Yes, Melissa. It Can Be Done!

Teaching seminary has been such a rewarding experience for me. I have loved it. ... But it is HARD. Really hard. Of course there are the early morning hours. I can hardly believe that I wake up at 4:30 every single day so that I can get dressed up and come into church so that I can teach the New Testament to high school students. 4:30!!!! That's early! But even harder than the early morning hours is the responsibility that I feel to help the youth of the church really learn to GET it when it comes to studying their scriptures. There is so much value to the things we find in the scriptures, things that are just waiting to be discovered. And yet so much of it remains a mystery to us because we rarely take the time to actually read and study the words.

Time and time again I am told in seminary training how important my job is. So important that they don't just let me go freely on my own to get the job done. No. I get training, lots of it when you compare it to other callings in the Church. And through that training I have learned to rethink the way that I teach. Normally when we teach we are used to just sitting/standing in front of the class and TELLING them information. And that is how the students are used to learning as well. They sit and absorb (maybe). But in seminary the goal is for the students to teach themselves, discovering the magic in the scriptures for themselves. So I'm not supposed to sit in front and lecture. I am supposed to act more like a guide, helping the students to see what they can find inside the books of scripture that we study. And this is hard. Really hard. I have lots of thoughts and ideas that I want to share, and often when questions come up I am quick to offer my answer and move on. Because we have such a limited class time I am even more prone to doing this. And that is not cool according to seminary teaching philosophy. It is better if I help the students to discover the answer for themselves.

Herman often points out that seminary is more like a marathon than a sprint. You aren't going to have day after day after day of home run lessons that are amazingly awesome and leave the class glowing with the message they have received. There will be some days like that, but there will also be days where nothing seems to go right, where everyone seems distracted and uninterested. Days when half the class is fighting sleep or staring blindly at the front, unable to answer any questions. The important thing is that the overall movement of the class is getting better as time goes on. Well, I haven't had what I felt like were many home run lessons. I sometimes just feel as if the best I did that day was to survive without having anyone try to depose me for being a hack. Usually I feel like the lesson goes fairly well, but I admit that I rarely feel as if the lesson rises to my own high expectation for myself. I talk too much. I listen too little. I don't dig deep enough with the students, helping them to see their own great ideas. But I get up each day, determined to make that day's lesson better than the one before it. I am loving the things that I am learning as I study the scriptures each day, and I really, really, really want for my seminary students to feel that same joy in reading and studying.

So that leads to today. There isn't a big story to go with today, but I had an experience that made me happy, so I wanted to record it. Today we were studying in Matthew 6 and 7 where the Savior introduces the proper way to pray. We had some good discussion about the best way to pray and how we sometimes fall short in our personal prayers. The discussion was good, and almost everyone was engaged in what we were saying.

And then my seminary teaching miracle occurred.

While we were talking about avoiding vain repetitions in prayer Laney raised her hand and asked, "Why do we need to say our prayers to Heavenly Father when it says that He already knows everything that we need and desire?"  Good question, Laney! Now here is the point when I normally tell the answer and move quickly to our next point.

But not today!

I recognized this as an excellent opportunity to use some good teaching skills and help the class to discover the answer on their own. So I turned the question over to them and said, "What do YOU think?"

At least six hands shot up into the air immediately, and I had to fight my proud inner Melissa, because I seriously wanted to pause everything for a moment so that I could do a little happy dance for my good teaching practice. I didn't stop the class, but I'll pause the story now so that I can do a little one ...

Sigh. All better now.

As I saw the hands of students that I hadn't ever seen volunteer answers I felt so happy inside. Finally I felt like I had done exactly what the CES trainers had been encouraging me to do all these months. And it made a difference. Have I mentioned yet how much I love my seminary class this year? No? Well, I LOVE my seminary class this year! So many talented and strong youth who are such examples to me! And they had great ideas! I felt like the kids were teaching themselves a bit. They were really taking time to discover the meaning of the scriptures on their own.

And if I can help my class to do that on a regular basis, then I can end my class feeling as if we ran that marathon ... and won!

Holy Guacamole!

You're my favorite deputy!!

It's Friday night, so that means that it is Date Night for Herman and me ... our time to relax and enjoy each other's company after a long, exhausting week. We used to do these really extravagant and interesting dates when we were younger and more energetic, but lately our dates mostly consist of dinner and ... well, usually it's just dinner with talking and more talking. That's okay. I don't mind our fairly boring dates because talking with Herman is one of my favorite things to do ever. And it is never really boring.  To have some uninterrupted talk time is a gift ... a gift that we truly value now that we have built in babysitters at home, making it much easier to get away. It was always a major production to get away when the kids were younger, but now we are lucky enough to be able to just say, "We're headed out. See you in a couple of hours." So it has been our Friday night tradition to try to take some time out for us.

