Precious...

You never realize how precious life really is until something happens to remind you of this. No, nobody in my family died, but my cousin was very, very lucky. A couple of my cousins on my dad's side are country boys. One of my cousins was having a bon fire with some of his friends and the fire flashed back on him while he was holding the kerosene. Luckily he was wearing several layers of clothing and had a full beard. My cousin was fully engulfed in flames for a little while (I don't know how long). He has second degree burns on his face and neck and third degree burns on his hand that was holding the kerosene. If it hadn't been for those extra layers of cloths he may not be here today. He is obviously in the burn unit close to his home, but he is okay. I am so thankful that he's okay. Like I said...it just goes to show how precious life is and in a matter of seconds it can be taken away. Make sure you let those you love know every chance you get because you never know when they could be taken away from you.

Thoughts

I have been giving some serious thought to what I want to do next year. I love being a teacher, but I feel like I am already burning out. I put my everything into it last year and have been putting my everything into it this year and have mixed feelings about certain things. I know this would be the case with almost any career, so I'm not too worried about it. I would love to start a family sometime in the near future, but I'm not sure that will happen anytime soon. Financially we aren't in the place we would like to be to start a family and I'm not sure that we're both ready for the added responsibility having a family brings. When we do start a family, I do not want to work. I want to be able to stay home and enjoy being a mom and wife. Right now, I barely have time to enjoy being a wife. I have jumped in head first for things at school, and sometimes I feel as though I have put a huge strain on my relationship with my husband. We hardly get to see each other right now because of our work schedules...mostly mine. I leave the house around 5:30 or 5:45 in the morning and don't get home until after 5:00 most days. I have several days where I put in over 12 hours at school. I know that marching season will soon be over (Saturday is our last competition and then we have a few parades), which will be nice...but almost as soon as marching season is over winter guard season starts. Don't get me wrong, I am very excited for winter guard. I really think this upcoming season will be a great one.

Enough from me for now...I have to get ready for the long day ahead of me.

Ozark Mountain Festival results

The Pride of Branson Marching Band did well in their second competition of the season. It was an unusually early evening, we got back to the school around 9:15 last night. Very unusual for most marching competitions. Anyway...the Pride placed first in prelims and finals. We also got outstanding auxiliary (guard) and outstanding hornline in prelims. In finals we got outstanding auxiliary and percussion (the only two caption awards given during finals.) The kids did a fantastic job yesterday. They improved their scores in all areas from prelims to finals. I am extremely proud of them all.

Valhalla Results

Well the kids did an amazing job yesterday! I am so proud of them all. The band placed third in their division and made it into finals. They went in to finals in 6th place. They got 6th place in finals and had two amazing performances yesterday.

We were very close to winning a few of the captions awards (guard, percussion, music, general effect, etc). We were second in percussion and guard...percussion by 5 points and guard by 3 points. All in all, it was a good day and the kids seemed to have a blast!

Marching Competition!

Today is the first Marching Competition for the band and guard! I'm so excited, and a little nervous. The kids did a fantastic job last night at the home football game! (Our football team was awesome too!) I can't wait for the competition today. We have a practice starting at 8 and then we're heading to Springfield. I will post how the kids did and maybe even some pictures tomorrow...once I get home and recover from the day.

Travel Bug...still

I still have the travel bug. Ever since my trip to Alaska during Spring Break last year, I have wanted to go back and see more. I would love to be able to stay there for more than just one week, maybe someday I will get the opportunity to do that. I would really like to go while the Iditarod is taking place. Brian was ther during that and said it was extremely neat. If you're wondering why I would want to go during the coldest time of the year, let me show you why...

These are just a couple of the amazing sites that are there. I can't wait to go back there and see more. Well that's all for now, I need to get ready for work.