Monday, September 27, 2010

Repeat Pete Has Something to Say to the Color Guard

An early start to the Saturday meant practice before competition. 

Then the ritual guard transformation--hair, make-up, white spandex, rhinestone jewels....

Then to the field--for a prelims finish of 2nd place with caption awards for best music and BEST AUXILIARY.  Again.  And.  Lotsa trophies. Smiles.


Repeat Pete says: Color Guard, Color Guard you did it again! You brought the goods to the field each competition--, your "Seasons" is summer cause you are hot and on fire.  Sweet feeling of success for a section that has worked so hard for so long to gain the respect of not only the instrument sections of the band but the student body as well.  I know their grace and elegance is proving it.

Yep Repeat Pete has a beautiful echo when those eighteen beautiful girls in white spandex take to the field to show their grace and skill.

A Fall day that began with beautiful warm sunshine, that turned to a cold, rainy, gusting wind night did not hinder these 215 kids.  No way.  They finished the finals with a second place finish, a score of 86.65 and a caption of best music.  More smiles.

When the night is all said and done...it's time to "unguard" before heading to bed for a long night's well deserved rest.

Even though M sent me a text from the bus that said "tired of hearing-- 2nd place Lindbergh"...the kids have much to be proud of!

Saturday, September 25, 2010

Going For A Repeat

I took Friday evening to the couch.  This gal needed some R&R in order to continue the recoup and let my gazillion drugs work their miracles.  I'm getting there,slowly.

Saturday is a different story.

I'll be doing this...making buns for eighteen girls.

My hope for them, there dream for themselves, is to have this look on their faces again with another trophy in there hands.

Lafayette Contest of Champions prepare for the fierceness of the Spirit of St. Louis Marching Band.  Here they come loaded with Flyers' dedication and determination!

Thursday, September 23, 2010

Remembering Those Lovies of Yesterday

Princess A called me to her bedroom to help her with her new bed skirt.  In the dismantling of the mattress to get to the box spring and removing the old bed skirt an old familiar friend flopped to the ground--Peppermint Rose.  For years I use to swear my derelict father mailed it to Princess A in one of guilt packages.  Then one Christmas break we sat around watching old home movies when it revealed itself that Peppermint Rose was actually a gift from one of King Ralph's family members for Princess A's first birthday.

Peppermint Rose was not Princess A's original lovey, no she was a replacement for Baby.  Baby was the comfort pal of her life for more than two years.  Baby with her pink silky body and her plastic face.  She drug her along to the hospital one day when I was having some tests done.  Somewhere between the radiation lab and the parking lot Baby went missing.  I called every phone in the hospital, placed a APB out on her, filed a missing person report all to no avail.  baby was gone--forever!  My mother-in-law surprised Princess A with a replacement Baby and a fib that she found her.  Princess A was no two year old worthy of trickery.  She turned Baby over to reveal the black thread (cause that's what was in the sewing machine at the time and it was a stuffed doll for goodness sake) used to close up a restuff job was not there.  She lifted Baby in the air, slammed her to the ground and in her squeaky two year old little girl voice belted out "that's not my Baby".  For a year she went lovey-less, until one day without warning she pulled this Holly Hobbie like doll from a pile of stuffed animals, named her and feel deeply in love.  Peppermint Rose was born to her soul of comfort.  Ole' Peppermint Rose has been cried on when friends disappointed.  Has been slammed when parents didn't agree with choices made. Soothed through three surgeries-- regardless of Princess A's age (14, 16, 17).  Been an extra plump of pillow for sleeping. Peppermint Rose has traveled the world--from slumber parties down the street to across the country and across the world.  She never made it to college, by that time she was fragile.  Her arms laced to her body with safety pins.  Her guts held in too by yet more safety pins.  Her big round face sunk in from lack of filler...refusing a cotton batting botox injection.

Peppermint Rose has been a loyal lovey--never replaced. 

And yet in her ragged state of being Peppermint Rose still has a place of honor on Princess A's bed.

