Last week of January

Did I do anything besides musical rehearsals this week? The answer is very little. On Wednesday mom cooked dinner at her house and we all went out there for dinner. It was very nice to sit and visit with everyone because we so rarely get to anymore. Mom had lost about 20 pounds or so since I last saw her and it was very noticeable. Makes me wanna get on the ball even more to get my poundage back off! But I didn't start working on it that night. We had roast and potatoes and all kinds of good stuff. I'm working on it now though. Trying to revamp some things. I can't afford meat all the time, nor can I cook enough of it to make Atkins possible. So I gotta rethink some things.

Monday I ran by the house at about 3:00 to change clothes between work and rehearsal and Tyler was there and had something in his eye. He had been worrying with it for an hour trying to get it out. I told him to get in the shower and let water run all through his eye, that didn't work either. He was miserable. Our usual eye doctor was closed on that day and I couldn't think of anywhere else that I felt would for sure squeeze us in between 3:00 and 5:00. And I didn't want to wait and end up in the ER later. So I called our regular doctor and we got in the car. I told them we were on the way but they weren't sure if she'd have time to see him. I told them we were coming anyway. Once we were there, they kept on trying to get the doctor's ok for him to come in and so on. I KNEW she would see him if she found out we were trying. Right about the time they finally agreed to let him in, I looked over at the eye he was messing with and saw a tiny piece of something on his bottom eyelash. I told him to grab right there and pull. And when he did, he pulled out a huge piece of fuzz or something. He blinked a few times and said he was fine, it was gone lol. So then I had to tell the doctor's office people........uh, nevermind. lol. Felt kinda silly. But I was glad he got it out and it wasn't something major like a piece of glass or something.

Let's see. I bought a tea maker. Kinda like a coffee maker. I bought it for Tanner. Terri suggested it as an easy way for them to keep tea made. And so far so good. He's been making coffee for Rusty for years, so figured this would be a good thing for him. It's new and it's fun for now, I just hope he doesn't lose interest when the new wears off lol. But, then again - it's totally for them. I don't even like tea. So if they don't keep it made, it's their own loss. I'm not making it anymore unless it's a special occassion.

Friday night Terri and the kids came to visit, and also Steve, Larry, and Chris, whom we haven't seen in a long time. We just visited and goofed off. Rusty said I was mean and a bitch all night. I didn't notice it. If I was, it was unintentional. I guess I was just TIRED maybe? lol I don't know. But I had a good time visiting, not sure what I did or said that was bitchy but hope no one else thought so.

We did a pizza party Friday for the Madrigals. They've been working on a song FOREVER it seems like. It's been dragging and dragging along. So, remembering how they will work for food, I promised a pizza party if we could just GET THROUGH the whole song by the end of the week. And the pace picked up. I invited Tyler, Blake, and Kyle down also and I ordered extra pizzas for them. Tyler and Blake came. I don't know if Kyle forgot or if he ended up having something else to do. But Tyler and Blake were glad to work on his pizza for him. And then Tanner finished it off later when I took it home lol.

TAnner and Brooke went to a couple of rehearsals with me this week. I don't think we really got to any of their stuff much on either night. BUt I never know how far we're gonna get, what we're gonna do, who we will have to work with, etc. I can plan til the cows come home. But it always just ends up taking on a life of itself. Overall, the whole thing is coming along ok. Just SLOW. Blake has decided to help out on the set crew so he went on THursday with us. I think he enjoyed it, he got to help build the Wickersham caves a little bit. I just can't get used to the other teachers calling him "Chris" lol. I keep saying: "Who are you talking about???" I"ve been very lucky to have such terrific people like Michelle Fisackerly, her boyfriend Ashley, and Angela Clemts from South Park out there helping me. They have been lifesavers. Without them I would not have made near the progress for sure. They've done most of the set work and most of the choreography.








