...and they're off!

***NOTE: This blog was started on Friday at 2:30am and finished Friday at 11:30pm...

I know, I know...I should be in bed getting as much sleep as possible before band tour tomorrow. I get picked up at 5am and then the mayhem begins...but I can't seem to sleep at the moment. I am excited. Even though the marching band kids have not been doing well in terms of scores, they have excelled as students and performers! I can see them giving it their all at every performance opportunity. I can guarantee the band director and I will most likely not get any sleep, but just may be worth it.

So, as part of my not sleeping routine, I have decided to clean and unpack everything. I have made some interesting discoveries about myself. First, I like to hide money in odd places. In the cleaning that I have done I have found $200 in 20 dollar bills and who knows how much in coins (I am pretty sure it was over $20)! Second, I just have too much stuff. Luckily, I have a GIANT sell pile of stuff I don't need. My sister came a while ago and noted that I could easily make a couple hundred bucks just off the clothing I own that I have never worn or don't fit into anymore! That was a positive thing for her to say and I was quite excited by that prospect! I am hoping for just a bit more than that!

Now, this exhausted girl is crawling into bed!

My Desire to Dream

I am so happy to have y best friend in the whole world in town right now. He always tells me how much he is inspired by my desire to dream and dream big. I can tell him anything and he never laughs or says such goals are unattainable. However, I do feel bad. He tells me many times that he envies me and wonders how I can be friends with someone like him, who does not have a job and currently does not go to school. He lives in California with his parents but we manage to talk every night and without fail he always tells me how proud of me he is (apparently he brags to his friends at home about me!) and without fail picks me up when I fall down.

The other day while I was hanging out with him at his biological mom's house (he was adopted as a baby) we talked about our biggest dreams. I am a HUGE dreamer. There is so much that I want out of life. We were  sitting on the grass patch near his mom's house and I told him everything about what I want to do and what I want from life. I told him of my desire to dream, fulfill my dreams and dream some more. I then stopped mid sentence to think. He turned to me and asked why I stopped. Here is my answer, I have another dream added to my list. I know what I want in life...some things I think I will wait for (whether I choose to or not) but I know what I want in life.

As Brian and I were talking about life, he said something that is not too shocking now, but it was a bit surprising when he pointed it out. He noted that I am a super independent person. He noted that he is not surprised by some of my dreams and has no doubt I will achieve them. He pointed that I am a hard-working and stubborn girl who will go after things full force. He also says that he feels many people are intimidated by this fact. I'd like to think I am a generally nice and approachable person, but I can see his point. I am kind of an odd ball (okay so maybe kind of is an understatement). I march to the beat of my own drummer and try to just go after what I want! I will have to create another blog about some (not all) of these dreams).

P.S. Don't forget to keep voting for Springville High School as part of the Glee Give a Note Project. They really need new instruments.

Glee Give a Note Project-Springville

I am writing this blog mostly out of desperation and determination. As many of my readers know, I currently work at Springville High School as the colorguard director, assistant visual director and occasionally help with music. I don't get to see the budget to the music department at Springville, but I do hear about money woes from the band teacher and face issues with the budget as well. This post will contain a lot of inforation that I think is needed to prove my point. The Springville High School Percussion posted a video on the Glee-Give a Note Project website. The purpose...to win money for the school. You see our goal this year is to raise enough money for new drums. The drummers need it too. Almost all of the Bass Drums have the ris falling off (rims hold the drum together) and the snares nearly fall apart everyday. We need new insturments and colorguard equipment and winning this money can help our program improve a lot!

Here is how you can help us out too! Go to www.gleegiveanote.com. Then go to the vote now section. At the top you have the option of viewing videos from different states...go to Utah. Springville will be on that page. Watch and click to vote botton everyday on a different computer (it tracks IP addresses). Every vote helps! Please and thank you!

Finding Myself By Getting Lost...

