Ashley AARP

 Today was Ashley's FIFTIETH (50) birthday.  She's filled out her AARP application and has her Amazon account to auto-reorder her hair-dye which is shipped in by the crate :-)  To celebrate, we went water-skiing, and everyone agreed Ashley was the hottest-looking 50-year old on the lake.  As always, we took a lot of pictures.  First, here's a nice one of Bode--little man is looking so grown up these days.

We even got him to pose for a picture with his mother.

Bode took the first run of the day.  He didn't do any slaloming; he said he wanted to work on his wake-crossing.  First, some pictures.

Next is a movie of the little man coming by the dock.

Next, we have Ashley starting on one of her runs.

She did quite well and looked awesome zooming around the lake.

We did get a good movie of Ashley drinking some lake water.

Afterwards, I took a picture of me and Ashley on her big day.

I wake-boarded as well, but I think all the pictures are on Ashley's phone.  I'll try to get some and post at a later date.  When we got home, we feasted on more turkey and ham, and then we did the obligatory singing of Happy Birthday after having paid the appropriate royalties to the Jackson estate.  Note the lovely cake that Bode and I baked.

We'll finish this birthday post with a picture of my two favorite people.

Tomorrow, Bode becomes an official teenager.  God help us :-)

Carriage House...Almost

We had the new driveway poured this week for the carriage house.  This means we are so close to being done.  It looks great--still need to do the bricks at the very end by the street, but it's dry enough for us to walk on.  We have to wait until next week to drive on it, but that'll be here before we know it.  First, here's a shot of the carriage house from the main house's front door.

Next is a little closer so you can see the curve in the path.

This is right in front of the carriage house.  Exterior is all done (I think).

This is the main floor.  I didn't take any pictures of the garage, as it is a bit of a mess with a lot of saws and other tools lying around.  This main room just requires some touch-up paint and minor trim pieces.

The bathroom looks great.  The shower is probably nicer than what we have in our house.  Everything is done in the bathroom except some trim pieces on the floor.

Here is another shot of the main room from the other side.

We should be done right after Thanksgiving...which means we need to start furnishing the place :-)  

Bode is doing great in school.  He got all A's and B's on the first quarter report card, and we continue to be thankful that Meigs has been able to stay open since 31 August.  Bode had to do a science project last week--a 3-D model of a plant cell.  

He molded all the parts himself out of clay.  Ashley helped with the main body, and I helped him type up the definitions, but this project (compared to some others) was mostly Bode's work.  He earned a solid A and a treat from Sonic.  

Only a few more work days until a much needed break for all of us.  We are looking forward to some water-skiing and a lot of turkey!  Pleasant day to all.

Mocking Bode

 Bode plays Beat Saber a lot on his Oculus virtual reality headset.  It is a pretty cool game, and if you want to see what Bode is seeing on his headset, go to this link.  His arms are controlling the light-sabers which are slicing into the blocks that are flying at him.  He's really oblivious to what's going on around him, and he doesn't like if I try to make fun of him but he catches.  Fortunately, he didn't realize I was mocking him.

My dancing skills have not improved much since I was a kid.  Maybe that is something I should work on over the holiday break.  Pleasant weekend to all.

Happy Halloween

 Today was Halloween, and because we live in Florida, we were able to celebrate in our usual fashion.  Ashley and I carved up some pumpkins early in the day.

We placed everything in front of the carriage house.  Before we headed out, I took a picture of Bode, who was dressed as Cartman from South Park.

We headed up the street and met up with our neighbors.  Ashley and Bode took a picture--to keep with the South Park theme, Ashley dressed as Kenny.

Once we got to the park, we took a family photo.  In case you can't tell, I am Randy Marsh, also from South Park.  Note that Ashley made all the masks from scratch--she's quite talented.

We spent some time doing the usual trunk-or-treat at the park, and then we headed around the neighborhood.  We spent close to an hour trick-or-treating, and we were very impressed with the number of people and houses that participated.  I could not tell the difference between this year and a regular year, so it was nice to feel like normal, if only for a little while :-)

On Thursday, there was a Meigs football game, so the football band performed both during the game and also at half-time.  This first picture is of the band arriving at the stands.