It's Saturday and I'm hoping to spend lots of time on me today. Rusty and I are stocking up on food for Super Bowl here in a bit. And I want to watch some TV and maybe read on a book or something. BUt I do have tons of work to do for Seussical also, so I imagine my day will end with me diving back into that. One thing I"m for sure gonna do is catch up on everyone else's blog.

This week: A Tantrum, A Pot of Chili, Working the Football Team, and the Discovery of DVR

Basically an uneventful week, if you don't count the constant rehearsal for the musical. Not sure what else happened besides that this week. My minutes, hours, days, are running in together. All I know is it is now Saturday and I somehow got here. Can't breathe and every muscle I have aches, but I'm here! (This is the part where yall feel sorry for me, waaaahhhh, lol).

So. Anyway. We had last Monday off so that was cool. I didn't do much. I did rehearsals on Tuesday, THursday, and Friday evenings this week. The first night was kind of crazy. I think it was the first night. First or second. I had the full cast for the first time on the stage whichever night that was. It was WILD. Everyone was so excited about it all, they couldn't settle down for CRAP. I spent an hour and a half dealing with the insanity and finally I just LOST IT. I've never really yelled or gotten extremely upset with any of these kids the whole year. But at one point I was trying to get a group out front in place, and trying to get a group behind the curtain in place, and I just lost it on the group behind the curtain. But they shutup. And they lined up. And we got the scene going. It took us an hour and a half to get through that scene 1. But in the next hour and a half we got all the way through scene 4. I've been on edge all week and I know it. But I've tried to keep it steady. But by the end of the Friday evening rehearsal several kids said "Mrs. Gardner you get some rest this weekend so we will have the NICE Mrs. Gardner back on Monday" lol. It's just stressful to be able to see how FAR we have to go, but to be unable to get the kids to see that.

I spent a lot of time on the stage during 7th period this week going through stuff and seeing what we have. All the football coaches were gone to some conference all week. So they stuck the WHOLE football team in the auditorium for 3 days with this poor young black lady substitute teacher. I was working backstage and hearing the hard time she was having. I turned on a microphone for her at one point. But they were having a hey day in there. She was yelling for quiet, they were ignoring it, etc. Then I remembered I still had a whistle on my thing I wear around my neck that holds my badge, leftover from elementary school days. So I stepped out in front of the curtain and blew the whistle real loud. You should have SEEN how fast they sat down shutup and started looking around. You could have heard a pin drop. I think they thought the coach had suddenly returned and they were busted lol. When they realized that it was ME that had blown the whistle, they were even more confused lol. Befuddled maybe? It was several minutes before anybody spoke. The first one to speak said "I guess you knew that's what we are used to responding to". The next one said......"What da choir teacha doin' with a WHISTLE?????" lol. They eventually got talkative again, but they weren't as rowdy at least. And I came up with more ideas to make good use of them. I was pulling out big pieces of wood and props so every few minutes I'd choose a few to come and move something, but I'd only choose those behaving, etc. None of them knew what a musical was, so they got a lesson in fine arts as well. I tried to talk them into trying out for choir next year but I don't think I've gotten far enough along yet to convince any football players to sing, but I won't give up lol.

Today is Saturday. It's cold. It's rainy. I'm tired. I'm swamped with work. But I made a pot of chili I still haven't even eaten yet. But I enjoyed the heck out of making it. While I was standing there stirring, for some reason I started thinking......"God, I wish that I could just stand here and stir this chili and that be my sole purpose in being. That I am only meant to be the person who stands here and stirs this chili on this particular date. And that I could just keep standing here and stirring it for hours and hours. For real, I'd love to just keep stirring, keep stirring......" lol. I'm not crazy yet, but maybe I'm getting there??? lol A whole new meaning to "stir crazy".

