Updated at last!!

I haven’t posted in a while, but I’ll try and remember everything we’ve all been up to!

The last few weeks of school the Bailey Symphonic Band competed in a couple of band competitions. One was the Splashtown Fest which included many bands from all over the area (as far as Lufkin) and their band received a trophy for Best in Class! They also played for UIL and received a perfect score as well as the highest score in the district. One of the pieces they performed at these events is a march written by their band director specifically for the kids in this band. It’s called March of the Buccaneers and includes a duet with Justin playing flute and Ryan playing piccolo. It is the happiest song I’ve ever heard and the boys sound just great! The song is now being published and will be played by the high school band at a music conference in Chicago in December. More about that in the next paragraph.

Traditionally the high school band director goes to each of the middle schools during May and listens to all of the kids play scales to start determining which of the 4 bands each student will be placed in. This year Spring High Band was chosen as 1 of only 4 high schools in the country (and the world) to perform at Midwest Conference in Chicago. They will play 12 pieces in front of a couple of thousand people. Since there are many summer rehearsals involved and lots of preparation, the director went around and hand picked who he wanted to audition for his top band, the Wind Ensemble. Justin and Ryan and their friend Brittany (on the clarinet) are the only freshman asked to audition and all three made it! The best part for the boys is that they will be playing their original parts in March of the Buccaneers for the performance in Chicago. Their middle school director will be going on the trip and you can imagine how thrilled he is that his composition will be played there!

Now, they also have marching band which is very time consuming and seems to breed a negative attitude among most of the incoming freshman! They had a week of “marching camp” in June and you would have thought they were working in the fields from dawn till dusk with all the whining they did each night! “Mom, you don’t understand – I thought I was going to faint and die of heat stroke!” It’s obvious to me that I haven’t made them work hard enough and you know I whipped out the stories of growing up in foster homes and orphanages where I slaved for hours doing chores with little food and hand-me-down clothes … Okay, so it wasn’t THAT bad, but don’t tell my whiney teenagers!! They have about 3 weeks to do in August in addition to a week this month of Wind Ensemble rehearsal and I’ve forbidden them to bring up any of it until it actually gets here!

I’m going to Chicago with the band group and am so excited – I don’t usually go anywhere and am not even sure of the rules attached to flying on a plane these days.

Otherwise, I am working extra to pay for the trip and all of the stuff required for the marching band – VERY expensive. The boys just finished up their swim team season and their team came in first in their division. The boys also qualified to swim in the Red, White & Blue invitational – Justin got first place in IM and third place in Freestyle and Ryan won many ribbons in all of the categories. Ryan actually qualified to swim in a higher category than Justin and made better time than Justin in a couple of the events but because it’s a higher group, only got ribbons. They both did very well and had a good time with their friends.

I’m nervous and excited about their transition to high school. I’m glad that they are already meeting a lot of kids through the band and seem to be the most popular blonde-headed, identical-twin, flute-playing freshman at the school! Ha, Ha!

I’ve been working so much (and was sick for a couple of months earlier in the year) and am behind on my many projects! My bathroom STILL isn’t finished but I’m getting closer and hope to post some pictures of the final result soon.

That’s all for now (and plenty) but I’m determined to update more frequently over the summer.

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY!