Closing out 2007

Wow, I let it get WAY away from me for the holidays. But I'm finally posting some highlights. My number one New Year's Resolution for this year is to keep my blog updated once a week. I end up leaving out so much terrific stuff when I go so long without posting.

I have been AWFUL about taking pictures for the holidays this year. I don't know why I did so badly on that, I'm usually a picture fanatic. But I hardly took any photos at all. We had 6 nights of Christmas this year, and enjoyed every one of them. So, in a nutshell:

1. Friday before Christmas we went for a get together with our friends at the "Big House" of Cheryl's and Clay's family's. We took the kids and had a good time with Cheryl, Mike, Clay, their mom Rosemarie, Jason and his son Carson, Steve, and Lysa. I tasted one sip of absinthe for the first time ever, wasn't great but wasn't as bad as rum and tequila and other things I've tasted. Apparently absinthe has recently been made legal in the US again. Anyway, no pictures from that night, or any of the following ones. Kicking myself.

2. Saturday morning before Christmas we piled up in Rusty's truck and went to Alabama for a whirlwind trip to see all my family. It was nice traveling in the truck, it was very very roomy. But I tell ya, I sure missed my Corolla when we made stops at the gas stations. Our total cost for gas going to Alabama and back was $120. In my Corolla it's usually about $50-$55!!!! But we all agreed that it was a very comfy trip. That Saturday evening we went to the Rigsby Christmas at Patsy's house and visited with my Dad and Johnnie and all those relatives. We went back to the lake to spend the night and the next day we had Christmas with the Myhand side of the family. I was so glad to FINALLY get to see the babies, too, for the first time. Brandon and Christie had their little ones there. Emma is enough to make me wish I'd have gone on and tried to have a little girl at some point, she is adorable. And the twin boys were adorable also. I kept thinking to myself......how DO they do it??? I only had ONE baby at a time, and there is 5 1/2 years between them. I can't imagine having 3 little ones, but they appear to make it just fine and enjoy every minute of it. I miss mine being babies quite often. But then, I do enjoy them as they are right now too. Anway, we got to visit with Dustin, Randy, and Glenda as well - just seemed like such a short visit, wish we could have stayed longer. And of course, Mamaw, Papaw, Susan, Rando and their girls, Sherri, Josh, and Hannah, Greg and Marcia, and Brooke and Blake were there as well. We sure missed Chris and Kyle. It was all such a short, quick visit but I'm very thankful that we at least got that much of a visit! We usually don't even get out there at Christmas time. We drove home on Sunday afternoon and got here just in time to see the last half of the Redskins game.

3. Monday was Christmas Eve and we went to Rusty's dad's house that evening for Christmas with that side of his family. We had a good time there, and ate far too much of course. Donnie and Terri and the boys were there with us and we all had a nice, but short, visit with Rusty's dad and stepmom. On that MOnday morning I came to realize just how EXHAUSTED I was from all the chaos in the last week of school, plus the fast trip to Bama and back, and the last minute shopping......I decided I'd have a talk with Santa and see if he might could swing by our way a little early. So, Santa came and brought presents on Monday night while we were gone to Rusty's dad's house. Once we got home though, we were here nearly an HOUR before the kids even realized that he had been here. And we pretty much had to tell them to go look lol. But they ended up happy with what they got. They got less in quantity but more dollarwise than they usually get. They got an xbox 360 and numerous games for it. Tyler got some clothes, pajamas, Amazon gift certificate, and a nice new printer and Tanner got an Ipod shuffle, a cell phone, and some gameboy games. They were very happy. They really didn't ask for much this year. Thank goodness! lol

4. Christmas Day we slept late and then went to Aunt Joni's for a Christmas dinner with his mom's side of the family. We watched some old home movies she had of all of their family back in the 60's and 70's. I love watching old home movies. Aunt Joni has always had quite a collection of cats. And apparently Rusty was just caught up in the Christmas spirit that day because Tanner asked if he could have one and Rusty said YES! There were tons of them to choose from of course. While Rusty was looking at them all with Tanner, he picked out a long haired solid white female that was kinda shy. Tanner picked out a short haired playful Tabby male cat. Rusty couldn't talk Tanner into the solid white one, and Tanner couldn't talk Rusty into the Tabby cat. So we ended up bringing them BOTH home. The solid white female we named Eva, and the male we named Jack. They were obviously a bit ill so we took them to the vet the next day and got medicine for upper respiratory infection, ear mites, worms, and fleas. But they have done well here at the house. Jack is playful and into everything and very loving. Eva stays hidden all day long. Seriously, we don't even see her. But she comes out around 10pm and will let you pet her but not pick her up. And she gets up early and hangs out with Rusty in the early hours. But from 8am til 10pm she disappears to I don't know where. So, basically, Tanner and Rusty each picked out cats whose personalities totally suited each of them lol.

5. The day after Christmas we went to mom's house for our Mississippi Christmas together. We had such a good time up there, it's nice to get together and I hope we do more of it this year. THe kids enjoy being together and we all enjoy watching them be silly. We did a pizza Christmas this year, it was great. I got a new Bama blanket and a digital picture frame that shows slideshows, it's awesome.

The rest of the week we've just been hanging at the house playing with all our new stuff. Brooke has stayed a couple of nights this weekend, and we have Drew now too. So Tanner has been very happy having the both of them here all the time. I finally got the tree down yesterday (Jack had started it for me) and have gotten some minor cleaning done. Rusty got a game called Guitar Hero III for Christmas and we've all gotten addicted to it. It's a lot of fun, and not very easy either. I'm making plans to get on a crash diet after New Years because I've about eaten myself to death since Thanksgiving. Rusty's gained around 20 pounds and I've gained about 25. It happens so FAST.

So, my New Year's Resolutions:
1. update the blog every week
2. take more pictures for the blog
3. lose at least 25 pounds! Fast!
4. enclose the garage as a room, and move my favorite couch back home from the lakehouse lol

and I'm sure there are many more things I need to do. If all goes as planned, I'll be writing again on Friday................

The birthday week

This was written on Dec.10 and I've sat around not posting it because I didn't have the pictures ready. But I guess I'm just going to post it with no pics or videos and try to have those by the next post later this week. It's hard changing over computers and getting everything set up on the new one lol. So, in this post there may be several places where I refer to a picture or video, and there's not one there. But at least I got the post done!

I guess the highlight of last week was the Christmas Caroling Contest. I took my group to the preliminaries expecting the usual – nothing lol. But my group of 5th and 6th graders really did an excellent job and they had a complete ball doing it. You could tell. And for the first time ever, we made the callbacks for the final competition! So, on Thursday, I was back out there with them again. To compete against the others in the top 3 in our category. And we WON 1st PLACE!! I was so excited, and so were they. We won a 1st place trophy and $500 to spend on our music program at school. We were on the front page of the paper as well, it was awesome. Tanner and Cody were both in the choir this year, but didn’t manage to get in the picture for the paper. But I was very proud of my whole group for sure! Here’s the link and a copy of the story:
http://www.vicksburgpost.com/articles/2007/12/07/news/news02.txt

News
Winners in the Upper Elementary Choir Division, Warrenton Elementary Christmas Choir, performs Winter Wonderland during the 2007 WVBG 105.5 Christmas Caroling Contest Thursday night. (Meredith Spencer * Vicksburg Post)
73 compete, 7 tops in annual caroling contest
By Nate Delesline III
[12/07/07] It started as an idea and is on the way to becoming a tradition. In its third year, 73 soloists and groups entered a caroling contest in Vicksburg with seven earning top awards at Thursday night's finals."I've been working on this for a long time," said organizer Mark Jones, who moved to Vicksburg when he purchased local radio stations. The contests are open to anyone who wants to participate. "We had people from Louisiana, Brandon, Flowood and Port Gibson," Jones said. "We've got more geographic diversity than ever."Jones recruits sponsors for the event, including his FM station, WVBG, to provide cash awards of up to $500 each after four rounds of competition.Each performer was judged by a panel of three on the difficulty of the selection, how well the performance was executed and creative interpretation. Although the panel was introduced, members did not comment during the event or announce the winners.Jones, who has organized similar events in two other states, said the contests are meant to be a friendly and fun opportunity to share a fun evening. More than $6,000 was awarded overall, much of which will go to charitable purposes.Jones said many of Thursday night's performances before a full house at Warren Central Auditorium will be rebroadcast on WVBG (105.5 FM) on Christmas Eve so the community can enjoy them again.

