Just blown away

Her mother and I are both athletes.

Not good enough to get paid for it mind you, but I lettered in football, and became pretty good at Basketball as an adult...and frankly, until the last year or so stood out at the Church men's events. My wife lettered in Soccer and Basketball, was sorority sports chairman. We watch football together, talk about current events like the firing of Tony Franklin, etc.

Oh, and its safe to say that on the Artsy Meter...the needle doesn't quite move for the two of us.

So the natural progression for our kids is to get 'em into soccer at about 4 years old, play a little t-ball, flag football, church league basketball...and for kid number one she has varsity letters in Softball and played 2 years on the JV Basketball team. Really, she's no athletic slouch.

Same kid got involved singing in the church children's choir. She'd get a solo about once a year...you know, she was the one to the side that got to hold the mic and sing one verse alone. This grew to being a townsperson in the school play (I guess townsperson is where they stick the little kids when there aren't enough props or trees or stuff). And she liked it...just lit up after performances, laughed back stage. The funny thing is that her blossom curve on stage was inversely proportional to the declining enjoyment she got from sports. In fact, last year, in both softball and basketball, she really hoped that she didn't have to play...but just liked being on the team with her friends.

This weekend she's in full bloom (as much as a 16 year old can be):

She's going to be performing 4 shows as Mrs. Potts in Disney's Beauty and The Beast. It goes without saying that I think she's great. But if I had a nickle for every person in town who saw the show last night, that has come up to my wife or me and said stuff like:

"Wow, She has a beautiful voice." or

"Man, she's a natural" or

"Where did she learn to act like that?"

You get the point.

The best part is, she paved the trail for other budding artists that may be lurking the halls of our house. So Kid 4 gets to take art classes and play low stress church league soccer while she finds her place (she's leaning toward art). Kid 5 wants to take Karate...not sure what a 5 year old cupie doll wants with Karate, but I'll keep you posted.

Anyway...I'm thrilled on several different levels. I'm sure you can read into all of them.

Hooray God.