The Good and the bad

The good news is-I don't want to fill up my car with gas. Not because the price of gas is too high but because it is dropping daily.

Randa paid us a visit this weekend to see Amber's band performance and the bonus was our primary program was today. I only have two left in primary now to watch. That was strange.

The band did a fantastic job. It was great. The music was well played and they looked good, the audience loved it-not just the parents of our kids. I had a mom of one of Amber's friend tell me she just watched Amber and not the band with her binoculars because she was so into directing. I had another set of parents tell me they enjoyed watching her as well. Amber loved it until the awards...

The bad news-the judges didn't think so. Everyone is in shock with their 4th place finish in their division. A band that didn't have a color guard took second and they should have had an autuomatic 10 point deduction for that. They were not as good at all. The band that took 3rd was not good at all. The band that took 1st was boring and did a "safe" show. The band teacher didn't sleep much in the 3 days leading up to Saturday he was so excited at how good their show was and he was so upset with the results that he couldn't even look at the judges remarks. The timer guy was shocked, the bus driver was shocked, all the other drum majors told ours that they couldn't believe it. So it was sad and they were soo good. This weekend is filled with a big let down for all the kids and many of the parents too.

We did get TP-ed Friday night with chalk all over the sidewalk and driveway. The boys that did it wrote their names on the sidewalk. We know who they are! Amber took pictures. So we have the evidence. Not like we don't have sense of humor over it. It is all OK.

Kelsea got into a cooking thing today. She wanted to make dessert so she made pumpkin pie, then she made pudding and then jell-o with fruit in it. Then Lee Joe decided to make and apple pie but he didn't put a top on it so it looks kind of strange. So Kelsea said we are getting a warm-up for Thanksgiving. She says we need to get our stomaches ready for all the good food. I think I am just going to get fat ahead of time. I need to ride my stationary bike a bunch I guess. Then this evening Kelsea got into one of her moods-a really super hyper mood. She was trying to scare the the cat with a rolled up poster. Then she tried to scare me and Hannah and then she was yelling at Amber and running after the dog with it. Then she walked down stairs with it and said "Fee Fie Foe Fum, I smell the butt of an English gun." That was funny. We asked her if that is what she thought it really was and she said she didn't know. She said she always thought the princess and the pea had to do with the other kind of pee. That always bewildered her. So she continued by bugging Amber while she was talking to the boy who likes Amber on Facebook. Kelsea took over their IM session. Kelsea kept telling him over and over she farted. He would try to get Amber back on and she went on and on. Then Amber had to help him feel better after that. I drug Kelsea into her room and put her in her bed 3 times before she finally stayed. She is getting heavy. The 3rd time she plopped on the floor with her feet in the air wanting me to drag her there. Silly kid. She just LOVES any kind of attention. So now there is peace and quiet and I have my computer back.

So this has nothing to do with our weekend. But we got two of the DTV converter boxes. I got two of the coupons in the mail. Tv watching is clearer with it. We have 4 PBS channels now and another CW channel. More options! Until there is a problem with reception then it is like a DVD with a problem. The picture turns in to squares all over. Lee Joe keeps yelling about how much he doesn't like it even though we can see several channels clearer. The big frustration is the need for another remote. You need the TV remote to to turn the TV on and off and change the volume and the DTV box remote for changing the channel. So now in the living room we have 4 remotes taped together now with duct tape and in our room we have 2 of them together with rubber bands. I need to hunt for a universal remote for the box I guess.

The band teacher e-mailed this to all the parents this morning. I wanted to share. What an awesome teacher he is:
What a fun night! I have never been more proud of these kids than I was Saturday night. The judging didn't turn out the way we would have liked, but the scores are NOT the goal. We pushed the kids, set the bar WAY high, and they responded with their best performance of the season. I wish you could have seen them immediately after the performance in the parking lot. So many of them had tears in their eyes. They were totally overwhelmed by what they had just accomplished. This morning we're going to talk about giving your very best, and the disappointment that sometimes follows when others don't see it the same way you do. It's a teachable moment, and we're going to continue to teach them about life through the avenue of music. Life, as you all know, is disappointing sometimes. The important thing is how you handle it. The only difference between gloating and pouting is the frown. They are both arrogant attitudes. We will not allow ourselves to gloat over other bands when we score higher than they do, and we will not pout and cry "that's not fair" when we score lower. We'll hold our heads high, congratulate the other bands, and move on. We've worked too hard to cheapen all of our efforts by being poor sports.