May 11, 2011 10:27 a.m.

Scarcely unwound from this past weekend, and now turning our attention to the coming competition.  For Chips, this one is a much bigger deal than last weekend was because it is not easy to even qualify to participate.  (This is in sharp contrast to Federation where every student who gets a “Superior” rating in their local audition is allowed to attend at the state level).  Our teacher, Miss S., is one of the most respected string pedagogues in our metro area.  And it has been three years since she has been able to send any student to this upcoming competition.  So you see, it is a bigger deal.

We are full of thanks to all those who really have taken a sincere interest in Chips’  accomplishments.  In addition, we are thankful for the way that his teacher, Miss S., and his accompanist, Miss O., have bent over backwards on Chips’ behalf to give him the best possible chance on this coming Saturday.  Both ladies have unselfishly given of their time, attention, and energy to help Chips.  They have scheduled extra (free) practice sessions at various locations to provide extra coaching.  Since Miss S. is unable to play the piano part, Miss O. has often been willing to meet  with us to work on the piece.  She will be meeting with us again tomorrow, and even on Friday, to give Chips every opportunity to do well.  She will also be making a ten hour round trip by car, with an overnight stay, to make it all happen and to stand in for our teacher whose doctor has not allowed her to travel so far.   We are so amazed at the dedication of such people and feel blessed that we have two dedicated teachers who are involved in this competition now.  Folks are bending over backwards to make this a good experience for us.

Also, we appreciate all those friends who have taken a sincere interest in our kids’ violin playing, their performances, their ups and downs, successes and failures, and who have been truly supportive of us all along the way.  Friends from the music community, friends from church, work … You know who you are.  So no matter how it all turns out, we know we always have a strong support system among you.

Our objective now is to make the next days go smoothly, and to help Chips stay properly focused on the short term goal,  because there is no telling if or when the opportunity will arise again.  Hopefully nothing will come along to undermine our efforts.  We also have a lot to do in the next couple of days, especially as we are trying to keep up our homeschool schedule at the same time, so I will be offline (i.e. not blogging, not online, not on computer, etc.) until after our return.  Thank you friends.