Alyssa's employed!

Alyssa began her first 'real' job a couple of weeks ago. She's had other odd jobs over the last few years: assistant dance teacher or backstage helper for studio recitals, but this is the first real job. Real, meaning we had to fill out a W-4 and turn in a copy of her social security card and birth certificate.

We announced to her recently that if she wanted to continue competing in dance, she was going to need to assume responsibility for those costs. This is an expensive activity and costs around $1500 a year in addition to the tuition we pay for normal classes. The challenge was that I wasn't willing to let her work just anywhere and not very many people hire 15 yr. olds. Fortunately, she was blessed with my boss offering her a job to clean the Direct Buy showroom and offices and she only works 4 to 6 hours a week. We are not usually there at the same times, and I love the fact that the adults who are there with her are all youth Sunday school teachers at our church and parents of her friends. Cleaning bathrooms and dusting might not be her ideal job, but it's whole lot better than flipping hamburgers with foul mouthed strangers.

In other dance news, Alyssa was offered a scholarship at her new studio valued at $1000 for the next year! She will also be competing in Nationals in Arlington in June. We are going to attempt to video her solo tonight at dress rehearsal and put it on here for all the world to see. Hopefully, we'll be successful.