GHS Marching Show

U of I Marching Competition

For marching band this is the big kahuna of competitions for the season. It's also the last one so it's a big deal for the band. Many families make this a big event & travel over to Champaign for the day. We decided to follow suit & made the trip over to watch & support, not only Angel, but the GHS band.


Angel after competition:
Family picture: We took a break & spent some time away from the competition. Jim has a friend who is a student there so he gave us a nice tour of the campus - or at least part of it, because it's a really big area. Another family picture - cause mom is such a picture freak. They'll thank me some day, I'm sure.

While we were waiting for the above picture to happen I got this shot of Jim & Angel. They were actually kinda goofing off, but I love how it turned out. John was in total awe of the football field. He is insistent that he WILL play football for U of I. Which, you know, totally breaks my heart cause that I does not stand for Iowa, but Illinois. He talked non stop about playing college ball & how he's gonna get there, etc. I think if he could have signed a letter of intent that day he would have.
Who knows, the sky is the limit. If that is what he pursues and life takes him that way, then great. I can & will support where ever my son goes in life, whether it be college or beyond. I love the idea of him playing for a Big Ten college. I'll just double my prayers that IA & IL don't play against each other for those 4 years of his career.
Until that moment though, until I absolutely "HAVE" to....sorry, I'm not cheering for them Illini. When we were waiting for the band results they U of I marching band performed for us. I'll admit they have an amazing band. Aside from other musical arrangements their main show was selections from Bizet's opera Carmen. So I double enjoyed that. In the end the announcer comes on, gets the crowd in a roar and encourages us all to stand up for the Illini fight song. In an act of teasing protest I sat in my seat with my arms crossed. Jim egged me on..."oh come on Carmen, join in with the spirit!" I told him I have some standards and until MY son is coming out onto that field I will not be a "fan".
PC: Fall bloosoms

OUCH!

I had plans to blog about other things. Happy things. But I'm really wanting to crawl into bed with a warm cup of soup and just snuggle for the evening. I'm not sick. Didn't have any major physical operations or something drastic. No, I had dental work done today. More specifically a root canal. My first ever in my life. I knoooooow! Poor Carmen! (just amuse me here and pour the pity on, ok ?!?!)

This all started over a year ago when I had a previous filling fall out. Doing the total mom thing I just let it go. It wasn't bothering me. Besides the kids all needed to see the dentist & have work done. I put myself on the bottom of the see the dentist list and that was that. Recently though, I was starting to have some pain. Now, I have a pretty high pain tolerance (hello, six natural child births might be your first clue). But this pain was really hitting hard. It was difficult to get to sleep at night. I would wake up at odd hours of the night with throbbing pain. It just plain hurt. I knew this was getting serious so I finally went to the dentist & started to get this taken care of. And the rest is history, right?!?! I wish.

I have a random tendency to resist novocane. Some times I respond to it just fine, other times not. This was a not kind of day. I took 3 shots of novocane & could still feel things just a little bit. It wasn't earth shattering pain, but I could feel it. I had to bear down and let the dentist open the tooth & get all the way down to the root. Once he was in there he had to directly inject the needle & novocane into the nerve. (you are either shrieking & shuttering or giving me some more "poooooor Carmens"). Once we got past all of that it really was completely painless. My dentist is a gem. He did a great job taking his time & working through this process with me.

Now, I'm at home though. Drooling & talking all funny. I tried having a conversation with Jim & he kept grinning at me. He did TRY and be all serious. But, come on, this is Jim we're talking about. I appreciate his sense of humor to help me laugh through my misery. As this novocane wears off more & more....I'm gonna need it!

Potpourri of posts aka catch up

So I'm really behind on my blogging. It's happened before and I bet will happen again. Some of it is from me just not getting it done. Other stuff just got skipped over so I could blog about something else. So here is a catch up from early September until last week. My words will be few & I'll let the pics do most of the talking. I love capturing our lives via pictures anyway, so here I go.

Labor Day weekend was Angel's 15th birthday. We went on an impromptu get away & had some great family time together.


PC: The mighty Mississippi. Some may argue that I was standing in the greatest state while I took this pic. I would argue that I was taking a picture of the greatest state ever. Either way, just like this picture, in my life & heart there is a bridge that connects those two great states.


Later that weekend we had our annual church picnic out at the church camp grounds. There were many people baptized and it quite a blessed event. I kept trying to capture that moment when the person was being brought back up & into their new self, but my timing was always off. Later as I looked at these pics though what came to mind though was reflections of Jesus, which is how I would describe my pastor in this picture.


Galesburg in known for it's annual Stearman Flyin. Since we live on the west end of town, which is the same area of the airport, we get a first hand view of the many planes that take off & do stunts/formations through out the week. I took a up close & personal trip with Carmen & Andrew to tour the airport.


We got very close to the airplanes, but couldn't actually touch any. Kids were still thrilled anyway. Our friend Lily also went along for the tour.




Since Angel's birthday is around Labor Day her birthday party is always pushed back a week or two. Her friend, Tori (on the right) has a birthday just a few days later, so they decided to celebrate together since they share a lot of the same friends.






I feel a little bad because Mandy's cross country deserves it's own post, yet I've put it off far too long. Cross Country has been over for weeks and I still didn't get it done. So here it is though. Mandy had a great year on the team. Her time fluctuated quite a bit, but when she buckled down & ran hard she would turn out times that were 3 - 3:30 minutes faster than her norm. We are very proud of her for her dedication & effort she puts into the sport.

