Medal Pics

OK, here is what I have so far.


Happy Me with my medal


One More


Me with Linds


Me with my friend, Mandy

Top 5

Boy, am I tired!

These singing weekends are long, hard, and exhausting, but such fun!

This weekend was our Regional Competition. It was also my first time competing in a quartet. I was trying not to be nervous, I did pretty well. :)

We competed first which is never a good place to be, but I was happy because I got to watch the rest of the competition.

I didn't want to get my hopes up, but secretly I was hoping we would come in the Top 5. Welllllll, we did!! We got 5th place. 5th place means a medal! Yeah, Baby!

In the Sweet Adeline world the Top 5 competing quartets or choruses get medals, get to sing on the Afterglow (the big party at the end of the contest, etc). Top 5 is the place to be. :)

Our performance went well. I wasn't nervous at all, well, I guess I was because my hands were sweaty, but I felt good. We sang well and were happy with our performance. This was my first time so I didn't know what to expect really, but it went well and it was a great first competition. Thanks, quartet. ;)

After we sang, we came down and everyone told us we were definitely in 1st place. :) Pretty funny since no other quartets had gone yet. Watching the contest was fun, but scary. Of course, you never really know how you did, so I didn't know what place we would be at all. This was the toughest year, competition-wise. We had several GREAT quartets all competing for the Top 5 spots. They could have gone to anybody.

At the end all the competitors got up on stage. I was expecting them to make announcements, give awards to the quartets, like Most Improved, Novice quartet, etc, but they went right in to announcing 5th place and then called our name. I think we were all pretty stunned and it caught us all off guard. I think we stood there for a second before we figured out that they had called us. Michelle pushed me to the front to get my medal first, since I was the only one that had never competed before. It was pretty fun. :)

4th and 3rd place also had members of our chorus, so we had a good day. All of our quartets did very well. Good job, guys!

Saturday, we were the hostess chorus. Since we won the competition last year and are going to International in October, we were the ones to make sure everything ran smoothly for this years competitors. We had to be up, fully make-upped and dressed by 8:00 in the morning. After going to bed at 2:00 and having a LONG day before that, it was not very fun to be up that early. Oh well. The day went great. The chorus competition was great and there were several good choruses. We got to perform our outgoing package for them, and we made it a fun, exciting time.

We got to sing at the Afterglow party. I was a little more nervous this time. I think because I could see everyone well since we didn't have lights shining on us, so the audience was right there. I also had just eaten dinner and I ate too much cuz I was starving so I was extremely full and didn't feel very well.

After the Afterglow (which ended at 11:45 p.m.) there are all kinds of little parties, we call Glimmers. We love that part. We sang, and then everyone in the room sings. We have lots of fun. I didn't get to bed until just about 5:00 this morning.

I am dead tired and plan to go to bed SOON. My first quartet contest experience was great. i couldn't ask for anything to be better. My first time and I come home with a medal. It was fun. No stress. It was great. Yea Takin' a Chance. Thanks for a great experience. You guys are great. :)

Tomorrow is back to the same old, same old. Spring Break is over, school starts again. None of us are looking forward to it. I am sure it will be fine. I just hope I can get over my tiredness.

Good Luck, Jen and Michelle, this weekend at your other quartet contest. I know you will be awesome.

Ohhhh, I had way too much stuff to bring so I didn't bring my camera. I think Lindsay has a few pictures, maybe. I don't even know if we have a picture of my quartet with out medals. :( I will try and post one of me with mine tomorrow and I will see what Lindsay has. There were some professional pictures taken, but I am sure I won't have those for a while.

Wish Me Luck!

I am about to be on my way to Chattanooga for our Regional Singing Competition. It's my first time competing in a quartet, so wish me luck! See ya next week!

P.S. I took the boys to the dentist this morning. Still no cavities! Yea boys!

From Bed, to Table, to Car...

Two weeks pass with no blog, but this one is full of stuff, you won't be disappointed. :)

Things have been a little bit crazy around here.

