Flood Boys Christmas 2008

This is a picture of the boys that their Aunt Rosemary took

December 24th, which has become an annual tradition and

gift from her family.

There has been a TON! of snow this year as you can see.

They're not as cold as you might think they'd be 'cause they

were all warmed up from the shoveling that they did right before.

Thanks Rosemary!!!

My nephew Joel waits while Joseph gets his time with their teacher Jeff Hickey-who also was David's teacher. Jayson is on the other side of the pic-he just had his electric guitar lesson.

All three boys (Joseph, and his cousins, Jayson and Joel) are taking guitar lessons, but they are on three completely different tracks:

Joel is learning to play fingerstyle much in the same way David was taught, 

Joseph is learning the basics of strumming and flatpicking and 

Jayson is learning electric guitar.  

They all practice, but they play a LOT, and often, just because they truly enjoy it.

It is a lot of fun when the brothers and cousins get together and play music. If you'd like to get a taste of it, go to www.nontoxicteencenter.com/blog.html where you'll get to see them in action as part of Non-Toxic's house band.

Yet another table picture.

Joseph enjoying his reward for hauling all that wood in-a foot long at subway.

Now I can't help it...I'm being drawn to table shots! I just might have to get a whole new blog for them!

Anyway, I love what happens when someone's head or foot or in this case, hand is closer to the camera and looks huge. It's like Joseph has a lobster claw for a left hand!

But, I've been out with David and Clayton lately but not with Joseph, so that was fun...and he really did work very hard to earn his sandwich-he unloaded a truck bed full of wood and stacked it for me.

Thank You Joseph!

Aaaaasssss Yoooouuuuuuu Wwwwiiiiiissssshhhh

Okay, now some of you may not be aware of this but Rosemary and I go for walks 3 times a week with our friend, Kathy.

Kathy introduced us to a perfectly lovely place to walk...only it turned out that there was some hiking involved.

Now, I don't wanna give away our location BUT...the hill that we go up is very steep. And it's so steep that it makes me think bad thoughts on the way up...borderline bad thoughts.

So we do it twice!

It's really hard to take a picture ('specially with a cell phone) that gives proper depth so you can tell how steep the grade is, but trust me-it makes me think of Princess Bride everytime. You know the scene where Wesley is pushed down a steep hill and Buttercup comes tumbling down after hearing the phrase "As You Wish"? It's as steep as that.

But here it is...the tiny, tiny little people way up on top are Kathy (right) and myself (left).

Rosemary took the picture, staying behind to do it and then had the AUDACITY to run up --that's right--RUN up the hill to catch us.

So here's another view from quite a distance away at this particular hill-can you get a little feel for the 'drop off' thing it's got goin' on?

Just for Laura!

Just for Laura!

It must look as if there is a theme to this blog that I hadn't intended: lots of table pictures! Well, when you're traveling, you often have to stop for a bit to eat and that's when it occurs to me to update the blog. So on our recent trip to see Kevan on his birthday and hear him play at Cowboy Church with Dad, I couldn't resist taking a picture of niece Marlie who didn't get to have supper before we left and was such a trooper for waiting until 10:30pm to eat at a McDonalds.

Dad and Kevan

I was able to get Dad and Kevan in the same frame while they performing their last song (that tied in amazingly to the message about Living Water) which was "Cool Water", probably my favorite song that they do together on their CD.

It's a great place to be for a listener when you're priviledged to hear seasoned, experienced musicians that are so comfortable with their instruments and each other.

The Acoustic Cowboys at Cowboy Church in Mineral Point, WI

Dad, Tim, Jeff and Kevan

My sister Rosemary, her little girl Marlie Rose and I travelled about an hour and a half to see our brother, Kevan, on his birthday while he and Dad performed for Cowboy Church. They played 5 songs before the message and then were asked to do another at the end...and then! They had a request after the service was over to play Ghostriders in the Sky.

It was fantastic music and a great time.

Yay! We are past the traffic of Chicago

Okay- I think this was actually son David's favorite part of the day!
And Jayson and Clayton's.
Why????
Because...picture isn't clear enough....
It's TACO BELL!!!!!!
yes, it actually was the Fourth Meal of the day.
Their marketing dept. should be proud.
Because...
although the food was very good at the Chicago cafe from below...
the portions were meager and the boys hunger bigger, much bigger than the amount they were served so they still had some 'spaces' to be filled in their tummies.
And then...do you even have to be hungry, and tired of Chicago traffic to appreciate Taco Bell?

Campus visit

So here are the boys... Clayton, Cousin Jayson and David sitting at a cafe calle La Sera in Chicago after a very long day visiting Moody. Clayton and Jayson got to attend college classes, eat in a college cafeteria and see walk around a lot! They especially loved the book store at the end -NOT! But Rosemary (who also went) and I loved the bookstore. What's not to love?

