I Didn't Mean to Skip September

I really didn't mean to skip September. September is one of my favorite months. But I've either been too busy or too overwhelmed or just not felt like blogging or all three. But today I have a few minutes so I'll post a few photos and say something, I guess.

The kids have been in school almost 2 months now. The girls will finish 1st term in just two more weeks. We got all their school photos and I liked them this year. Now if I can just get Atom in to get his photo taken...

Jumble--10th grade

Minnie--7th grade

Jet--3rd grade

Marching band season has started again for Jumble. This year they are doing a show to honor the veterans. It is called "The Greatest Generation" and features music from Band of Brothers and Medal of Honor. It is quite a different style than the typical American Fork show. They have seven visuals this year. They are these huge replicas of World War II posters and photos. On the back they have photo collages of veterans that are related to some of the band members. The color guard dresses as Rosie the Riveter. They have each band member marching in honor of a veteran who is a member of their family or a friend. They each got dog tags that they wear to each performance--one has their name and the other has the name of the veteran that they march in honor of. Jumble finally decided to march in honor of my dad, who served during the Korean War. But she has also found out a lot about some of my family members who served during World War II and is marching in honor of them, too. We think that the show is wonderful and very moving. We are glad that this upcoming generation is learning more about the sacrifices that were made in the past so that they can enjoy the blessings of freedom now.

They have performed at Weber State College and Payson High School so far, as well as performing at half-time for a home football game and for Band Family Night. The show at Weber State College is called "Weber Review" and is not a judged competition. All the band directors get to spend time with the judges just getting their overall feeling about the show and strong and weak points. The one at Payson High School is called the Nebo Invitational. There are only three other bands that compete in American Fork's Division in Utah and only one of them came to the Nebo show so we are still waiting to see how American Fork's show compares to the other two bands in our division. They did come in 1st place at Nebo and got a very high score for this early in the season. So I guess the judges like their show. We weren't sure what judges would think because it is so different. For the past 15 years, Davis High School has generally been the biggest competition in the state for American Fork. Their show this year reminds me a lot of American Fork's show from last year and they look fantastic! So maybe this will be the year that they beat AF. We think Davis is going to the competition in Pocatello tomorrow so we'll see what happens. All of the bands look much improved from last year so it is great to see all the bands getting better and more competitive. Our alma mater, Orem High, took 1st place in their division all last year. This year they moved up a division and got 2nd place at Nebo. Pretty impressive for their first time in a higher division, I think. I finally got to see them perform this year so that was fun. Hopefully I will get to see them a few more times this season.

Niles and I are trying to do a lot more to help this year. Niles has been inducted into the "Fraternal Order of Band Dads" and has an official red shirt (the ONLY time he wears red and it is still somewhat painful!) He helps to load and unload equipment, uniforms, and instruments; paint, assemble, and move props; etc. I am in the Booster Club and also have an official red shirt. I don't get to go to most booster meetings, unfortunately, because they are on Wednesday evenings at 7:00 p.m.--the same time as YW. But I stay in touch and help with whatever I can. For the Weber Show, the band mom for the bass clarinet section couldn't go so I took her place. The band mom job is to check all uniforms and make sure all the girls' hair is in the hat properly and such once they are all dressed and ready for warm ups. It isn't a big job for the bass clarinet section mom--there are only 4 bass clarinets and only one of them is a girl--Jumble. So after helping her, I went and helped the flute section mom--all of the flutes are girls! They have a whole routine they go through as they are on the bus and get close to arriving at a competition. They have a rule to be quiet, think about the show and concentrate on their part. When they arrive and exit the buses to go find their uniforms and instruments and get dressed, they are instructed to do so in silence. And the amazing thing is, they do! I was so impressed to see 200+ 14-17 year-old kids behaving in a totally focused and professional manner. That is an accomplishment!

Here's some photos:

This is at family night. It was very windy and COLD!

Jumble after family night. She said she cried through the whole performance after they gave them their dog tags!

