Week in Review

Another BUSY week. Adam is finally done working on his contract proposal. He is so dedicated and is doing such a wonderful job. I am so very proud of the great work he does.

Last Saturday, Adam brought home Blue Crabs and made a special dinner for the two of us. YUM!!

Still blue and trying to ESCAPE!

This is a very messy meal so we decided to cook and eat outside. It was DELICIOUS!

Monday was the end of the year Band Banquet. Another great meal. Coach and Four catered and we had steak, baked potatoes, and salad. The theme was taken from this year's Field Season show "The Air Up There."

Kites, planes, balloons - anything that flies - decorated the cafeteria.

We got to take home one of the centerpieces.

Adam spent an evening installing my Mother's Day present. I am so excited!! I got shelves, drawers, curtain rods and a cleaned out closet. Sounds like a pretty weird present, right? Well, it is actually the BEST present ever!! I am in the process of coverting the office closet into my craft supply storage area. I cannot wait to show you the pics when I get it all "just so"!!

Not only does he tolerate my craftastic passion, he actually supports it!! I could not ask for more :-)

Christian turned 17 this week! Egads where has the time gone? We took him to Captain Kid's for his birthday dinner. All you can eat crab legs - he definitely put a dent in their profit margin.

Christian and Nicole outside the restaurant in Destin.

Now that 6th grade is almost over for Hayden, it's time to get ready for 7th. Unfortunately, that includes 7th grade shots. A booster for Tetanus, Diptheria and Pertusis and a second Varicella (Chicken Pox) vaccine. His generation will be the first to have escaped this childhood annoyance. I hope!! I have this fear that the vaccine will wear off as these kids grow up and we'll have a bunch of adults that get the Chicken Pox. Let's hope I'm just being paranoid.

Taking his medicine in the school gym. He was a GREAT patient!! He got one shot in each arm.

A couple of band moms and I went down to the radio station to promote some upcoming fundraisers. I was nervous, but it was a lot of fun. Our thirty minute "spot" aired Sunday morning on 1260 AM - talk radio. We got to talk about the "Car Smash" that we will be having this Friday May 29th, the Drum Corp International Competition on July 13th, the Rebel Syndicate Concert on August 8th, our monthly car washes, the "Hire A StyleMarcher" program and our kids in general. One of the parents said he heard a blurb from the taped interview on Friday on one of the FM stations that Cumulus Broadcasting owns. So, hopefully we will get a lot of publicity (ie. donations :-) from the interview.

Brenda, Lisa and me (behind the camera) in the studio.

Hayden wrapped up his baseball season. He had a really good time this year and got to play several different positions. His favorites were First and Third Base. We are looking forward to the Baseball Banquet next week.

Ready at First Base. Hayden made some great plays here. One inning he was even responsible for 2 of the three outs.

A pat on the back from one of the coaches :-)

As you can see, not many dull moments around here. As I have been writing this at least 2 other noteworthy adventures have taken place. So, stay tuned :-) Thanks for stopping by and be sure to bookmark, or subscribe to the RSS feed if you want to know when I update.

WGI (World Guard International) 2009

Christian and I after Choctaw's Finals performance

Here is another of my catch up posts :-) Last month, I went to Dayton, OH as a chaperone for Choctaw's Indoor Percussion unit. Each year they go to compete at WGI - World Guard International. It is the culmination of a lot of hardwork for young people from across the country, and in fact the world.

For those of you that aren't familiar with Indoor Percussion, you're not alone. I had never heard of it before last year. But, lemme' tell you, you gotta' check it out!! In a nutshell, drummers gotta' drum. They gotta' do it because it's in their blood. But what do you do when Marching Season is over? How do you improve without driving your parents crazy banging on everything in the house that isn't nailed down (and lots of stuff that is). Well, you just take the Drumline and the Pit and you move them inside. Roll out a vinyl floor big enough to cover an entire basketball court. Learn some awesome music, choreograph an intricate show, and practice, practice, practice. Go to several competition during the winter. Qualify to go to the World Championship. Then, come April, head to Dayton and strut your stuff! :-)

