It’s My Imagination

Super Saturday

Saturday was the busiest day I’ve had in a long time. By the end of the day, I was completely exhausted and collapsed into bed. Busy, but productive, just the way I like it.

My Destination Imagination team of six 6th graders attended an Instant Challenge Festival first thing yesterday morning. The team was able to watch other teams solve instant challenges and also solve 4 of their own, each time receiving feedback from appraisers (judges). We all learned quite a bit and I feel we are all more confident about what we need to do to be ready for the Regional tournament in March.

An Instant Challenge is basically improvisation. The team is given a challenge, sometimes they are given items to create props, sometimes not, and then have to solve some sort of problem. The problem can be anything from moving plastic animals from one island (poster board taped to floor) to another island, or creating a rhyming answering machine message incorporating nursery rhyme characters. They typically have 5 minutes to create and plan and then 2 minutes to present their solution. It is all very fast pace. These instant challenges are designed to demonstrate how well a team works together and how creative they are. This is where they score the most points.

It was a really great experience and I am ever so glad that we attended, thanks to our school’s PTA who paid the entry fee.

Following the festival, we came home for lunch and I was able to get a load of laundry done before my daughter and I headed out to do some shopping. I will talk more about the shopping at my other site, The Sewing Mom but I will say, I can’t wait to work on the projects I bought supplies for!

We met my husband for dinner at a little Mexican restaurant and I had a huge strawberry margarita that pretty much did me in for the night, as if I wasn’t all ready wiped out! I came home, organized the stuff I had purchased on our shopping trip, got my pajamas on and went to bed. That’s it, that’s all, a very full day.

Music – Private Instruction

I did it. I got a private lesson instructor lined up for my daughter. This girl (lady?) sounded very young on the phone and I am very curious to meet her in person which I hope to do next week at my daughter’s first lesson.

She will meet my daughter at her school during her regular band class, once a week for 1/2 hour. She will work with her on her baritone for the rest of the school year. My daughter is going to be trying out next week for the tuba. If she is chosen, she will play the tuba in band and the baritone privately. This will allow her to play either instrument in the band as she progresses next year to Junior High. We just have to wait and see how next week goes.

Skin Care

I am one of those people who has to put lotion on my skin, each and every day. I’ve been doing this for as long as I can remember. Occasionally, when I’m in a hurry, I’ll skip putting lotion on my body, only to regret it later in the day when my skin begins to feel so incredibly dry. My face requires lotion every day, no matter how big of a hurry I’m in. I’ve used lotions for as long as I can remember.

My skins problem is simple dryness. I’m very thankful that I don’t have anything more serious like rosacea. If I did have rosacea or even broken capillaries, I would look for skin care products at where they specialize in rosacea and anti-inflammatory creams. If you’re in need, you may want to take a look.

Google Crawling Statistics

This site is only my second blog and I wanted to make sure it was being crawled by search engines. I made sure to enter all the analytic code in my template, but then what? I wanted to be sure, so I found SEO Meter a site that will monitor the crawling activity of Google, for free.

This is a great, free tool. Simply submit your URL and once they’ve added it to their database they will begin monitoring the googlebot. I also placed their button in my left sidebar for viewing, more for my information than anything. Check it out!

International Calling

My husband is talking of having more international business travel in the near future. In October, he was in China, Taiwan and Singapore. Then, in December, he was in Ireland and Hungary. I don’t mind when he’s traveling, but when he’s out of the country I do miss being able to talk to him.

We do use email and an occasional text message to stay in touch, but it’s not quite the same as hearing his voice. It’s nice to run across cheap mobile calls that will allow me to call him whenever I feel like it. Now I won’t feel so out of touch. I’ll be able to use me cell phone to call him which is good, since we no longer have a land line. I don’t have to download anything or use my computer.

Next time he travel internationally, I won’t feel so disconnected.

Our Own Musician

My daughter came home from school yesterday and was quick to inform me that she had spoken with the band director and is eligible to try out for playing the Tuba.  Oh my!

A little background.  The school district in Illinois, where my daughter attended 5th grade, begins band in 5th grade.  In 4th grade, the students take a music test and try out on different instruments to determine what they like and what they’re best suited for.  My daughter’s top choices were the oboe and the baritone (euphonium).  In the end, she chose the baritone and, according to her band director and private lesson teacher, was very good.  I was told numerous times by a variety of individuals that she had a bright future if she stuck with it.

Last December she was chosen to play in a Low Brass Choir.  This band was comprised of all male musicians, except for my daughter, and ranged in age from 5th graders to seniors in high school.  It was really something to see and hear.  They performed at several schools and the school district board meeting.  She was also selected to perform in a solo contest last January.  Only a handful of 5th graders get this opportunity and even fewer place in the top 3.  She received a 1st place award, again showing her skill and talent.