Solo highlights Thursday night included Kiefer Slaton with his performance of "Little Drummer Boy" and Marquis Goodwin with "Mary did you Know?"The son of Kathleen and Farris Goodwin Sr., Marquis said he wasn't nervous. "I've been singing since I was 4," he said.Marquis has recorded a CD and said he plans to make singing a career. His parents will share the joy, too, this holiday season -- Marquis said he'll spend some of the $200 he took home on Christmas gifts.Finalists were:
One Voice from Bovina Baptist Church* The Clefs from Hinds Community College* Voices of Praise from Word of Faith Christian Center* Vicksburg Intermediate third-grade Choir* St. Francis Xavier third- and fourth-grade Choir* Claiborne Education Foundation* Brian Wells* Glentrice Johnson* Redwood Elementary fifth- and sixth-grade Honor Choir* South Park Elementary Showcase Choir* Warrenton Elementary Christmas Choir* Jamie Lynn Robinson* William Michael Morgan* Kiefer Slaton* The St. Aloysius Choral Music Group* United Way Teen Help* Morgan Teller* Marquis Goodwin


Friday was Rusty’s official birthday and I made him country fried steak and gravy and black eyed peas and bunch of other stuff. Today is Tyler’s birthday and I’ll be making him some chicken tettrazini and chocolate cake probably. Rusty had already gotten most of his birthday present the week before, being a bunch of stuff for his new truck. I still owe him some rain guards though, we just can’t find them yet. Tyler had already gotten his cell phone a couple of weeks ago but he’s getting a game today as well. Donnie, Terri, Cheryl, Mike, Dale, James, Norma, Bob, Keith, Britt, and Mary all came by at various points over the weekend to visit and tell Rusty happy birthday.
I went to visit at Mom’s for a bit on Saturday. She had taken Tyler shopping for his birthday, but he was his usual self shopping and didn’t pick out much lol. We played with our new cell phones a little while we were there and ate bunches of stuff. Drew came to spend the weekend again so he went to visit at mom’s with us. We had planned to go visit Pat on his birthday Tuesday but then we found out he was in Alabama lol. That’s pretty much all from the past week. It’s certainly been busy with work and planning for Christmas. I can NOT wait to be out for a couple of weeks and I’m sure going to need the catch up time at the house! My camera kept getting left at school or in the car or here or there all week and I don’t have any pictures. I have just the video of the Choir performance if it’s not too big for putting on here. I will try and see.

November, in a nut shell

We've spent a lot of time on books in the month of November. We listened to a John Grisham book on CD in the car going to and from school. I have been reading "100 Years of Solitude", and Tyler got 2 more books in that he ordered a couple of weeks ago. I set up Tyler and Tanner their own amazon.com accounts so that they can keep a collection of books on their wish list for me to view and buy from sometimes. Tanner likes the Goosebumps books, just like Tyler used to. Tyler loves R.A. Salvatore and has a good start already on collecting the hundreds of books that he's written. Not to mention the numerous other authors he reads. It's hard for me to keep up with what he has and what he doesn't have yet. Thus, the amazon.com wish lists. Tanner had to do a reading fair project so he read a book about a werewolf and he and I together made the project. He was impressed with my drawing of a werewolf, he was very surprised that I could draw at all lol. Both of my kids inspire to be writers some day. I always wanted to be one, too, so I hope they get closer to it than I ever did lol. In fact, Tanner sat down at my computer and wrote a story this month. Here is his beginning of his story, he says:

"it was one hot shiny summer day in california people were hot and sweaty and then the collisoin started the people could see every thing that went on it was angels vs. demons the people ran and srceamed why the demons and angels fought it was absoulutly terrifingthey fought sword to sword gun to gun fist to fist no matter what happend they wouldnt stop fighting the fight raged on as the people watched people were voting for angel and some for demons then the one the only satan came and fought god and jesus fought his most powerful minion then suddenly the people helped with holy water and the angels and the humans won the battle"

I think it's a very good story so far!

