Perfect weather for a hayride...

Sunday evening we had a wonderful time at our church weiner roast and hayride.

Thanks to Antlerman and Creative C for being pilot and co-pilot, the hayride was a BLAST!


I love this picture, AJ looks up to Robert so much and it really tickled me that Robert took the time to roast AJ some marshmallows.













Yes, I got permission, it is official, this is Tika. We found out that not only does Robert have a lot in common with her, but our families have a lot in common. Robert was telling her about Geocaching on the way home, she informed us that she and her dad go geocaching quite often. In fact, we have found some of the caches that they hid!

Look who came to practice!!

We were all practicing away and who walked in the door but Miss D!!!!

It sure was great to see her and amazing to me that she can still make that trombone sing!

Game, What Game? I came to see the BAND!!!

What a fun day!! Eastern Illinois University's Marching Panthers invited the Marching Eagles to come and spend a day with them. Seeing as how several of the Marching Panthers are Marching Eagles Alumni (including Robert's good friend Greg Sainer), the kids had a lot of fun. First off they performed a concert together on the steps of Doudna hall... This is the sections getting ready, Robert is right above the section leader , who is walking (and looks and acts a lot like Josh Welling!)
Of course, this is a picture of Greg, with the cool shades on.
The whole band, their uniforms match so well, you really can't tell there are two bands there. After the concert they marched together to O'Brien Stadium.
The Marching Eagles watched as the Marching Panthers preformed their pregame show and then at half time (yes, there really was a football game), the Panthers preformed their salute to Santana, it was a really neat show as well.
When the game was over the Panthers held a post game concert then introduced the Marching Eagles to take the field and do their show. After the performance, the Panthers invited the Eagles to come and have pizza with them in the Red Zone. It was quite a nice break from competitions (seeing as how there wasn't any close enough for us to go to this weekend) but also gave them a chance to perform and keep sharpening that show.

Next week, we head to McKendree, the Marching Eagles are defending Grand Champions there.

Jasper County Teachers, WOW!

I have to tell you, I continue to be amazed at our teachers here in Japser County. Most of you know Robert was diagnosed in 5th grade with visual perception problems (aka dyslexia). That was when we were in Olney. I personally felt like the help he got there was slim and none. He basically missed 5th grade and most of 6th grade.

When we moved to Newton, Lori Kocher was his resource teacher. In three months at the end of Robert's 6th grade year, Robert made more progress than he had forever at Olney. Then, when we came to the high school, Anthea Zumbahlen had him. She too, just always went above and beyond what I ever expected and didn't mind e-mailing me daily if needed, to let me know what was going on.

This year, he has Jeanette Hickox, and once again, I am very excited. Robert always carries a full schedule and with band and chorus both, it would be so easy for these teachers to just say forget it, but they don't.

When I got the mail this evening, there was a card from Mrs. Hickox, just letting us know that though they are limited on time she enjoys working with Robert and appreciates his willingness too. This is not the first letter we have received, last year, we would receive things from his different teachers, praising Robert. This is probably just one more reason why I feel that Jasper County is the best place on earth.

Shhh.......I've got a secret........

I think my dear darling little boy has a girlfriend. That's probably all I should say for right now, to keep from winning the "Big Mouth Mom" Award. He has a date for homecoming though.

The Grave of a "Witch"

While going through my pictures over my lunch hour, I came across this one. Back in August, when we went to the Balloon Festival in Lincoln, we took a little side trip to do some geocaching. This was a virtual geocache that was intriguing to me.

I couldn't find the dates on when the woman died but by the looks of the tree and the way the tree has grown through the fence, it was a long time ago. Nobody even remembers the woman's name. All they remember is she was a young woman who often challenged the Amish beliefs and spoke her mind freely. This wasn't looked up wisely with the Amish and eventually the woman disappeared. A few days later, she was found, dead in a field, even though she was young, nobody in the community questioned the decision that she died of natural causes. When she was buried, the community planted a tree on top of her grave, to keep her spirit from escaping because she had been branded a witch.

It was WAY off the beaten path to get to this place, I love geocaching, if you have a GPS, you need to check out geocaching.com. We try to find a few places to go find little treasures wherever we go. By the way, this is outside an amish community called Chesterville, just a few miles from Arcola.

Alumni Band Time!!!

Hey all you Newton Marching Eagles that are no longer in high school, it's Alumni Band time!! We had practice last Sunday, and as you can tell, it would sure be nice to have a few more people!

