Playoff Bound

Our football team is heading to the playoffs.   Tonight is our first playoff game.  We'll be playing Irving Nimitz.  I don't know anything about them, but I do know that our kids are ready for this.  It should be quite fun.  I'm going to the game with Miss A.  We're going to be leaving in about an hour or so to go run some errands and head off to the school.  We have to be at the school at 2:30.  The kids will run through a dress rehearsal until 3:15, then we're loading up the busses and heading out to Standridge Stadium in Carrollton.  We offload and have dinner at 4:30, enter the stadium at 5:00-5:30.  Game starts at 6:00.  We'll be there until at least 10:00.  I'm really looking forward to it.  I've been waiting to be a part of something like this for a while.  I'm glad that I'll be able to share it with my daughter!!

She's currently practicing some music.  I'm getting my own private concert.  This is good.  She's playing a Christmas selection.  The band is marching in the annual Holiday parade for our city, so she has to learn this song.  After that, it's concert season.  The school has two concert bands, Concert 1 and Concert 2.  I'm not sure how they are arranged, but she thinks she's done well enough on her tryout to attain Concert 1.  If so, she'll have to drop her Geography class because 8th period will be over at the high school (she's still at the freshman center).  We will see how that works out.  Right now, let's get ourselves through the playoffs.

I'm not excited about the game or anything, but I'm posting the link to the broadcast of our game.  It's at Allen Eagles Radio.   I sure hope I can convince people to tune in and listen.  It's always fun to share things like this.

First Sunday in November

Last night, I went to a Dan promotion dinner.  We just had five people test for first and second Dan, and they've achieved it.  I found the dinner a lot of fun.  We had all the Dans from the school there to celebrate their achievements. 
It was a fun evening.  


This week, in addition to karate, I'll be participating in a Veteran's Day parade with my son's Cub Scout pack.  That will be fun!  This is the first year I've gotten to participate.  I am looking forward to it.  


We have a family campout next weekend, but again, I won't be attending it because of the football game.  The game starts at 6:00 on Saturday.  We'll be out at the stadium where the kids had their UIL competition in early October.  At least this time, it'll be dark, not full sunlight!  

Boo Bowl, continued

So...here's what we looked like last night in the stands:

The stars of this picture are Miss A, her friend J and then I'm in the background.  Makes me happy that I got a picture of the girls when I was there!

"Boo Bowl" and football

Last night was our "Boo Bowl". The kids in the band wore costumes instead of their normal uniforms. It was funny! There were a pair of seniors who were Neo and Trinity from The Matrix, there were duct tape people (I didn't see them), Gumby (check YouTube...it may be something that is unfamiliar to some of you, but it's funny!) There was a Sumo wrestler (a senior), Little Bo Peep and her "lost sheep". (Incidentally, that 'sheep' was shedding his costume everywhere!) Someone came as Russell from "UP". We had Carmen, several Zorro-like people, football players (not sure how they played their instruments with the helmets on!) and of course, several people being Mariachi players. They had serapes and the sombreros. It was fun! There were a whole lot more than I can possibly describe. I can't remember all 600+ kids.

It was funny to see them play Carmen on the field in costume.  Gumby played the trumpet solo in the first movement of Carmen (during the "taco plate", as the kids call it, when they're moving into a specific formation).  The drumline was dressed up as bananas and Energizer bunnies.  It's amusing as all get-out to see, but it was really fun.  I think last night was more fun than I've had all year. I have fun every game, but seeing all the kids go silly for one night was just perfect!

Speaking of 600+ kids, the Dallas Morning News (the local newspaper), ran an article about the band. It was an incredible article. They also have several nice pictures and a neat video on the band there as well!!  If you get a chance to look at it, please do.  You'll see what we've been doing lately.

Leader of the Den

I'm now officially trained as a Cub Scout Webelos leader!! I had my full day of Den Leader Outdoors training yesterday. It was COLD!! Considering that we've had 90% humidity on top of 75-80 degree days up until Thursday, then a cool front blew in and temps dropped into the upper 60s to low 70s, it was really chilly! The wind blew a lot, which didn't help as we were under a pavilion most of the day. It was warm in the direct sun, but we weren't out there much--only for the campfire/cooking section of our training.

