Today's project

Today I made Jacob something to collect all that candy in! Yummmm - mommy and daddy will have to help him eat it all.

Band Stuff

Saturday we all went to Warner Robins to hear Hank's band perform at competition. Hank rode the bus with the kids and Jacob and I followed in a big caravan for the 2 hour trek. It was a beautiful day and we really had fun. This is the only picture I took. After the performance the kids "circle up" around until they are all in a spiral around Hank. It's pretty fun to watch and they have fun doing it. As you can see, little man Jacob was right there with his daddy having a great time :) The band got a "2" but they did improve from their last competition a few weeks earlier. There was disappointment but it gave Hank an opportunity to teach them about doing your best and dealing with disappointment I think it was hard on the kids because the crowd LOVED the show. Since this was the last competition, Hank gets to wind down his schedule. We only have 2 or 3 more football games. YAY!

Jen, you have inspired me.....

So, I really don't like Halloween. It's my least favorite holiday and I just assume skip it. But, I do think it's cute to see little ones in costume and I really wanted Jacob to be a fireman this year. I put off buying a costume and really wasn't going to mess with it until I chatted with Jen (my sister-in-law) today. Sooooo ... despite the fact that I can't sew and don't have a sewing machine anyway, I decided to use good ole duct tape and see what I could do. So - here's the start of it. I need to make a badge and pick up a hat. Don't have black shoes - but I will work on that too. The pants were given to me by a friend so I don't feel too bad that I cut a hole in them when I was trimming the tape. Oh well... So, hopefully it will be a cool night for Jacob to wear this heavy fleece and lined pants.

Our church has an annual festival called "Candyfest" and Hank and I are working in one of the booths for an hour and then we'll take Jacob around. Should be fun :)

Not something you see every day...

Some of you might know that our church makes Christian movies (Flywheel, Facing the Giants). We are now working on our third movie, called Fireproof. It's partially about firefighters, so today at church they were shooting some scenes. I am babysitting for the cast/crew kids on Monday mornings, and today we got to go watch them do some filming. They invited all the kids who were in our daycare today to come out and they did a little fire safety demo. They also showed the kids the trucks and equipment. I tried to get Jacob to sit still in a few group scenes, but he just wanted to roam around and give me a fit. I think I might have gotten him in for a few minutes as they did some filming of him just wandering around. Not sure if they'll use it - but it's fun to think that he might be in a small part of the movie. The movie won't be out til next fall so it will be a while before I know if my little man made his film debut yet. That's about it for a Monday. Just wanted to pass on what's going on in the Carter household.

45-37, 21 in a row!

I DVR'd College GameDay, but the recording cut off right before Corso's prediction!!! (We went to the South Georgia Peanut Festival in nearby Sylvester ... see Jacob's blog for all the details.) Which way did he go?

Anyway, with or without Corso, it's official - Florida has beaten Kentucky 21 times in a row.
For a little perspective on this, there's a great story on my favorite website.

There have been some memorable ones -- Danny Wuerffel throws a TD to Chris Doering on 3rd down with 8 seconds left for a come-from-behind win in Lexington in 1993, the close win in the Swamp in 2002 when the massive Jared Lorenzen was the UK quarterback. This one featured two solid offenses and two REALLY BAD defenses.

This Gator win was very important for several reasons:
1. Thanks to Vandy and Alabama, we can win the SEC East if we win out.
2. It avoids what could have been Urban Meyer's first-ever 3-game losing streak.
3. And most important, NO TURKENTUCKY GLOATING from Queep!

So, to Laura and Pete: Sorry your CFGD appearance was in vain. Better luck next year, when your QB will be gone and we'll have a better, more experienced team! Now, do us all a favor and beat the crap out of Tennessee!!

GameDay

So, it's the day of the big game, and ESPN's College Football GameDay is in Lexington. Laura and Pete said they're going to be there, so of course we're watching. And I have a couple of observations:
- Today is the first time GameDay highlights a UK game. It is the record 26th time highlighting a Florida game.
- Lee Corso said, "I love Kentucky fans. You know why? Because they BELIEVE!" Of course they believe now! But Lee, have you been to a Kentucky game before this year? I have. It looked a lot like the pictures Laura took at a high school game last night.

Here's hoping Corso picks UK......GO GATORS!!!

busy busy...