So that's what they do - Here are some pics:

• The Base Line practicing in "The Lot" (the parking lot at the University of Dayton Arena).
• Ashley applying eyeliner to Christian. All of the kids had to wear eyeliner to make their eyes stand out more during the competition. There were several boys that took a bit of persuading, but most were really good sports about it (and I think they gained a bit of appreciation for what we girls go through :-)
• About to perform. A moment of prayer before Finals.
• The Base Line after Finals.
• Practicing in "The Lot" before Prelims
• Backstage waiting for our turn at Prelims.
• Full Retreat after Finals. 30 units (15 from Percussion Scholastic World and 15 from Independent World) await the judges decisions. It's almost midnight and the everyone is anxious to see where they placed.
• Performing during Finals.
• The places have all been announced and a year of hard work has come to an end. The air is full of confetti thrown from 4 confetti cannons. All of these kids have so much to be proud of.
• Bags are packed and down in the hotel lobby waiting to be loaded on the bus.
• A packed house in Dayton arena watches the final performances.

• Bowling is a great way for the kids to wind down from a day of competition and keep their minds off of the next day's competition.
• 11:00 is lights out, although very few of them actually go to bed, they do get "taped in" to make sure no one wanders anywhere they are not supposed to be. They can still get out of their room and back in, but the broken tape will rat them out. So far, never a problem.
• A quick buffet in the parking lot. These guys have worked hard and they are hungry.
• Taking a break after yet another practice. This one was at an indoor Track field. The mats they are laying on are underneath a pole vaulting bar.
• Chaperones/Pit Crew sitting down to watch our kids perform. We can only rest for a minute though, we have to pop right back up after their performance to help the kids clear everything within their time limit.
• Susan and I mugging it up in the parking lot while the kids practice.
• Another outdoor buffet, this time it was KFC. The kids really liked that, it was a nice change from our usual offerings. Huge pans of chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, macaroni and cheese, coleslaw, and biscuits. YUM!!
• Another chance to unwind before a competition. An impromptu Halo tournament. Yes, they bring their video games with them on these trips :-)
• Our last group meal of the trip. A Golden Corral in Alabama. We left Ohio at midnight (Eastern Time) the night before. Now it's 9:00 am (Central Time). These guys are worn out, hungry, and ready to get home.
  

So, if you wanna' see a bit more about this thing called Indoor Percussion and WGI. I have attached a link to a video. I tried to embed it into this post. But, for some reason I can't get the code to work. Choctaw competes in the PSW (Percussion Scholastic World) category. The link is to a video of several of the units in their category. Choctaw is featured 5 times (although don't blink :-) The video is 2 minutes and 02 seconds long. You can see Christian at 1:25 (again, don't blink).

Percussion Scholastic World Montage Video

Hayden's Spring Concert

Last week Hayden's school had their Spring Concert. It is always a very nice time with many different groups performing. The concert is held at "The Landing." The water you see in the background is Santa Rosa Sound (part of the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway). The land behind the water is Okaloosa Island. Although it didn't rain, it was overcast so the water doesn't look as pretty as it normally does.

During the concert 5 groups performed - Beginning Band, Football/Symphonic Band, Jazz Band, Strings, and Guitar. It amazing to see how much progress all of the classes have made since their Fall concert.

Hayden has really enjoyed the whole band experience. He is really looking forward to kicking it up a notch next year.

Beginning Band

Hayden is to the right of Mr. Phillip's, in front of the Bass Drum.

Mr. Phillips is such a great teacher and a good sport. See his two toned hair? Well, he is normally a brunette. But, he told the kids that if they raised "X" amount of dollars during their last fundraiser, then he would die his hair blonde. They did their part, and he kept his end of the bargain. Poor thing, he didn't realize what a process it is to turn brown hair blonde. It took three hours to make the transformation. He says next time he will have to find another incentive :-)

Pampered Chef Fun

Thought I would share some pics of the Pampered Chef party I had last week. My friend Tatiana just became a consultant and she is GREAT! We had a really good time. We got to play with kitchen gadgets, eat delicious food, try a great drink recipe, and hang out with friends.So what did Tatiana cook for us??