We made foil packets for lunch. It really doesn't take that long to do. You only need a square of foil, plus your ingredients (which hopefully have been pre-chopped for you!). Layer your ingredients in whatever way you want. They offered us potatoes, hamburgers, onions, green beans and carrots, plus a "cream of" soup to use. I put potato slices on the bottom, my burger on top of that, then onion, green beans, carrots and finally, the soup. I should add that I also used garlic salt and paprika to flavor it. You wrap your packet up to make a square, then put it on HOT coals. It needs to be turned at least once, but that's it. Very nice meal. Hot and quite tasty!

We talked about campfires yesterday as well. There was much discussion about fire rings. You don't want to create a fire ring...use an existing one as it's less invasive and easier on the environment. They did mention not to pull dead branches off trees. For the kindling, gather only small pieces of twigs and whatnot. You'll probably have a firestarter with you, so you'll use that to start your fires.
In a lot of ways, it's a scary thought that you'll have 9 and 10 year olds around fires, but that's the first step toward being Boy Scouts. They have to know how to build a fire *safely* and how to tend to said fire as Boy Scouts. That's a lot of what I was learning yesterday.
oh
We talked about conservation a little, plus Leave NO Trace. I seriously would like to take my boys up to visit a friend who is a Forester. I believe she could train them much better than anyone else. It's also a pity I can't bring her down here for a Den Meeting. That would be soooo beneficial!! Unfortunately, I can't figure out how to do that yet...and taking 7 boys across state lines and into another country requires a thousand pieces of paper in the form of permits that I don't want to even THINK about!

I'm now going to jump into planning my next Den Meeting. I'll have to push it back a week since I'm going to another meeting this coming Wednesday. Ah, the fun of planning. They emphasized making plans and sticking with them, so I'll have to work on that. I've not been a planner. Now I have to start. Yikes.

Marching band

For the better part of the last few months, the high school marching band has been playing Bizet's Carmen, which they are performing at a UIL (Urban Interscholastic League) competition. They had a competition on September 26th, one yesterday and one next week. They'll be finished with UIL after next week.

Busy Saturday

Today has been fun-filled and different. I didn't have a football game last night, so that was a bit of a nice change for a Friday night. We all sat around the house together, doing very little last night.

Today, Miss A had a marching competition in Plano to attend. I had to take her to the school, to get warmed up at 11:00. They didn't leave for the competition until noon, but they had to get in a last minute rehearsal. This is in anticipation of the actual UIL competition *next* weekend.

After dropping her off, I had to come back home and get hubby and the little boy. We went to the BTK picnic today. That was fun too. It was chilly...the temperature hovered in the mid to upper 50s all day. We had a pavilion at the park that was near the pond and caught the breeze blowing off that. It was a tad bit nippy!! They had games for the kids, but most of them spent time at the playground, so they kept themselves occupied. Mine spent time laying down in the gravel on the playground, which I STILL don't understand! At one point, I saw him laying down, turned away from the gentleman I was talking to and yelled my son's name. He heard me, got up and came over to me. Why he was down, I don't think I'll ever know.

Toward the end of the picnic, they had a drawing for some prizes. I was hoping to get my number drawn for that, but instead, I wound up with a "BOB". "BOB", for those who aren't familiar with martial arts, is a punching dummy that is a life-like torso on a stand. Getting him home in a tiny Saturn Ion was a bit of a challenge, but we made it. The stand rode in the backseat with Mr. A, the "head" of BOB was in the trunk. Mrs. MG was kind enough to offer us the use of her truck to bring him home. My friend, Ms. S, also offered the use of her minivan. It was funny.

This evening, we met up with a friend from F*Bk, who happens to have been in school with me back in Washington State. We're talking over 30 years ago!! It was a fun evening meeting up with him, his wife and daughter. We spent a bit of time getting to know each other, sharing our life stories We'll probably get together again at some point. It was fun.

