We Love Our Eagles

How the Cookie Crumbled

The kids marched 4th in the preliminary in the State Competition Monday. They were in second place after all twenty-three bands marched. We were second, behind 2008's gold medal winners. The ten finalists marched their shows and when the top three schools were announced, we were not among them. The kids placed fifth according to the five fresh judges in final competition. The kids were fairly devastated and their director gave them a good talking to and by the time the adults showed up at the bus, he gave us a good talking to, too. "I don't want to hurt any body's feelings here, but you parents need to get those sad looks off your faces and cheer for those kids. They did a great job. They did exactly what we asked them to do, and this is about them, not me and not you."

He got the kids together at the hotel and talked to them about scores. If I heard and understood correctly, there are five judges and they rank each band as they see it, 1st, 2nd, 3rd and so-forth. All five judges rated the gold medal winner 1st, so 5 ones added up to a score of 5. If every judge agreed on the 2nd place band, the best possible score would have been a 10. The 2nd place band scored a 23, third 24, fourth 25 and fifth 26. He said he had never seen anything like the disparity in the scores, but "that's the way the cookie crumbles."

He's right, they were terrific. I'm only sad, because I know how badly they wanted it. For the Juniors and Seniors this was their last shot at a medal. It was late last night when it was all over. We headed to the hotel, slept it off and headed home this morning. We picked up John at about 4:45 and everyone was subdued but not destroyed. Tomorrow's a new day. He said his new goal was to be an All-Stater in the individual UIL competition coming up later in the spring. We could not be prouder!

Wow! What a week!
After the excitement of Saturday, we started Sunday with having our cars painted and papering the band halls with every poster you can imagine! There were posters for every section of the band with the kids pictures on them, "State" posters, "Congratulations" posters, smack talk posters, corny posters, inspirational posters, you name it, the Band Boosters covered it. And we covered it in lots of glitter.


There was more car painting and getting things ready for goody bags. Monday night practice and prayer meeting. Then signs painted with the kids names on them. We fed them Thursday morning after their last morning practice. The football boosters fed them breakfast on Friday morning. We had a big game on Friday (we lost, our perfect record marred) and then this morning their last practice before State followed by a prayer service and pizza party. Yes, we've been praying alot.

In addition to all this band fun, I went to two Halloween parties for the Littles on Friday. I got to Ace's party with a box of Capri sun coolers in my hand. His teacher said "Girlfriend! Keep your juice boxes I've got plenty!" So I went to put them on the shelf where his packpack sits, which is right behind his desk. As I approached, he whispered out of the corner of his mouth, "Leave the juice and go away." Can you believe that!? Well, I never! Actually, it made me laugh pretty hard.

Tomorrow roll call at 10:30 and rolling out to San Antonio around 11:00. The kids will be eating dinner tomorrow ni.ght at Mi Tierras. Monday morning we march 4th in preliminary competition at 9:45 a.m. I'm going to try to keep you updated on Monday if I can remember to pack everything, and the chargers to everything....

Guess Who Advanced to State Yesterday, Again!

WE DID! (okay, John and the Band did.)
This is a picture of them at Region where we competed to go to Area. We then went to Denton on Saturday to compete in Area. The region performance was a little rocky, not their best effort. They knew it before they ever left the field, but it was enough to qualify.

Yesterday at Area, was EPIC! First, our Band Director's wife's father passed away this last week and he was unable to be here. For Area. Our thoughts were with them, and we were worried about how the kids would handle it. The forecast was rain; scattered rain, with a possibility of severe weather in the afternoon. John's Aunt and Uncle flew in from Amarillo to see him march. We were scheduled to march at 10:45 so roll call was 6:00 a.m. We dropped John off and went over to Walmart and picked up some poncho's and a couple of umbrella's in case it rained.

Their assistant director said, if it was light rain, they'd probably march. If it rained hard, it would be postponed. If most of the bands made it through preliminaries and THEN it started to rain hard, then the preliminary scores would be used instead of finals. Otherwise we would have finals and winners announced, five would advance to state.

