Band and Choir Concert

(This is a redo, a bit late because I didn't notice it didn't post when I posted it.)

Adam is in band again this year, and Carus has joined the choir, and so the concert at the beginning of the year was for both of them.  

The fall concert shows what the kids have been learning so far that year and gives a little bit of a baseline of their skills for you to see how far they come by the end of the year concert in May.

Carus is in the middle front - with the light purple hair.

Adam is just to the right of that cello in the middle.  This was taken during set up for the next performance as the tromboners (and Adam) are in the back and you can't really see them/him (he's in the middle of 3 or 4 tromboners and well hidden from cameras).

Clip of the choir

Clip of the choirs, orchestra, and band. 

Clip of just the band.

Adam and the band

Last week Adam told us he had a band concert coming up.  He didn't remember what day or time though.  We reminded him for 2 days that he needed to find out but before he could remember to do that his teacher sent us the below link.

Apparently the newspaper did a little piece on the band and their upcoming concert.

And Adam makes an appearance in the video. Twice.

Check it out:
http://videos.oregonlive.com/leader/2013/12/forest_grove_high_school_symph.html

(Adam is the second tromboner seen at about 0:44 and again at 2:13.)

PS: The day we got the email, he came home still unable to tell us when the concert was. Silly kid.

Do you know what a Trombone player is called?

Do you know what a trombone player is called?

Well do you?

We do.

They're called Tromboners.

Heh heh Trom-boners.

Yeah, we enjoy being immature at times.

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We got Adam a new (to him) trombone for his birthday this year.  (Thank you Ebay)  It was at the top of his wish list.  It came early, and he saw the box delivered, so he got it early.  He is very excited about being able to play on his very own instrument throughout high school.

The end of the week

Hey look, it's the end of last week.

So where were we.

Oh yeah, last Wednesday and the final band concert of the year.  The school district, thanks to budget cuts (and it's mostly a real thanks and only a teensy bit of a sarcastic one), has one band director.  He teaches all band students from 5th grade through high school.  The end of the year concert is always a bit emotional.  He gets to show off how well his students have learnt over the year and has to say goodbye to his seniors, and their goodbye to such a great teacher is always emotional.  And awesome.  It's teachers like him that give me hope for our public school system.

149/365 - Carus playing the trumpet.  

And the band teacher can just stand back and watch them play, because he's that good.

Adam getting ready to play trombone.  

150/365 - Thursday, after work, Carus and I made little felt crowns for use in photo shoots with babies and little kids.  Though adults could wear them too, if they wanted. Carus did most of the sewing.  She enjoys sewing, I need to sew with her more often.  I think I'll schedule a sewing day soon.

The finished crowns, they're reversible.

151/365 - Friday, while Carus was at dance I walked the dogs. Then, back at the studio the dogs and I waited on the studio porch and watched a visiting hummingbird.  That bird liked those flowers so much it didn't mind how close I was.  I will be taking my camera to this week's' dance class. Cross your fingers that he returns.

Last week and road tripping

Wow, I'm nearly a full week behind in uploading.  Hadn't planned on that.

But really, does anyone plan to get behind in things?

Anyhoo - I left off at last Tuesday, with an evening full of band concert attending for this goofball. Just a quick "look what we can do" concert.
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 I think most of these concerts are to encourage parent support up through high school.  High school is where they get really good and I think it's where the band teacher, who teaches 5th grade through 12th grade on very limited funding and purchases sheet music out of his own pocket and drives to 3 different schools everyday (middle school and high school classes during school hours and then upper elementary band after school hours), gets to enjoy all his effort.  He really loves to listen to them play, and to teach; and that shows.

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Knitting to unwind after a lllooooonnngg day.  Changing colors, which I learnt thanks to Youtube.


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Playing with Leia after work before I had to start packing for our spring break road trip we took this weekend.


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We went over to eastern Washington to visit some family friends for the weekend, and had a lovely visit.  The drive out took longer then it should have, and then we expected, because Leia is a turd and wanted to climb into my lap (no room for her with Yoda on my lap) and/or Robert's lap (which doesn't work well with him driving). But we made it, and a good weekend ensued. They have a 4 month old shihtzu puppy, Sophie, which Carus attached herself to and carried around all weekend.  Thanks for having us Dave and Eula!

Sick days

Carus has been feeling poorly this week.  She came home from school early Monday and woke up a bit off Tuesday.  Since she didn't have a fever, and she begged me to go to school so she wouldn't miss a test and she could get her spelling homework (so she would have more than one day to do it), I let her go and she was fine.

Wednesday she woke up SICK and had a fever so I kept her home.  She begged to go again and when I told her no she started giving me a silent treatment. That sure showed me.  And it also didn't last long because how else was she going to tell me how awful she felt?

