Josh's First Competition
Josh's band had the Orem Showcase on Saturday, September 16th. It was a long day that started at 9:00AM in the band room and ended (at least for Josh & I) well after 9:00PM. The kids performed in the early afternoon at Orem high school in front of four judges who would be giving feedback and working with them immediately after their show concluded. Dr. Keck (mine and Josh's Band Director from UVU), took the winds and went through the show with them.
Afterwards, Josh came up to me and told me that the judge he had been working with and talking to for the last thirty minutes, had told him that his tiny band from Spanish Fork wouldn't be "competitive" or able to place this season. He informed Josh that the other bands in the 2A Class were "bigger", which therefore meant that they were better. Now, I love a big band. There's just something about getting your face blown off by a huge group of kids who are playing their guts out on a football field. But this judges comment immediately irked me.
Josh was pretty heavy with discouragement and said, "Now what am I supposed to do? He basically just told me that no matter what I do, no matter how hard I work with these kids, we won't be successful this season." I felt myself getting frustrated and protective. How could this man tell Josh that his band wouldn't amount to much this year? Wasn't he supposed to be helping him become a better teacher by giving him comments and suggestions to improve the band that he has to work with right now?
Instead of letting the kids notice his disappointment, he stood on top of a park lunch table while we waited for pizza to arrive for lunch and told them that he was proud of how far they had come and was excited to see where they would end up if they continued to push themselves and work hard.
After lunch, we headed back to Orem high school to get ready for their second performance of the day. While this next show would not be judged and ranked, it was still treated like any normal competition. The kids did their visual warm up with Dylan (Josh's visual & brass tech) and then got into their uniforms while they waited to begin music warm up. The warm up was great. The kids ended on an inspiration high as Josh said just the right things to fill them with the positive energy they needed to kill it out on the football field. They did spectacular. It was their best show at that point and they gave it their all. They came off the field beaming, as did the rest of the staff.
The kids worked hard with Josh the next week to change and improve the things the judges suggested they should. Their next performance was at Payson high school on Saturday, September 23 and they were ready!
Unfortunately, I had an Event for work that I was committed to being at in Salt Lake City on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. Since I am the Photographer at my office at Thanksgiving Point, I was in charge of documenting this event. It was so much fun to meet people from my company that I only ever interact with online. And of course, I loved being there because I was doing something that I absolutely love. It was fun to walk around and capture so many happy and beautiful smiling faces. The end of the weekend resulted in many, many compliments on my work. The photos received a large response online and everyone that was at the event began telling me how much they loved looking through my pictures. Carol, the head of our company, said (talking about my photos), "They've far surpassed any of my expectations!" Of course, I loved hearing that!
Upon returning home, my boss, Tim (our Design Manager), brought me in a mason jar of flowers that he had purchased for Katie (our Videographer) and I and said, "Cambri! Thank you for doing such wonderful work this weekend and for having so much fun with me." This made me smile and I felt grateful that I have such a great job with so many great colleagues surrounding me.
When I found out that Josh's first real competition as a band director with his first group of kids would be on one of the days I was out of town, I felt sick. I wanted to make sure that I was at every single event to show my support and love. I especially felt bad because this was his first competition.
I was constantly checking my phone the entire day, waiting until the awards at 4:30 in the afternoon. A little after 4:00, I found out that Josh's mom, Christine, was at the high school with a close family friend. I called her as fast as I could and ran down the stairs to the hotel lobby where I had been staying the past few nights. She told me about their performance and how they had done an amazing job. I felt so proud. Maple Mountain won the caption for Outstanding Visual Performance and took second place with a score of 69.463, only 0.2 points away from the first place winner, Lehi.
It had been a long week and a half for me. I, for some reason, had been feeling very emotional and can't think of a single day that I hadn't cried my eyes out. I was beginning to wonder how it was possible for my eyes to create so many tears. I thought for sure I'd run out of them eventually. And Saturday, I finally almost did. It was the first day that I had woken up and wasn't wondering when I was going to cry that day.
Hearing the news that my husband's little band from Spanish Fork, Utah took second place made me tear up again. This time, they were very happy tears that had welled up with a whole lot of pride in them. The next competition will be at BYU on October, 10. We can't wait to see how the kids continue to do and are secretly hoping for a first place trophy this season!
Josh and I met on Saturday night in American Fork to celebrate both of our successful weekends by having dinner together. Even though I had only been gone two nights, it felt like an eternity. Desperately wanting to be with him throughout the weekend made seeing him again that much more special. It brought me so much joy to spend time with him, discussing our happy thoughts and emotions of what had happened earlier that day. Josh was completely and totally happy and we are absolutely thrilled. Go Maple Mountain!!