Anyway, Thanksgiving came and went. We went to mom's for Thanksgiving on that Wednesday night. The food was great as always and we enjoyed getting together, it's been awhile. On Thanksgiving Day we cooked at our house for some of Rusty's side of the family and enjoyed visiting then also. The weekend before Thanksgiving we went to a bonfire at Mike and Cheryl's house so I have a few pics of that. I finally got a picture of Rusty's new truck to put on here also.

This past weekend I got dragged into participating in the Christmas parade on our school float. I had to bring some kids from the honor choir to sing through the streets. Tanner and his friend Brandon got so excited at the crowd, both of them being big hams and all. So we finally just put the two of them out front with their jingle bells to lead us through the street with their dancing, hopping, skipping, and jingling. They had a blast, and were very funny lol. I have a few pics from the parade also.

Tyler went to the pulmonary doctor over the Thanksgiving week to set up his sleep study. They'll be doing the sleep study December 19-20 here in town, thank goodness. Tyler got a new cell phone for his birthday. I had to give it to him a bit early because the deal I got on it was only good that one weekend. But he really likes it, and it even plays music - once he gets a memory chip for it. While shopping the other day, I went ahead and bought me a new cell phone also. I got a Samsung Blackjack that I've been wanting for some time. I took Rusty shopping for his birthday (early also) and got him some floor mats for his truck and several different little things for his truck. I'm going to get him some of those rain shield things for his windows also, as soon as we find some that fit. I'm writing down everything we get Rusty for his birthday because every year he says that we never get him ANYTHING for his birthday, and then we can't remember what it was we got him last to be able to argue with him lol. We always get him something for his birthday, and I'm writing it down this time for proof lol. Heck, I think I'll look back at last year's blog and see if I wrote it down then too lol. This coming weekend will be Rusty and Tyler's birthday weekend. Not sure what we're gonna do yet, but we'll be doing something.

Rusty bought me a new computer for Christmas, a bit early. It's awesome! But it will take me awhile to get all my stuff put on it. It's definitely faster and bigger than that old one. It was getting to where it took FOREVER to do anything on it.

We went to El Ranchero's for our restaurant night on payday, Mike and Cheryl went with us also. Basically, November was just a regular month I guess. I didn't write the whole month so I've definitely got to get better about that. It's Dec. 3 today and I still don't even have my Christmas tree up or anything. I'm aiming to do it Wednesday night, I hope.

My honor choir performed tonight for the local Christmas Caroling competition. They really did an awesome job. But we were 12th on the list of 20 singing groups. It started at 6:30, and we didn't get on stage til 8:00. I also didn't get pictures, being that I had to be on stage conducting. But Terri got some and I"ll be getting them from her for next time.

I have so much to do in this month of December that I've had to just make myself go completely numb to get it done. ONe day at a time. lol

