Let's Go Band!

I grew up loving music! My first love was the piano, and shortly after that I started playing the clarinet in the elementary school band. We were very fortunate to even have an elementary program because we were such a small school, but our Jr. High and elementary schools shared a building which made it pretty easy to share the band teacher too.

My oldest sister played the clarinet first and then it was passed to me. When my younger sister came along, Mom bought another clarinet. I was so very grateful when Mom gave both clarinets to me as my kids started getting old enough to play.

Bossy was amazing and she even earned scholarships and became a member of the band council. We didn't establish a specific band rule at first, so the Gym Rat never learned to play an instrument, but the Drama Queen did a great job on the clarinet. Teach also missed out after the band teacher told her she just didn't blow hard enough.  But she did become captain of the Color Guard for Marching Band, so that almost counts.

You probably remember that the Dog Walker went to a different elementary school than my other kids so he could be in their cluster program, and they didn't have band at their school. So he started playing the trumpet in 7th grade.

It was at that point that my sweetie and I decided that ALL of our remaining children would learn to play an instrument. Princess plays the clarinet in the high school band, but this will probably be her last year since her interests are taking her a different direction.

Prima Donna plays the clarinet in the top band at her middle school, but right now she is more interested in the Bass Clarinet. We rented one from the school and she is hoping to get good enough over the summer that she can play the contra bass in Wind Symphony, the top band at the high school during her sophomore year. She is pretty determined! (I will keep you posted on that.)

Guess what instrument Crafty plays?? The clarinet?? You're right! She is in her last year of elementary band and she is good enough that she will play in the concert band at the middle school next year. Sport just completed his first year on the trumpet, but he loves it! He even practices without me harassing him!

The first pics are from the Monster Concert where they get all the kids together from all the elementary bands in the district (I think there were about a dozen) and they have one big concert. They did an excellent job!

The second pic is from their normal combined band which has about 20 people in it. It might not be the Utah Symphony, but everybody has to start somewhere...right?

Just Jumping Around

Sorry for the bad pics! They just wouldn't hold still!

Way back around Scout's birthday in November, I was at the grocery store buying ice cream. There is a company in Utah called Farr's, I don't know, maybe they are other places too, but they make really good chocolate marshmallow ice cream and that is my sweetie's favorite so I always check them when I go to one particular store.

Princess, Baby Dolly, Curly, Crafty climbing from the pit.

But when I pulled the first buckets out of the cooler, I noticed that they had an advertisement for one of those new trampoline places. Then I looked a little closer. It wasn't just an ad, it was a free hour of jumping at Get Air! I knew the kids would love that, so I quickly checked all the buckets until I had several with the offer.

It wouldn't be enough for the whole family, but maybe we could pick up some next time and the time after until we had a dozen. They were good until May 31, so we had plenty of time.

Scout

For the next several months, every time we shopped at that particular store, we checked the ice cream buckets. The freebies were only good Monday through Thursday, so that made it a little tricky for us to use them since the closest facility for about 45 minutes away. Teach really wanted to do it before she left on her mission, but that wasn't possible so they have just been sitting there in the pantry, taunting me to change the calendar.

Sport, Baby Doll, Princess, and Curly

So we did it! I cleared everyone's activities from 6:30 on and we piled into the big van. I even had enough buckets for Bossy's family to join us. I, of course, would not be doing ANY jumping. Just climbing in and out of the van was rather painful. My sweetie decided he would pass too, so 12 was just perfect.

We decided to stop at Krispee Kremes while we were there to pick up the kids' free donuts for their good grades. We walked out with 5 1/2 dozen donuts for $12.00

We arrived just before 8:00. The kids were each given wrist bands that were good for an hour. Then they all took off in different directions to explore the place. It was made out of a huge warehouse, with trampolines everywhere. One area had half a dozen foam pits and most of the kids loved those (except for Bossy, Gamer, Dog Walker, and Prima Donna...all four of them got stuck!)

Baby Doll

There was also a dodge ball area and an area for the little ones to play. The hour went way too fast! We would loved to have stayed longer, but the Dog Walker had to be to work by 10:00 and we still had kids with homework to do, so we piled back into the van and headed for home.

Sport in blue, Prima Donna across  the line from him in blue.

The Dog Walker made it to work on time with only minutes to spare, and Sport was up way too late finishing his Lacrosse report, but it was worth it!

Maybe I just need to clear the calendar a little more often.

Surgery Day

I am pretty loopy tonight, but I really want to tell you this story, so here I am. (Besides, I'm about half and hour away from pain meds so I have to stay up a little longer anyway.)

If you remember from yesterday, I visited with the surgeon and he said Wednesday afternoon. Then when I got the call from the hospital, it was 10:15. I was very upset to have to miss Curly's preschool graduation, but we had to move forward anyway.

So this morning  I helped Curly wrap his muffins in foil (that was his treat assignment), put together a gift for Teacher Debbie, and gather his props for the poem he was reciting by himself. He dressed in a royal blue button-up and gray slacks (because I knew the caps were blue!) and my sweetie and I dropped him off at the preschool. They had to be there at 10:00 so they could practice a little more and get their treats ready. The parents were not scheduled to be there until 11:00.

