Coda

In musical terms, alla coda means to go to the next coda sign, which is a passage that brings a musical piece or movement to an end. As we move through the final weeks of Rachel’s high school years, it feels like a crescendo toward the finish. She is finishing up her classes, finals are looming, three piano competitions are on the calendar, a final solo recital is being planned, and Butler University, which was just a blip on our radar last year, has become an almost daily part of our conversations. They have called, sent letters and handwritten postcards, and overall been very warm and helpful in the past few months. The Dean of Music even stopped by last week for an hour to answer questions. Yes, I understand that these days, a university is like a business in many ways, but I am impressed by how personal the whole process has been so far. I have a good feeling about Rachel’s future at Butler and she is very eager to start this next chapter.

It’s so hard to believe, really. Is this the same shy girl who wanted absolutely no part of children’s church as a 5-year-old? We tried once – Mick even stayed with her the whole time – but she didn’t like it at all. She sat very quietly with us in church, so we didn’t force it. And now, she is not only preparing to go to college, but she is looking forward to it!  Even four years ago, I would’ve said “no way.”

So, I make calls, write down dates, put pins on our “Graduation Open House” Pinterest board, look through old pictures and try to convince myself that somehow, I’m going to have this all wrapped up neatly in the next six weeks.

And now I see snapshots of her through the years, flying through my memory like a series of Polaroids and it’s hard to fathom we’re at this point in our lives with her. This process of breaking away … this launching of our first child … it is coming in degrees. So hard to believe, but it is coming. Exciting? Absolutely. And I promise I’ll be genuinely smiling through it all, in spite of the lump in my throat.

 

“Les Misérables,” by Victor Hugo

Rachel has been working her way through this 1,100+ page classic and has been making a lot of progress on it lately. It’s mostly been a labor of love; it’s probably her favorite story.

Good book + warm fireplace stones + cozy spot = reading heaven.

“Jane Eyre” by Charlotte Bronte

A long, long time ago, in a world that didn’t used to be quite so busy, it seems like I used to post an occasional picture of someone reading. It seems like it’s been a long time since I’ve done that. We are still reading around here, and this photo is evidence of that.

She knows the story. She’s seen the movie. But for the first time, Rachel is reading this classic … and she’s loving it!

A “Miserable” 18th Birthday

 

An 18th birthday is an important milestone birthday, and yet, we are a family who loves traditions. So in many ways, Rachel’s 18th birthday was no different from her other birthdays. For example: she took extra care with such important details as her hairstyle (thanks to Courtney for the lovely curling!).

We had a tasty birthday meal with Grandma and Grandpa, followed by homemade brownies, ice cream and gifts.

 

But the *special* part of this milestone birthday had been planned a couple months in advance: tickets to see “Les Miserables” in Chicago!! The kids first listened to the story several years ago on Focus on the Family’s Radio Theatre drama series. Rachel absolutely loved the story and has been a fan ever since. We picked a Wednesday matinee show, Mick took the day off and we headed up to Chicago.

We started off with a late breakfast/early lunch at the famous Lou Mitchell’s restaurant. From there, we drove out to Oakbrook Terrace, a suburb of Chicago, to see the show. It is hard to put into words just how amazing it all was. Incredible story … unbelievable talent. At one point, I felt like we hadn’t paid enough for our tickets!! So moving and wonderful. I just don’t have enough adjectives to describe it, really.

After the show, when we were waiting for Mick to bring the car around, two elderly women walked past, one helping the other. One asked “What was it about?” I’m wondering: how in the world do you sum up Les Miserables? The other said “It was about redemption and forgiveness.” Absolutely. Those two themes are at the heart of that great musical.

Right after the show, Rachel changed into her souvenir t-shirt. She was still basking in the afterglow. We all were, actually. For the next few weeks.  :-)

So, from there, we went from the unbelievable heights of the most moving musical experience ever to … wait for it … the Chicago subway.  :-D

We’d planned to ride the metro, both for the convenience of not having to mess with parking in downtown Chicago, and also just for the experience; even Mick had never ridden a subway. I’d done extensive homework the night before and felt very certain of where we needed to get off to be close to our destination: DiGiornio’s Pizza. We wanted to be close so we wouldn’t have to walk too far in 38 degree weather. We rode an increasingly packed subway and the closer we got to our exit, the less sure I was about where to get off. We started double-checking the iPhone and at the last minute, I panicked and decided I had the wrong exit so we stayed on for another 15 minutes or so, past many more exits, until we got the one we thought was the right one. It didn’t take too long to realize I’d miscalculated again. We could see the part of downtown Chicago where we needed to be, but it was pretty distant. We ducked inside a nearby Subway restaurant (which smelled heavenly of course) and tried to get our bearings. At this point, Rachel and I were starting to lobby for Subway instead of DiGiornio’s, but Mick had his heart and stomach set on real Chicago pizza and we agreed (pretty much). So we started walking … in overcast 38 degree weather … in "The Windy City.”

