Read SC Writers Contest Award Ceremony

Saturday was a double whammy. Paige and I watched Anna run the 4x800 at a qualifying meet. Coaches Classic is an elite meet later in April that you have to qualify for. Anna tells me it's like a mini state meet. In any event, there was a qualifying meet on Saturday. Anna ran in the 4x800 for the second time and funny enough she was spot on her first attempt at the race. Consistency! Turns out they actually qualified in this event so they will go to Coaches Classic. 

We left Anna at the meet, while Patrick drove home from Myrtle Beach. He was there presenting in the morning and headed back home to catch Anna's race in the 3200. She ran great and was one second off her PR. In fact, she sprinted down another girl in the home stretch to come in 2nd place. But there are some very good 3200 runners in the state and she did not qualify in this race. I think they were both glad to be done for the day as it was so windy and cold. 

Meanwhile, Paige and got ready for her Read SC Contest Award Ceremony at the SC State Library. We got to hear from a guest poet/author/educator named Glenis Redmond who was so great. She gave a bit of encouragement to all the writers and then performed two of her poems. I loved her words about being enough, being a good reader to be a good writer and taking a risk by writing their thoughts and feelings down. It was exactly what I have been encouraging Paige to do over the last several years. 

Next, we got to hear from the award winners who read their letters and poems. Oh my word! They were so talented!! Paige is in amazing company and it gave me hope for the future to hear these perspectives from such young people. Paige read her poem and funny enough, I saw the guest author pull out a tissue and wipe her eye. We found out later Paige's poem made her cry! Afterward, Glenis Redmond came to find Paige and compliment her. When Paige squirmed under the attention, Glenis looked her straight in the eye and said firmly: you need to receive what I am saying. YOU have a strong voice and I want you to continue to use it. Well, if that doesn't give you chills, I don't know what will! It was so affirming and beautifully said for a girl who does have a strong voice, but doesn't often know how to use it. 

We also got to meet Emmalyn who lives in our neighborhood and goes to the high school. Funny enough, she one 1st place for her letter and I only started to put together that she lived in our neighborhood just a couple of days ago. Can you imagine that?! Two winners for a state-wide writing competition that neither knew they were entering both living in the same neighborhood! We enjoyed dessert with them afterward and then headed home to chill the rest of the evening. It was a fun and special day for sure. 

Random other pics from the weekend:

Sleepy Teddy

Paige reading a Mr. O letter. She runs to the mailbox to check for one almost every day.

Ice cream sundaes with my girls for a Girls Night! We also watched Father of the Bride 2. 

Crazy meet

This week has been a bit bananas. Anna's meet got moved from Wednesday to Tuesday due to weather. The meet was an hour away at Northwestern High School. Fortunately, Patrick was able to leave work early and drive Anna up. That worked out well considering the busses got stuck in traffic and arrived a half hour late. All that to say, because of the change in day and traffic, the meet didn't get started until late. When they got there, the meet was completely unorganized and running behind. 

Anna ran her first event, the 1600, at 8:45PM. She won the race easily! But I also knew she was supposed to run the 3200 and that's the second to last event. There was no way she was getting home before midnight and she had to be up at 6:30am for school. Plus she had three tests on Wednesday. Patrick finally texted and said her coach would withdraw her. So Patrick and Anna finally left at 9:45. 

Turns out right after they left, a woman (volunteer or spectator) was hit in the head with a shot put from one of our athletes. It was a complete accident and from what I understand there were lights off and she was standing too close. We're not sure how she is, but paramedics showed up and the meet ended. I feel so bad for this woman and for all the kids there.

Anna and Patrick got home at 10:45 and we all got into bed by 11:30. I let Anna sleep in a bit the next day so she missed homeroom, but still got to all of her classes and did well on her tests. Let's just say Wednesday was a long day! 

Meanwhile, we've been getting all the snuggles in when we can. Anna has a qualifying meet Saturday for a larger meet later in the season and Paige has an awards ceremony for her poetry contest. So fun things for the weekend! 

