She's Coming Out of Her Shell

Beth's alarm went off at 8 this morning. Her second alarm went off at 8:30. (She has a new alarm clock, but we're trying it out to see if she can work it. It doesn't look like it's gonna work for her.) I went down at 9:00 and she was still alseep. I woke her up, turned on the light, took off her covers. At 9:15 she was STILL asleep. Sure enough, her bus came right at 9:29. She scrambled, well... she moved around while grumbling, but she made it out on time. Whew.

And now, the house is quiet. I'm alone and will be for the next oh, 5-6 hours. That doesn't happen very often. Chuck's at work. Wednesday is Beth's long day. She goes to karaoke and art with All Aboard and it's about 20 minutes north of us. Beth is usually the first to be picked up and then they pick up others along the way. Karaoke doesn't start until 11, but Beth is picked up at 9:30. Then art class ends at 4:00 and by the time Beth gets home, it's sometimes close to 6:00. She loves it though! Diana and Sharaya have gone to Canada for the day. Just to do some shopping and hang out together. The border is a 2 hour drive from here so they'll be gone a while.

Beth had her first choir rehearsal on Sunday. She was so nervous. She wanted me to stay with her, but I'm too shy! There was no way I was going to be the only parent sitting in a room of high schoolers! But I went in with her. She took her choir application (she filled out the whole thing by herself!) to Miss Terri and she found a seat in the Alto section. I stayed until rehearsal started then went upstairs to wait. She came out with the music to Step In Time from Mary Poppins! She was so excited! I asked if Miss Terri had given it just to her and she said, "They passed 'em down to everybody." I asked her if they were singing it on Sunday (highly unlikely) but she said, "I dunno." I asked what Miss Terri said when they passed them out. "I dunno." (Beth doesn't have good recall skills. She can answer the phone, talk with the person, but even as soon as she hangs up, you'll ask her what they said, "I dunno." Then we play 20 questions trying to figure out who it was and what they wanted.) I haven't told Beth this but I think they're singing that song in their big fundraiser coming up in a few weeks. They've been working on it for months and Beth won't be doing it since she just joined. So we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

I've been trying to get Beth to open up more and talk to people. Which is really hard for me because I'm more shy than she is! I told her to say hi to the person who sits next to her. "All you have to say is, 'Hi I'm Beth.' But she said no one sat next to her. Sniff. :(

BUT, on Tuesday we were on our way to the grocery store and she says, "I told Tammi about choir." After a little investigation, "Who's Tammi?" She told one of her teammates at bowling, that she has joined the youth choir!! She said Tammi said "Cool" and gave her a high 5!! I understand her not talking to anyone at choir cause she doesn't know them yet, but she took the initiative to talk to someone she is comfortable with. I'm so glad! She was too! You could tell. She had the look of, 'I talked to someone and it worked!'

And this Saturday starts Athletics with Special Olympics. It's Track and Field but for some reason they call it Athletics. I'm a little concerned because we need to bring a copy of her sports physical but she didn't get one this year. I know, I know. Bad parenting. I called to make an appointment for one but their next opening isn't until April. So I scheduled it, but I hope they still let her participate.

But for today, I'm all alone. In the quiet. Can you see me smiling right now? :) Sigh. No deadlines. No meetings. No requests. Just.... quiet. (I even bought some chocolate at the grocery store last night! Didn't tell anyone!) So now I'm going to go put in a movie, grab a big fuzzy blanket, hop into Chuck's recliner (best seat in the house!) and open that chocolate!!

Wanna join me?