To Sweet Adelines International in St. Louis and Back Again

There was so much excitement going into this competition. We were singing so well and we were going for gold. I arrived Tuesday and had a glorious time catching up with my Mission Valley friends (who are still this level of family).

Singing in the airport with Skyline sisters https://skylinechorus.net/ 

In the Mission Valley make-up room feeling super gleeful with dear friends!

Thursday we competed and it was so beautiful!!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3r6H1rQ0SWU&feature=youtu.be%2F%EF%BF%BD

Make-up and costume ready!

5 minutes of fresh air! (The arch was right across the street from our hotel.)

With a bunch of the 13 newbies before boarding the buses

Performing! (Fourth in, back row)

My best friend said her daughter was "enraptured"!

Friday was intense rehearsals (and some of these pics are probably from other day's brief breaks between rehearsals too):

We wrote love-notes, just sweet warm fuzzies to each of the chorus members. One morning we came in and found a bag with our name on it...

... filled with kind and encouraging words.

Saturday we did the show package:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkGlKfNkW54&feature=share
Such a full and awesome performance!

Ready!

Hanging out in the waiting room before we got to sing

And then… we came in 4th. Sniff. Fourth in the whole world is still pretty awesome! (I have lots of scoring questions which I’m sure will get answered at next week’s chorus rehearsal.) For now, I’m in awe of the beauty of the music that we made because it definitely took an awesome leap with this week of intensive together time. This chorus is huge! And, this chorus is full of love.

P.S.
"On the way" to the airport I stopped by the zoo. One of my students recently moved from St. Louis to Denver and he told me that the one thing I simply had to do was go to the zoo. So… I pushed my giant suitcase and all my luggage round the St. Louis zoo Sunday morning and got some seriously odd looks from the animals. But, success! I’ve got proof :)

The "Chick" is 15! How Time Has Flown!

Once upon a time, we visited a herd of reindeer.

The babies were so cute and...

... the velvet antlers so soft and...

the experience so fun AND I was 18 weeks pregnant.

Five months, plus 15 years later and lots of awesome living... we have my "chick"! How can it have been that long?!?!

Why does he like to be called my chick? It all comes back to the tale of "The Little Red Hen." In that classic, none of the barn animals will help the little red hen to gather the wheat, grind the grain, mix the dough, or bake the bread. But, they all are interested in helping her eat the bread. She declines their help in the eating because they didn't help in the making and shares the bread only with her chicks. Thus, we have my child's refrain that he is my chick and needn't help because he's my sweet, little chick (and he got me that plush chick). Hmmm, well, even though he's several inches taller than me (and usually does help), today he's allowed to be my chick and revel in pampering. Here's to my precious boy who has grown into a funny, creative, brilliant person with quite the sense of humor :)