Keeping Time: Prom!

In high school, I was a nerd. (Andrew's Note: I would say "See 'X' post for evidence of this, but really just pick any post and it's the evidence.)

Top of my class grade wise, and the bottom of my class status wise. It definitely was NOT in my favor that my Dad was in charge of my school. Add to that starting at the school my sophomore year, so making friends was marginally challenging. I constantly felt uncomfortable in my own skin. I went to a school where my class had 65 people in it, which meant everyone knew everything about you. And we had to tuck in our shirts, which meant my inner nerd really had nothing going for it. I spent most of high school practicing flute, reading, studying or watching Star Trek Voyager. In that order.

I had one boyfriend, from another school, for one week. I think his name was Jesse and he didn't understand what a flute was or why I spent so much time around one. He didn't last long and was high on the lame scale. (I rate a 2 out of 10.) High school dances were downright painful because both my parents were always chaperones at them, and I generally went with no one! aww, baby! :-( sad.)

As I'm writing this I'm thinking... dang... this is like the most depressing blog post ever. But never fear friends, there's a happy ending to this story! (Me!! ...... .... right??) Okay.... back to my depressing life....

Prom was prom. I went with a guy I actually liked, but the whole experience was mildly traumatic. My dress was too adult-ish, (good!) my hair too formal, makeup WAY over the top, friends were fun but everyone so so stiff and not themselves. All in all, not your storybook prom saga.

Needless to say, I was GLAD to move on to college. Nobody knew I graduated in the top of my class, nobody knew I could play the flute, nobody knew I had a small (um...) obsession with Star Trek. And best of all, no one in college cared!

Now that I'm a high school band director, each year I relive the prom drama with each new set of juniors and seniors. At Houston Christian HS where I teach, being a chaperone at prom is a pretty big honor.

I've never been asked.

Until this year! Andrew and I got a formal invitation to prom to be chaperones. The ironic thing is that this is the first year I actually wanted to go. All my junior and senior band kids would be there... another chance to hang out with them. Why not? And... I get to actually buy a dress that I LIKE and.... get ready for this..... I actually like my date! Woot! Win-win!! (Hooraaaay!)

So this past weekend Andrew and I went to our first ever prom together, and we had a BLAST!! Like, 30,000 times more fun than at my actual high school prom. I got a beautiful dress, I wore black flip flops underneath so that I didn't tower over the husband and because you know what.... I could!... I got my nails done with one of my band girls (Nathalie), and we spent the evening dancing with the band kids and eating with our good friends the Heberts and the Wests.

Love!

(Let it be said that I DON'T dance. I can swing dance and I can fake my way through slow dancing, but when it comes to fast dancing I am as uncomfortable as a Dachshund at a Great Dane convention.)

Natalie Hebert, my photographer friend, was also a chaperone and took prom pics of all of us and they were fabulous! Check out her website for other amazingness... I love her photography!

SHE'S ON THE HIGH SIDE OF A SLOPE!! (Allison's note: No I'm not.)

Some of my best friends, Christina and Natalie, and Christina's baby.... (in womb). : )

Some of my favorite band kids were at prom, here are some pics of me with the students. The guys pictured below are my after-school running buddies and leaders in my band. Love them!

Aren't they so handsome?! .....No.....

And the BEAUTIFUL band girls! Love these ladies and their friendship!

Dang these gals are pretty!

This prom do-over was so much fun! Everyone needs an opportunity to dress up like a princess every now and then. Or in Andrew's case... wear a kilt every now and then. (Agreed)

On Saturday, I was taking a nap from my late night activities when all of a sudden two of my band kids, Kyle and Nathalie (pictured above... and below) showed up at my door. Their mission was to play board games and I couldn't have been happier. My afternoon was boring and would have involved washing the dogs, so I was glad to put off that task for at least another month. Here are some pics of the epic battle - we played Lord of the Rings Monopoly. And we baked cookies with oreos in them. Yes, you read that correctly. Because what could be better than a cookie with a cookie in it? Its like that movie "Inception"... except....cookie-ception.

Boom... just blew your mind.

Nathalie and Kyle are some of my favorite people to talk to. (Nathalie has a "th" in her name.) I get to hang out with each of them every week in kind of a mentor-student thing that we do at our school called "Real-T" time (Real Talk Time). It's awesome. They're awesome. Yay for them.

These two are just adorable. ;-)

Kyle about to start his Michael Jackson dance moves while scooping dough.

Teaching Nathalie how to dance.

She looks sweet, but she will dominate you in Monopoly. (Actually, no. She won't. She'll make a deal early in the game that allows me to destroy everyone else. :-D

We provide knives for all students that enter our house. (We aim to please)

Who needs floss?

Kyle just got owned. (PWNED!!)

Won Ton REALLY likes Kyle.

That was Saturday. On Sunday morning, Tyler Look, a former band student of mine that is now a proud member of the Auburn University marching band brought Andrew and I breakfast. How sweet is that??! Tyler is one of my all time favorite students and might be the biggest band nerd I've ever taught. After breakfast, we all watched the highlights video from Auburn's marching band season. It was epic. You missed out.

Yay for Tyler! Yay for breakfast! Yay for breakfast with Tyler!

Yep, this is us watching the Auburn marching band video. Don't judge.

Tyler leaves to study German in Germany on Monday, and we are so grateful that we got to spend the morning just hanging out with him. Love that kid! (Good times reminding me of marching band!!!)

Finally, Andrew's friend Mark stopped in from Grand Haven, MI. We made steaks and cookies. Vegetables optional. Mark is awesome, Andrew and he went to college together and he might be one of the reasons that Andrew did not graduate with a 4.0. 3.4??!!! What the crap husband!? 3.4?? (3.4 is a VERY respectable GPA for an undergraduate degree where you combine all the good classes with math classes and, in my case, Christian Ministries classes that were of no value to me and I didn't want to be in. Also....I HAD SOME OF THE BEST TIMES OF MY LIFE IN COLLEGE WHILE YOU SPENT YOUR TIME SITTING IN YOUR ROOM READING AND NOT HAVING FUN. :-) Anywho... we're glad Mark made an appearance, its not often that people from out of state come and visit. And Andrew and Mark go way back... yay for him.