Now we're home, waiting for time to go pick up Miss A at school. She won't be back until 10:30, so I've got a bit of time. I think I'm going to go read my new Funakoshi book that my friend, Ms. S, gave me. Her daughter got the prize with the book and picture frame and didn't want the book as they already had it. It is now in my possession. Thank you, Ms. S!

On a happy note too, I talked with my instructor about my situation and why I've not been in classes. I told him that I had an agenda--to get healthier and improve myself. He told me "get to class. You have no excuse not to go." Well, with that being said, I'm going to be in class on Tuesday!

A picture speaks more than I care to hear

I'm overweight. I don't deny it. I have some serious issues with my weight and have been battling it for over forty years. It's enough to make me feel like crawling under a rock at times.

Tonight was no different. We had our first Cub Scout Pack meeting of the year tonight. This was our "meet the boys and parents" meeting where we discussed what we are doing this year. At the end of the meeting, we had a presentation of a slide show from last year of our Pack doings. This is a fun thing to watch as our Historian puts it together with music.

It was fun (although noisy as 80 some odd boys can really SCREAM when they want to!) and amusing to watch it. I enjoyed it right up until I saw a few shots I was included in. Then I got disgusted. If I think I looked bad in the pictures, there's no telling what other people think of how I look. I just cringed when I saw them. It wasn't fun for me. I don't like seeing how big I am. In a lot of ways, it's just reinforcing what I heard last week..that I've ballooned up and have gained back my weight I lost in 2006-2007.

Definitely not what I wanted to see tonight. Of course, I'm pretty hard on myself anyway, but those pictures tonight made me feel like I need to make an enormous change.

Marching Band

In Texas, football is a *big* thing. In our city, it is no different. In the past month, my daughter has attended 4 football games. Here are some pictures of the band from game 1 (Longview, TX); game 2 against Monterrey, Mexico; and game 3 against Rockwall (HOMECOMING). Two of these games were rain delayed (Monterrey and Rockwall), but we managed to win them just the same.



This is the first game against the Longview Lobos. The band was coming into the stadium.

More of the band. They were paused in front of the stands.

Miss A is the one in the glasses, looking up.

Miss A and her friend, Jo. Jo is an upperclassman who "adopted" her for the year. It's a tradition. The Freshmen (also known as "fish") are adopted by the the upperclassmen.

Miss A, her friend JJ and I don't remember the names of the other two. This was taken at the Rockwall game.

I've attended two out of four games as a volunteer. I'm enjoying it because I get to help the kids, which is good, plus I'm getting to hear our band and see the football games. It's a win-win situation. Last night was a game against Euless-Trinity, which we won. I spent a LOT of time in the stands after my duties as a stand cleaner (we clean the stands so those white uniforms won't be too horribly dirty!) and "Potty patrol". (we hold the jackets for the girls when they need to go in to freshen up.)

I'm really excited about this. It has been a great start to the year. The only downside is that my co-workers are being snippy to me about leaving early for games, so I may not be able to attend any more of the away games.

Busy schedule

This should be a busy year for us. I'm now volunteering to chaperone at the football games, plus I have Cub Scouts. The Cub Scouts is really only 2 times a month--the Den Meeting and the bigger PACK meeting. I haven't figured out where to fit in my martial arts either.

I am sure that I'm a bit on the overwhelmed side at the amount of things the boys have to do to earn the various badges and whatnot they have to work on. I definitely have to plan more than I did last year. I hope the boys will assume enough responsibility to do their own things without me standing over them. We also have to go camping many times this year. That's a chore for the husband. I'm doing band with our daughter, HE gets to go out in "the wild" with the boy.

With the classes Miss A is taking, too, we have many projects going at once. She had to make ratatouille for her French class to work on learning the culture aspect of things. Then there's a "questionable topic" she has to work on for English. She has the topic of the War in Iraq. NOT my idea of a fun research project, but I didn't like her other topics (thankfully one was already taken...*I* had issues with it!). There's Biology, Health, Geography...you name it. This girl has a full plate. I'm exhausted thinking about it and it's not MY schedule (although I'm doing my bit to help her, so that does take a little time in and of itself.)