I started working full time teaching a 2nd grade class while the teacher is on maternity leave. We all fell into the schedule pretty well. It sure does eat up your time to work full time! I feel like the days go by at light speed and I never have enough time to do everything. It's all going well though. The class is pretty good, and we have all adjusted well. This week is Spring Break, so we will all get a little break.

So let's get on to the good stuff!

Last weekend we went to look for a new bed for Avery. Yes, he is still in a toddler bed. What can I say, he's a little runt. He is finally growing though, plus he is about to be 5 years old, so it's time for a big bed. We spent all day Saturday looking for a bed, but instead, came home with a new table. LOL! I just couldn't find anything I really liked at a decent price. Craigslist has some good deals so we are trying to hold out for something on there. While we were at one store though, AJ found the table I have been looking for and it just happened to be on major clearance. So home went the table. No bed yet. Sam is sad that he doesn't get a new bed, so we are giving him a new bedroom. His bedroom is really the den. It has double doors, no closet, etc. He has an armoire, but it isn't holding his clothes very well, and I was trying to figure out how to get him a better closet. Well, we have a bedroom that is never used, basically it is just storage, so we are going to move him in there this week. The den will just be the storage room for a while. We really need all new furniture. We still have the cheap furniture we bought when we first got married. It is falling apart and just no good. So that is our goal, to replace what we have now, too bad, it's pretty much all the furniture in the house. That will take a while.

This past week I have been busy getting ready for my singing competition. On Tuesday night, we had a quartet runthrough night, where all the competing quartets got to come and run there sets in front of an audience. So AJ was going to take the kids to the church with him, while I went to that. When he got home from work we switched cars, he took mine with the car seat, and I took his. On my way the car started making a loud, terrible noise. I was about to get off the exit, so I kept going, trying to make it. All of a sudden, it felt like something fell off the car, smoke started flowing out the back, and I had to pull over. We knew this would be happening soon, it has been having problems for a couple months, we were just trying to hold out until summer to get a new car. Anyway, I called AJ, he told me that the car probably threw a rod, which means dead engine. Thankfully, I was pretty close to my friend's house so she came and got me and we went on to the quartet thing. AJ called a tow truck, borrowed a car from someone at church, and we went from there. It's funny how it happened when I was driving, since I rarely drive his car. Geez. Thankfully, it happened when it did. It was the best situation it could have been, for being a yucky situation. At least it didn't happen as I was driving home that night after 11pm. There is now a 4 inch hole in the engine block, and the car is definitely dead. A little sooner than we wanted, but oh well. At least we were almost there money wise, since we knew it was going to happen, and have been saving.

So we went from looking for a bed, to buying a table, and now onto cars. I wonder what next weekend will bring? A new house? LOL! I don't think so.

Saturday we spent most of the day car shopping. We drove several cars and went several places. We didn't think we were going to get one this weekend, because we couldn't find anything with low miles at a good price for us. We decided to go to one more place and that's where we found it. We bought a 2005 Chevy Trailblazer. It's nice, runs great, and we won't have to worry about it for quite a while. Since AJ drives 70 miles to and from work each day, we needed something reliable, and we got it. Let's hope gas isn't too bad. He wanted something bigger because of all the camping and scouting stuff he does, so we tried to go with what he liked, that worked out in all the other ways we needed it to.





Sam had his first Pinewood Derby for scouts yesterday. He loved it. AJ and him made a very simple car. Sam picked out the design, they painted it green, and that's about it. Well, he won every single race!! He is his troops champion! Sam and his friend, Adam (the 2nd place winner) get to go on to the District Championship races. He was so excited! He also made us very proud, but telling each person he raced with, that they did a good job and that it was a good race. He had very good sportmanship, with no coaching from us. What a good boy we have. Go Sam! Troop Pinewood Derby winner! Yippee!


Putting his car on the track


Winning a race


Racing


Cute Avery


Silly Avery


Excited Sam


The big Winner!

