Audition - Day 1

Well, James has successfully completed Day One of the Old Guard audition. He had to pass a 30 minute standing still test and learn the OG's marching commands. Tomorrow he will have to march while playing a piece as well as perform several different pieces of music. He's pretty excited about the opportunity and I know we are all rooting for him!!

Still Practicing

James has put in several hours already practicing for his audition this coming week. He is in the back room practicing now before he heads over to his drum instructor's house for more practice. He has all the pieces down that he will have to play and is now praticing them over and over to fine tune his performance on each one. (Each contestant is required to memorize three pieces of music that the Old Guard sends them ahead of time, as well as a memorized solo of their own choosing and open and close several rudiments.)

James normally plays on a stationary drum, but the Old Guard uses rope drums that you carry on a sling. Fortunately, one of his drumming buddies has a sling drum (it's not a rope drum, but much closer than a traditional snare) that he has let James borrow to practice on. James also got new marching shoes this week because his old ones are buried somewhere in storage. He will have to march both days of the audition, so the Old Guard recommended wearing marching shoes. Here's a pix of him with the sling drum wearing his marching shoes to break them in.

(And don't worry - he won't be wearing shorts with white socks when it comes to the audition day!) I have to say that I can't wait until Thursday to see what he finds out! We'll definitely keep everyone posted.

Done with MEPS

James is back home now after a looooooong day at MEPS. He had to get up at 3:45 this morning so he could be in the hotel lobby by 4:20 for the shuttle ride over to the MEPS building in downtown Dallas. He spent most of the morning going through medical screenings. He didn't have to take the ASVAB, the aptitude test, since he had already taken it ten years ago when he enlisted in the Marines. That made the day go a bit quicker for him, which was really nice. Afterwards, the recruiter got his plane tickets and hotel reservation made for next week, so he is officially good to go on travel arrangements. He'll be leaving around noon on Tuesday and getting back next Thursday night. It will definitely be a full two and a half days for him!

After I picked him up from the recruiter's office, I realized we were wearing coordinating shirts, so we ran outside really quickly to take a picture or two together. Here's a few of them - the last one is my favorite. The haze is kind of a funky look and I want to take a few more later that I can actually zoom in on without looking washed out.

Last Birthday Before Baby

At 36 1/2 weeks, today was my last birthday BC (before children). It might almost be sad to say good-bye to a whole era of my life if it weren't for the fact that I am so ready for Ian to be here. The last 25 have been good, and I am looking forward to what the next several will bring. (That's part of the reason for starting this blog - to document our family events and to have an easier way to share them with everyone.)

James got me yellow roses for my birthday - aren't they pretty?

My first birthday picture pregnant!

James had to check into a hotel in Dallas tonight so he can get up at an unearthly hour tomorrow to start the MEPS testing for the Army Fife and Drum Corps. The preliminary medical and aptitude testing is required before his audition for the Corps in Washington DC next week. Normally the recruiter takes the recruitee to the hotel and checks him in, but since it was my birthday, they were nice enough to let me take him instead. We went and checked in late this afternoon and then headed to Chili's for dinner.

At Chili's, the guy seated us in the bar area. I'm not quite sure why - I couldn't have had anything to drink even if I wanted to. Then the waitress came by and almost seemed upset that we didn't want margaritas. At that point, I was getting pretty nauseous and the smell of alcohol wasn't helping. So James was nice enough to move us (he did ask first, but wouldn't have taken no for answer). They had a lot of open seats, but sat us in a booth back to back with a family. I know they do this for waitressing purposes, but that family had a few margaritas and for some reason, that smell was really getting to me. So we moved to the other side of the booth, which fortunately worked out fine. Our new waiter apparently had three sisters who all had kids, so he was quite familiar with pregnant women and wasn't the least put off that I had moved or didn't want a margarita. He was actually pretty friendly the whole time. We got to talking with him and the manager, who stopped by on his rounds. They gave us a molten chocolate lava cake (yummy!) for dessert since it was my birthday. We were too full to finish it, but it was good anyways.

Afterwards, we went to Target and bought a crib mattress and then to a nearby park and sat on a bench and talked for a while. It was nice to have all the down time together. While I hope we don't have long before Ian gets here, I enjoy the time we still have with just the two of us.

False Alarm!

I cannot even begin to tell you how excited I was yesterday to think that day might have been the day! I am soooooooo ready for this little munchkin to be here. I'm tired of being pregnant, tired of being sick, and want this baby out! My birthday is in two days and having Ian today would have been the perfect birthday present.

It all started around 8pm this evening when James and I were lounging in bed and I thought my water had broken. I really wasn't sure though, so we called the doctor and he asked a few questions before telling us to head up to the hospital. Let's just say James and I had been doing our part to help start labor that afternoon, so we thought it might be time! To make a long story short, we went to the hospital to find out that it was just residual bath water (gross, I know - but there's a lot about pregnancy and birth that is gross, so get used to it!). While we were disappointed not to be meeting our little Five, we were also glad that he would have a bit more time to develop in utero.

At least our trial run through went well. Here's Ian's car seat and diaper bag all ready to go. Aunt Lissie's Froggie for Ian came along for the ride.

Mommy-to-be and Daddy-to-be.

Tummy view! (Just in case it was the last one, we had to take the pix.)

Froggie in the hospital bed...all ready for his new little buddy!

So the waiting game continues. We'll all be glad when Ian gets here!