A Time For Everything

Because of this...


There's no more of this...







Tonight's the first football game of the FWISD season and for the first time in four years, we're not there. I'm a little bit sad about that...

...the weekend is going to be rather hectic. No rest for the weary, unfortunately.

Last night was the first HS football game of the season that the marching band attended. Marching Band Boy and I had both been looking forward to the season again, but I'd forgotten how much energy it takes. Plus I was pretty much on my feet for the better part of four hours, so, needless to say, my doggies were a-barkin' too.

I could have slept in this morning, would have slept in except that Marching Band Boy had to be at school by 7:20 to practice one of the movements of the show music and to prepare for a Pep Rally.

So from last night...

The band plays the Patterson Chorale as part of their warmup. So here it is, barely 22 seconds long. Go ahead and watch it.


On another note...as I've shared, I'm trying to eat right, exercise, and lose weight. Back in March or April, I gave up sugar and carbs in an effort to do so, but it wasn't enough to really consistently lose as much weight as I wanted. For me, even though I'm 44 years old, I'm short--barely 5'1" or so, so my ideal weight is somewhere around 116 to 120 pounds. I'd been carrying around 167ish for quite some time and was tired of the way I looked and felt. Then I lost a little, but hovered just under the 160 mark for many many months.

Then about three weeks ago, for whatever reason, I went in search of an app for my iPad to help me count calories. I found one and keyed in my info and have been using it faithfully since then. Obviously this is not going to work if you are not honest and don't key in everything you eat. It has a huge database and can even give you calories of meals from restaurants.

So it calculated the number of calories I need to consume each day and for the most part I have stayed under that number. You can also key in your exercise which gives you calorie credits, if you will, meaning you can consume more calories and earn yourself treats or buy yourself enough calories for things like pizza. :)

Consequently, between really being aware of the calorie content of things and continuing to exercise, though not as much as I should or need to for other reasons, I have now lost about five pounds.

The best part is that I can eat those carbs and sugars again, though I don't consume hardly any (processed/chemical) sugar anymore as it gives me headaches. I stick with fruit or raw sugar in my tea *if* i really need a bit of sweet. This is really an amazing thing to me as a self-proclaimed sugar-a-holic. I used to make no bones about my love of sugar. And I loved candy so much as a child and through most of my adult life. Now...pfft...don't need it anymore. :)

The Wii also also allows me to set weight loss goals and deadlines to reach those goals. It's been helpful for me to see the small daily gains, even though that aspect isn't helpful for everyone. But I can now see the changes when I look in the mirror and that's exciting too.

I'm keeping the goal the same: two pounds in two weeks. I'll report back in two Fridays from now.

I hope your weekend is fun and relaxing. Have a great one.

More lightning!

Last night as the band played during halftime, the stadium announcer announced that the incoming storm was less than eight miles (the magic number apparently) away and that everyone should take shelter in their cars until it passed and the game resumed.

The kids played until their program was finished despite the approaching storm--they only had a few minutes left--but the storm was moving quickly.

Once the program was finished we made the mad dash off the field. Most of the band headed back to the stands to grab their stuff, put their instruments in the cases, and hand them off to the Blue Crew who loads the equipment truck. Meanwhile, the pit percussion players and helpers (me and another mom lugging the drum major stand) went directly to the truck with the pit instruments and (obviously) the drum major stand, trying to get everything jammed into it before the storm reached us. It gets quite crazy and chaotic, but we eventually got all the kids on the buses.

Since I am "just" a parent, I usually can only have 20 kids on my bus, but in the mad scramble to take shelter, more than 20 kids ended up on my bus. Not a major deal, I didn't think, at least while we were just waiting out the storm.

Of course, my son had to get overheated and with it came an awful "I-think-my-head's-gonna-explode" pounding. DD and I had a small cooler of cold drinks so we put a bottle on his jugular and made him drink some Kool-Aid. Of course he wanted water, so I schlepped across the parking lot to the equipment truck to get him a bottle of water, (note to self--keep a spare bottle of water in my cooler) where the band director happened to be taking shelter in the back of the equipment truck and mildly chastised me in so many words for getting my kid some water--which I would have done for ANY KID who needed one--but not anyone else when they were all hot and thirsty. Too bad. But, a few minutes later, she and another parent rolled the cooler holding the bottled water to the buses and handed them out to everyone. (And then griped that there were too many kids on my bus. Really??? They're on the bus and safe. Isn't that the important point right now???)