A Paige weekend

I sent Anna off to the beach with a friend and her family. They have a beach house where the girls hung out for the afternoon before their meet in Charleston on Saturday. It was a relay meet and Anna ran in the distance medley relay, doing the 1600 leg. That went just OK. It wasn't Anna's best race, but honestly after running just 36 hours before, I knew she would be tired and stiff. Her next race was the 4x800 which she has never run. She was the 3rd leg and realized quickly that it's a much quicker race than she's used to! Her first lap was 81 seconds and the second was 80 seconds. So she figured it out along the way and the team came in 3rd place. They even got a medal on the medal stand! 

Patrick drove out to coach and cheer on Saturday morning. So that left Paige and I with a fun girl weekend just the two of us. On Friday, after we got rid of Anna, we went to the mall to go dress shopping for her 5th grade graduation. She's been excited about this and I wanted to wait until the Easter dresses were out as I knew we would have a better selection. It's fun to shop with her as she's willing to try some things outside of her comfort zone. She's also a lot more girly than Anna so we tried some fancy things just for the fun of it. I think we found two great options! Now we just need to choose one. 

After that we grabbed some lunch before heading to get her ears pierced, which she's wanted to do for a little while now. It was a surprise so we didn't tell Patrick and Anna. Of course, I managed to not grab the correct birth certificate and we couldn't get them pierced at the place on the other side of town. So after being disappointed, I remembered there was a place closer to our side of town and looked them up. They had good reviews, were right around the corner and were free for a piercing. So off we went to Just Ink About It (they do tattoos!). 

Paige was a little nervous but she did great. She said it hurt a lot more than she thought it would, but was glad she did it. We surprised Patrick when he came home from work that night and then Anna the next day when she got home from the track meet. 

On Saturday, Paige and I did some things around the house, wrote letters, made cookies, walked Teddy, took care of a friend's dog and then went out to cheer Jonathan at his soccer game. She's also working on her 5th grade Passion Project so we did some planning for that. I think it will turn out great! Add in some ice cream and a movie night and you have a fun packed weekend with Paige. I sure do love this girl and her amazing spirit. 

 

St. Patty's Day, School records and Poetry

My new class started and it's been fabulous having 13 students. It's given me time to work on some other things like the 25+ anniversary celebration at Paige's school and even some St. Patty's Day fun. For some reason, I got it in my mind that I needed to do green lunches for the girls. It's something I've done regularly, but kind of forgot about this year until the day before. So I quickly whipped up some pistachio pudding cookies and packed them with green grapes, cucumber and spinach wraps. They pack their own lunches now, so it was fun to be able to surprise them with this special treat. 

Next, I made an Irish dinner, although we actually ate it the day before St. Patrick's day because Anna's meet got moved to the 17th due to rain on Wednesday. So, I made colcannon soup and Irish soda bread, which was perfect for our rainy day. And then the finale....mint chip lasagna. It was delicious! A layer of mint oreos, cheesecake, chocolate pudding with chocolate chips and then cool whip on the top. Yum! The nice thing was that I split it in two and made one for my people as well as my friend lunch the next day to celebrate Megan's birthday. Gotta love double duty dessert! 

We ended the real St. Patty's day with Anna's meet at Westwood. We got to see and visit with Emma and her family. She's a dear friend of Anna's and it's always fun when they run together. Anna ran the 1600 as the 3200 was scratched. Neither Emma or Anna had run the 1600 this year so we were curious to see what would happen, but I knew no matter what they would push each other. Emma and Anna are very similar runners, have done some training together and even went to camp together last summer. So they are evenly matched and competitive which helps them both. 

Oh my goodness, what a great race! They went out FAST and in fact Patrick thought there's no way they will finish the race well. Anna's coach was across the finish line giving me the face like oh man they are going fast! But they held on. Emma and Anna went back and forth for the first three laps and kept the pace. After that Anna started opening up a gap on Emma, maybe 6-7 yards. They came around the last corner and Anna started to surge, but Emma tracked her down like a heat seeking missile. She closed fast (Emma is a bit taller and stronger than Anna) and the crowd went wild as it was a race to the end. Paige, Emma's mom and I were all at the finish yelling for them both. When they crossed we knew they both PRed and Anna came in milliseconds in front of Emma. We're talking a shoulder that's how close it was. Turns out they both ran a 5:39!! Anna beat the school record. Emma beat her goal of 5:50 and both PRed. We high fived all around. So exciting!

