Welcome to Neufer's Mad Thoughts

Thank you for calling, er, I mean, thank you for reading the mad thoughts of me. If you are wondering just what the mad means, be it, ANGRY mad or CRAZY mad, well, that will probably just depend on my mood and what I'm rambling on about. Most of what you will read will be unedited, straight from my head to my keyboard and to your eyes so should I offend, upset or anger you, by all means, yell at me through the screen, leave me angry comments and feel better for doing so. I promise never to respond as I have found it's just not worth my time to respond to angry people I have never met. :) Have a nice day!

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Southside High School Band

Well, tonight I got to hear the band in concert and let me just say how amazing they are.  This is a group of kids who have worked very hard over the past 8 months to raise $75,000 so they could go to the Gator Bowl over New Years and play during the half time show as well as march in the parade the day before.  So they devoted a great deal of their time to learning the songs for the Gator Bowl and fundraising.  By the time they got back on the 3rd of January they had the choice of not doing their Winter Concert since it was only 10 days away.

Miss Henry left the choice to them.  Not only did they want to do the concert but they learned their peices in that short time and may I just say how impressed I am with the passion and musicality that I heard in that auditorium tonight?

The Concert Band was first, which Melissa, my senior played in and their peice sounded great!  Then the Jazz band, they did three peices and got a little lost on one peice but found their way back and again, was just amazing.  Then the Wind Ensemble, the top band players (the only reason Melissa isn't in that one is because she dropped out of band for 2 years and you have to earn a spot there) and they were really fantastic.  They did a peice called Invictus (I think that's right, I don't have the program) and it just sent chills down my spine, they sound just amazing!

Then the entire group took the stage to play the songs they played during the Parade and the Half time show.  Watching those kids up there and watching Melissa was an experience I won't soon forget.  I had tears in my eyes almost during the entire performance.  They sounded so professional and clear and I can't find enough adjectives to describe just how great they sounded.  And they played a slide show for the last part and seeing those pictures and the looks on the kids faces, watching the memories flood back while they played made me realize without a doubt that every single dramatic moment of fund raising and stress from getting it all set up was worth every second and the smiles on their faces when they got done, worth more than all the money in the world, just priceless.

I would like to extend my most sincerely thanks to Miss Henry for welcoming Melissa with open arms into her band and inviting her along, even though we came in long after the cut off date for signing up.  Thank you Miss Henry for putting so much into making sure this all went off so well, and thank you for encouraging Melissa and giving her the confidence that she was lacking in her own abilities.  You have helped instill a sense of self confidence that doesn't come easily to a teenage girl these days.

And to Melissa, there has only been one other time I came even close to being this proud of you and that was when you did your solo in third grade.  Sure there have been many times inbetween that I was proud but to be honest, the level of pride I felt tonight will probably not be felt again until you either graduate college, get married or have a kid, you can wait on the last two for as long as you want. :)

Now in my previous post I said I wanted to brag on my daughters and I do, Ellie stayed home with James tonight and had a bit of a rough night.  James decided to throw a tantrum, something he hasn't done in a while, but Ellie handled it with grace and calm and when I came home, she helped me even more by cuddling with James until he fell asleep (he asked for her, he felt bad that he upset her too).  Ellie has always been my calm on the outside one, though I have a feeling on the inside there is an emotional jungle that she's struggling through at times. I just hope she knows how much I loge her (inside joke) and how proud I am of her as well.

Both my girls are amazing and when I look back and see some of the major screw ups I pulled in their lives and yet, they are still pretty normal for the most part, I feel extremely blessed and lucky to have two wonderful girls.

Now, check back with me tomorrow when one or both of them have gotten back to normal and I'm ready to sell or trade them off, all offers will be considered! :)

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