AWESOME Day… Almost Perfect!

Today was a GREAT day!  I got out of work early for an Oakbrook IT picnic at a nearby park.  We had a great time and had lots of food to eat and games to play.  I was there for a couple of hours and then had to leave to see Sarah play in the marching band for the Metea Valley High School home opener football game.

I was going to go over straight from work to meet the family at the stadium, but Angela wasn’t feeling well (back pain – more on that later) and so I drove home, picked up Kirstyn, Zachary, and Ben (Brittany was still at Cross Country practice) and took them to the game with me while Angela stayed at home.  The game was GREAT and Sarah and the Marching Band looked very professional!

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TMetea-FootballOpener3he halftime show went very well!  They went out on the field and started it with the Metea Valley fight song (shown above) and then performed their halftime show, the “Magical Mystery Tour” featuring selections from the Beatles.  They looked very professional out there and very crisp.  Sarah really loves performing in the band this year.  The band director is absolutely wonderful.  She enjoyed the experience last year, but this year is a whole new thing.  The director is much more relaxed, LOVES to have fun, and is great to be around.  All the kids REALLY enjoy him.  She also loves being a marching leader which is giving her some leadership experience.  It’s great to see her out there leading the kids she is responsible for.  🙂

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Metea-FootballOpener4The football game also went wonderfully well.  The Mustangs looked GREAT, especially for a team of just freshmen and sophomores!  The Mustangs beat the De La Salle Meteors by a score of 28-13!  Zachary was very excited at the end of the game.  The starting quarterback and team captain (Jarrett House) is a buddy of his from Seminary carpooling last year.  Every day when Angela would drive, Zach would come with and Jarrett would hop in the back and have great conversations with him.  At the end of the game, Zach ran over and waved to Jarrett as he was coming off the field.  Jarrett waved back and then ran out of his way to give Zach a high five and talk to him.  Zach was thinking he was pretty cool because the star football player paid him some attention!  🙂

Brittany also found out some GREAT news today as well!  Last week she tried out for 4 musical things:  1) Chamber Orchestra, 2) Honors Chorus, 3) IMEA (Illinois Music Education Association) participation, and 4) Solo and Ensemble participation.  She made ALL 4!  🙂  She was soooooo excited!  Last year she didn’t make Chamber or Honors Chorus and was very disappointed, but not this year!  She will be a very busy girl before school most days of the week, as these groups don’t practice during school hours.  She will participate in the Solo and Ensemble festival later this year.

When we got home from the game, Angela was in so much pain she couldn’t even stand.  She was in tears it was so bad. Every time she would move, her back would cramp up and the muscles in the lower right side of her back would spasm.  🙁  She said it was worse than labor pains, and she has a VERY high tolerance for pain.  After all, she has had 5 babies and has put up with me for almost 19 years!  🙂  We ended up going to the emergency room at the hospital at about 11pm and were there until around 2am.  They put her on and IV and gave her some pretty strong pain killers and muscle relaxants.  Needless to say, we didn’t get much sleep tonight!  🙁  Hopefully with the prescriptions she was given, things will start looking up and she will feel better soon!  It’s very interesting (and frustrating) for her that up until last November, she had never been in the hospital herself for anything other than births, and now she has been there 3 times in less than a year!  😐