Went With the Wind

Harvey Korman passed away yesterday, and upon hearing this, I was saddened. And then I laughed, because when I hear about him or any of the other cast members of The Carol Burnett Show, I always think about this sketch they did. It's the funniest parody of "Gone With the Wind" I think I've ever seen. Enjoy!

Congratulations Dr. Parker!

I was able to attend my Aunt Jean's dissertation defense today. She did amazingly well, and I'm interested in reading through her research (not just the last chapter, but all of it!). She focused on a qualitative study of the Arkansas Non-traditional Licensure Program and several of its deficiencies. Here are a few photos from the event and a short video of part of the presentation. Congratulations Aunt Jean!

Dr. Lucas, Dr. Biggs, and Dr. Hinton all sat in on the presentation, and Dr. Nafukho joined us by phone.

Jami ran by Rick's this morning and got goodies.

Lots of goodies.

Jean started her presentation.

She did a great job presenting.

Then the questions started.

And the doctors in the room discussed parts of Jean's mammoth dissertation.

Lots of discussion.

And then we waited.

But not very long. Dr. Biggs opened the door and asked Dr. Parker to come back into the room. Yeah! You're now a graduate of the University of Arkansas! Welcome to the club...

And yes, I took this picture!

Attack of the Killer Trucks!

Have you ever had one of those mornings when you wish you could just start over? That was me today. I woke up to a crying cat- his bowl was empty and he was hungry. When I looked at the clock, it was 7:40 AM. I have to be at work at 8:00 AM. Lovely.

Well, I get ready and walk out the door at 7:55 AM, and then proceed to wait in my driveway while the garbage truck, which is blocking the driveway, empties the dumpster. I pull out onto the road and head to the university.

When I get within a tenth of a mile from my office and usual parking area, I realize there are trucks parked all along the road and big orange signs with arrows pointing out a detour route.

Lovely. The tree trimmers have made it even a better day. I follow the arrows and end up behind a flatbed truck who has stopped in the middle of the road, blocking both sides. Since I'm on a side road where lots of people park for free, there's no way to get around this braniac until he moves. So I sit... and wait... and wait some more. Again, lovely. Finally, this pillar of intellectual genius moves his vehicle, letting about seven cars through.

I continue to follow the arrows for the detour, only to see, you're going to love this by the way, a semi on the street at the intersection blocking the way to Dickson St. I cut through the parking lot next to the street, only to come face to face with a Bud Light truck blocking the entrance.

I have never in my life been more frustrated. Eventually the Bud Light guy came out and moved his truck enough to let us by, but after that, my seven minute commute to work turned in to a 27 minute harrowing tour through the side roads of Fayetteville. Needless to say, I was late to work. Lovely.

Memorial Day Weekend 2008

I spent a lot of this weekend with my camera and with Audrie and a few other people, but Audrie was the best subject!

Fathers and Children

Molly and her cigar

Mother and Daughter

Pure delight

Father and Daughter

Absolute joy

Audrie also reached a milestone this past weekend. Rachel posted a video of Audrie rolling over on Sunday, and yesterday, I captured her as well. Yeah Audrie! She'll be crawling in another few weeks!

In honor of all those who have given the ultimate sacrifice for our liberty...

In Flanders Fields

John McCrae (1915)

In Flanders fields the poppies blow

Between the crosses, row on row

That mark our place; and in the sky

The larks, still bravely singing, fly

Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago

We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,

Loved and were loved, and now we lie

In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:

To you from failing hands we throw

The torch; be yours to hold it high.

If ye break faith with us who die

We shall not sleep, though poppies grow

In Flanders fields.

We Shall Keep the Faith

Moina Michael (1918)

Oh! you who sleep in Flanders Fields,

Sleep sweet - to rise anew!

We caught the torch you threw

And holding high, we keep the Faith

With All who died.

We cherish, too, the poppy red

That grows on fields where valor led;

It seems to signal to the skies

That blood of heroes never dies,

But lends a luster to the red

Of the flower that blooms above the dead

In Flanders Fields.

And now the Torch and Poppy Red

We wear in honor of our dead.

Fear not that ye have died for naught;

We'll teach the lesson that ye wrought

In Flanders Fields.

