The Alternate

The last two weeks have been ex.haus.ting to say the least!  Caroline has been sick for the past two weeks, and last week she tested positive for strep...uggghhhh!  Not only do I hate to see my girl sick and hurting, but with it comes days of staying home from work, sleepless nights, and just plain old worrying. 

But I think she's finally 100% again!

Tonight after dinner we were going through her backpack, checking her folders for missed work from last week.  Yea, I know...I should have done this earlier in the weekend instead of Sunday night at 7:30!  Parent of the year, that's me.  Anyhow, we got sidetracked and after she got done getting ready for bed and all tucked in, I went back to going through the papers.  I was hoping to find information about her upcoming UIL competition; she's doing Storytelling.  And then I see something no parent wants to see.  The envelope.  You know, the one that says, "To the parents of ....".  I was thinking, great...what am I in trouble for?  Because I knew that she hadn't been in any trouble!  LOL!  So I tell the hubs to come over to where I'm at so we can open it.  I pull out the slip of paper and it says, "Your child, Caroline, has been selected as the alternate for the UIL competition in Storytelling".  Uh oh.  We just kinda looked at each other like, well, Uh Oh! I knew she didn't know anything about it because we had been talking about the competition earlier.  I was soooo scared of telling her.  I just knew she would be crushed.

So we decide we would go in and talk to her about it before she got to school tomorrow and found out.  I sit down on her bed and tell her that I got a note home about the competition and that I had some bad news, that she was going to be the alternate.  She smiles at me and says, "Yesssss"!  Huh?  I was a little confused.  I said, "you wanted to be the alternate?", and she said, "yes, that way if I freeze up, my score won't count".

Tab and I both just started laughing.  I couldn't believe what I was hearing!  LOL!  She was afraid she would get up there and be nervous!  She said that being the alternate was great because she still got to compete, just with "no pressure".  Sometimes she throws me for a loop.  I was so sure she was going to be so upset she was chosen as the alternate, and then she tells us she's happy she's the alternate!  She definitely keeps me on my toes!