Well, I'm on the downhill slide of my senior year.
It's been swell. Last six weeks I made all A's. =]
For the first time since freshman year. It was
pretty awesome. On Thursday I have my interview
with the Honors College at Texas A&M Commerce.
Please be praying for me. I need this. Really, really,
need this. If I get in, I'm set for the next four years.

There's not a whole lot to update you on, but I'll hear
from the Honors College at the end of February, so
I'm excited. I'm ranked seventh in my class, and I'm
making pretty good grades. Yay for me!
4 more months from now I'll be graduated. =]

Happy New Year Everyone!

<----This picture was taken in Scotland at a Hogmanay party.

In case you don't know, Hogmanay is the Scottish name for New Years Eve. At midnight, the first person to enter the house (which happened to be me) should have with them some money, a piece of wood, and something to eat. Money for prosperity in the new year, something to eat so that you will not hunger in the new year, and a piece of wood that represents warmth and shelter in the new year.

I spent my New Years with a group from my church. At first, I wasn't sure if I wanted to go, because I was tired, but once I got there, fellowshipping with my church family, worshipping, and taking communion, the next thing I knew it was 5 minutes 'til midnight.

As we were worshipping, I was thinking about all the things I could be thankful for over the past new year. I was thankful to get through my junior year. I was also thankful to make it through the first semester of my senior year. making good grades and enjoying myself. I was thankful that our band was drawn closer together, even if it meant the loss of a great friend. I've never felt so close to some of the people in my band as I did after all of that.

But more importantly, I was thankful for my family's strength during the past year as we helped my dad through his first year after his transplant. There were some bumps, and at times it was really tough, but we made it through.

And for that, I'm thankful.

HAPPY NEW YEARS!

Now that we're caught up on that, I'll give you a look into how my life is going right now.

I made all A's in my classes this past six weeks, which I was absolutely ecstatic about. I hadn't made all A's in SO long.

I finally sent my application into the Honors College at Commerce, and I'm absolutely pulling my hair out waiting for a reply.

I'm pretty sure my class ranking has gone up, which I'm excited about. I was sixth, and I think I may have bumped it up to fourth. :D

I'm absolutely loving senior year, and can't believe that it's half over. I've been so thankful for everything and everyone in my life this year, and for helping me run my life so smoothly for my senior year.