Well, today our traditionally boring date turned into a majorly interesting adventure. As it was taking place I looked at Herman and said, "I totally have to blog about this." So here goes:

We like to eat at a local Mexican restaurant. I won't mention its name, although locals will probably be able to guess it. The food is pretty good, and the workers are all pretty nice. I think that they lost their liquor license a while ago, so they don't get as many customers as they used to, but that never bothers us at all. It has been a while since we ate there, and we decided that tonight would be a great night for some Mexican yummies, so we made a run for the border. It started out relatively normal for an eating out experience. There were several families eating dinner, and once again Herman amazed me with his social outreach. He knew everyone in the restaurant, so he chatted with the different tables as we prepared to order.

I always get the Quesadilla Jalisco. Always. I used to be an adventurous little lady, but I have turned into a boring old lady with my habits and routines. Well, tonight I was feeling saucy, so I decided to try something new on the menu. I got a beef chimichanga. Maybe I should have stuck with the quesadillas, because things started going downhill pretty fast at this little restaurant. This is what happens when I break my routines. Really.

The food arrived really fast ... so fast that I wondered if they just reheated something in the microwave for us. But it was yummy as usual. Everyone left the building except for one other family. It was a young man from a little town in Nebraska who had just graduated from basic training today along with his mom and sister. Congrats to him! They had just ordered, and Herman and I were busy pounding our fried goodness away when quiet chaos began around us.

Here's the scene:

Our two groups are quietly sitting in the back corner of the restaurant when two sheriff's deputies come into the restaurant. There are only two workers here tonight as far as I could tell, the waiter and a cook in the back. I don't think that either one of them are the head honchos of this restaurant, but I believe that all of the workers are related somehow. At first it seemed like the two deputies were there to eat since they were just making small talk back and forth with the waiter.  But then all of the sudden the tenor of the conversation changed. Our two families got quiet as we noticed that things were not as rosy as they originally seemed.  I heard one of the deputies say that he had a court order demanding that the restaurant turn over all money on the premises. All of it. Every single dime. Obviously, the waiter was not terribly happy with this court order. How was he supposed to run the business tonight if he had no money? I will give the deputies and the waiter some kudos for keeping their conversation fairly calm. If there had been more customers at the time we might not have heard much of anything, but because there were only the six of us things were very quiet, especially now since we were all straining to hear what was going on.

The waiter told the deputies that he couldn't give over all of his money. One of the deputies raised his voice and told the waiter that he had no choice. It was a court order. Why this order had to be served during evening business hours escaped me, but it was what it was I guess. I thought that there was going to be a major shakedown right in front of us. What would we do? I quietly wondered if this newly graduated army private would have the skills to protect us if chaos erupted. And whether I would throw myself in front of Herman to save him if bullets started flying. Would I? Would the contents of my overloaded purse be enough to deflect bullets? Who would take care of my family? Why hadn't I made a will? Would I still have to complete my taxes for 2011 that are due on Monday if I was in the middle of gunfire? All of these questions went through my head in one moment.

Was gunfire getting ready to break out? Okay, not really. They were barely even raising their voices. And while the deputies were totally packing, I think the only recourse for violence with the restaurant staff would be to start flinging hot sauce. And I'm pretty sure I've got stuff in my purse that could protect me from flying hot sauce.

Well, the waiter finally must have realized that he didn't have any other choice, so we heard him open up the cash drawer and fling it at the deputy, making a huge clatter. We just looked at the other family and shrugged. What could we do? We just kept eating, pretending that nothing weird was going on around us. The waiter, after his tossing of the cash drawer, went around and cleaned up tables and brought us some more water, not showing any degree of anxiety.

This military family was from a little town in Nebraska, and at one point the mom looked at Herman and said, "Nothing like this ever happens in our little town."  They felt like they were in the big, bad metropolis of St. Robert, I guess. Like we have these raids going on weekly.

We were dying to wait around and see how this whole thing played out, but at a certain point we needed to get out of there. Now the question was ... Do we pay for our meal? Would it even matter? Or was it just going to go to pay Guido the Loan Shark? Now don't freak out. We weren't planning on running out without paying. We just didn't want to complicate things. Maybe we've been to this restaurant enough that they trusted us. I don't know. But Herman walked into the kitchen area (how does he always get away with things like this?) and asked the waiter if it would be better if we came back and paid for our meal tomorrow. ... And the guy said YES!!  How crazy is that? Of course he was in the middle of a crazy situation, so he was probably just glad that he wasn't going to have to pass any new money on to the deputies. So we left, passing the two sheriff cars parked in front of the front doors with their motors running and their lights on.