Not to be out done by Peppermint Rose, M had her years of love for Sugar Monkey.  Sugar Monkey came to us by way of a Build-a-Bear....a Girl Scout field trip.  Sugar Monkey was once soft plush like velvet now a matted rough animal.  She was easy to want to snuggle all day and night.  Sugar Monkey made the same rounds as Peppermint Rose--slumber parties, camping trips, cruises, airplane rides....  The crazy thing about Sugar Monkey is although M always claimed she was a girl the rest of  us claimed her to gender confused. Me mostly because when I would make M's bed in the morning while she was at school, tossing Sugar Monkey on the bed she often landed with her tail between her legs.  A sign of a male.  As M entered her teen years folks often purposely would set Sugar Monkey on the bed in that center fold porn position just to get M all riled up.  Squeals from her room would be heard "Sugar Monkey is a girrrrrlllll!!!!"   Sugar Monkey was constantly under torment, she took many rides on the ceiling fan blades which sent M into hysterics and tears.  Sisters. That is all can say.  One freshman day in high school without warning Sugar Monkey took a permanent vacation to the top self of M's closest.  Sure Sugar Monkey was loved, she offered the same comfort all lovies offer-- heart ache from friends, healing after countless eye surgeries, extra lift to the night's slumber...I guess my M grew up when I blinked one day and didn't need her monkey love anymore.

Today Sugar Monkey popped out for a keepsake photo shoot.

 Oh Sugar Monkey I still believe you to be gender confused. Just look at you, you say male.


Then there was D's lovey, or should I say lovies.  First there was Bob, always Bob.  Bob started out a lush fluffy nursery comforter.  Bob, before named Bob, covered up everyone of my baby girls as they slumbered in their infant state.  Bob is now but a large square of muslin.  Bob was strung between D's legs and nuzzled up under her chin and lulled to my girly to sleep.  Bob has been washed more times than I can count; washed from being drug through mud, held during meals, urinated and puked on and washing was always done on the sneak.  Then came the years of "Land Before Time" obsession.  Every character of that movie series in plush form was gifted to D and lined her bed.  However Chomper was always front and center.  Chomper was drug all around town--grocery stores, play dates, family gathering, where D went Chomper went.  Chomper if accidentally left behind required instant emergency retrieval.  Tears flowed and nights would be sleepless if Chomper didn't join Bob for a night's rest.  Although D never liked the femininity flares of girlhood (till recently)-- Chomper did, he got a red lipstick lip painted above his fierce teeth.  Which stained his fur.  Open his mouth for signs of lesson learned--ability to write "no" and teach a dinosaur that biting is unacceptable is marked in ink inside his mouth.  Another sweet stain on the lovey.  Finally along came Mr.Lion.  Mr. Lion was a gift from the creepy Santa that visited an annual Santa party we attended each year at M's godfather's house.  The Santa, creepy as he was with his over active sweat glands and request of a fan to blow him cool, always arrived with gifts in his sack.  One year it was the softest silkiest stuffed lion.  For a while D was smothered and cramped in bed by not one, two, but three lovies.  A sign she was always a high maintenance child.  In time Chomper was outgrown.  Mr. Lion and Bob stuck.  Mr. Lion was so loved he went from having a full standing mane of fur to looking like Don King.  D loathed when we referred to Mr. Lion as Don King--such disrespect.  Then, just like M, with no warning of ween, Mr. Lion took permanent seat else where.  Bob hung on till eighth grade.  High school started and Bob was folded up and with precious care placed in the storage room for safe keeping.


Memories tucked tenderly in safe keeping. Memories I can imagine emerging for show and tell when the girls are mother's themselves. Makes me think...remember...my baby girls.  I blinked and they grew.  Grew up. Still growing up.  Growing up minus the lovies that were there childhoods yet knowing with all that love these mother's arm still offer love that cannot be replaced or stored away.             

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

DayQuil Wasn't Gonna Be The Cure

I went to the doctor today.  I got a lecture on heart attacks in asthmatics.  It seems my heart was working awful hard since I was struggling to breathe.  I didn't wait a month before I headed to the doctor-- like last year.  I started to feel bad Saturday night, by Sunday I felt like crap, I drug through the work day on Monday and as soon as I walked out the door I dialed the doctor for an appointment. That did win me a few points after the lecture.

Why do we moms take such great care of our children and our spouses but not ourselves?  Do we tend to believe we are invincible?  Or just to busy caring for everyone else to stop for: me?  

Anyway I took a sick day.

I am all jacked up on albuterol breathing treatments.  Steroids.  Antibiotics. Inhalers. Allergy meds.  I was the pathetic customer at the pharmacy--everyone there was ah poor galling me they said as they filled my gazillion prescriptions that the doctor sent in electronically.  I'll survive, yet again.  I always do.  Maybe I'll have some roid rage...sleepless nights, headaches, irritability... my family just loves a dose of mother's roid rage.