She made:

Cheeseburger Salad

sounds weird but it is delicious!

Fruit Salad with Dip

equal parts softened cream cheese, cool-whip and marshmallow fluff

you really don't even need the fruit just the dip and a spoon :-)

Citrus-Ginger-Tinis

martinis with lemon, sugar, ginger, club soda and sherbetMixing the Citrus-Ginger-Tinis. They were supposed to be Lemon-Ginger-Tinis, but Wal-Mart had NO lemon sherbet, so I settled for rainbow sherbet. They were still fabulous!!

So if you're looking to have a great time, with great friends and great food - or if you need anything from Pampered Chef - ask Tatiana. She would be more than happy to help you book a party or place an order. Just shoot her an email at isellpamperedchef@cox.net.

Get a Job!

Christian has his first job!! He has wanted to work at Chick-fil-A for quite a while now. He loves the food, the people are nice, and it's close enough to the house that he could walk to work if he needed to.
We're really glad he found such a great place for his first job. The employees there are always very friendly and helpful, there's a good mix of teenage and older employees, and many employees have been there for several years. So far he is loving it. Of course, I'm starting to worry about his cholesterol :-) Eating Chick-fil-A for dinner 3x's a week can't be good for you. But, we're hoping that will get old soon.

Home after his first hard night's work :-)

First paycheck!!

Spring Break and April Fool's

Here is one of my "catch up" posts about the fun we had over Spring Break and April Fool's Day.

The last week of March was the beginning of Spring Break for all 4 boys. Parker and Blain got to come down for the whole week. It was not a great week weather wise (rain, rain, rain and even tornado warnings), but we had a good time anyway.

We did manage to get to the beach on one nice day. It was a little chilly and windy, but still sunny and clear.

The boys had fun burying their feet in the sand and running from the waves.

Chillin Out!

As I said it rained a LOT that week. Adam and Blain did manage to get out to the golf course for 9 holes. Blain is on the golf team this year at school.
We also got a chance to go see the movie Monsters vs. Aliens. We had to call ahead to see what their policy was for dealing with Tornado Warnings. They didn't seem too concerned so we took a walk on the wild side :-) Poor Adam dropped us off to go park and got pretty wet walking from the car to the theater.

Christian and his friends had fun hanging out during Spring Break. A bunch of band kids went over to Ashley's house to eat dinner and watch a movie. Ashley is very artistic and she decided to have a little fun!! Christian came home with blue eyes. FREAKY!! His eyes are completely shut and his eyelids are painted.

Of course April Fool's day just happened to fall during Spring Break - mwahhhh hahhhhh hahhhhh hahhhhh. Adam and I had lots of fun coming up with fun pranks to pull on the boys.

For breakfast, I offered them a choice of cereal or cinammon toast. Well, of course they chose the toast. So I toasted the bread, buttered it and then let them doctor it up with the cinnamon sugar. I had dumped out the real mixture and replaced it with cinnamon SALT. It was great! Looked real, smelled real, tasted AWFUL. The best part was they all woke up at different times, so I was able to get several of them. I had to leave the kitchen a couple of times to keep from cracking up prematurely.

Adam made a plateful of yummy chocolates. He told the boys he had to take them to work, but that there were some leftover that they could enjoy. Here is what they looked like.
Delicious, right? Except that they were chocolate covered styrofoam. A little chewy and totally hilarious!!

Hayden was the unlucky one to fall victim to the kool-aid shower. Adam had removed the shower head and loaded it with drink mix powder. Hayden was the perfect target. Most people run the water from the shower head before they get in. Not him, he ran the water from the tub faucet, then got in, then pulled the lever that switches the water to the shower head. Hey Kool-AID!!! :-) Of course, several minutes later Christian decided to add insult to injury by dumping a full glass of cold water on Hayden's head.

