If you haven't read about our great Ladies' Retreat and the Silsbee Singing School, scroll down to my previous post. Otherwise, I just had to show you what they did to my boy.
I sent a perfectly normal, handsome young man to Florida to get a little bit of an education and just look what they did to him.
Perfectly normal, healthy teenage boy before FC:
Teenage boy after spending just a few months at FC:
One other thing: Timothy (12 years old) had a busy weekend. Saturday night, he gave his first talk at our teen devo. He used the song "You Never Mentioned Him To Me" as the basis for his talk. Then, Sunday night he lead his first public prayer. He's lead singing several times and is getting better every time. Of the three, do you know which one scared him the most? The prayer. He has done great on all of them.
Looks like lemons are on the menu at FC! That's wonderful to hear about Timothy and I know you're happy that he is stepping up to the plate. One of our young men (about 12) participated in the worship for the first time on Sunday. Watching that is almost as wonderful as witnessing their baptism.
All of your boys do a great job :) Wish we lived just a teeny bit closer, so we could visit more often. We will be there for Thanksgiving weekend (with your books and movies...they were great by the way!). See you then!
Friday night we had our 2nd Annual Ladies' Retreat. Yes, we have actually done this 2 years in a row. Who would've thought the ladies from Huntington, TX would take some time for themselves and go off for a "girls' night". We went to the same place we went last year -- Pine Creek Lodge (just outside of Nacogdoches). It was a lot of fun, very relaxing. The weather was Fall crisp. The lodge is in a beautiful setting. The food (they provided supper and breakfast) was excellent. The bed was super comfortable. The company was the best. We're thinking maybe Canton next year. I've never been. It would be fun to go with this group of ladies.
Saturday, the 22nd, is the 8th Annual Silsbee Singing School. I think we've probably been to 6 of them. This is a great way for boys and men to learn to lead singing and for everyone to learn new songs and how to sing better. The best thing about is that it is FREE. Not only that, but the ladies of the congregation feed you lunch and dinner in the community center across the street. And let me tell you, the ladies in Silsbee know how to cook.
After the evening singing, and then dinner, there will be a show at the community center of Wayne's Barbershop Chorus. I love barber shop music. I've told my boys that I would love to hear them singing barber shop together. I even gave them barber shop music books for Christmas a couple of years ago. Wayne sent my boys (Andrew and Timothy) some music to learn and he wants them to join the chorus in the singing that night. Their momma will be so proud.
But wait, I didn't tell you the best part. This year, I'm going to be "teaching" the ladies' class. The idea is that I'll be teaching some new Bible class songs and some new hymns and hopefully teaching something about how to read music. Since I've never done this before, it will be a huge learning experience for me. I hope everyone will come that can.
Sounds like some great times!! That singing school will be great...I would love a chance to teach a ladies class like that. And I love barbershop music, too. My uncle sings in a chorus in Athens, AL.
Sounds like it was fun. I don't know about Silsbee, but I doubt we'll be able to go this year, we have a lot going on with things needing to be repaired around the house, and weekends are about the only time we can get to a lot of them :) Have fun!!
Timothy and Krista both made the region orchestra. They are both in the 2nd violin section. Eve just missed getting in on the cello. I was so proud of all 3 of them. They did this at my VERY strong encouragement and didn't have a clue what it was going to be like. Now they can consider themselves veterans of the audition process and hopefully will encourage others to do it next year.
After I posted about the calculator, I re-re-read the instructions. This is an example of misinterpreting something (something many people do with the Bible, by the way). I didn't take into consideration who the instructions were written to. They were written to the teacher/judges not the student. It's the judges that needed a calculator. The teachers were expected to furnish stands for their kids. Looking at the amount of stands that were not furnished by the teachers, I can safely assume there were no calculators there either.
I had the privilege of monitoring the violin audition. That meant I was the last friendly face before each kid went into audition. I got to hear over 50 violinists play the exact same piece. It was really more interesting than it sounded. I immediately knew that my kids had a chance. I also could pretty much tell who would get the top 5-6 chairs. Sure enough, the kid I had pegged as the best got 1st chair.