We got to the stadium at about 10:00 a.m. It was cloudy and cool, pretty nice weather if the rain held off. We got into the stands, at 10:15 the judges had a fifteen minute break, it sprinkled just long enough for us to break out our ponchos and put them on just in case. At 10:30 the band before us took the field and our kids lined up four minutes later. At 10:45 as they were about to move out onto the field, the announcer came on and said "We need to make a public service announcement. There is lightening moving into the area in ten minutes and we must postpone the competition. We ask that all participants please get back on their buses and we recommend that all spectators leave the stands and wait in your cars until the weather has passed." We were stunned. They were 5 minutes from marching their show, the show was 8 minutes long and 2 minutes to exit the field. We missed it by FIVE MINUTES. The kids went back to the bus. Mind you, the pit has to roll All the heavy equipment back to the truck. It's a lot of equipment. We grudgingly started back down the stairs toward the exits. We started to sprint as the rain started halfway to the car. There was big lightening and a pretty good downpour. When it started to lighten up, we checked the radar on some one's cell phone and it looked like it was right on the edge of where we were, if it kept to the west it was fine, if it crept to the east...more to come. It stopped raining long enough for us to decide there was a chance it had passed, so we left the car and went back in the stands with the rest of the spectators that were in agreement. They had a picture of the radar on the scoreboard, so we could see the storm just to the east of us. Peach didn't want to wear her poncho because it felt cold and wet, she wanted an umbrella, which I told her she couldn't have because if the competition continued, the people behind her, wouldn't be able to see. So she grouched and complained and it started to rain again. Poncho hoods up, and after the first few minutes it came a flood, of cold heavy drops, I gave her an umbrella, while struggling to keep myself covered. It didn't let up, so finally I yelled down the row at Charlie, "This is crazy! We should go back to the car." So up again, down the stairs Charlie and the rest headed for the car, but by the time we made it to the front gate, it was barely sprinkling again, so I stopped at the Pep Wear wagon to buy John a T-shirt, Melee' was with me and as we stood there wrapping up our business, one of our parents came by and said, "They're coming! The kids are getting out of the bus, they're going to march!" So we ran out to the car to tell Charlie and throw my bag in the car. We run up and it starts to rain again. Melee' and Peach decide they don't want a poncho and they take an umbrella and I say "Fine, but we'll have to stand at the rail instead of going up in the stands." They had a bench near the rail so we squatted there on the bench as our kids stood in a circle near the end zone and began to warm up. And THE MONSOON BEGAN! It came down the hardest coldest rain, I have ever had the privilege of sitting in.

Those kids warmed up, turned around, stood at attention and marched out onto that field like nothing I've ever seen. Our parents and fans in the stands started screaming, the kids yelled "PRIDE!" and I started crying. I've never been so proud in my whole life. They marched out there in the driving cold rain and marched an eight minute show. I don't know how they could see anything. I don't know how they could play anything. I don't know how they could twirl anything. They marched that program as if they did it in the rain everyday and twice on Sundays. It's something we'll be talking about for years. They'll never forget it. The rain started to let up just a little toward the end, but not a lot. And one more band performed after we did before they postponed again.

We left and the kids went to lunch and they were SO PUMPED! They were so thrilled with how they did and playing in the rain gave them a hardship story they will tell over and over! They bonded and the atmosphere was unbelievable. It was an hour or two before the competition began again and we were on our way home, there would be no finals. Our arch nemesis marched in the sun, no rain for them. They came in first, we placed second. They beat us by one point. One point.

We are on our way to state this week, with a new confidence and excitement that I've never seen and we can't wait to see what happens on Monday the first!

Cue the Deliverance Music

We live in a fairly rural area, so when the birthday party that was supposed to be at the local park, had to be moved due to rain, the Mom called me and gave me directions to the house. You know when you're jotting down directions, and you're usually one sentence behind what the person is actually saying?



This is what I wrote down as she was speaking...

My brain started to slow down when she said something about an orange and purple fence, but it came to a complete halt when she said the word "goat". So as Charlie was driving down this god-forsaken, pot-holed, one lane country road, I was trying to navigate, it started to get a little tense as we kept going further and further and couldn't find what we were looking for.

