Thankful Thursday

I'm joining Rebecca at Knit by God's Hand to stop for a few minutes and be thankful.

I’m thankful for:

… a husband who gets the taxes done.

… date night!

…  taking the backroads with my sweetie.

… Google. Yep, I said it. Last night, as I was leaving community band practice, my car wouldn’t start. The battery was dead. The young lady who sits next to me and plays on Sundays with me stayed to help me out. I had cables, but neither of us had actually jumped someone off. Google to the rescue! We hooked up the cars and it started right up!

… Good books. I just finished listening to “Furiously Happy”, Jenny Lawson’s second book. If you know someone with mental illness – or even if you don’t – I would highly recommend this book. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry. You may cringe at some of the language, but I don’t think the book would be the same without it. Oh, and listen to the book…again, I don’t think it would be the same if you didn’t hear Jenny’s voice telling her story.

What little things – or big things – happened in your life this week that you’re thankful for?

Weekend Wrap-Up

Another weekend gone.  Friday after work, I went up to the high school to help the band boosters prep the concession stand.  By that, I mean I cut up tomatoes, chopped onions, and got the condiment table ready.  I didn't stay for the game since it was suppose to be so cold.  Plus, I had needed to bake some brownies for the bake sale at the band competition on Saturday.  And, I baked some muffins for the Hospitality Room for the competition.  YS & I had a nice dinner out, followed by a quick trip to the Dollar Tree.

CH drove 7 hours to his high school alma mater, where they were celebrating 100 years of football.  Since I had taken last Friday off, I didn't think I should take that Friday, too.  Here is CH & his brother with their football coach:

And, CH with the State Championship Trophy that they won:

Saturday, I had to be at the high school by 3:00 to work in the Hospitality Room.  This wasn't a bad gig, let me tell ya!  I was inside, and away from the hustle and bustle.  For 5 years I worked concessions; this was much, much nicer!  Not to mention warmer.  I didn't feel the least bit guilty as I walked by the current boosters breaking down the concession stand.
I got to the school a little early so I could watch a few of the bands.

Small Town's band marched exhibition for the first time since the current band director has been there (which has been 9 years).  Even though I didn't have anybody out there, I was so proud of what that band has accomplished over the past 9 years.  9 years ago, there were only around 18 members.  It's grown to around 50 (or more), and they sounded soooo wonderful!

Yesterday was laundry, and catching up on "The Blacklist".  I also watched "The Heat" with Melissa McCarthy & Sandra Bullock.  It wasn't quite as funny as I thought it was going to be, but it was okay.

Hope you had a good weekend, too!

Weekends Leftovers

This picture is actually from 2 weekends ago, when we went camping on the lake.  

Pepper & Ally stayed close to me when I was working the Friday of Fall Break:

You'll never believe what CH bought for me over the weekend:

Don't laugh...it's a lot better (and cheaper) than this:

http://bumperdumper.com/bumper2.htm

AND, he also bought this for me:

So...if it's late at night and nature calls, the utility room will be attached to the side of the camper, and I can go in there and use the luggable loo.  My hope is that eventually we'll get a solar shower for when we're in the national park (where there is no shower).  I don't think CH thought he'd ever see the day when I would be excited about a bucket with a toilet lid on it!

Hazy Weekend Wrapup

As I was driving between schools on Friday, I noticed a weird haze going on.  The fall colors are at their peak, and I was expecting some spectacular views of the mountains.  Here's an example of what I saw:

For picture credit, click on picture

Weird, right?  Turns out there was a dust storm in Oklahoma on Thursday, and it managed to reach us on Friday.  So, if you live in Ok., thanks, but no thanks.  You can keep the dust to yourself!

