Author: Benford

Little Child

Have you ever watched Little Einsteins? It is the cutest show! Here is a synopsis of the show from TV.com:

Little Einsteins takes us on an adventure with four children: Leo, June, Annie and Quincy. Each of these four children have their own specialization, Leo loves to conduct, Annie loves to sing, Quincy loves to play instruments while June loves to dance. The series uses various pieces of classical music as the basic fundamentals for the series, though the series also capitalizes on the premise and episodes typically have famous artwork within them.

Any chance I get, I watch it. It’s so enjoyable to watch a TV show that incorporates art and music with little adventures! Okay, so the story lines are a little silly but it’s designed for pre-school aged kids. Silly is perfectly a-okay!

BIRTHDAY

Happy Birthday everyone!

May 2 – Monica Ovalle & Kristina Miller
May 3 – Kendall Clark, Yoli Brewer
May 5 – Justin Dyer
May 11 – Martin Montoya
May 14 – Sam Robinson
May 16 – Kelly Sedatole
May 19 – Aaron Hudson & Charles Hurt
May 20 – ME!!!, Stephen Anthony, Jose Perez & Cher
May 21 – Shigemasa Hironai
May 24 – Allison King
May 29 – Jennifer Henry

I think that’s it. If I need to add anyone, let me know. It’s very important we get all the May birthdays right.

I never really thought September was such a sexy month…. 😉

A Hard Day’s Night

It’s time for a long, hot bubble bath. Yup, it’s been that kinda April. I’m feeling more and more at ease about how things went every day but I have to admit that the stress of this month really got to me. There are several people who helped get me through this month and I don’t know what I would have don’t without y’all. Reading Randy Pausch’s book also kept me inspired to keep going. Every night, I read that dreams will prevail if you find your way through, around or over the brick walls that come your way.

May will be here at the end of this week and we can start the birthday month nice and relaxed (I hope). The party is all planned and I’ve sent out Evites but everyday, I seem to find another person I’ve left off because Evite and their address sync system isn’t very good at all. If you haven’t received an Evite in your inbox in the last few days from me, please let me know. I promise it wasn’t on purpose. 😀

I’ve Just Seen A Face

I recently got my CD/DVD Bundle of the Michigan State University Wind Symphony from this past Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic. It was an amazing concert to see in person and I’m enjoying being able to see it again. The camera work is pretty good, too. I wish I had an option to get watch the conductors but that’s just for my personal education. The only thing that annoys me about watching this video is the camera shows the saxes a lot and they sure are a distracting bunch – constantly moving around while they’re playing! I’m all for feeling the music when you play but when it looks like you’re almost coming up off your seat, it’s a bit much. I wonder if they knew they were being video taped or something….

Hey Bulldog

So, UIL didn’t go well. I’ve been pretty upset all week about it but I can’t help what happened so what else can I do? I think the thing I’ve been most upset about is how much the judges comments stung. Their words were pretty harsh and I couldn’t help but take them personally…I even looked online for new jobs for about an hour one day. I have never been made to feel like such a incompetent teacher. I think I’m going to reread the comment sheets and if they really are as harsh as I remember, I’m going to report it to Texas Music Adjudicator’s Association. I don’t care what kind of esteemed college music education professor these folks are, no one should walk away feeling like I did. I’m pretty sure I’m not just throwing myself a pitty party, either. All I know is that as a teacher, I never want to make anyone feel inadequate.

The garden is good. I think I can pull a sweet banana pepper and a jalapeño pretty soon. I think the red bell peppers will be red soon as well. I need to get something to help keep the weight of peppers from making the plants lean. The cherry tomatoes will be ready in a few weeks as well. Yay for eating yummy foods.

This weekend, I worked for Choice Music Events as an Assistant Site Coordinator at Alamo Heights HS. It was one of the easiest things I’ve done. The kids at Alamo Heights are SO nice and they work so hard. They remind me of the kids in our program. I wish we had a nice facility that we could host performances like that. Everyone I worked with was wonderful. I never knew Dick Clardy was so damn fun! He hooked us up before the awards ceremony and we got to ride the Boomerang at Six Flags Fiesta Texas on Saturday afternoon. Talk about a good way to get pumped up before giving away HUGE trophies!! The money for doing all this was pretty sweet as well.

Monica came over and we hung out tonight. I’m really fortunate for my friends. They are such caring, wonderful people. Skip, I’ll call you soon…and if you don’t hear from me soon, call me back again.

Okay, I’m gonna crash out. My back hurts like hell right now. My dad says it (and my overall feeling of sadness) is from all the burdens I’ve been carrying lately. I guess I have been holding myself to some pretty high standards. Not always a bad thing…until they lead to the way I’ve felt this week. But I’ll survive…with all the support I get on a daily basis. 🙂 I just wish the weather was better….

Love you, mean it!
~C