Refereeing

Last night I (Benson)got to ref one of four mats at the middle school's wrestling night because of a few miscommunications with others and a general lack of referees in the area. Amazingly I still remember most of the hand signals and calls after 12 years of not refereeing. Demya is keeping busy with her bands and choirs and I think she is starting to enjoy nursury when there are more than 2 kids in there.

for the news that everyone else wants:

Rollie is now coloring and singing, often at the same time, and he is enthralled with books of every type. He is also turning into a little grappler because of the wrestling he has watched. He has tried to throw kids, ankle pick them, leg-lace them, and generally terrorize any kid within six months of his age because of his trying to practice the moves he has seen.
He has been my little critic for the marching band show I am writing for Demya. If the music gets to dissonant or complicated he will screetch at me until it sound right to him. We've had to make a few compromises for the music to work as planned but he's always been pretty good at discerning the difference between good music and schlop.

Until next time...

the promised pictures

Make a Smilebox greeting

I hope everyone enjoys the slide-show.

"... for the longest time..."

Ok, so I'm not very good at keeping the blog updated. Here are the last three months a la "Reader's Digest Condensed Novel" style. November brought my birthday, the end of football season, and the beginning of wrestling season. It also gave us Thanksgiving, a month without Cady, and a walking and crashing Rollie. December came and went with Demya's birthday, Christmas with its accompanying trips to Salt Lake and Las Vegas, and more of Rollie running around, knocking himself out on the treadle sewing machine, and chasing Cady, Fritz, Mars, and completely terrorising Ceres (the new yapping puppy [a chihuahueno]). January brought us back to Hotchkiss with a running Rollie and an insane Cady. Unfortunately we now have to find a new home for Cady because she reacted to Rollie tripping and falling by biting him. Fortunately Rollie doesn't seem to be affected by the bite at all and still loves to be around the dog, and the bruises and scratches are almost gone after just a week.

Hopefully I can get some pictures and more info up for everyone soon.

Latest and Greatest Photo-op

It's finally here, what you have all been waiting for, me (benson), and my supernatural ability to proceed with an interminable, fantastic run-on sentence leading into recient and "antiquated" (over a month old) pictures of Rollie and, possibly, info of what we've been doing. So, first things first, our time-lapse story of the previous months (because i am so incredibly bad at maintaining the blog). If anyone wants more up-to-date going-on's, give us a jingle. Sooooooooooooo...

Gib-gab has spent the past 3 months trying to figure out the whole balance thing for walking and has nearly accomplished the horrific (for me) act of walking on his own. While he has thus been engaged, Demya has been working at keeping up with her job of maintaining some semblance of anti-chaos in the realm of middle-school and high school bands and high school choirs. Not an easy feat considering that most school districts at least have separate teachers for band and choir if one teacher works in two separate schools. It's been interesting trying to balance marching band regional and state competitions, vocal solo and ensemble competitions and preparing for the requisite choir and band concerts.

I have been working on getting back in shape before my birthday and wrestling season. Other than that I am a very boring person, I haven't even touched my guitars in several months.

Heeeerrrrre's Rollie!!!!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Murdock Update

Here is one of the promised pictures. This was at the parade before the Western Slope Invitational marching band competition on October 3rd. The gentleman who took it was there to get pictures of his son's band from Montezuma-Cortez area and couldn't resist getting a shot of Rollie enjoying the music.

First I have to apologize for the lack of pictures. They will come shortly, but we are in Co. Springs visiting my grandparents this week and we forgot our camera. We have a number of great pictures to share.
Boy, have I been busy these last couple of months. I often feel like I am just barely keeping my head above water. The students are good kids and they are normally very respectful. I have many students that I just adore. I have high school band, 2 high school choirs, and 2 bands in the middle school. That is a wide range of students and lesson plans. I am having a lot of fun with the music classes that I do have.
Benson is keeping busy keeping up with Rollie and me. I have him come in to help me at least once a week in the band and choirs. I honestly don't know what I would do without him. He keeps me sane and keeps track of the little things for me. He has been going on long walks with Rollie and is trying to get into shape for wrestling season (he is going to be an assistant coach this season).
Rollie is growing by leaps and bounds. I swear that last week he grew a whole inch. One day he fit into his clothes, and the next day they were high waters. He now has 6 teeth and is getting ever closer to walking. He loves books and his grandma Murdock brought him some really great ones when she and Grandpa Murdock came to visit last week. He loves them!! He will pull them out of the bookshelf and look at them or bring them over to Mommy or Daddy to read. He plays peek-a-boo all the time and on the occasional game will say "peeeee-a- booooo" ADORABLE. He sings and jabbers all the time. Benson has even nick named him "Gib-Gab." He will sing along with the band and the choirs if he thinks that they are doing well and scream if they are not performing the music correctly. We are so very lucky to have this sweet, funny, cute, little guy in our lives.
We are all doing well and as I have already said we will post pictures later. Keep us in your prayers. We thank you for all of your support!

Hello Again, Hello...

Sorry about the delay in new information and pictures of Rollie, we've been BUSY. So, recap of the last month and a half. Demya got the band and choir director position at Hotchkiss High School and Hotchkiss K-8 School and has been running non-stop trying to get her rooms together, Marching Band started, and pieces picked out for the choirs. Rollie and I have been helping her do this and we've been taking 2-5 mile walks up and down the mesas that surround town. Cady is her normal cranky self but is slowly adjusting to life without Mars to play with. The day before we moved to Hotchkiss, CO we had Rollie's baby blessing. Thank you to everyone that came and we understand that we gave rather short notice for everyone that wasn't able to come. The week we arrived in Hotchkiss Rollie decided it was time to officially put in his first two teeth. He's been biting everything, including Cady, ever since. He has also decided he is going to walk as soon as he gets this whole "balance thing" down and has been practicing pulling himself up on everything and everyone, Cady included to her substantial chagrin. Demya's Marching Band kids have fallen in love with Rollie and steal him from each other every time he comes to a rehearsal. Tooki, the gerbil, has been given to a safer home where he'll get the attention he needs. The week after we arrived in town Hotchkiss hosted the Delta County Fair. About 80% of Demya's students were somehow involved with the fair through 4-H, FFA, and their families submitting stock and crafts for the exhibitions. The fair closed with a parade that Rollie and Cady thoroughly enjoyed, though Cady was unsure of the "very tall, strange-smelling, funny-looking dogs" or, as we know them, horses. She was sure they were going to eat her and Rollie in one gulp. Forunately, everyone survived the parade.

Demya survived the first 3 days of school, and I survived the last week and half of Rollie wanting his mommy and not getting her. We came to an understanding of eachother after the first week, he wouldn't screetch at me and I wouldn't put him is crib and walk away. Things are much more pleasant now.

Now that we know where the local internet hot-spots are we'll keep the blog more up-to-date.

We're moving!!!!

I got a job!!!! This week we went up to Colorado with dual purpose: to see my grandparents, and to meet with the principal of Hotchkiss high school. On Thursday evening, I met with Mr. Beard and was quite ecsited to stay an extra day to be able to meet with Mrs. Coats, the K-8 principal. This job is much like what I did as a student teacher. I am exsighted to take on the job as music director in this cute small town. It has every possiblity of becoming a home for our little family. I think that we have a place to rent there as soon as we are ready to move there. AND if and of you are band people you know that I need to be getting there ASAP because band camp needs to start here in a couple of weeks and I need to have things picked out and ready for the year before the school year starts. I have my work cut out for me, but I think that I can do it.
Thank you all for your prayers on our part!!