The guitar recital

Tonight was Aubrey's ill fated guitar recital. So to do this story justice I must share with you, that this arts night/recital was scheduled to happen in April. So last month after shoveling in a frozen pizza, and getting everyone dressed up, in the car and down to the school, we arrive to find no one there? Wyatt jokingly asks if we have the right night. So Aubrey and I knock on the music teachers door and she says that it was rescheduled because of the snow storm north of us, and asked Aubrey if he heard the announcement on the loudspeaker after school. Okay I have a first grader, he rarely listens to me so I'm sure he missed that one. Instead of being mad we decided to take the kids out for ice cream which was fun, and later Aubrey said "mom, I'm glad it got canceled because if it didn't then we wouldn't have had ice cream". To which I replied "this is true son".

Fast forward to tonight. I pick Aubrey up from school and announce that we have to get home, have a snack and head to
Tae Kwon Do, and then off to the arts night recital. He says he has a stomach ache and can hardly move his stomach hurts so bad. So I ignore it and when we get home he uses the bathroom and then lays on the couch moaning and groaning. So needless to say we don't go to Tae Kwon Do.

I make pancakes for dinner because I haven't been to the grocery store yet and we're out of everything, then it's off to stop at the Class 6 (convenience store on base) and it's NOT so convenient. We have to pick up cookies for tonight (I had only remembered an hour before we had to leave) and the line is really long. So finally we're off to the school for the reschedule of arts night. Also known as "the ill fated guitar recital".

We get there and Aubrey is getting tuned up and ready to go, Wyatt, the kids and I are looking at the art in the hallway waiting for the musical part to begin. One of the teachers told me that Aubrey is going to be quite the musician because he headed back to the guitar room because "he didn't want to pop a string before the concert". She said he even had the lingo down.

So we are waiting in the gym for the show to begin and we watch the show choir, classical band, a soloist, and finally the guitar band comes out. I'm trying to keep Ryan from cracking his head on the bleachers and Wyatt says "Aubrey doesn't have his guitar". "What"? I reply. Then I see that he's sitting in a chair without his guitar. So as the music teacher is talking to the audience I head up to the gym floor to ask what is going on and she sees me. She then says "oh Aubrey let me get you my guitar". Aubrey mouths that his guitar is broken. I'm thinking he "popped a string" but then Wyatt says that the teacher would let him play with one broken string, so then I'm worried about the condition of the guitar.

A little back story on the guitar, Wyatt and I bought it at the school auction and then had to go trade it for a smaller one that he could play better and now three months later it was all for not.

Back to the story, so after the concert the music teacher came up to us and said that she wasn't in the music room at the time, but some parents were and she didn't know what happened exactly, but that the guitar was no longer with us. I'm in a bit of shock, but she explained that Aubrey was so upset. She told him he could play her guitar, and that helped, but he looked upset so I tried to remain calm.

Aubrey said that one of the older kids (he doesn't know their name) knocked his guitar off the table it was on, and then a little later he picked it up and then dropped it and the neck snapped off. So needless to say, Aubrey "hates himself" as he put it because he broke his guitar and now he can't take lessons. He was also very upset that the older kids laughed at him, he's so sensitive that it broke my heart.

So I am sad about the lost money, the broken guitar and my son's disappointment but at least he wants to play, so I'm trying to look on the bright side! For this is the life we have chosen to share with our three kids who break the hell out of all of our stuff!