Anyway, the classes were awesome! Rosemary got to take a Romans class was a junior/senior class and then we both took in an afternoon class with just Jayson and Clayton as David was off filling out his application to the music school there (supposedly~!). The second class: Race, Poverty and Social Justice was soooooooo interesting. We both took notes, the prof. had us each observe a different group of students discussing a book/paper, we took the quiz and passed with an 80%. Clayton's group was quite animated and he enjoyed the students that now seemed just like other kids to him -instead of big scarey college kids. My group had several fascinating students-amazing the the quality of student that Moody draws. And the professor, Craigen, was perfect for an after lunch class..instead of a snoozer, he was quite animated, thought provoking and said many quotable things.

Rosemary's Roman's professor was a surprisingly young Phd...28 years old, and she reported that he too was interesting. They had controversy in their class, which is the college experience, right? Jayson was a bit sleepy in that high level class as we had to leave at 5:20 and so he was up very early and the rooms were sooooooo warm!

David's visit in the music dept. was very informative. We got many of our questions answered, got a better feel for their quality and expectations (both very, very high!). They have a very rigorous program, which is what we want, I think.

Joseph and Marlie at the lodge

Joseph and Marlie in the Flood Boys' fort. The whole Williams family was able to join us and the cousins had a good time playing together.

BULLSEYE!

Upclose view of the target

This message was sent using the Picture and Video Messaging service from Verizon Wireless!

To learn how you can snap pictures and capture videos with your wireless phone visit www.verizonwireless.com/picture.

To play video messages sent to email, QuickTime� 6.5 or higher is required. Visit www.apple.com/quicktime/download to download the free player or upgrade your existing QuickTime� Player. Note: During the download process when asked to choose an installation type (Minimum, Recommended or Custom), select Minimum for faster download.

Turning nineteen

David's target from 70 yards away. Dave is pointing where David hit the target-bullseye! He used his birthday present, a .30-.30 gun from his dad who had originally got it from his dad.

This message was sent using the Picture and Video Messaging service from Verizon Wireless!

To learn how you can snap pictures and capture videos with your wireless phone visit www.verizonwireless.com/picture.

To play video messages sent to email, QuickTime� 6.5 or higher is required. Visit www.apple.com/quicktime/download to download the free player or upgrade your existing QuickTime� Player. Note: During the download process when asked to choose an installation type (Minimum, Recommended or Custom), select Minimum for faster download.

David, Clayton and Nephew Joel take top 3 at Pool Tournament

The top three spots at this month's pool tournament were all family-awesome! I think I was actually supposed to post this on Non-Toxic's Blog but it fits here too.

Umm. . . We are going to be a later than we thought

Bojangles breakfast while we wait for the garage to fix the oil gusher on our car. So for those playing along at home, that's two new tires and a new oil senser / plug. Silver lining-we are in good company

Some fun pics from Thursday and Friday

The boys on the escalators...yes, they're both 18, but it's still fun.






David and Sam hanging out the lounge of the Omni Hotel...way too late, but they were the best behaved FineArters there. They would never, ever dive into a pool where NO DIVING is posted!


I thought a little assortment of pics from the last couple of days would be fun.


PJ and the Boys!



Sam and David and their younger brothers...oh, and Hi Andrew!


Sam and Clayton discuss David's solo with him.


Clayton and PJ catch up at Fine Arts


Clayton, Seth and Joseph


Clayton and Seth cheering David on for his guitar solo


Michelle, Leann and Sierra cheering David on from the front room-Yay SCCC girls!!

David came in 5th place!

David came in 5th place!

He made it to the top 15 for callbacks and here's a phone video of his performance. He might not have gotten first, but he sure has learned a lot from Fine Arts and all the judges comments, critiques and suggestions he's gotten through the years. Congratulations David!!! There were a ton of extremely talented young men and it is an honor to be part of group like that.



Oh...no video yet...workin' on that!

UPDATED JANUARY 2, 2009 

Hey, got a video...the sound is really, really soft so you'll have to turn the volume way up.

And now for a lighthearted moment from Seth McCumber

We were very pleasantly blessed to have the Saunders Creek youth group come and watch David for his guitar solo. It was really fun catching up with them and hearing about their crazy busy week with AIM-Mega Sports Camp here in Charlotte. Here's some fun goofiness for a change up from the intensity of competition.

National Fine Arts Celebration Service

Beginning of the resultsservice

David's final call back. I think it was his best so far but we have not heard his take on it yet. We will post the video in an hour or so.

