Say Goodbye to October

October 2009 was probably one of the craziest months so far in my life. For the most part, it was good; I just never imagined my life would be like this. I thank God for every part of my life and the people who are in it. There are times he takes me on a real roller coaster but I feel like I am heading down the path He wants me to be on.

Here a couple more pictures from Lexington. There are lots of horses, of course. These were taken at Kentucky Horse Park. Our hotel touted that it had views of the Red Mile track...Carol and I both had rooms that looked out onto the parking lot. Oh well...

Robert and I went to Effingham last Friday night to price the parts for his exhaust. The sky was so beautiful on the way over I couldn't resist.

Band season 2009 is in the books. There are tons of new trophies in the bandroom as a result. The show was awesome and classy this year. I am sure the kids were sad to see it be over too.

We came home from Oblong with a first in auxillary (Congrats girls, that made it a clean sweep of the year--everywhere we went, auxillary placed first). The rest of the awards from Oblong: Percussion 2nd, Drum Major 2nd, overall 2nd.

Great job Newton Marching Eagles.

Browning Family Update

What a week it has been! This one will definately be remembered for a while. It is probably the closest I have ever came to being truly about to have a real comeapart.

We ordered 4 new computers for work, one of them being for our Executive Director, our main boss. Last Monday, after I had put all the programs and settings on it for her, put all of her documents, emails, and email addresses on it. We figured out that we hated the setup. She previously had a 15.4 in laptop and a replicator. We bought a 17 in laptop and a "dynadock". It was a BIG step backwards and I was just sick over the results. Cords everywhere, the dock would not let the laptop screen black out while you were using the monitor and the laptop didn't have a secure port for the monitor, so if you plugged into it, which had to be plugged in on the side, you were constantly accidentally unplugging your monitor. I had a second computer ready to go with all the programs and settings, just not the personal information. The problem was, I had used both computers, they were what I had ordered and the total of all the computers and the dynadocks was well over $5,000. Yesterday, our system provider agreed to take all four of them back and sell us what I wanted in the first place. I know nobody in the building was blaming me--except me. I slept so hard last night it isn't even funny. Of course, it was the first night this week I had slept at all. I am still thanking God for his hand in this. I was not wanting to have to eat two computer systems that nobody liked or wanted.

In the meantime, Andrew's Aunt Ina Lou passed away in Cape Girardeau. We didn't go, she was the only member of the family left in Cape and has had Alzheimer's for several years. This was my mother-in-law's sister and after she passed away, my father-in-law was still in charge of her care. He flew out from Texas to take care of the final arrangements. Robert had actually went to Cape with Bob this summer to check on her, he was the last one in our house to see her. She had a hard life and I know it had been painful on both Bob and Linda watching her in such a state. I am sure Bob feels like she is at peace now.

The bright note of the week: the kid is moving from Baritone to Tuba. He is excited. He loves learning new things. He started with Trumpet, then Baritone and now Tuba. He is trying to talk Mrs. A into teaching him how to play Trombone next year just so he can say he knows how to play every brass instrument.

He is also getting ready for the pops concert- November 12th and 13th. Last night was the last evening band practice of the year and Saturday we travel to Oblong for the last competition.

I believe the highlight of this week has been Tuesday evening. Newton Elementary and Jasper County Jr. High put on a talent show. Wow!! I know I have been an emotional wreck this week but seeing those kids made me want to cry. In a world, where there is so much bad, we are blessed with so much good. We have a LOT of awesome kids in Jasper county-- and to top it off, they can sing and tumble and recite poetry! The performances were amazing but the time that was taken to practice and prepare is what hits home with me.

People who do not believe music programs can change lives have never been in a music program. When you are part of something that is all about performance you learn how to be a part of the team. A field show is only as good as it's weakest member, a talent show, the weakest act. These kids are learning that it's not all about them. It's about what you can do together as a team. Wow, if that isn't a life lesson, I don't know what is. You learn to hold up your end of the deal, you learn that you can't skate by because of who you know, you have to do the work or the spectators will know you didn't. Most importantly, you learn that it doesn't matter how much money you have or who your parents are but it's all about what YOU can do with hard work. I realize now that being in band and chorus taught me that you don't go to work seeing how much the light can shine on you, but how much the light can shine on what you are accomplishing, and it is so much easier to accomplish big things when you have people beside you, wanting to accomplish the same thing. Once in a while, you get someone who wants to run everything, and deep down inside, I know....they weren't taught that being part of a team is far greater than standing alone.

