WoRsHiPcHiC

"And the State of the Union is..."

2012-01-24T22:42:00.005-05:00

... what?

I just listened to President Obama drone on and on... he blamed the previous administration for the state of our country... he blamed congress and repeatedly encouraged them to put bills on his desk for one thing or another... and then he basically said that he intended to do whatever he wants, with or without the support of the rest of our government. He actually asked for more power.

About 70 minutes into the speech, he closed proclaiming that the state of the union will always be strong. Really? Hmmm...

There is a lot I could say. The truth is, I almost voted for the man. Maybe I was drunk. That's pretty unlikely, since I've never had an alcoholic drink in my life, but I'm grasping at straws here...

I struggle, even now, because I have always believed that we should have a healthy respect for the leaders of our government... even if we don't agree with them... but I just don't have that kind of respect for President Obama. I want him out of office. Period.

I shared on facebook several months ago about how Seth and Grace are involved in a Black History Club through their on-line school, and when asked what the best thing President Obama could do for our country was, Seth responded, "leave"! I said it then, and I'll say it now... The mother in me who tries to teach respect for leadership was somewhat taken aback. The conservative in me walked out of the room, closed the door (so as not to be seen by the children), and laughed hysterically. And maybe there was a fist pump or two...

That's not how I want to view the President of the United States. It just isn't.

Of all the things I could mention from this State of the Union Address, the one that struck me as the most ridiculous was this. President Obama actually said, "What's happening in Detroit can happen in other industries"! He said this as if it would be a good thing. I was dumbfounded.

Because, you see... I'm from Detroit. I love Detroit. And I have watched as many of my Michigan friends and family members have struggled under the worst of economic situations over the past few years. We want the whole country to be like Detroit? Wow...

I have yet to make a decision about who I will be casting my ballot for in the GOP primary. Maybe by the time we get to our primary I won't have a decision to make. My candidate of choice has been out for some time now, and no one who is left in the race is inspiring me all that much. But we've got to come together and make a good decision. Our future depends on it.

Lisa

Painting the "Nursery"...

2012-01-21T22:02:00.002-05:00

I'm 32 years old, and my fifth child is almost two. Why am I painting a nursery you might ask... (You also might not ask, but that is the question I'm going to answer...)

Many of you probably already know that I struggled with postpartum depression after Miah was born. For those of you who have been reading this blog for a long time, you are probably sick of posts that begin with, "Many of you probably already know... blah... blah... blah..." But it's relevant here...

One very vivid memory I have from the first week or so after bringing Miah home is rocking her and crying about how the crib and rocking chair were in our bedroom and how I had no room in the house that I could decorate as a nursery for her. I know... I know... the really tragic stuff life is made of, right? But I was not in a very stable state of mind.

A lot of people suggested that we should move Miah in with Grace, but I just couldn't kick the thought of a Disney princess shoe... or a beaded bracelet... or a piece of belly button lint falling into the crib and then finding its way to Miah's little mouth. And even if we had created a shared living space for the girls, I doubt that Grace would have wanted a flower garden nursery... with a little picket fence... and owls... Miah stayed with us.

Well... almost two years later (how can that be), we have rearranged the house in such a way that Grace has her new "pre-teen" looking, cooler than anything bedroom, and Miah is finally going to have her own room.

Any logical person would just move Miah's belongings into the very nice room that Grace has vacated. In fact, when we devised this plan, Phil even said, "Well... you won't have to paint in Miah's room since it's already decorated for a girl." Yeah... well... He kinda got a lecture after that one...

I'm not going to cry about it anymore (although I did get a little teary about some other things while painting, today, which I will share in another post, soon, about letting go as your children grow), but I really want to decorate that "perfect" baby girl nursery that I have always wanted. And so I'm going for it. And I really hope Miah loves it until Grace turns 18 and goes to college, because the chances of her convincing me to paint over it... again... any time soon are really slim (please read "non-existent").

Today all I managed to get done was the primer. The room is primed, and so are my arms and one of my legs. Although I showered for a really long time, I cannot get the paint off. I am going to look awesome at church in the morning...

As this project progresses, I will make updates. And I hope the finished product is amazing, because if it's not you're going to have to lie about how much you love the pictures...

L.

I Just Had...

2012-01-20T22:47:00.002-05:00

... the best fight I've had on facebook in a long time.

Yeah... that wasn't so fun.

Here's the irony...

The last "fight" I had was because apparently I do not understand the concept of submission... as in I am not submissive enough... think women have more God given "rights" than they do... am living with too much freedom... and do not understand women's roles (uh... pastor's wife... stay at home, homeschooling mom of 5... yeah...)

This one was because apparently I do not understand the concept of submission... as in I am too submissive... have given over all of my God given "rights" to my husband... am living as a slave... and do not understand women's roles (uh... pastor's wife... stay at home homeschooling mom of 5... and loving it... yeah...)

The funniest parts about all of this are that:
1. My views and lifestyle haven't changed at all between "fights".
2. None of this had anything to do with my husband, and we are very happy.
3. The post got deleted.

Can I just say, "In essentials, unity; in non-essentials, liberty; in all things, charity" (Augustine... or Wesley... or Bresee... Let's face it, nobody really knows who said it first).

L.

There's A First Time For Everything...

2012-01-17T21:50:00.001-05:00

... and there goes my perfect record.

I have never been pulled over by a police officer... until tonight.

I was driving Grace to cheerleading practice, and there is a stretch of road that has notoriously badly timed yellow lights. Usually, I can stop in time (or at the very least hit the gas and get through the light in time), but tonight... in the Nazarene Limousine... with slick stuff falling on the ground... I hesitated to make my decision about whether to slam the brakes or gun it...

In the end, it was one of those moments where you know you're not really going to get through the light before it turns red, but you can't safely stop either. Ordinarily, no problem, except as I looked to my left I noticed that... oh, crap... there was a Sheriff's car stopped in the turn lane...

Well... I managed to stop right in the middle of the intersection... nice.

It occurred to me that I could just sit there looking like an idiot, or I could get out of the way... effectively running the red light. I don't generally think it is wise to sit in the middle of an intersection, so I opted to drive through.

And to be honest, I couldn't really tell you if I pulled over before or after the lights started flashing, because it was so painfully obvious that I was going to get pulled over, resistance was futile...

In the moments it took for the officer to get to my window, I thought about all the stories I have heard about women breaking into tears to avoid tickets. But I was so stinking irritated that it occurred to me that I would never be able to pull it off. Instead, I put the car in park (I think I forgot to turn it off), pulled my license out, and waited.

When the officer got to my window (after shining a light in my van of all things... yeah... I guess the fact that my 10 year old daughter was the only passenger must have clued him in that I wasn't smuggling illegal aliens or anything), I decided to speak first. I simply said, "I'm sorry sir. I tried to stop, but I couldn't". Then I slipped my license out the window (which he gave a cursory glance but did not take).

He asked if I knew why I couldn't stop in time. I told him I didn't, because I was going the speed limit. He told me I was going slightly over the speed limit and that I had not applied my break in time. I so wanted to respond with either, "duh," or, "yeah, my husband says I never apply the break quickly enough." Thankfully, both of these responses eluded me at the time.

After a somewhat long-suffering look, he said, "I'm just on my way home. This one's on me. Everyone saw you run the light, so they expected me to pull you over."

It was about all I could do not to laugh...

But I didn't...

I just said, "Thank you, sir."

And off I went...

I'd like to go another 16 years before being pulled over again, though...

Knock on wood...

Lisa

P.S. I think Grace found the whole thing quite amusing (usually she just gets pulled over with Daddy), and she is the one who gave this post a title...

A Sobering Thought...

2012-01-15T22:02:00.003-05:00

Recently, I made a post on facebook encouraging "kids" to go to college in the first four years following high school graduation and to actually attain their degrees during that time. I'm going to stand by that... for everyone else...

But as I sat down to work on the final week of this semester... and as I started thinking about how after this course I will have only three left until I hold that all powerful piece of paper in my hand... I also started thinking about how my life would be different if I'd done this in a more "traditional" way...

And it occurred to me that that just never would have worked. Because I wouldn't have these:

And "these" are more precious to me than any "normal", "traditional" life ever... EVER could have been...

And so let me make it clear that I wouldn't trade taking 15 years to get my bachelor's degree for anything... ANYTHING in the world...

But I'd like my Master's in two...

L.

I Don't "Do" Sick Well...

2012-01-13T21:13:00.002-05:00

... I have probably mentioned this before.

As you may recall, our whole family took turns being sick on our recent vacation. This did not stop upon our arrival home. In fact, early (sort of) yesterday morning, I found myself sitting with Miah at Redi-med... waiting to be seen for our nasty congestion...

Verdict was... upper respiratory infections... and croup... and bronchitis... nice.

So we came home and pulled out the sofa bed, where I crashed for the day and attempted to remain coherent enough at sporadic intervals to help Seth, Grace, and Caleb finish up their first semester work; to remind Ian not to sit too close to me or he would catch my germs; and to peek at Miah who systematically disassembled her entire high chair while sitting in it and watching Blue's Clues (the kid is going to be an engineer)...

I have heard of these amazing women who prepare five course meals while sick. My kids had hot pockets... made by Grace...

Phil brought us antibiotics and steroids and took Seth and Caleb to basketball practice. Other than that, I have absolutely no idea what kinds of things went on in this house yesterday.

The truth is, when I'm sick I really want to snuggle down under the covers in my nice warm, dark room and sleep all day. This is, however, not an option for a mother of five...

I have a pretty decent pain tolerance (as is evidenced by the fact that I delivered four of those five children without pain medication), but being sick... It's just not for me...

And here I sit, tonight... some 36 hours after the Redi-med visit... still feeling grouchy and nasty...

Good thing my family rocks...

L.

Thursday Theology 1...

2012-01-12T21:56:00.005-05:00

Accountability is not what most people think it is…

For some time now, I have been pondering this…

On a fairly regular basis, I hear (or see) people using Matthew 7:1 out of context: “Do not judge or you too will be judged” (NIV).

Let’s look a little deeper into this passage:

“Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.” (Matthew 7:1-5, NIV)

More often than not, people get upset when someone who has no relationship with them and no right, whatsoever, to offer their advice on the way they should be living makes a statement that the former is living in sin and going to Hell. Almost without pause, that first person shouts out something to the effect of, “Well… you’re not so great, either. Don’t you know the Bible tells you not to judge others!” (They may or may not be able to pull the Matthew 7:1 reference). The other person generally gets offensive and offers proof text examples of Jesus calling people out in their sin which, of course, gives us the right to do the same, right?

Maybe not…

Let’s look, strictly at what the passage says, verse by verse…

Again, Matthew 7:1 “Do not judge, or you too will be judged” (NIV). There are actually two concepts going on here. The first, “Do not judge,” appears to be a command of some sort, but it is followed by a consequence, so I think we can assume that the premise is that people do, indeed, judge. You could just as easily say, “Do not eat too much chocolate, or you will get fat.” In reality, the second part of the verse might sum up the concept better than the first. “When you judge, you’re going to be judged, too.” Does this give us unlimited freedom to judge? Uh… no. It doesn’t give us unlimited freedom to eat chocolate, either, but let’s just be clear; both actions result in consequences…

Matthew 7:2 “For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you” (NIV). This verse deals with exactly what those consequences will be. So perhaps we need to think about how we judge others. What if we condemn people to Hell because of their actions? Does it not follow that we also, then, condemn ourselves to Hell? Ouch. What if, instead of assassinating character, we make some discerning choices and go to people with whom we have a relationship and attempt to help them to judge their own actions and then work with them to reconcile their lifestyle to God? I would welcome that kind of judgment in my own life, and isn’t that also what Jesus models?

Matthew 7:3 “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?” (NIV). This verse calls us to humble living. Although I come from a branch of Christian theology that believes wholeheartedly in holiness and sanctification, let us not forget that to be sanctified is to be set apart; not to live life without error. This is no excuse, whatsoever, for sin, but we absolutely cannot attempt to teach others about holy living without first recognizing our own dependence on the Holy Spirit, cleansing us making us new every day as we choose to follow. Recognition of our own failures is essential to life in Christian community. (As a sidenote, I also am not very fond of people with planks who try to scratch out MYsawdust. Therefore, I cannot expect others to be…)

Matthew 7:4 “How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye?” (NIV). Preposterous, right? But here’s the thing about that… Many times people recognize their sin and choose to ask God to bless them in it rather than asking Him to eradicate it and fill them with God’s very self. Recognizing sin is not enough. You must deal with it. (And again, I am talking about dealing with your own sin… with my own sin… not with your neighbor’s sin. That would completely miss the point.)

Matthew 7:4 “You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye” (NIV). And now we’re getting somewhere. It is only when you have dealt with your own sin and made things right with God that you have any ability to help your brother. Think about the attitude with which this is done, though…

I often relate theological ideas to my life as a parent. What would I do if one of my children approached me after a long day outside and had sand in his eyes. For the sake of concise writing, let’s say it was Ian. If Ian came into the kitchen, rubbing his eyes and crying because they were burning, would I get up in his face and start yelling at him about how irresponsible he is… and how he knows better than to rub sand into his eyes because he’s heard the rules a thousand times… and how he’ll probably be blind unless he figures out on his own how to get it out? Would I then walk away from him in harsh judgment, turning my back and never thinking twice about what the result might be? Would I hold him up as an example to my other children and ridicule him for his bad decisions?

The obvious answer to these questions is no! Any loving parent would not react in this way! Instead, I would bring him to the kitchen sink, wash his face, search his little eyes for any remaining traces of sand, maybe get the eye washing cup out if it was a particularly bad case of sand in the eyes, and even go as far to run him to the ER if the situation was beyond what I could handle. I would hold him and comfort him, and certainly offer ice, because that fixes everything in this house. And quite honestly, when he was OK again, I would go over the rules of sand safety and do everything in my power to help him avoid this kind of trauma in the future.

Could anyone look at that scenario and assert that I was harsh and unloving? I certainly hope not.

But there are some key points that make this work. First of all, I love Ian. We have a relationship. I want, fiercely, to protect him and to teach him things that will help him to grow up happy and healthy in every area of his life. If the same thing happened to a random kid I hardly knew, sure I would get the sand out and make sure he was OK, but the chances that it would be an event that shaped the kid’s life are pretty slim. You have to know and care about someone to make a lasting impact on his life.

Second of all, Ian loves and trusts me. If that aforementioned random kid’s mother was present, I would have no right to take him out of his mother’s arms and administer help as I saw fit. You have to know your place, and the truth is; you can’t help someone who doesn’t want help.