Here she is in the middle:


At the start of a race, she is in the back right corner:


Finishing strong:


Spent plenty of time out at Lake Storey. Jim & John found these huge mushrooms while roaming through the woods. By time Jim did his research on this great fungus & realized they were good to eat, they had already gone bad. Awww, shucks.....(no real heartbreak from this blogger)


Homecoming was a few weeks ago. I did blog about that. Here are some pictures. Angel in the parade:


Angel went to the dance with some girlfriends. They are such a great group of friends & they had a great time!


My baby girl....sniff....sniff. Side note though, the dress she is wearing I bought & wore for Halloween last year when I was an 80's prom girl. It looks much better on her. The whole weekend cost her $20. And yet, she looks like a million dollars!!


I just love though, how they are still just kids at heart. In just a few short years they will be forced to be adults and......oh.....my.....I need to grab a tissue......


I did blog about John's football. Here are the final pictures of the last game.


My dad was able to drive over for this game. He never had a son to watch play football, so he does his best with his grandsons.

Flashback Fridays

I need to hurry. Pretty soon the rest of the kids will be dashing in the backdoor and we are taking off right away to get to the homecoming parade. Yes, it is homecoming week for Galesburg High School. We've always gone down to the parade. Now that we actually have a high schooler though, all of this takes on a whole new meaning. So what better topic to flashback to than previous homecomings.

I actually only have 1 homecoming documented in my vast library of pictures. It really wasn't a big deal when I was in high school. Well, it was to me, but because of my upbringing it was really downplayed. I was never....NEVER....allowed to go to the homecoming dance. I was certainly not going to be allowed to participate in such heathenistic and morally corrupt behavior. Ok, whatever. Regardless of my parents child raising decisions I managed to grow up unscathed from the whole situation. I'm ok. Really.

So my senior year was my best year when it comes to homecoming. It was the only year that I participated in creating the class float. Could have been because I was a class officer and it was highly favored that we do this. I remember, though that it was a great week getting the task done. Here is part of the float (if you look VERY close you can see my name on the mid left corner of the sign):
There is the homecoming parade too. Normally we had to be completely suited up and "professional" when playing in the band. For only the homecoming parade we were allowed to literally let our hair down and have some fun.

I think I could write forever about homecoming. As of now, though, all the kids are home and we need to get to the parade. Angel is marching in the band. We have to game tonight where she will also perform with the Gadets & the band. I feel so rushed, but it's just that kind of day. Have a great weekend everyone!!

It's the little things....

Football season is still in full action around the Peterson household. We are in the playoff section. We made it through the first round with no problem. Last week we played a team that had previously beaten us. Just like the first game, it was close....but this time we WON!!!! We have a little mixed emotions on this. On one hand we are ready for this activity, more specifically this time commitment, to be over. Yet, we are so very excited that we are advancing another week into the play offs.

Last week Jim had the privilege to be part of the chain gang. You would of thought he was being asked down on the field to represent the real Chicago Bears with the way he reacted as he hopped, skipped & jumped down onto the field. Later he revealed how much he really, REALLY enjoyed being down there & right in on the action. It seems like such a simple job, but in true Jim fashion he takes pride in any job he is asked to do.




In addition to being a tight end for his football team, John is the official tee retriever during the game. You might not think of this little detail, but it's quite important. John is quick to get on & off the field with this teeny piece of equipment. Like his father, John takes pride in this little, but worthy job.




PC ~~~~ harvest sunset

Flash Back Fridays

Last week I had to give our cat Bella a bath. She is such a sweet loving cat and has been very ideal for what we were looking for when we adopted her. Despite her sweetness she was getting dirty and looked like she could use a good cleaning. We had also been fighting fleas with our dog Martina so I thought it wouldn't hurt to get her cleaned & protected too.

What started out as our sweet lovin' kitty, turned into a complete demon frenzied feline. That might be putting it nicely too. It's no big secret that cats do not like water. I expected some resistance. But, man oh man, did she put up a fight. I am surprised I didn't break any of her limbs with the amount of pressure I had to apply to keep her contained in my arms. It came at a price though. Even though she has no front claws, she made good use of her back claws on me. And she is also quite skilled at sinking her teeth into any meat/flesh bearing parts of the body (in this case my upper tricep). Who knew? NOT ME!

I was determined though to see this process through. I AM the master after all. I'm glad that I did because I did find a few fleas on her. And her coat of fur looked so much cleaner & shiny-er when it was all said & done. She didn't speak to me for quite sometime. I got several glares & looks of death from her. I know she doesn't realize it, but she should be giving me a big thank you! : )

I couldn't help but snap a picture of her. There is something funny about the look of a drowned rat....I mean, cat. You just gotta love the look of despise they give you as they are dripping wet.


For my Flash Back Friday I went & looked for some pictures of another set of cats that we gave a bath to. Back in 1997 we had Kaki, Sampson & Goliath. We had just adopted Sampson & Goliath from the pound and they were flea infested. They quickly spread to Kaki (the cat we had had since '94) so they all needed a cleaning. We can't help but get a chuckle out of the looks on their face as we further humiliate them by snapping a picture of their complete misery.