Another week flies by

Here it is Friday, already. I’m totally enjoying living in Tennessee today, as our temperature hit 80 degrees, while northwest Wisconsin is digging out from a “snowstorm” that didn’t amount to quite what they were expecting, but certainly isn’t Spring. Believe it or not, trees are already blossoming here. I’m not sure what kinds they are, but there is a beautiful tall pink one that is fully blossomed all over town, as well as a low yellow bush – Forsythia, I think that is. That means that there is something blooming in northeast Tennessee from late February through November. Pretty awesome, if you ask me!!

We had a concert with the choirs last night. There were 12 songs in all, and I only played for 3 of them. So I sat at the piano and tried to look invisible for most of the concert. The one group had all three acappella, so I didn’t even go out with them. But the other three groups each had one song that I played and two that I didn’t! This was a “parents’ concert” for the choir competition that is next Friday down in Greenville, TN, about an hour away. We are leaving at 7:30 a.m., listening to other schools’ groups for a couple hours in the morning, having lunch and warming up a bit at a Baptist church nearby, then our groups begin performing around 1:00 and we are done around 4:15. It is a lot like Wisconsin’s large group festival, except that each group, when they are done performing their three prepared songs for the judges, goes to another room for group sight-reading. You have to do well in sight-reading, too, in order to get a superior rating. We have four groups, a 100 member mixed choir at the beginning level, and a women’s ensemble, a men’s ensemble and the madrigal group. The women’s and men’s ensembles are made up of the madrigal singers, with just a few others added to fill out the groups. And the madrigal group is also part of the mixed choir, to help them stay on pitch on their acappella pieces. So those kids have had to learn and memorize 12 pieces in the last 8 weeks. Any of the groups that receive a superior rating moves on to State competition. I think that is in Knoxville or Nashville, but I’m not sure when it is. I’m quite sure some of the groups will make it to that. The choir director said the madrigal group is the best sounding group he’s ever worked with and he’s been a choir director for quite a while (he’s 42 years old.) If the guys can just control themselves and keep their eyes on the director…

We went out to celebrate Don’s new job with a Dairy Queen treat yesterday afternoon. Then, this morning he made a special breakfast of eggs and bacon and those rolls you get in a tube and cook, then frost with the frosting that comes with them – also to celebrate. All this celebrating could ruin our weigh-in if we don’t get back on track soon!  Then this afternoon I had the fun of redoing our budget to account for actual income starting next month – that was an exciting time for me!

I started another new piano student this Tuesday, so now I’m up to 7. Not making me tons of money, but it is a start! I’ve been going over to school a LOT getting ready for this contest, though, so that is adding up to a pretty good paycheck, too.