This is particularly hard for me, because I have a super-hero complex. I legitimately want to save the world. But someone far, far greater than me already did that…

Now, it must be noted that there are an awful lot of people out there who say they are looking for accountability, but that’s not really what they’re looking for. Instead, many people are legitimately looking for friends who will back up their decisions and always stand in their corner, regardless of whether or not what they are doing is right. I think this is a human desire. I don’t know anyone who always wants to be the object of scrutiny among friends. But you must be careful if you attempt to mentor such a person, because your effort may be futile… in fact, your effort probably will be futile. Just remember, in these cases, that there is a time to let go…

And also keep in mind that you cannot offer spiritual direction to others very effectively if you do not also take spiritual direction from others… Everyone who aspires to follow Christ must have people who come along beside them to lift them up and help them to work through their own unique set of life issues. That’s being the body…

Soundbite Blogging...

2012-01-11T20:20:00.002-05:00

My online social presence actually began with blogging. I have never been very successful at keeping a journal, but somehow it became exciting to share all of my mishaps with the world. It began on a little site called xanga (at some point I still hope to transfer all of those posts to this blog). Ironically, the beginnings of my blogging experience had a lot to do with people who had no idea that xanga was public... feel the sarcasm... but enough about that...

As social networking grew, the blogging population shrank... considerably... And I have said it before, and I'll say it again, this is really, really sad...

I mean... anyone can check in at McDs... send a text about the unsalted fries... update their status to reflect the frustration of having to send an on-line assignment in... and tweet that they are drinking Pepsi... while surfing youtube for the latest movie preview... simultaneously... (and by "anybody", I do not mean me)...

In all of these soundbites of life, we find that we can locate anyone... at anytime... and we know which McDs to avoid... which colleges assign too much work... and which entertainment venues to look forward to... but we have lost the stories of life...

And so with that thought, I have decided to make a concerted effort to blog every day this year. So far I'm 11/11! There was a time when I wouldn't post a blog if it wasn't detailed enough... interesting enough... meaningful enough... but it occurred to me at some point that I have been posting status updates that are one liners, so even if I don't have the time to create a full fledged story there is probably something worth saying everyday...

And for today, that's it...

But tomorrow I am going to try to branch out as I offer my first "Thursday Theology"...

Keep Reading (please)!

L.

Back to Upward...

2012-01-10T21:41:00.004-05:00

Tonight was Grace's first cheerleading practice of the season...

Have I ever mentioned that I love Upward?

I was involved in a community cheerleading "league" for 6 years as a kid. It was a lot of fun and the absolute only thing I have ever been able to do in the realm of athletic activity. So, I naturally hoped that my daughters would be cheerleaders someday, too...

Unfortunately, most of the cheerleading options that now exist (even for really little girls) tend to be on the sleazy side, if you ask me... which you didn't... but this is my blog after all...

I love that Upward cheerleading teaches character and the importance of Christlikeness...

I love that my 10 year old is fully clothed and not expected to be invisible behind a wall of make-up while jumping around a gymnasium, giving high fives, and screaming her lungs out...

I love that the volunteers for our Upward league are people that I want my child to look up to and emulate...

Thank You!

L.

Just When I Think...

2012-01-09T21:12:00.006-05:00

... I'm not going to have anything interesting to say today, Ian surprises me right at bedtime...

He says, "Mom there's something that you're going to have to help me build (pause) tomorrow (pause) at 10:00...

And of course I say, with great anticipation and an attempt to hide my laugh, "What?

To which Ian responds, "An amusement park!"

Well... I guess I have my work cut out for me, now, don't I?

I found it very interesting that Ian was so specific. Sometimes I feel like he must think that he needs to make an appointment to get my attention, particularly on a day filled with schoolwork for three older siblings and a somewhat cranky, demanding little sister who still has a cold... Not that Ian ever gets lost in the chaos... he makes sure of that... but still the very fact that he has this planned right down to the time was telling.

And I find myself thinking, "At least we got to read a bedtime story, just the two of us, tonight... and I wonder what kinds of cool things I could build in an amusement park, because surely he won't envision any rides that go up and down!"

Lisa

There Is A Part Of Me...

2012-01-08T21:16:00.003-05:00

... that would probably just go on nursing Miah for a long time to come.

However, I have kind of always been of the opinion that when a child is old enough to ask for it, he or she is probably at the age when you should stop.

There's something a little harder about this than I imagined... (everything with Miah is, right?)...

Over the course of 5 children, I have nursed for 73 months (that's 6+ years):
2 Weeks for Seth
14 1/2 Months for Grace
22 Months for Caleb
15 Months for Ian
and now just over 21 Months for Miah

There is something about nursing a baby that just magnifies every maternal instinct I have. Miah is almost undoubtedly our last baby (I have learned to never say never, because you never know what might happen, but we are 99.4% sure of this...) It makes it a little more difficult to give up any "baby thing" with her.

But we have come to the point where she actually says, "Newes" (her word for "nurse", which actually sounds an awful lot like "nurse") and is not ashamed in the least to go right after what she's looking for... even in public... So I think we've pretty much come to the end...

(As a note, Caleb said, "Nigh Nigh" and Ian said, "Nyah Nyah", so nobody but me ever really knew what they were looking for... I don't remember Grace having a word for "nurse")

Should I feel so ridiculously sad about this? And why on earth am I blogging it? Questions I will probably wish I hadn't thrown out there on the World Wide Web, but I really would like to blog every day this year, if possible, and that's just what's on my mind tonight...

L.

Switching Gears...

2012-01-07T23:59:00.003-05:00

Happy Birthday (Party) Ian!

And so we return to our "normal" life in which we shove every piece of clothing we own into the laundry room and invite our friends over for a birthday celebration featuring the best dining options that the frozen food section and pre-made Kroger bakery selection have to offer...

I am too hard on myself when it comes to birthday parties. The truth is, Ian loved his Go, Diego Go themed bash... most of his best friends and their families were here... and we are feeling mighty blessed to have a place to call home and a group of people we love...

Although there were some cases in which the balloon wrestling got out of hand... and the pinata trampling was rough... I think everyone had a pretty good time, overall.

I have often heard that the foundation of your whole life is laid in the first 5 years. I hope and pray that Ian will, above all, love Jesus... love family... love friends... just love. I think we have taught him this.

In the hectic scramble of vacationing and partying, I don't have a lot of portraits to mark Ian's milestone birthday number 5, but they will come in time (hopefully sooner rather than later... hopefully this week)! For now, I am just happy to sit back and celebrate the life of my little superhero/ninja this far...

I love you, Ian!

L.

And We're Back...

2012-01-06T23:59:00.001-05:00

Undoubtedly, this was the worst travel day of my life...

I woke up feeling sick to my stomach and proceeded to vomit all the way home... I had really hoped at this point that this sickness would elude me... no such luck...

I pretty much attempted to sleep for most of the drive, which I'm sure made it a miserable trip home for Phil, as well.

By the time we reached our driveway, I was feeling well enough to help unload the van, unpack the stuff, and attempt to bring some sort of order to the house...

Some final, random thoughts on the trip...

The kids raked in the souvenirs...

I am looking forward to one of my favorite parts of the "post trip"... processing and organizing 3,248 pictures and some 20 hours of video into a DVD that we can watch over and over again to relive the memories...

It's funny, but it doesn't seem to matter how long we're gone; time always seems to fly on vacation. Grace said it best when we arrived home and she exclaimed, "It almost doesn't even seem like we went!" I am almost always sad when a trip comes to an end, but this time I was ready to come home. I'm not exactly sure what made the difference, but it just felt right. Give me a couple of months, and I'm sure I'll miss Florida...

Although I have always felt that the "magical" age for Disney World is 4 or 5, I think Ian sort of broke the mold on that. Undoubtedly, he had a great time, but as we found out, he really doesn't love to ride, and the characters were just sort of OK for him. I am wondering if part of this lack of immersive magic has to do with older siblings who are no longer quite as enamored. They are all going to be getting some instruction on this before Miah turns 4!

Vacationing when you're sick is tough... simply put.

I would not trade this trip for the world. Having always wanted to experience Disney at Christmastime, we can now say that we have. We needed this time away, and we needed this time together. It was very, very good in ways that I am struggling to put into words. Maybe I don't need to...

Lisa

Finish Strong…

2012-01-05T23:59:00.003-05:00

… And Go Home!

After getting ready for the day, packing and reloading our things, and having some breakfast (Phil and I weren’t too impressed with breakfast, but Caleb ate 5 waffles, and I think Seth ate more than that); we drove to Hollywood Studios and reached the parking lot right at opening.

Bag checks… tickets at the turnstiles… handed them off to Phil… and he took off running! I really wish I’d thought to pull the video camera out at this point, because the kids were just in awe. Among our soundtrack was, “Wow!” and, “Dad took off like lightning!” and, “I didn’t know Dad could run that fast!” Please insert the Rocky theme music here…

Just minutes after park opening, we held 6 Toy Story Mania fastpasses for 12:15-1:15pm in our hands.

We took in the Little Mermaid show as well as Disney Junior. Miah is pretty excited at this point every time she sees, “The Mouse” (as she has dubbed both Mickey and Minnie). “Ducky” (both Donald and Daisy) are a close second.

What to do… what to do…

Back to Epcot in an attempt to ride Soarin’!

The park sign said that Soarin’ had a 55 minute wait, so I dragged my four biggest kids through The Land while Phil took off with Miah in an attempt to finish my penny quest. When we arrived at the Soarin’ entrance, the sign said 75 minutes instead of 55, and there were still fastpasses available for 2:55pm-3:55pm. Unfortunately, I did not have my phone on me, and Phil and Miah were already long gone with the tickets, so with no way to communicate with them, we got in line.

It was definitely 75 minutes, and it was definitely worth it. I didn’t expect Ian to love it, but he was in awe. Just moments into the flight, he turned and looked at me with huge eyes and said, “Is this real?” He wanted to ride it again, but we really didn’t have another 75 minutes…

Phil and Miah had a nice stroll around the showcase and presented me with pressed pennies from Japan and China. The machine in France is still broken… quest over.

With precious little time, we ran back to the parking lot… got in the van… drove across the street (in a sort of roundabout way) to Hollywood Studios (who would have imagined we would enter that park 4 separate times on this trip)… ignored the parking attendants and grabbed a better parking spot… ran to the entrance… went through bag checks and ticketing again… booked it to the ride… and presented our fastpasses for Toy Story Mania! This was especially exciting for Phil and Ian who did not get to ride in ’08, because Ian was sleeping! Toy Story Mania is a great ride, and for the first time in my life, I had the high score (amongst my family) on an interactive game ride, so it’s all good…

We stopped at Pizza Planet for lunch and sat in our “regular” spot with our favorite aliens…

And then it was time to say good-bye to the parks…

I had Phil drop me off at Downtown Disney to spend the remaining Disney Dream Reward Dollars we had accumulated, and he went to the Hess station with the kids to fuel the van and get ready for our return trip…

And I have been blogging ever since to make up for the crazy schedule we’ve kept on this trip!

Final thoughts to come…

Lisa

Day 15 Photo Count: 24

Photo Highlights:

Seth has the right idea... We're beat...

Hop ‘Til You Drop…

2012-01-04T23:59:00.005-05:00

In the very brief planning stages of this trip, Phil and I had a bit of a difference in opinion as to whether the park hopping option was necessary. He was right. It was.

We didn’t manage to get to a park until noon, and when we did, it was Hollywood Studios again. Our plan was to snag fastpasses for Toy Story Mania, but they were all long gone by the time we arrived. Since we really had no desire to wait in a 2 ½ hour line, we forewent this option until tomorrow… we hope…

We did stop at the Toy Story character greeting, where we met Buzz Lightyear, and we also traveled a little further into the park to meet Mike and Sulley for the first time. Again, I am amazed at how much Miah loves these guys! Under 2 years old, and she yells the word, “monsters,” with a smile on her face!

We also finally saw the Beauty and the Beast stage show after 3 unsuccessful attempts in ’06, ’08, and ’09. I thought the casting here was excellent, and Miah enjoyed growling at the Beast. We did stand in the back for the second half of the show, because she was tired of sitting…

Undoubtedly, the most exciting thing that happened to us on this trip was that we made a wrong turn at Hollywood Studios and found ourselves being directed by a real film crew to join a group of people who will be featured on the Walt Disney Resort’s television channel. Three takes later, we are looking forward to having our friends who are visiting Orlando in March keep an eye out for us in our television debut!

Just a couple of hours into our day, we hopped over to Epcot in an attempt to bang out the rest of Future World or the World Showcase. As it turned out, we were reasonably successful at completing part of both of them… again. I’m never planning to do Epcot this way again, but by the end of our time there, I had pressed pennies for 8/11 nations, we had Daisy Duck’s autograph, we had walked on to Journey into Imagination with Figment, The Seas with Nemo, and Spaceship Earth, and we had even played at the Kodak Image Works and explored the Living Seas.

Time’s up… We hopped a monorail to the Magic Kingdom for Wishes…

The monorail took a really long time to arrive (about 25 minutes), but we still managed to squeeze our way through the crowd during the parade and position ourselves for some prime fireworks viewing right in front of Walt and Mickey this time. We made Ian stay up, because we wanted him to actually see the show, and when it started, even Miah woke up. Wishes is traditionally my favorite show at Disney. I am so glad we made it in time… Looking around at my beautiful family, I know that all of my wishes really have come true…

After a few pictures, we booked it back to the monorail station, because the Epcot monorail was threatening to close at 10:00pm… Small problem… The monorail line was packed! Thanks to Phil’s quick thinking, we jumped on the resort monorail… Miah cried all the way to the Contemporary Resort, where some guests disembarked and we were able to sit down and pull her out of her stroller… just in time to travel to the ticket and transportation center… where Phil pushed both strollers down the ramp and I carried Miah… then we ran back up the other ramp and made it on the last monorail back to Epcot for the night with 5 minutes to spare…

We arrived back at the Epcot parking lot, found the van, and were on our way back to the hotel for a few hours of sleep before we attempt to fight the crowd in the morning for those Toy Story Mania fastpasses…

‘Night.

Lisa

Day 14 Photo Count: 141

Photo Highlights:

Caleb & The Aliens...

Have I mentioned lately how much I love this kid...

Wishes...

How To Do Animal Kingdom…

2012-01-03T23:59:00.005-05:00

In 8 ½ Hours…

Traditionally speaking, Animal Kingdom is not among our favorite Disney parks. It seems that whenever we go there it is beastly hot (no pun intended), and we have often rented an overpriced double stroller, because someone is always sick! Today we broke the cycle…

To begin with, it was freezing! Some of us had coats and sweatshirts, and some of us didn’t, but as it turned out, Phil had enough extra warm clothes for just about everybody. Miah looked pretty silly all zipped up in Daddy’s sweatshirt, but at least we kept her warm and avoided buying the super expensive Mickey and Minnie Mouse snuggies that so many park guests ended up in today!