I said, "I don't know, she said something about a purple and orange fence, we can't miss a PURPLE AND ORANGE FENCE CAN WE? ACROSS FROM A TWO STORY HOUSE? And evidently they have a goat."

"What kind of boat?" he asked.

"Not a boat, A GOAT." I whispered, as I showed him the note.

You could hear the hysterical laughter for miles.

Melee' the Ultimate Survivor

Well, he HAS survived 14 grueling years. And since his birthday fell on the premiere of Survivor this year we present to you...



Survivor Jermjau

That's me, Jeff Probst, in the hat. And our contestants for the challenge.

They had four stations in the wilds of the backyard. At each station they preformed a task and were rewarded with a bag of puzzle pieces.

That's Ace holding his front teeth in with his lips and tongue. Survivor can be a brutal game.

Melee' in the lead, with his big brother being a good sport and letting him hold the lead.

All participants, sweaty, fatigued and one might have been upset that when I said "Everybody would win a prize." I didn't say it was only gonna be candy. At least it wasn't chicken gizzards!

First Day of School 2010

Ace had worked himself up into a good set of nerves, so he was MAD at the world. He was mad that I wanted to take a picture. I was dancing to try to make him smile, and he was having NONE, thanks.


Home again after a hard day. See the bus that I love and adore?

Roses and Thorns

A few years ago, I started asking the kids "What's the best part of today?" and no matter what good things they had to tell me, it was equally important to them to tell me the worst thing that happened to them. In fact, my kids seem to like to dwell on the negative. I have no idea where they get that, but to appease them we went with "One bad thing and One good thing." Ace can never just stop with one bad thing, he has to ask "Can I tell you two or three?" and then sometimes we struggle to come up with the opposing two or three good things. I figure, I little person needs to get a few things off their chest from time to time, so what the heck.

One day I was reading through a Family Fun Games book and found that our little night time ritual has a name. "Roses and Thorns" it's called. That tickled me, so I told Ace about it, he doesn't care much for new things so the name never much caught on. Or so I thought.

School being tough as it is in the First Grade, he often blows in the door with as much bad to say as the nightly news. Monday he exploded through the door, threw down his backpack, tossed his lunchbox, and kicked his shoes here and there. I said, "How was your day?" "HORRIBLE!" he replied. "HOR-RI-BLE!" "Oh man!," I said, "what happened?" "Nothing HAPPENED, it's just WORK, WORK, WORK! AND I'M BURNING! It's so hot outside, I'm sweatin' like an ANIMAL!" (He's so funny!)

Yesterday, he slammed through the door, unburdened himself, shimmied out of his shoes, jumped in my lap and said, "I had another terrible day!" "What happened today?" "My best friend won't play with me anymore because he said I act weird." "Well, what did you do?" "I don't want to talk about it." He hopped up, ran for the bathroom and snacks and I didn't much hear from him again until he breezed through the kitchen as I was cooking dinner. "What's for dinner?" he asked. "Breakfast!", I smiled. "NO! I DON'T WANT BREAKFAST FOR DINNER! THIS IS THE BIGGEST THORN OF THE DAY!"

He cuts me. He cuts me deep.

I'm having too much fun to blog.

Fun doing what, you might ask.

Nuthin.

It's all about Perspective

I've been in Houston for two weeks and have received an attitude adjustment.

#1 My very good friend who we stayed with, is in the midst of a big remodel of her house, which closely resembles my old house. I came home, breathed deeply, smelled that still new house smell and fell in love with my house again.

#2 Two Littles and two Bigs are easier than five Littles. Although my friend and I are alike in a lot of ways, we are different enough that the kids noticed. One afternoon, Ace came circling back into the kitchen after eating a mini ice cream sandwich and said "I'm still hungry, can I have some cookies?" I said, "No. You've had a sweet, so find something else. How bout some string cheese." Meanwhile one of her kids was digging through the pantry for something else to eat. She said, "What did you just eat?" He paused, looked around, then finally admitted, "An ice cream sandwich." She said, "You can't have another sweet either, find something else." To which he replied under his breath, "Man, this is just like Wife Swap."

Txt mssg to Hawaii

How are you liking those three minute Navy showers? Or is that just urban legend?

Ummm, 3 minute? It's 38 seconds!!!!!!

