Wild Orchid Video - Showcase 2008

Greg shot this from the second balcony so the sound is going to be lacking in details, but you can see the marching formations this way. Beautiful show!! Hope you like it!
Oh and Lori, Mr. Kilcrest, our Color Guard coordinator, works with Pleasant Hill band in the summer! Small world, huh!!

Happy Halloween!

Finally a pumpkin that displays my Halloween sentiments exactly!

Just a Picture from Wild Orchid

I will hopefully get the show put up here. This picture is from the opener when the band is lying on the field in the shape of a vine and the color guard girls are the flowers. They are holding flower petals. The flowers are closed, then open one at a time, then all bloom and the flowers turn around.... It is the first time the color guard has been the show with the band showing them off. It is absolutely spectacular to see and hear. It's by far the best performance I have ever seen including DCI (Drum Corps International). They took first at Louisiana Showcase of Marching Bands last Saturday and leave for Atlanta tonight to compete in regionals, and then I think it's Nationals in Iowa. I honestly think they have the show and the kids to win best in the nation this time.

Wild Orchid Full Show

This is the performance of the Lafayette High School Mighty Lion Marching Band at Showcase October 25, 2008. There are 60 color guard and over 300 people on the field.

Greater Than

Last year's performance and those of previous years are on lhsband.net. I would have put the video on here but it's not working, it's only 35megs and should fit but no joy in Mudville tonight... sorry!! Will get some more of Wild Orchid tomorrow. Tomorrow is Louisiana Showcase of Marching Bands and it's gonna be AWESOME!!

Greater Than

Punkin Time

Time for Punkins!
Ok I know it's Pumpkins. Yet again I got my 4 kids together for pictures. Can you believe it??? Went to the Punkin Patch and they had this nice tractor set up. If I can someday get all the cars out of the background, life will be good! No this didn't make the calendar but I got a better one LOL!!

Mt Hood from the Air

I have no idea why I am underlining... And this picture is Mt Hood, I don't have any new pics shrunk down yet so I am putting in an old one from our trip to Seattle.
However I will have some new pics soon, going to Showcase this Saturday and I hope to get down on the field and get some decent shots. There is a band mom who has a very expensive camera who takes pictures at every performance, but I have no idea what she does with them. I asked if she would publish them and she said I could buy some from the professional photographer on the website. Sigh... If I wanted to pay 5 bucks a print I would not buy marching band kids drinking Poweraid. Whatever... Sorry I don't mean to be crabby, but my camera just doesnt... reach... clear out there. So this time we are bringing the old fashioned 35mm with (ok it's hard for me to use this word, I was swearing off for life) film and the telephoto and zoom collection and see if we can't get some better shots. With digital, at least mine, you click down the button and by the time it measures the distance, adjusts for focus, flashes the light and takes the picture, the next band is on the field and the opportunity is over. I have worked for the last few years on shooting "ahead" but with Marching Band it's just not cutting the mustard. Ok will post some nice pumpkin pictures.

Wild Orchid

The Mighty Lion Marching Band
They always have a great show. They always make
the football team look bad. They always sound fantastic.
This year the show is beautiful too.
Color Guard are orchids and the band are the vines.
There are 300 kids on the field, 60 of which are
color guard. The green line you see in the bottom left
are the kids who are "extra".
Amazing show....I can't wait to see the whole thing!
Philip and Alexander are up there playing trombone and melophone. They start the show on the ground like this and have an "opener" then are announced and start the marching part. It entails thousands of hours of practice and dedication... when you think of how many other things they could be doing, it makes you appreciate these fine teenagers even more!!

Wet Cement

It's poured! Now all we have left to do is sheetrock the interior walls, tape and texture, tear out the ceiling and redo that, frame up the outside wall, put in the windows and brick them up, build a pantry and some shelves and Voila! It will be living space!!
Ok well they poured the cement and it looks really good, a lot smoother than the shop turned out. With the shop, we have the craters of the moon to deal with. It's awful. These guys took a look at the shop and asked why we didn't sue. "Because the contractor lives across the street," we told them, and it's more important to have good neighbors than flat concrete, but you don't have to do that twice... They may be able to sand down the concrete in the shop so it's flat, and that would be amazing.
The next project (!) is a walk in closet in our room. All I have to do is give up wearing clothes for a few months while that is going on. So if you see me wearing less than usual, you can sympathize with me that my clothes are not AWL but excused for construction.

Jackhammer

Well it's Monday and the jackhammer is going again. Big chunks of cement. I am glad Greg decided to get someone else to do this. He would not have enjoyed the job! They put down forms and visquene ok how do you spell that? and now are haggling over putting down wire... and they are supposed to pour in about an hour. Very exciting...

