Adam Cornwall and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very BAD Day

Did you ever have one of the days when you go to work and work really hard, but you feel like you accomplished nothing. I did. Maybe I'll move to Australia.

Today, my sixth graders couldn't play eighth notes to save their life. What happened to the last 2 months of working on eighth notes? Do you think people in Australia can play eighth notes?

My seventh and eighth grade band drummers wouldn't listen, my flutes were flat, and I have a broken saxophone. My bass clarinetist always has to tell me who is misbehaving and I had a trumpet player throw up. I need to move to Australia.

My music appreciation kids are bored and three of them say it's the sixth grades fault (I have 6th-8th grade in this class) what's not exciting about podcasting. Maybe if it was in Australia.

When I came, I wanted to finish arranging a piece for my high school band. The file wasn't on my flash drive. I think I saved it in Australia.

I wanted to cry, but my children wanted to play. I guess I will have to cry another day.

Kelly says some days are just no good... even in Australia.

Band Camp

Last week I had a short little band camp for my small band. I was pretty proud of the work the kids put in when they showed up to rehearsal. We learned 10 songs and then had a performance on Saturday. Our performance was for Rainier's little festival they have every year called Rainier Round-up Days. Not the most exciting festival, but it was a great opportunity for the kids to play at a community event and be seen as not just a band that plays for sporting events. We played for a car show section of the festival and only played for about 15 minutes, but we had a crowd of about 75 people just standing around listening to us play. I think we sounded pretty good and I think we will do it again next year.

House

If you didn't know Kelly and I have now bought a house. We painted the majority of the inside Thursday, Friday, and Saturday while Grandpa Acheson worked on the plumbing in the bathroom. We are kind of scrambling right now because school starts up very soon and we were actually supposed to close on the house July 17. Unfortunately for us the USDA was about a month behind in processing their rural development loans. That only cost us $2000 in per diam. On the other hand, we have a great house that we bought for $20,000 less than it is worth. Yeah instant equity!!!

I don't think the reality of the whole thing has hit us yet. I think it will when we are actually in the house and not painting it.

The really great thing about this house is Mackenzie already went next door and made friends with a girl named Taylor. Taylor is the same age as Mackenzie and they get along really well.

I can't wait for Mom and Dad to get home so Dad and I can work on projects together.

Tomorrow's project: Go under the house and assess the damage while I hook up our dryer vent that fell off.

Outside games

Mackenzie has started to invent her own games. The other day we were outside and she really wanted me to play her new game with her. The new game is called Ka-Koh. I don't know how she came up with the name, but there you go. I asked her how to play Ka-Koh and from what I gather everyone spins around in a circle and the last one to fall over because they are so dizzy is the winner. My head only lasted two rounds of the game. Now she wants to play it more often. I don't know. I think we need to change the game a little.

The other game she likes to play is duck duck goose. Let me tell you it is pure excitement with just three people. Spencer has no clue what's going on he just likes to bop people on the head, Mackenzie likes to run around the circle, and I like watching my kids have fun and feed off each other.

What other summer outdoorsy type games can I play with my 3 year old and 18 month old?

iPhone editorial

One of my favorite teachers at WSU, who only taught one year as a visiting professor, writes editorials every once in a while. I enjoyed this editorial about the iPhone and more generally all the little gadgets that spring up that we think we can't survive without.

check it out here.

Summer Fun!

Summer is here which means Kelly goes to work. She is involved in a Summer Theater program that takes up here day from 9-5. I have the wonderful time to be with the kids for the summer. Yesterday we went to Tolmie State Park at the Advise of my mom. The tide was really low almost a -5. Mackenzie didn't want to walk to the water, but Spencer and I did. I ended up carrying both of them for while.

As we were getting ready to walk up the trail to go home, a nice man showed us his find from the low tide. He found a baby octopus. That made my day and the kids liked it too.

We also saw jelly fish.


And Spencer liked the Sand Dollars.

Tuba

My high school band is rather small. This year I had 6 people in the band. It is really hard to find music for six people when they are on such different playing levels. This year I played the TUBA with the high school band as well as the Trumpet and Trombone. Here is a little clip from our end of the year concert with me on the TUBA. You might need to turn up you speakers a little bit it is not the best recording. I am playing my arrangement of a piece called "Military Escort" written for Flute, Oboe, Clarinet, Tenor Sax, Trombone, Tuba, and Drum.