So hopefully things turned out okay for all involved. I wonder how long this restaurant is going to stay in business if they have the sheriff's department coming by in order to be what looks like collecting debts. Hopefully they can at least be open tomorrow so that we can pay for our dinner.

So it was a very non boring date night for Team Blau tonight. If the restaurant survives their debt woes we will be sure to stop by again. I do love how the waiter always says, "More water, Friend?" every time he comes by our table. ... Only next time, I'm totally ordering the Quesadilla Jalisco.

Hyrum Has a Dream

So yesterday I was driving the younger kids to school like always. (And, by the way, my morning routine this year is absolutely insane since I have to drive JoJo to East, then Katie and Hyrum to Freedom, and finally I have to drive Minsy on post to Williams for her pre-school ... all needing to be there at the same time. Insane.) As we drive the kids will tell me little tidbits about their school experience. As we dropped JoJo off Hyrum got super excited and let me know that his teacher, Mrs. McKinnon (love her!) was going to be offering tutoring before school twice a week. I was surprised that he was so excited about it since I hadn't felt like he was struggling at all in school. So I asked Hy-guy if he thought that he needed extra tutoring. 

His answer?

Oh yes, Mom. I'm thinking that I really would like to learn how to be a ventriloquist.

Okay, first of all ... a ventriloquist??? I've never heard him say that before, so that little dream was a complete surprise to me. And on a side note to that, I just got majorly creeped out while I was looking for a picture of a ventriloquist to use for this post. I never realized just how creepy ventriloquist's dummies really are. I'm sensing a vivid nightmare in my near future. 

There actually is a real life phobia of ventriloquist's dummies out there. Check it out:

Automatonophobia is the fear of anything that falsely represents a sentient being. This includes, but is not limited to, ventriloquist dummies,animatronic creatures, and wax statues. This fear can manifest itself in numerous ways; every individual who suffers from the fear being different. Similar to automatonophobia is pupaphobia which is the fear of puppets. Since inanimate objects do not pose any real harm to people, this fear is considered to be irrational.

I think I just might have this. ... Except I love the Muppets. So I guess I can't have this if I love the Muppets, right? Good. I can move on with my life now. ... But those ventriloquist dolls are still majorly creepy.

Moving on ...

Secondly, I thought it was super cute that Hyrum really did believe that Mrs. McKinnon was perfectly able to teach him any skill he wanted to learn. This week she could tutor him on ventriloquist skills, and once he had that down then they could move on to learning the skills of jiu jitsu. Because she is his teacher, so she knows everything. Hyrum believes that she may be the smartest, most talented person on the planet ... besides me, of course. 

I love this about my Hy-guy. He has such a sweet, sweet spirit, and he really does see the good in everything around him. There is a purity in his view of the world that is amazing, and he has amazing faith in so many things. We have been so lucky that he has had such wonderful teachers with the Waynesville School District, and he still believes that each and every one of them are able to teach him anything that his heart desires. 

I just never knew that being a ventriloquist was one of his dreams. With his ability to fold his hands back so that his fingers touch his arm or his super flexibility that twists his body in unnatural shapes I think he could put together an excellent side show for some carnival at least. ... or maybe he could go into politics.

Team Blau Has Got Some Moves ... Sorta

Yesterday we got the opportunity to see not just one, but TWO, Jenny Phillips firesides at our ward building. She presented a great message at the Stake Women's Conference in the morning, and then she performed again at the youth Super Saturday that evening. It was such a pleasure to see her in person. I first discovered her music when I was serving as the assistant stake camp director. I volunteered that year to be in charge of our music at camp, and so I went about trying to find a song that went with our Royal Princess theme that year. That was the year that Laney turned 12, so we had flown with her to Salt Lake City so that she could see conference in person that year, and while we were in town I made the obligatory trip to the Deseret Book megastore to see all the Mormon merchandise floating around. As I was browsing around I saw her album, "Daughter of a King," and I knew that I had found the perfect music for camp that year. That was the first of a good seven years of Jenny Phillips music enhancing the themes of our girls camps. I am almost sure that I may have single handedly helped pay at least a car payment or two for her family through my CD purchases for the young women of the stake. She has such a beautiful voice, and her words are beautiful as well as she sings songs relating to the youth themes each year. So anyway, it was super neat to see her in person. Her messages were inspirational, and I got several promptings during her words that made me think about changing a few things in my life, and that's always a good thing, I think.

