A time to...

As the verse goes, there's a time for everything....   this is my time to brag!!

Veronica came running off the bus several days ago and said she had something to show me.  She dug around in her binder and pulled out this gem:

Holy cow.  4H PRESIDENT???  It wasn't voted on so I'm not sure how it was determined who was president.  Maybe they went by grade point average, and since Veronica is a straight A student, she got it.  Who knows!  She held her first meeting the very next day.  She was nervous.  Everything she had to say was written down and I'm sure the 4H leader gave her direction.  I'm super proud of my smart girl!!

My ValGal was busy the past few days.  Friday night she went to the Winter Formal Dance at school with friends.  We had looked at dresses months ago, and this was the first one she tried on at JC Penny.  It was so sparkly and elegant and I thought it was perfect.  Of course, it was gone when we went back to actually buy a dress, but I found it online somewhere else for half the price!

Thursday night Valerie began her District VII Honor Band adventure.  She had rehearsal Thursday night and all day Friday.  Then rehearsal again for a few hours Saturday morning, and the concert was Saturday afternoon.  It's amazing how much these students accomplish in such a short time.  The concert was a bit long since it was Youth, Junior High, and Senior High bands performing.  They were all amazing though.  Valerie loved being a part of it and has her eye set on getting the 7 year Honor Band award when she is a senior.

All the back and forth was hectic and I was glad to be through it all, or so I thought.  I completely blanked on Parish Honor band.  Since she made District, she's automatically in Parish.  We get to do it all again in a week!!   Welcome to the life of a Band Mom I suppose!!

I don't mind.  I'm so proud of both my girls.  It makes me happy to see them do good things.

Sink or Swim

This is going to be a crazy week.

Tuesday and Wednesday night is the usual dance class routine.

Thursday begins Valerie's Honor Band adventure.  She has rehearsal Thursday night, then all day Friday from 9:00-5:00.

Right after rehearsal, Friday night at 6:00 is her Winter Formal Dance at school, which is sponsored by her Beta Club.  Val doesn't want to miss it.  We'll be rushing home to get dressed and do hair!

Early Saturday morning it's a few hours more of rehearsal at the auditorium.

Val has a couple hours break, then it's show time.

I was a choir girl, so I never experienced Honor Band.  I was in District Honor Choir and All State Honor Choir.  We'd audition, and after you made it, you got a packet of music to learn that was chosen by the director.  Not everyone passed the audition, so the few of us that did would meet either before school or after school to learn the music.  I could sort of read music, so I'd plunk out the notes on my keyboard at home.  A lot of the songs weren't our usual style, but our choir director made sure we learned it.  She made sure we weren't lost.  Then we had a few days of rehearsal with the whole choir to put it all together.

Valerie got a packet of music a few days after she made Honor Band.  I had to send in a fee and fill out forms.  That's been it though.  There's been no direction or encouragement.  Her band director hasn't mentioned honor band once.  There has been no after school practice or anyone to say, "If you have questions or need help with a piece, let me know."  She's only a second year band student and hasn't quite mastered the higher range notes.  She's been practicing, but I don't think she knows any of it very well.  She's even said she'd "shadow play"  (pretend to play)  the songs if she couldn't play them.   More or less, she was given the sheet music, and whether she learns it or not is up to her.  Info is scarce.  I don't know what the dress code is for the concert or even how much tickets will be.

Maybe it's just me.  Maybe Honor Band is different than choir.  It just seems a bit much to give 11 and 12 year old kids (who aren't that experienced) a stack of music and expect them to learn it all on their own.  Sure, it's good to be challenged every once in a while, but you'd think her band director would make a little effort to ensure her students became familiar with this new music.....    I guess it's sink or swim.

Cold and dreary day

Hey y'all...  Winter has arrived down in South Louisiana.  It will be held Friday, Saturday, and Sunday this year.   Ha.

Did I say it was cold today?

And rainy?

I went out to start up the car to warm it up before bringing Val to school and it had just started raining.  The headlights were shining into the (cluttered) garage and what did I see?

If you look closely, there's teeny tiny white specks floating around in between the rain.  Sn....  I won't even say it.  You know that sort of thing just DOES NOT happen here.  That's probably the extent of our wintry weather.

Needless to say, I'm staying inside where it's dry and warm today.

Well hello ~2017~

Happy New Year and Happy Last Day of Holidailies!!  (I managed to keep up this year - yay!)

Our New Year's Eve was quiet as predicted.  We popped fireworks during breaks in the rain and the kids had a great time.  We lucked out at midnight and it was dry, only to have it storm a few minutes later.  Someone in our neighborhood put on quite the fireworks show, which was nice to watch!  Today it's more rain and we're just hanging out at home.

One thing I plan to do this year is clean up my Facebook.  I stepped way back from posting there long ago. I don't really comment much and I post mainly funny pictures of the cats!!   Nobody needs to know what we eat every day and every time I'm at Wal-mart.  I like FB, I really do.  I like seeing friends' pictures and recipes.  I like answering questions and getting answers.  The complainers, though, have got to go.  The fake people have got to go.  We all have those people that make us want to roll our eyes at every update.  There's a few people who would instantly inbox me every single time I posted something.  It's like they were watching for me to post just so they could message me.  After 100 times, it gets annoying.  It's time to unfriend or unfollow.  I keep my FB friends list very small for a reason.  I know someone who has 1200+ friends and doesn't really know most of them.  I don't need random people seeing what little I do share, so the list will get even smaller.

Other goals for 2017:

- get back to the gym at least 4 days a week
- go back to eating better and eat less carbs
- continue de-cluttering the house
- keep the house better/cleaner
- paint the endless walls and trim in the foyer and living room a new color

On to bigger and better things.