Last night, the girls on facebook were talking about halloween costumes. I went upstairs to look for pictures of Robert in some of his costumes and realized I have a bunch of pictures that are in need of attention. I have scrapbooked the last few years but I have a crate of pictures that I am going to have to sort before they get ruined. Hopefully tonight I will find my pictures but in the meantime I created a BUNCH more work for myself.

Robert has another El Camino project too, last Friday, the muffler fell of the truck. Tonight he is going to Effingham to buy all the stuff for a new exhaust, including a cherry bomb. This should be interesting.

Enough of my ramblings, I am SO ready for this day! Happy Friday everyone!

Lexington

Told you I would start taking pictures again!! Second night in Lexington. Things are going well. I wish I had more time to spend with the program and system I am supposed to be learning but I will do what I can. The building to the left in the bottom picture is where are meetings are--the Hilton. There is a series of skywalks between all the buildings downtown. Three of the four buildings actually are upscale--very upscale--shopping malls. I walked them all over lunch hour today. Tomorrow I am going back to the Victorian Shoppes. There was a portrait shoppe there, a lady was actually painting as I walked by. I want to go back and stare tomorrow.

Carol and I went to the real mall tonight. Talk about a weird mall! It is the largest mall in KY, I fell sorry for Kentucky! The mall at Champaign would give it a run for it's money-- St. Louis Mills would eat this mall for breakfast. Anyway, a new purse and sweater later and we were back home to our "suitette"-- I call it that because, yes, it is nice, but I think a "real" suite is supposed to be separate rooms, my room is cozy. The tv is on a wall that is half in the living room, half in the bedroom, you turn it to face whichever you are in. It's nice though, and clean and that is a big plus and I have big plans to curl up on the sofa with a cup of fresh brewed decaf and the Jennifer Weiner book I purchased last night. Oh, by the way, back to the mall--you walk THROUGH the middle of Sears to get from one side of the mall to the other.

I will try to take more pictures of the scenery on our way home. The rolling hills of changing trees were beautiful!

I am missing my guys, I honestly thought I would be better this time but Robert was sick when I left and I think that has changed the dynamic. He sounds better tonight, but thinking my baby was sick and I wasn't there tugged at my heartstrings a bit, even when I get "MOM, I think I can take care of myself--it's just a bad cold" Last night, I couldn't get ahold of either one of them --they had both went to bed by 8:00--I had it in my head Robert got deathly sick and Andrew had taken him to the ER. I STILL couldn't get ahold of them this morning, but my mom had to remind me I was an hour ahead and they probably weren't even up. She was right.

Till later,

The Weekend

Those of you that also are my friends on Facebook have already seen these, but I know I have some family members who aren't on facebook, so....
The above happened on Friday night. You remember those days, you are supposed to act all mad about this when you are a teen, but hey, the fact that someone took the time.....remember those days? Moms are also supposed to be mad when teepee shows up in your yard, so I did my "it better be picked up by the time I get home". Once again, just glad he has friends.

The Newton Marching Eagles at U of I, they looked SHARP!!

as well as in the parade--Robert is in the center of this row.

Robert and Trygve clowning around in the stands.

As I said earlier, it goods to have friends.

Nearing the end....

It's now down to 2, 2 days till will leave for Lexington. My last day of work. I am starting it out at the Newton Sr. Center, installing a printer. Then back up to my office to tie up tons of loose ends. I had planned on getting two new laptops ready for their users by today. They were supposed to be delivered Wednesday. I still haven't seen them. That will have to wait until I get back, actually until the Monday after I get back. I don't want to install their new systems and have something not be tweaked just right and be 270 miles away.

I thought this would clear up a lot of time for today, remarkably it didn't.

Tonight, the mop is getting cut off, I CAN'T WAIT!! It has gotten entirely too long and the only thing that stopped me from getting it cut sooner was time. It is down to the last minute, it HAD to be done before Sunday. I had even debated walking into the shop at Walmart if nothing else. They don't know my hair like Amanda though so the thought was scary but not out of the question.