Friday night was a great night for a good high school football game.  CH & I went into the big city for Small Town's football game.  Both teams have been known for their defense this year:  Opposing team was averaging 44.3 points and 246 yards rushing per game.  Small Town's average points was around 41.  In 8 games, our defense has given up 68 points, and 42 of those were to Rival HS.  Opposing team has only given up 57 points.  It looked to be a barn-burner.  We led at the half 3-0.  Small Town's team doesn't give up a whole lot yardage with penalties, but the flags were flying Friday night.  Crazy.  Those boys fought for everything they got.  The final score:  30-7.  It's always good when we win and there are no injuries!  I snapped a shot of the Opposing Team's stands with 5 minutes left to play:

The sad thing is that those people who left missed their touchdown.  Small Town's fans were out in full force.  We completely filled up the visitors' stands...it was a little difficult to find a seat.  These ladies are (and have been for years) at every game, rain or shine, home or away:

Just in case you couldn't see their glasses:

Saturday morning, CH ran some errands and came home with this:

Pumpkin Spice Latte with soy!  My absolute favorite until the gingerbread comes out!

There was a big game at the nearby university on Saturday.  CH's brother came up with a friend and his son to go to it.  I can't believe this was in my driveway:

After they left to go to the game, CH & I treated ourselves to this:

There's a great Cuban sandwich shop not far from us.  Their food is amazing.  They just opened another shop on the other end of town, but honestly, the original one is better.  We don't get over there too often, which is probably a good thing!

Saturday evening was YS' last band competition.  I have to admit, it was a little emotional for me.  It wasn't that emotional when OS & MS had their last football game, but then again, I knew it wasn't "over" for me (and isn't that what it's all about?).  This is my favorite picture of OS' last year of football:

That was taken just after Small Town won their 3rd straight State Championship, and OS said that was the moment that he realized it was all over.  LOVE that picture!
MS stayed busy after football season with soccer, so I had soccer games to go to in the spring.  Since he only played his junior & senior year, I didn't get that "into" it.
So, here we are with YS.  The band got straight "1s", and YS also received a "1".  Good way to go out!  After they performed, one of the sophomore trumpets was just bawling.  I looked at YS and asked why the boy was crying, and he said that it was because the seniors are leaving.  He (the boy) just looked over and nodded his head.  Oh. My.  That got me going; I had to walk away.  Talk about a great, close-knit group of kids!  Here's a video of their performance.  Don't feel compelled to watch the whole thing, but they had a fun ending.  If you start at right around 9:05 you should be able to catch all of it.

And...now you know Small Town's real name, if you didn't already!  Honestly, if you wanted to know that badly, you could've figured it out way before now!

Weekend Wrap-up 1

I have so many pictures from this weekend, I think I'm going to have to separate out the posts to keep everybody from being bored with 1 long post!
Let's start with Thursday evening.  On my way to flute choir practice, I saw this on a truck:

The irony in seeing that was that I was.  Runnin' late, that is.  You would think that since I was on Fall Break I would've been there early!  When I got there, though, our director was just getting there, too, so I wasn't the only one runnin' late!

Friday, CH & I debated on whether or not we should drive 1 hour to the Small Town's football game.  We knew it wasn't going to be a very good game, but we also realized that our chances of watching YS perform are very limited.  So, we went.

YS with his "game face" on.

 On the field performing:

Before they performed, we saw this gander of geese fly over, but they weren't in a "V".  CH said that their next formation would be a "T" (get it:  for UT).

If you've been reading my blog for a while, you may remember a post I wrote on how Small Town High was recognizing Breast Cancer Awareness Month.  Other schools are getting in on the recognition, and the school we played on Friday did, as well.  The football players wore pink socks, and the cheerleaders had this:

We all know how shameless us bloggers are with pictures!  I asked the cheerleader if I could take a picture of her pom-pom, and she said "sure" without even a funny look.  Wonder if her mom blogs???

Here's a "not-so-great" picture of a water tower that you can see from the field that looks like a UFO when it's lit at night.  Especially if you're driving on the interstate and see it!

I took a video so you could see a typical YS in the stands during the game.  I've had so many people stop me and tell me that they spend a lot of the game watching him instead of the game!  He really is having a blast this year!

(Please forgive the bad sound quality!)

Weekend Wrap-Up

I KNOW there are some of you out there who write a weekend wrap-up on Mondays.  Why not join A Defined Life and see what others did during the weekend? It's a quick way to wrap it up!  

Click on collage for a bigger view!

