I am the...jerk

Okay, you may be wondering about the title. The actual quote used a much stronger word than "jerk" but I thought I should probably not use the stronger word. This title comes from an interesting experience I had over the past week. A week ago Saturday, on the 11th of September, I went to the home game for our local high school football team. I was once employed by this school and in our small town, I know most every kid and their parents. And, of course, I wanted to see my nephew, Austin, play. Can I just mention how proud I am of him! Anyway, there was a man there that I know well. He coaches in our local Little League, in fact, he coached my son on the All-Stars team. I do not really care for this man. I think he is heavy handed in his approach to children and I think he is the picture of being incorrectly prideful. I watched as this man's son got hurt. I know this man's son, he is a very good athlete and a super tough kid. I knew that if this young man was saying he was hurt, he was hurt. His dad (and his mom too, for that matter) did not concur with my assessment. They were berating that poor boy, relentlessly, from the stands. They gave him enough hell that he told the coach he would go back in. He did and he was back to catch a punt when the other team hit their next fourth down situation. He caught that punt and began to run and then he just crumpled to the ground. It was SO obvious that he was really hurt. But no, not according to his folks. The coach took him out for the remainder of the game and his parents jeered at him throughout. When the game ended, this boy made his way, very slowly out of the stadium. In our stadium, this means climbing a large amount of steep stairs and then crossing a long pedestrian bridge over the highway and then down a steep hill to the parking lot. He could barely move. And yet, I sat there, totally fuming, as this father continued to throw crap in his son's face. I have seldom felt so helplessly angry. Fast forward to Monday night, the 20th of September. I am back at that same stadium, watching the JV football game. I see this young man make his way across the bridge, on crutches. His father is standing at the back of the stadium with me and my husband. Karl asks the man about his son. He gets a look on his face. He puts his head down for a moment and gathers himself and then proceeds to tell us in a very funny way how he finallly got it through his thick head, nine days after the hit, that maybe his son was really hurt. So they had taken him in to see an orthepedic doctor, earlier that day. Guess what?! You got it, that boy had a fractured hip. And furthermore, there was a huge amount of muscle damage done after the initial fracture. The doctor asked about this, and the boy admitted to going back into to play, after the initial injury. The doctor roared, "Who is the asshole that told you to go back in?" The father pauses in his story and says, "I roared right back, I am the asshole. But you guys already knew that about me." We all laugh, it is funny, the way he tells it, and yes, we all did know that about him. He plays up the laughs for a time and even impliments his wife in the whole fiasco. But then he leans over and says, "But I am so sorry for what I did. My son is out for the year and maybe more because I AM an asshole. I am so sorry." I still do not agree with him, I will now take even greater care to watch him, should he ever again coach my son. But my heart melted towards him in that moment. I could see a humility in his eyes that I did not think he was capable of and I was glad to see it. I found myself offering a silent prayer for him and for his wife and for their boy, but most especially for me and my judgements. I asked for help to show love to all around me, no matter what.

Organizations

I helped to lead a discussion on the book and concepts of the book QBQ or the Question Behind the Question yesterday. I had one large disconnect with the author of the book going into that discussion. I did not agree with his idea that with organizations in our lives we must "believe or leave". That seemed to be a loser attitude to me. I stated this in our discussion. The people in the group did not agree with me. We spent a great deal of time in our discussion having the others explain their reasons for agreeing with the author. I listened carefully to their arguments and have been mulling them over ever since. Tonight I went to an activity for our church and I sat there realizing that this was an organization that I did not believe in. I believe in the doctrine, but not in this particular organization. But is this an organization that I could leave? No, I cannot simply leave. So...what I am supposed to do about this? That is the question that I wrestle with tonight. Based on the concepts of QBQ, I need to take ownership and personal responsibility. So tonight this is my dilemma.

Being a mommy means being a queen

So...another friend blogged just the other day about what each of might call our mission. He listed being a mom. Right now I am working towards that mission. Poor little Seviah started throwing up about two hours ago. It is now nearing 1 AM and she shows no signs of stopping. She is sleeping right now, but she is still moaning in her sleep, so I know that we are not finished. I know is sounds crazy, but I love being a mom at times like this. When it is just the two of you and they totally and completely want you beside them. And you just find yourself reading aloud to them or showing them silly videos on youtube or dorks.com just to take their mind off of their aches and pains. And then they draw you a picture and you are a queen in that picture and you are wearing a crown. And you do feel like a queen. You truly do. You don't smell like a queen , you don't look like a queen and you are getting pretty loopy as the night wears on, but you are a queen.

The remainder of this holiday weekend was supposed to be filled with a variety of friends coming around for barbeques and badminton and horseshoes. I am thinking now that the remainder of the weekend will be spent being a mommy instead. I am okay with that. The other kids will not be happy, but we will make the best of it. I also am thinking that I will not be attending church tomorrow...well...later today. So...me and Seviah will play scripture games and be silly and stay in our jammies.