Tomorrow the kids head to U of I. I truly believe it will be a good day for them. I haven't sat down with all the stats from the other bands yet, but I will. I got such a kick out of Bruce last year. We marched first in our class last year. While we were at the parade, Bruce said if we would have marched later in the class, we would have gotten 2nd, but since we marched first, we were going to get third. He nailed it. I had, by the stats, put us in 2nd. We march 2nd to last in our class this year--that's a great thing!


Oh, somebody asked WHY I am going to Lexington. We are having PACE training. PACE is the accounting software used for the agency, used for a lot of government agencies actually. While I am not an accountant (Thank you Lord, and of course, anyone who knows me is thanking him too, especially if they get paid by ERBA--I am not good with numbers--I like mine in the form of reading reports, not writing them) Anyway, as I was saying, while I am not an accountant, being the IT Coordinator makes it necessary for me to learn all the software used by the agency, so if something breaks, I know how to fix it, or when I can't fix it how to call support and explain accurately what is malfunctioning. Seeing as how I haven't had time to learn to do anything more than install the software, I will not have to worry about confusing what I already know with what I am learning. Thankfully, Carol, who is the other lady going, works with it everyday.

Sidenote--yesterday it took Five, count 'em, FIVE Verizon techs to figure out what was wrong with our wireless card. I kept telling them I felt like they needed to reset something on their end. The first one told me I needed to update software, the second one told me I needed to uninstall the old program after the update (that one didn't make sense and didn't work). The third one said it was MY computer, the fourth one gave me to the fifth one who said, "Let me reset our DMU". It worked. My boss was funny, she said, "When are they going to learn that when you call, it is a problem on their end!". Glad she has so much faith in me! Glad I was right, I had lost a bit of patience after person number 3.

So, here we go, the last 48 or so hours. Have a mentioned yet that I found out last night that the largest shopping mall in Kentucky is in Lexington? We get out at 4 each evening, except Sunday, our meeting Sunday is 4 to 6 and is a meeting, not a dinner or anything fun, I can't believe we are having a meeting on Sunday but oh well.

Happy Friday, y'all. Hope it's great!

BTW, I have committed myself to this being the weekend I return to loving my camera. My posts WILL start having pictures again, SOON!

Congratulations Robert!

For making the cut to District IMEA in chorus. Looks like we have a concert to go to at Eastern Illinois University on November 21st.

Good job kiddo!

Down to 6

My countdown is going REALLY fast!! I have accomplished so much though and am really proud of where I am starting the week. Last week I installed a total of 10 computers. I have a few "finishing touches" to put on tomorrow but by the time I get home tomorrow evening, that will be completely crossed off the list.

The 2009 band classic is in the books--what a relief!!! I did much better handling the stresses of tabulator this year. I actually haven't lost any sleep over it this time and KNOW it was correct. Eventhough it was cold, the sun shone and we had a successful day. Effingham went well and our kids did amazing. We had a marching judge AND a general effect judge crucify us, don't know why, all the other judges seemed to love us. The end results were 1st place auxiliary, percussion, and music. 2nd place overall for our class. Considering we were against several other bands, it was still a great showing!

This morning Robert heads to IMEA auditions at Effingham. I think he is ready as he is going to be. He has practiced for this and I am proud of him for it. Yesterday afternoon, he went into church where he could use the piano (he doesn't like "pecking out notes" on our electric piano). I wish him all the luck in the world and have seen his voice improve over working on this.

Andrew and I are headed to covered bridge today. I felt a little bad about leaving Robert behind until I realized Robert was feeling a little relieved at being left behind. He plans on going to work at Nana's house when he gets home. I think he thinks he got the better end of the deal so that worked to my advantage.

This week should be a breeze compared to the last couple. No class this week, no ballgame at home this week. Just Awana, a quick choir practice, hopefully a basket bingo Friday night, U of I Saturday and then leave for Lexington at 8 am Sunday morning. I have already positioned myself not to have work hanging over my head while I am gone and I have the world's greatest assistant so I know I don't have to worry about things while I am gone either.

Bring on the final countdown!