In the mean time this thing is my new best friend...

...at least for the next 24 hours.  Then with any luck I can stuff this noisy beast to the back of the closest for a long-long-long time.  

Monday, September 20, 2010

Monday's Check List

Kleenex. Check.
Nasal spray. Check.
Inhalers. Check, check.
Dayquil. Check.
Nyquil. Check.
Vick's Vapor Rub. Check.
Cough drops. Check.
Chap stick. Check.
Kleenex.  OH CRAP-O-LA THE BOX IS EMPTY.

Somewhere between Farmington and South County this horrible illness grabbed a hold of me and won't let go. The throat aches. The ears are clogged.  I can't breathe out of my nose.  I can't stop blowing my nose.  At times I can't stop my nose from running like a faucet.  Now I can't stop coughing, which has brought on a wheeze and a grab for the inhalers. I considered using some of my banked sick time today until a text came in from my BWF who said she was home sick with a stomach bug.  Then that dedicated employee syndrome kicked in...shot of Dayquil with an orange juice chaser, out the door--in body not in spirit.  My every move was so robotic today it's hard to remember how I got from point A to point B.  Not to mention with Fall on the breast of nature it was a blazing 90* making recess duty feel like a jail sentence.

I came home shed my professional wear for gym shorts and a tee, curled up in bed and vegged.

I made a semi-homemade chicken soup (semi-homemade is when you buy a baked chicken and frozen carrots...anyway Sandra Lee would be proud). Ate. Went back to bed.

I feel no healing powers from the chicken soup.  Who decided this?  That chicken soup heals?  It was tasty with it's fresh spinach, carrots, corn and noodles....but the doctor's office is still awaitin' me!

From the time I walked in the door this afternoon to the time I woke from my sick nap Princess A's bedroom went from Laura Ashley pink and light olive green to a bright lilac and grey.  Off came the flowered spread and on goes the white on white polka dot spread.  Gone are the marks of a childhood and welcomed are the marks of a girl inching towards twenty-one-- womanhood.

In one room M types away an English Lit paper, while D dinosaurs around the house in her PMDD state of being.  King Ralph, God love'm, he tolerates it all.      

Tomorrow.  Well that's a trip to the doctor before deciding if the truck should continue down the road to school...I mean work.

I feel like CRUDD! 

Sunday, September 19, 2010

Coming Full Circle

There is a good chance that Farmington, Missouri is really where the equator line sits on the globe...that was one H-O-T Saturday! I have sat a many Saturday's in September on the metal bleachers of Farmington High School, never have I sweated like I sweat yesterday.  When I stood it looked like I had a bladder control problem.  Actually all us moms looked like we needed to invest in a package of Depends.  My hands were sweating and feeling like I dipped them in a pond.  Who's hands sweat?  I guess mine do.  Kids from other bands were passing out.  Even a drum major from one of the schools passed out during awards.  Crazy- humid-sun-beating-down-hot!  Kinda sad though...that was my last first competition of the season.  I've run out of marching band kids.

Guess who was really "hot" on Saturday?

Lindbergh High School's Spirit of St. Louis Marching Band was hot!

Oh ya, they were on fire.  Fired up on the competition field for the Class 6 bands.  For M it was coming full circle.  The first competition of her freshman year color guard won the caption award for best auxillary.  Saturday was the first competition of her senior year and the guard won the caption award for best auxillary.  I must admit I had a lump in my throat as the band performed their show.  Is it because it was hitting me that it was the last time I would be having my own first competition of the season moment?  Maybe.  I had that same lump when they announced the kids won captions for both percussion and guard.  Two sections that have struggled to capture for the last two years.  And dam that lump it was back when I called King Ralph, who is out of town at Bikefest, to tell him the great news.  I know if you would have lifted my sunglasses I looked like Renee Zellweger's character in Jerry McGuire when Tom Cruise's character proposed and he lifted her glasses to expose her eyes.  Yep my eyes were moist under the sunglasses.  Nothing like a marching band to brew emotion.  The band placed second in their class... that's okay, because we know in our hearts they are all first place kids .  Better was when the scores came out it showed our color guard scored the highest of all the guards in all the classes.  They blew'em  away.  So I guess all that hairspray and potential wardrobe malfunction from one shouldered performance uniforms on girls with well endowed chests;  avoided with the use of yards and yards of body tape and safety pins paid off.  And paid off well.  We got the trophy to prove it!   