Rachel and Mick aren’t passing each other – she’s walking backward rather than into the wind! She did that for a long time.  :-)

It was bracing, to say the least. A couple of times, we’d duck behind building entrances to get out of the wind and check the map again. After what seemed like an eternity, we’d gone a couple of millimeters on the map and had about 6 inches to go … or something like that.  ;-)

During one stop, while I was consulting the map, Mick spotted a taxi and gave the slightest of hand waves and the guy pulled right up. As soon as we got in that warm mini-van, we knew we’d might the right choice – no matter WHAT the cost!  Plus, it was pretty neat; we’d never ridden in a taxi, either.  So, I couldn’t resist snapping a picture.  (hee-hee)

So,after waiting an eternity for our pizza (I think an hour) and then another 45 minutes to have the pizza brought to the table, we all agreed it was the BEST pizza we’d EVER eaten! That can happen when you’re eating at 8:30 pm after a long, cold, windy walk.  ;-)

Before we left the restaurant, we got directions from our waitress on the best way to get back on the “Blue Line.” Of course, it was much easier than the trip there, since we didn’t even think about using one “line” to get to another. The Red Line was just a couple of blocks from the restaurant, so we took that to get back to the Blue Line.

I took these two pictures, looking straight up, right after we left the restaurant.

Of course, the return trip was much more enjoyable. We were full, a little more confident about what we were doing and it just seemed more like an adventure – the GOOD kind of adventure.  :-) And, of course, since we were tourists, we took touristy pictures on and around the subway!      

  

I think I can confidently say that Rachel will never forget the details of her 18th birthday! Well, she actually has a very good memory for the details of any day, but this one especially, I’m sure.  :-)

Solo Recital

It seems like there are far more things I want to blog about than time to blog. But I really, really want to write about Rachel’s first solo recital before too much time passes. Last August, Miss Kim told Rachel she wanted her to perform a solo recital. She gave her the list of songs she wanted her to perform: some of the songs Rachel already knew (her State Fair competition pieces), but others, she would need to learn. She spent most of her Fall lessons working on these pieces. Miss Kim told us to invite family and friends, so we decided to have a nice picture taken for the invitations. Our friend, Sally Puckett of Puckett Photography did a great job with that.

We set the date (Dec. 6), made arrangements at a nearby church and I planned on a few snacks to serve afterward. Unfortunately, a winter storm hit that day and caused us to postpone the recital to January 3. This gave Rachel a little more time to prepare, although with Christmas and New Year’s Eve and Day celebrations, practice time was pretty scarce. She did manage to squeeze in as much practice as possible the week leading up to the recital and she even did a dress rehearsal on Thursday night for us in at home. Miss Kim wanted her to introduce each piece, talking about the composer, song, etc. and Rachel really wanted to practice what she was planning to say. The rehearsal went well and ended up being about as long as we expected: 50 minutes.

We decided to type up programs to pass out,

 

and had them printed the day before the recital. For refreshments, we planned on lemonade and water, and I made Tiger Butter, Shortbread Cookies (which we dipped in white and dark chocolate to resemble piano keys ;-) and White Chocolate Dipped Pretzels and picked out fancy dishes to serve them in. We picked out some white roses to hand to Rachel after the recital and hid them in the back of the van. We made plans to arrive at the church at 5:30 (the recital was scheduled to start at 7:00 pm) just to have plenty of time to set things up and give Rachel some last-minute practice to loosen up. 

Everything seemed to be falling into place very well, but in spite of all our preparations, there were a couple of minor, last-minute issues that we didn’t expect. First several inches of snow fell over most of the state on Thursday. Thankfully, there was enough time for the major roads to be cleared off; however, we were left with temperatures in the teens and a bitter cold wind by Friday night. We knew that would probably keep at least a few friends and family from being able to make it, but we decided to go ahead with it anyway, rather than reschedule it a second time.

We arrived at the church in plenty of time to get everything taken in and for Rachel to have lots of practice time (I think she ran through all her songs). The deacon was there to unlock the church and greet us and even offered to get the drinks ready and move the piano to the center of the stage. So, what was the other glitch? Well, simply the fact that, for some reason, I took very few pictures. Maybe I was just so preoccupied with thoughts about everything being ready and our friends and family getting there safely (Uncle Bob and Aunt Melanie had to call for proper directions) and hoping Rachel didn’t get too nervous (she didn’t). For a long time, I didn’t even know where my camera was. I took a few pictures of the little ones watching Rachel practice beforehand and a short video of the refreshments area.

 

Strange, huh?