So… if you don’t really like Animal Kingdom, why go at all? Here’s the thing… although it’s not our favorite, there are a handful of attractions that we do love. We started the day out on Dinosaur, which Grace was never, ever going to ride again but ended up boarding with Phil and Caleb, because Caleb wanted her to ride so badly. When they got off, I was going to take just Ian, but Caleb wanted to ride again, and this seemed to convince Seth that it wasn’t really as bad as Grace had previously said. With all of her brothers getting on, Grace actually decided to take a second spin on it! I really couldn’t believe it. The picture was hilarious, though, because Seth and Grace both have their heads covered with their jackets, but Caleb and Ian are smiling up at the ferocious T-Rex!

The kids found their dinosaur eggs in the gift shop, and Ian convinced Phil that he absolutely needed to ride again, because he loved it so much!

From there Seth, Grace, Caleb, and I walked on to Primeval Whirl… twice… because we were on the wrong side of the ride for Phil to get pictures the first time. A quick trip on Triceratops Spin, and then we were on to Finding Nemo: The Musical, while Phil ran to grab fastpasses for Expedition Everest. Finding Nemo is probably the one thing that keeps me coming back to Animal Kingdom… makes me cry every time…

Expedition Everest was actually a much better coaster than I remember it being, and Caleb was super excited to ride for the first time, since he was a fraction of an inch too short in ’08. His one disappointment was that we couldn’t find the animatronic Yeti, but since Ian didn’t use his fastpass for this one (and that was definitely the right choice), Caleb was able to get right back on with Phil, and they found the Yeti!

We skipped Kali River Rapids, because it was simply way too cold to risk being hit by a waterfall…

Can I say here, we walked on to Kilimanjaro Safari, and it was the best… safari… ever. I was a little concerned that the animals wouldn’t be out in the cold, but they were more active than ever. We were actually stopped for awhile as the giraffes crossed the plain, and we got close enough to a Rhinoceros that I had to remind Caleb not to lean out to pet it! We also rode the Wildlife Express Train with just a brief stop at the elephant statues, where we got a little piece of Disney history from the cast member there. The elephants actually used to have running water for hand washing purposes in another area of the park. Who knew?

On to lunch at Pizzafari followed by a mad dash to Festival of the Lion King, where the show was delayed beyond Miah’s liking, but enjoyable once it started. A fast run through Camp Minnie-Mickey greeting trails netted us character greetings with Donald Duck, Goofy (dressed as Santa, which was a huge disappointment for Ian), and Minnie Mouse. We skipped Mickey, since we’d already seen him, but jumped in line for Louie (from Tailspin) and Thumper (Bambi). On our way out, we caught sight of Pocahontas and added another character greeting to our total.

Now it was time to run over to Hollywood Studios for the first time on this trip… another of our less favorite parks, but it’s hard to skip it with Fantasmic. It was our plan to see just that, tonight, and maybe to squeeze in a couple of other attractions. As it turned out, Miah was asleep when we reached the venue, and the Disney cast member absolutely would not make an exception for a stroller, even in the case of a sick, sleeping baby. I need to pause here to say that I find that a little irritating. I completely understand that they can’t have every stroller crammed into the shows, but I have observed an awful lot of people in wheel chairs and on motorized carts on this trip who seem at least as capable as my 1 year old. This is not, in any way, a slight against people who have actual handicaps and disabilities, but the fact that there were some people taking up handicapped spots just because they are fat and lazy while I have to wake my child up to see the show didn’t sit too well with me. I wonder how the cast members felt after the show when they had to clean up the massive chunks of vomit that Miah left for them… bet they would have preferred to have that in her stroller…

The show itself was amazing, as always. But since I was also covered in regurgitated macaroni and cheese (whole pieces of it), we decided to call it a night after that…

We checked in to Royale Parc Suites, where we spent part of our ’08 trip. I was disappointed to see that it had deteriorated in the last 3 years, but the truth is the room was big enough for us to spread out and get a good night’s sleep, and everyone got cleaned up, and that’s about all that matters at this point!

Lisa

Day 13 Photo Count: 274

Photo Highlights:

Baby, It's Cold Outside...

You don't get a view like this every day...

Meeting Donald Duck... or "Ducky"

Darth Ian...

And this is how I felt before she puked all over me... Yep... Our trip is winding down...

Add A Day Or Two…

2012-01-02T23:59:00.003-05:00

This was supposed to be our last full day in Florida. The truth is, we have park tickets left, and hotel prices drop dramatically after the first of the year. We’re staying a couple more days. We are, however, switching hotels when our time here expires tomorrow morning. For future reference, I would not stay at Nickelodeon Suites again, and I would not recommend it. There have been quite a few issues including the lack of hot water, beds that aren’t made, additional resort fees that caught us by surprise, and “amenities” that are not free… But enough of that…

Today we spent the bulk of the day cleaning up, repacking, and reloading the van. Fun, I know…

We decided to have dinner at Cicis Pizza Buffet, because I guess I don’t have the power to veto pizza buffets, contrary to my earlier assumption…

Some shopping at Downtown Disney rounded out our evening. Another Lego store… World of Disney… and Once Upon a Toy are our favorites. Ian emerged with a “Bruce” from finding Nemo, Miah has a “Minnie Mouse” now, Seth used most of the remainder of his gift card for candy, Caleb got a super deal on Lego robber mini-figures, and Grace added to our growing Puffle collection. Phil and I picked up a few things, as well.

If you ever wondered what kind of idiots allow their children to run through the fountains when most families are wearing winter coats and hats, well… our hands are up… pick us… We did not, however, anticipate, the vigor with which Caleb would completely soak himself from head to toe (that was really not in the plan). He has been sick for most of the trip, taking asthma meds twice a day. “Go ahead and run through the fountains,” did not mean, “take a shower”… I hope we’re not paying for this one for weeks to come. I ran the kids into a store while Phil ran to get the van heated up and back to us.

It hasn’t been an exciting day, really, but it has been about as “restful” as this trip gets… On to more fun tomorrow…

Lisa

Day 12 Photo Count: 44

Photo Highlights:

Epic Fail...

My Mammaw Always Said…

2012-01-01T23:59:00.006-05:00

The way you spend New Year’s Day is the way you’ll spend the rest of your year...

Well, if there’s any truth to that, then what better place to welcome the new year than the Magic Kingdom?

I have often heard that the Magic Kingdom is “dead” on New Year’s Day because most people stay up late the night before. While we did not find it to be empty, we did find the crowds much smaller and the lines much shorter than on Christmas Day!

We had to ride the ferry again, as opposed to the monorail, because the monorail was shut down. This seemed fairly odd, but we went with it. Upon entering the park, the first thing we did was to meet Mickey Mouse. I continue to be amazed at how much Miah loves the characters.

Then, we made a beeline straight for Fantasy land where we jumped on Dumbo (the last time we’ll ever experience Dumbo in quite the same fashion, as the ride will be moving next week to New Fantasyland), had almost no wait for Peter Pan, and walked on to Small World. Later in the day, we also rode Prince Charming’s Carousel, The Many Adventures of Winnie-the-Pooh, and Snow White’s Scary Adventure (one last time, as this ride will be disappearing altogether soon). That completed Fantasyland for this trip. As a sidenote, Fantasyland is really the heart of Disney World for me. When I think of Disney as a kid, that’s what I think of. I am super excited about New Fantasyland, but by the same token, I am exceptionally pleased that I had the opportunity to experience “old” Fantasyland one more time…

Ian had a huge accident after this, soaking all of his clothes including his socks and shoes. I really do not understand how he manages to never, ever have an accident until we are in a crowd or at the very least away from home, where I am totally unprepared for this, because he never has accidents! In this case, I think it was because he has called wolf too many times on this trip. As we near the area to board almost every ride, he says, “I need to go to the bathroom!” I think this is because he is trying to get out of riding, but as it turned out, he really did need to go as we sat down for Small World, and I guess all that water just did him in. I actually happened to have a pull-up and some shorts in the diaper bag, and we deemed the shirt wearable. The socks and shoes… not so much.

So we made a quick decision and Phil and Grace headed off to the Haunted Mansion (which none of our kids have ever ridden as I feel relatively negatively about the theming), and the rest of us went toward Splash Mountain in hopes that there might be a gift shop that sold water shoes. The best we could come up with was a pair of crocs for $35.00… uh… no. This mean Mommy set the shoes out to dry and shoved them back on as soon as it was reasonable. We did, however, come out of the store with Miah’s first pair of Mickey ears, a Goofy hat, and two “puffles”. And I got an education about Club Penguin…

We reconnected with Phil and Grace at this point. Grace hated the Haunted Mansion, as expected. Phil said she kept her eyes open for about three seconds… We grabbed fastpasses for Thunder Mountain and jumped on a raft for Tom Sawyer Island. I hate Tom Sawyer Island. I don’t really know why. But Phil loves it, and the kids do, too. I was crabby and grumpy and Miah matched my mood. I’m thinking we’re going to scratch that part for the rest of 2012 if that’s OK with everyone else. We explored for what felt like forever, and I finally got on a return raft with a wiggly, screaming baby and told the rest of my family that I’d meet them back on the mainland. As it turned out, the raft driver waited so long to launch that not only did our whole family make it on, but so did dozens of other people. I really need to work on my attitude about Tom Sawyer…

We made it to Thunder Mountain before our fastpasses expired and then went in search of lunch, which ended up landing us back in Fantasyland at Pinocchio’s Village Haus, where the kids had pizza for the zillionth time, and Phil and I had chicken…

I grabbed my only raspberry lemonade slush of the trip, and we decided to wait in line to see Rapunzel. I don’t think the casting has been all that great for the characters this time around, but Rapunzel was quite excited when it was our turn and she exclaimed that, “the whole kingdom had come out to see her”! She also reminded us to carry our frying pans at all times and instructed the boys not to overuse their smolders…

Later in the day, we made it over to the Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor where Phil got in line with the kids and I went off to change Miah’s diaper. Except I couldn’t find a restroom, so I just changed her on a bench and hoped no one would notice… which I guess they didn’t… Miah and I joined the line and kept the other guests entertained, as Miah seems to think that every show is actually about her! When the doors opened, we were able to run down a few choice people and made it to the section where our family was seated. It’s been an interesting trip in that regard… The monsters were funny, as always, and I did not meet Miah’s loud requests to nurse during the show, because there is audience interaction, I thought that with my luck I would be feeding her and suddenly we would appear on the big screen… ha…

We used our fastpasses on Space Mountain, and I bought the picture of me, Seth, and Caleb, because Caleb looks awesome, Seth looks intense, and I look… well… to be honest Seth said I look weird, so maybe I’ll just crop myself out…

Phil took Seth and Caleb back to Splash Mountain while Grace, Ian, Miah, and I waited in line for the fairies. Ian was pretty ticked off when he saw them, because his whole objective was to prove that fairies aren’t real… I savored every moment, because as Grace conversed with Tink about pixie dust and actually convinced Tink to rub some off on her arms, I realized that this is undoubtedly the last time Grace will believe in that kind of magic…

We actually left the park as “Wishes” was beginning, which is an absolute travesty for us, but Ian and Miah were both asleep at this point, and it is our plan to come back on the last night of our trip, so it’s all good…

Happy New Year!

Lisa

Day 11 Photo Count: 322

Photo Highlights:

Caleb learned about King Arthur a few weeks ago in school. He loved The Sword in the Stone!

Just look at that "Goofy" kid...

Tink & My Girls...

Seth's favorite part of the trip was eating... He is downing the last few bites of ice cream here... Ian is in the background on a sugar high...

The only way we could get a picture of Miah wearing her Mouse Ears...

Build A Better Legoland Trip…

2011-12-31T23:59:00.006-05:00

Although we enjoyed Legoland on Ian’s birthday, we went into this day really hoping that the crowd would be diminished, particularly because it is New Year’s Eve, and Legoland is only open until 7:00pm, while many of the major parks have midnight celebrations. We were right, and this made for a wonderful day!

We were actually able to walk on to major attractions multiple times! Today we checked off three roller coasters, the Lego Stunt Show, and a variety of smaller rides and experiences. In the end, between the two days, we rode everything in the park!

I was most impressed by the “Driving School” rides, which were the most innovative children’s rides I have ever seen at an amusement park. The kids were actually able to drive Lego cars through a course, without utilizing a track. Ian was too young for “Driving School”, but there was a “Junior Driving School”, which he rode twice. And even Miah got to pretend to drive a stationary car, which we dubbed, “Baby Driving School”! What we could not have anticipated was how much Miah loved this car. When we took her out of it, the most intense baby temper tantrum in the history of this family ensued. I think we need Grandpa to come up with some plans to build a car for Miah...

We did some shopping at the Lego stores and caught glimpses of the early fireworks, and then we were on our way back to the hotel. Not too long after we got there, our four oldest kids all fell asleep on the couch, and Miah and I fell asleep, too. Phil went out to get pizza, woke us in time (minus the baby princess) to watch the ball drop, and we downed a couple of slices apiece, some breadsticks, and a few sips of sparkling lemonade, which wasn’t very good…

Welcome 2012!

Lisa

Day 10 Photo Count: 315

Photo Highlights:

Best... Roller Coaster Face... Ever...

A Friendly Triceratops...

So Happy!

Incredible... Whole Cities Made of Lego...

Have I Mentioned We’re Getting Old…

2011-12-30T23:59:00.006-05:00

It’s just not our way to stop in the middle of a vacation and actually take a moment to breathe. This time around, though, we’re finding we don’t really have a choice. We are exhausted. We had to take a break today...

Granted, our style break probably still doesn’t fit the traditional mold, but we really did stay at the hotel until it was almost evening…

We actually used the hotel pool and “waterpark” (if you can call it that). There was also a very small putt putt golf course. Since Ian is not a huge fan of the water and Miah is pretty little for it, Phil and I headed that way with the two of them while Seth, Grace, and Caleb braved the slides in the water fort. In all of my 32 years, I have never, ever seen a child fall into a hole on a putt putt course. Miah managed to accomplish this feat… three times…

We all enjoyed the pool together for awhile, even though I couldn’t convince any of my children that getting “slimed” would be fun. I think this must come from growing up in the 80s, but I was a little disappointed. I mean, who doesn’t want a bucket of slime dumped on their head? The answer to this is every member of my family…

After awhile, we left the pool area, sat in Blue’s “thinking chair” briefly (actually, Miah probably could have stayed there all day), and came to the conclusion that we needed to make it to The Magic Kingdom for the “party before the party” and “Fantasy in the Sky”.