While I had the football team helping me a good bit, it seemed that everyday as soon as they left, I found something really big I needed done and I wanted it done NOW. One day I found a HUGE shiny silver curtain that I just felt like would make a great backdrop for Seussical. But there was no way to know without seeing it up there. I found a bar that I could lower and attach the curtain to then raise it back up. I don't know if any of you have dealt with stage pullies and bars before, but they all have weights on them to balance out the lowering and raising and whatever. I won't pretend to know how or why it works that way. But I lowered the bar, attached the curtain, then went to raise the bar again and OMG. Whatever weight was on that one had to weigh close to my own weight. But I was determined. I pulled and pulled and finally got it up there. THen when I went to lock it down at the bottom pully, I realized that the lock was broken and I was going to have to use a little piece of rope that was tied to the big rope and tie the whole thing in place. So I had to stand there holding one rope with the huge weight on it with one hand while tying it down with the other hand. Hard to tie good knots with one hand. But I got it done. ANd I'm paying for it today. I can hardly move. Between that and going up and down the auditorium steps 50 times per night, I'm SORE as HECK!

ANyway. I'm still undecided on the silver backdrop. Some people say it looks cool. Some say well maybe not. It's wrinkly right now. I'm still going to wait and see how it looks once we get the stage set built and then decide. I did find a large 3 story contraption that I think we will use to make our monkey caves. And several pieces we will use to make a back platform. And other stuff. The only pics I have this week are of my stuff I found.

Rusty has been learning the music for the musical. After 2 days, he became just as charmed and obsessed with it as I am lol. He's all about some Seussical now.

Tanner and I have been enjoying the HECK out of the DVR. He sets it to record cartoons and stuff. I set it to record AMerican Idol and CSI. And I can sit down and watch them just whenever I feel like it. I never know when I"ll get the chance to sit and watch any tv. And this way, I always know I'll have something good to watch when I do get to sit. It's the BOMB. And it's SO much easier than doing it the old VCR timer way. That was always more trouble than it was worth it seemed. I might actually get my moneys worth out of Direct TV now that I have DVR.

This coming week I'm going to take Tanner and Brooke to rehearsal a time or two so they can start learning what to do as Seuss animals. Probably Tuesday and/or THursday. I've gotten a few more kids into it also now, little sisters and brothers of some of my cast. But I think I've about got enough now probably. I took Tanner at least once last week I think. He did better on his behavior. I tried to get him to sit up top and push play on the cd player and stuff so I didn't have to run up so much. But he wasn't too reliable on that. Everytime I needed him he had run off to go aggravate some teenager lol.

Anyway. Here are a few of my finds from the stage this week. I just LOVE plundering around in old stuff! It's fun!

If you can tell what that is up there, it's a platform with 3 different levels. We will design the front to look like a mountain of caves. Use your imagination lol.
This set of steps right here will become a tree with a huge nest in it where Horton the Elephant will sit on the egg. Don't see it? Just wait. lol.

Here's the huge silver curtain I found before hanging it.

This is it once I got it hung up. Wrinkly. But I'm thinking I'm gonna like it. Might can even get the wrinkles out of it.

1st real week at work in 2009

Well, I completed week one of 3 night a week rehearsals for the musical. It's going well. It's still going slower than I need it to. And I still have a handful of kids not showing up. BUt we're working on getting all that done. All the help I thought I had rounded up have been no-shows, all except one who is being extremely faithful to the work we're doing. A girl I graduated with (Tammie Fisackerly) had a sister, Michelle, that was much younger than we were. But now Michele is grown and is a coach and teacher for about 3 years now. SHe has been there with me every single time and helping me TREMENDOUSLY. My band director friend is currently tied up with winter guard but I'm sure he's going to be helping out a lot more soon once they're competition is over. I've been trying to recruit adult musicians all week long because the music has turned out to be incredibly difficult. And there's SO MUCH of it. My accompanist, Mrs. Leese, decided it was just too much for her to tackle and she wouldn't have the time to practice it and learn it. So I've got to decide if I can just program it into my keyboard or if I've gotta find another pianist. But I've got RUsty playing bass, I think Keith is gonna do some of the guitar work, and Jonny is going to do the drums. I have a couple of high school kids lined up for trumpet, flute, etc. Now we just have to coordinate some rehearsals here soon. In addition to my rehearsals of actors. And perhaps I can find a way to have about 4 hours officially added to each day of the week for me to get even more of this stuff done. Sheesh! All this, and I'm getting 3 choirs ready for competition in February too. Spring Break will be AWESOME this year.