UPDATE
Wow, it's been so long since I've updated. I guess I kind of left everybody on a cliffhanger at the last post, didn't I?
Well, lemme just give you a little in look into how our marching season ended.
When I last blogged, I'd told you that the following Tuesday, October 22nd, we'd be going to UiL competition. It was such an eventful day. We met early in the morning at the stadium, had a quick practice, then came back to school to pile onto the buses and head for Mt. Pleasant. As I was getting onto the bus, I noticed something out of place. Even though it was in the middle of class, early in the morning, all of the teachers and students were leaving the school and walking towards the practice field for the band. That's when I realized. As we pulled away from the curb, with a police escort, we stuck our heads out the windows of our buses, grinning and waving, and some of us crying, at our entire school, lined up on the edges of the road, screaming for us, grinning from ear to ear, and waving like mad. I've never seen anything so supportive from our school in my life.
We pulled up to Mt. Pleasant, and I could already feel the heavy burning lump in my throat. I knew that this was going to be the hardest performance so far. When we'd practiced that morning, we'd gone over Cole and I's duet, which had also included a great amount of Charles on the tenor, and it had sounded so empty. So as I put together my horn, I couldn't stop thinking about how empty it would sound out there today.
As we stepped onto the field, I was pretty sure my heart was going to burst from my chest. We hooked everything up, were introduced, and began. As I ran to my horn in the 2nd movement, I glanced at Cole, gave him a solemn smile, and picked up my horn. As we began to play, it was a little rough, but we continued. I felt my eyes begin to water, performing for the first time without Charles, and looked to our drum major, Heather, who flashed me a huge smile. I had to thank her afterwards, because honestly, that one smile saved my solo, or I would've burst into tears. As we were leaving, even after everyone stopped clapping for us, the Paris Band was standing, cheering and clapping as we walked past, grinning with tears running down our faces at the same time. Is was the most emotional thing I had experienced in so long.
We then took our pictures and as we did, about half of the Paris band came down from the stands screaming, "YOU MADE 1'S! You're going to AREA!" So obviously, the crying began again.
That very Saturday, we performed in Longview at the Area competition. After we played in the semi-finals, we gathered in the stand and waiting for a few agonizing hours for them to announce the finalists. The first performance had gone kind of rough, so obviously, we were all a bit nervous. As they began announcing the top ten bands to advance, we kept our fingers cross. One by one they called band after band, until nine bands had been called, none of which were ours. As tears started to well up in my eyes, the announcer came over the speakers and called our name. We screamed for a good five minutes, hugging and crying and just caught up in the moment.
When we made it back to the bus, we put our game faces on. This was the moment we had all been waiting for. Finals. This was it. It was do or die for us. Mr. Jones didn't tell us what place we made in semi-finals, so that we didn't get discouraged or cocky.
That night we were the last ones to play; they saved the best for last. After we walked off the field, my heart was racing, and I knew that we had done all we could do; we'd left it all on the field. Now all we could do was give it to God. We waited for a good hour before the announcer came over the speakers. "Ladies and gentleman, every band today has been seen as exempliary and made it to the top in the Area, but only three can advance to the elite. The first band to advance to state is...." During that long pause, I grabbed my best friend Shelby's hand, squeezed my eyes shut, and prayed as hard as I could. "NORTH" and that's all I heard, because after that, we were all screaming. We had finally done it. And we had done it for Charles. The North Lamar Panther Band had finally made it to State. After 25 years, we'd finally broken through. I grabbed my best friend, hugging her as tight as I could, as I looked around at my fellow bandsmen, as tears streamed down all of our faces. After he announced the other two bands, we saw our directors and band parents out on the field, beckoning us out onto the field. We ran out there, hugging each other all the way, and practically tackled our band directors. I've never seen so many young men cry in my life. It was absolutely life changing to see the pride, love, and emotion in everyones faces as we made our rounds, hugging each other and crying with one another. We couldn't believe it.
We had two weeks to practice for State, and we practiced hard. Then, 13 days after advancing to State we loaded our bags, instruments, and uniforms, boarded the charter buses, and headed for San Antonio.
The next day, November 3rd, 2008, we pulled up in front of the Alamodome, dressed in our uniforms and completely in awe of the fact that we were finally here. It was the biggest stadium I had ever seen, and I would be playing my solo in it. I was really humbled that day.
At 1:30 that afternoon, we stepped out on that field, once again my heart in my throat. I warmed up my horn, stepped behind my vibraphone, and smiled up at our drum major, ready to do my best. I ran to my horn in the 2nd movement, such a familiar gesture for me, picked up my horn, grinned at Cole, and began playing. Whenever I finished, I threw my horn to Christian, and ran back to my vibes, grinning from ear to ear. I had finally mastered my solo. There had only been one part in the entire show that I hadn't been able to play, and I finally played it perfectly. I couldn't help but grin the rest of the show, knowing that we had played our best.

We placed 9th out of 20 that day, and to tell the truth, I'm not disappointed in the least. We may not have made finals, and we may not have one state, but I can now brag to everyone I know that not did I play a solo in the Alamodome in San Antonio, but I played it with the 9th best 3A High School Marching Band in the state of Texas. One of the best bands in the nation.

But in my eyes, the Award-Winning North Lamar Panther Band, will always be number one.

Well...it's certainly been an...interesting weekend.

We lost the Crosstown Rivalry football game. Which I didn't mind so much. They'd just lost a friend, and they deserved to win it for her.

Yesterday, we went to work the school's debate meet, and while we were there, we found out that we also had lost a friend, Charles Bush.

It hit me pretty hard. I mean, I know every year they lose at least one student...but I never expected it to hit so close to home. Charles...was an amazing guy. He was friendly to everyone he met and he was the hardest worker I've ever met. Band was his life. He was a beast on the tenor drums. He, Cole, and I tore up Area 51 in the marching show this year. But now...I'll never hear him beat those drums again. I just can't believe that he's really gone. I won't believe he's really gone until Monday morning, when I walk into percussion class expecting him to already be there with his drum out, playing the hell out of it. But he won't. And that's when it will finally hit me.

We had a candlelight service at the practice field last night. I think that suited him, the practice field was his second home. If our band directors would let him, he'd be out on that field every chance he got, and every second that he didn't have occupied. If they let him, he probably would've taken his drum to every class. I couldn't grasp what happened yesterday...I had just seen him 12 hours before...and then in an instant, he was taken away. He had everything going for him. He was planning to tryout for two DCI bands: The Cavaliers and the Blue Devils. He had a scholarship to University of Texas in Arlington, and he had an amazing talent.
But...that just wasn't God's plan for Charles, and now Charles is up in heaven playing drums we couldn't even begin to comprehend the perfectness of.

So Tuesday, when we go to that Marching UiL contest, we're going to win it...

And we're going to do it for Charles.

I know it's been awhile since I've posted, but senior year has been so RIDICULOUSLY busy! haha.