Well, it’s been a pretty eventful last few weeks or so. Seems like it anyway. Around mid month we ended up quitting the band thing. Various reasons, no need to go into the drama I guess. But it’s just gotten to where we have far too many levels of playing in the band, and far too many different opinions on how things should be done. And it was getting to where it was more of a hassle than a fun thing. Plus, it has eaten up so much of our time in the last few months. It was definitely fun, though. And I think we’ll end up doing it again in the very near future. But we won’t be dressing up in 80’s stuff and wearing wigs. Next time, I’ll be able to more freely express my own personal style lmao! But it was definitely fun while it lasted.
Tanner made the honor roll! I was SO PROUD!!!!!!!!! He’s doing so well this year, he’s matured so much. Tyler did not fare as well on his report card. But he’s missed so much school, and got behind, and so on. Still no excuse, but it does explain some of it I’m sure. But he is going to have to work his TAIL off this 9 weeks, and the rest of the year for that matter, to finish 10th grade successfully. He’s left himself absolutely no room to screw up at ALL.
We’ve had what we hope is a breakthrough on Tyler’s “seizure” problem. He does not have epilepsy, and he is not having anything that is identifiable as a brain seizure on the EEG’s. But as the doctor’s have gone back to the MRI and to my complaints of his sleeping problems (both of which they initially dismissed as nothing), they are considering the possibility that he has central sleep apnea and a form of narcolepsy with cataplexy. Tyler and I both laughed out loud when he mentioned it because I’ve teased him for months about having “narcolepsy” as it is shown in movies and such lol. Like in the movie Rat Race. I didn’t even think narcolepsy was a for real disease. But the more the doctor explained it to me, and the more I read about it on the internet, the more it sounds just like what Tyler does. Narcolepsy with cataplexy (the spells), sleep paralysis, and possibly central sleep apnea. They’re going to do a sleep study on him now, we go for a consultation on November 20. And see if they can find anything that goes along with him having this. I’m almost willing to bet money that it’s gonna be the thing.
Tanner and I finally got to buy a couple of more Halloween decorations last week. He found this pair of bloody handprints that go on the windows. They’re really nasty looking. But he had to have them. He also found a severed leg that you can hang out of a door or something to look like someone shut the door on a leg lol. HE hung it out the door on Mom's van when we went trick-or-treating. It’s nasty looking too. In fact, it’s the exact same foot size and shape of Tanner’s foot. So he has had some total fun with it, acting like it’s HIS own foot. And we bought his Halloween costume as well. He is going to be a winged grim reaper, we just have to find a scythe somewhere around town now.

Friday at school was Fall Field Day. The kids had a blast. Our coach wore a big afro wig and carried a water gun the whole day, the kids got a total kick out of that.

In Tanner’s class, the girls beat the boys in tug-of-war three times in a row. He did not like that at all. But when they did tug-of-war with class against class, his class won overall so he was happy.
We went to the Homecoming game a couple of weeks ago. VHS won 49-6, it was great! Kyle got to get in on several plays and did a great job. Tyler watched from the stands and wished he was out there. I guess there is always next year, don’t think he’s gonna be cured in time to play this year which really sucks.
A couple of weekends before Halloween, Donnie and kids and Dale and Naomi came over and we watched some horror flicks. Cheryl came as well, and she and I sat and visited. Sunday Cheryl and Mike came back over with Matthew and we had a pumpkin carving party. The dad’s carved some really cool looking pumpkins. The two boys had a terrific time carving up the little pumpkins. We watched some Sunday football as well.

Smokey has begun to earn his keep around here. We’ve had lots of moles in the front yard for ages. An irritating problem. And we’ve been noticing lately little holes dug up everywhere where Smokey is starting to dig. Well, one day last week Smokey brought us a present in the garage. I was so happy! And Tanner told me that this was not the first mole he had killed, that he had killed one the last week also. So, as far as I’m concerned, Smokey can dig away! I hope he gets them ALL.

The Saturday before Halloween Dale had a Halloween party for the kids at his house downtown. He has a really old house that he's been fixing up, and lots of old and antique furniture and objects. It's really neat. When we got there he was playing music on a big old 1960-something stereo record player that the kids had never seen lol.

The kids had a really good time. Holly was in town for a few days to bring Brooke for a visit. So I invited her and a mutual friend, Joel, to come out there for a visit. Joel and Donnie had fun chasing kids around the house with a sword. And Joel and Dale helped the kids carve pumpkins. Dale was dressed in perfect pirate attire at the party, as well as on Halloween night. Rusty and Tyler mostly napped I think!

On the actual Halloween night, we had a blast. Mom, Pat, us, Holly, Brooke, Donnie & Terri and kids, Dale & Naomi, and Chris all went trick-or-treating out in Donnie and Terri's neighborhood. Kids got lots of candy. Chris got their a bit late because he was coming from work, so he just kept his truck up with us. Donnie and Blake were glad for the truck. Pat and Tyler stayed back at the house. And the rest of us ran the neighborhood begging for loot. After trick-or-treating, the whole bunch of us went out to eat at Goldies. We had a complete blast! And last but not least, I had bonko at my house last Tuesday and Rusty had to go drive someone from work over to Jackson to a dealership over there. So, while he was there, he traded in his Mustang for a 2008 Nissan Titan truck. Got a pretty sweet deal on it, but Tyler was not happy about the Mustang being gone. I did so badly on pictures in the last week that I don't even have a picture of it yet, but I will by next time! Hopefully this gets me about caught up on the important things, and I"ll do a better job of posting weekly this month!