I always love getting together for Alumni band. You know Battle Hymn still sends chills up my spine and I can't play I Saw the Light without remembering the crowd cheering in Pasadena when we were putting on the stand and play because a float in front of us was on fire.

This Sunday at 3:00 in the band room, hope to see you all there!

Fall Festival Parade

So What do ya' think of the new trailer? It has taken a lot of planning over the summer, we had a couple of LONG band booster meetings, but thanks to David Mahaffy taking the reigns, we have the band a new 48" trailer. The other trailer had been around since I was in band, 1982 to be exact. It was well past it's prime. This one is bigger, and thanks to Randy Shryock leading up the design of the inside, it is tailored to the band's needs. We also bought new rolling uniform racks that we can roll down the back ramp and let the kids not be so congested trying to get all the equipment. I am very proud to have been a part of the Band Boosters as we made all this happen for our kids.

I am also VERY PROUD of these kids. What a group! On any given day, there are some of them at our house, or I get to be around them when we are at competitions. I have to say, we were close knit when I was in band, but I think these kids are closer.

I hate it when school districts think they can do away with band and chorus programs. I know not every school is fortunate enough to have what Newton has but I was in both and feel like I learned more about life from Band and Chorus than I did from the school books. For one thing, I learned way back then that when you want something, you not only have to work for it yourself, you have to work for it as a team. I also learned that coming home dog tired is usually worth it.

Another thing I have learned is when you work together on a program, there is more loyalty and friendship there than if you are just acquaintances.

Good Job Kids, You are GREAT!

I Love my job, I love my job.......

I really do love my job, I have had a less than stellar day, but I love my job, so...Creative C has told me that blogging is great therapy. This post is for me, to help me remember why I love my job in the first place and to "get over it".

Most of you know I work for a community action agency, our main goal as an agency is to fight the war on poverty. When I started looking for a job 8 years ago, I wanted to make a difference in more lives than just Andrew and Robert's. I really wanted to make a difference in the world. I feel I do, one family at a time. My MAIN job is working with the LIHEAP program, LIHEAP stands for Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program. We help the elderly, disabled and low income families survive the winter cold and the summer heat. Contrary to popular belief, most of our clients have jobs, they just don't have the wages to make ends meet.

My job description doesn't really tell you what I do. We have 10 field offices in 9 counties. These 10 offices take applications for the program, put them in the Internet based computer program called LIHEAP.net. They take the basic information on the clients and fill out all the necessary paperwork. This time of year, they average taking about 60 applications per week per office (do the math, that's about 600 apps a week!). When the end of the week comes, those applications all come to me. Between me and our LIHEAP clerk (who has been out sick since the beginning of September) we check all the apps to make sure everything the state requires for the grant is in the application. Then I put them all on a register in the LIHEAP.net system. Basically, if you apply for LIHEAP, I get to be the one to say it is okay for you to get it. At this point, my supervisor works with the money part and the utility companies to get these grants out.

LIHEAP.net can be a trial in itself. Like most computer programs, it can only do so much and there are times you have to finagle it to do what you want it to do. I have kinda of made a reputation for myself as goto girl when you need to manipualte the program. I have to admit it makes me feel good when our grants manager from Springfield calls and asks me how to do something. (yes, I'm bragging just a bit--remember I've had a bad day and need an ego boost).

For the last 3 years we have also administered the Keep Warm Illinois program. This is a consumer education program where we go out into the community and teach people how to be more energy efficient. The last 2 years I have done the presentations for that. I really like doing that because I feel I am making a difference there too. I have learned many things for our own knowledge too, simple little things like vacuuming out the coils on your fridge and making sure you change your furnace filter or at least check it every month. One of my favorite tips is when you are doing laundry. While you are folding the clothes out of the dryer, set your washer for an extra spin cycle. That 3 minutes of spin can save you up to 25 minutes of drying time in the dryer.

I have just recently started working with the PIPP program, this is a Perecentage of Income Payment Program that is in conjunction with the Ameren companies. This is what has caused all of my problems today. Our computer system isn't working exactly right and there are days it can become very frustrating. I hate having to ask for help anyway and today when I contacted my "helpful" person in Springfield, I wasn't very happy with his behavior or his "help" and this happened at 7:05 this morning. I kinda blew a gasket and it is a good thing Springfield is 2 hours away...anyway...deep breaths, deep cleansing breaths..........

