BRRRR

LOL, it is not so cold as I make it out to be, but we keep it very chilly in the house here and I am cold! I think the thermostat is on 63 degrees, and it is 34 degrees outside. I'll be headed to a nice, hot bath soon.

Cold, I LOVE cold weather (well, the "TN cold"). I love having 3 blankets on my bed at night and having everything pulled up to my ears just to stay warm. I do not so much love waking up at 6 am and getting out of that warm cocoon, even though we have the heat set to come on for an hour or two around then to warm-up some for getting ready in the morning.

Don't worry, my girls have plenty of night clothes and blankets and do not suffer. We keep their heater running warmer with the upstairs unit.

LOL

Dave is at the neighbor's house right now watching football, the girls are asleep and I am enjoying some complete peace and quiet. It's tougher to get up out of bed in these days heading to Winter break at school, but I manage.

The band has a parade contest tomorrow night. They practiced today after school and are set to go. It's a fairly long parade, and it doesn't begin until 7 pm, which means it will be about 40 degrees or less...YIKES! They'll be wearing Santa hats and lots of warm clothes under their uniforms. Last year we won this contest....we hope to again.

Something unrelated...Hanna Montana concert is tonight in Memphis...one of my band students has a sister Abbi's age (named Abbey too). Well, she knew how much her sister loves Hanna, so Bre decided to enter a contest to try and win her sister tickets....a contest where the person who danced the most line dances to a single dance/song would win....well, 260 something reps of that one dance later, I understand she won those tickets and has her sister at that concert right now. HOW SWEET!

More student brags....3 of my current students auditioned for spots in top drum corps in the world, ALL THREE were offered contracts/spots and I am so proud of them! One of my staff members also made a group as well. I have a few more auditioning for various others in the next few weeks, but this is exciting!

Abbi has her first parade Saturday. My first child in a parade, and I'll get to watch it! Her dance company is in it, the bigger girls dance and the younger girls ride in the back of a pick-up truck. Abbi will be dressed as Raggedy Ann, so darling! Next weekend she will be dancing at some nursing homes, but I am busy with auditions so I will not get to see that. Dave will tape it for me.

When did first grade get so "complicated"? Abbi brought home a project this week that is due Dec 14....she has to pick a planet then do research on it and answer a bunch of questions and then write an entire paragraph on it. You should see some of her spelling words, words I am quite certain I never experienced until at least 3rd or 4th grade! Part of me feels that kids are being pushed too fast to learn so much, and that may be part of the cause for kids to drop out of school...HOWEVER, when I look at the things my HS students do, it is comparable to what I did in hs. Abbi thrives on all of this though. She loves school work.

Libbi is still calling the tree ornaments trophies...we get a good giggle each time. I look forward to taking Libbi to the parade and us standing and watching it with her....waving crazily at her sister Abbi!

The girls returned to dance classes this week as the studio reopened. Brandy is not teaching yet, and probably won't until after Christmas, but that's to be expected.

Well...I don't really have a lot else to update about, just wanted to take advantage of some quiet time. Take care and sign the guestbook if you stop by here so I know people are actually using this to stay on top of our family news.

HUGS to all.