I love senior year so far. Classes are pretty easy. I made all A's and B's this six weeks. =]

Band's going alright. It's more frustrating then usual this year, but that's alright.

We had our first contest yesterday. What a hectic day that was. I was originally going to wake up at 6 o'clock, because I had to go take my SAT's before, but woke up at 5 and couldn't go back to sleep. Too many nerves. We played at 2:45, and I got out of my SAT (which I took in Commerce) at 1:20. So we drove 75 the whole way from Commerce to Mesquite, with me freaking out in the back seat the entire time. We pulled up in the parking lot, I leaped out of the car, mom zipped up my jacket, I threw together my horn, and ran down the hill to the shoot, where the pit (and luckily, my vibraphone) was waiting. There was one band playing, another band about to go on, and then it was us, so I just barely made it. Unfortunately for me, though, not only to my reed crack in the car on the way over, but I didn't have time to warm up. So when my solo came around, it was dry, quiet, and squeaky. A.K.A: AWFUL. Lucky for me, the microphone wasn't turned up, so I don't think the judges heard me, because despite my icky solo, we still made ones, which I was ecstatic about. We got to the stadium at 2:20, and were back out by 3:30, on the road home again.

I finally joined the Twilight band-wagon. And I must say, I can really understand what the fuss is about. Though I'm not a huge fan of vampires, this book...is amazing. It's so detailed, and so written. Now I just have to wait for the movie to come out. I'm hoping that my best friend (who let me read her copy of Twilight) will bring me New Moon tomorrow. I read the sneak-peek in the first book and now I'm SO excited to see what happens.

School. It has begun. It has been SO long since I've updated, and so many things have happened. I have my license, though I'm pretty sure I did in my last post as well. I had my first "wreck," though it wasn't really a wreck, just a small fender bender...with my best friend. :)
School started this past week. And honestly, other than after school band practice, I LOVE school this year. Senior year is amazing. Physics is fun so far, though we do have our first quiz on wednesday over unit prefixes. But it's okay, cuz I studied, see Mom?
Atto, Femto, Pico, Nano, Micro, Milli, Centi, Deci, Deka, Kilo, Mega, Giga, Peta, and Exa. :)
Government, French and English are all very entertaining. We have our first Government test on Tuesday. Fun stuff. French is a lot easier than I suspected. After taking a year off, I didn't think I would remember much. But I did, which was great. English is amazing. We have a test over Frankenstein on Tuesday, and we began reading Beowulf on Friday. Pretty interesting so far, especially with my classmates adding sound effects. Gotta love it. Yearbook is great, kind of eager to get started and get in last year's yearbook. We're having our kick-off party on September 10th, and I'm kind of nervous because Mrs. LaRue is making the editors do something silly at the party, and of course she just had to tell my mom to torture me. Haha.

Friday night was our first football game. What a disaster that night was. We were supposed to be playing Liberty Eylau, we made it through the first half, Liberty Eylau's marching band performed, and just before we were about to roll our instruments on to the field, the lightning detection went off. We had to run everything back to the truck and loaded it in four minutes flat. Amazing feat for the pit. We were then stuck in the hot, sweaty indoor facility for an hour, hour and a half before heading back to the high school. The weather never really got bad. Just some lightning and wind, though the wind felt great because everyone was SO hot. Once we got back to the bandhall, we unloaded everything and had our first band dance of the year. Great way get rid of the stress of the evening. Despite the fact that we hadn't marched, EVERYONE was starving. Good thing that we had a large amount of good food there for us. It was the best band dance I had been to so far. We had a disco light, disco ball, police light, strobe light, and some AWESOME music and people there. As soon as I put my pictures on the computer, I'll add some to the blog. It was great.

Yesterday was a wonderful today. To celebrate one of my best friend's, Shelby's, birthday, her mother took me, her, and two of our other good friends to Frisco for the day, meeting up with Shelby's Aunt Tilly while we were there. We went to the Stone Briar Mall, Sam Moon (where I got an absolutely ADORABLE suitcase. :]), ate lunch at Olive Garden (at 4!), and then when back to Stone Briar, ending with day with Cheesecake Factory, the most evil of all the restaurants. I got Peanut Butter Cup Fudge Ripple Cheesecake. It was delicious, but it was just way too sweet for me. My favorite was the Fresh Strawberry Cheesecake. All it was was original cheesecake with some strawberries on top. That's my kind of cheesecake. Over all, it was such a fun day. I haven't had a girl's day out like that in a LONG time.

It's been such a good weekend, and it's only half over, because we're off for Labor Day Weekend. SO happy. :)