrence's top quizzer nailed #13 and #14 to seal the win. 

In the Loser's Bracket, Hannah quizzed Indianapolis Bible Church, who was second in last year's Finals.  Hannah got a ten pointer and 3 twenties to take a 70-40 lead going into the 30 pointers.  Bible Church's captain got #13 and #14, making the score 100-70 with one question to go.  The last question was a quotation question - Hannah's favorite type question.  She nailed it to tie the score and send the quiz into overtime.  Both she and the Bible Church captain had five correct, leaving them each with only one to quiz out.  Fortunately, the Bible Church captain misquoted while responding to question #16, giving Hannah a 100-90 lead with two to go.  Hannah got #17, earning the 10 point bonus for quizzing out and sealing the win even though the Bible Church captain would go on to get #18. Hannah's 130 point total meant she now was in position to make all-tournament team, if she could win a second quiz required to qualify. 

Her next quiz was against New Whiteland. Hannah got questions #1, #6, and #7 to make the score 40-40.  New Whiteland missed the next two, but then got two questions to take a 60-40 lead with 4 questions left.  Hannah got #12 to tie the score.  New Whiteland missed a cross-reference question on #13 to nose Hannah back ahead 60-45.  Hannah got the four-part question #14 to ice the win by a final score of 90-75.

That put her up against Greenwood, a team that had won every Indiana tournament during the year.  They have two very good quizzers who are fast on the buzzer.  Hannah's lack of buzzer speed was exposed as the two Greenwood quizzers buzzed in ahead of her on all of the first 12 questions, with one quizzer quizzing out and the other getting 5 correct.  Trailing 160-0, Hannah came to life, getting a four-part question #13.  And then after the other Greenwood quizzer quizzed out on #14, Hannah got the last question of her tournament - a quotation question - to give her 60 points despite only answering two questions in the quiz.  

For her 4 quizzes in the tournament, Hannah answered 17 questions without missing any.  She averaged 85 points per quiz, finishing 4th on the all-tournament team.

Our top Calvary team won the tournament, going undefeated in 5 quizzes.  Greenwood ended up second and another one of our Calvary teams finished third.  Lawrence was fourth, and Hannah's team finished fifth.

For the year, Hannah memorized 202 verses of Pentecostal Doctrine.  She has learned 590 verses the last three years - memorizing and reviewing daily for 21 out of the last 30 months.  As you all know, I could not be prouder of her accomplishment.  The hundreds of hours I have spent studying with her will be some of the most cherished memories of my life.

As in past years, we'll let her make the decision if she wants to quiz again next year, in what would be her last as a Junior... we'll see in November.

Hannah is an 11 year old quizzer, I don't know how old those giants are! The age limit is 12.

Bible Quizzing 2012

I'm happy to report that our niece, Hannah, is in Bible quizzing again this year. They are studying Pentecostal Doctrine, the topics include: The Bible-The Infallible Word of God; One God-The Mighty God in Christ; Sin and Salvation; and Christian Living. Here is the first update for the year from her daddy, Lance:

Just thought I'd give everyone their first quiz update of the year.
 
Last weekend we had our first JR quiz tourney. 26 teams participated - with 17 in the JR division and 9 in Beginner. The amazing thing is Calvary Tabernacle had 11 of the 26 teams - 6 JR and 5 Beginner! To my knowledge that is the most teams any one church has ever fielded in any tournament of any kind. We have 18 JR quizzers and 17 Beginners. It has created a bit of a challenge to find enough coaches, practice rooms, buzzer systems, etc., but a great problem to have. Oh, and on top of that, we have 7 Senior quiz teams. Did I mention we don't have enough coaches, buzzer systems, rooms.......

We split our experienced quizzers out onto separate teams. We did this to give the other kids ample opportunity to buzz-in, since their captains could only answer 6 questions per quiz. While this reduced our teams' results, it did let us see what some of the newbies could do.
 
Anyway, our Beginners still finished 1st, 2nd, and 3rd, and took all 5 All-Tournament team spots. Our Juniors were 3rd, 5th, and 7th, with 3 quizzers of the 7 All-Tournament team.
 
