Talent is in the eye of the Mother

Amanda's school had a talent show and while I wasn't expecting to be blown away impressed entertained the whole night, but it was worse than I imagined (and I have quite an imagination)!! 2 hours of my life that I will never get back!! I took my knitting and used all my self-restraint to keep from using the needles inappropriately.
Amanda & Jenny performed a very good gymnastics routine - they spent a lot of time practising and it showed. Actually, all of the girls who did a gymnastics or dance routine did quite well. 2 girls who sang were good, one was actually excellent. The rest were torturous, one worse than the next, even when you thought they had scrapped the bottom of the barrel. The worst had to be the magic act where the poor boy could find the card & spent 10 minutes trying to get out of the chains ... with the key!!!
While I'm sure that their mothers are very proud of them and I totally give these kids props for getting up on a stage and performing, I really hope that someone who loves them doesn't let them think that their abilities are more than they are because Simon will rip them to shreds!!!
I asked Amanda if every student who tried out made it in. "Oh no!! 14 kids were told they couldn't be in it!" I honestly don't even want to know what their talents were!!
Yeah, I'll do it again next year if she wants to be in it. What's a mom to do?

On a completely different topic - Amanda & I saw this deer standing in a field the other morning. She was just standing there, the grass was so dew-covered that if there were another drop on any given blade it would have bent over from the excessive weight. It almost seemed like a scene from a movie - she heard me pull the van over and turned to look. Her ears perked up as I lowered the window and she just kept watching, waiting for me to make a move. She seemed to know when I was done taking her picture - she turned away, unconcerned until I started to pull away. The crunch of the tires on the gravel shoulder startled her into flight.

Mischief has taken to darting out the front door whenever she can. For some reason the Great Outside holds her in thrall and she takes what opportunities she can to answer it's call. I spent 20 minutes yesterday trying to grab her to bring her back inside. She's declawed plus I really don't want to take the chance that she'll get in a losing race with traffic or be picked up by someone. She does love it out there though and it really brings out her primal instincts - have you ever seen such an intense stalking gaze?
While she was out there I also managed to great a - if I do say so myself - wonderful picture of a bee on a flower. I'm not sure what it is - it looks kind of like a wild onion. She was busy all right - flitting about, sucking up nectar, paying no mind to me (phew!!!).