ACSI!!!!!

Zachary and I spent Friday and Saturday at the ACSI Music Festival held at Olivet Nazarene University.  The campus was amazing.  It was HUGE!  We know, because we walked it several times a day.  The festival is 19 different schools coming together to practice and perform a concert on Saturday afternoon.  It included Jr. High Band, Sr. High Band, Jr. High Choir and Sr. High Choir.  The Sr. High Choir was led by ONU's choir director.  Our first practice was for 3 1/2 hours.  The director had the kids STAND for the WHOLE time.  The chaperones (me) were to sit within the choir and make sure the kids cooperated.  My job was to take care of four guys in our choir (which included Zachary).  It had been the norm in the past that the high school boys were awful.  Not this year, Zachary, David, Jeremy and Malik were amazing and VERY well behaved!  Made me proud!

The full choir during a rehearsal.  Notice the pipes for the organ.

Please enlarge this picture just for a look at those pipes.  Last year, the choir director played the organ for part of the concert.  He did not do it this year.  We were so disappointed.  The organ and the pipes cost $1,500,000.  It takes a month to tune it all.  We would have loved to hear it played.

The blond in the white shirt is Summer, from our church.  We didn't know she was going to be there.

The Sr. High Choir during the concert.

Zachary is in the front row, just to the left of the conductor.

It was an amazing weekend.  Too bad it was on the same weekend as the time change.  We are exhausted!  There will surely be a well-deserved nap this afternoon.

AND, at last, I finished the last puzzle that I got for Christmas.  This one was VERY hard.  After I had about half of it done, Elyse read the box.  It says that the back of each puzzle piece would make a pattern too.  That is when I turned over a few pieces and realized that I didn't have them in the right places because the back pattern didn't line up.  So, I had to take several things apart and start all over.  But, alas, it is finished!

If you look closely, you will notice that there are still 10 pieces out of place.  I finally just stuck them wherever I had a hole.  See the black in the middle of the gray water.  Silly me!