Meet Baby Burrow

I wanted to share a few pictures I snapped of Emily and Ben, and Jim and Momma Burrow, yesterday in the hospital. Both mom and baby are home and doing very well. Momma Burrow is staying with them for a while to help out. She's amazing! Thank for dinner tonight Cindy!

I Heart American Idol...

Especially when my favorite wins! David Cook was announced as the winner of season 7 last night (I posted about him before). My cousin Kayla and I will be travelling to St. Louis in July to see the tour. I've never been to an American Idol tour date, so I'm really excited about this. Probably more excited than I should be...

A New Camera, A New Baby, & A New Friend- All In One Night

I finally broke down and bought the camera I've been looking at since before Christmas. I really needed a new one since my other one was being held together by rubber bands. Here's the one I got, and it's got so many features, I can't even explain them all! I'm going to have to pick Rachel and Kim's brains just to see what it can do.

Last night, I spent several hours at the hospital here in Fayetteville, awaiting the arrival of the newest addition to our non-traditional family. Jim and Emily welcomed Benjamin James at around 9:45 PM. He weighed 7 pounds 4 ounces. I don't know how long he was, but he was a loooong fellow. I was waiting in front of the nursery windows with Jim's parents and his sister as well as Jamie and Rachel. When Jim came out, he brought us pictures to look at. We could see Ben in the nursery, but he was really far away and surrounded by every nurse in there. Congratulations guys!

On my way home, I had encounter of another kind. Saturday on my way home, my right headlight went out. After work yesterday, I stopped by Auto Zone to get a new bulb. The last time this happened, the nice guy behind the counter came out and changed it for me. I wasn't so lucky this time. I happened to get some manager type guy who just kept asking me if there was anything else I needed. When I asked if he could come out and change the bulb for me, he said it would be about thirty minutes, depending on the other customers in the store. Whatever! I went home. I should have stayed. On my way back from the hospital with my new bulb lying on the floor of the passenger side, I met Officer Baker on the side of the road, about a tenth of a mile from my house. My new friend gave me this beautiful piece of paper as a memento of our first meeting. Isn't that nice?

Babies, Singing, and Interviews

Mom and Dad came to see Jean get her doctorate, and they brought Braden AND Landon. It was Landon's first long trip without Jonathan or Melanie. Of course, mom and dad's 4 hour drive here turned into a five and a half hour ordeal with all the stops, but they finally made it. Saturday morning, I volunteered to keep the babies so mom and dad wouldn't have to take them to the ceremony and miss Jean walking on the stage because they were chasing toddlers. I took them to one of the area elementary schools to play on the equipment, and then we went to Sonic. When we got back, Landon went down for a nap, while Braden and I watched Spiderman- his favorite show, by the way. Mom and Dad got back about 11:30, and we all headed over to Jami and Greg's for some grilled shrimp and burgers. Greg has some amazing grilling technique; my burger was amazing, as were the shrimp kabobs, even though the coals were dowsed by a sudden downpour of rain. I had to leave early in order to change and make it to Barnhill for the Engineering Ceremony.

The ceremony went fantastically well. My semi-debut singing outside of church went off seamlessly. Well, almost seamlessly. The National Anthem was spectacular. I wasn't nervous at all, and it was in such a great key, that I didn't really have to worry about too much. I had to wait about two hours before I sang again. By the time it was my turn again, I had become nervous. I don't think it sounded bad, but I think I scared everyone, including myself, when I hit the high note at the end- something I never rehearsed! It just kind of came out; no planning, or nothing. I just hope it doesn't show on my face or in my voice! Hopefully, I'll have video to share with you one day this week.

I had an e-mail yesterday from the principal at Izard County Consolidated. They are looking for a music teacher for their choir program for P-12. Yes, that covers all grades. I have an interview set with them for Friday at 11:00. I don't know how I feel about this. I have never wanted to do any work with Jr. high or high school, and even though this district is very small, it's still very intimidating. Keep me in your prayers. I know there is a place that has been provided for me; I just have to be patient and let God work.

In other news, mom and dad brought me a spare recliner they had at the house. I haven't gotten to sit in it yet because a twenty pound fur ball has taken it as his own...

Getting some me time...

