Saturday...

So this week the Orchestra Teacher asked for help on taking the orchestra kids on a field trip to Abilene High School on Saturday evening. So I volunteered, thinking it's not a big deal going on the bus, watching the kids, watching the performance, making sure all the kids make it back to the bus after the performance...yeah, that's what I thought and I volunteered!

Friday, during School,  I was handed a pile of tickets and told the Orchestra Teacher was sick and even went to the emergency room the night before. There was no list of students who were going and I was now in charge, luckily there was one other 'Aide' who I knew was going which made me feel better.

Well, I got the Teacher's home phone and email and emailed her. She did call me at work and we talked. I got a few more permission slips from the substitute teacher and went on the way to the teacher's house to pick up the list of students. I thought there were about two buses, well, there were four! The list turned in to a big mumble jumble and I went home and made a new list...152 students signed up to go on this trip...help!!!

Okay, there was a teacher and his wife who went with their son, their was a secretary who also signed up and a handful of parents also...great, now at least I know I have help!

Sorted the kids on the four buses, but an adult in charge of each with a bus list, and I had the main list. Got all kids assigned, and the Orchestra Teacher, on antibiotics, showed up also. The buses got loaded with the kids (about 10 were missing on each bus, just didn't show up) and we all had a great time driving to AHS. Found our seats (some kids got to sit even further up front as there weren't enough spaces saved) and the show was on.

The opening act was Revolution  (click to see their website and hear the music while you read), directed by Darcy Radcliffe (her husband is the speech teacher at my school), the finest string players from the Abilene High and Cooper High School Orchestra programs. We had some of these players at Madison so it was a double treat to see them.



Then on to Barrage a high-octane fiddle-fest that features an international, multi-talented cast performing an eclectic mix of music, song and dance (they will be in Denmark for the rest of the year!). It was very good and it seemed that most of the kids enjoyed their evening (maybe because they got away from their parents for a few hours?!).



I have to say the performers were very talented and seemed to enjoy their choice of profession (even if Revolution is getting only High School profit out of it right now...they might be able to use it in the future to get those College Loans!).

So, going home we did replace a student. She was supposed to be on one bus but didn't show up on the correct one, plus there were a couple of boys we hope got picked up by their parents...some came and introduced me to their parents, but at least one decided he didn't need to, and that is the one we are missing...hope he shows up in school on Monday.

All in all we had lots of fun and I might do something like this again. I did learn a few helpful things for the next trip, one is, I am not going to be in charge :-)!

So, now you know how I spend my Saturday evening away from my husband with 110 or so kids...am I sane??? (yeah, stupid question I can see the comments now...)!

Kristy wants me to add this picture...she's my boss so I better do it...I actually thought she would put it on her blog, but guess she won't talk about my experience on her blog, so, without further ado, here is the picture...As it kept getting darker and I couldn't read the kids name on my printout, I was smart enough to have thought about that early enough and brought a flashlight along so I would be able to see. What I didn't count on was that I only have two hands, so I had to use my chinn to hold it up...and that is the best picture you have of me??? Oh, well. Btw, this is Molly, Kristy's niece, who was nice enough to hold the flashlight for me after this picture was taken untill she went on the bus and I got the Counselors Secretary to help me out :-) What an evening. Don't ask me how I slept though...