The kids in the other bus, left with only one adult (a mom who'd never been around these kids before) decided to get a bit rambunctious. They were hanging out the windows interacting with the cheerleaders and drill team on the bus on the other side of them. When the bus driver told them to put up the windows, the kids didn't want to listen to him or to the mom. The bus driver went in search of someone on the cheerleader bus and it was only then that I realized there was a problem.

So once we got them fairly squared up, I stayed on that bus. I'm pretty strict with them because, quite frankly, crap like that isn't going to happen on my watch. It's just not. And they know I'll separate them or even tattle to the band director if they don't behave, and I don't care what they think about me for doing so.

Maybe I should have checked if there was an adult on that bus in the first place, but is that really my responsibility??? Yes, to a certain degree, I think, but ultimately isn't it the band director's job to make sure the kids are properly chaperoned/supervised. You really can't trust most high school kids to act like adults. You just can't.

Anyway...the game will have to be completed on Saturday evening, but whether the band will be in attendance is unknown at the moment. There's a Cowboy Stadium event Saturday morning which the band director is working (as is Sonshine, DD, and myself) and I'm not sure the band director is going to want to go, considering a) there's another Cowboys Stadium event Sunday that she's working, and b) we already did our half-time show...

So....
Yeah...
We love marching band season. :)

We were on the bus for about 30/45 minutes when the game was called. The storm, while mostly north of us, was too big and there was just too much lightning (but little rain) to be safe. So we went back to school, unloaded the kids and the instruments and had to keep them in the building until parents showed up. Fun, fun, fun...

Our local FOX news visited Sonshine's high school Friday morning...

Unfortunately, time ran out to interview the band director, but the band can be seen in the background.

What's especially nice is the acknowledgment of the football coach in regards to the cheerleaders, drill team, and band in sticking around during the previous week's game through three rain delays.

We didn't home until almost 2am.

Football Friday: Eastern Hills HS: MyFoxDFW.com

And the Highlander Marching Band is ready to take the field!

I'm excited about the first game of the season. The kids looked awesome last Thursday when the performed a sample of their contest program for the parents. I can't wait to see them on the field tonight.

Videos to come!

High school football game tonight--not that I watch the game. I usually sit with my back to the field and watch the band. These kids are energetic and a lot of fun. That's not to say they aren't kids and don't mess around when they aren't supposed to, but they *are* teenagers. Very few seniors are in the band this year--which explains why my freshman son is first trumpet. (not that he's not talented, but it is unusual)

I've been put in un-official charge of game-night snacks. The band members aren't allowed to visit the concession stands any longer as they wear their official marching uniform to the games and the district does not want them staining them. So right after half-time, my DD and I are set up to hand out pre-packaged cookies and chips or rice crispie treats, etc. and a soda and a water to each kiddo.

Also, they now have to be fed prior to them leaving school for the game (our home field is a mile away and shared by several other schools)--an additional task that got dumped on the band director's already over-burdened shoulders. Next week, our family will be providing dinner for the band. Oh, boy.

Well, here's a shot of my handsome boy:


and the band playing the Star Spangled Banner:

Well, not so much late as behind. I'm about 5000 words in the hole, and the days in which to make them up and reach my goal in full are dwindling. Tonight, though hubby may be visiting his mother, will find me at the high school football game watching my boyo play/march during half-time instead of at home banging out words. A mixed blessing. I'm looking forward to seeing boyo officially play, but I would really love to have the house to myself. Ah well...

And tomorrow is filling up fast, too--boyo has to march/play in a parade. Before he's due at school at 10am, he needs a haircut. Bad. And before that will probably be a trip to the Super WalMart for the new xBox game he's been asking for (in lieu of all the allowances I owe him). My day is looking to start at 8am. Argh... I may just have to get up at five or five-thirty in order to get some extra writing time in. Usually, I sleep in till six on Saturdays and Sundays.

But at least I'm writing...right?

What are you doing?

