Baby It's Cold Outside

And inside according to Pixel. I felt so sorry for the 17+ year-old cat that I bought her this cute little chenille sweater. See how happy she is (laughs)? I vowed I'd never dress a cat in clothes, but she looked so pathetic burrowing under the covers by herself.

It literally went from highs of 94 to highs of 49 in less than a week. Gee, sounds like South Dakota. The land of infinite variety.

Vanderbilt Marching Invitational

Watch Houston High's Chancellor Cup-winning perfomance as recorded by the group that's producing DVD's of the competition.

Equal Time

Since Chris has been in the spotlight so much lately, I finally decided to get one of Sam's flag videos online. Please excuse any narrative (laughs). One of the girls took Sam's flag, forcing her to improvise a bit. The poor kid was a wreck. She really enjoyed doing guard, but her arthritis and fibromyalgia forced her to give it up this year. Hopefully she can return to it in high school since marching with a bari sax isn't usually an option for girls because of the instrument's weight.

Anyway, enjoy the very Sam-focused video. In cases like that, the camcorder serves as my second set of eyes, so that's the only way I can see her perform.

Scorin' at Senatobia

What a weekend for Chris and the Houston Marching Band! CJ has been working overtime to make up for the fact that he didn't march in middle school like some of the other kids did. His hard work paid off big-time. He was chosen as the band's most improved freshman, and as a result was asked to join the group accepting trophies at the Senatobia Mississippi contest. The top picture shows Chris and the group with the first of their trophies. The bottom one shows them mugging it for the camera with their FOURTH grand champion trophy of the year! Go Mustangs!

I did take video of this performance and will be uploading it once I edit and compress the file.

We are the Champions!

Just in...the Houston High School Marching Band took home the Chancellor's Cup at the Vanderbilt Marching Invitational in Nashville yesterday. We enjoyed being on site for the boisterous cheering and wild celebrating. More to come...

Oh What a Night!

After leaving at 8 a.m., the band returned at 2 a.m. with a whopping FOURTEEN trophies. Granted they attended two competitions, but that's still a lot. You should have heard the partying on the bus when Chris called to tell us the news. They're an amazing group.

This weekend it's off to Vanderbilt in Nashville. We've decided to take the parent bus to get the full experience. The group has preordered a block of seats, and we get to hold professionally made signs. I can't wait! Watching them really makes me miss my old marching band days in high school and college...

Oh, and don't you love the wind catcher on the front of the band's semi? Haulin' brass! Ya gotta love it.