Miah in the Thinking Chair

The crowd was incredible when we arrived, but we managed to push through it in the midst of the Electrical Lights Parade and landed in Adventureland, where Phil took Seth, Grace, and Caleb for another ride on Pirates of the Caribbean, and we all enjoyed the Jungle Cruise. We also took a little cruise on the Liberty Square River Boat and another trip through Splash Mountain. Then, it was over to Fantasyland, where Grace took her turn leaving her camera bag behind… in a restroom. While the boys got on Snow White’s Scary Adventure, Grace and I backtracked and finally found a cast member who thought that something similar to Grace’s bag had been turned in and sent to City Hall. And now it gets tricky…

In order to retrieve the bag, Grace and I decided to fight the crowd… moving in the opposite direction… with a sleeping Miah in her stroller. In addition, I knew this would really cut into our ability to secure great fireworks seating, which I found frustrating, since I haven’t seen “Fantasy in the Sky” since I was a kid, myself, and the show only runs two nights out of the year. Still, the camera (if, indeed, it was her camera) needed to be claimed, so off we went. This went amazingly well, as some very helpful cast members were directing traffic. We made it to City Hall, took a look at the bag, which did turn out to belong to Grace (labeled with her name and address and all), and started back in the opposite direction… on the opposite side of the road.

This new route was a bad idea. We should have simply made our way back the way we came, especially because the parade was running again at this point. We ended up being re-routed through Adventureland… again… and found ourselves running though the streets toward the back of the park, trying pretty desperately at this point to catch a break and make it back to Fantasyland, when Phil called to inform me that he and the boys were sitting right behind Walt and Mickey and that we had better hurry up and get there, because the crowd was growing quickly. This seemed near impossible, but I looked at Grace and said, “If any two people in the world can do this, it’s us…” And we did.

As much as I wanted to see the Main Street Electrical Parade on this trip, I never imagined that I would actually follow it around the park. We finally made it to the castle (taking alleys and roads and cutting through stores that I didn’t even know existed, which is saying something since I consider myself something of an expert on all things Disney). And then I saw Phil waving, just a few yards off, and I thought to myself… This is the point at which I become the person who comes too late for the fireworks and pushes her way through the crowd to a prime spot with her waiting family… Yep… this is the part where I become the lady that everybody hates. And I can’t say that the crowd parted and smiled, but I can say that I was as polite as possible, even when I had to inform someone that I really didn’t want to run her child over with the stroller and if she could just move for a moment I could get to my family and out of her way… Quick sigh of relief, and we took our seats on the pavement… briefly…

At this point, Phil informs me that Seth needs to go to the bathroom, and I just thought, “Good luck, Buddy!” Off they went, all of the other kids fell asleep on the pavement, and I sat there blocking them with my body and hoping no one would trample them! This is as close as I’m ever getting to the kind of crowd you find at Times Square on New Year’s Eve…

Phil and Seth actually made it back a little easier than we did minus the fact that the whole area around the castle was now blocked off, and they had to convince a cast member that their family was really in there! And the fireworks began. All I can really say is, “Wow!” Although the show cannot possibly be exactly as I remember it (there were later music additions from The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast), it was dazzling. The countdown to New Year’s Eve was amazing with fireworks exploding in a circle around us, and the excitement running through the crowd was incredible! One thing we did notice was that there was an unusually high percentage of adults at this gathering. Even the Disney shows that are very late at night tend to draw a pretty sizeable kid population, but that wasn’t the case this time around. I cannot imagine how crazy it will be tomorrow, and although I absolutely love having the memory of being here for this event, I am looking forward to a nice, quiet, New Year’s celebration back at the hotel!

We hung around for a little while after the show in order to let the crowd thin a bit, and then we took a ferry back to the ticket and transportation center, because the monorail line was huge! Another great night to remember…

Day 9 Photo Count: 139

Photo Highlights:

Fantasy in the Sky...

Waiting for the Riverboat...

Making Memories...

Back to the Ocean...

2011-12-29T23:59:00.002-05:00

The "Mine Mine" birds were caught in traffic with us on the way to the park...

We decided to use our 2nd day free tickets at Sea World today. Although we got up a little later than we’d planned, we were able to accomplish an awful lot.

Over the course of the day, we saw Blue Horizons (the dolphin show), One Ocean (the new Shamu show), Sesame Street Christmas (which really missed the mark on the true meaning of Christmas… not that I was expecting a whole lot more from Sesame Street… we went because Ian loves Cookie Monster), and Clyde and Seamore Take Pirate Island. Miah was enamored with the shows, and especially loved the part in Blue Horizons when the birds come out and fly all around the stadium. Ian also really enjoyed the shows and was quite pleased to have a break from getting on rides!

Grace and Caleb were brave enough to pet the stingrays for the first time ever, but Caleb was not expecting them to feel slimy, so he pulled his hand back, causing the stingray to become a little alarmed. The stingray, in turn, splashed us pretty good. Caleb was super disappointed with the experience, which makes me a little sad, since petting the stingrays is something I really look forward to every time we visit Sea World. We didn’t have much luck petting the dolphins, either, because no one could quite reach them… although Miah sure gave it her best shot!

We did ride everything in Shamu’s Happy Harbor except for Swishy Fishies, which was closed for the day. Ian loved the Flying Fiddler and giggled through the whole thing. He kept saying, “This ride is funny!” I think it was the butterflies in his stomach! We also managed to convince him to try the Shamu Express… (please read “convince” as “bribe”… Ian is now the proud owner of a Shamu stuffed animal…) Funny story… Near the end of our night in the park we had decided that Grace and I would only ride Manta again if the line was short (the lines, overall, were a lot longer than they were on Christmas Eve). Since the line appeared to be to our liking, we waited, and we got on rather quickly. Phil took the rest of the kids out to the parking lot, and it would have turned out great if Manta hadn’t had some “technical difficulties” just as we finished our ride.

Grace and I spent the next 20 minutes, strapped into the ride and unable to get out, because the lock wouldn’t release… But in the end, we have our picture and a fun story to tell, and it was a nice time for just the two of us… so I really can’t complain…

A quick stop by Chick-Fil-A (finally) for dinner ended in my dropping an entire large lemonade in the hotel parking lot. I’m starting to think I need a no spill sippy cup… for myself… Phil replaced the lemonade for me, times two, which I was thankful for, because I really wanted it!

Sleep would be good now…

Lisa

Day 8 Photo Count: 235

Photo Highlights:

Seth telling Miah about the dolphins...

She loved them...

Seth & Grace with the Dolphins...

Sometimes, you just have to make your own fun...

Character Greetings...

Around the World in 80 Days…

2011-12-28T23:59:00.005-05:00

... or less.

It’s funny, but I never really liked Epcot all that much as a kid. Now, I could probably spend the better part of two weeks in the World Showcase, alone. Given that we don’t have that option, this is how our day at Epcot went…

We arrived a little later than we wanted to, which has been an ongoing theme on this trip. Still, when we reached Mission: Space there was almost no line, so Seth, Grace, and I decided to try the less intense mission. They wanted to ride the more intense mission after that, but the less intense one was good for me… We picked up fastpasses for Test Track and wandered over to Universe of Energy, which is not as good since Ellen and Bill Nye have joined the story, but we like seeing the dinosaurs, nevertheless. Miah especially loved the dinosaurs. I had no idea she even knew that word until she got really excited and started bouncingup and down, pointing, and yelling, “dinosaur”!

After a little bit of convincing, I got Ian in line for Test Track (with Caleb, too). Of course, Caleb loved it and Ian didn’t. Ian does love shopping, though, so after the ride he picked up a Disney bus and airplane while we waited for Phil, Seth, and Grace to take their turn. As it turned out, the Test Track shop was popular among all the kids. Seth and Grace purchased antennae toppers (for when they get cars of their own…ha!) and Caleb bought a Pluto car.

And this is where things get a little bit tricky…

I sometimes have these great ideas that don’t work out all that well in practice. Today the plan was to hit every country in the World Showcase… to taste something from each culture… to press a penny at each location… and to take a picture. If we were visiting during a value week, I don’t think this would have been an issue, but remember the parks are swarming with people during the holidays! It become obvious pretty quickly that we didn’t have enough time to stand in line for food at every country, so we switched the plan up a little bit and purchased snacks in some places at the gift shops. The fish & chips in New England were awesome, though (I want more), and the cashew baklava in Morocco was a pleasant delight (I want more of that, too)… The whole pressed penny thing has become somewhat of a joke with my close friends and family, but I continue to remind everyone that you can’t often find a souvenir at Disney for 51 cents! Other than the fact that I had a slight nervous breakdown at the France pressed penny machine, which was out of order, this quest is going quite well…Taking pictures in each country, of course, has been easy to accomplish. The Photopass photographer in France did push a few too many buttons on my camera, but we (uh… Phil) eventually fixed the settings…

We only made it about halfway around the world before we needed to leave the park, because we had a dinner date with friends from home! We met at Tony Roma’s, which turned out to be a very excellent place to eat! I think this will be another favorite memory for years to come. It was so fun to connect with June and Jimi, and the kids were super excited to see Josh, Sammy, and Mojade (who unfortunately got stuck at the “kid table”, but there were benefits, because she got free ice cream!)

After dinner we decided to run back to Epcot for Illuminations, and although we didn’t get a great seat, it was still a good show, as always. That makes fireworks five nights in a row… We walked in the “wrong” direction after the show, allowing us to enjoy a quiet stroll through part of the World Showcase and to exit the park after closing… an excellent end to the night…

Lisa

Day 7 Photo Count: 170

Photo Highlights:

Dinner with Friends

Illuminations...

It’s the Little Things…

2011-12-27T23:59:00.005-05:00

Last night, we put the “Do Not Disturb” sign on the door and determined to sleep in as late as possible. Apparently, for Miah, that is 7:45am.

Over the years, “Vacation ‘til You Drop” has sort of been our motto. Well… maybe it still is, but we dropped a lot faster this time around than usual. We had to have a day of rest.

We enjoyed our day, watching cartoons (the kids actually watched several episodes of Dick Vandyke), snacking, playing, blogging, etc. We didn’t even make it to the pool.

As evening approached, however, we decided that if we wanted to take in the Fort Wilderness campfire, sing along, and movie as well as the Electric Water Pageant, this was the day to do it. So, we loaded up the van a little after 5:00pm and drove to Fort Wilderness. I have looked in to staying at the cabins there, and it has always seemed like a nice place, but I had no idea how big it is and how very awesome!

We took a Disney bus back to the campfire area (finally, a “ride” Ian enjoyed, although he did ask repeatedly if it was going to go up and down), walked a short distance, and waited for the campfires to be lit. I came armed with enough “supplies” (marshmallows, graham crackers, and Hershey’s bars) to make more than what I thought was a reasonable number of s’mores. Let’s just say it’s a good thing I brought as much as I did! We did have to purchase marshmallow roasting sticks for 59 cents apiece… Seems we don’t actually own anything like that (well… I guess we do now…)

There is just something about a campfire that makes us come alive. The fact that even my 11 year old son was willing to engage in the Chicken Dance is saying something! I am going to cherish that one for a long time to come. Phil took charge as the master marshmallow roaster (after I set mine on fire… typical…), and I think Caleb holds the record with six… or seven… or heck, I think he said the count was at ten at some point… s’mores…

We sang and danced with Chip and Dale. Ian got to stand up in front of the crowd since he celebrated his birthday this week, although he did not sing and dance with the other birthday people. The video is hilarious. Toy Story played on the big outdoor screen (one of the reasons we picked this night was because of the movie options). And when it was over, we took a nice, long walk to the beach, where we staked out some beach chairs as far away from the rest of the world as possible.

I remember seeing the Electrical Water Pageant as a kid, so I really wanted to see it again. It is a short parade of electrical water floats, and we really enjoyed it. Then it occurred to us that we would have a very nice view of the Magic Kingdom fireworks if we just sat tight, and as we waited several of our little people fell asleep. I’m not sure you can top laying on the beach, snuggling with your sleeping kids as Disney fireworks light up the sky. Perhaps the best vacation moment ever… and so sometimes, it’s in the little things…

Eventually, we made our way back to the bus station and went on our way. A quick stop at McDs for a late night dinner was in order, and then back to the hotel for what I hope is a good night’s sleep. Another busy day awaits!

Lisa

Day 6 Photo Count: 138

Photo Highlights:

Roasting Marshmallows

Mmmm... (Phil ate his "s'mores" one course at a time)

Some s'mores that are actually put together...

Our somewhat innovative version of the chicken dance...

Electrical Water Pageant

Love My Babies...

Happy Birthday, Ian!

2011-12-26T23:59:00.002-05:00

A Legoland Adventure…

Since we first read about the opening of Legoland Florida, we have wanted to go there, and by “we”, I do mean all of us, but maybe Phil just a little bit more than everyone else…

Ian was absolutely beyond thrilled to be going on his birthday, and so dressed as Super Ian, we were off to conquer the Lego galaxy... Just in case you ever wondered, though, the Lego galaxy is not quite as close to Orlando as we thought, because there is a huge difference between Winter Garden, FL and Winter Haven, FL… Oops… At any rate, 45 minutes later we entered the park just minutes after the gate opened.

We met Max the Lego Minifigure, rode the carousel (an obvious holdover from Cypress Gardens), Toured the Lego Factory to see how Lego is made, salivated over all of the great Lego products in various stores, played at the Duplo Farm (huge plus for Miah, who is quite tired of her stroller already), and rode a couple of kiddie rides in Duploland.

Lego Kingdom was looking especially fun to us, but the lines were crazy long, so we skipped most of the attractions there. We did not, however, skip the jousting ride, because it was simply too innovative and fun looking to pass up. Seth, Grace, Caleb, and Ian waited in line together while Phil and I attempted to feed Miah snacks, which she mostly threw on the ground…

We worked our way over to another play area, which was slightly less successful, as Miah decided she no longer wanted to wear shoes or socks and the day was getting fairly (uh… very) hot. Apparently Orlando is hitting some new record highs this week. I am actually rather grumpy when I am hot, and added to the fact that we were all getting hungry at this point, it was definitely time to look for something to eat. The kids were all desperate to try the pizza buffet, which sounded terribly unappealing to me at the time… probably because I couldn’t get the Sea World pizza buffet out of my mind. This is saying something, because Pizza is a food group in this family! At any rate, Phil and I kept avoiding the topic of the pizza buffet and made a beeline for the place on the map that advertised fried chicken. Well… a “beeline” is probably stretching it a little bit. Actually, we got caught up in “Miniland”, which is an amazing display of Lego set up to look like all kinds of various world areas. We could probably spend hours in just that one area of the park. But we really did need to eat, so we moved on… only to find that the aforementioned restaurant did not exist, and every counter service restaurant in the place had a line that rivaled the rides at 2:00 in the afternoon! We walked back to the pizza buffet…

The wait was terrible in the heat, but to be honest, the pizza was a million times better than the stuff at Sea World, and at least we all got full. I think I am boycotting pizza for the rest of the trip, though… The best mishap moment definitely came when it was time to move on, and I went to refill my cup before leaving the restaurant. The fountain pop must have been especially fizzy, because I seriously overfilled. After I finished wiping up the excess pop with some napkins, I picked up my cup, only to have the lid come loose and to spill Pepsi all over the floor. It was with mild embarrassment and a slight sense of relief that I told an employee that “we” had a spill… This is the kind of thing that is supposed to happen to the kids, right?

