WHAT I WILL MISS...

SOME OF IMAGES OF THE THINGS THAT I WILL MISS...

Above: Last Dance Recital

Below: Me and My Bestfriend (from prom)

Below: Cheering at football games (August 2010--Jamboree) Below: Dancing in the Nutcracker (November 2010--Snow Queen) Above: cheering at pep rally (October 2010)
Below: Dancing in the Pilgrimage (April 2011) Below: Dance Recital (April 2011--the dance she choreographed) Yesterday was the day, the whole story on that and the images behind the story will come later this week when I find a few minutes to get them edited just a bit. I will tell you I didn't cry like I thought I might, but I cried a lot over the last year or so...maybe I had much of it out of my system. But mostly I think it is the peace that only comes from God. Peace in knowing her heart is in the right place and that this is where she is supposed to be. I wanted to be light hearted about what I want miss because yes we don't miss everything about parenting when that phase is over. I miss my children being babies like their laugh or smile or them wearing "what I want them to wear", but I don't miss them being sick and not being able to say their ears or tummy hurts. Today I blog from an empty nest...these are some things I know I will miss about my last child not being here our home:

1. 
   
   Not seeing her leave here and/or taking a photo of her on her first day of school. Maybe she'll ask her roommate to take one since she is documenting and blogging too now.



2. 
   
   Her fashion opinion. You know--"which shoes look better?" I definitely trust her opinion on that one more than her dad's.



3. 
   
   Watching her cheer. She cheered two years and in jr. high and two in high school two. The two that she didn't cheer was kind of nice staying home watching TV with my love while she was out with friends watch the games...but not as nice as watching her perform. She also glows when she is doing what she enjoys.



4. 
   
   I will definitely miss our spur of the moment shopping trips. You know "retail therapy" or you realize you won't get another break in your schedule so this is a good time to go shop for new shoes, dress, whatever you're needing for whatever is coming up. It was so nice when she could do these shopping adventures with me. We have the same shopping style...a must for a good shopping partner!



5. 
   
   I also love her opinion on what really looks good on my when shopping. Now I am going to have trust my own and opinion along with the mirror. OH NO! Yeah, I am definitely going to miss that too!



6. 
   
   More along the shopping note: I am going to miss having her with me to pick up the case of diet cokes or case of bottled waters. I have had to learn to NOT pick them up because of my back issues.



7. 
   
   I am going to miss watching her dance. These past few years she has danced her home pom routine/dance (whatever you call them) for cheerleading, she has danced in the Nutcracker, she dance in the Natchez Pilgrimage Pageant (again whatever they call it--they changed the name this year) and her end of the year recital dance. I will miss seeing her radiance when she danced.



8. 
   
   I will miss watching TV movies like Lifetime Movies or series or renting DVDs. We love a good "chic flick"! I will probably even miss her watch Dirty Dancing for 100th time!



9. 
   
   Cari loves to cook. And who doesn't love living with someone that loves to cook. I will definitely miss her cooking for us. Sometimes she would just give me a break and cook the whole meal.



10. 
    
    Above all, I am going to miss my best friend. We've shared so much the last few years. Our family has gone through many ups and downs. We could talk to each other about things that no one else would get, but I could also talk to her about almost anything. I guess she will still be a text or a phone call away, but not like being in next room. I will miss this more than words can express. But I am so very happy and excited that my best friend is living the dream that I didn't get to do! LOVE YOU, GIRL!
    

NOTE: Have you seen Cari's blog lately? I hope she keeps this up. She has been blogging almost daily the last few days about her transition to college. Be sure to follow her: CARI IN COLLEGE

2009 Natchez Pilgrimage Pageant: Part 1

Cari: on the right

I am titling this Part 1 because I hope to go to a few more performances over the next 4 weeks. When you're daughter does this four nights a week over a four week period, you can't make them all. Today I was still beaming with pride that Randy and I had last night over our daughter's performance.

Cari and I were discussing the last time that she performed ballet before an audience was the last Mini-National level pageant that she competed in the summer of '99 in Shreveport, La. A little background to those of you who didn't know us back then: We, I mean she, had competed in pageants since she was 8 months old, off and on. This particular year we decided to lay off pageants for a while..okay I decided...maybe she had input. She was still five when we made the decision.

So rather than competing in pageants, we competed in dance. [edited to add: I think competition can be very healthy for children.] Her dance school started back competing that year! So we decided to tried a new kind competition. She was supposed to do a little tap dance with another girl and two boys, but for some reason this dance did not work out. So Cari being the youngest performer in the group that was committed to performing, her teacher choreographed her a solo. I think...I would have dig out the papers to make sure, but I think her dance was called Tiny Ballerina. She competed in three different competitions in dance as a solo and in also at each competition she also competed in a very large group dance. This included all the children that were competing. I don't know exactly what the wins were on the group dance, but I know they did well. In her Tiny Ballerina solo, she won two first place awards and a third place. The third place had many kids in her age group. I was pleased with the third.

