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?
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