We caught the pirate show… or at least parts of it. Miah was not interested in this at all, so the two of us mostly walked around the stadium squinting at the sun. I think the rest of my family enjoyed the show.

Following this, Phil and I took turns riding things with our “big kids” and entertaining Miah. Miah and I played a riveting game of Peek-a-Boo stroller… I guess you probably had to be there, but it was one of the best parts of the trip so far… The kid power towers were a favorite, and the Soarin’ Scooters weren’t bad, either. Phil rode the Lego Technic Coaster with the kids, and then we all waited for the fireworks (which was a surprise, since we didn’t know they were having them). It was a fun 3-D display. Lego appeared in all of the explosions and lights!

The park was supposed to close after this, but as it turned out, none of the staff seemed in a hurry to shut things down, so we managed to squeak in one more ride… Aqua Zone!

Overall, I would say that Legoland was an excellent experience… very kid friendly, for sure. My favorite quote of the day came from Ian. “I’m just having fun, Mom. All I’m doin’ is having fun!”

On the way back to the hotel, I made a Wal-Mart stop that seemed to last forever… You would think that baby swimsuits would be a staple item in an Orlando Wal-Mart, but I guess that’s silly. Instead, they were stocked with winter coats and footie pajamas! I did finally come up with a suit for Miah, though, and I’m not complaining, because the clearance price was just right!

We headed back to the hotel and celebrated Ian’s b-day with mini cupcakes and M & M ice cream sandwiches. Ian opened his presents, and then we all pretty much passed out, because this has been an exhausting few days!

Coming up next… Some rest!

Lisa

Day 5 Photo Count: 533

Photo Highlights:

Christmas Magic…

2011-12-25T23:59:00.003-05:00

I have always wanted to spend Christmas day at the Magic Kingdom. Overall, I would say that it was a great experience and I’m glad I had it… but you have to hop on that monorail expecting something completely different than a regular day at Disney…

Before we left, I read about a few vacation disasters from travelers who attempted to get into the Magic Kingdom on Christmas day only to be told that the gates had closed at 10:00am because the park had reached capacity. With that in mind, the original plan was to get there as early as possible, but after such a late night last night, it occurred to us that waking before the break of dawn was probably not even a feasible idea if we didn’t want to be grouchy by noon… After actually very little consideration, we decided to take our time and not be devastated if we couldn’t get in. We arrived at the gate at 10:09am. We got in without any issues. Can’t say we had our prime, “first crazy people in the park long before it opens” usual parking spot, but we didn’t get turned away, either.

I have never seen so many people. We had to wait in a huge line just to board a very crowded monorail, and Miah had a little meltdown, which I’m sure made all the other families on the monorail wish they’d either gotten there early or slept in later… All of our other children have been enamored with the monorail ride, but Miah seems to have broken every other mold, so we should have expected that she would hate it.

When we got into the park, she was much happier, but I was suddenly a little unsure of which direction to go… which really never happens to me at Disney. After inching our way down Main Street USA, we made the traditional turn for Tomorrowland, snagged some fast passes for Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin, and jumped on the Carousel of Progress, where Miah decided that it would be an appropriate time to demand to nurse… loudly… I hedged for just a minute and then reason took over and I realized that they probably wouldn’t kick me off a moving ride with a baby, so I nursed her and she went to sleep. (As a side note, no one seemed to care. I am always just a little cautious after our St. Louis experience in ’10).

From there we made an attempt at eating lunch at Cosmic Ray’s Starlight Café. We did eventually get in, but apparently Disney has had to put some additional effort into seating people at their counter service establishments during the holidays, because our usual protocol, where either Phil or I sit down with the kids while the other orders, was not an option. We were not allowed to enter the seating area without food! We eventually figured this out, ordered our meals, and were seated. Although it seemed a little inconvenient at first, I realize, in hindsight, that without this guideline no one would ever find a table in this kind of crowd!

It was back to Buzz Lightyear after lunch, which Ian is also “never riding again”, because it wasn’t a movie… It has become obvious that he doesn’t remember anything at all about our last trip (which I didn’t expect him to, because he was just under age 2 at the time)… When we got off the ride, one of the cast members noticed Ian’s Happy Birthday button and had Goofy call him on the phone to sing him a birthday song. Definite plus, even though Ian didn’t “recognize the voice”!

We walked through the rest of Tomorrowland, kinda rolling our eyes at the lines, and finally ended up on the edge of New Fantasyland, where we caught a glimpse of Beast’s Castle and found ourselves wishing we could make another trip next year… The people of Disney are doing an excellent job concealing the construction, so you can’t see much, but there are certain landscapes that they couldn’t hide unless they built a 100 ft. fence… which they didn’t.

Then it was time for the Mad Tea Party, where Caleb volunteered to ride with Grace the super spinner and I reminded her that if she spun him too fast and he threw up on her, she’d have to get creative about clothing options. I rode with Seth and Ian, in the gently spinning tea cup… I don’t think Ian is ever riding that again, either, because I didn’t spin it to his liking…

We decided shortly after this that we’d better grab more fast passes if we wanted to cover any of the “big” rides, so we picked some up for Splash Mountain and proceeded to Adventureland, where we rode Pirates of the Caribbean and The Magic Carpets of Aladdin… neither of which (you guessed it), Ian is ever riding again… We then ran through the Swiss Family Treehouse, finally finding something that Ian liked. Oh, and he also liked the store at the end of the Pirates ride. He is now the proud owner of shackles and a sword. Should I be concerned?

We had just enough time to ride the Walt Disney World Railroad before our fast pass return time, so we did. This was enjoyable, as always, although we were hoping for a good view of New Fantasyland construction from the old Toontown Station, but they have done a good job of hiding what’s going on over there, too…

When we returned to Frontierland, I knew it was going to be a challenge convincing Ian to get on Splash Mountain. The final selling point was the singing and dancing animals. So… Caleb, Ian, and I boarded a boat and I listened to Ian tell me just how much he hates Splash Mountain every time we went down a hill. He did, indeed, love the animals, though.

When we exited, Phil informed me that Seth’s camera bag was missing. This set our entire family into a frenzy to cover all of the places we had been since he last remembered having it, before the fast passes expired for Phil, Seth, and Grace. In the end, we didn’t find it, they got on the ride, and we were told to go check the lost and found at the front of the park.

Dinner time at Tomorrowland Terrace (same routine as Cosmic Rays, except Phil left for the lost and found while I managed to order for all of us, push two strollers through the line, and pick up our multiple trays… thank goodness for older kids and helpful Disney cast members!) As we were eating Phil returned with the camera bag (amazing), and Miah proceeded to throw a cup of chocolate milk with so much force that it splattered all over the restaurant. Luckily, there was a mop nearby… which I used. We really needed to get some video of that for numerous reasons. Perhaps the best stunt of the day was when I walked back over the area where Miah had exploded the milk and slipped on it, nearly doing the splits and getting back up to my feet in record time in an attempt to avoid further embarrassment. I laughed so hard, I thought I might die, but the truth is I am a little banged up and more than a little bruised. I don’t think we can sue Disney for an accident we caused though… ha!

Due to the increasingly large crowds, we decided to forego the first parade and go straight to the Tomorrowland bridge to stake out our fireworks spot. We got close. The spot we ended up in was actually pretty good minus the people who thought it was OK to basically move our kids so they could have a better vantage point. I will never understand why people think they can show up right before show time and push out the guests who have been waiting for hours. Nevertheless, we were excited for the start of the show, and I think it was probably pretty good, but I don’t know for sure, because just as the music began and Tinkerbell took her flight, Miah started throwing up with gusto… It took me probably the first 1/3 of the show to get that under control, but the rest was pretty decent. This was the special Holiday Wishes fireworks show, which did not… in any way… come close to Wishes, but was a festive beginning to the end of our evening…

I put it that way, because after the fireworks, we moved to a good spot for the Main Street Electrical Parade. This was especially exciting for me, because it is the parade that Disney was running when I visited as a child. Our kids fell asleep on the sidewalk and missed pretty much the whole thing… but I loved it anyway…

Reason says that you don’t attempt to leave the Magic Kingdom with thousands upon thousands of other people, so since the park was open until 1:00am, we went back to Tomorrowland and rode everything we could. The Peoplemover as well as Space Ranger Spin were walk-ons, and Tomorrowland Indy Speedway was only a short wait. Phil and I were taking turns with the kids who wanted to ride, because Miah was still sleeping, but at some point she woke up, so we all boarded the People Mover again. Since there was no one in line, we asked if we could stay on to ride a second time, and the operator allowed this at 12:53am. Not long into the second ride, Seth started throwing up over the edge… Have I mentioned that it’s not any fun to be sick on vacation?

It was, however, very fun when we realized that it was now Ian’s birthday! (Earlier he exclaimed that it was his “birthday eve”, which I thought was pretty clever). Not every kid gets to ring in their birthday at the Magic Kingdom, and he was quite pleased!

We finally left a little after park closing time with the few people who remained. What kind of crazy people stay this late? Yeah… mostly us…

L.

Day 4 Photo Count: 270

Some Photo Highlights:

This Pretty Much Sums it Up for Ian

Every Kid Wants to Touch Those Chains!

Train Ride...

That's My Boys...

Merry, Magic Christmas!

One of My Favorite Days of the Year…

2011-12-24T23:59:00.002-05:00

In One of My Favorite Places on Earth…

There is probably no one who really understands how I love Sea World. I can’t help it. I just do. I also love Christmas Eve… I would say even more than most people love Christmas Eve. So it pretty much doesn’t get any better than spending Christmas Eve at Sea World…

Now, that’s not saying we didn’t have our share of mishaps. We always do. But here are some highlights…

It was surprisingly not very busy, at all, for the first few hours. Phil, Seth, Grace, Caleb, and Ian walked on Journey to Atlantis, and when they got off, Seth, Grace, Caleb, and I jumped right back in line and waited only a short time. (Phil and Ian got soaked the first time around, and Ian exclaimed that he was never riding that ride again!) After that, Seth, Grace, and I walked on the Kraken, which was the first large scale looping roller coaster the kids have experienced. (Corkscrew at Cedar Point was their only previous upside down coaster, although they have ridden taller coasters, such as Magnum.) They both liked it, but Grace is really our huge roller coaster fan. A little later in the day, Grace and I walked on to Manta, which was a first for both of us, a flying coaster. It was absolutely incredible! I only have two regrets about that one… First, Grace’s hair was covering 90% of her face in the picture, so I didn’t think it was worth purchasing, and second, I am simply too old and out of shape at this point in my life to honor requests to get back in line immediately. We will be returning to Sea World later in the trip, at which point I’ll throw her hair in a scrunchie and get back on… The only other ride we hit this time around was the sea carousel. Poor Ian is just not much of a rider… he wouldn’t even get on a sea animal… just sat in the chariot.

We enjoyed the baby dolphins at the dolphin nursery, the seals and sea lions at pacific point preserve, penguin encounter, the jewel of the sea aquarium (which we have never been able to find on previous trips), shark encounter, and turtle point. Of course, petting the stingrays was a favorite for me, as always.

We had never purchased the all day dining plan before, but I thought that it made sense for this trip. In hindsight, maybe not… The restaurant that was supposed to be open for breakfast wasn’t, and I spent the rest of the day trying to push my family through as many lines as possible to get our money’s worth (The Spice Mill once and Voyagers twice)… Added to the fact that we are taking turns being sick and the Terrace Garden Pizza buffet was a bust, what this translates into is that I ate a whole lot of cheesecake… And I am totally not proud of this, but I think it’s worth remembering that I even at e one piece with my hands… ha… long story… If there’s anybody out there who still thinks I have any measure of class, that probably ought to put an end to that…

Sea World traditionally has some of the greatest shows ever. We were very excited to experience the special Christmas shows this time around. A few notes on that… We love Clyde and Seamore. We love how they conquer Pirate Island every time we visit them. It was really fun to see them decorate for Christmas in “Clyde and Seamore’s Countdown to Christmas”, and you just can’t beat a walrus coming down the chimney… but did they say something about Santa being in our hearts? Really? Someone, please tell me I heard that wrong… On the other hand, “Shamu Christmas Miracles” was a beautiful mix of sacred and traditional Christmas themes and music (although the shows do lose some of the magic now that the trainers cannot enter the water), and “Oh Wondrous Night” was an absolutely incredible artistic rendition of the real Christmas story. They got it right with that one…

We ended our day with a fireworks show, some dancing trees, and a whole handful of sleepy kids…

Happy Birthday, Jesus…

L.

Day 3 Photo Count: 165
Photo Highlights:

A Couple of Clownfish

Hmmm... Just like Mom?

Caleb & Ian Watching the Fish

A Very Interesting Specimen in the Human Exhibit

Finale of "Oh Wondrous Night"

Vacationship Status… “It’s Complicated”

2011-12-23T22:45:00.001-05:00

Days 1 and 2 of the vacation that has been in the works for years but wasn’t going to happen until it did… (and other semi-related stories)…

On December 26th, 2006, we welcomed Ian Justice to our family. And the plan was to celebrate his birthday in incredible ways, because let’s face it… it kind of stinks to have your birthday the day after Christmas.

Turning 5 is a big deal anyway at our house, whether you’re born in December or not. But we decided very early on (maybe even before Ian was born) that we would like to spend his 5th birthday in Orlando… “House of the Mouse”… “Shamu’s Pool”… you get the picture.

As an OCD vacation planner, I have kept meticulous files detailing everything we would do, if at all possible, on this amazing trip. For those who don’t know, our family made trips to Orlando in ’06 and ’08, and Grace and I made a trip (just the two of us) in ’09 (for general assembly). We’re not strangers to the area, but it is special every time, nevertheless…

Well… life didn’t really pan out the way we thought it was going to in 2011, and despite my best deal searching efforts, we called the trip off (sometime in October, I think). I was very disappointed, but there are much worse things in life. I adjusted. (The kids knew absolutely nothing about our plans, which made this much easier).

