So, being elected to Secretary of IAJE, Texas is proving to be quite a positive for me and my school. Thursday’s Williamson County edition of the Austin American Statesman is going to run an article about my jazz program at SPHS. Some of the details are incorrect (Tiger Tunes Tuesdays have nothing to do with jazz band) but still, it’s a positive plug for what we’re doing at SPHS and that’s what matters. So, you can read the article here. You may have to sign up to read it but you don’t have to subscribe to any newsletters or pay for anything. Cool, huh?
Category: A Better Me
Dogs, cats, dressers and boxes.
A lot has been going on lately. Thank goodness it’s summer and I’m a teacher and no year around school. First, my friend Ken has moved back from D.C. (YAY!!) and has been living with me since I got done with Tx State Band Camp a few weeks ago. Wow, it’s actually almost been a month now. Anywho, he and his beautiful chocolate labs have helped fill my home and my time since I have had some off.
The last few summers, the Stony Point Band Staff has worked very hard in establishing some well needed order and clear procedures and thank goodness for that. Now that we have some order and procedures set up, we can take some well deserved time off to do other things and (God forbid) have a life of our own. I was thinking about trying to take a vacation this summer but decided to work on fixing up my house so it really feels like a home.
In my 34 years of life, I have moved just under 20 times (18, actually, if I’m not mistaken) so a lot of stuff has lived in boxes for some time. My college furniture has also taken a beating and being a big girl, I’ve been ready for some “real” furniture. Earlier this year, I bought a bed and now, I’ve bought a dresser as well. Being as it is also from IKEA (their stuff just suits my life, I guess), I had to assemble it. Ken and the dogs helped. 🙂
How many bits and pieces does this thing have?
Tonka wants to count them all. Maybe eat few, too.
Parts get sorted, instructions get “read” (there are very few words in an IKEA instruction manual).
One side on.
Middle in.
Tonka supervises.
This takes the utmost in concentration, you know.
We’re almost there!
Drawers are done, too.
It’s all done and in place. Tonka, you did a great job!!
I’ve also built those garden boxes I talked about a few posts ago. We actually built one box before we started taking pictures. That was a good thing because we actually had to abandon the project for a few days mid-first box thanks to all the rain. If you notice, we used the first box as a platform for the second box pieces to be elevated on as we built it. Boy, did that makes things a whole lot easier.
So, we get the work station all setup. Notice how some of the tools are in the sun? Bad idea.
First thing we did was get all the corner posts connected to the 4 ft. pieces.
Once we get that done, we get our 5 ft. pieces connected to the 4 ft. pieces. The final piece is so much easier to put on if you stand the box up on end and drill down. I was a little too short to get any leverage on the drill so my friend Ken did that part.
Boxes all done! Now, it’s play time for the cats & dogs!
Stanley’s going to stay away from the dogs. He’s not a fan of them, yet.
Ken’s an awesome helper.
My friend Ken, that you see in these pictures, is staying with me until he gets himself set up in San Marcos. We’ve been friends since our freshman year in college and he moved to DC several years ago. We got together almost every year for the BOA/State Marching Band contest extravaganza weekend and before he moved away, we used to go to a bunch of winterguard shows together. Now that he’s back, I’m sure I’ll be back to making the rounds to the winterguard shows. I’m excited that he’s back! So, he and his beautiful dogs will be staying with me and my cats until the first of September. It’s been great having such a full house and a helper with chores. I’m hoping the cats will learn from his example and start helping me around the house some. 😉
An ex-student’s plight
One of my ex-students is going to Baylor and has applied for a special scholarship. As part of this application process, he had to create a video and it has to be voted on as the best video in this competition and he gets the scholarship. He’s currently in 2nd place and is 1/10th of a star away from 1st…and 5th. Would you mind going online and voting 5 stars for him? The voting ends tonight at 10:59 pm central time. Thanks.
Dang it.
I was going to blog about a bunch of stuff today but I didn’t get much sleep last night and I can’t seem to focus on anything long enough today. I might go take a nap…maybe I can complete that one task.
I will say that if you follow my Twitter, you’ll see that I’ve started my garden boxes and have the first one almost complete. The cedar planks that came in are beautiful and smell so nice. With all the wood ordered and cut to size, I ended up having 2 two-foot planks left over so I might make a bench or table for the back yard with them. This building thing is so much fun!!
Backyard Project #1
Even though I watch LOTS of home improvement shows, I don’t think I’ve actually seen this episode. I’ve just always a vegetable garden so when I GoodSearched this, the option of a raised vegetable garden came up. What a great idea! It’ll keep the garden neat and easily accessible. So today, I went to Home Depot to price out or even get the lumber. After asking around and talking to a few specialists, I ended up ordering 2 planks of 2X12X8 and 2 planks of 2X12X12 in cedar. $145 for 4 planks of wood! That’s not even the corner posts, hardware, all the dirt or even plants, either. Thank goodness for giftcards! Regardless, I’m excited about getting it done. The wood should be in around June 24th so next week, I’ve got stuff to do. I’m going to build two 4X5 boxes filled with herbs and veggies. I know this isn’t the best planting times but being a band director, summer’s all I have for time.
Benford's Musings 
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