Okay, I heard parts of this on a radio station this morning as my girls flipped through the stations--I finally asked they leave it on. I'm glad I did. I was moved to tears and thought I'd pass it along if I could find the story on the Internet. I did and here it is. The story was written by Rick Reilly of Sports Illustrated:

High school football is big in America, but I suppose there is no place where it is bigger than in Texas. Friday nights there are legend.

The fans scream; the stands are packed; cheerleaders with pom-poms jump and sway to the beat of the school bandand everybody joins in the chants and stomps their feet on the metal stands until you are sure they will collapse.

This is the frenzy of Texas high school football.

But there is one football team in Texas that is a little different. When they play on Friday night, their stands are empty, no band, no cheerleaders, no mass of parents or townsfolk wearing the school colors and waving banners and flags. They take the field without anyone cheering them on. When they score a touchdown, which rarely happens, there is no wild celebration behind them… All of it seems hollow and muffled in contrast to the tidal wave of roars and drums and chants that come from the opposing side.

They are the Tornadoes of the Gainesville State School, a fenced, maximum-security facility. The young men who go to Gainesville State are there because they have made some major mistakes in their lives. But the players who are on the team are there because they have worked hard and have earned enough good behavior points that gives them the privilege to leave the facility and play football on Friday nights—always an away game for them—always a home game for their opponents—and almost always a loss. They don’t have a weight program or training equipment or high-paid coaches and assistants. They don’t have a large pool of players to draw from. The school has 275 boys, but many are too old or too young or can’t or don’t meet the “criteria” to play. And they don’t have the support of a town and a mass of parents and family and reporters and bands and cheerleaders.

That is, until November 7th. Something changed. They played Grapevine Faith Christian School.

A few days before the game, the Gainesville coach, Mark Williams, received a call from Faith Christian coach, Kris Hogan, asking him if it would be okay if Faith formed a “spirit” line for his team when they ran on the field. Mark said, “Sure, that would be a real encouragement to the kids.” He thought that the line would consist of a couple of the JV cheerleaders, but when they took the field, there were a hundred people in it and it stretched to the 40-yard line, filled with Faith Christian parents, fans and varsity cheerleaders, complete with a banner at the end for them to burst through that read “Go Tornadoes!”. And then, those parents and fans sat in the stands behind the Gainesville players and when the Tornadoes broke the huddle and went up to the line they could hear people cheering for them, by name. When they got a first down, “their” fans erupted.

You see, Coach Hogan had sent an email out to the Faith Christian parents and students asking them to consider doing something kind for these young men, many who didn’t know what it meant to have a mom and dad who cared, many who felt the world was against them, not for them. Hogan asked that they simply send a message that these boys were “just as valuable as any other person on earth.”

So half of the Faith Christian fans were now sitting on the visitor’s side of the field, cheering for the Gainesville team, and in some cases, against their own sons. Cheering for a team decked out in mismatched old uniforms and helmets. Cheering for boys who wouldn’t go home that night and have a smiling dad slap him on the back and feel his mom put her arms around him and say “I’m so proud of you son!” Cheering for the underdog.

This was a Friday night like no other for the Tornadoes. In the locker room, the players were confused.“Why are they cheerin’ for us, coach?”

“Because, men, they want to encourage you. They want you to know that they care about you…that you have value.”

Coach Williams said the boys were stunned. For many of these kids, it may have been the first time that anyone had shown them, so visibly, unconditional love.

They were down 33 to nothing at the half. Williams encouraged his team to set a goal for the second half: to score a touchdown against this vastly superior team. And when the boys from the state school took the field again, with their fans cheering them on, everything started to click. And they did score. Not once but twice.

And the fans went wild.

Coach Williams was asked what the bus ride was like on the way home and he laughed and said that they were all asleep—their bellies were full. That’s because after the game, the parents brought a whole bunch of food over to the guys: hamburgers, fries, candy, sodas…and included in the meal sack was a Bible and a personal letter of encouragement from a Faith Christian player. But then, he said, they formed a line for us out to the bus. And the parents patted them on the back and said, “Nice game” and “Look forward to seeing you guys next time.”

As they left the field that night, Coach Williams grabbed Coach Hogan and said to him: “You’ll never know what your people did for these kids tonight. You’ll never, ever know.”