It's that time of year again! So mark your calendars for the 16th & 17th at 7:30pm and the 18th at 2:30pm. We're at the North Thurston Performing Arts Center which is located on the campus of North Thurston HS in Lacey. Admission is free although as always donations are gratefully accepted. The doors open a half an hour before the show. There is no reserved seating.

This concert contains a variety of music. From Bach to Hey, Jude and everything in between. There will be several solos that you will not want to miss! Including the first duet EVER sung by Operagirl and her OperaMan in ten years of marriage! We'll also be giving away three scholarships to local HS Seniors. I hope to see you there! www.olympiachoral.org

Things have just been crazy with this whole levy business. It's horribly frustrating and also stressful. It just kills me that Terry might not have his wonderful amazing program that he, and the students, have worked so hard to get at the level they are at. Somehow he's become the poster child for the levy and three news stations have come and interviewed him. I put links to two of them but couldn't find the KIRO video. I think the KOMO one came out the best. There was also an article in the Olympian.

http://www.king5.com/video/index.html?nvid=241601

http://www.komotv.com/news/18671319.html (click on 'watch the story)

Hi all. As you know, the levy for the North Thurston School District failed and they will be bringing it to vote again in May. This is a replacement levy, not a new levy and so you won't be paying a second amount on top of what you are already paying. If the levy fails the school will have to cut out over 17 million dollars from their operating budget. My husband, who is a choir director, is on the RIF (Reduction In Force) list and could very well be unemployed come next school year. I understand that people feel that the schools don't spend their money well or that they put it in the wrong places but by not voting for this levy you are not hurting anyone but the kids who lose important programs that we all took for granted during our school years. Programs like the performing and visual arts, sports, auto shop, wood shop, gifted and talented programs, etc. (I'll have a list of what will be cut tonight). So if you want to change how our schools are run then I would suggest starting with who we vote into our county and state postitions and also the school board because otherwise it's the kids and those in the front line (the teachers) that are hit hard. Please vote for this levy.

On a totally personal note. This whole thing freaks me out. My husband loves his job and his kids so much. He has built his choirs into an outstanding program. I think when he got there he had 35 kids and now has over 130 kids with 4 choirs and a ManChoir after school. Plus we are a single income family so that is a worry as well. Thanks for reading! =)

I always get a picture of how someone might look (age, style, gender, etc.) in my head simply from reading posts and it's always funny to see if they match up or are WAY off when I actually meet someone or see their profile picture!  Do other people do that or am I just way weird?

This is cross posted from my "real" blog (Olyblog is like a "mistress blog"!) but I thought some might be able to relate...

Clutter. The constant battle. I feel like I am pretty good at keeping up with the "stuff". I try to limit what enters the house and also do regular purges of the kiddie toys since that can get way out of hand due in part to very generous and doting relatives! So I consider my house to be fairly "clutter free" yet it still seems like we have so much STUFF. Too much stuff. I was flipping through the channels yesterday while Judge Judy was at a commercial break and paused on the Oprah show. There was a man talking about two different kinds of clutter and as I listened I had an "aha!" moment! "Memory clutter" and "But I might need/use it someday clutter". That is where a big chunk of my problem is.

As my husband, Terry, is the director I thought I would post this article. =) Make sure to watch the video too...they are funny kids!

MANCHOIR!

I found this wonderful website and had to share!

From the website..."LibriVox volunteers record chapters of books in the public domain and release the audio files back onto the net. Our goal is to make all public domain books available as free audio books."

Enjoy. =)

Music and Life

I can't for the life of me figure out how to put the actual video here but I highly recommend watching this.  I enjoyed it and thought it was a lovely analogy.  =)