Jenny was super nice. After the youth fireside she stuck around to sign autographs for everyone. Hyrum and Katie were absolutely enthralled with her. When I got back from the morning meeting Katie asked me if Jenny had a bunch of body guards with her. I explained that Jenny was just like any of the rest of us, and that if she went to Wal-mart in Missouri there would be a good chance that no one would recognize her. There is a good chance that she wouldn't even be recognized in church buildings either. Katie had pictured her being a lot like Selena Gomez with her own little entourage. When they heard that she was giving autographs Hyrum and Katie were super excited to get one. So they headed up to the line to see her and patiently waited their turn. When they finally got to her Hyrum was starstruck. He just stared at her in awe. It was so cute. Neither one of them could say a word to her. But they did get their autographs, and I'm sure that they will cherish them forever.

As Jenny was packing up her sound equipment Herman was talking with her. We got a picture of our whole family with her, and she noticed Minsy. She asked a lot of questions about her adoption. Jenny had an interesting adoption story of her own that she shared with us. I don't feel like it is one of those stories that is mine to share, but it was a great example of her own personal faith and willingness to do whatever the Lord asked of her. It was neat to hear this story from her.

After Jenny's performance there was a youth dance, and I really want to blog about that experience too. Since the performance had been opened up to all youth, ages 12 and up and their families, that meant that there will children of all ages at the dance. Normally dances are only for those 14 and older. That was still basically the case for this dance, but they let the younger kids do some of the dancing. They just tried to prevent the younger kids from all the slow dances. That became a bit of a complicated mess trying to figure out who was old enough, but it was okay. I can tell that there will be some sort of after action report to see how to deal with situations like this in the future if they ever arise.

But, anyway, because all of Team Blau was there for the dance I got to see my younger ones on the dance floor a lot of the time and it was so much fun to watch them dance.  Here are a few of my observations about my large crew:

• Herman. I love to watch Herman work at the dances. First of all, he is absolutely hilarious to watch dance. So much enthusiasm, with just enough nerd in him to make him endearing. I especially love to see him interact with the youth. Herman is a fierce believer in the importance of everyone dancing during the slow dances. He is no fan of the chair sitters lining the walls. So he makes a point of walking around the perimeter of the room when the slow songs start, grabbing young men, and encouraging them to ask young women to dance. No is never an option. It actually makes things much easier on both the guy and the girl since there is never the risk of rejection, and really that is the number one reason that people are sitting on the sidelines -- fear of rejection. I never have much luck when I try  to get these kids to dance, but Herman is a pro. He rarely has anyone turn him down. Last night I noticed something though. I think that now all of the youth in the stake have figured out that when President Blau is at a dance he will make sure that the young men are dancing. So when a slow song started, he immediately walked to the side to grab some young men. But the funniest thing took place as he walked toward these lounging young men. I saw a group of young women who were following right behind Herman, waiting for him to grab these boys. What he always does is grab a boy and then turn around to find the nearest young woman who is not dancing. A pair is formed. So these girls have realized that if they want to find an easy dance partner, all they have to do is follow Herman around and be in the right place at the right time as he turns to find an eligible partner for his latest young man project. Genius! I loved watching all of this from the sidelines! Only problem ... sometimes Herman was so busy getting partners for all the young men that he wasn't able to dance with me. And the last song was Open Arms by Journey!
  
  
  
