Sunday, September 26, 2010

A Saturday to Remember

First of Congrats to the Newton Marching Eagles. 1st in EVERYTHING in their class at the Effingham competition. They brought home five trophys; music, color guard, percussion, drum major, and first overall. Newton is back and that honestly makes me tear up for more reasons than just my kid being in the band!

Robert gave everyone a scare while they were warming up, apparently he passed out and Mr. Ridlen was sure we was having a seizure. When he came out of it, he doesn't remember what happened. I am pretty sure he was dehydrated. In our family, of course we always worry about sugar but he came out of it without eating anything and when I asked him how much he had drank compared to normal, we realized it probably wasn't nearly enough.

We tanked him up on water and he was able to do his solo and march the show without any problems. His and Logan's solos were both AWESOME last night!

This was all after a week of the band director having surgery to remove kidney stones on Thursday. His first year of being the band director will be one to remember too! I was so proud of his dedication to the kids though part of me really hopes he didn't push it too far yesterday and I am hoping and praying he is RESTING today. I didn't get the Newton Exhibition packet to him yesterday from our own competition so he can't worry about that one until Monday.

1st competition of his senior year: competing with the Blue Angels. 2nd competition, he passes out. He definately is making this a year to remember.

I think he has learned his lesson though and hopefully will pay more attention to the amount of fluids he is taking in.

I don't have pictures of the competition. I am waiting on my sister to make it down and get some really good ones.

I got another "last" over with, it is one I will miss but I am REALLY glad it's done. Our own band classic is in the books, and I have served my last year helping with the tabulation. In fact, Glenna, the one taking over for me, put all the scores in yesterday, I just double checked them....which means I slept last night. I normally don't sleep from the time those scores go in until Monday afternoon when I know nobody has called and thrown a fit over the results. We actually had one judge that added wrong on two of his score sheets yesterday, so if we hadn't done our jobs correctly, there could have been some unhappy people.

So today I am truly planning a day of rest and this week as well.

If you get a chance, we go to Robinson next weekend. I personally believe we will do well there. If you haven't had a chance to hear the Newton Marching Eagles, you should make a date to come and see. Our performance time is 7:30, we are the last band to march!

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

3 Things About Me!

Please don't break the cycle... it is fun to learn different things about our friends!

1. Three names I go by: Mindy, Mom, Sweetheart

2. Three places I've lived: Newton, Hidalgo, Altamont

3. Three places I've worked: Hardee's, Wal-Mart, ERBA (yes, my friend Amber actually typed the first two, but I worked there too)

4. Three places I have been on vacation: Florida, Michigan, Ohio

5. Three people that email me regularly: Nila, Amy, Vaneta

6. Three things I love to eat: chocolate, alfredo, ice cream

7. Three people I think will repost: not sure, but I want everyone to

8. Three things I am looking forward to: Saturday, looking forward to it getting here, and then looking forward to getting through it! (does that count as two?) 12 days from now, when my right hand gets back from maternity leave, October 11th--Covered Bridge!

Thursday, September 2, 2010

What September Brings

I intended to post this yesterday, day late and a dollar short, what's new? Here we go.....the wild and crazy thing we call life at the Browning house. September started out with a bang, went to work at a quarter til 7, stopped what I was doing to go to the church business meeting last night and finally made it back home around 8:45. Today, I am leaving the house again at 6:45, yesterday was the first day of LIHEAP and honestly that wasn't what was crazy; computers; 'nuff said. I very rarely honestly feel like shooting one, but yesterday it was just a really good thing I didn't have a gun and the worst part was it was a laptop and so it wouldn't have been hard to "accidentally" drop-kick it across the parking lot. Anyway.....I am going to try a different approach today and then forget it. I ordered a new one because no matter what, I will never trust this one again, and in all fairness, it had been acting up since May, I just apparently delivered the final blow Tuesday then had to try to resuscitate the stupid thing. Oh well......

Fun news in my job though, I got to order our agency's first Smartboard this week. We are building a new training room in our Weatherization building at Greenup. Last Thursday ( the 26th) our WX Coordinator asked me to get him set up with the technology for his training room......which they would use for the first time on Sept 21st, no pressure there....but it all came together and we are getting exactly what we wanted. I can't wait!!! On top of everything else, I believe I will be allowed to teach computer classes there and it is bigger than our board room, good things.

Of course, September brings a lot on for Robert also, first band competition is a week from Saturday, Robert gets to play the baritone solo, he has worked really hard for this so I am excited that it is finally decided. He has all day practice on the 4th, Ofallon on the 11th, our own Fall Festival on the 18th and then our own Newton Classic and the Effingham competition on the 25th. There are 12 bands coming to our competition. Mark the 25th on the calendar and come to the classic, it is a morning competition and will be great!!

Robert also has Pop's concert tryouts next week. Pop's is scheduled for November 18th and 19th. This is also an awesome show....a show that rivals Branson in Newton Illinois put on by a bunch of really, really talented teens. One year some of my friends from work came, one of them asked if these kids were really all from Jasper county. They are an awesome group and I am looking just as forward to all the chorus activities as I am the band. He should be in for a SUPER senior year.

Andrew is still going strong on the bathroom remodel. It has had a lot of setbacks with finding mold and rot but he is almost ready to start tiling the shower and I think once he gets this project done, the rest will be faster. What he has done in the shower looks amazing, we have picked out all the tile now and I am just excited to see it happening. He gets vacation starting Saturday so I think by next week at this time we will see some change.

We have to throw AWANA in the mix for good measure, we start back on the 15th, I am HOPING to have 4 senior boys and 3 freshman girls to start. The guys are wanting to do a commercial for youtube and fb to get some more involved, first project of the year!

AND we start choir back the 19th, I almost have everything ready for that too.

That's the majors for September, geesh, what will I do with myself next year? Not going to think about it, just gonna take all of it in this year and enjoy.

Oh yes, one more thing, I went to the doctor Friday, I am doing FANTASTIC with the UC, in fact he took me off of the medicine, if I have a flare, I have to go back, but right now, doing great and feeling better than I have since before Christmas. I can actually feel myself getting stronger, of course, my blood counts had been so low there was a good excuse for the tiredness and weakness. I know it was my own fault it got so bad, I should have went to the doctor last February but just had too many irons in the fire, or so I thought, it would have prevented a lot of problems and heartache in my life though if I would have felt like I do now back then. I knew I was overwhelmed, I knew I had a problem, I just didn't realize how bad it was affecting me. Anyway......that's that and life is better.

Happy Thursday!