I love the youth

I taught my Shakespeare group yesterday. They are so amazing. But one thing occured that was just too priceless. Instead of giving them an assigned topic for their journal writing, I taught them the basics of writing haiku poetry. After sharing some of mine, I asked them to write their own. I then asked if any of them would like to share what they had written. Many of them chose to share and I was just sitting there basking in the amazing work that I was hearing. Then...it happened...I had been randomly perusing the offerings before the students stood up to read them because there are a couple of kids in there who might try to do something a bit off color. But then Daniel stood up to present his haiku. He started to hand me his paper but I said, "Oh Daniel, you need not do that, I trust you." I should have been warned by his behavior. He turned very red and turned away from me and started to sit back down. I can, occasionally, be naive and so I did not read the signs and I told him to stop being shy and to stand up and read his poem to us. Everyone laughed because there are few less shy than Daniel. He looked at me and said, "Really, are you sure?" I still did not get it and told him to go ahead. So...here was his offering...

Toilet Bowl

Pain is coming fast
The screams come in long, loud waves
Splash. Thud. The pain's gone.

Daniel stood there. There was a moment of dead silence and then we ALL lost it. It caught me so off guard that I did snort. I hate that because once a group of kids learns that about me, they never let me live it down. But I was hopelessly lost in laughter. It was a funny haiku, but the entire exchange beforehand when I had avowed to my total trust in Daniel just set it up so perfectly. It was a priceless moment. We had been struggling coming together as a group, which is so necessary in this first semester as we prepare to create a Shakepeare production in the second semester. I have been praying and pondering on how to bring this group together. Daniel and his bowel movement haiku may have been just the ticket. The entire timbre of the room changed and we were of one mind. I think that me and the two other mentors in this project were able to build well on the moment and we had, by far, our best class of the year after our little haiku exercise. I love the way these things can work.

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.

Still in Orlando

Only tonight and one more night here in Florida and then we must return to the real world. I don't wanna! I really do love the humidity, despite my incredibly scary hair and the laid back, Southern attitude and Disney, I just love Disney.

The last couple of days have been good. Yesterday was especially fun. We split up and had a boys' day and a girls' day. This meant that we girls could move at a snail's pace and do some shopping and we could also see some princes and princesses, which we did. We had an especially good time in the line, waiting to meet Princess Tiana and Prince Naveen. Seviah's favorite princess is Cinderella, so we saw she and Belle (my favorite princess) and Princess Aurora first, but then we really needed to see Tiana, as this is Michayla's favorite princess. We were the last family in line before they closed it off and we were so happy. But that meant a 45 minute wait, in the heat. Just a side note on the heat. It does not bother me, but some members of my family are really affected by it. I actually love it, well...except for what it does to my hair. Anyway, as we stood thing this line, we were drawn to the adorable little girls who were in the family just ahead of us. They were obviously adopted as the parents were both blond and so were the two teenaged boys, but the two little girls were African-American. One of the boys turned around and had a Utah Utes shirt on and that gave me an opening and I went for it and congratulated him on NOT wearing a BYU shirt. That got the ball rolling and we were instant friends! We learned that this family is LDS and moved to Florida a year ago from Utah. They are loving Florida, although it has been eye opening for them to be in the mission field. Making new friends is the best way to pass time and before we knew it we had made it to the front of the line and our new friends were ready to meet Tiana and Naveen. That is when the older of their two little girls, Hailey, totally freaked out. She did not cry, but she would have nothing to do with the princess or the prince, especially the prince. He kept trying to get her to come to him and finally, opened his arms and said, "Give me a kiss." There is no way to describe the unearthly scream that issued forth from the throat of our little friend. But it scared the crap out of poor Naveen and sent me into peals of loud laughter...again with my laughter problem. That was enough for our new friends, the parents of little Hailey were mortified and they gave us quick hugs and scurried away. So, when Seviah approached the two characters with her arms outstretched, ready to embrace them, Tiana quipped, "She is not screaming or running or drooling or crying, I like her!" This made Seviah's day, she told the story of this to whoever would listen for the rest of the day. Of course, we had photos taken with Michayla and myself as well, since we were there...Good times!

We also met a number of new interns who have all been on their jobs now for about a week. They are all so excited and love talking to Michayla about what is happening to them. It is making her all the more hungry for the opportunity. Please, anyone who might happen to read this, please pray for her. She really needs this.

We met up with the boys at EPCOT to watch the Illuminations show, in the rain. Yes, we have seen a great deal of rain on this trip. But I don't even mind that! After the show, we did our usual stroll around the Japan pavilion waiting for the crowds to funnel out so that we could meander towards the front and watch the bridge go up and down to allow the fire barge through. We got to the bridge just prior to it lifting and struck up a conversation with the man in charge of the show. He was awesome and answered all the boys pyromaniac questions. We now know all the lowdown on the EPCOT fireworks! Then he invited us to be VIP's at Monday night's show. WOOT! So, tomorrow night (well, later tonight...) we get to sit on the boat at the dock at Mexico and watch them do the show and watch them coordinate it all with the computer board and feel the fire up close and all that good stuff. The boys are beside themselves with excitement and Karl is pretty stoked himself.

