Drumline Video

Remember, it's the first semi-public runthrough of the season, and nearly half are rookies. Enjoy!

Drumline Runthrough

Last night we were treated to a runthrough of the drumline's first two numbers. Boy, they've got Chris running around the floor like a madman! I'll try to get video compressed and uploaded so you can see for yourself.

Samantha also had a great day yesterday. She got the results of an ACT college prep/career test and scored in the top one percent in the nation on several subjects. The test also told her her best career choices were writing and music, the two things she wants to double major in. And she was further excited by the fact that she signs up for high school classes in the next couple of weeks.

The other big news for her is that they decided on the Jazz Band's spring trip. Atlanta, Georgia!!! Sam's psyched, especially if the tour includes The World of Coca-Cola.

Happy Thoughts

It's amazing how much things have changed around here without Pixel. She ruled the roost, and it's left poor Dusty confused. She leads me around the house meowing as if she's trying to find Pixel. The other cats are pretty much clueless.

Anyway, I wanted to share some exciting news on the music front. Chris's band (soon to be Sam's too) is already looking ahead to next fall. It sounds like they'll be traveling to Indianapolis to play either the last game at the Colts' old stadium, or the first game at their new stadium. The even bigger news is they're applying to play in the Rose Bowl Parade!!! Better start saving our pennies...

Sam's Jazz Band director still hasn't leaked where they're going this spring. Ugh. But CJ's drumline travels to Alabama this Saturday for its first competition. We have a parent night tonight, and a basketball halftime performance on Thursday night. I'll try to get the show up on YouTube for you to see. Drumline practices are top-secret, so I have no idea what to expect. But since the instructor consistantly led the band to first place percussion awards during marching season, it's bound to be good.

Sam continues to battle one bug after another while the rest of us remain healthy. Doctors speculate there's something wrong with her immune system, but they can't pin a name to it. She's like a germ magnet, the poor kid.

Wayne's got a major push for a product deployment, so he's been working a lot of extra hours.

As for me, I'm kinda lost without having Pixel to care for. Guess I'd better start writing again...

In Loving Memory of Pixel...

It is with heavy hearts that we announce the passing of Pixel. She fought her kidney failure battle with everything she had. Wayne and I constantly debated the "is it time" issue, but this morning there was no debate. Pixel let her feelings be known.

While normally I wouldn't go into details about something like this, the story is just too amazing not to share. It was as if Pixel knew how agonizing the decision to euthanize her was to us. After lapping up some water, she walked over to her cat carrier and meowed. Wayne asked her if she was trying to tell us something. While we cried, the cat went over to get more water, which she promptly vomitted up.

Seeing her discomfort, I went over to the carrier to open the door as an experiment. So help me, the cat put herself in there as if to say, "It's time." With tears running down his cheeks, Wayne called the vet and made the arrangements. Within a half hour, Pixel found peace.

We miss her terribly, but deep in my heart I know we did the right thing. It wasn't easy. Things like that never are. But Pixel gave us the ultimate gift. In addition to 18 years of love, she freed us from the weight of deciding when it was her time to go.

Pixel/PC/Pickles, we love you and will miss you more than you will ever know...

Pixel, Our 18-Year-Old Child

Adopting each and every one of our feline and canine friends brought us great joy. Pictured above is Pixel, a cat we adopted in 1990 before we were married or had our human kids. She was standoffish in her early years, but later chose Wayne as her person. She'd sleep with him every night. Wayne would hug her much like a child would hug his teddy bear. In tribute, he coined the term "teddy catting".

While our four-legged family members give us great joy and companionship, the time inevitably comes when they get old. Like us, they may get senile or grumpy. Unfortunately, Pixel added another item to her list. Kidney failure.

Dr. Johnson says she's working with maybe half a kidney, and he has no idea how much time she has left. And this is not a disease where one can let nature take its course. Doing so would be cruel and hurtful. So every day, Wayne and I find ourselves in the gut-wrenching position of asking ourselves--and each other--is it time?

Like anyone, Pixel has good days and bad. She spends a lot of her time curled up asleep on a chenille blanket nest on our loveseat in the great room. That way she knows exactly where everyone is. She has me trained well, too. One look, and I'm headed to the kitchen to prepare her soft prescription food (not much of which gets eaten) and turn the faucet to drip so she can drink from it.