When we moved to Texas we discovered that this school district doesn’t begin teaching band until 6th grade, and, they only start the students on basic instruments, flute, clarinet, trumpet and trombone.  The band director allowed her to continue with her baritone, but she has been so extremely bored.  The new students spent weeks learning how to blow through a straw which, apparently, was supposed to help them learn to blow through their mouthpiece.  In the mean time, she began taking guitar lessons to keep her music interest alive.

The school district allows a select few students to switch instruments beginning in February.  The students have to take a music test, try out on the instrument of their choice, and commit to being in 7th grade band.  The additional instrument choices are saxophone, oboe, bassoon, baritone (which she currently plays) and tuba.  To my surprise, my daughter said she’d like to learn the tuba.  She enjoys playing baritone very much, so she doesn’t want to give it up.

At this point, her band director has said exactly what I was hoping for.  I will enroll her in private lessons for her baritone so that she will continue learning and playing that instrument (which is almost paid for!).  If she succeeds in try outs for the tuba, she can switch to that instrument for the remainder of this school year and he feels she is such a quick learner that the switch will happen pretty smoothly.  This will allow her to be eligible to play either instrument in band.  The school owns its own tubas, so I won’t have to buy one, thank goodness!

In addition, she will continue learning the guitar, she began learning to play chords just this week.   I guess we’ll know more in a couple of weeks, after the try outs.

Professional Bull Riders World Finals

One of the most interesting observations we’ve made since moving back to Texas is 1) the number of SUV’s and trucks on the road, and 2) the number of men who wear Stetson’s (that’s a hat for those who aren’t familiar).

Beings that we live on the outskirts of Dallas, there are plenty of cows and horses in our area which also means, there are plenty of cowboys as well. I’m talking about real cowboys, not the ones that wear fashion denim and fashion boots because they look good. Real cowboys work hard, wear Wrangler’s and many, ride in rodeos. If you’ve never been to a rodeo, you might want to get yourself some tickets, it’s quite a wild ride, no pun intended.

Years ago, while in college in Austin, I attended several local rodeos with friends. I don’t think anyone can fully understand the power of a steer or horse until you seen a man attempt to pull one to the ground and wrap a rope around its legs. Or how about, a man (or woman) sitting on the back of a bull while it’s doing anything it can to get him off. It can be very scary and very dangerous and very thrilling to watch.

I also attended the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo and was no less fascinated. The bigger the event, the higher caliber of riders and the more exciting they become. 10 seconds sound like such a short period of time, but if you’re the one sitting on the back of the bull, it might feel like an eternity, at least while it’s happening.

Houston is just one stop on the Professional Bull Riders tour and the tour ends each year in Las Vegas, with the Professional Bull Riders World Finals in November. If you enjoy Las Vegas (and who doesn’t) and you want to see a thrilling show, get your tickets to the Pro Bull Riders World Finals before they’re sold out.

Learning Guitar

My daughter began taking guitar lessons in July.  She goes once each week, for a 30 minute lesson.  Her instructor teaches finger style and seems to think that my daughter is a natural.  Of course, I am biased, but I think she’s doing very well too.  In fact, I believe in her so much that I purchased a new acoustic guitar for her for Christmas.  We had been renting one from the instructor.

Yesterday she began learning to play chords for the first time.  She had been playing simple notes until this point.  Occasionally her teacher would pick up his guitar and play the chords to go along with her melody and it always sounded so pretty.  I love listening to the music.  So needless to say, I am very excited that she is now learning the chords herself.  He tells me that she is learning at a very quick pace.  I have to think that her 2 years of playing the baritone horn have been a help.  Even though the two instruments play on different cleffs, she has learned to read music and listen to the differences in the notes.

She will be taking a test this week at school on that very thing.  She is thinking that she might be interested in learning to play the tuba and she needs to do well on the test in order to switch instruments.  If she does switch,  she wants to continue also playing the baritone.  I think it will be cool if she can play multiple instruments.  I look forward to whatever decision she ends up making.

Blog Surfing

I was surfing through the blogosphere and ran across a very interesting and funny blog. I had just attempted to update my other site to WP2.3.2 when it all fell apart. After everyone telling me how easy it was, mine bombed. It’s now under reconstruction and I was in desperate need of a good laugh and a distraction, which is exactly what I got when I read a few posts at Caffeine Overload, a blog written by a 26 year old housewife who loves to laugh. I think she also enjoys making others laugh, it was well worth a visit.

Eve has another site, Confessions of a Housewife which is also worth a look. Both of her sites tend to be on the entertaining and fun side. I recommend them both. She also accepts funny post submissions and offers a linkback if she selects your post to be published, so I really do suggest checking out her blog.

American Skier Scott Macartney

U.S. skier Scott Macartney crashed at the World Cup Downhill in Kitzbuehel on Saturday. This is an amazing video. Even more amazing is that he broke no bones, he’s awake and is expected to make a full recovery. If you watch this video, you’ll notice that his helmet comes off during the crash. It’s estimated that he was skiing at 88 mph!