Let's see. I got Tanner to get a haircut this week, but it's not what you or I would consider a haircut. He had the back cut up even with the front. Kind of a skater-do I guess. It's still in his eyes. So I don't know what the point was in even going. He has decided he doesn't like it because it looks kinda strange, so he says. And last night he told me he wanted to just go ahead and get a regular haircut and start growing it all over lol. But it will be at least a week before I have any money to take him lol. I got more bangs cut myself, and I'm still liking that. American Idol (my guilty pleasure) began this week but I only got to see the 2nd hour of the first night. I feel SO guilty being a choir director and watching that crappy show. I'm ashamed. So yall have to help me keep my big secret. And the worst part of it is that I mainly watch those first few weeks when they have the really crappy singers on there and they make real big fun of them.......that's my favorite part. DON'T TELL ANYBODY! It's really sad and cruel. But I can't stop myself from watching it.

I finally happened to try to balance my checkbook for the first time since........uh.......I don't know when. It was BAD. BAD, I tell ya. It's hard to believe that I just flat have NOT had time to figure any of it out since early November. Not even with 2 weeks off at Christmas. But things are bleak and it will take me 2-3 months to get back on top of things. I got mad and started cancelling all kinda stupid stuff I pay for. I cancelled my second gym membership. Why the hell I'm a member of two I do NOT KNOW. Both of them are cheap. But STILL. I barely go to ONE gym, much less two. If I ever get faithful I might go back to that other one because I really liked it and liked the exercise classes. I just don't have time to do them! I ordered another Direct TV receiver and I'm cancelling cable TV. Why the heck have cable AND Direct TV???? I'm sure I'm going to have a hefty Direct TV bill this next time because the receiver was 120.00 and I have a feeling they will charge me a service call even though they said they would NOT. The guy had to replace our dish because we didn't have the kind that you could put more than one TV on. And he had to run wires through the attic. I can only imagine what that's gonna cost. I'm considering cancelling netflix because I've had the same 3 movies here since mid September. I have a hard time letting go of that one though, because we do go through phases of ordering the movies a whole lot. And Tanner really loves netflix. I cancelled my membership to AFT. Been meaning to do that ever since they came out and announced support for Hillary Clinton. And then they backed Obama once she was out. Also, I am required to be in a music teachers union so I have no need for two of them. And I'm currently looking for anything else I can cancel. I'm tired of paying for stupid things lol. Cancelling things is almost as fun as throwing things away!

Still trying to diet. And can't understand why I can't stick to it like I used to. I need to book another cruise. That was my motivation last time. I wanted to feel happy and look good in all the hundreds of pictures they take of you on the cruise ship. So I stuck to the diet religiously.

Today is MLK Day and we are all at home. We've been doing some cleaning, Rusty even tackled his piles of junk on the bar. I moved the big sectional couch into the den where the TV is to see if our guests will start congregating in the den instead of the kitchen bar. Rusty really hates that people stand around that bar and visit lol. So far, last night the band folks did indeed hang out in the den instead of the bar. So maybe it's going to work.