After a long, exhausting day at the office yesterday, I finally made it home and began really preparing for Saturday. The quintet pointed out a phrase that has been played/sung wrong in the "Alma Mater" for years, and since they are perfectionists, they play it correctly. Anyway, I thought the easiest way to re-learn how to sing it would be to notate out the song (write the music down). So I printed off some blank staff paper from here and grabbed my handy dandy pencil and began jotting notes down. I did eventually have to pull out my flute (since I don't have a piano) to work out a section or two. Once I had everything jotted down, I thought about driving to Rachel's to borrow her Finale program. Unfortunately, Rachel only has Finale at school, so I was out of luck anyway. I didn't let that stop me. I just used my Microsoft Publisher to create this: It only took me a little under an hour to do. But once I had everything set up, it was really easy. And then I got to work this morning, and looked up Finale online. Why I didn't do this last night still baffles me, but they have a free download of their NotePad. It does everything that I need it to do, and it was free. I didn't have to pay $600 for the software. So, if you need something to jot down music with, go here and download the program.

Life is Full of Potholes

I've been thinking about this post for a long time. Have you ever seen a pothole in the road? There is one on my way to work that the city keeps filling, and every time it rains, the recent repair work is washed away and the hole gets bigger and worse. Sometimes in our lives, we have potholes, and rather than taking the time to fix them correctly or figure out what is causing them, we try to do a fast repair and ignore the cause, which eventually leads us to some major catastrophe later down the road. I'm just thankful that I have a God who sees the potholes in my life and can help me first get out of it, and then to fix it, really fix it. Just imagine if we had to do it all on our own. That's a very sad existence. Thank you Lord, for being there and being able to repair the holes in my life..

You've Got a Friend

It's Carole King Day in the office (hence the title; it's the song playing right now). Hump Day came off without a hitch. Which is lucky considering how much I had to do yesterday. Work was great; I finished a couple of projects and surprised my boss by having a file saved that he didn't think I would have. Hmm, that should show him! I made it to Praise team in Sprigdale on time, and we ran through one song before I had to skedaddle.

I made it to the Choir Room back on campus right as the tuba player was taking her (yes, her) tuba out of the case. The people in this brass quintet are hilarious! They made me feel really comfortable and even took my suggestions really well. They started playing the Alma Mater really slowly and very pretty. You can't sing it that way. It has to be a little faster. So, I suggested it, and the guy who is singing at the business college graduation looked very thankful. That song takes so much air!

Anyway, they've got a great arrangement of the "Star Spangled Banner" in Eb. Usually it's in F, and can get a little high. Eb lets me not have to worry about going into my break too much (a break is the part of your singing register where you begin having to switch from chest voice to head voice and can cause some not pretty sounds to occur). The horn player told me she hadn't heard someone sing it that well in a long time. Ahh, that made me feel really good.

After rehearsals, I headed over to Jim and Emily's to meet up with them and Jamie, Rachel, and Audrie. In order to celebrate the end of Jim's requirements for residency this term, Jamie and Jim had "Man Day- not Man Morning, not Man Afternoon, not Man Evening, but Man Day." Seriously.

Jim and Em had spent all day cooking Indian food, which was ah-mazing! I always forget how much I like it until I have it (TWSS). After eating a plate full of Indian fare, watching Jason Castro get kicked off American Idol (yeah!), and playing with Audrie (how sweet is she!), I headed back to the house, just before the massive storm decided to descend on Fayetteville. As I was sitting at a stop light on my way home, I noticed a spider crawling across the hood of my car. It was rather large; I could see it so that counts for rather large. It then ran up my windshield, and I really started getting uncomfortable (I don't like spiders). It proceeded to run to my window, and there I noticed ANOTHER spider. Two spiders less than six inches from my head. I was not a happy camper. Well, when the light changed, I tried to go as fast as I could to knock them off. It was then that a pelting rain began and completely obliterated them. Yeah!

So, as long as I don't get sick and get enough rest, Saturday should go off without a hitch too! I'm getting really excited about it. I just hope that I don't psych myself out and get all nervous and pinched sounding. I really want to impress all these people... and not look like a fool!