How is that possible?

5 seconds to wet, water off. Soap, water on, 33 seconds to rinse.

I hope ur learning to love it. That frees up a whole hour of ur day!

Me no likey.

Me no hablo englais.

Deployment of Teens

The boys have left for Hawaii. John and his bestie have gone to have some fun, sun, and life lessons with my Uncle Trip and Auntie Jan.

We took them to the airport this morning. I can't show you any pictures because I left the camera in the car in the fifth floor garage. I left my breakfast somewhere in the second floor garage. And I left my baby after he exited the security checkpoint and waved his last as he turned the corner to gate E20.

They don't have a cry room at the airport. And husbands like to make fun of their crying wives when they're not the ones going to Hawaii.

I'm going Margaritas and Poolside, as I muster the strength to throw my second oldest to the wolves at Uplift Christian Camp tomorrow.

What? WHAT?

A few weeks ago, Melee' came home with a piece of paper he wanted me to sign which would say that we wanted to nominate him for the Gifted and Talented Program. They send home paperwork with the kids from time to time telling that it's time for nominations. I always figure that YOU'RE the teacher, YOU should nominate them if you think they might qualify, so I've never asked for a nomination form. I was a little hesitant to sign it, but he was super gung ho about it So the next day I called the counselor to find out what the GT program was all about. He already takes AP courses (Accelerated Program) and I didn't know what the difference was.

The counselor explained that at the Jr. High level, there's really nothing to the GT program. If they're in GT they're required to take at least one AP course (which he is already doing) and they get to go on a Field Trip every year. She said that all the kids that she has in GT, got their designation at the elementary school level. She said that some kids just really had an attachment to the label of GT. She always has a few kids every year who try to test for GT in Jr. High but that the I.Q. test in Jr. High is a higher level test than the elementary level, and that she has never had anyone qualify in Jr. High. She said that if the kids who qualified in elementary had to re-qualify there would not be near as many kids in the program. She went on to say that as long as he understood that if he didn't qualify, it was not a negative reflection on him in any way, she thought it would be fine for him to take the test. So we gave him the pep talk, made sure he understood that no one had ever qualified in Jr. High, and told him we were proud of him for wanting to try for it.

Guess who the first kid to qualify for GT in Jr. High is????

Kindergarten Playday the Ace Edition

They didn't require as much herding as I thought they would, but sitting with a big group of Kindergarten boys at a picnic lunch can kinda make you loose your appetite. What with the arm farting, smooshed crust balls, "Hey, look what I'm eating!, and the burping...the burping is ridiculous!

I'm getting on the record first.

This is what happened.

After he got through fighting with his sister, he breezed through, on his way to the bathroom, where I knew he would be spending the next half hour, so I said,

"Tell me everything I need to know about "Oklahoma!"."

He stalks back in my direction and says,

"What."

"Tell me everything I need to know about "Oklahoma!" this week."

"LIKE WHAT?"

"Like, what time is the show? Tuesday? Thursday? How much are tickets? Where do I get them? We'd like to come to at least one of the shows."

"I don't know. Like seven or something. I don't know how much the tickets are. You have to get them from somebody in Drama or Choir."

"Do we know anybody in Drama or Choir?"

"No."

"You don't know anybody in Drama or Choir?"

"Well, Amanda and Jodi."

"Don't you have Jodi's number?"

"Well, yea."

So then he stalks off in the direction he started.

Cut to 5:00. I get up from watching Oprah to continue my laundry efforts. Some disturbing thing starts in on the news, so as he sits down on the couch I have him change it to some cartoon instead. After folding a load, delivering said load, putting a load in the dryer, another load into the washer I decide I can't take another moment of being in my sweaty black workout gear from this morning. I go to my room pick out some shorts and sundries and head for the shower. I step in the shower, get wet, reach out and put some soap in my hand, transfer the soap onto my wet head when someone pounds on the bathroom door. (Startling but never unexpected.)

"WHAT?"

"AAHH FLAA WAA TA FLAA 5:30!" (commence furious rinsing of the hair.)

"WHAT?"

"FLA TE FLA FLA FLA 5:30!"