I have had a rough couple of weeks recently. I rarely share them with people because I just don't want too. However, I saw a friend of mine yesterday while I was sitting in the food court eating some lunch. I can usually spot him because he has longer hair (well, longer than most guys) and he always has his guitar with him. This time, I didn't even notice him. So, I sat down and barely five seconds after I sit down he has planted his stuff at the table I was sitting at. He said Hi and immediately asked what was wrong. He knew something was off. Apparently he had said hi as I passed his table but I just bee lined it to the one I eventually choose. He did not know me to be so unfocused and not notice people. So, I proceed to talk, just talk...and he listened. We had a conversation and something about going away for a while to find myself came up. He encouraged me to find a significant among of time (several weeks) to just disappear for a while...go somewhere to "find who you are because sometimes we need that." Now, I am not saying I would do this now, but just sounds so nice. He even said something that made me happy..."you don't have to go to a vacation spot to disappear. It can be anywhere you want or no where at all. Just find time for yourself. Disappear..." Maybe in order to find myself, I have to get lost...I like that idea!

At Long Last...

I decided to take a break from packing to mark this momentous occasion. After living in Carriage Cove Apartments since August 2007, I am moving. I am no longer staying in Carriage Cove. My parents are moving from the state of beautiful Oregon to Utah (not that it doesn't have it's own beauty because it does...I am just slightly bitter that my parents will no longer be living in my home state). It doesn't seem real to me. I will be moving from the furtherest Northern end of Provo to the furthest Southern end of Provo. I am excited though. I get to paint my room, go through stuff and down size, organize my room the way I want it organized and arranged, and save money living at home! I will be excited when the piano gets here so I can practice! I am especially excited for my niece, Baby Claire to visit quite often (can you say babysitting?)! Even though, I don't like the fact that I am moving, I am looking at all the positives to it!

A Great Saturday!

I had the blessed opportunity to sleep in this morning (if you call waking up at 8:30am sleeping) and very excited about this fact. I rolled out of bed, got some things done...and then went to Seven Peaks Water Park to celebrate the end of band camp! For the last week, Monday through Friday, from 8am to 5 pm, the Springville High School Marching Band and Colorguard practised, staged, drilled, rehearse and worked very very hard to get a difficult and visually challenging show on the field! We got 3/4 of the drill in place with music, about 30% of the work for the colorguard done and brainstormed several ideas about potential future rehearsals! The kids will have a refresher rehearsal on Tuesday. I was told not to give any new work, but I think completing the dance feature and the flag feature will put the colorguard right where they need to be those to sections alone complete 112 or 50 music measures or 6 drill pages of the show bringing the colorguard to 50% of the work completed)! Then the next rehearsal after that I will fill in minute details and flag work to complete what we have so far.

I came to a decision yesterday, that I slept on and feel good about today (another reason why it is a great Saturday)! While writing work for my girls, I heard all of them say everything except the flag feature, rifle feature and dance feature are super easy. I sat down with Jamie Teot, the band director to talk to her about this. I know the girls want a difficult show, but they also want to achieve higher scores this year (last year they never got higher than fifth as a colorguard in any captions or sub-captions). I can't give them both...not yet. So, I sat down with Jamie and told her that I am making everything easy for several reasons (as I will list below):

1. Even though their show is heavy on the visuals, giving them too much at this time will not be good for them. They will shut down and not be able to achieve the work until later in the game (maybe even when it is too late).

2. I have a plan to get them clean and perfect for their first show. So clean, in fact, that I want the judges to tell me to make their work more difficult! The girls have beautiful doubles and triples, but they are inconsistent when they catch. I see improvements from them everyday and that gives me hope. I think if they start getting their catches down, they can move their tosses up! But we have to start easy for a reason!

3. I want them to have an excellent movement book this year (when I say book I mean I write and they execute)! I am making work super easy so that they can have leaps and turns. Movement is not their strongest category so I am hoping with more movement that practice and get stronger!

4. When I see them have glazed over looks, I know their brains are trying to process everything and giving them more when they are note ready to receive it yet will only do more harm than good!

I am confident that they will succeed if they are willing to put in the time and effort!

Then, Seven Peaks today was a nice way for me and Jamie to unwind and relax. We spent most of the time together and had a blast!

Now, I watch the DCI scores! Blue Knights got 9th place (yes!) with a score of 89.2 (their colorguard received eighth overall)! Amazing season BK and congratulations to all my drum corp friends for such an amazing season! Best Saturday ever!

Wild Wednesday

I just have to make it through the day and then I will be happy. I will still have lots of homework and lots to study for, but I won't have everything due in one day (four papers, two research projects and two midterms...all today). I just have to get through all of it and then some (my plan is to get a head in homework tonight) and then I can relax a bit (only a bit) tomorrow!