Art-tastic

One of the programs on my computer lets me download pictures for my desktop and gives you the option of puchasing a print of the picture. I've always enjoyed art that has bright, vivid colors, usually landscapes or some kind of activity. Well I found a new favorite, and I ordered a print. I can't wait for it to come in. It's called Paris Walk and it's by an artist named Ken Shotwell. I don't know much about him, yet, but he's done some other pictures of Paris that I may have to get. I'll let you know if the picture was worth it.

Hump Day

This day has started out not so well today. Last night on my trek back from "The Cave" (aka, Jamie and Rachel's house in Cave Springs from our excursion to Mel & Brian's house for some amazing home-made quesadillas), I hit my brake a little hard at a stop light which caused my oil light to come on. Now, I've been meaning to get my oil changed for the last month, but when have I had time? So this morning, I decided I would make time. I got up early and headed over to Wal-Mart, pulled into the Lube Lane, and waited for the horribly slow woman to come take my information. I'm always amazed to see the different people who work in the Tire & Lube Express. One of my friends, Jeff, manages (I think) a TLE in Bentonville, and always has amazing stories about his co-workers. Anyway, there was no one waiting for an oil change and there was only one other car in the garage getting tires, and I counted no less than five guys in the garage doing nothing. I thought to myself, this should be really quick. Boo-yah!

An hour later I hear my name over the loud speaker. An hour later. Seriously, an hour later. Sixty minutes. Thirty-six hundred seconds. Seriously.

How long does it take to change the oil in a car, change the filter, add some fluids, and vacuum out the floorboards? Not an hour. And what did I do with my hour of time that I could never get back? I shopped. The office needed some sugar for the coffee room, and then I did the unthinkable. I shopped for a swimsuit! NO! Say it isn't so! Eh, it wasn't too painful yet. I didn't try it on. That's waiting for me at home when I feel like demeaning myself enough to try it on. I did get a new book I'm going to start reading. More on that later.

So, after my eventful morning, I'm going to have an eventful evening. I have Praise Team practice at 6:00 PM, dress rehearsal with the brass quintet for Saturday at 6:45 PM, and possible dinner at the Burrow house at 7:30 PM. At least my house is clean and I don't have to worry about that when the parentals come up on Friday!

Greenbrier Update

Well, my interview was scheduled for 10:00 AM. When I got there, they were running about twenty minutes late. The interview finally started at 10:17, and I wasn't expecting too much since the girl they interviewed before me was only in there for like 10 minutes. I was introduced to everyone, and we began.

There were a lot of standard questions (tell us about yourself, why music education, how do you handle discipline in class, etc.), but there were also a few surprises. They picked a lesson plan from my portfolio and asked me to modify it for a special needs student. Easy; my mom deals with that everyday, so I've been around it for a while. Next, how do you deal with a parent that's too involved. Simple; state my boundaries, and when they are crossed and only when they are crossed do I call in the principal to intervene. The last surprise question would have caught me off guard had I not heard the two previous interviews- sing us a song that you would use as a part of a lesson and tell us how you would form the lesson using the national standards. Whew; luckily I had reviewed my national standards and spouted them out like they were something I quoted every day. Boo-yah!

At the end of the interview, all the people present told me that I gave a great interview and they were very impressed with my interview and the portfolio packet that I sent. I went out the door smiling. Needless to say, that smile faded a little bit about an hour and a half after I left. The principal called me and said that they had offered the position to another person, but that had that person not accepted, I was their second choice. At least she had the politeness to call and let me know.

Oh well, have a margarita on me and celebrate Cinco de Mayo!

The Martians Have Landed!

I had visitors today. Not the kind that are green and slimey, but two sweaty but not stinky visitors. I was having a rough day. It was the last day of classes, so all the seniors were freaking out because their final project papers were due and their presentations began at 5:00 PM. So, the mad dash to print 150+ page documents was well underway, when I looked out in the hallway into the lens of a camera. Rachel was on campus for a luncheon for all the past cooperating teachers with the music intern program. After the luncheon, she and Audrie stopped by. It was great to have them there- a great big spot of sunshine in my day! Rachel took a few pictures too...

This is the building where I work. I love this entrance, by the way.

It was a crazy, hectic day, but it is finally over!

Me and Audrie. Isn't she adorable? The baby, I mean....