  How can I not have a dance partner during Open Arms?!!!?? It's Open Arms!! That is like the world's worst song to have to sit out while watching the rest of the world dance around you. I was getting some serious junior high dance flashbacks as I sat that one out. Oh well! I'll sacrifice a dance or two for the good of the St. Robert youth. 
• Laney. I'm going to miss seeing Laney at these stake dances. She has really gained so much confidence as a dancer. I think a lot of this is because of her dancing experiences with EFY. This year she apparently worked really hard and watched a lot of EFY training videos or something like that so that she would be prepared to do all of the EFY dance moves, and according to her it really paid off. I loved seeing her dance with all the other EFY attendees in our stake as they led the rest of the group in some super fun line dances. And, by the way, it sure seems like these line dances are waaaaayyy more complicated than the dances we did when I was younger. (and by younger I mean in college since I don't think that line dances were done in my high school at all). There was one neat thing that I observed while watching Laney. There is this young man in the stake who is quite smitten with Laney. She knows it. We know it. I'm sure half the world who knows him knows it since he likes to wax on poetically about her on his facebook posts every once in awhile. He really is a sweet, sweet young man who is extremely considerate of her and the most complete gentleman of a young man that I have ever met. But even though Herman has explained the way Laney dates to him again and again (check out THIS POST if you need a reminder), it hasn't dimmed one bit of his infatuation for Laney. I really do feel for the guy, and I hope that he doesn't get his heart broken over her. He followed Laney everywhere last night, staying just far enough away from her that she wouldn't quite know that he was doing it. But as he followed her he would watch her with such longing that I could almost hear the country music playing some sad song in the background to match his action. Unfortunate for him, Laney has a rule that she tries not to dance with the same person twice at a stake dance, so he didn't get to dance with her as much as he would have liked. I think that she did have a bit of pity on him and gave him a second dance. Kinda sweet to see Laney have this effect on boys. And luckily she is super nice to everyone, so she won't purposely hurt any of these admirers, I think.
• Savannah. Savannah was in tremendous pain last night. She had all day band practice yesterday, and she came home with a wicked sunburn. It was an odd burn, perfectly matching the shape of her tuba. Her face was puffy, and she looked like she was at the point of tears all night. Feeling like this, she wasn't really in much of a dancing mood, but she got out there in did it. I always thought that Savannah would be a shy dancer who would stick to the sidelines, but she is just as enthusiastic as Laney. I especially loved watching her do one of the line dances. I wish I knew what the name of that one was, but Savannah was a master at it. She had so much concentration on her face as she did the moves, and it was adorable to watch her. The girl has got some moves.
• Spencer. Spencer is still only 13, and this was his first dance, even though it was unofficial and he was not able to dance any of the slow songs. I thought that Spencer would not be much of a dancer, unwilling to look silly on the dance floor. I was wrong. He was out there doing all of the dances with everyone. ... and he's not so bad.  I'm sensing another enthusiastic Blau to join the dancing ranks when he turns 14 in February. For the first slow song I danced with Spencer. He showed me just how he planned to dance when he got the chance to dance with girls. First of all, he asked me, "Have you ever had, or do you now have mono?" That will be his first question as he charms these future dance partners. And it went downhill from there. I am choosing to believe that he was just being silly because I'll have to bop him in the head if he does that when he comes to these dances next year.  I gave him some good pointers, but we'll see if he listens to his wise mother. The truth is, I think that girls still scare him a bit, and he's trying to mask his fear with silliness. Oh, to be a junior high boy.
• Katie. Katie was jazzed to be at the dance. Of course, she already thinks she's sixteen, so she fit right in. She tried all the moves. She got to dance with Daddy. She sang all the songs that she knew. She was in heaven.
• Hyrum. Hyrum was so sweet to watch. He's actually a pretty good dancer with good rhythm. He is definitely going to be a lady killer someday with those sweet moves. And he is so considerate, not surprising since he is the most considerate of all my children already at the young age of eight. At one point I was dancing with him, but I had to leave to take Minsy to the bathroom. I told him I'd be right back, and he said, "Don't worry Mom. I'll be right here waiting for you." Awwwwww! 
• JoJo. JoJo was just plain adorable. He loved to dance with me, and he just snuggled right up to me as we danced. I loved that! At one point he looked up at me and said, "I'll bet you didn't know I was such a great dancer, did you Mom?" No. I hadn't known that. But I'm super excited to watch him grow up and dance at these things in the future.
• Minsy. Minsy was super cute as she danced. She has always loved dancing to music, so this event was just up her alley. I was a bit concerned that she was going to get crushed by someone since she was so tiny. She would run in and out of all of the jumping bodies all night long. Cutest moment of the night? Chris Rudd dancing with her. Totally precious!

The Blau family may not be the best dancers out there, but we are out there, and that counts for something. I had a blast watching my family tonight. It was a great Saturday evening!

I was going to put on a lovely video Herman took of us dancing, but after checking it out again in the light of day I've decided that it might be best if the world outside our family doesn't ever see that one. So you'll just have to be content to imagine our mad dancing skills.  I just can't wait until one of my children fulfills a lifelong dream and puts together a family Thriller dance for their wedding reception. Come on guys! You can do it for your dear old mom, right?

Tears for My JoJo

I love all of my wonderful children lots and lots, but I have to admit that I have a special place in my heart for JoJo ... probably because he's my youngest little guy and we got to spend so much one-on-one time together after Hyrum started school. I'll admit ... I probably baby him a bit too much, but surely it won't be so much that he'll be horribly ruined by it.

JoJo says and does the funniest things sometimes. One of my very favorite JoJo actions was the time a year or so ago when he decided that he wanted to make a fly into his own special pet. A fly? Yes. A fly.

JoJo somehow managed to catch a fly and then tear off its wings. (Fly lovers of the world ... Don't freak out! We already did have a little talk with JoJo about how mean that was.) The poor little fly walked and walked trying to get away from the mean little boy, and then JoJo explained to all of us that his pet was no longer a fly. He was going to call it a "walk." He is a master at word play, my little JoJo. To make a long story short, JoJo's pet walk was soon put out of his misery by one of us who introduced Mr. Walk to a fly swatter.