Standing there with the kids brought back traumatic memories of my years auditioning for things like this. I was always so nervous. So were most of these kids. I could "feel their pain". I do believe that some of them would probably rather have a calculator in their hand ready to take a math test.
Timothy is really, really into music. He was excited and terrified about this audition. He told me on the way home that it was neat being in a room with so many musicians. There were nearly 200 of them warming up all at the same time (and all the same pieces I might add). He said it was neat to be able to talk to one of them about playing a harmonic and not get a blank look in return. I think he was truly in his element.
While we were away:
Anyone out there that thinks home schooling is not rigorous, competitive and down right dangerous needs to go visit Caleb's blog. The poor kid broke his leg at a home school soccer game today. I'm so glad it wasn't Andrew since Danny and I were both in Tyler with Timothy. If Andrew had gotten hurt, I know that he would've been taken care of by some dear home school friends though. It's nice to be able to leave town and know that things will be taken care of. Caleb's mom took my boys to soccer and was supposed to bring them home. Since she was busy with Caleb's broken leg, another good friend brought them home safe and sound. Hmmm...maybe it does take a village. I didn't say that, did I?
Shopping in Tyler:
I got to go to Hancock's while Danny took the boys (Benjamin and Timothy) to Toys'R'Us. I wish I had been with them. Danny said Benjamin was wild with greed. He wanted everything he saw. He hasn't been to many real toy stores. It was just like a kid in a candy shop. Danny said it was pretty funny. He didn't look up or down, just at his eye level. Of course, they know exactly what to put at his eye level to get this sort of reaction. The nice thing is that my poor kids know that they go to stores just to look. They hardly ever get to actually walk out with anything in their hands.
Hancock's was a disappointment. I found a couple of patterns I wanted but I wasn't going to buy them without fabric in hand or they'd end up with all the rest of the patterns I've bought and never used. They just didn't have much in the way of fabric. Sometimes I walk in there and immediately see several things I want to make. Not this time. Oh well...saved me a few bucks. I don't really have time to sew anything right now anyway.
Have you ever auditioned for anything? Did/do you get nervous? How did/do you calm yourself down and maintain composure?
Before piano recitals as a child, I ALWAYS threw up before the recital. I auditioned for Region Choir in Texas in high school, making it three years, and State my senior year. The only time I was relaxed at an audition was for Region my senior year when I was not feeling well. And of course, did my best audition. Go figure.
HA! Just goes to show you how often I read my pleo comments...lol. I DO read everyone else's, I just forget to read my own! Ah well...next time :) We are coming down for Thanksgiving, though, and we're really looking forward to visiting then!
Great for Timothy. Stanley's kids had their region band concert yesterday. He had judged saxophone the previous weekend. Glad you guys are veterans of the process now.
I never auditioned for anything but I did play in 1 piano recital and got so nervous I forgot everything I knew and had to fake my way through it. I never went to another one.
No, Donny doesn't play the viola any more. He has picked up the guitar now, though. His strings teacher got fired and they didn't hire another one to take her place. I'm not sure if they couldn't find someone or what.
Thank you so much for the bible class ideas! I am really excited about trying it out! I love babies in bathtubs pictures! I had not thought of hanging mine in my bathroom, I may have to do that.
Wish I could come, but I would never be able to get my school work done in time with it being tomorrow. Hope you all have a great time, and tell them all I said hi, and we miss them!
How exciting about the auditions. Congrats to you, as their teacher. :) Until the last time Robert made region and area band, I used to judge (mostly flutes) and it always brought back the terror I used to feel at those tryouts! Now I just stay safely home while my public school students go the tryout (since none of the current homeschool band kids want that kind of competition). :)
Yeah, I don't think the economy stuff would be hurting me so much if I already had a lot of students. I'm hoping things will turn around (in many ways) at the beginning of the year. I'm really not looking forward to having to start a studio over for a third time in about a year's time.