Hannah quizzed with a team of 2 brand new quizzers. Since Hannah chose to start the year 3 weeks later than the other Calvary kids (we both think the quiz season is too long), she only knew 60 of the 81 verses covered. This proved to be a significant handicap, especially when her first quiz had a disproportionate amount of questions outside her material. She answered 2 questions in her first quiz and 4 questions in the second quiz. Though it wasn't her best performance, I am nonetheless thrilled with her attitude and accomplishment of learning 70 verses of Pentecostal Doctrine word perfect with references so far this year.
 
We have another tournament in 3 weeks, and Hannah will be joining another experienced quizzer on a team. I suspect this will be more familiar and comfortable for her and likely result in her answering more questions.

the Proud Dad

I'm so thrilled to read of this many children studying the Word of God!

Happy Birthday, Hannah!

It's hard to believe that our giggliest niece is 10 today! In the blink of an eye, she's gone from this...


To this...



To this...

(with two fellow quizzers, Hannah is on the right)

Happy Birthday, Hannah Doodles! We love you very much!
Uncle Les and Aunt Kathy

Quizzing Update

I received the following update from Lance yesterday:

We've had a tournament each of the last two weekends.

Last weekend we quizzed in our monthly Indiana tourney. 6 Junior teams, including our two. We did a round robin so each team quizzed 5 quizzes. Our team lost to the other Calvary team, but then had a chance to win the tourney in the last quiz against undefeated Toledo, OH. We were ahead 90 to -5 after question 8. But Toledo's ace quizzer got 6 of the last 7 questions to beat us. Hannah ended up the second highest individual, answering 16 questions with 4 misses.

Yesterday we went to Louisville for a tournament. There were 7 teams including our two. Toledo showed up again. We won our first quiz handily, then lost again to our other Calvary team. In the loser's bracket we had a lousy quiz, trailing a team from Madisonville 55 to 10 with three questions to go. They missed #13 to make it 40 to 10, and Hannah's teammate got #14 to tie it. Then Hannah nailed a two-part cross reference question on #15 for the win. In our next quiz we had a back-and-forth quiz with Radcliffe. Trailing by 10, Hannah got #14 to quiz out and seal the win. We then ran up against our other Calvary team again, and once again got beat. As the weekend before, the final placings were Toledo, Calvary 1, Calvary 2 and Hannah was again the second highest individual behind the ace from Toledo, answering 21 right and missing only 4.

For those of you not so good at math, Hannah had 37 correct and only missed 8 in two tournaments! We continue to be proud of her success, but even more proud of her dedication to memorizing God's word!

Latest Quiz Results

When we picked Lance up Saturday night, he had flown from Indiana after coaching Hannah and her teammate, Colin at a quiz tournament. It's takes committed quizzers, coaches and parents to make Bible Quizzing work! Lance wrote a quick report after his arrival:

We had another quiz tournament this past weekend. 7 teams in our division, all from Indiana.

Hannah quizzed on a two-person team with Colin. We won the tournament with Colin averaging 77 and Hannah averaging 76.

In the championship game, Colin quizzed out with 6 correct on question #9 - leaving Hannah needing to get 2 more to seal the win. Hannah got #11 and #13 to lock the quiz, then got #14 for good measure.

Next tourney is this weekend in Missouri. Should be some stiff competition with teams from MO, AR, and WI.

Good job, Hannah and Colin! Looking forward to more great results!

She's At It Again!

Our niece, Hannah, is in her second year of Bible Quizzing. Her first tournament was over the weekend. Here is the report from her dad:

This weekend was our first Junior quiz tournament of 2011. Hannah has moved up to Juniors from Beginners due to her age. She's now with 9 - 11 year olds. Her teammates are also 9 year olds that were on her Beginner team last year. Best of all, her dad gets to coach the team!

There were 10 teams at the tournament, and we ended up 2nd place. We won 4 quizzes and lost both times to a team from Racine WI that was very good. They have a 10 and 11 year old that interrupt every question. Nevertheless, I was very proud of our kids.

Hannah finished with the 3rd highest individual scoring average behind the two kids from Racine. Hannah had a teammate who was 5th highest.

As always, I'm very proud of her....and mostly because she learned all 80 of her required verses for this tournament. That will be the biggest challenge this year, as there are 100 more verse than Beginner division. I don't expect we'll learn it all this year - but only because Dad won't have the time.