This week we have a lot going on. My singing competition is this weekend. I will be competing for the first time in the quartet competition. Yikes! AJ has a backpacking trip this weekend too. We both leave Thursday and are gone all weekend. The kids are going to be having fun at various sleepovers and friend's houses.

Oh yeah, and I was in the newspaper again this year for Singing Valentines. I rock! LOL!

Anyway, that's what's been going on with us. Pretty crazy! Hopefully next week will be calm with no big purchases looming!

Quick Update

It's been too long. This still has to be quick. I have no time.

Last week I ended up with the flu. Terrible, terrible flu. I even went to the doctor, which I try hard not to do. I was so sick. He told me it was the worst strain of the flu you could have and all medicines were resistant to it. It started with a cough on Tuesday, and even today, Monday, I am still weak, my legs feel like jello, I want to sleep like you wouldn't believe, and I feel gross. Having the flu made me miss my very first day of subbing full-time for that teacher on maternity leave. I went to work today though. It wasn't too bad. The kids didn't feel good either, so we all went and suffered today.

Sam went to a fun sleepover at a hotel this weekend. He got to swim, play games, and spend the night. He loved it. Then he got to go to the zoo with Lindsay. We were trying to keep him out of the sick house. Avery and I both were sick, Avery had croup. Sam's allergies are really bothering him though, so in his own way, he is sick too.

Anyway, things will be fast-paced and busy from now on. I am working full-time so I have to figure out how to put all my normal duties in much fewer hours. Anyway, I have to go make dinner. See ya next time!

Owwww!

So yeah, I am so sore today, I want to scream every time I move. I will fill you in on that in a minute.

This week was pretty slow. I actually only worked one half day and that's it! What a miracle! Monday there was no school. We went to the library and played at the park and that's it. The rest of the week went ok. Thursday I subbed for Sam's class. That night I had quartet practice. We had a good night and really cleaned things up. Competition is in one month! Yikes! I came home after that and just as I was drifting to sleep at 11:30, Sam came in and told me he had thrown up everywhere. Yeah, not what you want to be woken up to. He had thrown up a TON (yes, gross I know. Throw up always is.) all over his bed. Thank goodness we have an extra bedroom. We got that all cleaned up and he was feeling perfectly normal. He had been fine before that as well. He had complained one time that he didn't feel good, but that was after eating a cookie decorated with tons of junk, so I figured his tummy just didn't like all that junk. Well, he woke up Friday not feeling good at all and had a fever of 100.3. Darn it, no school. He hates missing school, so it is a big deal. Geez, he was just sick last week. He was fine all day though, no more throwing up, and didn't feel sick anymore before lunchtime. Weird.

I went ahead and took Avery to school. About 9:00, I get a call from school. I figured they either needed me to come in and sub or Avery had started throwing up. Nope, him and another kid had ran into each other and bonked their heads. Avery's head apparently was pretty bad so they called me. He actually let them put ice on it for 5 minutes and I think it helped because you can barely see anything today. He hurts his head all the time, so it didn't surprise me at all.

Since I was home and not able to go anywhere yesterday, I decided to paint my kitchen and dining room. I was with Lindsay the other day, picking out paint for her house. Just as we were leaving we walked by the Oops paint and they had 2 gallons of the color I want to paint my house in, and it was half off. Woohoo! I got it and have been ready to paint ever since. So I started painting at 8:30 in the morning and got done at 8:30 last night. Yes, that was a long time, but really those 2 rooms are huge, plus I like it to look good so I don't just hurry up and get it done. :) I knew I would be sore today, so I really stretched out my neck, shoulders, and arms last night. Well, that helped. They are only moderately sore. My legs and butt on the other hand are so not ok! Obviously I use my butt to paint. Who would've thought! So I did no stretching of that area and I am seriously dying today.

