Girls Night Out and Awards Week

"I don't want to go to this award thing!" my daughter announced on Thursday morning. Lauren was selected for a STARS award at her middle school and we were heading to the breakfast event. Getting her out the door was like pulling teeth.

Eventually we made it to the school and slipped into the cafeteria chairs. Lauren went up to get her award along with several other students from her team. "Lauren overcame an adversity and proved herslef to be a role model and top student. Fantastic job!" it said on the award.

This was the second award she received this week. On Tuesday, we headed out to the "Advocacy Day" event held by the Lockport Area Special Education Cooperative. Every year, Katie Ward, a teacher and supervisor of deaf students (now retired) gathers together approximately 150 deaf and hard of hearing students from several schools. The students submit essays on how they advocate for themselves on a daily basis and the essays are judged by several teachers. David's friend Aleksey won the Advocate of the Year award and Lauren was a semi-finalist.



After the craziness of several deadlines and the two events, it was nice to kick back with the girls last night. My friend Barb came in from California and we joined three of our neighbors for dinner at a local restaurant. I normally hate going out in groups because conversation is so hard, but these gals are great to hang out with. They know they have to slow down the conversation and they make sure I can lipread them. After hours of lipreading and too much food and wine, my eyes were ready to pop when we finally called it a night. Nothing beats a night of great conversation, great food and great friends!

Now excuse me while I go cry my eyes out-- I miss having Barb as my neighbor.