Mr. A just has the normal fourth grade things to work on--the reading, writing, etc. I've currently got him sitting down, reading his Webelos book to familiarize himself with the requirements for Citizen. Once he finishes that, he's going out with the hubby to go watch football at a local restaurant with his friends.

High school football

If you follow me on Twitter (yes, I tweet, therefore, I'm a "twit"!), you know that I've gone totally nuts about High School Football. I don't know why. I don't really care for professional American football that much. I prefer to ignore it. Given the choice of watching it or something else, I'll choose something else, every time!
I never went to a single game when *I* was in high school. I certainly wasn't involved in Band or anything like that. However...now that my daughter is involved, I find myself being very drawn to the game. It could be because the announcers of the game make it interesting. It could be because I like the band. Since my daughter is in band, that might be why!! I have gone totally crazy with the football thing.

The school sent out a notifier about the activities for Homecoming week and one of the things was to "Paint the town blue" and to have a "blue-out" on Friday night. Painting the town blue involved getting your car windows painted by the school's cheerleaders. I went for that because I'm excited to be a part of this. They're trying to make a second run at the State Championship, so it's worth supporting.

On Wednesday, I went to Lowes and got the cheerleaders to paint my car windows blue. Well, specifically, they are red, white and blue. It matches my car nicely. :) Tomorrow is the actual game and I'm planning on wearing my band polo shirt to work and then to the game tomorrow night. I've volunteered to help at the game and will be reporting to the band hall at 5:30 to get my orders. That's pretty exciting too!! This town is big on supporting their football team and their school, so I'm sure everyone there will be wearing blue. The band will be in blue and white. It's going to be very fun to be there. This will be my first football game (ever) and I'm looking forward to it. I guess I'm just a big kid at heart!!

Views from the inside of my mind...

*Note: this was posted originally at a different blog site about 3 years ago. I'm actually glad I saved it and have decided to re-post it because it ties in with where my mind is at present.**

Okay, so you’ll get really tired of this picture before it’s all said and done! LOL!
I am proud of this picture. I looked at the one picture of me and my friend, Ram, and I realize that I was *very* happy! I looked so happy and relaxed in that picture, despite being at work! LOL! That was a good thing. I didn’t win anything. No big deal. I didn’t expect to win anything. I just had fun because I got to step outside of my usual box. I thought past “safe”. I liked it. I truly enjoyed myself. Part of it was because I was happy being different. I didn’t dress the conventional part. I let my personality out for a short time. I let the mask down.
How often can we say that we’ve stepped out of the box? How many different masks do you wear? This is something that I have been thinking about since Saturday (in fact, it was the subject of my WW meeting). You are a mom/daughter/sister/cousin/best friend/lover/teacher/mentor/Betty Crocker/June Cleaver/Wonder Woman/Super Girl/Ms. Marvel/Spiderman/Superman/whatever. You’re a mother/friend/wife/lover. You’re an artist/teacher/leader/follower/employer/employee. All the masks we wear contribute to who we are or at least the public facade we present. Do we know who we really are? We tell ourselves we do, but when do you let the masks down?
When do you allow yourself to be the *real* you? When do you admit that you’re not better than anyone else, that you CAN say NO to someone? When do you say “ENOUGH!” and start treating yourself better?

Who do you think you are?

Me? I’m still finding out.

Reviewing books

Reading is something I do because I enjoy it. I don't like the stress associated with reviewing books, so I don't read books for review very often. At one time, I belonged to a reviewing website that was all romance books. I'm more of a contemporary fiction reader, but I also read non fiction. The book I'm currently reading is a book I received in exchange for a review.

I'm reading Sang H. Kim's Complete Kicking for review. I'm thoroughly enjoying it. I think it's got some sort of subliminal message in it because I have been visualizing kicks and I've had the urge to practice kicking.

I'm going to have this book finished by the end of the week and will write a review to post up at Amazon.

Thursday night football

This is what my daughter is doing tonight...