I had to go to Choreography rehearsal this morning, which actually wasn't too bad. After that I went shopping with some of my quartet to complete our competition costume. Even then it wasn't so bad. After that I made the mistake of going with the boys to a restaurant for lunch. Sitting there for an hour was definitely not a smart idea. When I got up from the table, tears filled my eyes. Man, it REALLY hurts!! Moving even the slightest bit is seriously killing me. I was going to do a deep cleaning of the house today, but that is so not going to happen. Owwwwww.

So I will be sitting here in agony all day. Feel sorry for me. :) I hope tomorrow is better. I have to give a lesson in church. Hopefully I will be able to stand.

Vday

So, wanna see what I got for Valentine's day???







Just kidding, I didn't really get that FOR Valentine's Day, we just got it ON Valentine's day.

You might remember this, but several months ago, Avery and his friend, Trey, decided it was fun to throw toys down the toilet upstairs. They really broke the toilet, and although we tried to fix it, etc. the toilet has been unusable all this time. It really hasn't been that big a deal, because we do have 3 other toilets in the house, and it is one less for me to clean, but we found one on sale yesterday, so we went ahead and got it. It still cost us over $200, but at least that is one thing I can mark off the list. $200 for a toilet! That is something I don't want to spend money on! Anyway, now the fun part of installing it. I wonder if that will be done soon or if it will take months to do that. ;)

Anyway, yesterday was pretty low key. We just hung out at home. I really didn't want anything for Valentine's day, I never do (which drives AJ crazy), but why waste money on flowers that die, chocolate I don't need, or jewelry that I don't wear? Might as well buy a toilet that we will definitely use, right?! LOL! So AJ bought me chocolate and that's it. I am glad. Doesn't bother me at all. I stayed home all day, AJ went to Lowe's and some car places (his car is falling apart and he needed more parts), and that's about it. After the kids were in bed, I pulled out the fondue pot and we had yummy fruit and chocolate, while we watched the movie, Fireproof. We loved it. It is a great movie, that you should definitely see if you are married. This is one movie we will actually buy, only when it goes on sale, of course. :) Did I mention I hate spending money??? Anyway, I thought it was the perfect Valentine's Day.

Nothing really new going on, so I guess that's the end of this post.

Oh wait, I forgot. I have been sick all week with a terrible cold. I could barely talk, I definitely couldn't breath, and it was just terrible. One night I dreamed that I was drowning, which woke me up, only to have me find that I really was drowning, in snot. Gross, I know, but I couldn't breath AT ALL. It was terrible. Anyway, Friday I was supposed to go out with my quartet and deliver Singing Valentines. I kept getting worse and worse all week, and thought that I surely would not be able to, but every day I practiced and I could still sing just fine. I could barely talk, and sounded terrible, but singing was a piece of cake. Weird how that works. I guess I should have just sung everything all week so people didn't have to listen to me. Anyway, the day went great, except I had some of my most stupid moments. Everyone loved their Valentines, and it was fun. So other than losing my phone and freaking out, AND losing my drivers license and freaking everyone else out ( I NEVER lose things, this was very unShauna-like)we made lots of people happy, so that is all that mattered.

OK, now this should be the end of this post. Bye!

Where I've Been

The past 2 weeks we have been busy doing this




this



this



and now we are dealing with this



Sam had to do a salt map project on a state. He picked Florida. It took a lot of work, but it's done and looks good. Have I mentioned that I hate school projects? I do, I really do. Really, what's the point of them?? A fun way for the kids to learn something so they remember? Hmmm, they aren't much fun, and really do you remember any projects you did in Elementary School? I don't. Yeah, I really dislike projects. :)

We have our big Regional Competition coming up for singing. Yeah, the one where I am competing in a quartet. Me, up there with just 3 other girls, being judged. Yikes! So I have been working hard to make sure I at least get judged well. I hope!

