Recital

About six weeks ago, Emily started taking voice lessons.  She has - to us - a very nice voice, but she is terrified of singing in front of people.  She loves to sing in the shower and she loves to be part of her school chorus but no matter how hard her chorus director tries, Emily refuses to sing solos in the concerts.  We asked her if she wanted to try voice lessons, as she will need to at least audition to make the better singing groups in high school - she agreed.  She is working with a woman at the University of Hartford and we learned a few weeks ago that she has regular recitals for her singers.  I told her teacher that it was her decision as to whether Emily could perform, I simply couldn't make that type of determination and if left up to Emily, the answer would certainly be no.  Dr. Fiertek said that it would be good for Emily to get "the first" out of the way and that she was ready.  

The recital was Saturday night and Emily was scheduled to go third in the program.  She had a disastrous run through with the pianist for the dress rehearsal so she was even more nervous.  When it was time for her to go, she completely panicked and said we had to leave - that she couldn't do it.  Together, Dr. Fiertek and I convinced her that she could and I walked her to the stage - the pianist suggested that she stand next to her, rather than face the audience.  And then she sang.  The whole song.  Without a single mistake or even an ounce of trepidation in her voice.  She was very embarrassed afterwards for "causing a scene" although our convincing was all done at below a whisper so no one really knew what was going on. Plus, performing in front of other musicians is comforting, as they all know what it's like to be afraid.  I won't say that she's looking forward to her next performance, but now she knows that she can do it.

Before.... 

After.....(there is no video, at Emily's request.  We were all too busy hyperventilating and/or crying to take a video anyway.)

Chamber Music Recital

In mid-February, Northwest Catholic had its Chamber Music Recitals.  All students in Honors performance groups were required to perform at least one song during the recital - solo, duet, or larger group.  Elizabeth performed a duet with another freshmen and she performed with all of the flutes in the Honors Wind Ensemble, which is her music class.  Overall, the performances were very good and we were very proud of Elizabeth, who arranged the duet piece and then performed with her "flute nation" with very little rehearsal.

Pirates of the Caribbean

The German Dances

February Frenzy

Over Presidents' Day Weekend, the JPII girls played in the February Frenzy, an annual basketball tournament run by a nearby Catholic school.  The girls won a stunner on Friday night, 10-8.  Emily scored all of the team's points in first half, including a half court shot as time expired at the half to put the team up 5-2 (I'm totally biased, but the place went absolutely wild. The entire JPII boys team had just arrived and saw the shot, which added to the excitement.)  They played a great defensive game - Emily played every minute and completely neutralized the other team's best player and the team was unable to pull ahead without that girl scoring any points.  On Sunday night, they played against a local travel team and it was tough going for our girls. Based on their record, however, they made it to the semi-final game on Monday afternoon and stayed close to another local travel team until the last 90 seconds of the game.  They left it all on the court and Emily again played every minute of the game, ending with 8 steals and 5 rebounds.  There is one game left in the season and I will really be sad to see it come to an end.

My girl loves to take the jump ball. 

Free throws are Emily's most difficult shot.  To put things into perspective, she's made more three pointers (3) this season than baskets from the free throw line.  And it's not for lack of effort.  She regularly gets to practice early to practice her free throws and practices them during water breaks, when everyone else is getting water and chatting.  She finally hit one over the weekend.

With the girls down by 15 on Sunday night, the coaches encouraged Emily to drive to the basket, rather than always looking to pass.  She had the perfect opportunity a few moments later.

January Odds and Ends

Winter Dance

When Lee goes outside without Willis....

Elizabeth and Julia showing off their new track sweatshirts.

Studying for midterms

Is there anything more fun for parents than running weeknight errands for Invention Convention supplies?

JPII Open House tour guides.

Father Daughter Dance

Emily attended the annual JPII Father Daughter Dance with Lee at the end of January.  This was their first time going to this dance alone since Emily was in kindergarten.  Emily had a great time with her friends and even got Lee to dance a little bit!  They had a wonderful time together.

Silly 7th grade girls

More Basketball

Emily played a bunch of basketball games in late January and early February.  Among those, the only home game of the season for the girls.  They lost a nail biter, 6-5 (not a typo) - a complete heart breaker for Emily, who missed two layups during the game and was the one the coach turned to with four seconds left to take the (almost) mid-court shot for the win.  She was devestated when the game was over because she was unable to put forth her best game in front of a roaring crowd, including many of her classmates and good friends. She and the team rebounded the next night with a big win and a few days later, she played her best game of the season, a 25-20 loss in which she scored her first three pointer and had 9 points and 14 steals.  I never thought I would love watching her play another sport as much as I love watching her play soccer but this year, basketball has really inched its way up there.

Winning the jump ball. 

If just one of these steals had resulted in a layup, JPII would have won the game.  So much heart break for my girl that night. 

When your soccer besties and their parents surprise you by showing up at your only home basketball game...well, she was overwhelmed with the love from her friends.

Winning the jump ball.

Leftie layup.

Rebound, and then coast to coast for the layup. 

With the steal... 

January Storm

Over MLK Weekend, we had a huge storm in Connecticut.  Rather than getting a lot of snow, we had only a few inches of snow, followed by A LOT of freezing rain.  The rain covered absolutely everything and took down a lot of limbs. We suffered some of the worse storm damage we've had in years, starting early Sunday morning when a huge limb fell in the backyard.  A few hours later, another limb fell, missing our generator by inches.  For the next twenty four hours or so, with high winds and temps below zero, several limbs hung on our roofs, dragging and scraping while we held our breath, hoping we wouldn't lose any more limbs, especially near the generator.  We never lost power, although so many homes around us did.  We ended up coming through it with no damage to house, thankfully, but it was a scary couple of days.

Just barely missing the generator. 

Everything was encased in ice. 

Beautiful sunset on Sunday night. 

The temperature when Emily and I left for her soccer tournament on Monday morning.  We've had this thermometer for more than ten years and this is the first time it's ever registered a negative reading.  We think it was probably closer to -5.