~  YS came back from band camp on Friday.  It's a tradition for the band to perform their show for parents & friends after camp, followed by a dinner and pool party.  Yep, that's him on the stand: this year's drum major!  It was such a proud moment to see him up there for the first time!  I'm so proud of him!

~ 3-2-1 cake.  If you haven't heard of it, here are the details:  Get a cake mix.  Any cake mix.  Mix an Angel Food Cake Mix with it, and store in a ziplock bag.  When you're in the mood for cake but don't want to make a whole one, take 3 Tablespoons of cake mix, 2 Tablespoons of water, and stir it in a microwavable bowl.  Put it in the microwave for 1 minute.  (That makes up the 3-2-1.)  The directions say to let it sit for 15 minutes, but I wanted mine pretty warm, so I left it for about 12 minutes.  Then, you can top it with whatever you want, or not top it at all.  It was really good!

~  Laika and her "bottle toy".  She ripped the velcro off of it shortly after she got it, so it only takes her about 10 minutes to get the bottle out of the raccoon and demolish it.

~  Saturday I went to 10 stores looking for a comforter and came back with nothing.  Well, except for a couple of shirts, a jacket, a toothbrush holder for the boys' bathroom, and some stickers for school.  Sunday I went back to Target to see if I could find something, and this is what I came out with.  I wanted something that looked decent but wasn't expensive because of the dogs.  I'm pretty happy with what I found.  

~  CH arrived home from his big bike ride.  He's been gone for 16 days riding up to Newfoundland/Labrador.  With him & YS being gone last week, I had a nice quiet week pretty much all to myself.  It was nice, but I was ready for CH to be home.

~  Can you tell somebody else was happy for him to be home?  She has hardly left his side since he's been home!

~  I completely forgot to put this one in my collage!  Friday night I met one of my sisters and one of her friends to hear my oldest brother's band.  This was the first time I stayed for the whole 3 hours!  It was like a semi-high school reunion; there were a few people there from school.  It was a good time!

Okay, head over to Stefani's and join up!  The format is up to you, and obviously you don't need a "big girl camera" to participate!

The Big Game

"The" Big Game for Small Town High was played on Saturday.  I talked about the game here last year.  This year it was our turn to host.  Last year, the game was played on Thursday; this year it was on Saturday.  In all honesty, I expected the game to be over with by halftime.  STHS played last Saturday for a "kick-off classic" at our rival high school, and this week we played the rival high school.  If you don't feel like going back and reading last year's post, here's just a little bit of background:  If it's not the oldest rivalry, it's the most fierce in our state.  Rival High has 3 times more students than STHS.  When I was in high school, "the bridge" was painted several times each night during the week leading up to the game.  There were egg fights, and constant police-patrolling. If you were caught doing something you weren't suppose to do, you spent the time during the game at the police station.  There have been chickens and mice let loose in the school; there has been a rebel flag (our rival's flag) in the middle of our duck pond.  (The duck pond is at the bottom of the hill in front of the elementary school:  the middle & high schools are at the top of the hill.)  This year, the Rival HS declared a "throw-back" to the rivalry:  The windows of our high school were painted on, but they used the window paint that can be washed off as opposed to the "old days" when real paint was used!  There was also a rebel flag in the middle of the duck pond.  I think they'd better watch out next year:  What goes around, comes around!  Someone said that the bridge was painted quite a bit this week, too.  Aaaaah...nice to know some things eventually cycle around!
Since the game was on Saturday this year, the band boosters had an extra day to get ready for the concessions.  We usually have 2 concessions:  upper (behind the pressbox) that serves pizza, hot dogs, nachos & chili, popcorn, candy, and drinks, and lower that serves hamburgers, hot dogs, chili dogs, french fries, and drinks.  The last time we hosted the game, the athletic director had an ingenious idea to also have a couple of "satellite stations" that only served drinks and hot dogs.  That way, if someone just wanted a drink, they wouldn't have to stand in a long line.  We also had an additional drink-only stand this year.  Anyway, we got started on Friday afternoon, putting tables up and getting drinks ready to be iced down.  We also had to load drinks onto a big refrigerated truck.  The band had a practice run through on Friday that the parents were invited to; it was amazing that after they got through, everyone disappeared except for two parents who aren't on the executive board.  It took about 3 hours, but we got it done.  I didn't think my bed could feel any better than it did Friday night...until Saturday night.
Saturday was a LOOOOONNNGGG day.  And that doesn't even begin to describe it.  I got there around 11:10, and there were 4 people already in line, waiting for the gate to open at 3:00.  Yes, I said 3:00.  And, one of the band moms said there were a couple of people in line when she got there at 10:00.  Y'all:  the game didn't even start until 7:00.  Jerry Rice talked to each of the teams prior to the game and did the coin toss.  This is arguably the biggest game of the year, except for the state championships.
I managed to sit down for a few minutes a couple of times after I got to the school, but it was never for long.  My feet still hurt on Sunday.  I only got to watch a couple of plays, but it seemed to be a good game.  They scored, we scored.  They scored twice, we scored once.  They scored again, we scored.  Final score:  Rival: 26, Small Town:  19.  Coach was pleased with the kids' performance; last week after the game he said that if they don't play better during the rival game, it will be over by Thursday.  Yep, he wasn't too pleased with them last week.  Rival high school is in the 6A class, small town is 3A, so the ultimate goal this year is state championship #8 in a row.  If they keep playing like they played on Saturday, they should be able to meet that goal.
Back to concessions:  All of the band parents were amazing.  Once everybody knew what their job was, everything ran very smoothly.  It was hot, it was busy, but everybody did their job.  One of the moms who is an incredible organizer (don't know what we'd do without her!) left during the game to go home and rest so she could come back for the end of the game for cleanup.  She kept talking about how guilty she felt, but another mom told her that she had worked hard all week (much harder than most of us), so she deserved it.  Here's the scary thing:  that mom's son almost wasn't in band this year.  He decided at the last minute to play. I could've hugged his neck!  I don't know what we would've done without her.
To conclude:  I can't even begin to describe how glad I am that these last 3 weeks are over.  Even though the season has just started, it's all downhill from here.  Small Town's winning streak, which was the 2nd longest in the country, starts over next week.  Band parents are the bomb!