Next is a picture of the band performing; it's not the best picture because I didn't want to make a spectacle of myself trying to get a picture.

At half-time, the band had to go down to the field.  There was some down time during the transition, so here's a nice picture of Bode yucking it up.

Next, we have the band getting ready to march onto the field.

Here's a shot of the whole band on the field.  Bode is in the front-left.

Next is a close up of Bode playing.

It was great hearing how much the band has improved since the last time.  Plus, this game was 8th-grade appreciation night, so all the eighth-graders were recognized.  What we found amazing is Bode is one of a small number of seventh graders that play in the football band.  We are so proud of how hard he has worked.  We are also very hopeful they will be able to have a holiday concert.  

Happy Halloween to all!

Youth Symphony

 The Youth Symphony had a mini-concert today.  The organization was doing a fund-raiser, and as part, they performed a few pieces at the Destin Commons.  It was a nice day, but a little windy.  Still, I think it was a great performance.  Here are some still photos.  First, the kids setting up.  Bode is right in the middle in a black shirt.

Here's a close up of Bode.

This is a shot from behind the orchestra.

Finally, here's Bode doing some tuning before the performance begins.

Here's a movie of the warm-up.  I didn't record the whole warm up because I can only upload videos directly to this website that are less than 100 MB.

I uploaded some of the longer pieces to Youtube.   First up is the Egmont Overture.

Next we have the Barber of Seville.

Finally, we have the theme from Star Wars.

We are very proud of how hard Bode has worked.

We had quite a weekend--swim meet yesterday, concert today.  It'd be nice if we had a day to rest, but I guess we have to start again tomorrow :-)  Pleasant week to all.

Band and Swimming

 The Meigs Middle School band plays at the football games.  Because of some weather and other issues, Wednesday was the first game at which the band actually played.  The game was at the Choctaw High School stadium to allow people to space out more, and it was a lovely night.

The band made its way onto the field after we were seated.  Here's Bode carrying his trumpet.

Here's a shot of Bode seated--he's the middle row at the far left.

The band sounded awesome--I'm very impressed at all the songs they can play.  Ashley took some videos on her phone and posted to Facebook, but I don't have access to them.  We are very proud at how hard he has worked.

Bode had a swim meet today.  Last week, we worried the meet wouldn't go because of Hurricane Delta, but the system was far enough west and we missed the brunt of it (we do feel for those in Louisiana).  Bode swam amazingly well.  Here are some pictures and movies.  First is Bode and Ashley.

Bode swam the 100-IM, the 50-free, and the 100-back getting personal bests in all. For the 100-IM, he shaved five seconds off his time with a 1:15.  In the 50-free, he shaved three seconds off his time and swam a 29.5; and in the 100-back, he swam a 1:14 shaving nine seconds off his best swim.  It's great to see this type of improvement, as he's been working so hard in practices.  Ashley took movies of the 100-IM and the 50-free.  In this first movie, Bode is in Lane 2.

In this next video, Bode is in lane eight.  His teammate, Tripp, is swimming in Lane 7, and it was great to see such a close race between the boys.

Weather is weird here today.  We have sun and then we have clouds and rain; I guess it's some of the bands from Hurricane Delta.  Here's hoping we get a nice Sunday tomorrow :-)

Violin Auditions

 It's been quite a week of music.  Bode's youth orchestra conductor wanted all the string players to "audition" using various parts of the pieces of music they are working on.  I think this is just so he can best sit the students do everything sounds the best.  This is Bode's first year in the big orchestra, so we told him not to get discouraged if he isn't sitting in the "prime" locations.  We are very proud of his progress--he is playing with high school kids in this orchestra, and he has plenty of years to really develop.

The first video is from the Egmont Overture.

The next two videos are from parts of the Barber of Seville.

Finally, a piece from something called Appalachian Morning.

Tomorrow, Bode has to go up to the school and do some recordings for an audition for the All-State band with his trumpet.  These auditions are more stressful.  For the above movies, we could have as many attempts as we wanted.  For the All-State auditions, he gets a maximum of three attempts.  He's worked very hard, and we are proud no matter what happens.  Stay tuned!