National Music Federation

Kennedy just participated in the local Music Federation's competition. She's been taking piano lessons for almost three years now, two with Dr. Diane Earle in Owensboro, and this year with Martha Stork, in her home in a neighborhood right behind our house.

Before she started lessons this year, I described the competitions I had been in while I was taking lessons with Ms. Carley back in Griffin. She seemed interested, and I asked if that was something she'd like to do, and whether I should seek out a piano teacher willing to do that. She said she would, so that was one of the questions I asked Ms. Stork before we started lessons.

Kennedy prepared two pieces for the competition. The less difficult was entitled "Gypsy Earrings," the more difficult, "The Notorious Pirate." She had her pieces picked out just after the Christmas holidays, and had them ready to go in mid-February, so her teacher had her put them aside until just a few weeks before the competition.

I (Michael) took her to the event, held at Harrison High School here in Evansville. This is the kind of event where musicians on various instruments play before a judge and receive a written critique and a numerial score, which is then translated to either: Fair, Good, Excellent, Superior, or Super Superior. A perfect score of all 50 points ranks you at Super Superior, with 5 point degradations below that.

She signed in and got her room assignment, and then we headed down to the room, 30 minutes before her allotted time. When we arrived, the room monitor said that no other person with times before her had arrived, and she was welcome to go on in as soon as the judge returned from a lunch break. She said she was ready.

She was nervous. Waiting for the judge to return wasn't too bad, but when Kennedy saw the judge enter the room, she mentioned that she wasn't feeling good. Butterflies big time. I reminder her of the basics: take her time getting ready, say hello to the judge, get the bench in the right place, take a deep breath before each piece, and say thank you to the judge before she left. That seemed to calm her enough. She went in.

It was my turn to be nervous. There is no feeling like standing outside a classroom, listening to your daughter play piano through the door, knowing she's being judged on every little movement. But I digress; this isn't about me.

Her teacher had recommended she start with the easier piece. Good advice. She played absolutely perfectly, at least to this dad's ears. Not a mistake, great tempo and tempo changes, dynamics perfect, not a note out of place. Same thing on the second, more difficult, piece. Great expression in every dimension. She lost herself every so briefly on two occasions on the second piece.

The music ended. I breathed a heavy sigh of relief. The door opened and out she came. The room monitor went into the room, and we had a few moments to wait until the score came out. I told her how beautiful the pieces were, and that I was proud of her, and what she said next is priceless, worth every trip to every lesson, every reminder to practice daily (some more trying than others), worth all of it. What she said was, "I know. I'm proud of myself."

Out came the score: Superior. She was smiling from ear to ear. She played so beautifully. We went to the "music store" that someone had set up near the registration table, and Kennedy picked out a nice portfolio to keep her music in, which we bought to celebrate her big piano day.

Just the other day, she had her first piano lesson after the competition. Ms. Stork had a blue ribbon for her and a certificate indicating her accomplishment. But, more importantly, she had the judge's original score sheet, which was Kennedy's to keep. Looking at the scoring, we discovered that her two foibles had cost her only one point, and that was the only deduction on the entire sheet. She had performed one point away from a perfect score!

So, we are so proud of her, and like I wrote above, even more importantly, she came away with a very positive experience and a great foundation for future adventures.

Soccer Update

U10 Mutiny Soccer Update:

Kennedy's team has played several games. They're about .500 right now, but the key is, they are improving every game. I've enjoyed the coaching aspect of the game immensely, and my understanding of the game at this level has improved quite a bit.

The fun of coaching this level is this: the idea is to keep the forwards in front, the backs in back, and the mids in-between. Invariably, the players on my team will get one message from me and a different message from their parents. Especially forwards. I try to teach them to play "offense, offense, offense," yet parents insist that their daughters move back almost all the way to the penalty box to help out on defense. Así es la vida.

The other point about coaching at this level is that they are more apt to listen to their coach (yeah!), which makes their parents yell all the more loudly!!!

U8 Fire Soccer Update:

Natalie's team is doing well.  They've had several games, and are probably not up to .500 for the season currently. We very seldom have all our girls at any given game. Last Saturday we had five girls total show up to play five positions. They were worn out by the end of the game.

U8 is still in the realm of what I call "magnet ball." Imagine that the ball is a magnet, and all the players are iron shavings. They are totally and irresistibly attracted to the ball. We have been able to keep two defensive players on the defensive side of the field for most of the game. The danger there is, they are usually chatting or daydreaming when the ball comes down toward the goal they are defending. That makes for exciting moments.

We have just three more weeks of soccer left to play. And no fall soccer, considering the girls' league plays only in the spring. So, we're going to enjoy it while we can.

Spring Break

Okay, catching up with the news from La Doña. It's been a month since we posted anything. A lot has happened in a month: Spring Break, Holy Week, Easter, and a trip to Philadelphia for me (Michael).

Spring Break

I took Kennedy and Natalie with me to visit my dad and his wife, Cathy, for a few days. We were able to leave after church on a Sunday and stay through Thursday. The hot tub was the highlight of the trip for the girls :) Not really, but they did enjoy it.

On Monday, we drove down to Callaway Gardens for a picnic. We visited the butterfly garden and caught the Birds of Prey show. On the way back, we took the long way home in order to enjoy one of my dad's favorite restaurants, Mama Lucia's, in Newnan, GA. I can attest to the great atmosphere and even better food.

Tuesday, we took it easy. We made a visit to my grandmother, who is living in a nursing home on the west side of Griffin. She was happy to see us, and she seemed in better spirits than the last time I had seen her. In the afternoon, we enjoyed nine holes of golf at Morgan Dairy Golf Club (don't let the scary men fool you, it's a quiet, peaceful course out in the sticks).

On Wednesday, we had the experience of  breakfast at a place that dad frequents a lot called Murphys. All I can say about that is, if you've never been to a diner down south, you won't understand the atmosphere. In any case, I recommend the biscuits and gravy.

We left in a rush to go to the Georgia Aquarium. This place is incredible. Poke around their website and see. I think we have some pictures of our time there, and I'll try to post them later.