Tag Archives: TMB

Week in Review!

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It’s been a pretty good week I think… no major catastrophes or mishaps. Of course it was busy as usual but that never really changes, does it?

Did you know that I have a guest post at Kludgy Mom this week? It’s kind of interesting I think … being the mom of teens can be a challenge and my post is just of many reasons why. Then again I have a toddler too so I have both ends of the spectrum going on.

Let’s see what else did I do this week… Oh, on Monday I shared an incredibly easy and delicious recipe for Cheddar Broccoli soup and I even created a pinnable image to go along with it! I think I will try to do that more often… they really are easy and it should help drive more traffic to my blog, right? I’ll let ya in on a little secret… don’t tell anyone okay… that picture of the broccoli soup was taken with my iPhone. Yup, my phone because I was to lazy to go get my real camera!

Moving on… Thursday I had a book review of the steamy novel by Sylvia Day, Reflected in You. Oh my… it’s a good one for sure. If you liked 50 Shades of Gray I hear that you’ll like this one too. Speaking of that…. 50 Shades of Gray that is… am I the only one who hasn’t read them? I’m trying to figure out what the big deal is about them without reading them. Erotic fiction has been around forever and even Anne Rice has a series of books that in way should ever be made into a movie like some of her other books!

Also on Thursday I shared a post about Dove’s message that creating a world where beauty is a source of confidence, not anxiety. There are so many simple ways that we can encourage self-esteem and have a conversation with our daughters about positive self-esteem…. what we see in the magazines is not reality. Airbrushing someone to look perfect isn’t truth…. it’s warping the way we think about ourselves and what we think is acceptable. Dove as has a toolkit that you can download to help start the conversation and it’s pretty good too.

All this plus parent teacher conferences at 3 different schools, work, and trying to figure out when I can get to the gym.

Tonight though…. tonight will be great because it’s the final performance of marching band season and it’s inside which makes it even  better! It’s a pretty awesome event called the Trojan Spectacular and this year will be fun because my daughter is a majorette and at the front of the band so I’ll actually be able to see her this year! Check out the video from last year!

There you go… my week in review.

How was your week?

PMM ~ Part of the band

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I probably don’t tell my kids often enough how proud I am of them and their accomplishments and I know that I really should. This past weekend was one of those times that I was really proud of my oldest daughter.

She is an exceptional kid…. smart, talented, and pretty good looking (ok… I may be biased on this last one). She has been in band since 5th grade as well as jazz band since 7th grade and has played the alto sax the entire time. She is so good that she hasn’t been challenged by another student.. ever.. and she’s now finishing up her freshman year. I think that this is simply amazing.

Caitlin was asked to march with the TMB (Trojan Marching Band) last weekend in the Tulip Festival parade in Holland, Michigan. To me this was a really big deal because the freshman do not march or play with the 10th- 12th grade kids. As a matter of fact the band program in our town is a pretty big deal and not just anyone can take part in band. It’s serious here! Here’s the deal, band is open to anyone through 9th grade and then after that you basically have to prove that you’re good enough to be in band… there’s a playing test, a written test (I think), and possibly even a marching test (my daughter told me & I’m old and tend to forget things).

Holland Tulip Time Parade

By being asked to take part in the parade told me that she is good enough and that she knows what she’s doing (I already knew this….duh), but it more or less confirmed it all.

Like any proud parent we dropped her off at school to take one of the four Greyhound buses to Holland and then we followed. The weather was terrible. Rainy, wet, and really damn cold considering the entire week previous was sunny, warm and about 80 degrees. But we dressed for the weather and had our umbrellas in hand and I swore that it would not rain during the parade!

TMB was a premier band meaning that it played in the street (3 different locations) prior to the start of the parade. Of course I was there staking out my spots (yes… spots… both sides of the street since I didn’t know what direction they’d face when they stopped) and had my camera in hand. I’m pretty sure that my daughter was thinking that I was crazy or ‘that’ mom… you know the one who shoves their way in to get the perfect pictures of their kid. Yea, I was sorta that way but in my defense those other people did not have kids in the band nor were they taking pictures or video. Oh…. I said excuse me too.. I wasn’t that rude.

Holland Tulip Time Parade

I was able to get a lot of decent pictures during the premier band show as well as during the parade. Needless to say I’m very proud of her accomplishments as well as those of her younger sisters. To me they’re all amazing kids.