Then we drove the 10 minutes to the hospital. It was busy and crowded and we had to park quite a ways from the front door, but we hoofed it over there and still got in by 10:15.

We checked in with the receptionist and she sent us to the waiting room. We had been there for about 20 minutes when an orderly came out looking for us. She was very apologetic, but an emergency had come through the ER and we had been bumped for about an hour. She promised to get us back to a room as soon as possible so that we would be more comfortable.

My sweetie and I looked at each other. "Can we leave?" I asked. She contemplated that answer until I explained that my 4-year-old was graduating from preschool at 11:00 and if we hurried we wouldn't miss it. We promised to be back in an hour. She smiled and hustled back to check with the doctor.

My spirits lifted, then dropped as the minutes rapidly ticked by. Soon it wouldn't matter if we were able to leave or not. At 10:45 she poked her head out the door. "See you in an hour!" she called. My sweetie and I quickly gathered our stuff and hustled for the door. If all went well, we wouldn't even be late!

We arrived at the preschool at 10:58.

Teacher Debbie was surprised to see us and we quickly explained the situation. We found a comfortable place to sit and we relaxed to join the festivities. Curly was in the back room getting ready, so he had no idea I was there. Several minutes later the graduation music began to play and the kids marched to their seats. Curly was near the end of the line, but a huge smile broke out on his face as he saw me. Just that was enough for all the hassle.

They sang their first songs and then each child stood to recite his nursery rhyme. Curly had some cute little props for Baa, Baa, Black Sheep. He did a terrific job and afterwards he brought me his bags and little sheep and gave me a big hug. I quickly whispered to him why I was there and he admired my hospital bracelet for a moment, then he returned to his seat.

At 11:25 they were done. I gave him one last hug and my sweetie and I left him with the Dog Walker and Baby Doll and we returned to the hospital. We waited in the lobby for about 10 minutes and then they took us back. It only took our new nurse 1 poke to put in the IV and by 1:00 they were wheeling me to the OR.

The surgery went well, and my gallbladder was swollen to three times it's regular size! We were all glad to get it out. My recovery at the hospital took a little longer that expected since I couldn't get my lungs to completely re-inflate. They kept putting me on oxygen and then taking me off again.

At about 6:45 we were finally released. My sweetie sped home and left me in the capable hands of the Dog Walker while he went to Prima Donna's concert at the school. I just lounged on the couch and watched The Incredibles with the kids (and made 20 trips to the bathroom!) until my sweetie got home.

So far none of the horror stories people shared with me have happened, but I guess there is still time. I will let you know tomorrow.

But tonight I am just grateful for the tender mercies that allowed me to share Curly's graduation. And you know what? If I hadn't needed surgery today, my sweetie would not have been able to get off work for the ceremony. One good thing for me and one good thing for Curly. Things really do work out just the way they are supposed to.

It Was a Good Day

I met with the surgeon today. After looking at my ultrasound, and poking around a little bit, he suggested that we do the gallbladder surgery tomorrow. Since I have been feeling pretty uncomfortable, I readily agreed. He said I would be an add-on so the surgery would be in the afternoon which made me happy since Curly is graduating from preschool in the morning and I didn't want to miss it.

Unfortunately, when the call came in from scheduling I have to report at the hospital at 10:15. Graduation is at 11:00. After shedding a few tears, I called Curly in and we had a long talk. He was disappointed at first, but when I told him the Dog Walker would come and maybe even Gym Rat he decided that would be OK. And the guys have promised to film it for me so I can watch it when I get home.

After my appointment, I headed for the elementary school. Sport and Crafty were both competing in the EBOB tournament today. EBOB is a reading program sponsored by the PTA in a attempt to get the kids to read more books. Each class was given a reading list of four books and then they participated in a contest similar to a spelling bee.

I got there a few minutes late for Crafty's 6th grade group and they were nearly finished. She placed 2nd. Then I waited around for half an hour for Sport's class to begin. Because they had 10 participants, they went through two rounds of questioning. He did very well in the first round and half of the kids were eliminated. The second round was a buzzer round and by the time they were finished, he also placed second for the 4th graders! It was a good day.

Other great things happening include Gym Rat finishing another class with an 18% above passing score! It was an accounting class and he was really excited to be finished with it. He is completing his BS in Business Management at Western Governors' University and he only has one more semester after this one. (He also told me he was moving out this weekend, which I wasn't necessarily that excited about, but I thought you might want to know. He has a friend moving back from CA and they are going to share an apartment so that's probably a good thing. He doesn't want to be living in our basement when he is 30, but we will miss him.)

In other good news, Princess was selected as a member of the National Honor Society, something that none of my other kids have aspired to do in high school, so that's cool.

Curly made two awesome hits in his baseball game today and Scout scored her very first run in her softball game (it was also the only point her team scored tonight).

Other than the fact that I am having surgery tomorrow, I'm uncomfortable and a little nervous...

It was a good day.