Martial arts Saturday

This has been a sleepless Saturday. I slept very little Thursday night to Friday morning. Then, last night I woke up at 1:00 am. Miss A was due in around 2:00 am from Longview and I guess I didn't want to miss getting there to pick her up.
She called around 1:20 and told me they were in, so I went out to pick her up. THAT was a huge parking lot!! All of the parents were out to get their kids. I parked, got out and walked up to the band hall. Got her and her gear, then went back to the car. She had to go back in to get a hair ribbon someone gave her. It has her name and graduation year on it. That was neat. She's going to wear it every game.

After getting Ms. Sleepy (she tried to sleep on the 3 hour trip home but one of the obnoxious boys who I suspect likes her but won't admit to it, woke her up) home, we all crashed out at 2:30. I had to get up this morning to get ready to go out to the dojang. I was helping at the Gup (colored belt) test today and needed to be there at 10:00. My young shadow came in and climbed on me, which ensured that I got up. I didn't have time to get myself any coffee. I grabbed a diet coke and ran out the door. That is not my recommendation of morning caffeine, believe me!

I don't have anything planned for tomorrow, except writing letters. I've decided that I am going to work on letters for a little while so that my daughter can research French recipes. She's got a homework assignment for French class. She has to introduce something from French culture to the class. She has to have food, watch a movie and review it for class or something else. I'm a bit fuzzy on what she needs to do. I'll review that tomorrow.

I am thinking that I'm going to drag out my kicking shield tomorrow and work on my own kicking with my husband. I need him to at least hold it. That way, I'm not going back to class in a complete funk. I'll be working on things I need to work on. I told Master G today that I can see the standard we're holding the gups to. I can do my best to work myself to that standard and then some. I've got to improve my overall technique, etc.

I did get to spar today with a young lady who was testing for her first Gup. I was part of a "two on one" sparring round. I had fun with it and actually remembered NOT to lean in to my opponent! I thanked Master A for allowing me to spar. I thoroughly enjoyed myself.

I learned a lot about the grading system of the gups. I sat as a trainee at Mr. B's side, listening, observing and learning. I need to temper my assessments with understanding. Testing isn't all about "you showed up, here's your belt." It is a test of the candidate's physical and mental abilities. I watched one young man get extremely frustrated during his sparring session. I could see him thinking "what the heck am I doing?!" I noticed that he started out his testing by looking down, but by the end of that test, he was looking more confident, as if he was relaxing. The young lady involved in the testing looked up at the examiners, but it was very hard to hear her. Her kihaps were very quiet...but she got the job done!!

I'm finding myself thinking about a lot again. I deliberately didn't think on the way home tonight, only turned my radio up and sang, loudly (and off key but who cares, right? I was in my car, alone!). I am sure my sub-conscious will sort out all I have learned today and will put it to good use. I learned some sneaky things for working on abs which makes me want to race out tomorrow and buy a medicine ball. I have more things in my head than I know what to do with right ow. First of all, I need to sleep, so that's number one on the agenda.

Football Friday

Today kicks off the start of Football season in Texas. It's the first game for many of the schools. Allen is playing Longview, IN Longview. The band is going to be going too. I am proud of all the kids for the hours of hard work they put in. I really would like to be going there with them, but this is probably for the best. I can now just hope that everything works out for everyone and that there are no obvious blunders, no lost uniforms, no drama.

If you live in the state of Texas, High School football is a big deal. We're talking HUGE! For example: My daughter's high school won the State 5A Championship last year, so this year, season tickets are sold out. SOLD. OUT. I found this out a week before school started!!! I was stunned. I don't know why, but I was kind of expecting to have the opportunity to get tickets and see the games. You have to get an early start if you want your season tickets. A friend in another school district has the same issue. She couldn't get season tickets either.

It's going to be an exciting several weeks. We have a game tonight, a game next Thursday (that I am going to TRY to get to!) and on and on....the calendar is packed. It will be a lot of fun this year!!!

Fly-by

I am around. Really, I'm not just a figment of anyone's imagination. I've been kind of busy with band. I was trying to insert a picture here but can't seem to get it to load. Nice.

From Marching Band

From Marching Band

Work, of course, has been busy as well. This is a good thing, especially in a "down economy". I'm fortunate that I'm not a victim of the economy. I may have many grumbles to make about things, but not that.

