Surprises - I'd like to go without, thank you.

Tonight was Anna's 6th grade band concert. There are 149 beginning musicians in the band, and in all it was quite the event.

Anna did really well, although she was pretty down on herself afterwards. She's the first chair baritone, and had high expectations for her performance that apparently she didn't quite live up to. Hopefully this will just be more motivation to practice hard do better next time.

We pulled out the old video camera (I think we win the prize for largest, oldest camcorder at the school) and after adjusting the packing tape holding the eye piece in place we set to work recording the concert.

About half way through, Alyssa started to cough. Long time readers of this blog know that an Alyssa cough can be bad news - she tends to cough and cough until she throws up.

We made it to within three feet of the toilet. She almost missed her shirt.

Anyway, it's a good thing that Kara was taping the concert. I look forward to seeing the rest of it.

Afterwards, we rushed out to the van in the biting wind (it was 75 degrees yesterday; 25 degrees tonight), got everyone loaded up and drove home. When we were unloading the van, I discovered that my cell phone was not on my hip. It must have fallen off when I was hustling Alyssa to the bathroom. It does that some times.

I got everyone into the house, and sped back to the school. I thought about having Kara call my number to see if someone would pick up, but of course, as we were at a concert, I had switched the phone to vibrate.

Just as I parked the van, the lights in the auditorium foyer shut off. I bounded from the van and ran to the front door, barely catching the people coming out. The let me in, and told me to go back to the band room where someone would be able to let me into the auditorium.

The auditorium is big, and I hoped I would be able to remember the row we were in. As I looked near the row where we were sitting, I saw a cap sitting on the back of the chair. At least I'm not the only one who lost something I thought. Then I realized it was my hat - my good one with the Diamond Twin Star embroidered on the front. I ran and got it, and there under the chair was my phone. Hooray!

Although everything worked out in the end, I must say I'm about done with surprises for today. Well, except for the Christmas fudge the neighbors surprised us with. I'm still not done with that yet.