I'm Back, and I'm BRAGGING!

Last night we attended Pantego Christian Academy's "Signature Event" which served as the kick-off of their Annual Fund which will finance plans to turn a vacant Stripling & Cox store into a state-of-the-art, high-tech high school. We had one of the tables along the front of the room, presumably because Randy was on the program, and our table happened to be right next to the band director's table.

Prior to eating dinner there was a time to meet and greet other parents and administrators, and my friend Leisha, who has two boys in Band, struck up a conversation with Mr. Brown, the band director. It occurred to me that I had never formally met Mr. Brown (during Back-to-School Night he had to leave unexpectedly and I didn't get to see him), so I decided to introduce myself.

The following exchange is something I really wish I could have captured on video, but Leisha can totally back me up when I say that Mr. Brown seriously admires my band kids. That is, if she's not too jealous. And why would she be? Her senior is the drum major (should that be Drum Major?) for the high school marching band and her 8th grader is an insanely talented trombonist in the jazz band. (Her oldest son was also a National Merit Scholar, so there.)

Here's Daniel between song breaks

Suffice it to say that when I said I was the mom of Tyler and Darcy Todd, an expression akin to ecstasy crossed Mr. Brown's face and he actually seemed speechless for a couple of seconds. His eyes kept fluttering up to the skies as though he was thanking God for her, and he said he was already anticipating Darcy's elevation to high school. He said that until now, the clarinet section had always been his "bane."

"Well, that and percussion." Which led him to extol the virtues of Tyler who, according to Mr. Brown, is better in four months than some of the kids who have been playing percussion for several years. Talk about--*****MAJOR PUN ALERT*****music to this mom's ears! I told Mr. Brown how happy I was to hear him talk this way, especially about Tyler, because Tyler is sort of hard to read sometimes. Mr. Brown asked, "Is he a perfectionist?"

Where in the world would he get that impression???

"Um, yes, actually, he is," said I. "Yeah, I picked up on that, because he gets frustrated easily. But the great thing about Tyler is that he actually practices! He comes to class, pays attention, does what I ask him to and practices at home! It's great!"

I sort of floated back to my chair and silently stopped begrudging those weekly private lesson bills we've been paying since the summer. 'Cause from where I'm sitting, they're totally worth it.

Here's Darcy performing one of the songs the 5th graders will sing at Six Flags in December.

And here is Peyton getting ready to perform a couple of songs from "King of the Jungle," her Fall Musical coming up next week. So fun!