I've been trying to talk Tyler into participating in the musical in some small form or fashion. I wanted him to be Thing 1 or 2 and he wouldn't give me a final answer. I told the kids at rehearsal one night that he wouldn't commit to it. Within 5 minutes a girl said......."Tyler says yes, he will be Thing 2". Apparently she texted him and persuaded him lol. I should approach him from that angle more often lol. So now he is committed. He wants to be Thing 2 as opposed to Thing 1 because in the movie Thing 2 gets to have a nickname of "Chocolate Thunder" or something silly like that lol. His friend Thomas is going to be Thing 1. THey don't really have much to do, just some cameo type appearances. And if he falls down, Thing 1 is gonna grab him by his feet and drag him off stage and it will all look like a planned funny thing lol. I've wanted to use some younger kids from our district to do some small things in the play also, since WC is doing that with The King and I. So I've got Tanner, Brooke, and 2 of my former students who are in Jr. High and have a brother in the play to be Seuss animals. I'm trying to talk Matthew into being the Baby Elephant Bird in the end. And I"m getting some little sisters and brothers of other students to be Whos. It's kind of a PR thing as well. I want younger kids to know me, to see what we do, to get to where they just can't wait to get to high school and be in choir lol.

Apparently Tyler goes to the doctor Feb. 11. I'm going to just take that whole day off I think, I'll be needing it by then. It's a Wednesday so there are no musical rehearsals. I can NOT convince them to get me in quicker. Even though the dang head doctor said in mid-November that he wanted to see him back in no later than a month. I'm going to insist on seeing him this time and I'm going to have a talk with him because we want him EVERY time. And at this point, I feel like I should be able to call him and talk to him personally whenever I want to, he should give me his personal cell phone number so when his office pulls this crap we can get him to fix it. He's a terrific doctor and has us on a road to getting fixed, I just know it. But he runs the whole Sleep Center and spends most of his time at a desk. He needs to come out from the desk once a month to see Tyler. Or I guess I'll just have to see what else there is to try.

Well I guess anything else at this point would just be rambling. lol. I always posted on Fridays til things got crazy, but I'm gonna try to get back to Fridays. I actually started this one on Friday but just now finishing on Monday. No pics this week.

New Years Resolutions, and lots of backtracking

I'm slowly but surely getting this month long blog finished. I did it on Friday, then I've thought of tons of things I left out. So here, in a rather disjointed fashion, are some thing we've been up to since before Christmas.

Right after the kids got several xbox games for Christmas, our xbox broke lol. I sent it off to be fixed and it cost us $90. I made the kids pay $30 a piece and I paid the other. I felt it was only fair that they feel some of the pain from it, and maybe they will take extra good care of it this time. It should get back to us some time this week.

Before Christmas I did a blog post on myspace, which I rarely do. But I guess I'll include it on here real quick because it kind of tells my new policy on Christmas lol:
"I decided last night during the TSO concert that I’m simply going to reclaim Christmas for myself and turn into something that makes me happy and not depressed. It will all be in the attitude that I take towards it. I started wondering why is it that I love Halloween so much. And I decided that I love Halloween because it is inexpensive, it involves costumes and dress up, there is always chocolate, you get to walk around outside at night and breathe in fresh air, usually all the family gets together with the kids to visit and to watch them have fun, I am not forced to face the facts of how much money I DON’T have, and I don’t have to feel ashamed or bad because I haven’t bought presents for people.
So. I’m going to turn Christmas into that very same description for myself. From now on. The only Christmas presents I will ever buy will be for my kids and Rusty (and grandkids WAY on down the road). And the only gifts I will ever give anyone else will be chocolate. And I won’t allow myself to feel bad for not buying people gifts. So I’m removing the whole gift giving/guilt aspect of it. Christmas will be inexpensive for me from now on, starting this year. The grandparents give enough money to the kids for Christmas that they will have plenty to supplement what we buy them, and I won’t have to feel guilty because I couldn’t get them a lot – they will have plenty of supplemental money to deal with. We will get together with family and visit and watch the kids have fun. Now that I’m teaching high school, I’ll get to dress in Madrigal wear every December so that will cover the costume portion of it. I’ll just have to take some walks outside at night to finish off the plan.
Not that I don’t WANT to buy gifts for people. I’d love to. But every year I end up in the HOLE big time over Christmas. And I’m just putting my foot down at this point in life and saying its over with. Christmas, to me, is about music, people, and foods that you don’t see the rest of the year. And that’s that. If I can keep Christmas JUST about those things then I will begin to look forward to it every year instead of dread it. I’m already looking forward to it right here right now. And it feels good. I’m going to go to Bama and visit with family, I’m going to visit with family here in town, and I’m gonna visit with friends at some point or other. I imagine I’ll eat some chocolate and I intend to make lots of home made chocolate candy to give people. I will shop for some things the kids want, but mostly they will buy their own with their big wads of cash. I think I’ve had my fill of dress-up for now, with the Madrigal Dinner and all. I just need to go outside and look at the sky on Christmas Eve, listen to some really great music, and then watch my kids have fun and I’ll be set. And all that for FREE!!!!
Yes, indeed. It’s going to be a MERRY Christmas for me!!!!!"
And I was right - it was one of the best and most memorable Christmas's. I did kind of feel weird doing anything differently than usual, like maybe I was not doing right. But overall, it was all worth it to not have the bad feelings usually associated with overspending or not having enough

