It's Been Awhile.....

So it's been a little while since my last update, well, a long while.  Anyway, here's what been going on:

*The RHHS Marching Band had a great season this year.  Our show was titled "Ninja: Live by the Sword" and contained movements "Training Montage", "Meditation", and "The Final Samauri Melee". After working extremely hard since the beginning of August, practicing in the heat, and performing at several football games, our competition season began.  We competed in three competitions this year: The Coastal Empire Classic at Effingham County High School, The Heart of Georgia Marching Invitational at Warner Robins High School, and The Battle on the Border at Lowndes County High School.  The highlight of the season was our competition in Lowndes County (Valdosta).  This was the band's first time attending this particular competition, but it certainly won't be our last.  After two incredible performances in both the preliminary and final rounds, the RHHS Band received awards for Best Musical Performance, Best Visual Performance, and Best General Effect.  In the end, the Wildcats were crowned Grand Champions of the entire competition.  The crowds and competition directors in Valdosta were wonderful and we are very excited about continuing to be a part of the Battle on the Border in the future.  More information on the band can be found at www.richmondhillhighschoolband.com.

*The Richmond Hill High School Wildcat Football team accomplished something incredible this year.  For the first time in over 13 years, the Wildcats won more that three games!  That's right, Richmond Hill finished off the season 4-6!  Ok, so there may be a little sarcasm in there, but it has been an exciting season.  Richmond Hill was able to pull off wins against the Savannah High Blue Jackets, the Jenkins Warriors, and twice against the South Effingham Poines.....I mean Mustangs (always nice to beat South Eff).  There were several extremely close games, the most memorable being against the #1 team in the region, Brunswick.  Next season should be interesting.

*The Richmond Hill United Methodist Church Barbecue was once again a wonderful success.  This year was the first Barbecue for both of our new pastors, Dr. Glenn Martin and Rev. Jonathan Fuller.  For the first time in a while, we were completely sold out of hams, Boston butts, and racks of ribs by the end of the day!  It was a  great day, but sadly, it was our chairs' last Barbecue.  Tommy and Paula Wyatt will be moving back to southwestern Georgia to be closer to family, we will miss them greatly.

*On the same weekend as the Barbecue, we held our last Pirates Invade Buckhead event.  Pirates has been an important part of our lives for the past several years.  This event is a fundraiser for SMA, a local charity in Richmond Hill that raises money for research to find a cure for Spinal Muscular Atrophy, a disease that is the number one cause of death in children under 2 in the United States.  For two nights (November 19th and 20th), Tralee Court, a street in a the Buckhead subdivision, was turned into an interactive pirate show.  The show involved 4 stages, 2 sound systems, 2 lighting systems, 5 backstage workers, several main actors, belly dancers, snake dancers, fire dancers, and countless containers of fog juice, tiki torch oil, and fireworks.  This event was held by David Gramazio, who has been doing so for the past 5 years.  Mr. David played Captain Jack, Ashley (my girlfriend) played Calypso, and Sean (my best friend) was Davy Jones.  Hours of hard work went in to the making of this production, but it was very much worth it.  All of our props, stages, and supplies are now being stored at the home of our special effects supervisor, Drew.  Our 30 foot pirate ship stage is set up in his backyard.  Pirates may indeed invade somewhere around Richmond Hill again, we'll see.  :)

*It's so nice to finally get a break from school.  The past week or so has been so nice, even if I have eaten to much.  As usual, our entire family came to our house on Christmas night.  In all, we had 19 people; both my mom's and my dad's side, plus Ashley.  I used to think that that was a lot, but after hearing Ashley's stories about having 35 people in her house for Thanksgiving this year, I know better.  The food, as always, was wonderful.  Though it's nice to have everyone come over, I have to admit that I'm grateful that they live close by (so they can go home).

*The rest of my break has been pretty normal.  It's been nice to have time to spend with friends before we all have to go back to school.  I've done a good bit of deer hunting on our property in Jesup.  Surprisingly, I haven't seen a deer all season.  I see more deer on the road between Jesup and Richmond Hill than I see out of my stand.  Hopefully that will change soon, because the season goes out on December 15th.  Also, we've been ice skating at the Civic Center in Savannah a few times, hoping to go at least once more before school starts back.  I can also say this: if you go see a movie, don't see Guliver's Travels, it really isn't that good, I don't like Jack Black anyway.  Go see Tron, Tron is definitely the best movie out right now.  I'm not a huge fan of how just about every movie is now in 3D, but I can guarantee you that it's worth the extra few bucks for this one.

*Looking into the future: School starts back on January 4th.  I'm not upset about going back, I'm upset about having to get up early every morning to go there.  This semester, I will be taking AP US History, AP Language and Composition, Spanish II, and Wind Symphony.  Many would say that is a difficult schedule, but I'm just happy that I don't have any math classes.  So maybe going back to school isn't something to be excited about, but I have something coming up that is.  On January 14th, I'm leaving Richmond Hill and traveling to Sugar Mountain, North Carolina with my Youth Group.  We where will spend a long weekend skiing and snowboarding together.  It's been 3 years since I've been on a ski trip and I haven't seen snow (not anything substantial) since then.  I got pretty good at skiing last time I was there, but it's been awhile.  Jack, our Youth Director, has recently talked to the people in Sugar Mountain.  They said that this year, with all this snow, is one of the best years for skiing they've seen in awhile.  Needless to say, we're all very excited about this trip.

I think that pretty much covers everything since my last update.  I'm going to try and get better about doing this.  I think one post every two weeks is a good goal.

I pray that everyone enjoys the last day of 2010.  Happy New Year!