Well, JoJo is all boy in many ways, but he is also very tender hearted, and it is the tender hearted nature of his that tugs on my heart strings all the time. And that brings us to today. JoJo easily started kindergarten last year, no problems at all. He fit right in and never shed a single tear as he headed off to live his new life as an elementary student. He always seemed too young to be leaving me, but he managed just fine in the gigantic elementary school that is East Elementary. Last year he was at East with Hyrum, who was in second grade, but this year he is all alone. He didn't have any problem at all yesterday as we dropped him off. We always make it a point to walk all of our elementary kids in to their classrooms on the first day of school. (I'd totally walk the older three into their classes as well, but I don't think they'd appreciate it as much). We take lots of pictures and give giant first-day-of-school hugs and try to make the day as exciting as possible. After all ... school IS cool!

But then we got to today ...

For today I planned on dropping everyone off at the parent drop off spots at East and Freedom, like normal. JoJo was the first to be dropped off. East is still working out a lot of kinks in their before and after school routines when it comes to drop offs and pick ups, so the line was a bit slow. Luckily we were early enough that it wasn't long. I dropped JoJo off, but they only had one teacher working the line, so JoJo was basically left on his own to get into the school. That is normally not that big of a deal. He's done the same thing a hundred times before, so I didn't worry about it much. The lady driving the car in front of me was having the hardest time getting her kids out of her car. Seriously, she probably should have just considered parking the car and taking all the time she needed. But as I waited for her to get things figured out I looked over and noticed that JoJo had not left to walk into the school. He was standing under the walkway watching us. As soon as he saw me look his way he started running back to the car, begging me to wait for him. I had time so I rolled down the window to see what was wrong. He got tears in his eyes and said that he was afraid that he couldn't remember how to get to his class. Luckily in the maze that is East Elementary JoJo does happen to have an easy class to locate, so Katie, Hyrum, and I gave him the directions to find it, telling him that any teacher would help him if he felt lost. The truth is that I think that JoJo has always had Hyrum to walk with him as he goes to school. And Hyrum is such a good and attentive big brother, helping JoJo find his way anywhere. Today it hit JoJo that Hyrum was no longer going to be with him in school this year. And it freaked him out.

I probably could have gotten out and walked JoJo inside, but I just can't explain just how chaotic mornings are at East during the first few weeks of school, and the place is just not set up for any sort of quick drop in. If I want to stop and walk JoJo all the way to his classroom it has to be a planned event. I have to drop the kids at THREE different elementary schools which all begin at the exact same time, and that takes precision in scheduling. I am completely willing to throw the whole schedule out and walk JoJo in if necessary, but I could tell that JoJo was going to be okay and just needed a few words of encouragement. I gave them to him, told him he was awesome in every way, and sent him on his way. He seemed to be just fine as he turned around and headed into the school.

But I wasn't.

I immediately burst into tears. I didn't want JoJo to go to school. I wanted for him to stay with me today, but it was probably a bit early in the year for me to plan a Mommy/JoJo Skip Day (yes, we do these ... a lot). It was just hard to see his fear of heading off on his own today. I wished that I could hold his hand as he went to school. And as he learned his lessons. And played games. And read stories and sang songs. I just felt so strongly as I drove off today that I did not want for him to grow up ... ever. 

I'm sure that eventually I might feel like it was time for him to progress and grow. But I did not want for that day to be today. I have sat by and cheered on all of JoJo's new accomplishments in life ... as he learned to walk and then learned to run. As he learned to explore the world around him on his own and as he began to make discoveries that I had never noticed before. I enjoy every new step he takes toward eventual independence. But I have to say that today I wished for a good long moment that time could just stop for a moment and let me savor the time I have with JoJo today. Time seemed to move so slowly when I was younger, but the older I get, the faster it is flying by me, and I feel like I don't have the strength to grab on and make it slow for me. I wish I could just have a minute to drink these moments in. (sigh)

So today JoJo's eyes watered a bit as he looked to me for some encouragement. I gave him what he needed, giving him the courage to turn around and head the direction he needed to go. He squared his shoulders and headed into the school without worry. But I was the one who left in tears, as I saw yet another example of my little boy growing up. I guess it is just part of the whole grand parenting experience, so I should just hang on for the ride and enjoy it, right? 

... but I'm totally planning on skipping the laundry today and taking JoJo out for a Mommy/JoJo ice cream date when he gets home from school. Life's too short to skip any opportunity for an ice cream date with my baby boy!

