In 2008 I posted about how funny I thought Leslie Hall was. She’d been an internet sensation with her hysterical Gem Sweaters Museum. CNN, Wired and others did stories on her fantastic band, Leslie & the Lys and their videos. (Now the humor of Leslie reaches even further that she’s regularly on the popular kids show Yo Gabba Gabba.)
A year later I happened to notice the band was playing in Chapel Hill and of course Hayley and I had to see that show. Not only did we catch the show, we got to meet Leslie afterwards. When they swung through in 2010, managed to visit with the band a bit before and after the show. I emailed with them every so often and Leslie even called Hayley on her 13th birthday.
This year, the band was back on tour again with opening acts Pennyhawk and Ramona & the Swimsuits. Since NC was about midway on their tour, they sent seven boxes of extra supplies to our house to resupply them. We loaded it all up in the jeep as lots of vegan goodies for the band and headed for their show. We hung out with them for about an hour before the show, helped unpack “merch”, Hayley got on stage to help with sound check and shared makeup with the band. They even hooked us up with tshirts. It was like we were roadies!
They knew we weren’t going to stay for the whole show since it was a school night so after the opening acts but before they went on, they got us from the audience and we took photos up in the dressing rooms. Then they brought Hayley up to dance on stage for a song. Both were unbelievably nice gestures.
Such a fun night!
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Today was the Regional Science Fair at Wakefield in Raleigh. Hayley’s school is in the Central 3A regional which is comprised of the 12 counties around here and the kids compete on the elementary, junior (middle school kids) and senior (high school kids).
We are so excited to share that Hayley won First Place in the Junior division for Biology and then another First Place in Junior division special awards for water safety issues, sponsored by the North Carolina American Water Works Association and the North Carolina Water Environment Association! She got a trophy, certificate and $75!! And even more importantly, her win means she gets the NCSEF Junior Biological Science A Nomination from this regional… and that qualifies her for the STATE SCIENCE FAIR!!!
We are so proud of Hayley for all her work on her Science Fair project for school. She decided on testing several beach areas at local lakes to see if they were safe to swim in. We were out at local lakes collecting samples in the cold and then running lots of test on then. She didn’t win but she was asked to be one of the five projects from her school to move on the Regional Science Fair!
Love this photo of Hayley getting water samples.
Hard at work testing
Setting up at school
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(Her first project had to be scrapped because the tests didn’t work so she’s going to send the dollar bills back to those who helped out.)
We found out the Clef Hangers were coming to Raleigh for a show and we had to get tickets for us and some of Hayley’s friends! The Clef Hangers are one of the most recognized and honored collegiate a cappella groups in the county (you might remember Anoop from American Idol a few years ago – he was a Clef and they appeared on the show several times). We normally go see them on campus. They sing a wide range of stuff, some gorgeous vocal stuff but also some fun stuff – their versions of Africa and Carolina on my Mind are simply breathtaking and we also love their song Blue & White.
Hayley and I went to Roy Williams Live when we heard new UNC football coach Larry Fedora would be making a surprise appearance a few weeks ago. Coach Fedora and his entire new staff showed up, just days after arriving in Chapel Hill.
Hayley lucked out and got Coach Fedora plus Coach Williams, new AD Bubba Cunningham and a couple of basketball players to sign her sweatshirt. After the event when we were chatting with Coach Fedora he said they’d been holed up in the football center working and the autograph to Hayley was his first autograph as the new UNC coach since he had moved to NC and officially started the job. How cool is that! I had done a ton of work during this football coaching search for IC so I felt like I knew the man already, haha. After the event, we drove by the football stadium and noticed it was open so we snuck in for a quick peek!
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For a number of years I was the media director for the Holiday Invitational Basketball tournament. It’s a great event but eventually it was too taxing on me because the event was three to four days nonstop between Christmas and New Years – just too much work to manage a family Christmas and whatever UNC games were going on at the same time. I left things in good hands, my dear friend Bryan Hanks took over and has done a great job the past few years. This year, we decided to catch a few games for fun and Bryan was nice enough to give Hayley a media pass to shoot.