Yep, a woman can even be a queen in her jammies!!

Home...

We are back, but let me review the end of the trip before I jump into reality. Our last day and night and half a day in Orlando was pure Disney magic. I was in a fair amount of pain because of the blisters on my feet so I did not complain when the family slept in. When they did get up and moving, we decided to head to EPCOT for a quiet day with no plan, just wandering. We did have a slight plan in that we had a 2:10 reservation to eat at our favorite Japanese restaurant. So...we entered the park and just wandered. We rode the Universe of Energy and Spaceship Earth before beginning our wanderings towards Japan. Our meal there was incredible, as always. I FINALLY got my hands on some sushi and was in heaven. I also had the chef prepare me stir fried vegetables, just so I could watch him. It is one of the restaurants where the chef prepares your food on the grill/table and puts on a great show in that preparation. Malachi is a terrific chef and loves to watch this display. Maybe someday he will have such skills?! We enjoyed both the show and the food tremendously and ate at a very leisurely pace. Malachi had decided that he wanted to spend some of his hard earned 4H money on a sword. So we studied the swords in the Japanese and British and Chinese pavilions. In the meantime, Off Kilter, the Celtic rock band had taken the stage in their regular afternoon show. I caught two sets. The first set was okay...well...I got to see men, playing bagpipes and wearing kilts, so it was better than okay. But the second set, the one my family missed, because they do not understand my love of this music was phenomenal. I got to hear Danny Boy, Scotland is Free AND Amazing Grace. They finished with Amazing Grace, so there were tears flowing from me. And my family walked up just in time to be embarrassed that I was crying. Oh well. Apparently it is not just a laughter problem that I suffer from, it is just an overall large emotion issue. After the show, I stopped off in the UK pavilion to purchase my yearly supply of smoked Welsh salt. I know, it sounds crazy, but it is amazing! Then the boys decided to head over to China and purchase the desired sword, so the girls headed to the France pavilion for pastries. Yep, I got sushi in Japan and a Napoleon in France. Sheesh...why wouldn't you love Disney World?! The Napoleon was divine and I was just glad to get off of my poor feet for awhile. After we had sat as long as we dared, we headed back to the front of the park to ride Test Track. It was awesome, as usual. By then it was time to head to the dock for our VIP viewing of Illuminations, the fireworks/music/water/laser show that they perform in EPCOT every night. Did you know that they use 1105 fireworks every night? And that they have only cancelled the show 3 times in 12 years. Twice because of hurricanes, whose winds would not allow for fireworks and once on 9/11, because the government demanded that they close down DisneyWorld at 1:00 PM. That is an amazing track record for a show of this magnitude. We were right there on the dock watching the men scurry around and then it started and the flames were just a few feet away and it was intense and then the firework cannons started exploding all around us and it was unreal. I cannot even begin to describe the sensation. My boys were literally in shock. I cannot thank Jerry and Tom and the crew enough for giving us that opportunity. I have always loved the music from Illuminations and so in commemoration of our VIP night, Karl bought me the cd. YEAH!!

It was a slow walk out of the park after that. Our last night always is, it is so hard to leave. But leave we must. We did allow the kids one more swimming excursion after we got back to the resort and then we all crashed. The next morning we packed the suitcases and loaded the car and then drove off, with a few tears, away from the resort and off to a few last hours at Magic Kingdom. The crowds were non existent. It was stunning. One cast member told us that it was the smallest crowd day yet recorded in 2010. We loved it. We walked on everything we wanted and it was a nice way to put an end to our trip. We thought that we had scheduled things well but as we went to leave the park and head back to the parking lot the monorail broke down so we had to wait for the ferry and so we had a bit of a rush. But we got to the airport in plenty of time and even had time to eat before the flight. Grandpa picked us up at the airport and everyone was much relieved that it was Grandpa and not Grandma. (Grandma tends to not handle manuevering around the airport very well and it is rather stressful for all involved.) Seviah got car sick on the way home and we had to make a couple of roadside pit stops. We got home to find that the dogs had run away. We searched for a long time but finally had to sleep. At about 4:30 they came straggling back and so life was good and we were complete as a family.

Reality hit hard today and we were plunged immediately into life again but I am still at peace. I did get another sweet afternoon at The Winery with good friends. But it was bittersweet as we must tell Mary Lou goodbye. But life goes on. Kodren is going to be a great football player. Michayla and I are going to learn Russian and Michayla is going to be a Disney intern in January and Malachi is going to head back to classes where all the girls will swoon over him again, while he is totally oblivious. Karl is going to learn the Maya animation program and wow us all with his new abilities. And Seviah is going to carry her new stuffed Steamboat Willie Mickey Mouse all over the entire world until he falls apart. Yep, life is hectic and crazy, but still mighty fine! I am home.