As we imagined, there was a very small crowd that night, but in spite of that, it was just a wonderful evening. Rachel looked beautiful and she was poised and seemed comfortable during her speaking, She played very well and didn’t forget any of her music – yes, she memorized all those songs! A funny thing that happened was that during Schumann’s “Child Falling Asleep”, Trent actually fell asleep on Erica’s lap.  :-)

Even though I didn’t get any pictures of her playing, I did videotape the entire show and took a screen shot of the footage that looks similar to a photograph.

In spite of my fears that I would completely forget to give her the roses, I remembered them and made a quick scramble to get them out from underneath Erica’s chair while everyone was still clapping.

In the end, it was a learning experience for Rachel and us. We are proud of her for all her hard work and look forward to hosting future solo recitals.

Brag time

Last Friday, Rachel competed in the 2013 State Fair Young Hoosiers Piano Competition. You won’t hear her talk about it (unless you ask her, and then she would just smile and nod and say it “went well”) because she is quiet and modest about these things. However, being her (less quiet and modest) mom, I have the distinct right -- nay, even the duty – to tell others about what a great job she did in the competition. :-)

This year, her instructor, Ms. Kim, suggested she perform songs in 4 different categories:  Sonata, Tchaikovsky, Bach and Classical. The Sonata was a Beethoven piece, Piano Sonata No. 10 in G major. I remember when she first heard this song, she doubted she could ever learn it. She really pushed herself to get through it, and spent many, many hours working on this one section:

Clip of Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 10 in G major

Really, this short clip is indicative of how well she played each of the four songs. She was very focused and afterwards, admitted she “wasn’t really that nervous.”

We expect to find out within the next week or so whether she advances to the Finals. Each song is judged separately, so if she does advance, it may be with one piece, all pieces, or any combination. We don’t make any assumptions about whether or not she’ll advance; of course, we feel like she did very well, but the contest is very competitive and the judges have lots of criteria they judge on.

Ms. Kim has a very pragmatic approach to competitions: the goal shouldn’t be to win, but to get a piece to the point of being “competition-ready.” That is a goal we were happy and proud to watch Rachel accomplish last Friday.

“Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above …“ James 1:17

Lord, we thank You for Your gift of music.

“The Montagues and the Capulets” by Prokofiev

When I started the Worley Family Library series of posts, I explained how I wanted many of my blog entries to be “slice of life” type entries.  It occurred to me last night while Rachel was playing the piano, that just like chronicling the books being read, I could chronicle the songs being played on the piano.
The song Rachel is playing here is one that we were introduced to during ballet lessons.  Ms. Hume uses the beginning and ending parts for the grande batte mente exercises and the middle waltz part for the   brushing waltz and travelling waltz exercises.  We have always liked the song, and came across it one day on YouTube, so that’s how we finally found out the name of it!  Who would’ve thought it was written by Prokofiev, who also wrote “Peter and the Wolf”? So this is one of the songs Rachel is learning just for fun. We all enjoy hearing her practice it and someone is guaranteed to start doing ballet as soon as the first few notes are played.  :-)

Happy Sweet Sixteen to Rachel!

Just a mere 4 days since we celebrated Rachel’s 16th birthday and I’m already composing her birthday post! This is the earliest I’ve ever been late! :-D I doubt I would be doing this if it was a typical Thursday, but this week is Spring Break, which means no schoolwork, no online classes, and no ballet lessons in the evening. So it’s been a little easier to carve out time for doing this.

Rachel’s Birth Story

For Rachel, I’m going to continue the tradition I started this year of writing out each birthday child’s birth story.  My due date with Rachel was April 14th, 1996.  When my brother-in-law found out my due date, he laughed and said “I hope the baby doesn’t come on April Fool’s Day!” My response was “I hope so!  That will mean she’s 2 weeks early!” Of course, I didn’t actually believe she’d come early. In my naïve mind, all first babies were overdue. Plus, according to Mom I was overdue by 6 days, so I figured my own babies would be, too.

So, fast forward to the wee hours of April 1st.  I woke up in the middle of the night with a contraction that didn’t go away when I walked around.  Around 6:00 am, I excitedly woke Mick up and we got everything ready to go. After an examination at the doctor’s office, I was told to go back home.  “The baby could come today, the baby could come in a week.”  The ride back home was much more subdued and my contractions quieted down and eventually stopped.  We had lunch, Mick updated his Final Four brackets, we took a nap.  When I woke up in the early afternoon, the contractions were back, stronger and closer.  Not wanting to be sent back home, we decided to wait until they were consistently 5 minutes apart.  When that happened around 3:00, we headed back down, and this time drove straight to the hospital. 