Way to go, Hannah!

NAJBQT Update

I am sad to report that Hannah's team just lost their second quiz, which means they have been eliminated from the tournament. They lost their first quiz on Tuesday, then won one yesterday and two more today. They placed in a eight way tie for 17th, with three wins, two losses.

I know this has been an unforgettable experience for Hannah. No time is wasted when it is spent memorizing His Word.

NAJBQT Online

This is it! The final week of Bible Quizzing for Hannah and her teammates. They are at the North American Junior Bible Quizzing Tournament (NAJBQT) in Saint Louis. There are forty beginner junior teams and sixty five junior teams in attendance.

The tournament started yesterday afternoon, but Hannah's team will not quiz until sometime today (Quiz 14, against North Dakota). We will be following the tournament online. This is a link to the matrix. When a quiz is going on, there is a "LIVE" button that you can click on and watch the score as it progresses.

Update at 9:00 a.m. - they lost their first quiz! Bummer! Here is a link to the score sheet - whoever is in charge of this is doing a great job!

Hannah's Quiz Team Does It Again

The latest quiz results are in...

Saturday Hannah's team quizzed in the Midwest Tournament of Champions. The tournament is a prep tourney for Nationals, with all the teams being champions from their respective districts.

The Calvary kids beat Missouri, Ohio (Toledo), and Michigan (Troy) twice. The final quiz was iced after question #12. During the 4 quizzes they answered 42 questions correctly and missed only 8. Hannah was second high quizzer in the first Michigan quiz, but otherwise wasn't a big contributor - mostly because her teammates are so good but to a lesser degree because she had a head cold and was a bit out-of-it.

The National tournament is the last week of July.

I'm just wondering how Les and I can score airline tickets to St. Louis...

Yet Another Proud Auntie Moment!

Yesterday, June 11th, was the Indiana State Beginner Quiz Finals. Seven teams participated and Hannah's team won first place - going undefeated. They are now qualified for the National Championships in St. Louis the last week of July. There was also a guest appearance by Bill and Dolly McElhaney to root on their granddaughter.

When we were at Lance's for Christmas, we talked about his expectations for this quiz year. He was just thrilled Hannah was interested and was not going to pressure her to go beyond her own pace.

She not only learned ALL of her material, that's 183 verses, but...

Hannah finished with the 4th highest scoring average, and was the high scorer in 2 of their 4 quizzes. Her teammates were 1st and 5th.



Hannah was also Quizzer of the Year as selected by the coaches!


Congratulations Doodlebug, we are so proud of you!!

Happy Birthday, Hannah!

Today our Quiz Machine turns 9!

What a joy it's been this year reading of her quizzing efforts. To say we're proud is an understatement! But she's more than just a quizzer, she's a funny, loving, giggling, bike riding, swimming sweetheart!










We love you, Doodlebug!
Uncle Les and Aunt Kathy

Proud Auntie Moment #27384956

Can you stand another quiz report? If you have ever been involved in Bible Quizzing, you know it's a great program. It has helped Hannah tremendously in school this year. She had been struggling with her reading skills last year in school - by the end this year she tested higher than anyone in her peer group!

And now for the latest results, from proud daddy, Lance:

This weekend we had our last Indiana quiz tournament before State Finals. There were 8 teams competing, but the field was extremely strong, with Toledo OH and Troy MI coming over to quiz with our teams. Troy was the winner of the April Extravaganza and Toledo is one of the top 3 Ohio teams.

Our first quiz was against another one of our Calvary teams - albeit the weakest one. We won 165-90 with Hannah scoring 55 pts and her teammate Kendra scoring 110.

The second quiz was Toledo. After question #8 we were ahead 75 to -5 and only needed 2 out of the last 7 questions to win. Toledo's top quizzer got # 9, 10, and 11 to make it 75 to 55. Then Hannah got #12 to give us a 45 point lead with 3 questions to go. Again the Toledo quizzer got #13 and #14 which put us behind by 20 going into the last question. Hannah nailed the quotation question (her favorite) to win by 10. Hannah scored 80.