This thought kept coming back to me, though… Something that I learned from a very wise professor during my Nazarene Bible College days… “Don’t ever make your kids miss out on things just because they’re pastor’s kids”… And I know, for sure, that not everyone who reads this will understand… And heck, I know , quite possibly, that no one who reads this will understand, but as sure as I also know my own middle name and the fact that I have ten fingers and toes, I know that this was exactly why my kids (and especially Ian) were missing out on this one…

And that never sat very well with me… Other people making decisions that affected our family negatively just because they could…

So a couple of weeks ago, I decided to just plug in some dates and look at some prices. As expected, some of the options we’d considered earlier had gone up, many of the cheapest hotels were unavailable, and it just didn’t look very promising…

I probably spent way too many late night hours adjusting this or that to make it work, and finally I was looking at a plan that said, “We could do this…”

At this point, I sent an e-mail to Phil, because as he shares my OCD planning thing, I figured he would probably just laugh at me (maybe hysterically) thinking that we could pull this off with almost zero prep. time. On the contrary, he wanted to see the plan…

To make a long story short, on Wednesday night the kids found a couple of boxes and a letter on the porch from Mickey and Minnie Mouse. And let’s be clear on this… the children who have never believed in Santa Claus do, indeed, still believe in pixies that fly and mice that talk (well… except for Seth… who had to be told in no uncertain terms that he was not to ruin the magic of this for his brothers and sisters)…

Mickey and Minnie invited us to join them for Christmas… We packed in record time… and despite a late start…traffic issues… Caleb and Ian vomiting repeatedly in the van… one cranky baby… a couple of big kids who can’t understand why Mickey and Minnie booked us at Diego’s hotel… and a split forehead (Ian just seems to be intent on making the vacation pictures as incriminating as possible… anyone remember when he fell off the bleachers at Sea World in ’08 and spent the first half of the trip with a black eye?)… I am writing to you from Orlando… and I need to get some sleep if the stories are going to be worth reading…

And just in case you ever wondered… God has blessed us very, very much…

Lisa

Merry Christmas!!!

2011-12-20T13:29:00.004-05:00

Ordinarily I send a zillion and one Christmas letters. This year, I thought I'd try something different. So... for the first time ever, here you have it... Our virtual Christmas letter.

Dear Friends and Family,

Another year has come and gone, and 2011 was quite the year for us.

We kicked it off with Upward basketball and cheerleading, which took up quite a bit of our time from January - March. We had a 1/2 hour drive, and we made 3 trips every week for practices and games. It was well worth it, though, and we are getting ready to begin another season after the 1st of the year.

In March, Miah celebrated her first birthday with a princess party. In reality, she is more like the queen of this household. We are all crazy about her and have spoiled her rotten. She knows that she can have whatever she wants... whenever she wants it. It's all good, though, because she is a smart, sweet, and loving little girl. Miah is enjoying her music class, where she runs around like a little cyclone and bounces off the walls... and her friends. She does eventually wear herself out by the end of the day, blows everyone kisses, "honks" some noses (Seth taught her that), and snuggles down to rock and listen to stories. We pretty much adore her.

In May, we made a trip to Idaho for Phil's graduation from Northwest Nazarene University where he received his Master of Divinity degree in Spiritual Formation and Pastoral Ministry. Along with Miah, we took Caleb with us, because the graduation fell on his birthday weekend. We had a wonderful time catching up with old friends and visiting some of our favorite places from when we lived in Nampa. Phil's graduation was eventful, especially since we almost didn't make it in time because of road construction!

So... Caleb turned 7, experienced his first airplane ride, and has bragging rights with his older siblings since we didn't take them on the trip! Caleb started his first year of piano in the fall and is enjoying his class and friends, as always. He is in 2nd grade this year and is continuing to improve his reading skills. This has been a challenge for him, but we have seen a lot of progress in the past few months. Caleb loves to play outside, has fun with science, excels at math, and can't wait for it to snow some more!

As it sometimes does, life took us by surprise when Phil lost his job, with no explanation, one week after returning from graduation. After putting a lot of effort into this community and the relationships we had built over the previous 3-1/2 years, we took time to think and pray about what we should do next, and in the end, we felt just as called to minister to these people as ever. In the months that followed, we have begun an organic-based church plant through the Church of the Nazarene. We meet in our home and at local businesses, and we have been blessed with a traditional congregation of friends, as well, at our local 1st Church of the Nazarene. They have welcomed us with open arms as a part of their family, and for that we are very thankful.

In addition to finishing his last MDiv class over the summer and leading our new church plant, Phil has been doing pulpit supply... filling in for pastors at other area churches when they are sick or on vacation, or just filling in when a church is temporarily without a pastor. I have been working hard to establish my photography business, elemenoh-cheese portraits, while also continuing my education at Indiana Wesleyan University. I will finally graduate this summer with my Bachelor's degree in Business Management. And because of God's grace... and receptive people who care... we are surviving...

This summer, the kids attended various camps. Seth and Grace both went to pre-teen camp; Seth spent a week enjoying a video game making day camp; and Seth, Grace, and Caleb participated in a sports camp when we visited Michigan for campmeeting. This was a bonus, because it was free and I didn't even know it was going on until we got there! We had a nice week with the grandparents and felt refreshed when we arrived home.

In September, Seth turned 11. Something about that just doesn't seem right, but you can't stop the passage of time. Seth is in 6th grade now and is doing very well at Hoosier Virtual Academy, which is an on-line public school. He has continued to participate in an art class and also took a couple of pottery classes this year. Seth enjoys playing video games... and playing video games... and playing more video games. Seth also likes to make up creative games for his siblings to play and generally "directs" things.

Grace turned "double digits" in October, and we celebrated with a party at Splash Universe in Shipshewana. Let's just say that I'm glad they only turn 10 once, because "Mom's" getting old for this party stuff! Grace is now in her 4th year of piano and keeps bringing home awards and cash prizes, so I'm thinking she's probably going to stick with it forever at this point. This makes me happy, because I love to hear her play. Grace is also at Hoosier Virtual Academy and is doing well in 5th grade. She has made a lot of friends and checks her e-mail 17 times an hour... like someone else I know...

Well... who does that leave? Oh yes... Our resident super hero. Super Ian continues to control the happenings of the Michaels galaxy by flying through the house. He has acquired some ninja capabilities, as well, so sometimes we find him in places we would never have dreamed of... As a general rule, he loves his baby sister, except not quite as much when she's destroying his "creations". Ian keeps everyone on their toes wherever he goes, and though you might not always know it, he does enjoy music class and children's church. Ian also loves to read and listen to music. He will turn 5 the day after Christmas.

I guess that about covers it. Does this letter get longer every year? We hope you all have a very blessed and happy Christmas and that 2012 is better than ever! And don't forget to drop us a line every once in awhile so we can keep up with you, too!

Love,

Phil, Lisa, Seth, Grace, Caleb, Ian, and Miah

When You Called My Name...

2011-12-09T16:15:00.002-05:00

Great "Old" (1994) Song from Newsboys:

I want to preach the Word
They want massages
I check chapter and verse
They check their watches
I spy another yawn
I might as well be gone
Let's stand and say "Amen"

Some days I must admit
I still don't get this
Could be it's time to quit
When days get like this
I slip into the night
Then stumble towards the light
Wake up and try again

When you called my name
I didn't know how far that calling went
When you called my name
I didn't know what that word really meant
When I recall your call
I feel
So small

Could be I'm losing touch
Could be they don't care
Lord knows I don't know much
Lord knows I've been there
I trip toward my retreat
I fall down at your feet
Get up and try again

When you called my name
I didn't know how far that calling went
When you called my name
I didn't know what that word really meant
When I recall your call
I feel
So small
Lord, what did you see
When you called out for me?

I start losing heart
And then
It comes again
Lifted from despair
By the prayers of someone
Lifted from despair
By the prayers of someone

Good-bye Summer, Part 1…

2011-08-12T20:45:00.008-04:00

You were far too short this time around… but a lot of people seem to share that sentiment this year…

Our family ordinarily enjoys summer vacation from Memorial Day until Labor Day, but for a variety of reasons we chose to enroll our kids in a virtual public school this year, so we had to kiss summer good-bye on Monday. I currently have mixed feelings about that. If we can finish all of our curriculum by early May and also net several additional weeks of vacation time during the school year, I think I will be OK with the turnaround for next summer… but it doesn’t seem right to start on August 8th. In fact, this is the first time in years that I do not have a single picture of the first day of school. My mind simply couldn’t process it…

But this post is not about school. This post is about summer and specifically about the last three weeks of our summer vacation (there will be more than 1 part)…

I began blogging these weeks… well… as they happened, but I never had another chance to sit down to upload photos or to take a breath between then and now. Realistically, I should be working on school assignments or going to bed at this hour, but I am blog starved. The summer’s going up tonight!

When last I left you, we were in the midst of driving to Fort Wayne for Seth to attend a video game creation day camp. Five days later… 15 hours of driving later… more gasoline than I care to count later… We had managed to collect a great number of fun memories.

Just a rundown…

Monday I already blogged… see below…

Tuesday: Caleb, Ian Miah, and I stuck around at Science Central and enjoyed some of the exhibits that we do not always have time for during homeschool trips. Caleb also traded a rock at the swap shop for some shells which is always a favorite activity. When Seth was done with camp we all headed to the mall. We intended to eat first, but Miah had fallen asleep, so we took this opportunity to play glow golf. At half price we paid $12.00 total for 54 holes of golf (3 games) each! Ian gave up after about 20 I think and quickly proceeded to return his golf club and lose his glow in the dark golf ball… Miah woke up about halfway through and was not real happy about sitting in the stroller until we finished. Seth, Caleb, and I had a very nice time, however, and it was so nice that I actually haven’t even tallied the score yet (now 3 weeks later)… I am pretty sure I won… You really cannot do justice to glow golf with pictures... After this we went to Chick-Fil-A for free kids meals, and since you have to buy one adult meal for each free meal; I got Seth a chicken sandwich (which is what he always really wants at Chick-Fil-A but almost never gets). This was a huge hit until we discovered that they accidentally gave him a spicy chicken sandwich and his mouth caught on fire… We then proceeded to ride the carousel (which I always say no to), because it was also half price… This was Miah’s first carousel ride. She liked it until it started moving…

Wednesday: Phil came with us, and after we dropped Seth off we did some shopping and then took our three littlest people to see Winnie-the-Pooh. This was an enormous hit with Ian. We always stay for the credits (which in this case were almost as long as the movie). All the other people who left during the credits did miss some extra footage, just in case you’re wondering! We picked up Seth and the best Marcos pizza I have ever had and then headed home after another great day!

Thursday: Caleb, Ian, Miah and I attempted some fall clothes shopping. Although we did end up with several free items from Old Navy, we decided that the bulk of the shopping would have to wait until we arrived in Michigan at the outlet mall… which, of course, was a real disappointment to me… I mean, I don’t love outlet mall shopping or anything (feel the sarcasm)… We also went back to the mall, ate breadsticks at the food court, and experienced Cold Stone Creamery for the first time (and quite possibly the last, because it sort of made me sick, but I’m not sure if I can blame that on the ice cream or the heat). Chick-Fil-A won out again for dinner (3rd time this week)…

Friday: When we arrived at Science Central, Seth’s eye was all red and bubbly from an allergic reaction to something. We grabbed some ice and then took a little side trip to Wal-Mart for some fake Benadryl and eye drops. Then we took Seth back to camp and proceeded to enjoy ourselves at Science Central, because we didn’t want to leave in case he needed anything else. It was another fun day and rather relaxing as it wasn’t packed. I have always been intrigued by the announcements for a star lab show but can never find the planetarium. We bought tickets ($2.00 total) and asked for directions. It turned out to be an inflatable planetarium (which I have experienced before (although not at Science Central) and should have realized, but it was new for the kids). Ha! Now I get it! It wasn't the greatest show, but it did give us something cheap and different to do, so it was a good decision. We also enjoyed a couple of demonstrations this week, and I always think its a plus when we get something educational out of our little trips! By the end of the day, though, I was so ready to return home and to see Grace (who had arrived home from camp earlier in the day). We made one more quick stop at Marcos and scarfed some pizza that was not as great as earlier in the week but still pretty good, and then headed home (watching my lead foot that apparently developed this week... thank you for those race car driver genes, Dad)…

Although it was busy and exhausting, I wouldn’t trade the week for anything. It was a fantastic break from the every day routine and I love the memories we made!

A few picture highlights:

Miah's 1st Carousel Ride:
I can't believe that Caleb didn't want to ride the elephant!

Caleb on the Moon Walk:

Squishy Ian:
Best Shirt Ever:

The Boys Absolutely Loved this Game in the Bible Times Exhibit:

Lisa

It’s Been A Really Good Day…

2011-07-18T21:19:00.005-04:00

I expect that this week is going to be hectic. I dropped Grace off, this morning, to go to Pre-Teen girls camp. Considering she has been counting down the days since… oh… November or so, she was a little on the excited side! I always miss Grace when she is gone, because she is such a great helper to me, but I am so happy that she is going to be with her friends, soaking up Jesus all week long! Still can’t wait to see her on Friday, though…

Seth also has a camp this week, but it is a day camp… In Fort Wayne… about an hour and a half from home. We signed Seth up for this camp because of his love for video games. He legitimately wants to create video games when he grows up. There is a part of me that hopes he changes his mind, but in the meantime, since we believe in giving our kids every possible opportunity, we’re on the lookout for anything that might actually help him to move in that direction. So I’m going to be driving to Fort Wayne all week long…

This, of course, left me with my “babies” (although Caleb is finally starting to balk at the word at age 7… tear)… After we dropped Seth off, it occurred to me that I really didn’t have a plan for the day. Science Central is closed on Mondays (surprise!), so our membership there didn’t do us any good. Our zoo membership has long since expired, and I really have a hard time paying for one day at the zoo when a membership can easily “pay for itself”, but I couldn’t seem to find an extra hundred bucks in my back pocket to renew the membership, either, so that was out, as well. We finally decided to take a walk. This lasted for approximately 4 minutes, until we came to an area of the sidewalk that was closed and also realized that the temperature must be well into the 90s. We hauled our sweaty selves back to the van…

At this point, I did what any reasonable mother with three small children and no money would do. I decided that we would go browse at Toys R Us… Go ahead, I dare you to tell me that’s not reasonable. The truth is, Miah had a gift card from her birthday, and her favorite baby doll is in desperate need of some clothes, because she is always naked and that is embarrassing when we have company. We went in search of doll clothes. Yeah… the boys totally loved that. I knew that Caleb and Ian each had some money saved from their allowance and birthday gifts, etc, so I indulged them by letting them throw potential purchases into the cart. I think this was especially fun for Caleb, since Ian was in the cart… I mean, how often does he have permission to throw stuff at his little brother? They started out relatively cheap, but as we progressed through the store it occurred to me that I should probably count their money to give them some sort of realistic expectation for what they might be able to afford. I am not kidding you, I was shocked. Those kids were loaded (for a 4 and 7 year old)! We darn near could have gone to the zoo! We exited Toys R Us with a few school supplies (Crayola was buy 1, get 2 free… don’t even get me started), a birthday gift for October (for Grace… and I can’t give any more details at this point, because she actually has friends who are old enough to read this… but I got a fantastic deal), a huge stuffed dinosaur (Ian’s purchase… which, ironically really was exactly what he was looking for), a Pac-man DS game and Thomas the Tank Engine bag (Caleb, or course), and baby doll bottles and clothes for the poor, naked baby doll… Not bad for window shopping, right?