I'm making a box to send to my mom's shop. This week I've been busy making Christmas cards and more jewlery. I think I am enjoying the card-making more than the beading now. Making cards is just like scrapbooking and that is relaxing to me. Not much else new. Hank is at an away game and Jacob is in bed for the night. Watching another train wreck on TV - "American Band" - so far it's not too good. Oh well - FNL will come on soon so I can switch tracks to that train (and you too Jenni - I know). Have fun watching football tomorrow. Go Gators!! (I hope) :/

Camping!

Well, Queep, I'm sorry we missed the big upset. Don't worry, we'll be glued to the tube next weekend! Funny, though, how you beat a team and they still end up ranked higher than you. That's not right.

Anyway, we missed the game because of camping. Jacob was great. If you missed out on his fun, well, why in the world are you reading this blog before reading his? DUH.

It was warm during the day and cold at night - perfect weather if you ask me. As it got colder at night, we added layers. Here's how it worked:
- Tammy is wearing jeans, a long-sleeve shirt, and a sweatshirt. I am wearing a tshirt and shorts.
- Later, Tammy adds a light jacket. I'm still wearing a tshirt and shorts.
- Later, Tammy wraps herself in blanket. I'm still wearing a tshirt and shorts.
- Tammy digs the hood from her sweatshirt out from under the blanket and puts it over her head. I finally decide it might be getting cold. I put on a fleece, but I'm still wearing shorts.
- Time to go to bed. Tammy replaces the jeans with PJ pants, and the blanket is now covering her sleeping bag. She wishes she had a hat. I remove my fleece, replace my shorts with PJ pants, and unzip the side of the sleeping bag so my feet can cool off.

This proves that women are (as my father-in-law would say) COLD-BLOODED. ;)

Competition

I think I am finally starting to recover from a long competition day on Saturday. We began the day at 7:30 a.m. with a quick warm-up, brief rehearsal, and a run-through of the show. We planned to do that in our stadium, but the sprinklers were on (despite the recent rain), so we moved to our practice field. No chance of water there -- that field hasn't seen a sprinkler in decades!

At 9ish we rolled out in 4 school buses, our equipment truck (pulling our trailer) and another truck hauling a trailer with the flying rig and the backdrop. At 11:15 we stopped at a rest area and handed out hot dogs (kept warm in a cooler -- ironic, I know), fruit, cookies, and lemonade. Back on the bus, and we arrived in Carrollton at 1:15 p.m., just in time to unload, put our uniforms on, and head to the warm-up area.

We had the best performance of the year (so far), which was enough to give us 3rd place in Class AAA. Our drum majors got second place, as did the drumline. So, it was a successful day.

Oh, and I should mention that one of our judges was none other than Ken Bodiford -- my (and Pete's) high school band director in Hampton, VA! He is now the Director of Bands at Jacksonville State University and Executive Director of Spirit of JSU Drum and Bugle Corps. (Pete and I marched with Spirit in 1993, back when they were Spirit of Georgia.) JSU's band was there for an exhibition performance, which was phenomenal. They marched THIRTY tubas, playing bell-front concert tubas with a strap. Pretty impressive. The band was HUGE, but they were clean and sounded amazing. I now have 100 kids who want to go to JSU. :) Probably the coolest part was when the trumpet section "arched up" in front of us and played the theme from Phantom Menace, complete with ridiculously high notes.

Anyway, I got to talk to Mr. Bodiford (still feels weird to call him "Ken" - I know, Pete was calling him that before graduation) for a few minutes during one of the breaks. He didn't know I had a band there (we had already performed). Last I saw him I was at a drum corps show in Orlando while I was still in Florida. He asked about Pete and Mom and Dad. He rolled his eyes when I told him that both of us had little ones running around. :)

So, back on the bus at midnight, and we arrived at school at 3:45 a.m. Sunday. I got home a little before 5 a.m. No church for me on Sunday morning! It was a long day. But we brought home 11 trophies in all, so that's pretty good. We placed in every caption - overall band, drum majors, color guard, danceline, and percussion.

For those keeping score, yes, Effingham was there, competing in the same class as us. Their drum majors won first place in class (we were 2nd), as did their percussion (we were 2nd). But our overall band score was better. :)

As for video -- I have an MPEG, but Google video doesn't seem to like it. You can't see Elphaba flying anyway -- it's a wide angle shot from the press box, so all you see is a little black dot, and only if you're paying attention. Still, I'll keep trying to post it.

The good thing about being at a band competition all day is that it distracted me from Florida's meltdown against LSU. But I did notice that Pete Crawford is a little less vocal about his Wildkitties since they lost last week. I have to say, it's pretty strange looking up at Kentucky in the SEC East standings. Don't worry; we'll correct that in two weeks in Lexington!