Yesterday was a super busy day for the Komac family! Kayla participated in the Solo & Ensemble contest for the region. This is different from Solo Fest, the event held in March and hosted by Music Education Services, the outside business that used to be contracted to do band at Big Hollow. Now that band is an in-house program, the school can attend these regional public school events (Highland Middle School was there!). I think Solo Fest is MUCH better organized! This event yesterday was chaos. Kids would show up to their rooms but then have to go out of order because the accompanists for each kid were double booked or had to run from one to the next across the building. Results were supposed to be posted “soon” after the event. We went home, because they were posting ratings online. Kayla’s performance was at 9:15AM. Her results were posted around 11:30AM. Kids from after her (like at 10:45AM) had their results posted before hers. It was so strange. Anyway, here is Kayla warming up right before starting her solo.

And here is the solo performance. My battery light flashed the entire time and just made it.

And finally, her rating (look to the far right).

If you can’t read that, her rating was “I”, or 1. Woohoo Kayla! That’s the 4th year in a row with a “1” rating!

For the afternoon, Kevin took me for my Christmas/birthday gift – tickets to see the new revamped Phantom of the Opera! The girls got to hang out at Gramma’s house. They played with Mo. Guess what Ashley had for lunch?

For anyone who has never seen  Phantom done on the big stage, you would think this is a great show. The singers were pretty good, the new set designs were cool. The Phantom was played by a good singer, but he played the character in a very angry and violent way, not the “tortured soul genius” way of other productions. For anyone who HAS seen the big version, you would be disappointed with this. It lacked the special effects that make it so exciting. The small stage and closed off sets also meant that only people in the center of the theater can really see everything. We had a good time being out together though, and that’s what counts.

And finally, it is still COLD here. Another wind chill alert for tomorrow morning, for wind chills between 20 and 30 below zero. This has been a very hard winter for me. My Raynaud’s has gotten worse.  See what I mean?

“One of these things is not like the other…..”

What is scary is when my entire finger does that. And then the tips of the rest join in, and toes too. And the above picture was taken after being inside for a while. I just wear layers and hope that spring-like weather comes soon. It freaks Kevin out when the fingers come back. You can watch the red spread across each finger.

Here we are again, another “polar vortex”. Weather guys are having a field day coming up with catchy names to give the unusually cold weather. The girls and I are out of school today, and most likely will be tomorrow. This is what the hourly forecast says for 7AM tomorrow morning.

That “feels like” column would be the wind chill. Schools across the county are closed, because kids can’t be waiting for a bus or trying to walk to school in the dangerous levels of cold. The diesel fuel in the buses also has a bad habit of turning to gel in these low temps, making the buses shut down or not start. Right now, the wind chills are -25 degrees. We will be out of school tomorrow for sure, making it 4 days used for emergency days. The schools are all looking at canceling holidays and teacher inservice days as a way to make up these missed days and no extend the school year. We’ll see what happens- winter isn’t over yet, and we also have way more snow this year than last year!

This worked out pretty good for Kayla. She had her weekend church retreat and came home yesterday. She was exhausted! Too much fun, to much staying up late and getting up early. She had a great time! Even the 3+ hour car ride each way wasn’t bad. She rode with the boys and talked Minecraft and Pokemon the whole way. Boys are not as annoying to her as they used to be. Girls her age are all into fashion and boys, things that still do not interest Kayla. Having no school today means catching up on needed sleep. It is 9:30AM, and she is still not downstairs. I think she is sort of awake, but not ready to greet the world.

Ashley slept until 8:30 or so and just finished breakfast. We will spend the day practicing instruments, watching a movie, playing games, and just staying warm!