She's doing too well for us to let her go, but not well enough for her to lead a normal life. It hurts to watch her struggle, and I find myself crying at the strangest times. Maybe to some she's "just a cat", but to us, she's a living tribute to a time in our lives when everything good and important came together.

Lately I've been reminded of repeated arguments I had with the nuns and fathers in Catholic school. I used to ask them if cats went to heaven. When they told me no, I'd challenge them to the hilt. I think they were stunned when their perfect student got in their faces a bit (laughs). But in any case, I believe our animal friends DO make it to heaven. They stand a far better chance than many humans I've met! And while I find myself wondering why I repeatedly put myself through losing a pet friend, I know deep down that I'll never be able to live without having at least one in my life.

Back in Action

All that remains of Christmas at our house are the memories and the photographs. That's right, for once in our lives we actually have the tree and all the lights down before the kids return to school from winter break. Sam packed up the ornaments, garland and tree lights while Chris did the wreath, garland on the staircase and outside lights. Getting the tree out of the house and to the curb required teamwork, but it got done. It's sad to see the festive decorations go, but now it's on to Drumline, Jazz Band, band trips, and Sam's registration for high school. Hard to believe they're that old already. Guess that means I'm old, too (laughs)!

Sam's doing really well with physical therapy. So well she has her last session on January 25. The knee and back behave a lot of the time, but stormy weather still makes her feel achy. Since we have severe weather tomorrow and Tuesday, you can imagine how she's feeling about now. I'm with her all the way. Yuck.

Wayne and I have both rejoined the romance book review blog we did last year on Harlequin's web site. I've discovered the author Debbie Macomber and can't seem to get enough of her books. She's been a bestselling author for years, but I had never read her for some reason. I like her sense of humor and the absence of huge, pretentious words and graphic sex scenes. I bought a huge assortment of her books off eBay, so I'll be reviewing those for the most part. Well those and the occasional James Patterson books which I dearly love. I think I have a Mary Higgins Clark book in my to-be-read pile, too.

Anyway, it's off to make dinner. We're all going to have a miserable time getting up at 5 a.m. in the morning after the long break. I think it's inhumane for school to start at 7 a.m. and the bus to come at 6 a.m., but what do I know? I've never been much of a morning person anyway. Noon is my wake-up time of choice (laughs)!

Wow, It's Been a While...

How time gets away from a person over the holidays... First off, Happy New Year! I hope everyone had a safe and happy holiday season. With the kids home from school until the 7th, I find that not much gets done around here. Monopoly is a favorite holiday pastime. We play it often while everyone's home. We recently discovered a Mega Monopoly edition which is a total blast. I won two games and Wayne won two, keeping our parent track record alive.

Of course we also spent time playing with Christmas presents. We played the new Game of Life Twists and Turns edition until we nearly wore out the electronic LifePod. It was so much fun. Turns out I was lucky to get that and Monopoly Electronic Edition for $20 each. Apparently there was a shortage and people were getting close to $100 for them on eBay! Monopoly just isn't the same without handling the money, so that one was a let-down. We'll have to give it another try though.

But perhaps the funnest--and scariest--game was Samantha's Karaoke Revolution Presents American Idol for Playstation 2. Oh my God, I haven't had that much fun in a good while! It analyzes your voice pitch and rhythm to 40 different songs in American Idol fashion, and after each performance Simon, Randy, and Laura (I guess Paula was on the sauce or something when they made the game, laughs) rate you. I was discouraged after my first song when Simon said my performance was worse than three days in bed with the flu and Randy said I was hurting everyone with my voice, but I pushed on, eventually getting compliments from all judges and helping Sam unlock more songs and player clothes, hairstyles, etc. CJ belted out Elvis's "I Can't Help Falling in Love with You" and sounded just like my grandma Anna Banana (a.k.a. "Justagramma"). Sam got into Pussycat Dolls and Nickelback, while I sang the oldies from Elton John, Whitney Houston and, heaven help me, the Captain and Tenille. Sooo much fun!!!! I've already been eBaying more games to add to our collection, and American Idol Encore Edition comes out February 8. Yea!!!!!!!!

Anyway, the photo above shows the kids and I with some gift cards we got from a close friend back east, Julie Smith, who also played piano at our wedding. And yes, Sam's wearing antlers. They light up, too!