Honor Choir Competition

Ok, so lots of things going on with this trip and this post.  I don't even know where to start, so I'll start with the basic information.  

Justice went on a three day trip to St. Louis with the Honor Choir at his school.  Unfortunately, I wasn't able to chaperone because I wasn't willing to leave the baby for that length of time.  I had just chaperoned the overnight trip to Memphis, so I wasn't feeling too guilty about it.  In hindsight, I wish I would have gone.  More on that later.

I told Justice to take pictures while he was gone so I could use them in the blog post.  His friends bragged about the 65 pictures he had taken as soon as they got off the bus.  Once I subtracted the bad selfies that we already all know he's pro at, I was left with about a dozen "decent" pictures.

All the way up to St. Louis Justice texted me and sent me random pictures.  This picture is significant because he is at a Pilot truck stop.  When we took our summer-long trip last year, Pilot became a favorite stop.  They have the best greasy gas station food ever, and they also have a soda fountain that is a 25 on a scale out of 1 to 10.  They have flavored syrups right next to the soda.  Not in bottles like at a coffee shop, but they dispense just like the soda.  So yes, the kids could have a soda with 2/3 syrup and 1/3 soda if they wanted.  Me?  I didn't care.  We were on vacation.  Anyway, he was really excited to be at a Pilot.  I had forgotten all about them until he sent me this picture.  They weren't allowed to get anything though, so he was a teensy bit disappointed he wasn't going to get the sugar rush of his memories.  Probably best for everyone.

They stopped at Lambert's on the way up for lunch.  On the sheet they sent home with the trip info, they said he would need money for one meal at Lambert's, and two fast food meals.  

They cautioned not to send too much money, because well let's face it… these are kids.  Not exactly financial wizards at this age.  I saw this first hand when we went on the trip to Memphis.  It was a disaster.  I can't even tell you how mad the parents were that sent money for a DVD of the performance and didn't get it because their darling children spent it on junk food at the hotel.  Mine would have done the exact same thing if I wasn't a chaperone.  Anyway, I gave Justice 45 dollars for those three meals.  I also gave him an extra 20 dollars because I knew he would need it after he haphazardly blew threw the first 45.  However, I did split the money up to help him manage it better.  I split off 20 for Lambert's, and 10 for each fast food meal.  That left him 5 dollars for a soda at the hotel before bed.  I put the extra 20 in a plain envelope in his suitcase and labeled it "EMERGENCY MONEY".  Sounded like a good idea at the time.  I mean really, Justice is a smart kid.  This shouldn't go wrong.  Stay tuned.  

The bad Lambert's selfie.  I don't know what the deal is with the look on his face.  Not gonna ask either.  It is what it is, and what it is is a 12 year old boy.  Enough said I reckon.  Things are still OK with the budgeting at this particular point.  Lambert's was an in-budget success.  He was feeling proud, and I was cautiously optimistic.  

And then he sent me this picture of the St. Louis Temple as they were passing by.   Ha!  I was just happy he thought it was important enough to attempt the photo.  

They spent the first afternoon rehearsing and the competition began that evening.  They look really great, I'm so proud of them.  Justice is in the back row, first boy on the right.  

Silly pose.  For some reason, Justice migrated all the way over to the left side.

Lucky for them, they were performing on Friday evening so they could have Saturday to spend at Six Flags while everyone else was still competing.  They provided a huge buffet lunch for the kids and free food was available at Six Flags from 2 - 4 PM.    

They had matching T-shirts for Six Flags.  "Keep calm and sing like a Charger".  Pretty cute.  

 

So, you know, then Justice thought it would be a good idea to buy a $15.00 soda at Six Flags.  And this is where things started to go south.  Hopped up on free soda refills, my boy's meds started to wear off.  THEN he thought it would be a good idea to play carnival games. 

"But they were only THREE DOLLARS EACH, MOM!"

"But MOM, I just wanted to win Jack and Jacoby something at the arcade!" 

"BUT MOM, I JUST KEPT GETTING SOOOO CLOSE!"

And there it is folks.  The two-meal-plus-soda-money dinosaur.  

I have a sad face right now.  

If you aren't familiar with ADHD, some of the worst exhibited behaviors are "risk taking behaviors"(think driving fast, typical "watch THIS!!" sorts of stuff), and "poor financial management".  Those behaviors are usually worse in boys than in girls.  He just went right ahead and killed two birds with one stone, spending his money on a 15 dollar mega-soda with free refills and then "gambling" his dinner money at the arcade.  

Pretty soon Justice realizes that the all you can eat buffet is wearing off, the caffeine and sugar high is wearing off, and it sinks in that he's spent all his money already.  With three measly bucks in his pocket, and a bad case of remorse, they go to eat dinner.  He pretends like he's not hungry so he's not embarrassed that he spent his money.  He knows that once they get back to the room there are snacks-a-plenty waiting for him because I packed a ton of food for him to take.  His friends dimed him out though, and one of the chaperones bought him dinner.

This greatly displeases me.  Let's go back to the "EMERGENCY MONEY" envelope in his suitcase.  Oh wait, that's right.  It's in his suitcase.  He's not where his suitcase is.  That makes some kind of sense so that's OK.  But he didn't tell the person that bought him dinner that he had money back at the hotel.  And he didn't tell the choir director who had to buy him lunch today that he had that extra twenty in his suitcase, either.  

You know, the "EMERGENCY MONEY".  Apparently, I wasn't clear on what constituted an emergency.  

Me:  "Why in the HECK didn't you use the emergency money, son?"

Son:  "It wasn't an emergency.  I spent it on stupid stuff.  That's not really an emergency.  Breaking a bone is an emergency."

OK, clearly there is a lack of understanding in two things… how much a broken bone costs at the emergency room in St. Louis, and also what constitutes an emergency.  

So, the bus parks and they all get off and I approach one of the chaperones that I know quite well.  I asked her how the trip was and she told me the whole sordid story about Justice's money woes.  Of course he wasn't the only one, but man I hate to have that happen.  So I asked him "you spent SIXTY DOLLARS?"  To which he replied...

"No.  Just the forty.  You told me not to spend the other twenty unless it was an EMERGENCY."

I have since broken it down for him that another parent buying him food is an emergency.  

One thing is for certain, we will have to get a handle on this before his trip to Washington DC in three short weeks.  The good news is that all of his meals are paid for, so if he blows all his money on the first day on a random souvenir, he will have food and board for the trip.  We call that "three hots and a cot" in Navy talk.  Tomorrow I will send the money in to the reimburse the two folks that so kindly bought his food.  

But in spite of all that drama, there is some really great news!

They won fourth place!  YAY!  Nobody (well I certainly wasn't) expecting that to happen.  That was a BIG competition.  I'm so happy for them, they have really worked hard this year.  What a great accomplishment. 

Jack was SO happy to see his Bubs.  He really missed him.  We all missed him.  It was painfully quiet at the house while he was gone.  We joked about how that would change the second we picked him up, and boy that was the truth.  

This boy keeps us on our toes, no doubt about it. 

I am thankful that Justice has such a great choir director.  The Treble Choir experience, this trip… None of that would have been possible if he hadn't signed them up.  He definitely goes the extra mile for the school's music program, and for that, I am very grateful.

On that note, I'll end with some pretty bad selfies.