PIPP will eventually be a great program (okay, I have more faith in it than my boss does, we decided that probably keeps us balanced on it) The deal with PIPP is people who have Ameren and are all electric household can choose to do the PIPP program instead of traditional LIHEAP. On the PIPP program, they pay 10% of their income to Ameren each month, they are set up on budget billing and we pay what is over 10%. This helps those who are seriously trying to get out of poverty use their extra income to pay other bills, keep the vehicles running so they can get to work, keep clothes on their kids' backs. It also helps them learn to pay their bills every month. Along with the program is financial counseling. I feel this is the greatest part of the program, where we can truly help people live on a budget. (Of course I am a "budgetaholic" my budget right now is done through next March).

Now for those things that aren't the main part of my job, but still very important to me:

I get to teach computer classes to our clients who are wanting better jobs but don't have the computer skills necessary. This is called an Employment Resource Lab class so I also teach resume writing and job search skills. One night during the classes, Andrew comes up and does mock interviews with our clients. This last summer I taught a class specifically for Experience Works, a sister agency who helps those 55 and older find jobs. My oldest student just turned 88 and is very proud that she knows her way around a computer (and yes, she does have a job!)

Another little side thing I do is the agency website http://www.erbainc.org/ I revamped it a couple of years ago and now I keep it up to date. I am getting ready to teach another girl in the office how to do this next month. It has a couple of things that needs to come down, hopefully on Monday, I've been a little busy (remember 600 apps a week).

That's it, that's my job. Why do I love my job?

Last week on the phone, when I told an elderly woman who had just lost her husband that we could help her pay her bills and that the girls in our offices would even help her get things changed over to her own name, she cried. She had no idea how to do any of this stuff, he had done everything. I know she hung up feeling not quite so alone.

A lady came in my office several years ago, when I was still in the Olney office. She had just made the decision to make her abusive husband move out. She didn't fear for her life as much as she did for her children ages 3,4 &5. She had no income as she had stayed home while he was an executive with a local company. She had no clue where to even start but she knew she couldn't handle her children being in danger. Today, she is a school teacher in a neighboring county. She has three of the brightest kids I have ever seen and they are all happy and healthy and well taken care of. She credits the day she walked into our office as one of the best decisions she ever made in her life.

My very first night of my very first class, a young woman walked into my class, looked at me and said, "I am so nervous, I think I am going to puke". I laughed and said, "I know exactly what you mean". During the time she was in my class her young daughter made a statement that she wanted to grow up to be a bartender just like her mommy. This broke this girls heart and she decided right then and there, if she could handle my class she could go back to college. She started college that fall, and imagine her surprise when she went to get her computers textbook. It was the same book we used! Her assignments were even the same. She is now in her second year of college studying business administration. She has already had job offers for when she gets out of school and actually volunteers in one of our offices.

Yes, all of that far outweighs the little dimwit I had to deal with in Springfield today. And yes, C, you are very right, I am feeling much better. I probably bored everyone to tears but oh well. I guess every once in while we ought to be able to do something for ourselves. :-)

Change to Band Schedule

Just a quick update on some changes to the Performance/ Competition schedule for the band.

September 27th, the band is performing at the EIU Football game-kickoff is 1:30.

October 4th, we were supposed to go to Robinson, but they cancelled their competition so we are headed back over to Lebanon IL to McKendree college for their competition. Our kids took Grand Champion at this competition last year.

This weekend of course, is the fall festival and ONLY the fall festival. For many years, the kids have been in the parade, loaded on buses and headed to O'fallon, which was last weekend. The fall festival is actually a week later this year, which means on top of everything else. The kids actually get to ENJOY the fall festival!

The parade is at 10:00 tomorrow, with the High School band performing last as well as having a stand and play uptown on the square.

(BTW, I am having a rummage sale before and after the parade (pullin' up the sign and puttin' the door down so I can see our kids during the parade) so if you want to rummage, stop by!)

10! Can you believe it?? 10!!!

Oh yes, I am excited! So excited that I couldn't wait to get the pictures posted, we had 10 kids at our youth group last night. Then, to top it off, I wish you would have seen them get into the lesson. Our lesson books are called "God-colored glasses" and I am EXTREMELY excited about it. It is showing these kids that the opinions they form right now are going to shape their thinking for the rest of their lives. Last night, the lesson pretty well introduced the concept, you had to really think about these questions: "Who are you?" Where did you come from?" "Where are you going?" "Why are you here?" Some of them have thought about that a lot, some not so much. Last night, they did though.