Things progressed quickly at that point. Once I was settled in and got comfortable, we decided to call Mom and Dad. That’s one of the moments we love to rehash on Rachel’s birthday each year.  It went something like this:

Dad:  “Hello.”

Me:  “Hi, Dad!  I’m at the hospital!”

Dad:  “What?!!  You ARE?!!”  (sounds of Mom gasping in the background)

Me:  “APRIL FOOLS!!”

Dad:  “Hey!!!  Awwwwwww!!!” (sounds of Mom deflating in the background)

Me:  “Just kidding!  I AM at the hospital!!”

Dad:  “You are?!!!”  (sounds of Mom fainting in the background)

So, they headed over to the hospital (breaking several speed limits, no doubt) and Kelly, Glenn and 8-week-old Luke came, as did Heather, Chuck and his friend from South Africa, Alvin. Jennifer and Steve were vacationing and Minda and Mario were living in Alabama at that time.

So, back in the labor and delivery room, there was lots of excitement.  A few random details I remember:

• From the heart rate, the nurses were all predicting a boy.
• Initially, Rachel tried to enter this world face up, but was successfully turned by my doctor.

Finally, at 8:14 pm, after 45 minutes of pushing, we had our first baby:  a girl!  Beautiful, delicate 6 lbs. 7 oz. with a little bit of very dark hair and very dark eyes that rarely blinked!

Rachel’s 16th birthday

The birthday meals around here are a big deal.  The kids all take great delight throughout the year in dreaming about and planning their birthday meals, oftentimes changing their minds several times before the actual day.  Rachel’s decision was an easy one:  Spaghetti.  Her favorite food is Italian.  So, we had spaghetti, homemade Italian bread, fruit slush, and chocolate milk – all her favorites!  Grandma and Grandpa came and were seated on either side of the birthday girl, as is also our custom.  The birthday cake was Texas Sheet Cake.  After opening gifts, we were able to take advantage of the summer-like weather we’ve enjoyed this Spring and take a walk down to see our neighbor’s horses.

The most memorable part of Rachel’s birthday this year happened during the gift-opening.  It was dramatic.  It was hilarious.  There was rollicking laughter and even tears.  And best of all, there was a camcorder (steadily held by Mick and rolling the whole time) which captured the entire sequence of events.  Afterwards, Rachel said it was the highlight of her 16th birthday … and I’m sure they’ll never let me forget it.  :-D

It really deserves it’s own blog post, so I’ll finish this one up with pictures, first from Rachel’s birthday this year:

And now, some pictures through the years (I really do need to start scanning in all the older pictures I have!):

Happy Sweet 16, Rachel!

Music Notes

So, Rachel made it to the Finals of the 2011 Young Hoosiers Piano Competition.  Yippee!  That sums part of what has been going on around here lately.  It’s been all about the piano lately.  :-)  The competition was up in West Lafayette.  Mom and Dad drove here and we all rode together up to the competition.  I think it helped calm Rachel’s nerves and gave her something to focus on besides the competition.  We made it there about 45 minutes early (surely a record for us) so she would have time to practice.  We were supposed to be in the competition room 15 minutes before her scheduled time (4:25), so we heard a few of other competitors, who were very good.  Rachel did very well with “Bethena” and did not look or sound nervous at all.  We were very proud of her!

The next day began her first day of Butler Piano Camp.  She was mostly looking forward to it, but was a little nervous about the prospect of being somewhere new and big from 9:00 – 5:30 Monday through Friday.  It ended up being a great experience for her!  She made some new friends and learned a tremendous amount about music.  In addition to the workshops and practicing, she had a daily private lesson with a professor (Ms. Kim) who helped her fine tune “Bethena”.  (She wished she could’ve had those lessons before the competition!)

The recital was on Friday.  Mick came home around 11:00 and we headed off to Butler.  We left about 10 minutes earlier than we needed to be sure we could get there in time for the 1:00 pictures of the group.  Unfortunately, U.S. 421 was down to one lane and what should’ve been a 45-minute trip turned into a 75- minute trip!!  So frustrating!  But thankfully, we did get there in time for the recital to begin.  The group performed together in Lilly Hall, then we all walked over to the Recital Hall for the solo recitals.  The Mozingos caught up with us there.  Rachel’s “Bethena”, the final performance, was wonderful!  We told her they saved the best for last.  ;-)

Ms. Kim told Rachel she is ready for some Beethoven, Bach and Chopin, among others, so lately we have been browsing YouTube, trying to find the next piece to work on.  This is one of the first ones we really liked:  Chopin Nocturne Op.9 No.2.  Beautiful!  We’ve already found the sheet music and downloaded it last night.  Rachel is also attacking the Alfred piano instruction series books to make sure she keeps learning the basics. 

We don’t know God’s plans for her gift, but it’s fun, exciting and humbling to watch it begin to unfold!