"I'LL BE OUT IN JUST ONE SECOND"

You know what he said, don't you? "I need to leave for practice at 5:30"
You know what practice, don't you? "Oklahoma!" practice.

Band Awards

Yes, he's taller than me.


He's almost taller than his Dad.

He won one of four awards given for most improved woodwinds. When we got home, Melee' looked at the award and said "So you got the award for sucking less than you used to suck?"

That's what brother's are for, right? Always there to keep you humble.

Things they didn't tell you about having kids. #3452

That if you decide to have a couple of kids, and they turn out to be boys, you'll be living with these two guys for four or five years.

T minus Four Weeks and Counting...

School's out in four more weeks!! Yee-ha!

Melee' had a field trip to the water park yesterday, he has one more water park field trip and a field trip to the new Texas Stadium. What a life!

Peach had a field trip to the Alligator Park yesterday, and came back with all her digits.

Ace has a "Field Day" celebration at some point in the next few weeks. Kindergarten always gets the shaft.

The sixteen year old has a schedule like you wouldn't believe. His projects include a homemade kite, a Popsicle stick bridge, 75 lines of a poem memorized, a five chapter autobiography, he volunteered (was guilted) to play music in the High School production of Oklahoma, has a Sound Post recording and water park day, Spring Band Camp, a CT scan of his sinuses, Band Banquet, Band Bar-b-Que. A small price to pay for getting to go to Hawaii with his best friend in June.
Summer Band Camp starts August the 2nd, but right now I can't rule out the possibility that they might ask him to help with the incoming freshman, July 28th thru the 30th. Plus I've committed to homeschooling him for driver's ed. (Yeah, I know. I should be committed.)

Who said anything about a summer vacation?

Oh yea. We just started a new little project. Painting the ceilings white......

Not to be a buzz kill...

but has anyone seen Food Inc.? I missed it the other day on PBS but you can watch it on PBS.com if you can stand the pause-load-play, pause-load-play circle. Or you can rent it.

But Geez Louise! Which came first the chicken or the egg substitute? Seriously. Just when I thought I knew what to avoid on my diet! Jaime Oliver gets me all motivated on the Food Revolution then BLAM! Chickens aren't chickens, hamburger meat is washed with amonia, and a certain chemical company-who-must-not-be-named is running the government.

It's enough to make you run for the hills with your guns. Except I don't like guns.

It's enough to make you want to buy your own cow. Except then you really wouldn't want to eat it would you, because then it would really be more of a pet, wouldn't it?

It's enough to make you want to be a vegetarian. Except doesn't that have something to do with cruelty to illegal aliens and diabetes?

It's enough to make you go out and buy a gallon of hormone-antibiotic free, organic milk. Except that shit is EIGHT BUCKS A GALLON!

I'm so confused.

The Cuteness Edition

See, it's not just me. You can't resist either, can you? On Sunday, a stranger tapped me on the shoulder after mass, with her rolled up bulletin, pointed it at him and said, "That is the cutest little boy I've ever seen. Every time I see him at church...he's just the cutest." Does someone know any talent agents? A girl's gotta retire someday, you know. This is Ace with his "All-Star" Award for Accelerated Reading and Good Work Habits and Extra Chubilicious Cheeks.

The Peach Princess wearing her "Crazy Hat" for Hats for Haiti fundraiser. We've already put away her Reading Award for best Accelerated Reader Comprehension in her class. Brains and Beauty, she's got the whole package.

Furgie, checking out grass for the first time. Momma is not far away, waiting for us to go somewhere else so she can drag them all back to the safety of the barbeque grill, but a girl's gotta eat sometime.

Puff Daddy with his yummy colored ears and tail.

Furgie and Big Black, wrestling. The cuteness can not be fully conveyed in a pictoral.

Vanilla Ice is a white Fluff Monster.

(Kitty Photo Credits: John)

Happy Earth Day

"I told ya so." Let me count the ways....

Yesterday I had the greatest day.

If my life were a Broadway musical, which we all know it should be, when I got the email yesterday from the President of the Homeowners association saying that the new community mower's transmission went out....I would have been Ethel Merman and I would have thrown open my front door and run out on the front porch, waved my hands in the air and belted out..