Even after a much needed shower to wash off the gallons of sweat the feeling of pride for a show well performed...well that feeling can't wash off, it's sticking.

Saturday, September 18, 2010

So I Lied

I said I wouldn't be back till Monday...maybe Sunday.  So I lied.  It's Saturday and incase I start losing my mind it is probably because my brain got suffocated somewhere between a can of Aqua Net and a can of Suave 10 mega hold spray-- from bunning all the hair of these crazy chicks dressed in white. 

The white outfits, well that's a story for Monday.  Or Sunday.  All depends.

Princess A is joining me in the chamber of hair spray suffocation and in the spectator section.  D would rather stay home than endure hours of bands while contracting bleacher bootie...kid doesn't get it after all these years.    

So I part for a turf field calling our band and a trophy somewhere out there begging to be in the hands of a Flyer.

Friday, September 17, 2010

TGIF!!!

It has taken a long time to get from Monday to Friday.  I can't explain it, there isn't really a reason.  Just one of those unexplained slow moving weeks.

I am going to spend the weekend away from hallways lined with plastic trash bags suffocating lice (the itch of my scalp is a physiological thing, I promise) with my butt firmly planted on metal bleachers and eyes on the band.  Of course a bit of concession stand delicacies to top it all off.  

It's Friday Night Lights on the muddy grass field and Saturday competition on lush green turf. 

King Ralph is out on the open road having a man motorcycle weekend.  Aaaahhh. Yes.  Absent makes the heart grow fonder.  

I'll be back on Monday...or Sunday.

Thursday, September 16, 2010

Hail to the Chief(s)

I forgot to mention last Friday it came to be I live with the President. Well a Co-President.

These two lovely girls won the DECA President election. They're sharing the duties.

By the lack of chores done around this castle the President thinks she has veto powers. I got news Miss Prez...it's not gonna happen!  Sorry, when you enter the castle you become a serf again.     

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Turning the Darndest Thing Into Marching Band

Remember this sad news story that the interviewee made into an unfortunate YouTube humor success?


Then some visionary rapper saw a song in it...and got this YouTube


Finally some musical genius turned it into a musical score


Before taking it to the field


This my friends is how you rev up the football crowd.

Hmmmm wonder if the Spirit of St. Louis Marching Band could get away with performing that on the field...or in the stands for a bit of football pep band? Think your band could?  

Sunday, September 12, 2010

I'll Gladly Pay You Tuesday For A Hamburger Today

Friday's bring the usual...

Friday Night Lights. Hamburger and bottled water from the concession stand and...marching band.  Except this week's the-Flyers-win-yet-again game was a pink out game-- new fashion all the schools are doing to support Susan G. Komen For a Cure.

The color guard girls decked out in new section t-shirts and pink bows in the hair to wear with warm-ups for the night.  A night of muddy field and mist in the air.


The fans dressed in pink. The teams in pink. The cheerleaders in pink.  The band dressed down for tromping in the mud, sporting pink leis and ribbons while the guard added an extra touch with pink flags. Their little surprise to the band.  

Saturday M headed off to Columbia to check out and hang out with Marching Mizzou.  Decisions. Decisions.

D went to yet another Sweet 16 birthday party.  It's the season!  It's the season my wallet is wishing my kid wasn't so liked by so many.

Which left Princess A, King Ralph and I to hang with my little brother who really needed our good company.  And us his.  We ordered the most delicious pizza and played with his new doggy.

Sunday we skipped church, slept in (sssshhh maybe Jesus didn't miss us as much as we missed him), waited for M to come home and then King Ralph and I hit the highway with our favorite Harley riding cousins.  We took the ferry over to Chester, IL where we checked out the Popeye Festival.  I saw the Popeye Museum was inside the Spinach Can Store and refrained from entering for fear it would be similar to the Oz Museum.  I didn't need anymore family hating on me than my own daughters for visits to strange museums. My favorite was some lame imitation of WWE wrestling in a ring outside the Knights of Columbus hall.  Only at the Popeye Festival!   Now I can say I've been and I'll never need to return. I am certain this little river town is rather quaint and inviting when it isn't full of traveling carnival rides and smells of fried foods sold from makeshift wooden stands.

We skipped out on a Whimpy burger, found our way out of town to a favorite BBQ joint.

I'm now going to ice my buttocks as they are sore from a 170 mile ride on a seat the size of a snack cracker... and wait for Monday to come around.

