Tonight is the big night, the night that marks the opening of high school football season. Along with that goes the 700+ member marching band, color guard and dance troupe. Not including the football team, it takes 23 school buses to transport all the members, plus a truck or 2 to haul all the equipment and instruments. It is quite a sight to see and my daughter is so excited she can barely contain herself! You see, tonight, while it is the first game for the football team, is the first public performance of the high school marching band for this season. For my daughter, it is her first public appearance in the marching band.
In a few short hours she will be putting on that marching band uniform for the first time, new marching shoes and all. I will then take her to the practice field where the entire group will meet for a full warm up and run through. They will then load the buses and head out. The game is at SMU’s Ford Stadium and so we will also be heading down to watch both the game and the band. She gets to wear her new uniform and I get to wear my new “Band MOM” shirt!
I will attempt to take photos, my camera is acting up so not sure how that will turn out.
My daughter just completed her 3rd week of marching band. They spent the first 2 weeks practicing 8-3, five days a week. The second week switched up and the practiced 4-8 in the evenings. The culmination of their hard work came on Saturday when they did a “March-a-thon”, marching 10 miles through the streets of town as a fundraiser. The day was extremely hot, 104, but they got a little reprieve when they marched through the inside of Lowes and followed that by marching through Tom Thumb grocery. The town came out to support them and I’m very proud of my daughter for completing the full 10 miles. She honestly had a great time!
This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of Woodrow Wilson. All opinions are 100% mine.
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Have you ever tried to purchase new cushions for your patio furniture? I had sticker shock when I started shopping around to replace our cushions. I found that to get a set of 2 cushions, prices started at around $80 and went up from there! Considering I needed 4 sets, plus a cushion for the foot stool and 2 new pillows, I was going to be spending an awful lot of money. So, I did what any “sewingmom” would do, I went to Joann’s!
I found a brick red sunbrella fabric on clearance for $6/yard and it was 50% off the clearance price, making it $3/yard. I then found a coordinating fabric that was marked $18/yard, but was on sale for half-price, so I snatched them both. I couldn’t find zippers in the size I needed, so I tore the zippers out of the existing cushions and reused them (another cost savings). I have also been purchasing the inner cushions whenever I have coupons for Joann’s. They sell an all-weather cushion that is just the right size for about $12, and I use a 50% off coupon each time I purchase one. I also purchased a spool of indoor/outdoor heavy duty thread for $12. When I add up everything, I’ve spent about $150 for a makeover of all the cushions and pillows. I figure that’s a savings of at least $400!
Here is the before shot:
This is one of the first bottom cushion covers I made, before I put a new cushion inside of it.
And finally, the finished product:
I am so happy with the end result! I still can’t believe I did it myself!
I feel that this blog has been put on a back burner of late and it’s feeling neglected. I’m hoping that once school starts, things will fall back into some semblance of a schedule and I can get back to doing what I enjoy, sewing and writing. This week I’ve been able to do just about anything but what I enjoy, although I’ve spent a lot of time with and watching my daughter, now getting ready to begin her freshman year of high school on Monday.
The past 3 weeks I’ve spent working and running my daughter between softball and band commitments. Marching band camp began 3 weeks ago and has left us trying to squeeze in back to school shopping, spending time with friends, seeing last minute summer movies (not me, her) and even normal everyday activities. Just figuring out what to eat for dinner has taken on a whole new meaning trying to make a meal that doesn’t weigh anybody down in this oppressive heat (100+ for 18 days in a row), and yet satisfies everyone. We all eat at a different time, depending on who has to be where, when. I hate it! I don’t feel like we’ve all 3 been together in the same room for more than a minute at a time in the last few weeks.
All the chaos has left me waking up in the middle of the nights in panic mode, thinking of all the things I haven’t done. Let’s see, have I missed any bill payments? doctor’s appointments? meetings? Work has become a blur. I work through each shift waiting to clock out to so we can fly out the door to get the next thing done. I hate this feeling. I want to feel normal again. Then I ask myself, does one ever feel normal when there is a teenager in the house?!
My daughter is out there completing her 10 mile band march-a-thon, a fundraiser. I am heading out once more to go pick her up. I do hope to post photos later, if I get the chance to download them from my camera!