Incredible Weekend

What a great weekend!  Friday night I did laundry since I knew I was going to be busy on Saturday and Sunday.  (This isn't the incredible part, believe me!)
What better way to spend a Saturday than watching high school kids performing?  I'm talking percussion (winter drumline) and winterguard.

YS plays the baritone in band, trumpet in jazz band, and bass drum in drumline.  This was the first time they have performed, or even had a drumline.  There are 2 classifications for drumline:  1 does a choreographed show, the other doesn't.  YS' drumline didn't march.  There were only two drumlines in their class, and they got the higher score, which means they came in 1st!  They were pleasantly surprised, to say the least.
There were a couple of guards at this competition who were just amazing.  The guard that won the more advanced class had this werewolf theme going on.  Their showmanship was amazing; the way they carried themselves and their expressions were very dramatic.  And the equipment-work that they did!  They had flags and rifles flying all over the place!  There may have been a couple of drops, but not more than a couple.  I don't know if the picture will do them justice:

After the performances, while they were waiting for the judge's marks, music played and the kids danced:

That's my shy YS doing the worm.  In front of everybody.  And, he got lots of cheers.
Sunday morning I woke up to rain, then, when I was getting ready to leave for Mass, it started snowing:

(The white things in the picture are snow.)  The flakes were so big and heavy, that when I left for Mass, I could hear them hit the windshield.
After Mass, one of my sisters (the one who gives me "stuff") went into the big city to go to the "Women Today Expo".  Lots of vendors, lots of free stuff, and....look who I met:

If you don't watch the Real Housewives of Orange County, you won't recognize Gretchen.  Oh, y'all...she was so incredibly nice!  When she came out for the meet & greet, she had her coat on.  I told her that my sister & I figured she had her coat on because she was ready to get out of "hick city", and she laughed and said, "hick city...listen to you."  She went on to say that she really liked it here and that everybody was really nice.  She is even prettier in person, but when she stood sideways she just about disappeared.  She's so incredibly thin, but not in an anorexic kind of way.  As a bonus, here's who else we saw:

Yep, Gretchen's boyfriend, Slade!  I thought he'd be the biggest jerk alive, but he was also incredibly nice.  I told him I'd been watching since the beginning, and he said, "Sorry you've gotten sucked into it."   I think he said that just before this picture was taken.  My nephew's wife is a photographer and was taking pictures at the event, so this was taken with her camera...by my sister.  She was suppose to be in the picture (not my sister...she had no idea who they were), but my sis was having a little bit of trouble with the humongous big girl camera.  So, she didn't get a picture with Slade.  I hated it for her, but am so glad that mine turned out!  And, look:  He has his arm around me!
After the expo, my sister & I went up into the Sunsphere.  This sign was in the elevator:

Seriously?  They have to have a sign like this in the elevator?  The view was nice, but it could've been a lot better if the sky wasn't overcast.

Yep...all in all, a pretty good weekend!  Have a wonderful FAT TUESDAY!

Weekend Wrap Up

Things have been busy here in the small town.

For the past few years, the faculty/staff at one of my schools has had a night out at the hockey game.  I didn't have time to meet some of my coworkers for dinner, so I just met them at the game.  You know the saying "I went to a fight and a hockey game broke out"?  Yeah, that's exactly what happened on Friday.  I lost count after the 5th fight.  I've never been to a game with so many fights.  Another friend (who I didn't know was at the game) said she thought there were so many because they were having trouble scoring, so they had to keep the fans happy.  We lost 1-0, which really disappointed me because we weren't able to stand up and sing our song to the other team.
Saturday YS & I went to a Drum Line/Winterguard Competition.  His high school has just started a Winter Drum Line, and they will be performing in exhibition at a couple of competitions in March.  The school's Winter Guard was competing at this event, so we went to watch and lend our support.  There was one group that was just amazing.  They did this "Twilight" kind of show, and their showmanship was incredible.  I absolutely love to watch rifles spinning and being tossed in the air.  It so nice to see youngsters spending their day using their talents.  About the Drum Line:  I was expecting to see things going on like the movie "Drum Line".  Uhhhh....no.  I was pretty disappointed that it wasn't like that.  I don't know if it was the acoustics in the gym or what, but it just sounded like a big jumbled mess.  Not impressive.
OS came in on Saturday, and he asked if I wanted him to go to church with me on Sunday.  Confession time:  I haven't been very good about going to Mass lately.  I don't know what it is, besides pure laziness.  Anyway, we went to Mass on Sunday at the parish where we're actually registered, which just happens to be on campus where MS goes to college.  I called MS before we went to see if he wanted to meet us there, but he was a no show.  (Big surprise, huh?)  We did go by his dorm and take him out to lunch.  It was so nice to be able to spend some time with my boys.  And, just in case you're wondering:  OS was my favorite on Sunday.
This is a song that one of the Winter Guards performed to on Saturday.  Very catchy...I can't get it out of my head!

My Day Off

The Tudors Season 4 DVDs are on the entertainment center, ready to be watched.  I knew if I sat down, I'd be enthralled and nothing would get done.  So, I tried to be disciplined and do things around the house.  My desk went from this:

To this:

Because CH bought me this little gem:

Isn't he a sweetheart?  :D

So, after I got the desk cleaned up, I had to clean the floors.  And the kitchen.  Then the living room.  And then the bathroom.  Plus dusting.  And all this while washing clothes.  What a day off!  The good thing is, I have another day off tomorrow because of Election Day, so that's the day I'll get some Tudor-watching in!

Saturday we hosted a band competition.  We had 25 bands attending, and at least 2 of these bands had around 250 members in them...each.  Our high school only has a little over 500 students, so of course our stadium isn't very big.  My biggest worry was that we wouldn't be able to fit everybody in.  It should've been that I would be able to get out of the concession stand.  For some reason, the door wouldn't open, so we were trapped.  The good thing was that we were incredibly busy, so we didn't have a chance to leave.  The kids that worked ended up crawling through the window. I texted the booster president and told him that we were stuck.  He must've thought I was joking, because I didn't get a response from him.  So, I called him.  He came up, crawled through the window, and tried to get out.  He couldn't, so he decided to crawl back through and try to get the policeman's help.  I have no idea how long they worked on the door, but they ended up having to take the whole doorknob off of the door.    Supposedly that was the worst thing that happened all night, so the festival must have been a success!  Yesterday was a recuperation day.  Every part of my body hurt Saturday night.  We were so busy that I only had time to eat 1 piece of pizza all day long.  Hopefully we made a lot of money for our kids!