Afterwards, Josh came up to me and told me that the judge he had been working with and talking to for the last thirty minutes, had told him that his tiny band from Spanish Fork wouldn't be "competitive" or able to place this season. He informed Josh that the other bands in the 2A Class were "bigger", which therefore meant that they were better. Now, I love a big band. There's just something about getting your face blown off by a huge group of kids who are playing their guts out on a football field. But this judges comment immediately irked me.
Josh was pretty heavy with discouragement and said, "Now what am I supposed to do? He basically just told me that no matter what I do, no matter how hard I work with these kids, we won't be successful this season." I felt myself getting frustrated and protective. How could this man tell Josh that his band wouldn't amount to much this year? Wasn't he supposed to be helping him become a better teacher by giving him comments and suggestions to improve the band that he has to work with right now?
Instead of letting the kids notice his disappointment, he stood on top of a park lunch table while we waited for pizza to arrive for lunch and told them that he was proud of how far they had come and was excited to see where they would end up if they continued to push themselves and work hard.
After lunch, we headed back to Orem high school to get ready for their second performance of the day. While this next show would not be judged and ranked, it was still treated like any normal competition. The kids did their visual warm up with Dylan (Josh's visual & brass tech) and then got into their uniforms while they waited to begin music warm up. The warm up was great. The kids ended on an inspiration high as Josh said just the right things to fill them with the positive energy they needed to kill it out on the football field. They did spectacular. It was their best show at that point and they gave it their all. They came off the field beaming, as did the rest of the staff.
The kids worked hard with Josh the next week to change and improve the things the judges suggested they should. Their next performance was at Payson high school on Saturday, September 23 and they were ready!
Unfortunately, I had an Event for work that I was committed to being at in Salt Lake City on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. Since I am the Photographer at my office at Thanksgiving Point, I was in charge of documenting this event. It was so much fun to meet people from my company that I only ever interact with online. And of course, I loved being there because I was doing something that I absolutely love. It was fun to walk around and capture so many happy and beautiful smiling faces. The end of the weekend resulted in many, many compliments on my work. The photos received a large response online and everyone that was at the event began telling me how much they loved looking through my pictures. Carol, the head of our company, said (talking about my photos), "They've far surpassed any of my expectations!" Of course, I loved hearing that!
Upon returning home, my boss, Tim (our Design Manager), brought me in a mason jar of flowers that he had purchased for Katie (our Videographer) and I and said, "Cambri! Thank you for doing such wonderful work this weekend and for having so much fun with me." This made me smile and I felt grateful that I have such a great job with so many great colleagues surrounding me.
When I found out that Josh's first real competition as a band director with his first group of kids would be on one of the days I was out of town, I felt sick. I wanted to make sure that I was at every single event to show my support and love. I especially felt bad because this was his first competition.
I was constantly checking my phone the entire day, waiting until the awards at 4:30 in the afternoon. A little after 4:00, I found out that Josh's mom, Christine, was at the high school with a close family friend. I called her as fast as I could and ran down the stairs to the hotel lobby where I had been staying the past few nights. She told me about their performance and how they had done an amazing job. I felt so proud. Maple Mountain won the caption for Outstanding Visual Performance and took second place with a score of 69.463, only 0.2 points away from the first place winner, Lehi.
It had been a long week and a half for me. I, for some reason, had been feeling very emotional and can't think of a single day that I hadn't cried my eyes out. I was beginning to wonder how it was possible for my eyes to create so many tears. I thought for sure I'd run out of them eventually. And Saturday, I finally almost did. It was the first day that I had woken up and wasn't wondering when I was going to cry that day.
Hearing the news that my husband's little band from Spanish Fork, Utah took second place made me tear up again. This time, they were very happy tears that had welled up with a whole lot of pride in them. The next competition will be at BYU on October, 10. We can't wait to see how the kids continue to do and are secretly hoping for a first place trophy this season!
Josh and I met on Saturday night in American Fork to celebrate both of our successful weekends by having dinner together. Even though I had only been gone two nights, it felt like an eternity. Desperately wanting to be with him throughout the weekend made seeing him again that much more special. It brought me so much joy to spend time with him, discussing our happy thoughts and emotions of what had happened earlier that day. Josh was completely and totally happy and we are absolutely thrilled. Go Maple Mountain!!
Nebo Competition at Payson High School
The cute flowers that my boss, Tim, got for me.
Love it
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