General Assembly, Part 3

I am “backblogging” at this point.

The last day of our trip was good… maybe even very good.

Although we had planned to go to both worship services on Sunday, it became very obvious during morning worship that Miah was just done.  I am thankful that she was so good during the Friday and Saturday night services, but the truth is we broke new ground, this morning.  I am almost certain that, “Let’s Dance, Little Pookie,” had never before been read during a Church of the Nazarene communion service.  We have accomplished that now.

Still… mishaps and all… there is something uniquely special about celebrating the Eucharist with thousands of other worshippers, and I’m glad we did this, squirmy toddler and all.  I love how Miah actually sought understanding of communion, today.  After explaining it to her, she said, “It makes Jesus happy!”  This, in turn, makes me happy.  How many three year olds really get it?

Switching gears, we spent the afternoon (seriously almost 7 hours) at America’s Incredible Pizza Company, where we ate lunch… and dinner… and other various snacks!  We played games until we dropped, and Grace even managed to win an iPod touch, far more than making up for what we paid for hours of endless fun and ice cream!

This was an amazing trip for us, but there’s always something very good about stepping through the back door and resuming our regular lives, too.  And yet…

L.

(to be continued)

General Assembly, Part 2

I feel like today started a million years ago.

Quick rundown…

Went to see Monsters University, which was really great except for the 372 previews we had to endure before it began… except maybe The Lego Movie preview…  that one has potential merit…  Phil and Ian missed about the last 90 seconds of the movie, because no one should be subjected to the vigorous potty dance that Ian was doing in his seat.  Random thought.  Why do people leave before the credits are over?  Do they not realize that they miss things?  Anyway, I think this is the second movie that our entire family has ever gone to the theater to watch, together.  It was time (and even money) well spent.

One of the best parts of GA is catching up with friends from all over the country.  It was great to run into Kate and the kids and to see how they have grown into beautiful people!  I loved chatting with Pastor Jim and Marilyn!  Undoubtedly one of the best quotes of the day came from Marilyn, who said, “I’m so glad you guys found each other, because your kids are so cute!”  And eating at The Old Spaghetti Factory (Mizithra and Spumoni, oh how I enjoy eating you every four years or so) with Nicole, Ralph, Tamar, and Jadon was just great!  As an added bonus, we got to sit in the trolley!

I think, maybe, I was the only one who found it hysterical that the boys kept spinning through the revolving door.  At any rate, I'm pretty sure I thought it was funnier than the people waiting to get into the building...

Hearing Dr. Porter speak is always a highlight of Naz. events for me, and it sure didn’t hurt to close out the service with some Rend Collective Experiment!

Bedtime…  It’s definitely bedtime…

L.

General Assembly, Part 1

It is completely unlike me to be on a trip of any kind and to not be blogging it day by day.  I am going to look back on this one and regret it, because the truth is, I already cannot remember half the things I want to…

But I am tired.  I am crazy tired.  In some ways, I am more tired than I am at the end of a 16 hour day at the Magic Kingdom.  And that is really, really tired.  Have I made my point clear?

At this moment, with a cherry coke in hand (and I’m not a huge pop drinker), I am definitely hitting the emotional exhaustion button.  It’s not just about this week.  It’s about the whole quiz season.  I keep saying it (and I know, I know, some of you are going to stop reading my blog if I don’t post something original soon), but I am so proud of Seth and Grace and what they accomplished in quizzing this year, and we didn’t push them to do it.  They far exceeded any expectations we had.

I am the mother of the #64 and #12 quizzers in… the… world.  The word for this is overwhelmed.  Or maybe the word is blessed, because these are two really great kids, both inside and outside of the quizzing world.

Let me take a few moments to give a huge shout out to our regional quiz team!  The team was comprised of 5 Juniors, 1 Sophomore, 2 Freshman, and S & G.  These high school “kids” made S & G feel welcome and became their friends.  I hope that’s what they meant to do, because they are totally stuck with them for life at this point!

This is my favorite team picture...

Except not everyone is in it...

And here they all are:

In addition, Phil and I had a really great time with everyone involved!  I love being a part of the “quiz family”, and although we’ve been around the quiz world for a long time; this year was, in some ways, transitional for us, because we have spent much of the past decade+ away from our home region.  It’s always good to come home.

I admit that I may have resembled some of the crazy moms from shows like “Toddlers & Tiaras” over the past few days.  I promise that I will not wear my T-shirt that says “Seth and Grace’s Mom” on the back of it for the rest of General Assembly… although this has helped people to identify us in the large crowds…  Actually, someone caught up with me today and told me it had been fun to watch “Grace’s Mom” during the quiz.  I’m an introvert, but I cheer pretty loudly for my kids.  I am ever so slightly embarrassed...

