That's how I have felt for the past 7 days--I've been to town too many times, and when I have been home, I am being a referee (but that would be a separate post completely).
Tonight was a special night for Brienna & Zane. Let me tell you that our little school has an awesome music program--just not a lot of money. And this is the first year that music has been offered in high school. Our elementary teacher had been teaching band (although she doesn't play a band instrument besides piano & recorder) to the 6-8 graders the past 2 years, but not very many participated.
Needless to say, our band is definitely at a beginners level--it is comprised of 6th-12th graders. But the HS students haven't had band for years. I wish I had videoed the first concert--but if I did (which I might have) I don't have it labeled on the computer. It was about 4 weeks after having Benjamin & I was mighty sore still.
It was a nice concert--the band played, then the HS choir sang and there were a few piano solos. For intermission entertainment, the 5th grade band played. Let me clarify what the 5th grade band is. For the past 3 1/2 weeks, the kids interested in taking band next year (jr. high) were asked to attend an introduction class to the instruments after school for 1 hour, 2 times a week. Zane went every day the first week to decide what instrument he liked the best (M-W was for brass, T-Th for woodwinds) and he definitely loves the trumpet.
(Here is Emmalee restless and trying to be in all the pictures)
L-R: Matthew (Zane's good buddy), Zane, Diego, & Madeline (one of my piano students).
Okay--after the intermission songs (they played 3 and were surprisingly good), then the middle school choir sang. (Brienna is waiting patiently for it to be the band's turn again)
Brienna was in the choir last semester, but unfortunately (small school syndrome) you can only take choir 1 semester because it is at the same time as PE (required for 1 semester). And band is offered at the same time as computer/keyboarding. So the Jr. High choir had 4 girls last semester, and 3 girls this semester.
Here's Zane tooting his horn :) Maybe someday if he keeps with it, his mom & dad will buy him a trumpet & then he will be tooting his OWN horn!! ;)
After the Middle School choir, the band ended with 3 more songs. The last 2 were their favorite songs.
Here are the 8 5th graders that played tonight--There are 18 students in 5th grade, and there were a few that couldn't make it tonight. (Rusty teaches these kids)I hope this video works--this is my first attempt of downloading video onto my blog. This was the bands last song of the evening--and when they first started learning it, they "hated" it. (Brienna probably didn't because she is super talented and learns the songs in just a few days--rarely has to practice at home for the band pieces.) But the last month or so, they have come to love this song, and they all wanted this one to be the finale.
Let me tell you the rest of the story about tonight's concert: Monday after school (now Monday I was in town all day with Emmalee & Benjamin for his 6 mo. check-up & shots. We also went "shopping" and I barely made it back to teach piano--yes, I DID remember my students this time) Brienna handed me a paper about the concert (we knew about it before, but this had details of time, etc.) and it said she needed to be there at 6:30 so she could change into the band uniform. She also needed to bring 1 doz. cookies/dessert, and to wear a white-collared shirt, black socks & shoes. We bought the black shoes last fall for the marching band, but she hadn't needed a white-collared shirt before. She has plenty of white shirts--but no collars.
The only shirts I knew we had were the boys' church shirts--Callum's (way too small), Zane's (too small), Rusty's (too big) & Ethan's (way too big). I wasn't too happy because if I had known, I could have looked for a shirt at DI (thrift store) in town. Finally I had a chance to dig through the tote of clothes for Zane to grow into. And I luckily found a shirt :) I knew I kept those clothes for a reason ;)
But as Brienna was doing her last minute hair primping, she asked if I had made the cookies/dessert for tonight. I HAD TOTALLY FORGOT!!! If it doesn't get written on my calendar, then I don't remember things like that! I wasn't happy, because Zane said he too was supposed to bring a dessert too.
So I quickly made a double batch of rice crispy treats, nursed the baby and walked over to the school--(breathe, Michelle)!
Anyways, we survived the night. In the video, you can see how restless Emmalee is and a lady held Ben for a few minutes, but about 1 1/2 minutes into the last song, he started crying, so Rusty had to get him.
I think it is time for me to go and breathe myself to sleep--Good night!!