Halloween Month Is Here!!!!!

Our dog chewed up our dead guy. That’s all I can think about today. I’m frustrated, and disappointed, that we can’t put our dead guy crawling out of his grave this year because the dog won’t leave him alone! Tanner and I have sort of pieced him back together. But we know he’ll never “survive” another attack. So I’m thinking of sitting him at our dining table, as if he were a dinner guest.

We’ve had yesterday and today off from school and it’s been NICE. I like this “fall break” business they’ve added in. I sure needed it. We spent yesterday mowing and weedeating and cleaning up the yard for our few Halloween decorations. And today is supposed to be spent on cleaning house and bedrooms and such, but I’ve been a bit lax and preoccupied with other things. Our last week was kind of active, and it’s just nice to be here with nowhere to go this week!

Last Monday night we went to Mike and Cheryl’s to do some artsy tattoo photos lol. We both got the tattoos in places that are rarely seen, and since Mike is a photographer we decided we’d see if we could find a way to have them photographed (without us being naked). He did a great job, and we all got a kick out of trying to find ideas for poses lol.

Tuesday I had to go to the dentist for a checkup. While I was there I intended to just inquire about the whitening trays I hear about. A friend of mine recently celebrated her one year anniversary of quitting smoking and that’s what she did for herself. The ladies at the dentist office got all excited and explained them very well, all they way down to the cost. They talked me right into getting them done. So at the end of the month I’m getting the whitening trays, one way or other. Trying to talk Rusty into making it my Christmas present lol. Also Tuesday, I printed out my entire blog from beginning to last week. It’s around 400 or so pages I’d estimate. Will make a great history book, I’m gonna be so glad I did this one day lol.

Wednesday we got tickets to see REO Speedwagon at the state fair in Jackson. So us, Donnie and Terri, and all the guys in the band went to see them. It was a great show! I saw them once when I was maybe 14 at Six Flags in Atlanta. It was a lot of fun seeing them again. Their first album came out the year I was born, and they’re still kicking! Lol

Thursday the guilt set in. Felt like I had been selfish and vain all week, going to concerts and making plans for whitening trays…….you know how that motherly guilt can set in. So I took both kids and got them a much needed haircut, and took Tanner to finally get some new glasses lol. Got them fixed up I guess. Thursday evening we had to go to Jackson to set up equipment to play on Friday night. We played at Reed Pierce’s, which looked on Thursday to be an upperscale classy kinda restaurant/hangout place. I was concerned about whether or not they would like our brand of entertainment.

Friday night we played, and that upperscale classy restaurant/hangout place turned into a regular falling-over-the-table drunkfest! I was very surprised just how bad off some of those folks got. But they did like us. That’s one good thing about drunk people, they LOVE the band. But the bad thing about drunk people is that for the rest of us who are not drunk with them, they can be very irritating. Lol But all in all it was a fun show. Now we don’t play again for 3 weeks and I’m kinda glad for the break, I’m way behind in real life!
Saturday we hung out all day with the kids here at home and even watched a few movies. Our adopted kid Drew came over, and Mike and Cheryl came over that evening as well. It had been a long time since Drew, Tanner, Tyler, and Rusty had had a big taekwondo stick fight, so they made up for some lost time. They didn’t break anything important, and I think someone only cried once. But that might have been fake.

Sunday we had Keith and Jenifer over for football games. Jenifer helped Tanner and Drew make themselves a myspace page since I had finally given them permission to have one. They think they are something now for sure. Dustin and Cody came and spent the night Sunday, since we were off Monday. Tanner was thrilled. I think Cody stayed up til about 4:30 am, way past the others.