I only have two New Years Resolutions: 1. To get this weight back off, 2. to keep up with bills and checkbook better, and 3. to blog once a week. I have gotten off REALLY bad on all 3 since I changed jobs lol.


To make long stories short, Christmas was great. We went to Bama before Christmas, and visited with Rusty's family during Christmas. Fun was had everywhere. But never enough time to visit all you want. I'm just gonna post up some pictures. I did a pretty crappy job at taking pictures, as in hardly took any. I really spent all this vacation just being worn SLAP OUT. That and eating so much that my total weight gain is now over 30 pounds and I'm now in food PRISON for the next 5 months. I brought home tons of work to do over the holidays and didn't do ANY of it. I guess that was for the best. I needed the dang rest! But I am very glad I got to go to Alabama, even if it was a short visit. I had a really good time watching Emma and the twins play. Makes me miss "babies". But they are beautiful children, wish I could see them more often. I really liked the new lakehouse. Might as well just call it a new house! lol. It's really nice, and I can't believe how many TV's mom has put in there lol. Tanner just HAD to take a bath in the new gigantic bath tub as soon as we got there. It was definitely nice to have more than one bathroom for the first time ever. No waiting in line! BUT - I still tried to go to where the old bathroom was everytime I needed to go, just out of habit. But that's now the front door. So that made it really odd lol. We got to visit a bit with Dad and Johnnie at the Rigsby's, just not long enough of course. Saw lots of folks, ate lots of food again. Tanner and Tyler started arguing and fighting constantly so I ended up having to get on out of there a little earlier than I intended. But once we were leaving, I had to wonder if they hadn't done it on PURPOSE so we could go back to the lake to see Chloe who was waiting on us. Who knows. But I'm looking forward to a longer visit this summer some time.

I guess one thing I can't go without mentioning is that this is the year Tanner officially found out there is no Santa. And I now no longer have any "baby babies". He went to my car at the lakehouse to get something and found a bag of interesting stuff in the trunk. He brought the bag into me and said he didn't look in it. But of course we all know better. I just said, look it's time we have a talk lol. I told him the news. He told me that he already knew and that he had known for awhile he was just keeping it all up so he wouldn't disappoint me and Rusty. So I guess all is well that ends well. Made this year MUCH easier. In fact, we were able to talk Rusty into letting Santa come 2 days early so they could play with their stuff sooner and I could sleep late on Christmas morning. It was terrific! We had all pretty much decided not to do any gifts among family this year. And that went well also. I was not bothered with guilt and worry, I am still broke after Christmas but probably not nearly as bad as I would have been. All in all, it was a great Christmas even if we never got completely decorated, didn't do gifts, and had to fly at lightning speeds to different places over the course of a few days. We got it done.