Today we made the move from “Quizzing at GA” to just “being at GA”.  We trekked through parts of the exhibit hall and collected free stuff.  We ran into old friends and chatted in hallways and venues.  We enjoyed worship tonight (Miah and Ian both fell asleep, so… you know… I actually got to listen to the entire sermon… fancy that…)  But let me close out this “part 1” with one more thing about this quizzing adventure…

Today, the magnification of what these kids of mine have done in their rookie year of quizzing really hit me.  I think it hit me when I snapped the shot of the scoreboard at the beginning of the exposition round.  

Suddenly, I’m sitting there… on the floor…  taking pictures of my eleven year old daughter… whose image is larger than life on a jumbotron… as she sits on the main platform at General Assembly, chatting with the top quizzer in the world (2 years running) and waiting to start a round.  And I’m just blown away.  And the truth is, I can’t believe I didn’t cry!  

More good years ahead… and in the immediate future, more good days ahead!  Part 2 will most likely focus on the mindless things we do to restore sanity and give ourselves a break!

L.

P.S. 

Uh... yeah...  These guys are here, too:

Wonder what kinds of adventures we can have with this tired bunch...

It's Been...

… one of those kinds of days.

You know, the ones where the baby wakes up at 3:00 in the morning, and the next thing you know it’s after 7:00, so you just give up and send her to play with her siblings who are up at that point and you climb back in bed, hoping to get a few hours of sleep so you don’t spend the entire day resembling the abominable snowman…

Except, your oldest daughter knocks on the door in a panic, because there is a phone message from the dentist office, and did we forget we had appointments, this morning?

So you bolt out of bed, call the office back, get chewed out by the receptionist who has left no fewer than four messages on your phone in the past several days, each with a different start time for the appointments, and she doesn’t seem too thrilled when you tell her that the latest start time she left is actually still fifteen minutes away…  Of course, there is no possible way you can actually get there by that time, because you live 30 minutes from the office, but it was worth a try… 

After being put on hold and then enduring much sighing from the receptionist, you are informed that they will take the kids in 45 minutes, which is just great, since none of you are even dressed…  well, except Ian, who is dressed in what he wore yesterday…

Seventeen minutes later, you are pulling out of the driveway looking worse than the “People of Wal-Mart” pictures, but hey… you need to make a trip to Wal-Mart anyway, so it kind of works out…

The good news is that Miah has decided the dentist is fun, she likes to say, “Ahhhh,” and she even lets them snap an X-ray.  Further good news is that the missing front tooth does, in fact, exist.  Not so good news is that said tooth is not formed right and will apparently never, ever erupt, so that’s going to require a specialist…

It only take three attempts to make an impression of Caleb’s teeth in order to create a spacer, which will be ready in three weeks, at which point they can also fix Seth’s chipped tooth (which I had hoped they could fix today).  No one has cavities (yea)!  And 3 hours and 45 minutes later, you actually exit the building… not that you haven’t walked in and out several times so Miah could “pet” the fish shaped coverings on the downspouts outside while she waited…

Since it is now almost 3:00 in the afternoon and you haven’t eaten yet, you decide that Little Caesar’s is the only reasonable option.  This is primarily true because all of the children are moaning about how hungry they are, foaming at the mouth (oh wait… maybe that was toothpaste), and pointing at Little Caesar’s, which is three doors down from the dentist.

You eat in the van in the Wal-Mart parking lot, and man is it ever hot!

You then proceed to buy more processed junk food than you ordinarily purchase in an entire year, because you are planning to take a trip the following week, and it’s far cheaper to pack lunches and snacks than to run through every fast food line known to civilization.  You start thinking about the good food you might eat for dinner and consider whether or not it would be wise to simply skip lunch and snacks on the trip.  The kids are in near shock over the number of preservative laden boxes that are hitting the grocery cart.  A cheer goes up with almost every one…

When you finally arrive at the checkout lane, still rather hot and a little bit sweaty, just hoping that no one actually did snap a picture and that your family really won’t be featured on “People of Wal-Mart”, tonight, you realize that everyone is dying of thirst, so you send the oldest four children to the little cold drink coolers at the end of the lane.  Ian tries to slip a Mountain Dew on the belt, but you’re still smarter than that (amazing enough), and he has to settle for orange pop…

And you check out…

And you get to the van…

And Miah is actually hot and thirsty enough that she doesn’t scream or kick anyone or take her seatbelt off multiple times on the way home…

And then you realize that Tropicana Raspberry Lemonade doesn’t hold a candle to the Simply stuff, but you’re hot and thirsty enough that you don’t scream or kick anyone, either… you just drink it…

And before you know it, you’re home.

Glad there aren’t too many days like that…

L.

PS  Photographic evidence?  Are you kidding me?  No…

But, how about some lyrics...

