Shocked and Sad

I intended to post some pictures/video from Christmas this weekend, but that will wait until another time. Yesterday I received some very shocking and saddening news. My mom's sister Joyce, her husband Robert and his mother were all killed in a car accident late Friday night/early Saturday morning. I am very shocked and sad right now and can't yet explain the rest of my feelings with words.

Here is a link for a newspaper article explaining the accident:

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/5410297.html

Please pray for their children, grandchildren and everyone who will feel the void left by their absence.

Concerts, Choirs & Quartets

Again, it's been a while since I've updated my blog but I'll try to keep my update brief!!

The boys have had many performances lately. They performed with the All-Region Wind Ensemble and sounded great. They had another wonderful conductor and we really enjoyed the concert. They've also had quite a few performances with the Bailey Band. The boys and the two girls who made All-Region band did a flute quartet of Dance of the Sugarplum Fairies from The Nutcracker which sounded amazing. They performed at the Symphonic Band concert, the Beginning Band concert, at 4 elementary schools and then at the school assembly on Friday.

They also had a couple of performances with the Flute Choir at the church of their private instructor. It is made up of primarily high school students and some college flute players as well. It's held at The Woodlands United Methodist Church which is just beautiful and the songs they played were amazing.

As for me, although my tree looks great, not much more decorating really got accomplished. Tonight I will put some garland on the mantle and hang the stockings and put everything else back in the boxes in the garage!! I must get an earlier start next year! My Christmas cards are sent (except for a couple because I ran out) I have most of my shopping complete. I'm not sure if I will be brave enough to go out tomorrow or just forget the rest until after Christmas! I worked this weekend and have been completely booked with school activities on my days off, so I didn't get as much accomplished as I would have liked.

I also made 130 pasta angels for the staff at the school on the behalf of the Bailey Band. The initial idea was to have the students do it with assistance from a couple of the moms, but many things prevented this and I was on my own. Anyway, I think they turned out beautifully but I'll never do that again!

As soon as I figure out how to get video out of my camera and into my computer I hope to post a couple of the performances, especially the quartet.

Merry Christmas!!

From Orchestra to Karaoke

Since my last post we've all been very busy and had some nice time together over Thanksgiving week.

The boys performed in their All Region Orchestra Concert and it sounded so professional! They had a string section complete with cellos, basses and even a harp! When the video comes in, I'll post one of the songs. Justin had 3 small solos in one of the pieces and sounded very good. Both boys had a great time and really liked their conductor, a musician from California who also wrote 2 of the pieces they performed. It was a different world from what goes on in the average middle school band hall! I can't wait for the December concert - they are in the Wind Ensemble and are practicing their pieces in anticipation.

I made some progress in my bathroom over the Thanksgiving holiday - pictures to follow soon. I finished painting the toilet area including the baseboard trim, installed the new towel racks, toilet paper holder and cabinet hardware on all of the cabinets. I also sewed a pretty valance for above the little window. I'm almost finished sewing a new shower curtain and I'm repainting the frames on the mirrors to match the new decor. I was going to buy new mirrors because the old ones have 80's flowers painted on them but I decided to use a glass scraper to scrape off the paint and I think the finished product will be worth the extra work.

We spent Thanksgiving at Mary & Les's in Conroe and had a nice time. Mary was feeling pretty good and all 7 kids had a great time playing together. Debi's daughter Hannah had a High School Musical karaoke type game and they sang the songs, danced and acted generally like crazy kids. It was a good day. Oh, and so was the food!

Many pictures to follow in a couple of days ...

Dizzy, Bruised and Blind

I haven't blogged in quite a while - mainly because I've been sick and a little busy as usual. My "cold" lasted almost 2 full weeks and then, of course, I developed an ear/sinus infection. At work this past Sunday my ear infection made me dizzy (vertigo) and I fell in the street in front of the hospital. I was stepping off of the curb and next thing I know, a very pregnant nurse is helping me off of the pavement! I bruised my left knee pretty badly and scraped a good bit of skin from my right knee. I made it through the shift despite limping around with a hole in my pants trying not to walk into walls or fall on top of my patients. My knee is still swollen, but I only have one more day of antibiotics and should be somewhat back to normal! I am thankful that I work with doctors who will examine me on my lunch break and hand me a prescription to begin the healing process.

We made it through the last concession stand of the year and the band played at that last game. They sounded great and it was fun to watch/listen to them. The boys have started rehearsals for the Christmas Flute Choir and also have their All Region Orchestra concert on Saturday. They had a rehearsal on Tuesday night, have another one tomorrow night and then all day Saturday prior to the concert. Justin has a couple of solos since he is first chair. I spent several hours on my day off last week fitting the All Region band kids for their uniforms. They have to wear them for the upcoming concerts this week and then again next month. The boys were easy to fit, but the girls want their pants to fit like some brand of fashion low-rise jeans which just isn't happening! No designer labels on black polyester faux tuxedos!

I've finally decided to admit that I need glasses. I've been nearsighted for years but haven't seen an eye doctor since before the boys were born. I am really blind in the dark and have no depth perception while driving. The real epiphany occurred on Tuesday night when while driving the boys and one of their friends to the Orchestra practice, I drove into the drive marked, "Exit Only" and panicked when I saw a pair of headlights coming directly at me. I drove into what I thought was a parking lot only to hear 3 teenagers yell, "You're driving on the grass!!" Oh - THAT'S why there's a big tree in my path! I had to back up and go out the way I came in without hitting the bicycle rack or trash bin behind me. I had many people looking at me (one woman glaring) as I figured out we weren't even at the right school!! When we finally found our way to the correct place, the band director asked if we had any problems getting there(he had e-mailed me very long, detailed instructions). I said that it wasn't too bad but the boys started to tell the story of Mom driving on the grass and almost hitting a tree - in the middle of their tale, the flute instructor says, "Oh, that was you!!" Great ...

Ghosts, Ghouls and Styrofoam Spiders!

Not much to report today - I think I'm almost well and am going back to work tomorrow. I've been coughing too much for the last couple of days to take care of sick people, but tomorrow is another class and I think I'm almost germ free!

Today I did a little Halloween decorating outside while I was home sick and here are a few pictures. I think I bought WAY too much candy this year (seems like we ran out early last year) so I think I'll we'll all be eating it up for a while.

You can see the pumpkins I've carved over the last few days - my favorite is the Bailey Middle School one. We displayed it at the football game concession stand last night. Justin tried to sell it to some kid for $20 but I caught him in time! My fingers are tired from all that carving and we've received quite a few comments on it tonight - my Martha moment! The smiley face one is leaning backward because the back completely rotted out while sitting on my kitchen counter for the past 2 weeks! When I get sick not much gets done. Hopefully since I've had my flu shot, this cold is it for the season!

Last year I painted a bunch of wooden Halloween figures with the intention of wiring them together as a garland of sorts. Since that never happened, this year I just taped them around my front door - a little too symetrical maybe, but I think they look cute! Underneath the picture of my Halloween porch is a picture of my "descending arachnids" from the Martha Stewart website. They are my handmade Styrofoam spiders that actually lower when the door is opened. One little girl almost had a heart attack when 2 of the spiders fell from their string! I also have some scary music playing from the computer speakers that are sitting in the window which didn't help that situation. The boys love the theme from Halloween, so we've played it more than a few times!

Progress reports came home yesterday and the boys have all A's. Their geometry grades are up significantly and I think that the semester average should be an A for each of them. The problem now seems to be Language Arts - we will all be glad when the class is finished with "Great Expectations."

Until November ...