I went back to work last week, a week early, to begin rehearsals for the big musical. It's going well, just much slower than I had anticipated. Which means we're REALLY gonna have to work our tails off to have this thing ready by March. It's going to be SO much fun, and the kids are SO excited about it all. And I have chosen some REALLY good kids to work with. They are awesome so far. Yesterday was our last rehearsal of the week and Cheryl wanted to practice making a cake for our big cast party at the end, and to see how many kids a cake would feed. So she made a big Cat-in-the-Hat cake and brought it at the end of rehearsal. The kids were ecstatic! They took pictures of it, and of each other, and half of them have posted it on their facebook sites. A lot of them have put stuff about the musical next to their status on facebook. Which makes me feel really good about it all, to know they are that excited about it. If what I'm doing is being mentioned on FACEBOOK, then I truly have something going on, eh???? lol

Speaking of musicals, my mentor teacher from across town called me yesterday. She had a proposal. She and I are already taking turns doing Madrigal Dinners each year. I did it this year, she will do it next year, etc. She is going to propose to the district that we do the same thing on spring musicals. Like, one year she does the Madrigal Dinner and I"ll do the musical, the next year we will switch. She says she's been doing this for 14 years and it's wiping her out, but no principal has ever been willing to let her change it until NOW. I told her that I'll go along with her on it, and support it as well. Because I can't imagine having every year like this forever. Even though I"m enjoying the heck out of it, I believe I'll probably burn out twice as fast if I have to work this hard EVERY year. And plus, it will keep us from trying to sell tickets for the same things to the same people. People won't choose hers over mine, or vice versa if that should EVER happen lol. So.....if the district people and my principal will agree to it, we will put that into effect next year. Which means I'll do a musical and no dinner, and she'll do a dinner and no musical.

One thing we did accomplish over the holidays was a major overhaul in the band situation, including two shows. We already had the new singer lined up. And as it has turned out, her boyfriend has been helping us out with the sound system and all as well. While I was in Alabama they hired a new drummer named Bernie, he's around 25 I think. And we had a falling out with our bass player (that was destined to happen sooner or later) and he conveniently quit before we fired him. So, we just moved Keith over to bass and did about 3 practices maybe? We played New Year's Eve at the Tallulah country club, then we played Jan. 3 at the local hotspot called Beechwood. Oh, the stories to tell. But first let me say how awesome it was. To have rehearsed so little and sounded so good and impressed so many. We did very well. Mistakes, of course. But I'd still say that we did better both nights than we've done ANY other night thus far with the other folks. It's amazing the difference. I'm glad we got to do those two shows, and to "bond" during that week of working together. The next 2 months for me will be hellacious, and everyone is aware that I won't be able to do much until March. But we plan to practice on the weekends and work up a bunch more new stuff and get everything REALLY together.

So far it's been LOTS of fun working with a couple of younger folks. I've truly started to feel old for the first time, though. But it's not a big deal to me after all. I'm doing real well with that whole thing these days I think! lol We're discussing new song choices, and the three younger folks are coming up with stuff we've never heard of. And, to us, it's just SO hilarious that they've never heard of some of the stuff that WE just figure EVERYONE knows. After a few days of all being together, one of them asked me.....what IS that stuff you and Keith are taking?????? I wasn't sure what they meant then I realized........OH! That's BC Powders! I can't remember which one of them it was, but whoever it was didn't know what a BC was. And they were like.......what do you take them for??? They thought it was such an odd thing to do lol.

Well, here's some pics. They're all kind of in random order. That's one difficult thing about this blog site is that when you upload pics it is then difficult to rearrange them. So not gonna worry with it this time:

This is Claire, our new singer. She's adorable, and much more mature than you would assume by looking at her blue,pink,green hair and piercings lol. We really, really like her.

