Good News, Bad News

Well, the marching band did fantastic yesterday at Carthage in their 'class', taking best hornline, best auxiliary, and 'best in class'. The best in class automatically make it to the finals. But that also means the best in class of the other ones make it also, which includes the larger bands. But even with all 4 of the largest bands making it, I thought we still had a pretty good chance of placing in the top 5.

Well, for some reason, we got 7th place out of 8th in finals. I guess the Judges saw things we didn't see; I really thought we had at least 5th or 6th place nabbed. And the weather couldn't have been nicer.....light rain....winds of around 15MPH...temp around 55....then the rain stopped...the wind increased to around 25MPH...and the temp dropped to around 45. This was all by 6PM!!! At one point during a performance a big gust of wind came through and I thought the tubas were going to fall over. Then I thought I saw Toto flying by. Oh well...that's the ups and downs of marching band competition!!

This week we play at the football game on Friday, then head to Rolla for the Route 66 Band Festival. The only bad thing about this one is that there are no 'pre-lims'; you play once and they pick the winners from that one performance only. You are separated into 'classes', and we are in a class with the big schools like Ozark, Nixa, Willard, etc. And we don't play until 6:45 pm, with the awards not until 9:45 p.m. The neat thing is we get to see the Univ of Missouri/Rolla's band perform as well. So it will make for another LOOONNGG day!! Let's just hope that the weather stays nice for THIS one and perhaps we won't freeze as bad either. Last year...it was like it was yesterday...so maybe this year will be flipped-flopped.

We get our new coffee machine at work tomorrow....most exciting thing that's happened around there since we started ordering stir-sticks.

Had a pretty good time at Tan-Tar-A this weekend...it would have been better if I hadn't had a nasty headache on Saturday; so I missed out on the Saturday evening activities but was feeling better on Sunday.

Monday....sigh....but looking forward to another marching band week; we play at the football game which is on THURSDAY night this week, then Saturday is the Vahalla festival at Parkview. This one usually gets us ready for the other out-of-town competitions we participate in; so far this year it will be in Carthage on the 21st, and Rolla on the 28th. And as is the case this time of year, the weather can be a little tricky at times. At Rolla last year, it ended up being rainy and cold. So you have to be sure and dress in layers and bring the rain gear if there is any chance of rain. So far the past 2yrs at the Parkview competition has been nice; just a little windy and chilly one year.

Question of the day........
"WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE FALL ACTIVITY/MEMORY??"

Mine? Probably the smell of burning leaves, and seeing the dressed up pumpkins and scarecrows. I still like Halloween, but only the 'kiddie' stuff. I don't go for the 'grim reaper', or even haunted houses. I dislike the use of witches, devils, etc. My best memories of Halloween is trick-or-treating around our neighborhoods in HOME-MADE costumes. The ones where you used what you had at home. My most 'memorable' one was when I just put on a jacket with a hood backwards.....and right before I would ring the door-bell I would put the hood up over my face...yeah...I was the 'backwards' lady....HA!!!!

Another Friday...some weeks seem to fly by, some seem to creep by. This one creeped by. (I kept thinking it was Thursday at least twice this week...)

Tonight is a football game time; we play against Parkview. It's on their 'turf' but still considered a 'home' game for both teams. So last I heard, both marching bands will perform. We haven't seen Parkview's band perform yet, so it'll be interesting...their show this year is from the musical "Wicked" which is based on the "untold stories of the witches of Oz". Wonder if there will be any flying MONKEYS!!!! ARRGHHHH!!! (no, but the other night while we were there I thought I saw a BAT flying around!!)

Heading to Tan-Tar-A on Saturday to meet up with Billy and various other "BSU-ers" from around the state...they have a conference every year around this time just to get away from the college stuff....so it's conveniently called "Getaway". Weather is supposed to be REALLY nice!!

Everybody have a great weekend!!