I also did a photo shoot where I get a little carried away with the pictures, and ended up taking a TON. It took many hours to process all the pictures and do all my cool stuff to them. It was fun though. I love making cool things happen with the camera. It was just time consuming and a lot of work. I hope they love them though. :)

Finally, Sam is sick once again. Saturday he went to a friend's house. After he came home he complained of a headache, about an hour later his throat started hurting. Then he got a temp of 101.4. The two of us stayed home from church, where he continued to get worse. Finally, last night his temp got up to 103.9. We figured he had strep, and AJ went to work to get a Strep test. I did the test, and yep, positive. He is on antibiotics now, and should be doing much better tomorrow. Geez, we are a family of strepaholics.

Of course, his project was due today, I was supposed to sub, there was a yummy chocolate bar at school for the teachers today, which I am missing, and Sam feels terrible. Let's hope it skips Avery and I. AJ caught it as well, but he caught it early, so he won't be feeling as bad as Sam.

Hopefully, it won't be 2 weeks until my next post.

Oh, I agreed to do the maternity leave of a teacher March-May. It is 8 weeks long, so I will be working every day. Whew! Don't know how to do that really, I haven't been a working mom for a LONG time. How do I go grocery shopping, do laundry, clean the house??? We'll see how that turns out. I might be very grumpy by the end. LOL!

Party Day

Yesterday was a day of partying.

The morning started out with me going to Zumba (which is a party by itself ;) and AJ taking the boys to a swimming party for a boy at church. They hadn't swam in quite a while so that was fun for them. As soon as they got home we went to Kinley's party. We went skating. Yea, I love skating. Really!

The kids had a great time and skated a ton, more than they ever had before. They both did really good, and ended up doing better and better as the night went on. Sam ended up falling a few times and he hurt is wrist pretty bad. It is still really hurting him today, and he can't put any pressure on it. Should be fun for school tomorrow... Avery said, " I fell a hundred times, I'm really bad. Can we do it again tomorrow?" They both want to go back next Saturday. We'll see.

After that we went to dinner with Kinley and family. It wasn't very good at all, but oh well. It was eating out, which we hadn't done in quite a while.

Then we went to their house, had cake, and watched Kinley open presents. We just hung out there for a while and then came home and went to bed. Fun day!

I worked some this week and did a lot of errands and stuff the other days. I got asked to be the substitute for a teacher going on maternity leave. It is for 2 months. I haven't decided yet if I am going to take it. That's a long time. I like being able to be off when I want to be. ;) We'll see.

Anyway, here are the pictures I took. There aren't many because I was mostly out there skating right along with the kids. :)


Sam waiting for the races to be done.

Lindsay taking 5 minutes to send one text. LOL! ;)-

Birthday Girl and her Mommy

Birthday Girl

Sam on the Go

Kinley Skating

Autumn Wiping her Snotty Nose



Avery Going

Go Avery!

Valentine's Day Idea

If you need an idea for Valentine's Day I have one for you. :)

My chorus, www.tunetownshowchorus.org, is doing Singing Valentines again this year. I am singing in one of the quartets on that Friday and would love to come sing for you.

So here are the details.

On Friday and Saturday, February 13-14, TuneTown quartets will fan out across Nashville and surrounding areas to deliver Singing Valentines to special loved ones. Songs of devotion will ring out in offices, homes, restaurants, schools, factories, bowling alleys and nursing homes and romantics will get one of the most unique experiences possible.

Choose from four musical packages to be delivered either Friday (2/13) or Saturday (2/14):

“The Sweetheart” - $50.00…delivery between 8am-8pm
“On the Wings of Love” - $60.00…delivery within a 4-hour window
“Straight to the Heart” - $70.00…delivery within a 30-minute window
“Across the Miles” - $20.00 …A singing quartet will call your long distance Valentine and deliver your valentine over the phone.

A TuneTown Singing Valentine starts at $50 and includes a love song in close four-part harmony, plus a gift of Valentine’s candy with a card. Men and women alike are on the receiving end -- with often surprising results.

To place your order for a valentine gift your Sweetheart will never forget, visit our website at www.tunetownshowchorus.org or call (615) 360-6375.