Caleb was just itching to go to the mall after this, because he wanted to buy taffy. Since we still had a couple of hours to kill, that’s where we went. Of course, it was here that we stumbled upon signs for “Tuesday Family Night” discounts, so I guess we at least have a plan for tomorrow… A broken elevator, a few new t-shirts, a JCPenny employee who wanted to sell me a portrait package (I love saying, “Actually, I’m a photographer”), and a couple of bags of taffy later, we made our trek back to the van, in the rain, sloshing through some major puddles, and were on our way to grab a bite to eat for dinner before picking Seth up. Of course, we ate Chick-Fil-A, because there is just something wrong about being in the vicinity of a Chick-Fil-A and not eating there…

We proceeded to pick Seth up (who had a wonderful day, himself, I might add), and then it was home for ½ a game of church league softball (where Miah turned into a hot potato and the boys managed to cover themselves in dirt from head to toe), and then really back home for baths and showers.

By 8:30, my house was completely quiet, and I snuggled down with my laptop and a raspberry lemonade and actually had the time to post to my blog… which you just read…

What a nice day…

Lisa

PS I love driving. I guess I always have, but the time in the car is just a wonderful time for reflection and also for communing with God. I am too tired to get philosophical or theological, tonight, but there was a lot of good stuff going on during our travel time today, and I hope to expound on that more… soon…

My Unpopular Thoughts…

2011-07-05T21:42:00.001-04:00

On the Casey Anthony verdict…

I actually don’t have a whole lot to say. However, my facebook page erupted with posts this afternoon (and they continue). The three major categories of posts seem to be:

Our legal system failed.
Casey Anthony should be killed and then rot in hell.
Caylee Anthony is distraught over the injustice of this verdict.

I would just like to speak to these thoughts, briefly. To be completely honest, I’m not sure anyone will ever know what really happened, and I think this is the precise reason that the jury ruled the way they did. I believe that the media attention was severely harmful to this case, and I believe that the prosecution was far too self centered. Our legal system may have failed. Our legal system may have failed severely.

In regard to Casey Anthony, herself. The words are harsh. If she killed her child (and she may have), I agree that there should have been appropriate punishment. But let’s face it… appropriate punishment for a crime such as this does not exist. Considering the jury did rule her “not guilty”, however, I do not see how anyone has a right to hope for her death. Further, to declare that you want anyone to, “rot in hell”, is severely judgmental, and I would not, in a million years, take that responsibility on myself. We must be very careful with our words.

And in regard to Caylee… There is no sufficient word to describe her suffering here on Earth. But rest assured that this precious little girl has long since been far above any of our earthly reasoning regarding justice. She didn’t look down on the trial, today, and cry because her death was not avenged. For three years now, she has been with Jesus, in paradise, completely whole, well, and unharmed, and loving every minute of it. She’s OK. Justice is really not for the dead, but for the living.

And so on the off chance that anyone clicks through and reads this, I am certain there will be a wide range of emotions. It’s OK if you hate my opinion. That happens to me on a fairly regular basis, anyway.

But tonight… if the case has affected you… try to put those feelings into some sort of positive action. Turn your porch light on to remember Caylee’s life, and take some time to pray for the children who endure suffering at the hands of those who should protect them, even on a daily basis. Take this tragedy and turn it around.

Genesis 50:20

Lisa

Judy Moody and the Not Bummer Summer…

2011-06-10T22:30:00.000-04:00

A Movie Review…

Phil and I found ourselves with some unexpected “date time” this afternoon. This is always a blessing, because we do not often have the ability to go out, primarily because it is difficult to find a babysitter for five children… not to mention, expensive. However, we do have friends with whom we make an occasional date trade, and they had some free time this afternoon, so we did as well!

In recent years, it has become increasingly difficult to find interesting things to do for dates. We have pretty much become resigned to “dinner and a movie”. As this day approached, we were finding it harder and harder to find a movie. But in the end, we choose Judy Moody, because it was the only option that was not a sequel to some other movie we hadn’t seen and that appeared to check out “clean” (by our standards) at plugged in movie reviews.

Much of what I read ahead of time regarding Judy Moody seemed to compare the film to Ramona and Beezus. I love the latter. But other than the obvious similarity (both films are based on books written for a late elementary, pre-teen audience), I didn’t really think they were going to be all that alike. I was right.

Ramona and Beezus is what I would call a true “family friendly” film. When I say this, I mean that everyone in the family can enjoy it. Although much of the content is written for children, there are adult themes, throughout, that appeal to any real life family that has ever gone through difficult days. All of this, and there are still great daydream scenes that capture the interest of even a wiggly four year old. Ramona and Beezus is a film that I can easily see myself sitting down to watch by myself or with the kids.

Judy Moody and the Not Bummer Summer is a kids’ movie. It is written for pre-teens, and it is my opinion that it appeals to the target group very well. Now, if you have pre-teens who have seen every action flick and have been inundated with nudity and foul language, Judy Moody is probably not going to hold their attention. It is a prudent idea to introduce children to age appropriate material, and I firmly believe that one of the reasons we have so many problems with kids is because they have been forced to “grow up” too quickly. Further, are nudity, excessive violence, and profanity really appropriate for adults? Perhaps forcing them to “grow up” is not quite the right perspective. But we’re doing an excellent job of dumbing them down when they can’t read, have little to no attention span, and can use every four letter word in its correct context by the age of 3…

At any rate, my pre-teens (and my littler guys) will see Judy Moody, and I would imagine there will be a great deal of laughter, even when it isn’t all that funny…

I will watch Judy Moody with them, and I will enjoy it. I cannot, however, imagine going to my DVD shelf and picking it up to watch on a lonely night when everyone else is asleep…

Except for maybe on the day that Grace goes to college…

Because the actress that plays Judy Moody looks a little bit like Grace and acts just like her in several scenes, but the thing that stood out to me the most were that their expressions were almost identical. I almost felt as if I was watching my own child on the big screen for an hour and a half… and the little brother didn’t make a bad Caleb character, either…

So I give Judy Moody two thumbs up for the kids, and I find her to be tolerable for adults, as well. SPOILER ALERT: If nothing else, I laughed relatively hard when the elephant landed on the car…

Lisa

PS It has been a really long time since I saw any move on opening day. That it was Judy Moody must only add to my dorkiness…

A Short Review of Star Wars...

2011-05-30T14:22:00.001-04:00

Return of the Jedi is the first movie I ever saw in a theater. I was three years old. Although I fell asleep part way through the movie, I saw enough to determine several things:

*I loved Princess Leia. I wanted my hair to be done like hers. I was going to be Leia. I think I developed her attitude pretty well.

*Han Solo was irritating, and it would be OK if he was written out of the script.

*I was going to marry Luke Skywalker.

*Darth Vader was purely evil and terrifying.

It was actually a serious blow to my three year old mind that Leia and Luke were brother and sister. To this day, that makes “the kiss” turn my stomach… just a little… I finally did come to grips with the new reality, and as a toddler sized, only child decided that it would still be pretty neat to have a Jedi Knight for a brother. OK… let’s face it. Even at 31, if my long lost Jedi Knight brother showed up at the front door, that would be cool (“illusions of grandeur”)…

I am certain, that like most kids who grew up in the 80s, I saw the entire trilogy at least once, but probably on multiple occasions. I can’t really claim to have “grown up on Star Wars” like many others (including my husband) did. I did, however, always have an affinity for the franchise. (And on the off chance that anyone from my high school graduating class is reading this; it was OK with me when the Imperial March was going to be our class song… why we had to re-vote will always be a mystery)…

So why bring up a 30+ year old franchise at this point?

Well… I asked for the Star Wars trilogies (both of them) for Christmas, and to my delight (and a little bit of surprise), they actually emerged from a nicely wrapped package under the tree. Five months later, I still hadn’t watched them. It was time to watch them.

Now, I should mention that I did see Episode I shortly after it made its way to video… and I think I re-watched it when I also borrowed Episodes II and III from Phil’s mom, probably 5-6 years ago. The originals I had not seen in at least 20 years… When I first watched Episodes I-III, I was highly impressed at the depth of background information they offered. When you put all VI together in a short period of time, however, there is much more to it than just background…

I can’t say that I really had over 12 hours to commit to re-watching the entire Star Wars saga, but I did it. And might I add that this is a lot to process in a couple of weeks… At the expense of sounding somewhat freakish, Star Wars is not exactly just a collection of entertaining movies. There is something there that is far deeper than pure entertainment. I actually had to think about what I was watching.

I originally thought that Star Wars was the story of Luke Skywalker. Come on now, we all originally thought this, right? In actuality, though, Star Wars is the story of Anakin Skywalker… start to finish. For this reason, I do not think a third trilogy would serve the franchise well. It’s not that we wouldn’t like to learn more, but the story really is complete.

And now, my adult perspective…

The prequel trilogy changes some things.

*Yoda and Obi-Wan actually take on much greater significance after having watched the first III Episodes. Although they are central characters, to an extent, in Episodes IV-VI (well, actually that is only partly true… Yoda doesn’t even appear in Episode IV), it is really in the first three films where their characters are developed. After watching Episodes I-III, you will undoubtedly be more endeared to them. The light saber battle between Obi-Wan and Vader takes on much greater significance, as well.

*Darth Vader no longer strikes me as purely evil or terrifying. When I watched him enter in the opening scenes of Episode IV, I thought to myself, “Oh… there’s Anakin”. Close observation reveals that in every instance his desire is for Luke to join him and that he has no inclination, whatsoever, to kill Luke. This is a far cry from how I viewed Vader as a child. Somehow, I think the Emperor knows all of this. Perhaps the most revealing quote is when Vader says, “Luke, you can destroy the Emperor. He has foreseen this. It is your destiny. Join me, and together we can rule the galaxy as father and son.” It must be remembered that most of the destruction Anakin (and later, Vader) caused happened in a series of misdirected decisions as a result of his desire to save or avenge the people he loved. The dark side is deceptive. And as Obi-Wan might say, “Only a Sith deals in absolutes” (Probably the most controversial line of the entire franchise… More commentary to come on this in future posts).

*I still love Leia. However, I’ve given up on becoming a Jedi, myself, at this point, and I will refrain from styling my hair like hers… and going out in public… at least most of the time. The attitude stays. I forgot that she kills Jabba the Hut. If anyone ever forced me to wear a metal bikini, I think I’d get kinda violent, too. I would like to draw some parallels between Padme and Leia. Inasmuch as Luke is clearly Anakin’s son, Leia is also clearly Padme’s daughter. I liked Padme, but there were also things about her character that got under my skin. She seduced Anakin. She knew that a Jedi was forbidden to make attachments. Her decisions aided greatly in his eventual undoing. Of course, I guess their love brought balance to the force, as well, because without it there would be no Luke or Leia. The other thing that bothers me is that Padme gives birth to two babies sand then gives up her will to live. What kind of mother does that? But then again, I guess we would have no story without this… Except… In Episode VI Leia tells Luke that she remembers her mother, who died when she was very young. The best explanation I have been able to come up with is a combination of The Force already being strong within Leia at birth and therefore allowing her to memorize every detail and also providing visions of Padme that could have been construed as memories. Personally, I think they just didn’t transition this part of the storyline very well. Leia seems to possess all of the grit Padme had, plus some…

Other things, the prequel trilogy does not change.

*I still don’t like Han Solo. He grew on me a little bit, and I admit is was cool when he sliced open the Tauntaun and spilled its guts all over the place in order to shove Luke inside to keep him warm… Wait… Did I just write that? Nevermind. That was gross. I tried. I guess, though, that we can keep Han in the script, after all, because he does have some pretty entertaining banter with Leia. “I love you.” “I know.”

It’s funny, but as I sat down to write this review I actually had to google about 700 different things, just to make sure I got them right. I will actually be watching all of the movies again, in short order, and in extended edition form, because I want to create a series of Star Wars “teachable moments”, and I really just watched them for entertainment and to get some technical details out of the way, this time around.

Whenever I review a movie, I try to clearly identify violence, sexual innuendo, profanity, and unsettling themes for any of my readers. This isn’t actually going to be a very thorough review in that respect. If you’re going to watch Star Wars, just be aware that there is going to be violence (the word “wars” in the title ought to clue you in on that one). In my opinion, Episode III is, by far, the most graphically violent, but even much off what is included there is off screen. Would I sit my 4 year old in front of it? Nope. But I know most of his little friends have seen much worse. The whole premise of the Star Wars movies deals with religion… The Force… good vs. evil… When I go back over the films for usable content, I’m sure I’ll have a lot more to say on this, but it really depends on how you interpret it. If you’re looking to sit your elementary school aged kids in front of the TV for hours on end of mindless activity, perhaps you should invest in some Disney Channel originals. But if you want a good story that has the potential to develop into some deep life conversations, Star Wars might be right up your alley. I can definitely see my daughter getting stressed out about the many references to Sith “Lords”, Jedi “Masters”, and even Han’s recurring name for Leia, “Your Worship”. These are things that simply have to be talked about and worked through if you have children who care deeply about the appropriate use of words. Sexual references exist but are mild. Costuming is mostly modest, although there are a few questionable scenes. Profanity of any kind is non-existent in Episodes I, II, III, and VI. Episode V contains one H*** that I have construed to be contextual. Episode IV contains two D***s and two H***s. I found that frustrating, because they really are completely unnecessary.

If you’ve made it this far, you must be as big a dork (ahem… I mean… Star Wars fan) as I. May the Force be with you!

Lisa

So How Smart Is It…

2011-05-28T23:59:00.000-04:00

…to take a trip to a waterpark on a cloudy, less than 70 degree, good chance of thunderstorms day?

Because this family loves waterparks… and because it was the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend (leaving us without a whole lot of otherwise “productive” options)… and because we found a way to get into the park for 1/3 the normal price… It was worth finding out…

So we left the house just a little after 7:00 and made the trek to Merrillville, where Deep River Waterpark is located. Our first mistake was that we forgot Merrillville is on central time. So we arrived about 2 hours before the park opened…

That’s OK… we took a little detour to Wal-Mart, where we picked up swim diapers for Miah, among other things, and then we sat in the Deep River parking lot for an hour where the kids played their DSs, Phil played with his Kindle, and I watched the Deep River employees arrive at work for the day…

When the ticket booth finally opened, we discovered that we were the first customers of the season. It was at this point that we were glad we didn’t go yesterday. There were no other customers in sight, and this gave credibility to my earlier declaration that we would have the whole park to ourselves. I was kidding when I said it, but I guess it was prophetic… or something…

We proceeded to play in Mayor Byrdovich's Courthouse, where Seth enjoyed dumping buckets of water on us, Grace and Caleb zipped down the slides over and over again, Ian climbed a couple of rope nets, and Miah looked at us like we were crazy…

Grabbed some life jackets after that and took a spin… or 2… or 3… or even 4 in some cases on Mid-America's Great River Ride. It took me a long time to convince Ian that he should get into the tube. As a thrill seeker, myself, it was rather disconcerting to have this much trouble getting a 4 year old on a lazy river. I need to get that kid to an amusement park, soon, where I can strap him in to every ride he’s big enough for until he loves riding. It simply will not do to have non-riders in this family! Miah also hated the lazy river, but considering she is only a year old and it was freezing, I can work with that.