I Think We Can Safely Say That We've Moved into Official Church Nerd Territory

Yesterday we went out to dinner at Chopstix, a local Chinese buffet that is pretty good. It is our family choice whenever we have something to celebrate, especially regarding Minsy. No, the food is not really anything like what we ate in China, but it's the thought that counts. Since yesterday was Minsy's fifth birthday we headed there for a fun family food fest. 

...and I made a pretty interesting/disturbing discovery about my family. 

We were almost finished with our meal when we looked over and saw that the missionaries from the other ward had stopped in for dinner. We had not met either one of them yet, so they didn't know who we were yet either. We were just sitting around and talking as we prepared to leave, and we thought that we would tease the missionaries a bit and pretend to be someone interested in investigating the Church. We were just being silly. I don't think we would ever do something like that. But as I gazed around at my family I realized that we were not going to be able to pull that one off. Why? 

Well ...

• Laney was wearing her well worn EFY 2012 wristband.
• Savannah was wearing a BYU college t-shirt.
• Spencer was wearing a BYU rugby shirt.
• Katie ... okay Katie was free of any LDS themed clothing, so she might have been able to swing that.
• Hyrum and Joseph would be okay until they mentioned their very churchy names. Either one of their names might not have revealed anything, but the two of them together make them seem suspiciously Mormonlike.

As I looked at all of my kids I started to realize that we could almost be labeled as church nerds with all of our LDS and BYU themed apparel. Or our church inspired boy names of Spencer (Spencer W. Kimball), Hyrum (Hyrum Smith), and Joseph (Joseph Smith). Or Laney's newly discovered and somewhat unnatural obsession/enthusiasm for BYU football. (Seriously, last week she stayed up late to see the details of the BYU game on the internet since we no longer have cable/satellite. It was 12:30 am, and I told Laney that she needed to get off the computer and head to bed. "But Mom! There are only three minutes left in the game!" Yes. There were three minutes left, but BYU was winning by more than 20 points. What was she going to gain by watching until the very end?)

You know, I've never really seen my family as church nerdy, but maybe we are. That label actually might have bothered me at one point in my life. In fact, when I was in college there was an RM who I had kinda sorta liked at one point, but he really ended up turning into a bit of a loser, so I'm glad that we never ended up really dating. But he did end up in a relationship with my best friend at the time. It started out pretty good, but he ended up making some poor decisions, and my friend didn't feel as comfortable dating him as she had originally. But she told me that he used to make fun of everyone in our little university branch. "Did he make fun of me?" I asked her, horrified to think that there was an RM out there making fun of me. "Yes," she answered. "He thinks you're a church nerd."

A what?????????

Let me tell you, I was absolutely aghast that he would use those words to label me. I felt like I was running from the label of nerd my entire life. I made really good grades in school, and I went to a pretty small school. Everyone had to have a label, and those who made the good grades and weren't sports stars or cheerleaders or something like that ended up with the big "N" label. I sure hated that. A lot. I never felt like I was ever in any sort of George McFly territory, but it hurt to think that people thought that I might be like that simply because I excelled at school. So I fought against that label, sometimes by making some seriously boneheaded life choices. And now to find out that after coming to college and getting away from the pervasive social labels that dominate high school social politics, that I was only to be labeled a nerd again, this time with the Church? Oh how it upset me!

But that was then, and this is now. And I have to say that Paul, the bad RM, might have been totally right in his label. I think I just might be a church nerd. And my family is right there with me. Because you know what? I love the Gospel. A lot. I don't have all the enthusiasm for all things BYU that Laney has, but I don't have any problem with her feelings. I am happy that she is looking at attending one of the church schools for college next year. I like that we have big church discussions in our family. I love to talk about our beliefs with friends and family who are curious to know exactly what makes a Latter-Day Saint tick. I love my calling that allows me to wake up super, super early every single school day to study the scriptures with high school students an hour before they head to regular high school classes. I love the opportunity that we have as a family to sacrifice and serve others through our callings and "just because." I love to take our kids to General Conference after they turn twelve so that they can get a "big picture" view of what the Church is all about. I love being there with thousands of other people who believe as we do. I love what the Church does for my family. I love how the Church has blessed me and changed me and helped me to discover exactly who I am. I am a daughter of God with a divine purpose on this earth.

If that makes my family labeled as Church Nerds then I say ... Bring it on! I accept the label!

Happy 5th Birthday Minsy?

Minsy showing off WaWa, her new Build-a-Bear Snow Leopard
that Katie bought for her at the St. Louis Zoo for her birthday.
I love this picture!