"EVERYTHING'S COMIN' UP ROSES ....."

Gloating. That's a deadly sin isn't it? I can't help it. I want to help it, but I can't. I want to write an email to everyone in the neighborhood and sing, "I told ya, I told ya!" Or "Can we agree that this was a bad idea and we shouldn't do it again?" or "Was somebody's thirteen year old using it when it went out?" But Ethel and I are going to keep our trap shut and they are going to try it again with a different brand. But please keep the band warmed up, because I feel another song coming on.

The Trouble with Ace

.. is that he is irresistible. It doesn't matter what kind of trouble he gets in, I can't stay mad at him. Of course he's cute, but he's cuddly too and after he's done something wrong he's always ever so sorry. Like Wednesday when he took his giant pencil and wrote on his armoire. Charlie caught him in the act. Or on Saturday, when I relented on my rule about no one under the age of 10 can have chewing gum. He begged. I said, "No playing with the gum, and you have to come and tell me when you're ready to throw it away and show me when you put it in the trash can." You can click on the picture above and see that the little stripe at the top of his head? It's gum in his hair.

Last night when I put him to bed I said "Tomorrow is TGIF!" and he said,
"Why are you glad it's TGIF?"
"Well, school's over and we have the weekend."
"Don't you like learning?"
"Sure. I like learning, but I like relaxing and doing whatever we want. Night-night. Love you."
"Love you too."

(Mom exits the room and wanders down the hall to fold towels.)

"Mom.

Maaahhhm.

MAAAAHHM."

(Mom sighs and shuffles back down the hall.)

"What is it baby?"
"Do you know why I like TGIF?"
"Video games?"
"I just can't resist."
"You could use your awesome powers of will."
"Nope. I'm addicted."

Best Investment I Ever Made

What were they playing on the Trampoline? I have no idea, but it involved tennis rackets and a mini nerf football. And flourishes that Evan Lysacek would be proud of. Come to think of it, Melee's hair does look a little Dorthy Hamil-ish. Time for a trip to the barbershop.

OH WHAT A BEAUTIFUL MORNING!

Man I feel better! I wonder if I've had S.A.D. If so I'm gonna have to buy one of those sun lamps cause that was ridiculous! Now the sun is shining and it's beautiful and LOOK! I'm back on the mower again!

And then there's this. That's in my backyard. (Charlie gets the photo rights.)

And this is from the lot next door. (Photo: Charlie)

And then on Saturdays we get to do this. (Which is SO much fun as long as we don't have to roll out at the crack of Saturday.)

Ace has decided he's not near as excited about soccer as he used to be. I can't decide if that's because they're on a three game loosing streak or because the girl who was never gonna play sports is getting alot of attention, because she's not bad for a beginner!

Going to another school board meeting tonight, we'll see if my mood holds. But rumor has it that the Superintendent is moving (Fair Warning Midlothian ISD), yeah! So now just three school board members to overthrow, and my job here is done.

Oh! and tomorrow is my 19th Anniversary (poor Charlie) send him your sympathies, but he won't be here to read them because he's taking the day off and we're gonna go watch Movies at the Theater and then we're going to eat steak.

Word to Your Mother

We have Kitty Fever around here.

Well, some of us do. Me, Peach, John and Zoey have Kitty Fever. Charlie, Melee', Ace and A.J. can take em or leave em. But they're sooo cuuuute! And even though Charlie keeps saying we aren't keeping any and I keep saying "Well, maybe we'll keep one.", three of them had names as of yesterday noon. John had decided the white one was Snowball, the off-white one was Cream Puff and the spotted one was Tiger Stripes. Then John, Melee' and I decided to see if we could tell if they were boys or girls. Turns out the three solid ones are the boys and the small spotted one is the only girl.

Melee' decided we'd name the black one Big Black. (After Rob and Big fame.) So I said, "You can't name a boy Cream Puff." Melee' said we'd name that one Puff Daddy, and I said "Then you have to call the white one Vanilla Ice." The little girl, by default became Furgie.

Here, gaze upon the cuteness...

Ice, Ice Baby

Big Black

Puff Daddy

Furgie, The Duchess of Cute

Curious George