I was telling them that when I was their age there was a lot of craziness in my life. When I was a freshman in high school, my mom was really sick, the doctors told me and my 24 year old sister that it was very likely she would not make it- my dad had died just 11 months earlier. I was saved, my whole family was saved. I knew my dad was in heaven, I knew that was where my mom would go but I had to ask God, "Why me?" I took the stance of feeling sorry for myself in a big way, there was times that I should have been praying for my mom to get better that I was too busy being mad at God for putting me there. Now, as I have gotten older, when bad things happen, I have to look at it differently, I still say "why?" but it's not a self-pity thing, it is a "what am I supposed to learn from and do about this?".

I told the kids last night, I believe beyond a shadow of a doubt that one of my purposes in life was to be THEIR leader and teacher. Because of the things that happened in high school in my life, that time is magnified. I remember most things, good and bad like it was yesterday. And I told them, I didn't feel like he put me on this earth to be A youth group leader but specifically for every person that walked in that door last night. God put us all in that place for a reason. I LOVE those kids. I think the greatest thing though, is they love being there too. God gave us relationships and good ones, I had 4 of these kids at my house before AWANA last night, at any given time I will have some of them there. I think probably one of the greatest things that has ever been said to me was said last week at Awana. One of my kids (and it wasn't Robert) said they were talking to their friends about who they would call if they ever got in enough trouble to go to jail. The one person said "I told them I would call Mindy Browning, she wouldn't bail me out, but she would know I would be scared, and I know she would come and at least sit in the building because I was there."

That's my purpose in life.

Monday Night- Truck Night

Since the onset of band practice, AWANA, football games and band competitions, Robert has exactly one night a week free. That means one treasured evening a week working on his truck. The goal date for totally drivable is November 5th, the day he will be eligable for his license.

What is left:

Repairing a hole in the exhaust

Rewiring the lights and gauges

Replacing a windshield (this just happened a few weeks ago, sore subject for both of them, nevertheless, it's gonna need fixed)

Last night, they started working on the exhaust, they didn't get very far as there is something about bolts needed to come off that aren't very willing, but it's a start and they have the parts ready to fix it when it comes to that.

Last Wednesday night, Garrett asked Robert what he would do if something happened to that truck, as much work as he has put into it. I had to laugh and explain that there wasn't too much that hadn't already happened to the truck. It has been rear-ended, rear-ended another vehicle, had a tree fall on it (it wasn't a ficus), sideswiped and then, just for good measure, ran into a garage door. The only original part of the body is the passenger side door.

My dad would have been so proud though and I can't help thinking about the song "Riding with Private Malone" every time I see Robert get in the truck.

Marching Eagles take 2nd at Metro East!!

What a day!!! The Marching Eagles did their first "two-fer" since Robert has been in band and it became a busy day for all of us. Of course, the highlight of the day is living up to ILMarching.com's predictions that we would take second last night to Mater Dei. If you have ever seen Mater Dei's band website, you will know those kids don't hardly get any summer at all for all the camps they do. We are VERY proud!! The Auxillary (Flag girls for those of you who don't speak field show) got best in class also.

We placed 6th at Belleville, we weren't expecting anything there in the first place, they had us classed with many larger bands. We had never been there before either. I'm not speaking directly for our director, but she has mentioned liking to just get out of the gate and get some critiques as to where to go from where we are.

The kids went to Belleville, dressed, warmed up, marched, undressed, ate, got on the bus, went to O'fallon, had a band meeting, dressed, warmed up, marched, undressed and finally about 6:00 last night had some real time to relax.

Andrew and I ( me being the "I have to see them all" person) got to Belleville at 11:00, watched the competition knowing the awards were at 3:30 and our kids performed again at 4:45 but I think I am superwoman and can do it all so.... We realized at 3:00 that if we moved the van to a bank parking lot behind the field, we would be ready to drive away as soon as we heard results. We only missed two bands and I hate to be this way but they were class A bands, if I had to miss any, that would be my choice ( sorry any class A people out there). We ran through Taco Bell, got huge drinks, into the parking lot, recorded all the scores then set Georgia (my GPS) to get us to O'fallon asap. O'fallon was getting concerned there would be rain so they started the contest TWO MINUTES early. If they would have started on time, we wouldn't have missed a thing, we were about 6 feet from the ticket booth when Carbondale went on the field, we still saw them just not from the stands.

