Checking In Part 2

I passed my qualifying for competition. I ended up turning in a tape or rather recording it during rehearsal on my iPod and emailing it to my section leader. I wish I could get over my fear of singing in a quartet. I guess if I would just find three other people who would be willing to sing with me in a quartet and just do it that would help. Of course there is the other possibility that I shouldn't be singing at all - except at church. My voice will always be pleasing to God. The retreat this last weekend went well. Our coach made some changes in interpretation but we still have six weeks to go before competition.

We have not been to the Y to excercise this year on a regular basis and by that I mean I don't think we have been more than once or twice. Today is rainy and it is a good day to stay inside. Of course if it were sunny I would say it was a good day to do something beside exercise. We HAVE to get back in our routine.

This Saturday night we are going to a Sweetheart Dinner at a Sheraton Hotel. It is being sponsored by the Band of Brothers at Church. Tom and another man have been planning it and it looks like it will be fun. He didn't have a large response because of the expense. Hotels always charge too much, but he wanted it to be special- plus he really didn't know how many people would respond and we wanted to have a room big enough. We will be having entertainment - a quartet from Sweet Adelines made up of our chorus director and one lady from our church and two other great quartet singers. They are not an official quartet (meaning they don't sing in competition) but they sound really good together. Our director sings in a quartet that will be singing at the international competition this fall in Calgary, Canada. She had bronchitis last night and wasn't at rehearsal, so I am praying she will be well by Saturday. Our song leader and his wife will also sing a duet and there are some other surprizes for the ladies. Tom has really enjoyed the planning for this. He was involved in some fund raising dinners for the City of Children ( a Church of Christ children's home in Ensenada, Mexico) in their early days in the 70's. I love seeing him excited.

We are so fortunate to have Bobby Valentine as our new preacher. He is enouraging us to pray daily for Palo Verde, him, our youth minster, Clay Utley and our elders daily at 8:00 AM. We told him we would - if we were awake at 8:00 AM. Being retired we don't have a schedule but we will pray at 8:00 someone's time.

I will try to be more consistent in writing. Even though I haven't been writing daily I still read daily.