The "lady" on the left is the one who cussed us out New Year's Eve. We were still setting up around 8:00, we were supposed to start playing at 9:30. She wanted us to play a song right then and there apparently. Eventually she came and grabbed one of our mics and started screaming "Play a F-ing song, G-D it!!!" Then she proceded to tell us that we sucked because we weren't playing an f-ling song and we were just a bunch dumbass drugheads and she was gonna make sure we didn't get paid. BOY did I want to tell her a thing or two lol. Rusty says that just goes to show money can't buy class......all this happening in a country club lol. She was out by 10:00. But she did finally get to hear a f-ing song at least.

Me, in my own world, my own element.

Keith having a blast and kicking butt on bass.

Rusty with his New Year's Eve hat on. I thought he kinda had the Stevie Ray Vaughn look going on. He said he looked like a drunk indian lol.

Tyler, posing for a pic but blinking lol

Tanner. He just KNEW that little bitty present had to be something really awesome because it was heavy. It was an Ipod Nano.

But.....it doesn't LOOK like $1100 does it?????!!!! Money don't buy much these days.

Claire, with the feather in her hair lol. I'm seriously considering having her put a streak of pink in my hair this summer. What the heck, eh? I wonder if pink covers gray better than brown does......lmao

Dillon, Claire's boyfriend and our new helper. We got 2 for 1 in that deal for sure!

Our new drummer, Bernie, hanging out with people more his age. lol

Terri and Cheryl at the Beechwood. That's the only thing that sucks about playing in the band is I can't sit out there and hang with my girls!

Tyler and Blake at the lake. Why the heck did I only take two pictures at the lake???? Because I was still crazy and had not regained my mind yet I suppose.

Blake and Tanner at the Rigsby Christmas. Same story there, no pictures. And I'll regret it. Look at that HAIR.

Tyler at the Rigsby Christmas

I was able to go back to my old school, where Tanner and Brooke go, to visit on the last day of school before Christmas. It was really nice to attend the Christmas singalong and NOT have to be the one putting it on! I loved it! It was nice to see the kids and my former co-workers and celebrate the day there. But, I gotta say, the whole time I was thinking......boy am I GLAD I made that job change. I totally LOVE my new job as opposed to that one.

Oh yeah, almost forgot! We took the kids, including Brooke and Blake, to see the Trans-Siberian Orchestra this year. Mine and Rusty's 5th time to see them. The kids really enjoyed it from what I could tell. Tanner was definitely amazed. I took pictures and video as good as I could. But we were up high and in the back so most were blurry. Here are a few though.

Blast off!

It seems all my people are finally starting to take me seriously about the amount of work that I have had in store for me this year. I TRIED to tell them lol. Before I took this job I discussed it with Rusty, told him how bad I wanted to do it but how much time it would involved. He was all for me doing it. I tried to explain to my kids and my family just what I had in store. Everybody was like oh yeah, ok, we see. But no one truly saw did they??? lol. Rusty and the kids are doing well though. They are still supportive in all that I do and have been doing their best to help me at home. Rusty even cooked dinner and had it ready for me tonight at 8:30 on my first night time musical rehearsal. The kids have been trying to keep the dishes clean, bad as they hate it. But most everyone is coping and I'm glad. I hear complaints from family and friends about me not having the time for this or that or the other. But I assure you I'm keeping up where I need to. Might just be BARELY but I am lol. Believe me, I miss seeing folks and doing things for myself more than anyone else does. But as far as all my time being consumed, I TOLD yall! lol. But really, I think just this first year is going to be the hard part. Making the adjustments needed for me at home. And it's just very important that I prove myself this first year and accomplish as MUCH as I humanly can. Once that is done, I won't have to work quite as hard. And I can begin to have a life again. It's just this FIRST year I have to give 150% to ensure the success of my future years. So, yall will just have to keep bearing with me til June cuz it's what I have to do lol. At least I'm enjoying it. Nothing sucks worse than a job that you HATE. This summer will definitely be one of the most welcomed summers I've had in ages though. I will need the break!

ANyway. I've spent so many days on this one, I don't know if it even makes sense anymore. But just gonna post it I guess. And by the way mom, "Gardner Room" sounds like an awesome idea for me......go with that one!