The infamous Callback Screens. If you look close you can see his name on the screen. He's finding a place to practice right now. There are 15 vying for the Top Ten. David is just happy that he made it to the top fifteen. He plays at 1:35 eastern time. He will only find out the results tonight if he made it into the top 3, otherwise the top ten usually take a couple of days to be posted.

David got a Callback! at

David got a Callback! at 1:35 in room 213A

UPDATE!!!!

Here's Video

David up on stage performing his original instrumental composition, My Refuge.


David received a score of 39.47 (out of a possible 40) for his original composition-which earned him a Superior with Honors rating. It is the highest score that he has ever gotten at Nationals.
He didn't play it perfectly, but the judges liked his composition.

For his guitar solo, we know from the online results that he received a Superior with Honors but we do not know what his score is. We will find out around noon if he got a call back and will play again today.

David warms up before his composition

Erica is singing her callback right NOW!

Oh! The worship band recieved a 'Superior' for their presentation today.

The worship band received a 'Superior' today for their presentation. Nikki also received a 'Superior' for her keyboard solo. Erica received a 'Superior with Invitation' and is currently waiting to find out if she gets a callback. David, as per usual, is up in his room practicing his guitar.

UPDATE:

Erica recieved a callback for Thursday at 11:13 !!! Congratulations Erica!! Out of 701 (yes, they counted) she is one of only 34 to get a call back.

Having wireless issues but wanted to send a pic of swimming in a downtown rooftop pool. It is HOT!

We have moved. We are now in the Omni in dowtown Charlotte. We are having some issues when trying to hook up to the hotel's wireless, but I will keep trying to update regularly.

Fine morning for Fine Arts

David in his funky new shades! He came to visit Joseph and me by the pool this morning. He looks so different from his very first Fine Arts way back in 2004 in Austin. David said the speaker last night said some shocking-but excellent-things. I'll try to get a few quotes from him.

Today, Tuesday...oh, we got to sleep in!!! Joseph is really a fish...no perhaps an otter, as he has had swimming on the brain constantly. I took this pic from inside while we were finishing up our breakfast . Joseph couldn't wait any longer; after all it was almost 9am. He played and swam in the pool straight for 4.5 hours. Just him and an empty plastic water bottle.


Early this evening, we went to the U.S. Whitewater Center which is absolutely amazing. It will make you want to jump into a kayak or hook up to zip line or climb a rock wall. This facility was recently used as training and trials for the Olympics. More to come about this later.

And last, but certainly not least!!! This is the very first National Fine Arts Presentation of the week!! Nikki Arnold, playing her original arrangement for Keyboard Solo. I don't have editing software with me so here it is in all it's uncut glory:

Whew! We made it

Well, we all made it here to Charolotte, NC safe and sound. Mom and Dad are ensconced in an amazing hotel in Downtown Charlotte, next to the Charlotte Convention Center. We have an awesome room about 15 minutes away, with a great pool and free wirelss internet.

David and Sam had a very musical ride down...I heard that David played guitar and Sam sang. *sigh* I missed the good stuff. We had very quirt boys in our car.

The Schedule:

David plays his original instrumental composition Thursday afternoon at 2:52
then
he plays his guitar solo later that same afternoon at 4:28

(we are very excited about this...usually he has to play at 9am and it's really difficult to be warmed up enough by then)

His Worship Band, The Pulse, performs Wednesday at 11:48.

Thursday night they should find out if they get a callback.
Friday after 1pm David should find out if he gets a callback for guitar solo.
There are over 70 guitarists competeting this year. So much talent.

Nikki Arnold plays her piano piece (and it is a joy to watch her) Tuesday at 4:04pm.

Erica Kastor sings her solo Wednesday morning 10:24 am.

Both of these incredibly giften young women are in the worship band.


Okay, off to tonight's opening ceremonies...it's always a fun and LOUD time which I hope to post a few pics from when we get back to the hote.

WOW! What a way to start a trip!!

I just had to share this with you.

This is Dad showing up to pick up David and Sam McCumber and NO! they did not call each other -this was a total fluke; Sam says he hasn't worn this shirt all year.

You can't quite see it, but their khaki shorts also matched.

It was a *sniff* beatiful thing.

Alrighty!
We're off.
Mom and Dad and 'da boys' (sam and david) have already left and we'll be taking off any minute.

Welcome!

Well, here we go again-

This is the 5th time that son David played his way into the National Fine Arts Festival and the fourth time we've all gone as a family.

Austin, Denver, Orlando (the one we didn't all go to), Indianapolis and now Charlotte, North Carolina.

So anyway, we like to send back pics of what's going throughout the week 'cause it's a long time to be gone away from our beloved family and friends.

We will try to keep this updated everynight.

If you don't want to wait for me though you can check out faf.ag.org for results too.

Hopefully, David will be able to update this blog directly from his cell phone that has a pretty good camera on it.