2 in one week

I think this is the first time in my lifetime that there have been 2 holidays in the same week...well, other than Christmas and New Year's, the two I'm talking about are St. Patrick's Day and Easter. I've actually heard that this will be the last time in a couple hundred years that Easter will be this early again. Easter just seems to have snuck up on me..I still have to go and stock up for Easter morning. Mmmmmm, chocolate!!!!

Well, yes, we had another eventful 'band' weekend, I mean, after all, it IS still band season! This past Saturday was the State Solo/Ensemble. I really liked it this year because it was held at CMU and I got to see Ben, Isaiah and Ross....OH, and Cassie :) (Ben's girlfriend). The quartet played their song..."Bee's Knees"...OMG, those kids AMAZE me! Of course, with the rating system being the ever popular I, II, III, IV, V and so on...(one being AWESOME), the quartet scored a I. Em then went on to do her alto sax solo and her bari sax solo...she scored a 94 on the alto and a 98 on the bari. (100 being perfect). I think I told her a few times that I was very proud of her! Other than that, the weekend was fairly uneventful.

Track season is underway now along with the softball/baseball season. Alex is considering running a long distance race. I think he'll do great if he puts his mind to it! I think he should do discus too, but, I don't even want to suggest it! Em is planning on doing shot-put and discus along with a running event or two. I'm hoping she'll do the 400 M. she does great at this race...she paces herself slow at the beginning but then kicks butt at the end. Speaking of Em, she made the 2nd team All Conference basketball team! Woo hoooo!

Yesterday I discovered a new beloved recipe! Pumpkin Cake. OMG!! This cake is amazing. The only thing I don't recommend is that you try to frost it while it's still warm...ummm, the cake seems to slide around because of melted frosting...considering that you've made it a layer cake, as I did! It tasted fantastic though!

I finally got my new cell phone...I LOVE it!! Although, I do have to try to figure out the new menu and how to actually get everything to work on it...I did figure out the camera already though.

I guess it's time to go and make supper.

Y'all enjoy St. Patty's Day,
Love Ya :)

Band Season Again

Yes, it's that time again, the season of running around with the band. I guess it's a year round thing, but right now, it seems like an every weekend thing! Yesterday was the Sr. Band's District Festival. This consists of the band heading off to the destination of a host school where they play (usually 3) songs for 3 judges, when they're done playing for those 3 judges they head off to the 'sight reading' room. Once in this room they get 7 minutes to go over 2 pieces of music, with one of them being a march. The time is usually split up with going over the first piece, noting the time changes and such, singing it through, etc...then they play it. Oh, yes, sight reading means that they've generally never seen this piece of music before, so, they're playing it for the first time and expected to do it well. Well then, let me tell you! They did FANTASTIC yesterday!!!!!!!!!!.....!!!!!!!!(I thought it needed a few more exclamations because they were THAT good!) The sight reading judge couldn't say enough good things about how the band played. It was pretty amazing! When all the playing is done, you have to go out to the waiting area, usually the cafeteria, and wait for your scores. These scores are based on a I, II, III, IV system, with a one being the best overall and averaged between the 4 judges. We were a little nervous about the judging since only one school in 2 days had received straight I's...that being West Branch, all the rest of the school's had II's or III's...only one other school had a I, but they had gotten a II score from one of the judges. When they came out to write our scores in, a school that had played before us received a IV (OUCH!!) I guess they did pretty bad :( but then they wrote our band's score in.... I, I, I, I.....WOO HOOOO...straight ones across the board!!!!! Our band director was VERY pleased! As she should be, she works very hard! Now they move on to State Festival, but I'm not sure when yet though. Next weekend is State Solo/Ensemble....I'm excited about that one because it's going to be at CMU! YAY! I'll get to see Ben!!!!! Yeah, yeah, I know...I just saw him for this past week...but, you'll get over it...I'm still excited!

Today, I had the fun pleasure of opening up the school gym for 'open gym'. I wasn't as bored as I thought I would be, I walked for an hour. I usually don't get a walk in on Sunday, so this was actually a good thing.

The futon is getting more and more uncomfortable! Another problem, it appears that one of the bracing legs came off...not good! I kinda have it propped in there right now..I just hope it lasts until we get our new mattress! Only 2 days left!

I guess I need to get going now, I have company coming over to watch Pride and Prejudice!! Yup, I know, I've seen it before...last night actually, hehe...can't get enough of Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth ya know!

Y'all enjoy 'springing ahead',
Love Ya :)

All good things come to an end.....

And so it goes....our waterbed has officially died. Have you ever wondered what water smells like that's been in a rubber liner for over 15 years, even with conditioner in it!?!? Well, I'm here to tell you that it's not something that you want to hurry up and bottle to cherish a lifetime, that's for sure!!!! Since it's a king size bed, it took a few hours to get it drained, and even then, we could never seem to get ALL the water out of the dumb thing! We ended up heaving the mattress out of the bed frame and dragging it through the living room to get it out the front door, we didn't have a problem until it got pulled over the door frame and it ripped....thankfully, it didn't make a mess in the house, but rather on the front porch! Whew! We have since ordered a new pillow top mattress for the bed and I can't wait to get it!!!!!!! We've been sleeping on the futon in the living room. I must say, it is pretty comfortable, although a tad bit smaller than what we're used to. Only 4 more days to wait.

It's been SO nice to have Ben home this past week, I don't even want to think ahead to Sunday when he must return back to school...*sigh*. HOWEVER, he WILL be home for the summer in just a couple of months, so, I do have that to look forward to :)

The cookie sale at school went fairly well. After our band teacher reimbursed me for the ingredients, we ended up making about $91, which I don't think is too awful bad for a small cookie sale. Now, I just have to decide if I'm ambitious enough to try to do this every Friday. I honestly don't think it's something I want to do by myself, but it's more or less like pulling teeth to get anyone to help, I dunno, I guess I'll ask around to see if I can get anyone to help out, it's good money.