Goodie Day Well, once a month we have a "goodie day" for the office birthday(s) for that month. This month's is today.....and I'm the ONLY birthday for this month!! So far I've had pumpkin bread, a rice krispie treat, some of those mexican 'roll up' things, piece of a cheeseball and a piece of breakfast casserole. There is still some cheese dip, some sort of chocolate pie, brownies, chips, lunch meat, cheeses......so as you can tell, I've got it pretty good today!! What is funny about all of this is that I'm responsible for getting the word out about upcoming goodie days and whose birthday we are celebrating for that particular one. I always put a 'sign' next to the time clock about a week before so people won't forget. So I actually put up a sign for my own goodie day. And speaking of signs, I also try and make a birthday sign for that person's birthday and display it on their desk.....so no, I didn't make my 'own' birthday sign, but someone did make me a sign to put on my office door, and one for outside my office on the wall. On a different note....we're having our house sprayed for spiders tomorrow....which always tends to bring them out of their hiding places....EEEEKKKK!!!!!

Birthdays all around...

I had a fantastic birthday.... I received 3 candles, some coconut-flavored coffee creamer (YUM!!), some Swiss Cake Rolls (YUM-YUM!) a gift card to Sears and one to Penney's (I SMELL A SHOPPING TRIP COMING UP!!).

My mom had dinner for me and my sister on Saturday evening, as usual it was scrumptious and she made TWO pies...one coconut meringue and one apple crisp. Then on Sunday we went to Cheddar's for lunch, so I've had a very YUMMY weekend!!

The band did a great job Friday evening; they still have one song to learn to complete their 'show', but usually by the end of September they are ready to do the whole thing. As far as the game itself, Hillcrest lost.

Today is my sister and dad's birthday.....hopefully no one will throw up on my sister while she's at work, wouldn't that just make your birthday BRIGHT???

Well, feels like fall is here, but we all know around here that it's just a 'sneak preview'. This weekend should be back up in the mid 80s, so it will be a temperature rollercoaster for a few more weeks.

I watched PART of the movie "War of the Worlds" last night...I wasn't going to watch it at all, but at the 'request' of my husband, (who said..."you only have to watch a few minutes...") I sat down and started to watch it. I probably watched about an hour or so and decided I had had enough sci-fi action for one evening. I prayed that I wouldn't have dreams about 'tripod machines' attacking my house. So I don't know how it ended. I made it to the part where Tom Cruise's character and his daughter were in the basement of some crazed farmer's house and they were 'hiding' from the eye of the machine. Once the ugly looking alien head came creeping into the basement, I decided to quit watching. I will have to admit that the special effects were pretty real-looking.

And I didn't have any dreams.....YET. Some times it takes a few days before I will start having dreams about shows/movies I have watched.

At least it's Wednesday already.

(You know, I have 2 blogs, and hardly EVER post on this one, but I thought, "I'll just copy what I write on my OTHER blog and paste it on this one!!" So that way, those of you who have an account through blogspot can comment on mine if you'd like, without having to 'join' my other one!!)

Hope everybody had a productive weekend; I can say our house is slowly getting back to 'normal' but we still have some furniture to move around, and molding to replace.

I made 'veggie' lasagna for dinner on Sunday; my sister thought I was crazy for not putting meat in it; but we just thought we'd have it without meat this time. It was really good, and next time I will be sure and add some zucchini. Ashley use my breadmaker yesterday to make a boxed bread mix; it was really good!! I know now how to make sure the water is warm enough so that the yeast 'activates'. I plan on trying to make some dough for cinnamon rolls. Last time I tried, I didn't get the water warm enough and the dough never got passed the 'liquid' stage.

Sydney has learned a new 'dance', where she will walk a few steps, then stop and turn around once or twice. If she tries more than twice, she loses her balance and falls down. She's getting so big! Already wearing some size 2T tops. (helps to cover her little belly!!)

Our computer at home is still out of commission, but hoping to get it fixed this week. Aren't electronics FUN when they don't work??!?!?!