I "stayed home" from work to take care of her (she gets very whiny and clingy when sick) and by the afternoon I wasn't feeling great myself. But I was feeling guilty about not getting anything done around the house.  I did some laundry and a little bit of dishes before I was called away to cuddle with Carus while she was supposed to be napping but couldn't because she didn't feel good. I ended up taking a nap with her, which made me feel more guilty but did make me feel better.  Wednesday evening Adam had a band concert and since they aren't long and Carus was feeling better we all went.


Adam enjoys dressing up for his band concerts and was adamant about wearing his tie.  And I especially like band concerts for that. Not the best shot, he didn't want to pose for me, but I'll take it.

By the time we got home from the concert, Carus was feeling awful again and was at the point in her sickiness where she was crying over every little thing.  She required me to climb into her bed with her to go to sleep, which she hasn't needed for years now.  Is it wrong of me to have enjoyed that a little bit?

It was no surprise that this morning she was much sicker. She begged me to let her wake up and get up for a bit and then rolled over and went back to sleep before I could finish telling her no.  And because I wasn't feeling too hot (or feeling a little too hot, still had/have a low fever) I decided I would not feel guilty about using today as a chance for me to get better too.  I'm still working on that though.  Robert is helping and assuring me that I have nothing to feel guilty about, that I'm still a good mom even if I didn't do dishes and laundry today.  He also made dinner tonight - grilled cheese and soup.  He even made the grilled cheese exactly how I like it.


Carus just before bed time tonight - the time in bed and on the couch resting is helping - she's getting goofy and silly.

Bed time was just as hard though. "I don't want to go to bed.  I don't feel good." Well, duh kid. Go to bed, and stay there.

And now I'm going to bed early.  There is no school tomorrow so I don't have to get up early, and hopefully I'll wake up in the morning without my lungs feeling heavy, my throat sore and scratchy, my head no longer pounding, my sinuses not burning, and last but not least this darn fever gone.

But if not, Robert said he will stay home and take care of me.

Honors Band concert

Adam went in for the second day of the district Honor's band and for a concert.  The concert was only about 20 minutes long, but they played so well! Especially considering they spent about 9 hours of learning and practicing the pieces.  I got a short video on my cell phone, but Adam said about not being able to bring the sheet music home due to copyright rules I'm not going to post the video online since that might be an infringement as well.

Because he plays the trombone, he sits towards the back and I didn't have a good view of him for pictures.  It was nice to not worry about getting some good shots and just sit back and enjoy the music.

I did grab a shot as the middle school band was clearing out before the high school band took the stage.

Carus's first band concert

This evening was Carus's first band concert.  She was in the back so we couldn't see her too well.  Yay for my zoom lens. She is playing the trumpet now, and enjoying it.  The beginner band is doing pretty good.



We woke up this morning to a light dusting of snow that quickly melted only for it to start snowing about the time for the kids to head to school.

All day today, it would snow until there was a light covering and it would stop, melt, and start snowing again.



Drip drip drip

Little puddle in the yard.



The neighborhood little birdies were very active with the snow. I tossed some bird seed out for them and they distracted me from work a bit.



Yum! This photo cracks me up.



During one of the melts, the little birds took a bath in the little puddle.



Cute and distracting little birds.

'tis the season

'tis the season for for colds.

Robert is sick-y (head cold) and Carus complained of feeling icky this morning too.  Though I suspect it was because she didn't want to get out of her comfortable, warm bed and go to school.  She didn't have a fever and wasn't actively vomiting so I sent her to school with instructions to call me if she needed to come home.

She didn't.

Robert says that EVERYONE at work has the plague, so he's not really surprised he came down with something.  He'll be going to bed early and maybe I'll make him stay home tomorrow...

Hopefully my headache is unrelated to a cold and I'm not getting sick too.  I've been taking Emergen-C daily and will be taking some Nyquil tonight to knock myself out - my go-to plan to stop a cold from fully manifesting.  It works pretty well too.

It's good luck that the menu had homemade chicken noodle soup for dinner tonight.  Another really good cold treatment, in my opinion.  I use plenty of fresh garlic and even sneak in a little ginger, which are both good for colds.

In other news, before I forget to share AGAIN!

Carus has fully transferred to the trumpet in band after having too much trouble getting sound out of a flute and some problems when trying the clarinet.  She says she is loving the trumpet.  Her first band concert is next Tuesday.  I'm excited to watch and hear her play.  Because she is borrowing the instrument from the school and the particular instrument has a stuck on mouthpiece (if she sticks with it we'll buy her one of her own, but they're too expensive to buy if she isn't going to play for awhile) she hasn't been able to bring it home yet.

Adam is doing great in band himself.  Last month a special permission slip was sent home asking if it was okay if he was considered for Honor's Band.  We gave permission and he tried for it....and got it!  In January, he'll get to miss a full day of classes as he goes practice and learn with the rest of the Honor Band.  That is on a Friday.  He'll then go back to practice on Saturday and then Saturday evening there will be a concert. I'm excited for that too.  If I understand correctly, Adam is the ONLY middle school trombone player... or something.  It boils down to - he is really good.

