Fun Band Activities

Parts of summer band are actually pretty fun. This year the band had a swim party, a movie night where they had the entire theatre to themselves for a screening of The Mummy 3 (not a great movie, but a fun evening), and one of the perenial favorites--skate night at the Aerodrome. This was held on Aug 14th, and the kids had a great time hanging out and ice skating . They also played broom hockey. Here is a picture taken of team Rachel and Erin were on.

Pretty intimidating, huh?

Let's hear it for the girls!

Another fun part of summer band is the kidnapping of the underclassman. It's usually done by the upperclassmen of each section, but Rachel joined in on the Low Brass 'Napping on Aug. 22 so she could be in on the fun with Erin. They weren't too mean to the youngsters, but I think Rachel definately had more fun than Erin.

Gotcha!

Erin just escapes a water balloon.

A visit to Southern Utah

Greg and I took a quick trip to Southern Utah this past week to help Mom and Dad with a few projects. We flew into Vegas on Thursday and then rented a car and drove to Toquerville. It was a good visit. Greg helped fix a rain gutter, a leaky pipe on the pasture, and rebuild Mom & Dad’s back stairs—along with a couple of other small projects. We also went up onto the mountain and had dinner at the trailer. That was a lot of fun. It was a cool, beautiful evening. I do really miss the mountains!

Coming home was a challenge. All the flights from Vegas were full and I wasn’t sure we were going to make it home yesterday. I thought I had figured out a way, but it meant flying Delta to Atlanta and then Atlanta to Houston. Not the most appealing trip, but since we were trying to avoid our rental car almost doubling in cost as well as trying to get Greg home so he could work on Tuesday we headed to Vegas. When we got to the Continental desk to buy our passes on Delta, the agent talked us out of our planned route. First she suggested flying Southwest Airlines into Hobby, but since our car was at IAH, we wanted to try to avoid that. She then suggested trying US air through Phoenix instead. This had been our original plan, but when I called US earlier that morning they told me their flights were mostly full. But since the Continental agent suggested this route, I decided things must have change. So we bought our passes and then went over to the US Air desk to work out our reservation. After winding through a very long line, we learned that things had changed on the US Air flights. Unfortunately, they had gotten worse. But this agent suggested we go try Southwest because they had just started accepting the type of employee passes we had. What did we have to lose—other than spending the night in Vegas? We walked down to the SWA desk, only to discover another very long line. Luckily they had a small counter to the side to help people who weren’t checking bags. So we went to that desk and very quickly had tickets to Phoenix on a flight that was wide open. Since the Continental flight from Phoenix to Houston was also wide open, we were thrilled because we knew we were actually going to make it home. So we learned two important standby lessons on this trip. Never try to fly out of Vegas on a Monday, and Southwest is a viable partner to fly on (something I had never considered before). I wonder how long it will take me to understand this system completely?

Summer Band Begins

After a couple of months of instruments just sitting in their cases not being touched, August 6 marked the time to dust them off for the beginning of summer band. This is our official sign that the summer is over, and is a pretty sad day for high school band members. This was especially true for us this year. We had a great summer and it would have been wonderful for it to continue! The week got off to a rough start as Rachel had a stomach bug and missed two days of practice. In the past, this would have been a nightmare. However, the band a new head director, Mr. Chote, who is was wonderful about it. He has a family with small children and seems to understand that although band it a big part of the kids’ lives, it is not there entire lives. I think I'm going to like him. A lot! Here's a photo of him and his adorable son.

I can’t believe that Erin is going to be in high school this year. The house was so quiet once band started—and I am not sure I like it. But the beginning of Marching season is going well. Erin seems to be enjoying it so far, although she does complain about the heat—who can blame her. She was awarded a marching spot, which made her very excited as very few Freshman got them. Rachel won an award for most spirited senior at the band’s movie night, so she obviously is having a good time. Hopefully this is the beginning of a great year for both the girls.

Still a Continental employee!!!

Gas prices have gone crazy this year. In Houston this month it has been around $3.60 a gallon. It is so painful to fill up my car! And it's also been painful to the airline industry. At work we get constant updates on the cost of jet fuel and what that means for our profitability. It's not good. On June 5th Continental announced they would be reducing capacity, fleet and staffing due to the cost of jet fuel, which at the time was over $151 a barrel--a 75% increase from a year ago. Yikes! This reduction would amount to sixty-seven mainline aircraft being retired from service and 3,000 jobs being eliminated. This totally bummed me out because I love my job (especially the flight benefits) and since I am on the bottom of the seniority ladder, the furlough could, and probably would, affect me. Such an sad thought!

When the furlough was announced, we were told that 150 full time equivalent jobs would be eliminated. The first phase of the furlough was to offer COLAs (Company Offered Leave of Absence) for 6, 9, 12 L& 15 months. With a COLA, you get to keep all your benefits and seniority level, and are just off for the time period you request. These were offered to employees who had been with the company for at least 3 years, which means I was not eligible. They also offered early retirement packages to people. Between these two programs, our management was hopeful that they could avoid involuntary layoffs, but it all depended on how many people signed up. I worried about this for a while, but finally decided that this was a wonderful job and I was going to enjoy it as long as I had it. I really felt like the Lord had lead me to this job, and even though we would miss the flight benefits (something we are now getting very used to), I was just going to have faith that if I got laid off everything would be alright. You would think by this point in my life I wouldn't have a problem actively using this type of thinking. But I am worrier by nature, and this instance was no exception. But once I came to this conclusion, I felt so much better. I love the peace that comes from trusting in the Lord!

Well, this week I got some excellent news. Enough people had signed up for COLAs and early retirement, that the only people they were going to furlough were those who had termination warnings in their files. I was so relieved! Hopefully the leaves will get the company through this tough financial time and I’ll be able to be a Continental employee for a very long time! Now, where do I want to fly?

Melissa survives another summer with ABT

Melissa just finished up her third summer working as a mentor at the American Ballet Theatre's summer intensive in Austin. This year she was one of the mentor supervisors, so she was able to gain some new work experience while still being able to work directly with the girls--which is what she loves about this job.

Rachel, Erin and I went up to Austin to see the final performance, and had to agree with Melissa that her group had the coolest dance number. There really are some amazing young dancers that attend this camp. While Melissa finished up her work, Rae, Erin and I went and played in Barton Springs. This was our first time to swim there and we had so much fun we decided we definitely need to come back. Once Melissa was checked out, we helped her move back to her apartment and then took her home to Houston for the weekend.

ABT has been an experience for Melissa. She has really enjoyed being able to work with the girls in a dance environment. Hopefully she can find a similar full-time job once she graduates.