Speaking of baking, I made, for the first time, apple cake with caramel icing. The icing recipe didn't turn out quite like I thought it should, partially because the directions weren't very good. I believe that the first ingredients that have to be cooked should be brought to a soft ball stage on the thermometer, but the recipe said to only boil for 6 minutes on medium heat. From reading the rest of the directions, it's supposed to take on the form of fudge to a certain extent, but the finished product that I came up with was more like a caramel syrup. Don't get me wrong, it tasted great, but it seemed to make the cake a little soggy. If I decide to make it again, I'll try to take it up to the soft ball stage and see if there's a difference. Baking is science, if you don't get it right the first time, keep trying....well, unless you're working with nitro or something, hehe, no second chances there!

March is now here, well, 7 days into it. I think it came in like a lamb too, I can't remember what the first was like...hmmmm, can anyone remember? Any-who, along with March comes reading and at school, they've kicked it off quite well I think. They have all the kids excited about reading with the promises of prizes. I actually wish they had done that sort of stuff when I was in school. The only reading program we had was R.I.F. (reading is fundamental) and for every 10 books you read, you could pick out a free book...the funny thing is, I do believe that I still have one of my free R.I.F. books somewhere....yeah, yeah, yeah, for those of you who truly know me...you're saying..."NO!?!?! YOU kept something!?!?!" hehe, for we all know I keep EVERYTHING!!! Hey, what can I say, we all have our faults.

Someone in our town has yet again revived a restaurant. This 'building' has housed at least 6 or 7 different things in the 21 years I've lived here. Now it's Bigfoot's BBQ. I guess one of the owners foot size is 13. I guess that qualifies to be called bigfoot. A friend of mine and I ate there today. I had a pulled BBQ pork sandwich. The most confusing part of the whole process was deciding which sauce to get...she had us try 3 different sauces that they make there. The first was just a sweet sauce, the second was a sweet and spicy and the third just a spicy (it was yellow), I opted for the second one. When they bring it out, it's not saturated with sauce, just the port with the sauce squirted on it....of course, I had to get the bottle and add a LOT more :) It was pretty good I suppose. I guess there's already a countdown to how long they'll remain open. I hope it's for a while!

Well, I guess I should relinquish control of the puter to one of the child_units that just came home from practice. I have to get supper going anyhow.

Don't forget, daylight savings time starts this Sunday! Spring Ahead!

Y'all read a book,
Love Ya :)

Joys to be sung.

My oldest child_unit is home!!! He is currently on Spring Break and will be home for this next week...I'm VERY happy! Yesterday was a busy day of baking banana bread, well, half of the batch was made into banana bread muffins...I have to state it as such because the texture of the 'muffins' was definitely that of bread. I added a streusel topping to them too, which made them extra yummy! After my last loaf of bread came out of the oven, Ben took me out to lunch...this is one of those moments in time when being a mother is absolutely wonderful! I can't explain exactly why, but just knowing that he wanted to spend time with ME...*sigh*...I think he secretly misses me too while he's away at school, but I'm sure would never admit to it ;) It's OK, his secret is safe with me....well, hehe, not anymore I suppose!

I'm being serenaded at the moment with the CMU fight song as rendered on the trombone. It's lovely! I'm sure that later on this evening I'll be serenaded again with the trumpet and French horn (ha, the spell check on here wouldn't let me leave 'French' with a lower-case 'f', amusing).

Sarah is, yet again, in Germany. I hope that she's having a wonderful time! (Hallo Sarah, Haben Sie ein sicheres Reisenheim!) ((I hope that's correct!)).

The change in the weather is slowly starting to change. The days are getting longer and you can feel the difference in the air. It's strange when Spring starts to slowly creep in, so subtle. I do like it that it stays light out longer now. I like the smell of the air too, it's not quite as crisp, it has that smell of freshness to it. Now, I just have to sit in anticipation of the first, real thunderstorm of the spring! We're actually supposed to have a few T-storms come through here tonight, but, since there's still so much snow everywhere and the fact that it's supposed to snow 2-3 inches RIGHT AFTER the storm, it doesn't quite feel the same as the nice warm storms of spring.

I finished reading Jane Eyre. I enjoyed it VERY, VERY much! More than I actually thought I would. I have since watched the BBC version on VHS and am in the middle of a different version on DVD. Em watched the BBC version with me, it took 2 evenings to watch it because it was on 2 tapes. I think it was originally a mini-series. I was surprised that Em liked it as much as she did. She knew that I knew what was going to happen since I had just read the book and tried a few times to get me to tell her what was going to happen, but I wouldn't spoil it for her! It's amazing how much of books get left out in movies. Yes, I know that they have to take some artistic licensing as to tell the story without taking a month to do so, not to mention a lot of money! However, it's hard when you're expecting a certain part of the book and then they skip right over it! Arggghhhh!!!! Any-who...I'm now reading "The Taming of the Shrew" by Shakespeare, which I've since figured out that it is indeed a play, I had stated in a previous blog that I didn't know of his works were just written as a story or as a play. Alas, knoweth now for which it is.

My friend Karen has invited me to join her and her daughters to go down to Ohio for a horse expo...I REALLY, REALLY hope that I get to go! Both of her daughters keep asking me if I can go with them or not, I just have to keep answering that I'm not sure yet. She's (Karen) already bought a ticket to one of the horse shows that's going on there too! I hope that things can work out so that I can go!

Well, I think I am going to go and enjoy some of this peace and quiet while everyone else is at open gym for basketball!

Y'all enjoy what's left of winter!
Love Ya :)