Hard at work
Love the composition
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Tuesday night Hayley got the chance to shoot the Carolina men’s basketball game against Tennessee State sitting down on the baseline with the professional photographers. It was an amazing night, Jeff and I were just excited for her to have such a cool experience. Watching her down there was really fantastic.
She took my Nikon and did a great job. When we got home, I looked at the photos — they turned out to be even better than we expected, some are really quite good. She really does have a nice eye for what a good photograph looks like.
Hayley shooting:
I have a dear friend who is editor of the newspaper in Kinston, which is the hometown of a UNC player Reggie Bullock. Bullock was injured last season and last night, he had a fantastic game. I showed him the photos and he asked if the newspaper could use the Reggie photo she took.
Friday night was the opening night of Twilight Breaking Dawn part I so I took Hayley and a bunch of her friends.
Then Saturday was the last home bout of the year for the Carolina Roller Girls so we headed out to roller derby and brought Mason along with us.
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Hayley had riding on Sunday so I snapped some pics of her at the barn. Some of you know, a few months ago we made the tough decision to switch stables and disciplines (from Saddlebred to English hunter/jumper). She’s now riding at Chadale Farms and we are all thrilled with the change, especially Hayley. She’s having a lot of fun and recently started going over really low cross rails so she’s on her way to jumping!
(Sidenote: I had my camera in the car because IC photographer extraordinaire Jim Hawkins called me with some tips for shooting in the Dean Dome because Hayley will be on PRESS ROW Tuesday night SHOOTING the UNC men’s basketball game!)
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Several years ago we met a fantastic young photographer named Graham Morrison through our love of Leslie and the Lys. And by fantastic I mean gifted and creative – a legit talent. We’ve been kicking around having him take some photos of Hayley and we finally managed to get that together over the summer. We’ve both been swamped so I’m just getting around to posting them all. He’s going to do another set over the winter, can’t wait to see them.
He’s working down in Charlotte now, you may have seen his work in Creative Loafing – even some cover shots. If you need a photographer in Charlotte or Winston-Salem, check the guy out. He’s as nice as he is good which is rare these days.
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So last week Jeff figured out a mistake in the show Raising Hope – something in an episode conflicted with another episode.
On a whim, I tweeted Greg Garcia, the guy who created the show to ask him about it. Amazingly he tweeted me back and confirmed they screwed up. I told him that made our night, how much we loved the show and how my daughter was excited b/c Greyson Chance will play young Jimmy. He tweeted back that we’d love the next ones and that Shannon says hi, sending us this photo:
A photo of Shannon Woodward (aka Sabrina on the show) waving hello to us!
We were so excited. This was the night before their season premiere and the show creator is tweeting with us, taking photos for us! So Hayley took the iPad and sent a message to Shannon via Greg.
Greg went even further and took a photo of Shannon and Kate Micucci (aka Shelley who runs the crazy dog, pet, baby daycare on the show) holding up the babies that PLAY HOPE and sending a message back to Hayley!
HOW COOL WAS THAT? I love the internet. This is the guy who not only created Raising Hope but also My Name is Earl and Yes, Dear… messing around online with some fans.
This year, the band was back on tour again with opening acts Pennyhawk and Ramona & the Swimsuits. Since NC was about midway on their tour, they sent seven boxes of extra supplies to our house to resupply them. We loaded it all up in the jeep as lots of vegan goodies for the band and headed for their show. We hung out with them for about an hour before the show, helped unpack “merch”, Hayley got on stage to help with sound check and shared makeup with the band. They even hooked us up with tshirts. It was like we were roadies!
State sitting down on the baseline with the professional photographers. It was an amazing night, Jeff and I were just excited for her to have such a cool experience. Watching her down there was really fantastic. 