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Playing with my tea - trying to capture a drip and resulting ripples.

End of the week

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Wednesday

Walking together to the bus stop in the fog.


The fog burnt off late morning and the day was sunny and warm with just a bite of cool fall air.  As the sun was setting, the fog moved back in.  There were two banks of clouds split allowing the last streaks of sun to show between them; the lower bank just covered the houses at the bottom of the hill.



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Thursday



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Friday

Last day of work this week, and last day before my vacation, and it started out with a bang with computer issues and insurance issues and ended with being hung up on by a doctor, but I did get the insurance issues worked out well.

Then dinner.  Then Carus's dance class. And now home.



And now YAY for vacation!  Let's just ignore the fact that it will be filled with cleaning and backing and taking the kids to the dentist.  Sunday will be a sewing and crafting day with friends, so there's that.

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Carus and her flute.



At first she was very frustrated she couldn't get a sound out of it, but we encouraged her to keep trying and watched a few tutorials on Youtube.  She can get a sound out of it now, though it doesn't sound like much.

Actually she and Robert are currently "playing" it in the kitchen right now.

I can't wait for it to sound like more!

She is learning though, as evident in her currently trying to teach her father to play the F note rather than just noise.

And then he gave up in favor of just noise...

The weekend catch-up and a bonus day too!

It was a three day weekend, which was nice. I spent my bonus day off at the dentist with the kids getting our teeth cleaned (they have no cavities, but I have two) and grocery shopping (blergh) but it was still a bonus day off where I actually got to sleep in so it was nice.  I was going to do the catch-up yesterday, but didn't get to it so I'm doing it early this morning cause I'm up anyways (I really hate 6 am), and now there's a bonus day to add to the catch-up.

Without further ado -

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Lexus, our friends' dog.  Such a sweetie.

Saturday we celebrated our anniversary, a day late.  We worked in the yard, went to lunch, hung out with some friends, and then saw MIB III and went to dinner.  Not as extravagant as last years Hawaii vacation, but nice.  I enjoyed myself.



149:366 - Sunday morning Robert and I worked in the yard again.  (Phone/instagram photo)

On Saturday, we were finally able to get the last of the poles cemented in, so Sunday we spent working on reshaping the hill into a gradual slope into the garden.  After several hours of tilling and moving clay, pulling out tons and tons of plastic*, digging out tree roots, and moving of more clay soil we stopped.  There is still more to do (*whimper*) but we've made progress so that's something.



*At some point, someone put down plastic over the entire yard before dumping soil on top and then planting, or planted and then put plastic down and topped with soil.  I don't get why, it doesn't help with weeds (trust me) but it does go ahead and kill plants.  It's why we've removed so many plants and trees.  Their roots were all at the surface because they were being suffocated under plastic or couldn't get below the plastic.  Because of it, they were weak and, in the case of the humongous tree we recently removed, dangerous.  We are gradually removing the plastic as we come across it, but unfortunately aren't able to get it all.  Every time we start digging and pulling out a chunk we are cursing whoever put it down in the first place.



150:366 - (Monday) Robert surprised me with creating a tomato support.


I've been trying to figure out the best way to stake my tomatoes this year.  I'm not happy with the traditional tomato cages.  They are not sturdy enough and at best are only good one year. (Okay, occasionally you can get two years, or turn it into a Christmas decoration. But still.)  It feels like a waste to purchase new cages all the time, especially when they collapse under the pressure of the plants and fruit.  There are tons of different kinds of cages/supports/trellis though, many that appear more substantial; however, I don't want to pay what the stores are charging.

When brainstorming with Robert I thought we could use the metal T-bar poles we had already (from fencing off the swampy area of the lawn) and the twine we had already and create a zig zag-ish support system for the tomatoes.  We need to buy more twine (which we will use for many other things anyways so I don't feel guilty or wasteful about it) and maybe add to it - but for now, it looks perfect.  He did it while I was out running errands and since I got back late I didn't go out to the garden the next day so it was a nice surprise.



151:366 - (Tuesday) Adam's final band concert.


At first I thought this was the view I was going to get for the concert, but shortly after I got this shot two other kids sat right in front of him and I was stuck with .... (see next photo)

.... this view the rest of the concert.




Oh well.

The band played well.  Adam has made great progress and enjoyed his first year of band.  He's already signed up to do band again next year and I'm excited for more concerts.  Hopefully we can get him his very own trombone this summer/next fall.

Band Concert (24:366)

This evening Adam had his second band concert this year.

And this time, I'm on the ball and have videos uploaded! I know, shocking.

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Video 1, sorry it's sideways.  I never remember that I can't rotate the darn things. I'll figure it out someday.



Video 2