In the third quiz we had to go against the Calvary #1 team - which for this tournament had the top 2 Calvary quizzers together for the first time. They had just beaten Troy by 100 points and were rolling. They got the first 5 questions to take an early 50 point lead. Hannah got 2 twenty pointers, but we entered the last 3 questions trailing 95-40. I called a timeout and told the girls they needed all 3 thirty pointers to win. Kendra got #13, Hannah got #14 to give us a 5 point lead with one question to go. The other team buzzed in on #15, but fortunately for us missed the quotation question, giving us another last question victory. Hannah had 60 pts.

At this point we were undefeated and had to wait for the loser's bracket winner to quiz for the championship. It ended up being Troy MI (Russ Faubert is the coach and his son Rylan is their ace quizzer). Rylan was averaging 128 pts a quiz to that point.

Our girls came out hot and led 65 to 0 after question #7. We kept the pressure on and Hannah iced the game by getting #11 and #12. The final score was 155 to 20 over the recently crowned Extravaganza champions! Hannah was the high scorer with 85 pts.

Besides going undefeated, Hannah ended up the second high scoring quizzer with 68 pt average. Our balance was the difference, as Kendra also made all-tournament with a 63 pt. average.

I was very proud of our girls quizzing unselfishly as a team. I saw some real progress in their understanding of teamwork. Hopefully it will carry over for the rest of the year.

We now have 3 weeks to learn our last 25 verses for state finals. The big question now is what the teams from Calvary will be, as we still have 12 quizzers - 8 of which will likely learn all their verses by State. I don't recall that ever happening in any quiz program at any level. It is a truly remarkable group of kids, many of whom are 6 and 7 years old.

Your Indiana Beginner quiz reporter signing off.

Les and I really need to take a trip to Indiana to see this girl in action!

Proud Auntie Moment #998834

Little Miss Hannah just keeps on progressing in Bible Quizzing. Here is the latest report from Lance:

Yesterday and today (Friday and Saturday) we quizzed in Columbus OH at the Extravaganza. 15 teams in the Beginner division. We had three teams from Calvary. I coached the #3 team, which had Hannah and two other girls that knew their verses but had not been answering many questions in tournaments. This was the first tournament that this group had quizzed together. The head coach decided to try it as an experiment in hopes that it would give them more of an opportunity by being out from under the more aggressive quizzers on our first 2 teams.

In our first quiz we needed the get the last question to win. Hannah had 4 correct but hesitated and her teammate buzzed in - and missed. Hannah was high scorer but her passivity probably cost us the quiz.

In the second quiz we were behind 70 to 10 on question # 10. Hannah hadn't even attempted a question. I called timeout and told the girls that they needed to hit the buzzer a word before they wanted to and that I didn't care if they missed the question or not...I just wanted them to prove to me that they could beat the other team to the buzzer. Hannah proceeded to get #10, 11, 12, and 13...including two on beautiful interruptions. All we needed was one of the last two to win. The other team got #14. But on #15 Hannah interrupted at the perfect spot on a quotation question and answered perfectly.

Our third quiz was against a very good Missouri team. Hannah continued her hot streak by getting 5 ten point questions and quizzing out with 6 correct on question #11. It was the first time Hannah has ever quizzed out in a tournament. Unfortunately her teammates could not get a single question in the quiz and we lost by 5 when the other team got both #14 and 15. In hindsight I should have told Hannah to only answer a couple 10 point questions. But I had no idea she would go on such a hot streak. For the string of 12 questions from our second and third quizzes she answered 10 out of the 12, with half of them interruptions.

Needless to say, the experiment was a success. The other two Calvary teams are now lobbying to have the coach put Hannah back on their teams. I am obviously biased, but today Hannah was quizzing as well as any quizzer in the Beginner division. Honestly, I was a bit dumbfounded watching it all. It reminded me an awful lot of watching another little girl blossom as a quizzer some 27 years ago. She ended up with an 83 point average, which would have put her 5th highest in the tournament except that she had to have 4 quizzes to qualify for all tournament team.

It appears that our niece had an awakening this weekend! If you've been involved in quizzing, you were feeling as nervous as I was reading this. Losing by 5 is more difficult than losing by 50! So close! But we're so proud! Look out quizzing world, Hannah McElhaney is on the move! Oh, and the girl from 27 years ago... Les and Lance's little sister, Lisa.