Stomach viruses & awards

For weeks, Savannah's been preparing for Solo & Ensemble competition. She first signed up to do a solo, which really surprised me. She's not much for getting into the spotlight alone...but she was OK with this. And then there were several other French Horn players who joined together to form an octet. Shortly after forming the group, 1 of the members had to drop out so Savannah was asked to join in. Together they practiced a million times to get the ensemble piece just right.

And then it happened.

Savannah got a stomach virus. Late Thursday evening, she said she felt nauseous. She sat in the bathroom waiting for it to 'hit' for a long time....she finally gave up & got in bed. Half an hour later, it 'hit'. She was up over & over that night and into the morning hours on Friday -- the same day as Solo & Ensemble. She had to pull out of the contest. She was SO disappointed to have to back out on the group at the last minute and to have to skip her solo as well! In fact, about 1am as she threw up for the 2nd or 3rd time, she looked up at me through tears & said "They have to have EIGHT people for the octet...I can't be sick!!". Her band director was able to pull another player into the group at the last minute. I'm not sure that he really knew the music, but if nothing else, he filled a seat in the octet. The group really missed her being there, though, because she knew the music really well & would've made the group sound even better! Still, somehow they made a 1!!! She was very pleased to hear that the group did so well....and even more thrilled when her band director emailed to let me know that they brought her home a medal as well!!! She'll get it on Monday. Despite the fact that she was at home, huddled in front of the toilet at the time, she was a part of the group & they felt like she deserved the award, too! How cool is that?!


Tonight was Samuel's annual Cub Scout Blue & Gold banquet. It's the annual award ceremony for Cub Scouts where they are recognized for all their hard work all year long. If you're my friend on Facebook, you've already seen these.

This is from the Blue & Gold banquet LAST year, Feb 2009:


And this was tonight. My sweet little Webelo scout has grown.

The boys are given a pin to put on their mother's ribbon each year as they advance through the ranks of the scouting program. Every year, the boys all giggle & make jokes about how they're going to stab their moms with the pins. Goofy boys...none of them actually do it, but they all pretend to. ha! It never gets old to them. This is me saying "don't stick me, please!".

There was a professional photographer there to take group pictures of each den. Of course, all of us moms were standing there with our regular cameras to take a picture -- no need for the expensive professional one! :)

Click this one to blow it up real big...you really need the full effect. ha! Samuel tried to make THIS face during the professional pic, but I made him STOP IT. Even the photographer laughed about it, so I had to get a picture of it afterward. ha! We're so proud of our little nut!