I've also been working on my attitude and my training. I kind of slacked off again in the exercise department. I can't work out in the morning anymore unless I get up at 4:30 am to exercise. I'm having to take my daughter to school by 6:55. I'm now at work a little after 7:00. Makes for a VERY long day, especially when I work from 9:30-6:30 one day a week. I can't work that shift this next week because we have a "meet the teacher" thing going on. I want to attend that because it's good to get to know your student's teachers.

I fixed it!!

I work in Technical Support for a fax machine manufacturer. I am one of the "Digital Support Specialists". All this means is that I can troubleshoot problems and fix them (mostly).
Today, I took my laptop to work in the hopes of fixing the problem with it locking up. I think I can say that I was successful. I ran a number of things, including "scan disk", "Windows cleaner" and "disk check". I also asked one of the guys in the repair center to blow out the exhaust fans on the underside of the laptop. He did and dislodged a feral dust bunny herd. However, the computer has been on *all day* since the removal of the bunnies and it's working beautifully. It's COOL to the touch! The keyboard hasn't gotten warm. The back of the laptop is cool. I'm impressed! I managed to fix a problem and I wasn't even considering that as a problem!! Makes me feel pretty good, all things considered.

Computer issues

I've been having issues and fighting with my computer. It has a tendency to lock up while I'm looking around the Internet. I decided to take matters into my own hands and cleaned off an email client program that had been giving me fits--it wouldn't load properly when I first opened it, so I had to stop the IMAP process on the computer. Then it might load, but would crash while I was doing things. I finally gave up and deleted the program. I figured the pretty stationery wasn't worth the pain in my neck from the other issues.

I still had problems, so in the past two weeks, I've run software programs designed to knock out malicious software (none were found at all!), spy programs (only 9 on that scan) and of course, my anti-virus program. I'm thinking that at the end of my av term, I'll switch to a free program that my husband uses so that I don't have to fight with Symantec's product. It's rather large too. We'll see.

Anyway, during a scan for malicious software last night (clean and that was before the seven hour scan!!), I found a folder that was from the old email client. It had 1,000,000 kilobytes of data!! I was shocked to see it still hiding out in the application data on my computer, so I deleted it. Let me tell you, that was not fast! Then I emptied my recycle bin and THAT was not fast either! The good thing is, that program is gone from my computer completely now. I've deleted it out of the registry and hopefully I'm good.

I feel positive that I've managed to do good things. We can always keep our fingers crossed. My computer at work hasn't had these issues and it's run slow (it's 7+ years old). All I can do is hope that I've resolved the problems. I guess it's now a matter of "keep your fingers crossed."

Saturday is for rest...or is it??

Another week has snuck by me without my knowing it. Well, I DID know it...but I've had meetings this week that have tied me up. Monday night we had a Cub Scout meeting--the first one of the year. Miss A had her schedule pick up on Thursday. She's taking all pre-AP or pre Advance Placement classes, with the exception of math. She's taking Algebra I. I'm glad...I'll get a chance to review with her! She's changing her Biology to a Pre-AP class. I was surprised to hear that from her, but pleased nonetheless. She's a smart girl. Yes, I AM saying that because I'm her mom, but also because I know she can do anything she puts her mind to.

Mr. A's not 100% interested in Cub Scouts..YET. He hasn't gotten into the swing of things yet. I have to get him fired up for it. We did have an interesting talk about martial arts forms as we were walking home from the store this morning. We were talking about him reviewing Kee Cho Hyung Il Bu, because he needs the practice. Just because we're out of class this month doesn't mean that we have to let everything flop. We will practice and work on our techniques and forms.

Next week we have a full week of Band related activities. They start practices in the evenings, so no more "two a days"...instead, they'll practice from 4-8, so I MIGHT get to hear them this week. No practice on Wednesday. Thursday there's a Pep Rally, plus it's "Meet the teacher" night at the Elementary school. I hope we'll know who the little guy is getting for his teacher soon! We want to know more than 1 day before we meet the teacher!! Friday is the "Watermelon bust" at the high school, then Saturday is March A Thon. I've got to help with that. Need to find out what I need to do for that.