At Weber Review we had a fun reunion. A family in our ward in Arizona moved to Logan a little before we moved up here. (They found out they were moving only a few months before us, got their house on the market in the spring just before the housing market in Arizona started on its downward free-fall, sold it in a few months, so moved to Utah almost a year before us.) Their oldest son is the same age as Jumble and also started playing clarinet at the same time as Jumble. We discovered about a month ago that he has been marching with SkyView marching band (in the same division as American Fork) and we were at all the same competitions last year and never knew it! So we were excited to meet up with them for the first time at the Weber Review:

back row: Me, Elise Idso, Niles front row: Catherine Idso, Grant Idso, Conner Idso.

Our two band members (Jumble and Jaron Idso) haven't got to meet yet because they had to stay with their bands at this show. It was so fun to see them again!

This is the Nebo Show:

This is the very beginning of the show, which all the band members lovingly refer to as "praying to Budha." (Sorry if you are Buddhist and this offends you.)

You can see some of the big poster props in the background. The color guard are wearing bright blue "Rosie the Riveter" jumpsuits and red bandanas in their hair.

Jumble reports that she has a 40-count hold during this part--which was unheard-of in last year's show. They were moving constantly!

This is the end of the show--the colorguard are in white and put their arms out to form crosses as an image of the white crosses in the cemetary at Normandy--to honor and remember those who gave the ultimate sacrifice.

Our video camera started being tempermental at last year's Nebo show and continues to frustrate us. It works when it is in the mood. It wouldn't work so that I could tape the Nebo show, but then worked perfectly fine for me to tape the entire awards ceremony. Given the choice, I would have rather had the show on tape. Our digital camera decided to start playing a similar game in August--only working when it feels like it. It is much cheaper to replace, so we did get a new camera on the day of the Nebo show so I got a lot of still pictures of the show--just no video!

In YW we were busy the whole month of September with "Missionary Month." Every September the YM and YW meet together all month with activities based on one of the three-fold missions of the church. This year the YW were in charge and it was "Proclaiming the Gospel" (obviously.) My advisor and I were in charge of the second week of the month where we had the youth divide in groups and sent them to three houses in the ward each with three pre-arranged gospel questions to answer. The ward members took the part of interested investigators. This activity seemed to be a big hit--we got lots of positive comments from the youth. The ward members have fun with it, too. The first week we had an MTC branch president speak about preparing for a mission. It actually turned out to be his family because he had a heart attack the day before! And his amazing wife and daughter insisted they could come and take his place. (He was O.K.) It was a very spiritual meeting. The third week the youth got to try all kinds of unique foods from different places (I got to make grits and fried okra for them to try.) The fourth week we played a really fun game and the last week we had a couple in our ward who just returned from a mission come speak about the blessings of missionary work. I thought the whole month was a great experience.

I am now babysitting Meagan Ashby's (my Mia Maid Advisor) 22-month-old daughter Tiffany every day. Meagan is finishing her last year of college as a music major at UVU. She is teaching Minnie flute lessons as part of the payment for babysitting. It is working out great so far. We are already hearing an improvement in Minnie's flute playing. After 3 weeks, Tiffany seems to be more comfortable here with me. At first she seemed to feel like she needed to stick right by me every minute but now she is getting more independent. The kids really like having her here. In another week, I will also be babysitting the 7-week-old daughter of another sister in my ward--who is also named Meggin! The baby's name is Courtney. She will only be here 3 or 4 days a week for a few hours in the afternoon. She brought her baby over this week and she is so sweet! I think Jumble and Minnie will be fighting over her. They are pretty excited at the prospect of a newborn around here! They already think Tiffany is the cutest thing ever so now they will have two baby girls to enjoy (but they don't get to see Tiffany too much since they are at school for most of the time she is here.)

This post took longer than the few minutes I had so I better go tackle the food storage soup I have been assigned to make for our ward preparedness fair tonight!