Seth, who has a tendency to turn blue when cold, was pretty much done with our adventure after this point. I think the lifeguard was afraid she was going to have hypothermia on her hands, but I am just so used to this color change thing that I threw a couple of towels on him and we moved along to the next ride, Double Dueling CannonBowl. I actually find funnel rides to be a little overrated, but Ian wanted to ride, so I climbed the stairs with him and Grace (who was going solo). Upon reaching the top, Ian decided that he actually didn’t want to ride. Now… I sort of have this ride policy. It goes like this: If you force Mommy to climb several sets of stairs or to stand in line for any amount of time, you ride. Period. This is a completely unfair standard, because as a kid (and even as a teenager) I did my share of double takes at the ride platform that resulted in exiting without riding. However, I do not want my children to be scared of things like I was, and in the vast majority of cases they have come off the rides screaming, “I loved it! Can we do it again?” I thought for a moment about what to do, when I remembered the time that Ian tried to climb over the side of a family raft slide when he was just under 2 years old. Realizing that he would have to hang onto the tube in order to remain safe on Double Dueling CannonBowl, I relented and walked him halfway down the stairs, where I called for Caleb to hurry up to me so that we could ride, instead. Grace took another trip down the slide, and Phil took Caleb for a second ride, as well. I actually got a couple of video clips of some of the action, from the stairs, while Seth sat with Ian and Miah.

At this point, we had been in the park for about 2 hours, and we took a short break and got “warm” (OK, we never really got warm all day) before moving on to the Rip Tide Wave Pool. I am not a real wave pool fan, so I was not all that disappointed that the water was freezing! I sat with Ian (who wouldn’t go near the wave pool, either) and Miah (whom I took this opportunity to nurse), and we watched Phil, Seth, Grace, and Caleb jumping over the waves… all by themselves… I should probably mention that a few other park guests had arrived at this point, but no so many that we had to share any attractions…

After being unsuccessful at getting Ian to play in the smaller children’s play area, Paddles PlayZone (in his defense, the water there was icy… I wouldn’t have gone in…) and also discovering that the second lazy river, BAYOU River Ride, was frigid; we decided to break (again) for lunch.

I went out to the van and gathered our “picnic”, we got dry and a little bit warmer, and then we headed back out into the park to hit the Body & Tube Slides. I went down the tube slide with Caleb, and Seth and Grace went down together, as well. Then Caleb and Grace went twice more, and I think Grace went alone another time or two. Although I enjoy waterslides of all kinds, body slides tend to be my least favorite, because I always suck water up my nose and end up coughing it out for quite some time. However, it occurred to me, as I was sitting there watching Grace slide over and over again, that neither Seth nor Grace had ever experienced a body slide, and for this reason, I have not allowed them to ride some of the bigger slides when we have been at larger parks. Looking at the Deep River body slide, I decided that it appeared to be rather calm and that they should probably try it if they ever want to get on anything more intense. Seth did not want to try, but Grace did, so the two of us climbed up, and I went down first, showing her how to do it. It was a little rougher and faster than I expected, and per normal I ended up with a nose full of water to choke out. The lifeguard let me stay in the pool when I told him Grace was coming down, but it actually turned out to be quite unnecessary, as the child hit the water and swam for the side on auto pilot… No worries about Grace on body slides, I guess… She loved it!

After this, we decided to go check out, The STORM Tube Ride, which actually turned out to be 3 distinctly different tube slides: Vortex, Abyss, and Cyclone. They were black, enclosed tubes, so Grace and I rode double. We chose Cyclone first, and it was definitely a good ride. Upon exiting, I dropped Grace with Phil, Seth, Ian, and Miah and picked up Caleb for Abyss. It also was a good ride, but extremely short. Grace’s turn again, for Vortex this time… and at this point I realized that there was no way my legs were going to make it up the stairs three more times so that each of them could experience each slide with me! I looked at Grace and said, “just grab a single tube,” to which she replied, “are you serious?” Caleb and I took a trip down Vortex, and well… there’s nothing like sending your nine year old fearless daughter, alone, into a pitch black hole called Abyss…

We had to call it a day after this, because it mercifully started raining. This made it possible for me to escape with my dignity, because the truth is, I couldn’t have climbed another flight of stairs if I tried…

All in all, it was a really fun day. We did lose one water shoe, but with our family; that’s to be expected…

Some shopping ensued after this. Grace is now the proud owner of two new pairs of flip flops, and it wasn’t even her water shoe we lost… hers just finally broke after years of wear…

We went to Cracker Barrel for dinner, using a gift card that we got for Christmas, and we had enough left on it after our meal that everyone was able to choose some candy from the Cracker barrel store for dessert.

A cherry Pepsi and a couple of hours on the road, and we were home…

What a day!

Here are a few pics:

Lisa

Phil’s Graduation Trip, Day 6…

2011-05-09T23:59:00.001-04:00

We’re home. I cannot believe I woke up, this morning, in Nampa, ID, and now I am sitting here typing in my house (specifically, I am in the closet in the Master Bedroom… long story)…

I could bore you with flight stories that aren’t that spectacular… airport pizza that is bigger than your head… planes that are so full you actually consider taking a voucher and waiting three more hours… babies that squirm all flight long and fall asleep right before touch down… security measures that “test” the juice in your sippy cups… TSA employees that go through your bags and break mirrors… and gigantic bottles of purple Gatorade… but I won’t. Let’s re-cap, instead…

God is a God of redemption…

“Home” might find you in a Freudian slip at “FBI Fridays”, if you’re not careful…

When you’re seven, you can experience the “best day of your life” on consecutive days, over and over again…

When you’re 31, you can, too…

We had hoped…

Jesus is hope…

Leaving Nampa was harder than I ever dreamed it would be…

I loved this trip…

Lisa

Phil’s Graduation Trip, Day 5…

2011-05-08T23:59:00.000-04:00

This was supposed to be our “down day”…

We started the morning by going to Early Church at Nampa First Church of the Nazarene. I was so pleased with the child care staff, who managed to keep Miah for the whole service even though she was unhappy at times. This provided me with an opportunity to participate in a corporate worship gathering from start to finish for the first time in a very long time. I was not disappointed in the least. We had the privileged of seeing Pete become a member of Nampa First, and we experienced Holy Spirit moving in a way that was so amazingly powerful. It was a very, very good start to another wonderfully made day.

As it it Mother’s Day, Phil wanted to take me out for lunch, even though we have enough leftovers in the mini-fridge for a small feast. We headed for Boise Town Square, where we got a buzzer for The Cheesecake Factory and did a little shopping at Borders while we waited for a table. All I can really say is, “Wow!” I have experienced The Cheesecake Factory once before in my life, and it is not that great of a memory, to be honest. This time was much, much better, primarily because of the company I had, but the food was delicious, as well! Miah was a real stinker, but we survived!

When we arrived back in Nampa, we took some pictures on campus. We actually took a lot of pictures, but here is my favorite one:

Then we made our way back to the hotel, did some packing, swam for an hour (Marco Polo is a riot with Caleb), and took a dip in the hot tub. This is all understated. It was an incredible day. There are just no words.

Lisa

PS Some things are meant to be cherished and remembered in our hearts…

Phil’s Graduation Trip, Day 4…

2011-05-07T23:12:00.000-04:00

Graduation Day… Finally!

Our morning began with breakfast at the HIE again and then a trip to the Idaho Center for the first event of the day, the baccalaureate. We got there in plenty of time for Phil to line up and for me and the kids to have our choice of seats. We picked something on the front row, relatively close to the door. The problem with being early, though, is that children get antsy when they have to wait. Caleb patiently saved our seats while I let Miah pace back and forth for awhile. When we finally sat down (and the baccalaureate began), I nursed Miah and thought I might actually get her to sleep. At any rate, she wasn’t screaming, so that seemed like a pretty good sign. Unfortunately, as soon as the University president got up to give the main address, Caleb realized that he needed to use the restroom. It was all downhill (or rather up many steps) from there, because once Miah realized we weren’t hopelessly stuck in our seats, she wanted nothing to do with sitting down, at all. In the end I managed to catch about half of the address (which was very good, from what I heard), and I spent the rest of the time chasing and shushing a noisy baby. It wasn’t the highlight of my trip. I did manage to keep Miah quiet enough to see Phil receive his hood, which was a plus. In addition, may I add at this point, that I knew there was a reason I hate shoes. Although my new shoes are cute, I am not sure it is worth making my feet bleed… ouch!

After the baccalaureate, we made a quick trip to campus to take a few pictures and to make purchases at the bookstore. We are now the proud owners of a completely new wardrobe that advertises NNU… Well, maybe that’s a stretch, but we did pick up a few things…

With plenty of time for lunch, we debated whether to sit down or fast food it… In the end, we chose the A&W/KFC and did pretty well except for forgetting to order food for Miah. It was just slightly embarrassing to go back through the line for a second purchase totaling $1.59!

A quick stop at the hotel, a little bit of driving to get Miah to sleep, and we were on our way back to the Idaho Center for graduation! Except we ended up in a serious traffic jam… with no alternative route. I have to admit that I found this humorous. Phil did not. At all. And I totally understood that. But it’s just one of those things that seemed almost appropriate in light of everything he went through to make it this far. I do think it became slightly funny, even to Phil, once we started counting the number of people we were passing who were wearing their caps and gowns… I guess it’s not something that could only happen to us!

In the end, we got to the Idaho Center, parked illegally, Phil ran inside with Caleb who was desperate for a restroom again, I found the elevator and managed to get settled in with the kids, up high but with a great view of the stage, and Phil would have made it to the line up by the skin of his teeth, but they ended up postponing the start of the ceremony for 15 minutes, so he really didn’t have to run!

Of course, after all of the excitement, Miah was wide awake again, but she really did a good job and mostly screamed at appropriate moments…

Ironically, graduation, itself, seemed almost a bit anti-climatic, because so much emotion had already gone into the events of the week. The graduation address was very good, and we enjoyed cheering as Phil crossed the stage, but watching the seemingly endless number of undergrads just about did us in! By the end of the ceremony, we were ready to go after Caleb grabbed a complimentary cookie and Phil turned in his gown and hood (and with that, let me say that I think it’s a shame the graduates had to turn in their hoods… I mean, charge the extra hundred bucks, for goodness sake, and let them keep ‘em)!

We went to TGIFridays for dinner (which Caleb keeps calling FBIFridays… cute), and after some more driving around, we made it back to the hotel, where I was too tired to even open my laptop, but I have backblogged this appropriately!

Because I am so far behind at this point, I am just going to post a few favorite pics. from the day:

Lisa

Phil’s Graduation Trip, Day 3…

2011-05-06T21:57:00.001-04:00

… And Caleb’s 7^th Birthday, Too!

I just can’t believe how amazing this trip has been and continues to be. This morning, we dropped Caleb and Miah off at College Church, while Phil and I attended the graduate brunch. To our great surprise, Phil’s first youth pastor, Pete, was there! We knew that he would be there for graduation, but we did not expect to see him until tomorrow. It was a wonderful twist in our morning. I have been hearing stories about Pete since I met Phil, almost 17 years ago, but this was the first time I actually met him. I was not disappointed, and his heart for God and love for the “kids” he ministered to, even 20 years ago, was abundantly apparent. I know this all meant more to Phil than I will ever really be able to grasp, but it meant an awful lot to me, too, and my life is richer for having had the opportunity to meet Pete, face to face, this morning. I am now the humble owner of a prayer marble, which sort of blew me away. God is good.

Here’s a picture of Phil and Pete. Unfortunately, Pete was attacked by an Eagle shortly before we took this… long story…

The brunch, itself, was great. It has been amazing, throughout this week, to see how much the staff at NNU really cares about each of the students/graduates. I am tempted to find a way to become a student there, myself, just because I was so impressed… but not until I finish my degree through Indy Wes, because I am way too close to finally having it to make a transfer now!

We picked the kids up after the brunch. Miah met us, screaming, at the door. Caleb says she screamed except when he was holding her. I believe it. The child care staff said that Caleb had been very helpful. I believe that, too…

After a quick change, we headed out to take some birthday pics. Of Caleb. I do not have time to edit them all, tonight, but here are a couple of my favorites:

It is unbelievable to me that Caleb has come so far in 7 years. If any of you recall, he was a tornado of a toddler/preschooler (for everyone but me), and I do not think anyone would have guessed he would be so easy, compliant, and fun to be around at age seven. But he is, and I am extremely grateful for my special little guy.

We celebrated at Chuck-E-Cheese in Boise and racked up 588 tickets, which they rounded to 600, since it was Caleb’s birthday and all. Caleb choose a rubber snake, a little (small stuffed animal sized) inflatable chair, a couple of tops, a multi-colored crayon, and a boatload of candy. He is sort of hopping around the room as I type…

To end our evening (almost), we went to a dessert reception, at Dr. Maddix’s house, where there was actually cake, so this worked well for Caleb’s birthday. Miah fed Dr. Maddix’s dog, Wesley, her cookie. This was really kind of funny, since she has been sporting the grumpy face most of the day but loved and smiled at the dog… We really enjoyed our conversations there, as we have everywhere this week, but it was obvious the kids were getting tired, so after about an hour we decided to call it a night. We drove for awhile, until Miah fell asleep, and now Phil is out looking for some dinner for us… yes, after dessert!

Looking forward to tomorrow and the actual graduation!

I just want to add that although this may not make a ton of sense to anyone but me, I have an old song running through my head tonight. I think it is appropriate for this occasion:

Remember You Chains

By: Steven Curtiss Chapman

I couldn’t help but wonder what he was thinking
As he stared out the window through the sky
It seemed he was taking his last look at freedom
From the hopeless, longing look in his eyes
There were chains on his hands and chains on his feet
And as I passed him by the thought came to me

Remember your chains
Remember the prison that once held you
Before the love of God broke through
Remember the place you were without grace
When you see where you are now
Remember your chains
And remember your chains are gone

There's no one more thankful to sit at the table
Than the one who best remembers hunger's pain
And no heart loves greater than the one that is able
To recall the time when all it knew was shame
The wings of forgiveness can take us to heights never seen
But the wisest ones, they will never lose sight of where they were set free
Love set them free

So remember your chains
Remember the prison that once held you
Before the love of God broke through
Remember the place you were without grace
When you see where you are now
Remember your chains
And remember your chains are gone

And in the light of all that we've been forgiven of
We will find our hearts fuller and freer
To give and receive God's love

So remember your chains
Remember the prison that once held you
Before the love of God broke through
Remember the place you were without grace
When you see where you are now
Remember your chains
Oh, remember your chains
When you remember your chains
Remember your chains are gone

Imagine what your life would be
If Jesus had not set you free
Remember your chains are gone
Remember the prison that once held you
Before the love of God broke through
Remember your chains

And remember your chains are gone

Lisa