Today is Minsy's 5th birthday ... at least it is the day appointed as her birthday by the Chinese orphanage where she was taken after being abandoned. And since we have no good way of figuring out another birthday for her we're just going to roll with this one. It still blows my mind to think of our little girl actually being five since she is barely the size of a two year-old. She has so much catching up to do -- in size, in language acquisition, in interpersonal skills, in intellectual ability. She has a long way to go in order to reach her peer group in ability. But she'll get there. It may take a little while, but she'll get there. For now we're just going to celebrate all things Minsy on her special day.

This was an unusual Blau family birthday because Herman and I ran up to Carrollton yesterday to help my mom get to the hospital, and then we stayed overnight to help my dad get everything settled. So we weren't there to welcome Minsy personally on her birthday morning. She didn't care too much though. She still doesn't quite know what these birthday celebrations are all about. Our plan was to leave my parents' house sometime in the late morning, but while I was out in Carrollton running some errands for my dad I pulled into the local ShopKo (which will always be Place's in my head since that was what the business was called when I was growing up).  Anyway, as I pulled into the parking lot the car seemed to slide a lot like it was hydroplaning. It had been raining the last two days, so the roads and parking lots were wet, but I wasn't really going fast enough to hydroplane. I wondered about that, but I just ran inside, made my purchases, and got back into the car. When I started to drive off the steering got wonky on me, and I thought that maybe I had a flat tire. When I got out of the car to check, I heard the engine making a horrendous noise. Something was terribly wrong. I called Herman, and he checked it out. To make a long story shorter, we headed to an auto parts store, the super nice guy working there drove over to our car to check it out, we realized that something bigger than our mechanical ability was wrong, we turned the car over to a mechanic in the area to work on (Thanks Andy!), we borrowed one of my parents' cars, and we didn't get out the door until later in the day. So we didn't get home until dinner time.

Luckily, Laney helped the family to get ready to celebrate Minsy's birthday when we returned.

Look at the gorgeous cake Laney made for Minsy!

She also made this sweet birthday crown,
bought her a Birthday Girl ribbon, and
dressed her in some sweet pearls from China!

The kids had cleaned up the house and set the table with fancy plates and place cards for all of us. Also, if you check out the picture below you see some cute little triangles on the wall in the background with the letters forming the words Happy Birthday. Fun fact: Do you know how my children choose to attach such cute letters to the wall when they can't find our tape? Elmer's school glue! Genius. They swore to me that it would come right off. I'm not so sure, and right now I'm too tired to test it for myself. I can't fault them too much for trying to make things nice for Minsy though.

Minsy counting her candles as Herman lit them.

Katie helped out a bit when Minsy gave up blowing.

Laney got to cut the cake since she made it.

And then after cake we headed over to Chopstiks for our not-so-traditional Chinese buffet (but it is a tradition for the Blau family to eat there when celebrating all things Minsy).

Minsy getting ready to work her chopstick skills.

So today, in honor of Minsy's fifth birthday, here are FIVE things I love about her:

1.  Her laugh. Minsy has the cutest laugh ever. When she giggles it is hard not to start laughing along. It didn't take long for us to hear her laugh. She was giggling all day the first day that we met her in China.

2.  Her smile. Minsy has a beautiful smile. It is super hard to catch her smiling for pictures. In China when they take pictures it isn't super common for the people to smile for them. I think that Minsy might have been trained to keep a straight face. She knows to pose with her fingers in a peace sign, but she doesn't automatically smile. Sometimes when we try to coax her to smile it ends up looking more like a grimace. But if we take lots of pictures and stay at the ready we are often lucky enough to catch one of those natural smiles.

3. Her enthusiasm for new things. Minsy views the world around her with wonder that is infectious. When she sees something that she loves she is always quick to look at me or Herman or Laney or someone near with a big smile on her face as she points and says "'ook" "'ook". She can't say her "L" sound, so it comes out super cute.

4. The way she welcomes us when we have been gone. If Herman or Laney or I leave the house and then return Minsy always runs right up to us screaming for joy as she yells out our name. Then she'll run headlong into our legs as she gives us a big gigantic hug. It's hard not to feel appreciated with that sort of greeting. Maybe I'll start greeting all the kids like that when they get home from school. Something tells me that what is cute behavior for a five year old would not look so endearing if I did it.

5.  The way she sings to herself. Minsy has always shows a love for music. When we were in China and walking the busy streets Minsy would stop and dance any time that she heard music coming from the businesses that lined our path. It was super cute. But it is even cuter to hear her singing to herself when she is playing alone. I'm not sure what songs she is singing. Maybe she's making them up. But it is adorable to hear the music, nevertheless. 

I feel so blessed to have Minsy in our family. It is like she has always been here, and I'm glad that I got the chance to celebrate her first birthday in the US today. She may be one of the smallest five year old girls around, but we're okay with that. Such a sweet, sweet little girl!