This is what happens......

when you combine toys and 6 hours of sitting listening to one person talk.........

I'm still here!!!

Yes, I know it has been awhile.  Things have been pretty hectic and I feel like I haven't hardly had anytime to sit down, let alone blog.  The past month has kind of seemed like one long perpetual meeting.  If I'm not sitting in a meeting, then I'm driving to a meeting, or typing up minutes from a meeting.  Also, who can forget the annual start of basketball season sickness which I think the hubby and I have been passing back and forth to each other. 

With Thanksgiving coming up, I have been trying to hold fast to my rule of no Christmas music until after Turkey Day.  It has been tough.  The kids are already requesting the YouTube video of all the animals singing Deck the Halls.  I just need to make it through one more day of begging and we should be in the clear.  We will probably head south on Thursday since hubby has basketball practice the other days. 

This time of year also includes one of my least favorite tasks, the making of the Christmas list.  I keep asking for the same thing every year and I still haven't gotten it.  I would just like to have the house done, without me having to rip out any more lathe or plaster.  I really don't need much, although All Star tickets for next year would be nice.  Can Santa bring you motivation????

The second job of being a college professor has been interesting.  Of the 26 I had enrolled for this semester, I forsee may 8 actually finishing the class.  Between the emails about why their financial aid money has not been released to wondering if the singing of the National Anthem at a Chiefs game would count as concert attendance it has been interesting.  Really people???

Well, since the doctor told me told that my sinus affliction is most likely viral and just needs to run its course, I suppose I should wrap it up.  I did get to have my first nasal spray experience and while it has helped, everything thing is tasting like snot right now (okay, that was maybe TMI).  Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Our Own Crazy Invention

I am so lucky to be able to work with our high school colorguard.  I have a great group of girls this year and we are slowly adjusting to me not being at rehearsals everyday to fix drill, fix routines, and put out fires.

For years we have joked around with putting two poles together and trying to spin them so there would be a flag at each end.  Wouldn't it be so cool to actually put two flags on one pole and then spin???  Unfortunately, all of our existing flags were too wide to pull this off and I did not have the know or the ability to make smaller flags specifically for that purpose.

That was before I found a great friend who knows how to sew flags.  She showed us how to pin and sew our giant silver flags last year.  One of my girls knows how to sew so we went on a shopping trip this summer in search of some cool flag material.  We knew we were doing a Beach Boys show so we selected four bright colors to use on the field, purple, pink, green, and white.  There was a lot of debate at first about whether we should put two flags of the same color on each pole or two different colors.  The routine is really pretty basic but with the added weight on the poles, it is a real wrist and shoulder killer (at least for me).  Our crazy experiment has been deemed a success.  We really like the look of the double flags on the field even though it is somewhat difficult to get it clean, it keeps improving every time I see it!  Curious????  Well, here it is!

Just when you start to think.......

Just when you start to think that you've lost a kid, that they do not care one iota for what you are trying to teach them, they have one of those light bulb moments and come up with one the most amazing observations EVER!!!!!  The one thing I try to get kids to see about music is about how much of it is repetition and pattern.  If you learn to play or sing one lick, one rhythm, one phrase, it is more than likely going to occur the piece somewhere again.  To me, learning to look for the patterns in music saves so much time in long run whether it be in practicing or in frustration.

So today in class we were looking at a song called "All Around the Corn Sally."  Its a call and response piece, not a hard song by any means, but a good piece to teach eighth note and quarter note rhythms with.  Child who very rarely seems to be paying attention, realizes that the rhythm in the response part is the same every time.  At this rather loud pronouncement, I swear I could hear faint strains of the Hallelujah Chorus!  Another child shouts back, "No it doesn't," to which someone replys "Yes it does but the call rhythm repeats too!!"  After much discussion and some colored markers marking the rhythms on the board, we decided that the entire song was only 3 rhythms.  "THAT'S EASY!!!" the entire class responded. 

Now I would like be able to quote Hannibal from the A-Team and smugly say how much I love it when a plan comes together.  This was not even on the lesson plan radar for today.  I guess that goes to prove, some days you just get lucky.......