Happy Mother's Day

A few days ago, Lacey brought me an essay that she wrote at school.  The topic was, "A Special Person, and she wrote about me."  I've read that essay about 50 times already.  I plan to read it again, every time I get frustrated by the pile of shoes left in the hallway, the backpacks that I fall over, and the smelly gym bags that don't get unpacked.  I have re-typed Lacey's essay below.  I am sharing it just as she wrote it. 


"My mom is my special person because she takes care of my and adopted me.  My mom was born on September 22 in Colorado she lived on a farm that had horse, chicken, dogs and cats.

She will help me with my homework and tell if there is problem on my math or school thing.  She will help me with math, reading, science.  I was born in china so that is the reason I need help in reading.

I was adopted and came the USA when I was six.  My mom tried to not me cry.  She is a helpful person and kind she is the kindest mom when she is not mad at you.

When I am in trouble my mom tried to make me stop crying.  She also tried to finger it out.

She is also my only mom in the world.  My mom is the best of all in the world.  She also spend time with me.


                             THE END:)"                                              

Happy 14th Cassie!

Today is Cassie's 14th birthday.  I was reflecting on the past year and trying to decide what I wanted to highlight for her birthday.  I decided that I will always remember this year as "the year of auditions."  The school-year began with the deadline for high school applications looming.  Cassie knew that she wanted to apply to the fine art's program.  I believe that she could have qualified for music, dance, visual arts and writing.  But, the students can only apply in one discipline.  So, although she had spent last summer creating paintings and working on her art portfolio, she decided to apply to the writing program.  That meant evening and weekend writing seminars, poetry writing workshops, and late nights spent writing stories.  In February, she was accepted into the creative writing program.

At the same time, Cassie has decided to intensify her ballet studies.  She recently  auditioned and was accepted into a studio that has a pre-professional program.  

During the past year there were multiple violin auditions.  For the second year, Cassie was selected to perform in the all-county orchestra. In April, she also performed before two distinct panels of judges as a soloist.  Just last week she had a "move up" audition for the county's youth orchestra, to try to move to a more advanced group.

All of this involves a lot of driving and waiting on the part of the parents.  But, it is also very rewarding, especially when Cassie thanks me for helping make her dreams come true.  In celebration of Cassie's birthday, I'm sharing a video that I made with the app "One Second Every Day."  I have been capturing her violin rehearsals for the past several months.  In the video you can see her practicing at home, playing with her instructor, warming up, and playing with her school orchestra.  There's one snippet where she's playing a solo with the orchestra on stage that is a little hard to hear.  The final second shows her warming up at her most recent audition.