Friday, September 10, 2010

Wednesday, September 08, 2010

Everything Is Starting to Come Up Roses

Well I am over the fact I didn't have my ticket drawn to win anything last Friday night at "Pasadena Nights"... so I figure what better time than now to reflect on the fun had last weekend.
The weekend started by packing M's lunch extra early so she could head to school for 15-minutes of fame.

Pasadena Nights brought out past parents of band whose kids marched down Colorado Blvd to support this new bunch of band kids.  It even brought out a good handful of those kids who marched down Colorado Blvd back in 2005.  Like Princess A supporting her little sister.  She even did the color guard's make-up that night.

When the band was selected to march in 2005 Tournament of Roses Parade I was on the committee that entertained the president.  We had a wonderful dinner/auction at the Bowling Hall of Fame, geared towards adults, that followed the Cardinal game in which the kids performed the National Anthem.  While the adults where upstairs placing the highest bid on great items and sipping cocktails...the band kids where in the lower level bowling, working out the DDR and some arcade games getting jacked up on Mountain Dew.  The event was a success.  So I feel I have the right to say--Pasadena Nights was a great, even dare I say, a better event.  I say this because it oozed community spirit. 

The local restaurants that came out to serve free food "samples" (I use that word loosely because the portions where full servings) were very generous.  I managed eight of the twenty punches offered on my card before my stomach screamed FULL.  I stuffed it with Dunkin Donut holes, Costco cake, Merbs chocolate, Hwy 61 Roadhouse pulled pork and smoked chicken wings with hot sauce, a Chik-fil-a sandwich, the famous "bandwich", Cafe Manhattan's toasted ravioli and washed it all down with a Diet Coke. Mmmmm good!                

The exciting part of the night was the band didn't have to compete with the football team and pompom squad that night for time on the field.  They performed a field show and more for the TOR president. The kids will say that wasn't there best field performance since so much of the week was devoted to parade music...regardless the quality we parents are always their best cheerleaders, alwasys thinking they are great.

Just as the night ended the morning came with yet more hanging with the TOR president.  This time at Busch Stadium.  First with a lunch of ball park foods--hot dogs, brats, nachos....  Then the kids headed on to Clark Street to perform for the arriving fans. 
   
Of course in any downtown there is always the strange and odd that come out...say like a creepy Barney giving out free hugs.
 
My brother-in-law, niece and I bid M, the band kids and parents farewell-- as they all climbed elevations proportionate to a mountain to those grand seats known as the nosebleeds-- and headed to our great-eighteen-rows-from-the-field-behind-the-Reds-dugout seats.  Tickets compliments of KTRS 550. We got all comfy with the obnoxious Reds fans that surrounded us and waited for the band to play the National Anthem.  Then we licked our wounds as the darn Reds won the game. 

There you have it, a weekend devoted to things "coming up roses".

Saturday, September 04, 2010

Does L Stand For Lucky

Look at all the great stuff I won last night.

L may stand for Lindbergh, but it does not stand for lucky...more like loser.

I won't be making a deposit at the bank. I won't be sipping tropical beverages with my feet in the ocean and sand.  I won't be kicking back watching TV on the big screen, and I even marked off the spot to hang it.  Nope. I'm a loser. 

So I'm going to take some time this beautiful long weekend to come to terms with...not winning a darn thing in any of the raffles (this includes the baskets and the 50/50).

I'll be back with pictures and stories of a fun weekend that was pretty much--all about our M and the band.

In the mean time you can listen to this.

  

Friday, September 03, 2010

It's A Party Tonight-- Pasadena Nights



THIS IS THE WINNING TICKET
I feel it!

When King Ralph and I win
 this is how the crowd will celebrate
 
If When we win the grand prize we'll take the

'Cause CASH IS KING!
But if we end up with the second prize 
 
I'll be just as happy with a suitcase of sun tan lotion
and a tropical beverage.

Third place, well that'll do us just fine too...
placed over our fireplace
while we watch our favorite flicks
and eat popcorn.
  
So, basically we plan to win something tonight.
Just like we did last time the band had a raffle.

So feel free to come on out tonight and cheer, I mean congratulate us.

The Friday Night Lights
won't be shining on the football team
 at Flyers Field tonight--
'cause tonight at Flyers Field, 
it's all about the band
It's a little big thing we call
PASADENA NIGHTS.

Wednesday, September 01, 2010

September

To welcome in September let's all sing and dance together.
 

Just be glad I didn't chose Niel Diamond to say hello September.