In the collage that I posted yesterday, you see five different costumes. After the competition, they finished getting ready for recital. At recital, Cari performed five different times. I still remember our first recital that I discovered then that the seniors get to perform a solo. So then I started looking forward to Cari performing her solo when she was a senior. So it was quite exciting that we didn't have to wait until she was a senior, she performed her group dances with her class and she performed the large group dance for competition. SHE ALSO PERFORMED A SOLO AT SIX YEARS OLD!

For many reasons, I was so glad that Cari was allowed to perform that solo at Debra Franco's School of Dance recital in Vicksburg, MS. Because less than a year later we moved to Concordia Parish and Cari has not had dance with Ms. Debra again.

I don't want to go into details because I am finding that I am already being too wordy...much more than I intended to be when I started the post. But this fall, after everything...I mean somethings, went back to normal after Hurricane Gustav, Cari began ballet classes again. This time at Natchez Ballet Academy. I really don't think her teacher thought Cari would be that great. Cari nor I didn't really know what to think...Okay...I felt like she would be good. Ms. Debra always said that Cari was a natural ballerina, but I just know how she is...if she wants to be good at something "you can bet your last dollar" that she will be. THAT'S MY CARI!
So who would believe that it had been 10 years before this child (young woman) had performed ballet before an audience? Apparently not any one who saw this performance last night! And even her dad and I, who knew this, could not believe our eyes.

Cari: on the right

Okay...I confess I am not very professional at this kind of photography...so I did black and white images of the ones w/red-eye...it's okay, huh? since this isn't my professional blog?
Cari: right (back)

By the way, Cari is actually just an understudy. She only been on point shoes since November!

She is actually committed to this dance...Can Can!

Cari: in the middle (front row)

I don't know how many of you who view this actually read the text or just look at the images. When I view blogs it all depends on my mood and the time that I have at the moment. If it looks really interesting and I just don't have time, I come back later to read the story behind the images. But just for your information: That pageant that she did her solo in August 1999. She won overall supreme age 3-6...accumulative score of many different competitions including photogenic (by mom, the photographer) and talent (her ballet solo). I was very nervous because girls that we had known for years in our age group had been getting very serious about pageants were taking voice lessons and such for talent (so I had heard through the grapevine...if that was today it would be facebook or someone's blog, huh?), we spent that time in dance competition. I was concerned that our judges wouldn't recognize her ballet as "real" talent. Since the pageant was in August, several children did recital type dances, but I (and our friends) could tell that Cari's dance was much more than a recital dance. and by the way...SO DID THE JUDGES! SHE WON TALENT!

And to those of you who don't know much about pageants and think that's it all superficial...well some of it really is, but it is a serious competition that a lot can be learned out of it, but at the same time I think if you stay in it too long, around "some" of those people too long, you get sucked right into it too. It's sort of like gambling, but with some "crazy" moms. Maybe I was one of them, but I don't think I let me myself go that far. As I often tell some people...I was like Jon Benet's mom, but w/o money. And in the pageant industry...no money can keep you a little more grounded/humble however you want to word it.

Okay, I did not intend to post so much info...but there I go again. I did, however, want to do something with these images right away. So often my stuff gets put on the back burner for so long that it really is old news.

SO THERE YOU HAVE IT! NEW NEWS! OUR BEAUTIFUL DAUGHTER WAS A BEAUTIFUL DANCER LAST NIGHT!

~~ja~~

Way Back Whensday...

OUR TINY LITTLE DANCER

Tonight Our Tiny Little Dancer is all grown up...well almost. Tonight she is dancing at the Natchez Pilgramage Pageant. Tonight (03.11.08) she is dancing in two dances. Over the next four weeks, she will be dancing 3-4 nights a week in the pilgramage performances. Tonight her daddy and I will see her perform ballet for an audience again for the first time since the year this collage was created. Excuse the less than professional looking image. I photographed the framed image in her room. I won't go into detail since I am knee deep in the middle of several different things, but she took ballet and other classes for years and then discontinued until this past fall. It seems our daughter is still a ballerina! Her teacher has been so impressed how a 16 year old who had not danced since she was 7 or 8 years old can pick up ballet as quickly as she has. Of course, I am paraphrasing and maybe stretching...but needless to say, we are proud parents are we are looking forward to seeing this performance.

~~ja~~