Tales of a Shoebox Princess

I have to show you pictures of the marching band from tonight's high school football game. The band wore shorts and navy/gold t-shirts (most of them). Had they worn their marching band uniforms, giant flat bed trucks would have been needed to haul them in, and recordings would need to be played instead of live music, as they all would have fainted from the heat. (and actually, it's getting cooler. Sort of)   The trombones lead in through the crowd. One band member has his face covered up by the back end of his instrument. No matter. There will be plenty of opportunities to get pictures of that kid's face later. Like now. Oh, wait. Stupid lyre. How about now? Dang. Now? Ugh. This is beginning to be annoying. I spy eyes! Finally that kid got the trombone away from his face. And thus begins the first of several episodes in a new blog series, "Trying to take pictures of Matt in marching band." I teased Matt (very gently) because when I as

at the MN State Fair. In fact I was so NOT lost. I was the opposite of lost. A less lost person you could not find at the fair today. I say this because there are people out there who equate me at the state fair with getting lost. I shall not deny that once upon a time, I did get separated, unintentionally, from the people I came to the fair with, which caused consternation and concern, especially on my part. Several times.  BUT no more! I can navigate up and down Dan Patch Ave, through the horticulture/agriculture building, and in and out of the creative arts building.  I can tell the arena from the cattle building and the sheep building, I can pick out the two end points of the sky ride. I know where several of the less disgusting bathrooms are, and I can steer through the crowds in the food building without becoming panicky, and I know which end to exit to get to certain roads. Jim did his annual stint volunteering at the Little Farm Hands booth with his company, and Matt and I

But no picture of him in those until football season gets underway. Some notes on school schedules: Our high school seems to be having trouble putting together viable schedules for Hayley and Matt this year. Hayley has overlapping classes--First quarter Concert band goes from like 11-12 and AP Comp goes from 11:30 to 12:30. And she has an open period (unasked for) at the end of the day. Really, high school? Also, during quarter 2 and 4, Matt has concurrent classes. We really like quarter 4--Spanish and Science for first hour. We were thinking perhaps they are going to teach Science in the Spanish language. Also also, Matt has been put in the marching band for first quarter, hence the spats and a hat title. As long as I have had kids in this school district, freshmen aren't in marching band unless they are also in Wind Ensemble (like Paul). Matt is not in Wind Ensemble. So I thought, OK fine, they must need trombone players in marching band and then he'll be in the fre