Proud Mum :)

Sometimes life can be just fantastic!

To give you some background info... Krystal (15) has had a really hard year this year... she had her cell phone stolen by a school bully, she was put into a class of what the school called 'behavioural' kids and generally was fairly miserable for the first 6 months of the year... BUT through it all she her persevered, stuck with her studies and did everything she could to earn good grades and it's REALLY paid off!!!

We ran into her social studies teacher in town on the weekend and he told me that he nominated her for the social studies award for Year 10!! She also found out that she came 2nd in graphic design (by one mark!) and 3rd in business studies!!! Go Krystal!!! I'm so proud of her!!!

We also got a very cool letter from the high school inviting her to do Cambridge Maths next year. I'm still not really clear on what exactly that is but according to her teacher it's a really BIG thing... she was really excited when the letter came and assured me that the $120 fee will be 'well worth it'.

Over the past 10 days she's been working on a science project that I wasn't allowed to see... she completely banned me from the garage but I could hear sawing, cutting and banging so let me tell you that the curiosity was getting high!! Then she came and borrowed my crop-o-dile!!! She promised me she wouldn't break it and I have received it back in perfect condition :)

Then this morning it was time for the big reveal... all I can say is WOW WOW WOW!!! I knew she was talented and creative but this really blew me away:

The design brief was to create something for the science garden made out of recycled materials. Apparently lots of people made bird houses, tin men etc but not my girl! When Krystal does something it's usually done on a grand scale and this is no exception. The board was painted and then she glued milk bottle lids to make a stream. She 'found' some blue grout (thanks Auntie!) and some cement (thanks Dave!) and made her own 'mixture' to grout all the bottle lids to the board.

Then she made the trunk of the tree out of old plastic plant pots and 'wrapped the pots with chicken wire. Next she cut up some cans, punched holes and wired them around the chicken wire. Into the top she put an old umbrella that she stripped before cutting HEAPS of leaves out of drink cans, punched holes (that's where the crop-o-dile came in) and then tied each one individualy with fishing line!

I've lost count of how many times we've been to the recycling centre but it was totally worth it to see Krystal so excited this morning! This project is HUGE and it really looks fab! It was a bit windy this morning and all the leaves were swirling and tinkling in the wind. Her science teacher was extremely impressed and has asked Krystal if he can keep it permanently for a sculpture in his science lab!

So after a rough 6 months Krystal has learned a lot about herself... and she's learned to work hard even when she didn't really feel like it... she's shown determination, perseverance and tenacity and I'm just bursting with pride!!! Prize giving is on Thursday morning and I'm definitely going to be there!!!