In case y’all haven’t heard, I’m supposed to start working on Monday. Oh no–back to the grindstone!
Actually, I’m in awe that I do have a new job to go to. I’ll be doing desktop support at one of Aflac’s call centers. It’s a job! And I keep hearing that it’s a great place to work. I will just be happy to have an income again!
Thanks for all of your prayers and support!
(Ha! For those of you with Fine Arts Festival experience, you may realize that title is a bit of a joke.)
This weekend Alex participated in the Foreign Language Fair as hosted by our public school system. He was one of the entries in the instrumental music category. He played an arrangement of “La Bamba” and won the category!
Before he played, he was asked which language and what level. I started laughing–he’s playing! This is the language of music, people!
As usual, we were late leaving the house and so we had no cameras with which to record the event. (At least there’s no blackmail material.)
But that’s OK–Alex was more interested in the airplanes flying overhead as part of the local airshow.
Let’s just hope his Spanish teacher really does give him those extra credit points!
Here’s another note about the Fine Arts Festival results. There were five (six?) entries in the Instrumental Wind/Brass category, including both our son Alex (doubling on flugelhorn and trumpet) and our daughter Cassie (on trombone). All five received Superiors with Invitations to the National Festival.
Before the festival last year, Cassie claimed she would get an invitation to Nationals. We weren’t too sure, but she made it.
You may recall that Alex was the Merit Award winner last year. Well, Cassie had claimed she would win it this year–and she did!
That’s right, our second-year trombone player had the highest score, beating out big brother.
I have nothing else to say about that.
In case y’all haven’t heard, some pretty rough storms rode through parts of Alabama and Georgia on Thursday, March 1st. Thanks to the Lord, we are all safe and doing well. The tornado watch had been up for the most of the day. At some point after-school activities were cancelled, but schools remained open. Cassie & Carlie had something at church, and we hadn’t been able to find out if it had been canceled. And since I hadn’t gone grocery shopping this week, we headed out just before 6pm Eastern time.
(For details on the following see the map at http://maps.live.com/?v=2&cid=BF5DB2C702AFED1F!292.)
We stopped at McDonald’s (#1) to get the girls some dinner. After dropping them off at church (#2) the rest of us went to eat. I had wanted to try something different, and was thinking about Cricket’s Too (#3), but Alysia (my wise wife) had suggested Smokey Bones (#4) instead. (Hey–we had a gift card!) Just as we pulled into the parking lot the weather alert sirens began wailing. Well, it seemed the only thing to do then was go on into the restaurant. It wouldn’t have been any safer in the car, for sure.
After placing our drink order, the weather got really bad. As the windows began rattling, I began to get a little worried. Not wanting to faint in front of the women (hahaha!), I tried instead to settle Alysia’s fears and we moved away from the windows. Presently the staff had us move into the bathrooms and kitchen. Slowly we all lost cell phone service. [Insert dramatic sound effects here.] After a few minutes folks began meandering back to their tables, and sure enough, the weather had calmed down.
Someone was smart enough to turn on local channels on the restaurant’s TVs for news coverage. We soon heard that a McDonald’s restaurant was destroyed. The news reported that the Eckerd’s (#5) was destroyed. (See local news story.)
Heading back to the church about 7:30pm, traffic was backed up along Veterans Parkway north of our location. We noticed the Krispy Kreme (#6), McAlister’s (#7), and other signs were damaged. Many traffic signals and businesses were without power as we traveled south along Veterans Parkway. At one point the only lights we could see were the cross and steeple at our church. (-:
But thanks to the Columbus Police department we made it safely back to the church–where the girls were perfectly fine! In fact, they were probably safer there due to the construction of the building and its location.
While at the church Ashley heard that someone’s trampoline was 20 feet up in a tree. That was in the Maple Ridge sub-division (#8), which is very close to Alex’s school, Shaw High School (#9). Power outages were spotty along our route home, but the airport’s lights were OK. (I know for some of us it was very reassuring to see that rotating beacon brightly shining above a darkened landscape.)
As we drove into our neigborhood we saw the power go out. At home (#10) everything was OK except for the power. Of course the first thing Ashley did was check on our trampoline. lol!
The power did come back on, and we got to see a little of American Idol. But as soon as our cousin Kellie Pickler (one of the contestants from last year) began chatting with Ryan Secrest, the local station went to another severe weather update. We learned that bad storms had crossed into Georgia from the Eufaula, AL, area. We were safe, but there were others who were not.
Shortly after we got back to Idol, the local station went off the air. At first we thought we had lost cable TV service, but it was just that channel. ARRGH! Never fear–they’re going to air Idol again tonight. Woohoo! Too bad we won’t be at home. Guess I better set the recorder. (Mawmaw kept us up-to-the-minute as much as she could, but we still don’t know which guy was the first one cut.) [Update: Oh! It was Nick. Hmmm…www.DialIdol.com isn’t doing too well this year.]
We soon lost power again, but it came back on…must’ve been around 2:20am. We may never get any of that white stuff, but it doesn’t mean weather isn’t a factor. It looks like school is out for the weekend! (www.mcsdga.net) Woohoo!
Alex, Cassie, and Carlie are involved in Fine Arts Festival this weekend. Life goes on in a big way when you’ve got four kids.
Thank you Lord, for keeping us safe
Has it really been five months since my last post? That’s just crazy. Well, let’s see…we’ve had Christmas, New Years, birthdays for both my brother and sister, and the Fine Arts Festival for the Georgia District Assemblies of God. Wow! What a five months!
I’ve been out of full time work since the end of December, when the contract at National Gypsum ran out. I’m getting close to having something in Columbus, and we’re praying that it works out. Meanwhile I’ve been keeping busy washing dishes, washing towels, grocery shopping, and helping with technical duties at church. That alone is plenty! In fact, I’m not sure I want to go back to full time work! lol
This weekend was Fine Arts Festival in Georgia. Thankfully, it was again held here in Columbus. But the day before was the day of the tornado here in Columbus. (More on both of those in other posts.)
Later!