Cat's on my desk, Dog at my feet, sitting by a nice computer it's not so bad! I am really excited to get the wall up and get going. I think we've decided to move the computers out there. Puppies chew on wire and if we can keep a baby gate up we can keep her out of there. I want either rubberized paint on the floor or indoor outdoor carpet. I am tired of waxing. Greg wants more linoleum tile. The chairs at the computers do a number on my wax so I really, really don't want to have to wax in there. I wonder what we'll get....
Greg told the contractor he was going to build the wall out of brick. He asked, "How much brickwork have you done?" and Greg said, "This will be my first project." It was funny to watch the face of the contractor as he struggled not to laugh. I hate to tell him that Greg can do anything. Especially if you tell him it can't be done. I have complete faith it will be the finest brickwork in the neighborhood.
So in the front on the right of the door we have the two windows from the kids' rooms, then the door with an arched brick thing going on, and Greg wanted to do two windows in the rec room to match. I kind of wanted more windows so I was hoping for 3. Now that I have priced windows I am more inclined to cave on this. Maybe if I fuss a lot and finally cave, I will get my painted floor. I am sooooo not into waxing MORE floor. I don't care what color he paints it or how it's decorated, I just want to be able to clean the floor without renting something. Is that too much to ask? Maintenance Free is what I am looking for. Brooms are cheap, and I have a terrific dust mop.
Ok all that mundanity aside, the Mighty Lion Marching Band performs at District Festival tomorrow. It's gonna be something to behold. They still don't have the full performance ready but they will for Showcase (State) on October 25. I can hardly wait. They are terrific this year and will be doing two out of state performances, one Halloween weekend in Georgia and one in Indiana Nov.15 for Grand Nationals. After seeing the color guard (they drill every day. EVERY day. All day. It shows. And the outfits this year are stunning.) and hearing the music and seeing the band march, I think they will do well. The drummers are so dedicated... they do things while they are drumming that you would never think-- throwing drumsticks to each other in rapid succession in the middle of the drum solo....and they are just fun to watch. There is nothing like a marching band to renew your faith in teenagers. You see all those kids who have sacrificed time, money, sweat and tears on this and you think about how America isn't as doomed as you thought!!

Under Construction

Well the lovely sound of birdies tweeting will be replaced by

The Jack Hammer Man

Tomorrow. We are getting the concrete ready and poured in our soon to be addition. I know some of these improvements to the house have tried my patience but this one is gonna be a tough one. I have a dear friend who is bringing me Sees Chocolates next week, I am holding on, just thinking about them....Don't send any (at least until November LOL! They'll melt) but man some days you just need chocolate to get through. I think I am losing my grip and a little dark brown square can set me all to rights again. Ahhhh.

If you have never read the article in the Reader's Digest about the jackhammer man I should get it and post it. It was great. Anyway, we will be up to our eyeballs in concrete this weekend and probably not getting a lot more done. I keep worrying about the other things I have going on... but then Anger Management kicks in and I say "Groos Fraba" over a few times, practice my LeMaas breathing and everything is ok. Man I hate having stuff piled all over because there will be a place for it... soon... but not now... I know it drives Greg crazy too. You want to see someone unhappy make Greg hang out in a singlewide for about 10 minutes. So it's kind of like that. Crowded and packed and with all the kids here (mine plus friends, girlfriends and band buddies of the boys, and kids who don't have moms home when the bus drops them off, they all hang out here.... dispite the mess, can you believe it?) it is just challenging, and of course the doors and windows are all open (It is really cool and not humid here. You better believe it, I did write that, it won't last forever!! So next year plan your trip here in October, its actually habitable!!) and a new puppy (she is still doing soooo well. Comes when called. Nice. Teething, not so nice LOL) so it does get a little rambunctious. It's gonna be a busy week. Oh I gotta take pictures! Before and after.

Here she is!

Puppies are challenging photo subjects. I am so grateful for digital cameras. I can't imagine how much film I would have wasted on the blurry motion of a constantly moving dynamo...Anyway she is already really very well behaved and whines at the door when she has to go out. Can you believe it!! Yes she already had a swim in the pond showing true Retriever love for water!

New Puppy

After we lost Princess it was only a matter of time...

Our new addition is Matilda, a black lab/Doberman mix (1/4 Doberman 1/2 Lab, 1/4 ?) and she is 8 weeks old and very cute and smart. She is solid brownblack with brown eyes. At the rate she is going I expect her to be doing advanced math by Christmas. I will have pictures soon, the camera is in Greg's car right now :(

We're calling her Tilly.

Remember Greg names the animals, I name the kids.

More about PE

In case you wanted to read my rants about PE in schools it's at cajunschools.blogspot.com.
I appreciate the comments too... there seems to be a lot of great activity going on in the elementary school level here but once middle school starts it goes downhill. I think the only thing different is that the coaches are "teaching" PE. In elem there are no teams... so anyway it would be lovely to see things get better here. Philip used to say he wished there was Gifted PE.
OK so I better start a new one for this news it's too big to share....