Follow Friday Feature

Wow!  Imagine my surprise when I woke up, let the girls out, then sat down at my computer, only to find several comments from new people!  I thought, "What's going on?"   Then, I read one of the comments congratulating me for being featured on Follow Friday 40 and Over!  WHAT? 
Let me just say this:  Yesterday was really crazy.  The high school usually has its football games on Friday night, but, since the kids don't have school today, they had it last night.  I've mentioned before that the band does the concessions at the games, right?  Well, on home game days, I rush home after work, let the girls out, then rush up to the school to help prep for the game.  Last night was the first night all season when the Mercy Rule wasn't in effect, so it was a late night.  I didn't get home until 11:00 and went straight to bed.  So, no visiting last night.
Since last night was the "Halloween" ballgame, the band dressed up in costume and did something special.  They had a really fun time!  Below are a couple of clips from halftime:

 Last night was the biggest game of the regular season:  both teams were undefeated and are #1 & #2 in the state.  The District Title was on the line.  Last year the game was dubbed a "Blackout" Game.  Free black t-shirts were handed out, and the football players come out with black jerseys.  This year was "Pink out".  Pink t-shirts were handed out in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month.  If you've been reading, you know that one of the boys' (who graduated last year) mother passed away a few weeks ago from breast cancer.  He was there last night, but I didn't get a chance to see him.  He had a place of honor on the sidelines, and was their biggest cheerleader last night.  
Last night was also Senior Night.  The Seniors' numbers are painted on the field (they were in pink last night), and the coach takes a time out when there are a few seconds left in the game so that the seniors can stand on their number and be recognized.  Very nice touch, and it really brings tears to your eyes seeing it, and thinking about all that they have accomplished the past 4 years. (Okay, last night it was probably the hormones, but when it's your son, it is incredible.)
This post turned out to be a lot longer than I had anticipated, so I'll leave you with a picture of mid-field from last night  (you can see #11's number to the left of the 50):

 

Friday Faves

Here are my faves for this past week:

1.  All boys under 1 roof for not one, but two nights!

2.  2 band members with the same shirt on at band practice:

They were absolutely horrified when I pointed out that they had on the same shirt!

3.  Band Competition on Saturday.  What a great way to spend a day!

 

And the view from the stadium:

4.  Did I mention that the college boys were home?

 5.  Finding a big dirty bowl  that was used for cereal.  What is it with boys and cereal?  When CH & I were in our Newlywed days, we used to call the big bowl a "Jethro Bowl".  As in, the Beverly Hillbillies' Jethro.  Not NCIS Jethro.

6.  Getting a shot of Ally from the front.  Of course, I did have to hold her head still, but I got it!

7.  Pumpkin Crisp.  Thanks to a coworker & friend (who is on a blogging hiatus due to havin'  a baby!), I now have this wonderful recipe for fall! 

But the best way to eat it:  warm with some vanilla ice cream.  Out of this world and oh, so easy!

8.  Last, but certainly not least, seeing how one of the trees in the front yard is changing:

9.  A couple of people asked for the recipe for the pretzel/rolo/pecan thingies.  Here it is:

Take small pretzel (the twist kind)
Put a rolos on top of each pretzel
Place them on a cookie sheet
Put in a 300 degree oven for 3 minutes (that's all you need to put it in for...just enough time to soften the rolo)
As soon as you take it out, put a pecan half on top of the rolo and gently push it down...just a little (you have to work kind of fast; you don't want the rolo to harden back up
Let cool and enjoy!

It's that easy! 

In the words of one of my undergrad professors:

Have a great P.O.E.T.S. Day!

(Pee On Everything, Tomorrow's Saturday!)
Okay, he didn't really say "Pee", but I'm trying to keep this family friendly!