We sang your Joseph song again on Wed night. They loved it. One little boy wanted to know how he could remember it so he could teach it to his family and several of them wanted to sing it again after we finished it a first time.
Tomorrow, Timothy will audition for the Middle School Region Orchestra -- Timothy and two of my other students, Eve and Krista. Timothy will be auditioning on the violin, Krista on the violin and Eve on the cello. This is the first time any of my students have ever done this. Needless to say, they are a bit nervous. I wouldn't say I was nervous, I'm just anxious for them to do well. How's that for parsing words?
I was reviewing the instructions for the audition tonight and noticed something that I must've missed first time I read it. The instructions say that the students should bring their own stands to use in the warm-up area. But that's not all. It goes on to say that they should bring their own calculators. Now, it's been a long time since I auditioned for region orchestra but I don't ever remember the need for a calculator. I'm trying to envision what this might possibly used for.
Anybody have any ideas why a violinist would need a calculator?
This must be a record -- 3 posts in 3 days. I think I really need to get out of the house. Look out Hancock's, here I come. For those of you who don't know, we have absolutely NO fabric stores in Lufkin or Nacogdoches. It's really sad. Whenever we get to Tyler (about twice a year) I have to stop in at Hancock's.
When I've judged region band competitions I've needed a calculator to double-check the scoring, but I've never heard of the students needing one! Maybe for the judge who forgets hers??? Let us know how they did!
idk why you would need a calculator! let us know? Our Hancocks closed, but we have a Joanns and a Hobby Lobby. Also several small quilt/fabric shops. My mom frequents those ALOT!!
The Wal-marts in our area are closing out their fabric departments. I really don't like that because other than a little quilt store in our little downtown we have no other fabric stores. That is without driving at least an hour away.
Sure hope the auditions went well. Be sure to let us know what the calculator was for.
Our nearest Hancock's is in Lubbock, 70 miles away. But we have a large population of Mennonites, who sew their dresses, and they have a fabric store that carries the kinds of fabrics they use, as well as good thread and other sewing supplies. Along with juice glasses, large stainless cookware, toys, and Mennonite books.
Do let us know how the kids do with their calculators.????
I know everyone is probably tired of hearing all the election stuff. And honestly, I'm not into politics normally. Since this was such a historic year, I couldn't help but get drawn into all the excitement.
I've always liked Maya Angelou. She has a way of saying things that make you feel good. She said something today that really surprised me. She was talking about our new president elect. She said that the whole country has voted him in as president to "speak for us and think for us".
I've never thought that any president was voted in so he could think for us. Maybe speak for us a representative of our country, but not think for us. I can't imagine anyone saying someone else was going to think for them. I guess that once again, I am peculiar.
People are saying crazy things about this mans presidency! I don't need him to think for me :) I'll be listening to Rush and Huckabee for the next four years. They can help me "think" things through!
^ As long as they don't get thrown off of the air for speaking the truth. :-/
By the way, I actually heard people on the news shows say that they voted for BO so that, "America would finslly have a black president." Ummm, wow. I'm all for having a black president, but it amazes me that people actually think that is all the reason they need to vote someone in as the leader of our nation. Pretty pathetic, and VERY scary.
^^ I agree. I love the fact that we finally have gotten past the skin issue but when people make a comment like that I really don't think we have. I would love to have a black president but I wish he was one to be excited about.
No, no...he won't be thinking for me. Sorry about our plans for tomorrow. I probably will be keeping Hannah in from soccer. She just can't quit coughing. It sounds worse than it is, but it would surely scare any momma that had to let there kids be around her! (It would me.)
Saturday, the 22nd, is the 8th Annual Silsbee Singing School. I think we've probably been to 6 of them. This is a great way for boys and men to learn to lead singing and for everyone to learn new songs and how to sing better. The best thing about is that it is FREE. Not only that, but the ladies of the congregation feed you lunch and dinner in the community center across the street. And let me tell you, the ladies in Silsbee know how to cook.