First Band Competition

Saturday was the first band competition of the season and we did very good. I used Hailie's digital camera to video record the program but I don't know how to edit it. It is lengthy - over 15 minutes because I got them coming on to the field and the whole show.

We were all shocked at the end about who took grand champion in the gold division (the group we were in - 3As and 4As are in the gold and 1As and 2As are in the silver). From what we heard after the competition, the scores were not very high at all (SCBDA has changed the scoring system and therefore making it harder for the bands to score superior. All the 3A and 4A bands scored excellent.) BHP's score was an 83.5; the overall gold champion only scored an 84. We did take best horn line, best drum line and 1st place in the 3A division.

So way to go BHP band.

On the way home, one of the buses (the first bus) hit a deer. Some of the guys actually went back and picked up the deer - guess they are hunters and took it home to clean it and use the meat. The deer wasn't that big really so may not make good meat. So the three trophies from the competition and a deer came back to the school - lol.


Here is a pic of Benjamin and our solo piccolo player (she's my adopted second daughter; such a sweetheart - always comes up to give me a hug when she can and just likes me lol - she's a good kid) and the deer.




The other one is the 1st place trophy with the person who substitutes for the drum major if she isn't there. These were taken by Hailie after I had done the video. The video won't load but will play around with it and maybe make it shorter - two pieces and see if I can get them to load. enjoy - E :)

Decatur Georgia book festival fun

So my kids and I are volunteers at the Decatur Book Festival this weekend and having some good times (I think - I'm a bit stiff from standing at the children's activities things but had fun. Did get sunburned but didn't realize it until I was back at the hotel.

There was a mini writer's conference today and I wanted to sit and listen to one of the panel discussions and it was pretty good. Funny as all get out - it was performed like a game show - should have been performed more like "To Tell The Truth" than "Hollywood Squares" because it resembled the first gameshow. I've seen both shows on gameshow network and felt a bit cheated that it was slated as a the second show. But the comraderie and info was interesting - the four paneists were Hollis Gillespie, John Warner (who is from Greenville which is only a few short miles from where we live, and daughter said she felt she knew from somewhere), Amanda Stern, and Jeffrey Stepakoff (who is known for writing TV shows - such as Dawson's Creek and others to his credit).

After leaving the workshop/panel discussion, the kids wanted to go to McDonald's for supper so I decided instead of eating near the festival we would find a McDonald's closer to the hotel (not that the hotel is really all that far from festival). So we came back up to the hotel road and then explored a little bit. We finally found the McDonald's. While sitting there enjoying our meal, we figured out we were the minority - the whole community was Spanish speaking with a few Chinese or Oriental speaking. We seemed to be the only ones speaking English -

So heading back to the hotel, we saw this SUV that was red and white and had a taxi sign on it - so I commented about how that was a taxi - something I've never seen before. Then Benjamin says - "I saw this one Mexican Taxi and you want to know how I know it was Mexican?" and Hailie responds, "What did it say Taxeye on it?" - now we just rolled in the laughter here because he suddenly realized taxi (pronounced as a long I) that that's how it was spelled anyway - so we were laughing hard by now. We get to the red light to turn on the road to the hotel and then Benjamin goes, "look to your right, look to your right" and there was this van with Spanish writing on it and so Hailie turns and looks and says, "It looks like he's staring at us." So I turn to the right and look over and the man driving the van, nods and then waves at us - it was like he knew what the hell we were laughing about - and when she said he was staring at us - it was like he knew what she said - - so we broke out into the laughter some more - and laughed almost all the way to hotel (which wasn't really too far from that turn) -

So having fun at the festival so far and enjoying some fun time with the kids - see you all in the postings - E :)

Marching band season is upon us

School started last week and the kids had been in band camp for three weeks prior to that. The show looks to be promising - hope they do well and rack up the nice trophies like they did last year.

Our school will be hosting a competition this year, which is something new for most everyone (apparently we hosted an upper state competition which is different than a regular competition one year but I wasn't involved in the band during that time).

So being that both my younguns are in the marching band (Hailie is in the colorguard this year again (she played tuba last year and it ruined her shoulder) and Benjamin is in the pit or frontline) that means football season is upon us. We had our first football game this past Friday (played against my alma mater) and lost but they still have pictures taken and posted in the local newspaper. Here is my son on the pit cart as they are coming off the field (and doesn't he look happy?)





Let me know what you think. See you all in the postings - E :)