From Derek Webb's "I Hate Everything (But You)"

It's been one of those kinds of days

And I'm feeling so out of place (And the whole world is on my case)

And I hate everything, everything

I hate everything but you

Let's Talk About Tacos...

... because, ya know, getting my family's taco orders straight is one of my super powers...

Tonight, the seven of us managed to eat seven different varieties of tacos.  I kid you not.  Here is the photographic evidence:

Seth's Meat Only Tacos (taco meat and pepperoni):

Ian (taco meat, re-fried beans, and cheese):

Caleb (taco meat, re-fried beans, cheese, and pepperoni):

And then, if you want to throw something really fun into the mix,

Grace's combination plate...

(a hard taco with 

taco meat, re-fried beans, cheese, pepperoni, and sour cream

and a soft taco, as well): 

Miah will just go with the soft taco, cut into pieces

(re-fried beans and cheese, with sour cream on the side for dipping):

And man, at this point I'm beat,

so I'll just have mine like Miah's,

except smothered in the sour cream:

 And then there's Phil...

He'd like his with taco meat, peperroni, and multiple kinds of cheese...

melted in the toaster oven:

I was just about ready to declare myself the coolest mom ever until I remembered that no one in this family eats vegetables of any kind on their tacos...  I guess I'll have to keep trying for that coolest mom ever thing...

But seriously...  you should see what we produce on spaghetti night...  And baked potato night?  I have a list that I follow to get the toppings right...

L.

PS  It's been a little slow, today, in the "fun stuff of which to take pictures" department...

True Story...

... you are probably not a creeper if your child's face (or at least half of your child's face) appears somewhere on my blog!  Inside joke...  just laugh...

Miah had so much fun with her friend Owen today!  Her favorite part was pretending to be monsters!

Check these guys out:

It's good to have friends...  Although I should probably admit that play dates are sometimes more for my benefit than the kids'!

L.

It's A Good Day To Quiz...

... then again, most days are!

A quick picture and a couple of video clips from today's practice...  The global quiz at G.A. is coming up on us quickly now!

All of the quizzers who were able to be at practice today:

Seth answering a Finish with Reference after a nice jump:

Grace answering an According To...  I can't believe she got it all out in 30 seconds after that very long pause, but she did:

I'm tired.  That is all.

L.

Confessions of a Photographer Mom…

My kids don’t mind snapshots all that much, but when I pull out the matching clothes, they cringe…

I have no idea, whatsoever, why it always seems easier to get the perfect shot of someone else’s family, but it does. 

 

Now, don’t get me wrong.  I love snapshots.  If you’ve ever visited my home, you understand that.  I call the living room, “my gallery”.  The walls are covered in snapshots of life.  But I like a good, posed portrait, too, and as I was perusing the living room walls, this morning, it occurred to me that the last portrait of all of my children, together, that I loved enough to order a 16 x 20 and hang above the fireplace, was from almost three years ago.  Miah is about six months old.  Grace looks like a “baby”.  All of the boys have changed.  We needed a new picture.

And so the preparations began, and by the time everyone was dressed in those aforementioned matching clothes, to much chatter about how cool that is (from Caleb) and how not so cool that is (from Grace), we were off… 

I feel as if I have all but exhausted the good portrait taking spots in this town.  We tried some different places today, with mixed results.  I’m still not sure I have a portrait I really, really love, but I do think I have something with which to update the mantle appropriately.

Let me share some things.

#1  I am looking through the lens.  If the sun is in the kids’ eyes, I don’t always notice…  until I start shooting…  Then I can’t help but notice:

#2  I have come to terms with the fact that even if the sun is not in the kids’ eyes, Caleb will squint or look away…  in pretty much every shot.  He’s just cool like that:

#3  If, by some miracle, Caleb manages to open his eyes; some disaster will befall one of my other children.  Today, in that split second of opportunity, Grace sneezed:

#4  I am pretty sure at this juncture in our portrait taking relationship, Seth and Ian are afraid of me.  The two of them almost always manage to pull out a smile, even when the rest of their siblings are impossible:

#5  Speaking of Ian, I have been having terrible Mom guilt over the fact that his latest birthday pictures were taken outside… in the middle of a snowstorm.  There is something less than professional looking about his portrait that is currently hanging with all the rest.  I think it is the winter coat and look of sheer frostbite on his frozen smiling face.  I decided to do a few retakes, today.  They will never pass for December 26^th photos, but I’m OK with that:

#6  By the time we near the end of a photo shoot, you can almost count on me forgetting about the sun again:

This is my favorite from today:

When we got home, Grace changed her clothes, immediately, and Miah stripped down in the living room.  Don’t count on matching outfits for them next time around.  The boys will all probably need to be reminded of the value of changing your clothes more than once a week.  I guess I can continue to buy them matching stuff…

'Catch ya on the first day of school… maybe…

L.