Tomorrow, no one knows. But my favorite post was the one about my grateful little Curly and his sweet prayer . We buried my sweet grandma today. I was not looking forward to facing the reality that she was gone. Looking forward to hearing from you. He was by far the best looking pallbearer… I met with cousins I hadn’t seen in 20 years. My little boys and a couple of their cousins wanted to look down in the hole so I took them to the edge. Plus various other cousins and relatives. This same dogged determination of his was expressed through the band and was never more prevalent than in the early years when he was striving to achieve his ultimate aim. We hugged and cried and laughed and then hugged some more. After an hour of more hugging and visiting, we loaded back in the van. I will be at the freshman campus location for the proper hour of open house tonight, and at the 10-12 for the rest of the time. YOU WILL NOT HAVE TIME TO GET IT LATER. The Dog Walker had a Marching Band competition about an hour away and we had to have him there by 4:30. He joined his group about ten minutes before they took the field to perform.

It was a pretty impressive group! I led those so that she could sing with the group. Then he gently led them all back away from the hole and they brought the casket in. Then we all piled back in the van and drove half an hour back to the church for Drum Corps Videos lunch. After the funeral we drove for another half an hour to the cemetery where Grandma’s first husband was buried. It makes me remember why I started this blog in the first place, to record the crazy happy fleeting moments. December was busy and crazy and Drum Corps Videos full of family activities and fun. We had a bunch of birthdays, Bossy turned 27, Dog Walker turned 18, Scout turned 6, and Taco turned 7. And our Thanksgiving was an amazing time filled with family and fun. Scout had her very first visit from the tooth fairy. We shared several stories about Halloweens past including a vintage Cheetah costume worn by all of our kids down to Scout that was originally made for my sweetie.

Religion permeates the world with fear, plants the seeds of destruction, and clamps down on independent thought. Remember that my sweetie thought that meant we needed new countertops too? Doesn’t my sweetie look good in black? The funeral directors were so good! I don’t know why we all have to wait for a funeral to reconnect! If you have an interesting talent (could even be non music related), we would love to see what it is! The Dog Walker put up another awesome light display and our extended family love the annual Christmas party. Christmas Eve meant Christmas jammies, and Christmas day was filled with happiness and love. My favorite post had little to do with Christmas, in fact it was a camping story that couldn’t be told until Christmas was over. We shared tons of Christmas memories and traditions. It’s funny, we all had different memories of Grandma, but they were kind of all the same. All the same great music, concerts, and wonderful things that are band will be back next year. It’s like we learned the same lessons from her but all in a different way.

In our house we can’t really afford piano lessons so we require several years of band in elementary and middle school. It makes me sad that I didn’t start years ago. Students who plan to participate in Howell High School Highlander Marching Band in the 2017 -2018 school year must attend camp in August. As those of you who read the September issue of this newsletter will know, in every issue I’m choosing a piece of literature to reflect on for wisdom and inspiration. We did not have band camps, because they were too expensive, but we practiced and drilled all summer long with out ban director, who was a retired US Navy Officer. Basic software documents like requirements, use cases, user studies, etc. have quick expiration dates. This genre comprised of various types of music like German military songs, German soldier songs, German band music and marching music. Afterwards, Native Americans served in the US military in every war fought. The mall was filled with people of all nations, not only Native American Nations, but most others as well.