We spent today at the Animal Kingdom. Well...we got a late start, we really slept in, but that was okay. We did not get to the park until about noon. But we got to see everything we really set out to see. We saw a ton of animals on the safari and even though Everest broke down twice during the day, we finally got on. I got to do the Primeval Whirl and we got to see the fabulous Nemo show done so magically with puppets. Since it was Sunday, we mostly just walked and talked together and that was perfect. We came back early and did some swimming and I am now catching up the laundry while the others sleep.

I have a total of 9 very painful blisters on my feet and my hair gets bigger every day but I have loved this vacation. I thought I would miss being at the Old Key West resort, and part of me does, but I do love this new resort as well and I am glad that we got to experience it. I pray that when we return in January it is to visit Michayla in her new environs. Now...I am going to go back out onto the deck with a bottle of Irn-Bru and soak up some more humidity...more tomorrow...or the next day!

Another Disney Day

I got up at 6:30 again. This time I just chose to run, rather than trying the fitness center. Too intimidating! It was a glorious morning. It was already quite warm and the humidity was the highest I had felt, this trip. I loved it! I came back at about 7:30 and nobody was awake. So I soaked in the jacuzzi tub for awhile. Got out and still nobody was up. I loaded the dishwasher, transferred some funds and paid some bills online. Still nobody was up. I read and straightened up the apartment and did my hair. Still nobody was up. Finally, it was time for me to go and meet with the realtor again. I forced the others out of bed and I forced Michayla to go with me to meet with Heike. I got the giggles, AGAIN, on the way to the first property. Michayla and I pulled up to a busy intersection (the Crossroads area, if you know Orlando at all) and there were firemen there passing the boot for their yearly fund raiser. Michayla wanted to contribute so she dug around in her purse until she found a five and then fumbled with the window and waved like mad to get the fireman's attention. He was just approaching the car when the light turned green. I was at the front of a long line of cars and had to go. She panicked. She just started throwing money out the window. She threw 2 fives and some ones. The poor fireman was out in the street, trying to gather up this money. She turned to me with this stricken look and blurted out, "I probably just killed a fireman." I was laughing so hard, I could hardly drive and I almost pulled over. Finally, I gathered myself and simmered down to a mere chuckle and could function again. But I was exhausted all over again. I am beginning to think that I laugh with far too much of my body. Everything gets in the act and it just wears me out. I think that I will probably, even likely, die laughing.

We arrived at the first property and I promptly fell in love with it. I called Karl and told him that he had to come and see it. I forced he and the kids to leave the Hollywood Studios Park and come to the parking area for me to pick them up. I left Michayla with Heike to see the next house and went and got the others. I got only slightly lost trying to maneuver the Studios parking lot, but we finally found each other. Karl was not as excited as me about this property. But he is very open to discussion, so we will continue to talk. So many things to consider in this decision.

We finally got back to the Studios and had a lovely time, despite really high crowd numbers. My favorite attraction, "Prince Caspian, Journey to Narnia". We had never taken the time to see this one before, it is so tucked away and seemed rather dull. But...oh my...it was grand, to me. The others thought it was merely "blah" and one young lady in our group stated that it was "stupid". But for me, it was glorious. They did a nice job of both showing how they produced the movie and its effects and then giving a summary of the movie with a short film set in a reproduced set of Aslan's temple area. It just touched me. We were at the back of the crowd, so the room had nearly emptied when I realized what was sitting at the head of the room. The broken altar was there. Tears immediately welled up. I couldn't help it, these books mean so much to me. I stood for a moment and touched the altar and gathered myself and the cast member and my family were very sweet and understanding. It was the best part of my day. Even makes me kind of grateful for the crowds who caused us to try this attraction.

We ended our day with the Tower of Terror and Rock N Roller Coaster, so the boys were content. I loved Tower of Terror, as usual, but I am getting too old for Rock N Roller Coaster. It kills my head and neck. Karl and the younger ones headed back to the apartment via bus and Michayla and I got the car and stopped at Walgreens for a few items and then headed back as well. Michayla gave me a terrible case of the giggles again because she had to go to the bathroom so badly but she refused to use the public ones at a Walgreen's store. So she was in agony by the time we got back to the room. I seriously thought she was not going to make it up to the fourth floor. Then I was laughing so hard that I seriously that I was not going to make it either. Both of us cut it close.

I have a laughing issue. I snort, I bray, I am far too loud, I laugh with too much of my body, I regularly embarrass my kids and my husband, I even come close to peeing my pants, nobody in my family will come anywhere near me in the store when I am reading greeting cards. But there are worse things....