The Longest Day

The Haude Elementary School Performing Arts Ensemble was invited to perform at the Texas Music Educators Association convention in San Antonio this year. The kids have worked so hard, practicing 3 mornings a week from 7-8am. They had been looking forward to this all year and were very excited. I was a little nervous about putting Maddy on a bus to San Antonio with 100 other students, so I volunteered to chaparone. Regan was allowed to come with us as well. She was very excited about missing school for no real reason. Finally, the big day arrived. The morning began by waking up at 4:30 a.m. so we could be at the busses by 5:45. I had my list of 10 kids to keep track of during the day. After arriving at the school, locating my 10 kids, and having several tearful mom's beg me to keep very close track of their kids (as if I wasn't stressed out enough about the possibility of losing a kid or 2) we were on our way.



4 1/2 very bumpy hours later we arrived in San Antonio, unloaded the busses, counted kids about every 30 seconds, got everybody bow-tied and cumberbunded up, and hit the warm up room. I've heard the choir perform several times, but the difference between yesterday and the previous performance was amazing! Then it was off to the big stage to perform in front of a full house. The kids did great. They were perfectly behaved, very professional, and sounded fantastic!

Now that the work was done we had a little time to relax and walk around. Sounds more fun than it was, at least for me, who was desperately trying to make sure none of my 10 charges wandered off or even ducked out of sight for a second. We were able to watch the Haude Percussion Group perform, which was phenomenal. It's amazing what you can do with a few buckets, brooms, and chopsticks. Finally it was time to load the bus, head to Cici's Pizza to eat, (the bus driver got lost on the way, so we had some really hungry kids by the time we got there), and then begin the long trek home. I, personally, was just glad that for a few hours I would not have to count heads every few minutes. We finally made it home around 9:15pm. Talk about exhausted! More mentally than physically. I don't know how teachers do what they do every day. A few hours of being responsible for a few extra kids was more than enough for me! All in all, it was a good day. Nobody got lost; well, at least not for very long, and the kids had a great time. Hope we don't have to do it all again next year! :)

A Night Out!

Last night was Tom's hospital's physician appreciation night. It was an evening out at the Museum of Natural Science, where we had dinner and then a private viewing of the "Body Worlds" exhibit. I was a little apprehensive. Thank goodness the exhibit was after dinner (fish was served). Anything else would have looked a little too much like parts of the exhibit. The exhibit itself was very interesting. All of the anatomy lessons without the smell of the cadaver lab. The only parts of it I did not like were the fingernails and hair. Those two things made the bodies a little too real for me.