Orchestra

This was the first post I wrote but I have been unsuccessfully trying to upload a video of the concert.  I decided to go ahead and post it without the video for now.

Yet again I find myself several months behind.  I get stressed trying to post everything in chronological order.  I know that the only way I will ever get caught up is to just start posting in random order.  So before I finish off summer and the last few months in Indiana, we are going to fastforward to this past weekend

We were worried when we moved here about Orchestra.  Katy has been playing the violin the last 2 1/2 years and I didn't want to see that end but some of the schools here did not have an Orchestra program.  We were excited that things worked out to live in the Ohio County school district since they had the best Strings program in the area.  Not that the decision was made for that reason but we were grateful to end up here for many reasons, orchestra included. Katy ended up being selected to be in the First Annual Ohio and Marshall County Honors Middle School Orchestra.

 She wasn't sure she wanted to participate since it required spending 2 normal days off at the high school all day.  She came home from church the weekend she was deciding and said they had talked about choices that day and she had decided not to do it.  We asked her what made her decide that.  She said her class had learned that sometimes you have to make a choice between a good thing and a better thing.  Again we asked what the bette thing was in this situation.  Her reply was: staying at home and playing with her siblings.  Although we were glad she gets along with her siblings we hated to see her pass up this opportunity.  We reminded her that she had gotten several snow days the week before in which she stayed at home at played all day.  Jared said if she chose not to go he would support that decision but that we were going to go to the concert as a family and he wanted me to take the kids on a culturally enriching activity on Friday instead of staying home in our PJs all day.  In the end she decided to participate and we were very proud of her.

Two days of practice may not seem that intense but at the concert the conductor had us hold our hands in the position that was needed to play the violin and then asked us to hold them there for over 10 hours.  Point recieved!  Those kids worked hard mentally and physically those 2 days but the their efforts were well worth it.  I was amazed at how beautiful they sounded.  Katy's decision paid off in other regards too.  She had outgrown all her white shirts (the required attire for the concert) so ended up scoring a new white top out of the deal.

 I was quite impressed with the High School Auditorium. It was huge and beautiful.

Katy was nervous about the whole experience and especially the concert. I love how at the end of the concert you could see her exhale deeply.  She was definitely relieved it was over.