Yesterday while I was washing my car, a lady came walking up from a couple of houses down. I think she must be a friend or girlfriend of my neighbor, I had never seen her before. Anyway, she wanted to know if we wanted to give away our little blind dog lol. I told her no, that was Tanner’s dog. I assured her I had taken him to the vet over his eye and that we had done anything that could be done, etc. She said she’d had a couple of dogs before with the same problem who eventually had to have the eye removed, and she was just interested in taking care of him if someone didn’t want him lol. He has really made himself at home around our neighborhood on the hill here. Everyone seems to love him, and he seems to know everybody. He makes his daily rounds to each house I think lol. Someone has been down at the Webb’s cleaning out belongings. Mr. Webb took Tanner and Drew to eat pizza Saturday night, but I have not had the chance to see him yet. They’re getting that house ready to sell, and Drew and Tanner are convinced that Mamaw Sand and Papaw Pat need to buy that house. Wouldn’t be a bad idea actually…………lol. Those 2 boys won’t know what to do when they can’t run back and forth from here to that house. We’re gonna miss the Webb’s.

Well I never did get around to posting this on Tuesday and it’s Wednesday now, but oh well. Me and the kids went and visited Mom and pat this afternoon for a bit. Was good to get down there for a visit, things have been too busy lately. It was cold when we woke up this morning and we were all very happy about that! I think it was 57. Getting into the 40s the next couple of nights. We set up our Netflix to deliver horror movies for the next several weeks so we’re going to do the 30 days of Halloween instead of just 13. Finally heard from the neurologist yesterday and Tyler does NOT have epilepsy, and there is no apparent seizure activity going on in his brain. Which is wonderful. But still, we don’t know what’s causing it now. So we’ll be back to the regular doctor probably next week.

Our latest addition to the Halloween decor - a Halloween tree, with the fiberoptic lights.

End of September

Last weekend we went on our trip to Destin with Mike and Cheryl and it was a total blast of course. Tyler stayed in the room pretty much the whole four days playing video games. But he did come down to the beach a time or two. Rusty and Mike did a good bit of loafing about town looking for guitar and music stores. They even snuck in lunch trip to Hooters while we were sunning lol. The first day we were there, there were still some small storms rolling in from that tropical storm system 10 or whatever it was. But the rest of the days were perfectly sunny. I even got a bit sunburned and my face peeled all week long. Me, Cheryl, and Tanner spent every minute possible sitting on the beach and listening to the waves. Rusty and Tanner built a sand castle one morning early. And we all took a good walk on the beach at sunset one night. We did a little shopping and went to a fancy seafood restaurant called the Crab Trap and the food was great. It was SUCH a nice getaway. I need to do that at least once a month. Here are a few pics. Gonna try to put a little video too now that they've added the video thing here finally!

These birds were incredibly smart and brave enough to get real close to you. They could spot a crumb of food a mile away. It was nearly like getting mugged when you tried to feed them lol.

It seemed like the birds thought the football might be food, they were sure hanging around trying to check it out lol.

So. Back in the real world. Tyler missed school the whole week - 2 days for Destin, then 3 days while wearing the ambulatory EEG monitor. He had wires and electrodes all glued to his head, wrapped up in tape, and a white toboggan thingy over the top of it all. The wires ran down to a monitor that he wore in a fanny pack on his side. He looked strange for sure, and I can NOT believe I forgot to take a picture of it before we got it off on Friday. But now that it's off, we just wait to hear back from the doctor hopefully in the early part of next week. It's going to be a long week next week, with all that make up work he's gonna have.

2 band directors were moved to other jobs this week, creating a couple of vacancies in the band director area. I immediately expressed my interest in moving up to those spots on Friday morning. So I'm waiting to hear something on that too. I'd love to move up, and I'd much rather do band than choir. So I"m really hoping that this change will happen, but I just don't know if they'll be willing to give me a shot. Sure hope so.

BHA played Friday night at a little place in Ridgeland called the Pub. It went pretty well, had some stupid mistakes but the people just didn't notice. They pretty much loved us. It was a kinda small place, but we did indeed pack the house that night! First bar I've ever been in where smoking was not allowed. Apparently Ridgeland is one of those smoke-free cities now. It was difficult on Rusty for sure lol. It was kinda nice playing only one night instead of two. Not nearly as tiring, and didn't take up my entire weekend. We play in Byram next Friday.