What a great, great, day!!! I am so proud of these kids, the show is coming along, their next actual competition is the 4th of October, basically against a lot of the same bands. I honestly believe when they get the show cleaned and they are secure with it, they will be unstoppable!!

I was thrilled with our first group of kids. I got a text message from one of our girls saying they had a student council meeting so they couldn't make it (it used to be things didn't happen outside of church on Wednesday night, what happened to that?). Anyway, she was sure there would be 3 of them there next week. So, as you can see, we started out with 5 boys. 4 Sophmores and a Freshman. Several of them thought they would invite friends. We did our planning, laying out what they wanted to study, play and do for extra curricular activites. Is it any surprise that one of the first things on the list was a Super Bowl party? Hope the girls are up for it!
As excited as I was yesterday, it doesn't hold a candle to where I am today. We are going to have a TERRIFIC year!!!

AWANA starts tonight!!!!

I have been anxiously awaiting today. Our first night of AWANA and our first night of being the leaders for the high school gang. I am SO excited!!! I am anticipating 7 showing up tonight. I am also anticipating LOTS of fun and learning about our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ and our Awesome God. I think what has made the most excited is that the kids are excited. I have received many text messages over the summer wanting to know when Awana starts again-that is something AWESOME!!!

We are having our "planning" meeting tonight. I decided these kids are old enough to get to have a say in what we do this year. I think it will be great!!!

Class ring time

Well, the day has come that he is old enough to order his class ring. do you see his choices (the top one is mechanic's tools)? Talk about seperate ends of the spectrum. I think that means he is well balanced.

The funniest thing about the whole class ring saga. The brochure he brought home had pages and pages of different ring sides. Would you believe there was one whole section where every guys ring had "Robert" as the name. When his friends asked how that could be, his answer was "I'm just that awesome!" Chuck Norris has nothing on him, honestly!!

Competition Schedule 2008

The Marching Eagles start their competition season next Saturday the 13th with a "two-fer" trip to the western side of the state. Here is there schedule:

Sept 13th Belleville East Marching Invitational, Bellville, A.M. (*performance time 12:45)
Metro East Marching Classic, O’Fallon P.M (*performance time 4:45)
Sept 20th Newton Fall Festival Parade
Oct 4th Marching Maroon Marching Festival
Oct 11th Indiana State University Competition
Oct 18th Newton Marching Eagles Band Classic, exhibition, A.M
Effingham Marching Hearts Invitational, P.M
Oct 25th llini Marching Band Festival, Champaign.

*Performance times based on midwestmarching.com and may be subject to change

First Sight of New Uniforms

Newton had it's home opening football game last night (We beat Olney 28-19). It was the first time the band performed any of the drill for their show and most importantly, the first time the new uniforms were worn. We passed out shoes, plumes, gloves and gauntlets at 5:00 yesterday evening, so it was the first time the kids had even had the entire uniform on. They are really snazzy and make a big impact just by the kids turning one way or the other.

On a side note, of course, we used to live in Olney. One of Olney's key players was Gabe McVaigh. Gabe was one of Robert's best friends when we lived at Olney. Gabe is 6'2". It was a little remarkable to see that little boy he should be out there doing such a good job playing football.

Sophmore picture

Hey all, Robert got his pictures! Okay, the kid doesn't have an ego problem to begin with, so I shouldn't write this at all but I have to admit, he's a good looking kid!!

Happy LABOR day!!!!

After many hours of working our tails off today, Robert announce that he now understood why we have Labor Day. I will admit, we worked pretty hard today. We started out the day by cleaning the guest room, I have a whole attic for storage but it seems that guest room is the catch all--something about climbing the stairs...oh well, it's clean, maybe we can keep it that way a couple of weeks. I always feel bad when Robert has friends over and one of them ends up on the floor when there is a perfectly good bed in the other room.

We also cleaned up the basement which is Robert's other living space. I have invited some of his friends to come here after school on band practice nights, they have a wonderful place to chill out when it's clean, it's clean now. Hopefully, we can keep it that way for a few weeks too.

This week is yet another busy one at our house, Robert has band Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Andrew, of course works Tuesday- Friday nights. I start our busiest time of the year tomorrow with the LIHEAP program. Wednesday, I travel to Olney and Lawrenceville and Thursday I will be in Springfield.

There's one thing about it, there is never a dull moment around here!!

Have a happy Labor Day! Hope you didn't "labor" as much as we did!