During the meet as Paige and I were sitting watching the events, I got a text from her friend's mom that Paige had placed in a state-wide poetry contest. Paige didn't see her name mentioned so she dismissed it. But it turns out she didn't look closely enough because she actually got FIRST PLACE for grades 4-6!! We think this comes with a $100 prize. Here's her poem:

US

by:  Paige Kelly

 

I see skin like the dark of the night

I see skin like the bright morning light

I see a world that we can make right

I see skin like my own

I see skin that is all alone 

I see a world filled with beautiful skin tones

I see a world that uses skin color to hurt 

I see a world that treats some like dirt

I see a world that only upholds one,

 People whose skin is the color of sun 

I will try

I will listen 

I will stand 

We are all

Unique and special 

Lovely and dark 

Beautiful and light 

I will stand for us

So it was a banner day in the Kelly household! Thank goodness we don't have school today because everybody was tired from all the excitement last night. Anna is heading to the beach with a friend today so they can stay overnight before a meet in Charleston on Saturday. Paige and I will do some fun things together, including attending her very last Student Led Conference. I'll try not to cry. 

Random pics of our fun this week:

Patrick and Rusty for Spirit Week-it was Zoom Day (dressy up top and casual on the bottom)

Watching Madison's soccer game with friends. It's so fun to cheer all of the kids on in their talents!

Teddy Dog

Paige as Flora in Nora's Arc

What a busy and fun week! Paige continued rehearsals every evening for Nora's Arc. I was a little glad for all the rain this week because that meant that some of Anna's practices got canceled and we didn't have to figure out how to get everybody to their activities. About half-way through the week Paige's practice moved over to their theater location on the campus of Columbia College. I was so glad they got to perform in an actual theater this time and I was able to do some walking on the small campus in the evenings. 

Paige's first performance was Friday night. My parents drove into town so I threw a huge pot of soup on the stove and everybody could eat whenever they wanted. Anna and Patrick chilled with Grammy and Grampy while Paige did her performance. She was so excited and only a little nervous. Along with myself, the Powells, Soongs and Paige's current teacher as well as her boyfriend showed up to watch. I was blown away! The musical is so cute. I love that it showcases so many actors, has fun jazz music, tough choreography, and was really funny. With predators vs. prey trapped on a ship after the flooding of the Earth, you are bound to get some hilarity. After the show we went out to get ice cream with friends and Patrick and Anna joined us. We were having such a good time that we didn't get back until almost 10!

The next day, my parents joined us for breakfast and hanging out in the morning. I made grits, a fruit salad and a breakfast casserole that seemed to fill everybody's tank. Paige and I let the time slip by and were a few minutes late to call time. Oops! For the 2pm showing my parents, 4 friends from church, the Currys with cousins and Paige's former teacher and his wife showed up. Paige is racking up the audience members! Everybody loved it once again and I caught even more things the second time around. 

We were able to head home for a short time before the 7pm showing. This time I was able to take Anna and Patrick along and they both really loved the show too. Anna has been so sweet and supportive this week, making it a big deal for Paige. Fortunately, we were all in bed by 9 and got great rest even with the time change. 

The final showing was on Sunday afternoon. Yes, I saw it all four times and it was sweet each time. Paige's friend from school, Greher, showed up to watch her and Sally which I thought was so nice. Talk about some supportive fans! Paige was sad to see the production come to an end. She met some new friends and had a wonderful experience. I sure am glad she took a risk and went for it. 

Paige did such a great job and worked so hard. She earned her spot as a lead, memorized several lines and did singing with a small group of older girls. While so kids wore a mic because they were quiet, she did not because she could project. I can tell she's grown in her dance moves and confidence. She definitely stayed in character the entire time and was prepared to jump in should anybody forget their line. I sure hope she continues to perform because it's a joy to watch her.