Things settled down a bit after the morning craziness. Then that night, Adam and I went to bed. Apparently the boys stayed up for a bit. I woke up to find bowls of water in the bathroom. Plain evidence that someone tried to make someone else pee in their sleep. Thankfully they were not successful. And Parker woke up to this:

Guess who fell asleep first?

Thunder Beach 2009

Have you missed me??? I'm back again, and hopefully this time I will stay updated. I definitely have some catching up to do. So, I guess the best thing to do is to start current and then fill in the past with later posts.

So let's start with this last weekend :-)

Adam and I went to Thunder Beach Motorcycle Rally in Panama City Beach. It was a lot of fun!! The weather was beautiful and there was so much to see and do. I will let the pictures (and captions) tell the story.

There are 6 or 7 different venues throughout Panama City Beach during the Rally. Pier Park was one of them. Pier Park is a very nice little outdoor mall and a great place to eat, shop and relax.This is what the parking spaces look like on a normal day (this photo was taken off of the Pier Park website)
This is what the parking spaces look like during Bike Week :-) It was funny to see the mix of yuppie tourists in their Aeropostale shirts and khaki shorts side by side with bikers in black t-shirts, jeans and leather :-)

There was a section of the shopping center devoted to Show Bikes. These are some of the really cool ones.
Can you believe these paint jobs?? Look at the one on the bottom left. Adam always says HD (Harley Davidson) really stands for "Hundred Dollars" 'cuz everytime you walk into the Harley Dealership you know it's gonna' cost you a hundred dollars, or an increment thereof. Well, this guy's paint job is a testament to that - hundred dollar bills up in flames.
We ate at a great burger joint for lunch (Five Guys Burgers and Fries). Fresh cut potatoes, double patty burgers, and even peanuts. YUM!

At night, we had lots of fun visiting clubs, talking with friends and just sitting on the side of the road watching all the cool bikes go by. This year we went to Coyote Ugly again. Definitely a lot more "active" than the last time we went (during the day). It was a lot of fun to see people being crazy and having a good time. We also went to Ms. Newby's. Both bars were crazy busy I got really good at pushing my way to the bar, and standing in line for the bathroom :-)
(Top Left) One of the "Coyotes" strutting her stuff on top of the bar. (Bottom Left) Another "Coyote" hanging upside down, by her legs, from a bar in the ceiling, and shaking a beer all over the crowd. (Top Middle and Middle Right) We met several friends while we were in PCB. It was fun to hang out and people/bike watch with them. (Top Right) Bikes lined the streets, the parking lots, the grass, they were everywhere!

Did I mention there were a few bikes there? :-)

Outside of our Hotel

Everybody need gas sometime

Part of the parking lot at The Shoppes at Edgewater (another one of the Thunder Beach venues)

We ate dinner at Dirty Dick's where they have a TRUE claw machine. For $2 you can try to "catch" a lobster. Would've have tried it but we didn't see it until we had already stuffed ourselves on shrimp, scallops and softshell crab.

We also got a chance to see Rebel Syndicate. They are a Florida Band that plays great original country music and Southern Rock covers. They were great!! And REALLY nice guys. They are going to be doing a benefit concert for our band in August so it was awesome to get a preview of the great concert that they will be putting on for us in several months. And, they will be opening up for Diamond Rio in Panama City in November. I really hope we get a chance to go to that. I was so excited when I found out they were opening for them. I told Adam, I saw Diamond Rio in concert for $5 at a bar in Albuquerque when I was in college. Then I realized, that was 20 YEARS ago. Holy Cow!! First of all, how does a band stay together and successful for that long. Secondly, when did I get this old ?!?!?!?! I'm still 18 dammit!! (I don't know why this almost 17 year old kid keeps calling me mom?)

Rebel Syndicate - if you're local you have GOT to come see them 8-8-09 at the Joe Etheridge Stadium CHS. They do everything from Lynyrd Skynyrd to Alan Jackson.

A promo poster for the concert Rebel Syndicate will be doing with Diamond Rio.

Okay, so that was our weekend, in a nutshell. Can't wait to post more!! Anyone got any time for sale ?? :-)