manrymission.com

Last week was filled with art and music events at the school.  On Wednesday, Josiah and Abby played for their middle school band concert.  Josiah plays the baritone and Abby plays the flute.  They both started band 4 months ago and have improved greatly since.  Dale was able to hear the band play at chapel when he was home for R&R.  In fact the blog picture shows them wearing their band uniforms of white shirts and blue ties.  The band played Turkish March, March Militaire, Rock Island Express, and Jump Street Boogie.  For Jump Street Boogie, they donned gold satin vests, black shiny hats, and sunglasses.  I found it quite amusing.  I am now going to have them play Rock Island Express for halftime of Bears games to fire up the crowd.  The crowd, of course, is Zeke and I and the “Defense Defense” chant.  On Friday, I attended the Art Show with Abby and Gabe.  Gabe won a third place ribbon for 2nd grade with his colored paper flower pot and Abby won Honorable Mention for 6th grade with her drawing of an abandoned building.  The High School hosted the Art Show and the work of all the winners K-12 was displayed.  They had live music in each room.  A boy played piano in the main room and two girls played violin in the hallways.  Everyone was dressed up.  Gabe was happy to wear his tie.  Josiah, however, opted to stay home and watch Zeke rather than subject himself to another mandatory tie event.  The level of artwork was impressive.  One student’s scratch off artwork was phenomenal in the detail, some of the paintings were lovely, and the robot created out of junk was clever.  They served hors d’oeuvres and a lovely red punch.  Gabe in his crisp, clean white shirt wanted very much to have a glass of that tasty punch, but he was denied by his unfeeling Mother.

Josiah turned 13 on November 1st and wanted to go to the Great Wolf Lodge to celebrate his birthday. Thinking how much less work it would be for me compared to hosting a party for his friends, I readily agreed. Then, I looked at the cost of the place and was reminded that it is always beneficial to have all the information prior to committing to something. You would think I would learn that eventually. After coming to grips with the price, Grandma, Grandpa, and Zeke’s participation in the event was eliminated in cost cutting efforts. They stayed home and had an exciting water adventure of their own. Mom dropped the phone in the pond. Zeke was thrilled with that turn of events, and told me about it in great detail when I arrived home. Grandma wanted it hushed up because of concern for my Dad’s blood pressure. One of the problems with having me, my Mom, and Abby in the same house is that nothing stays hushed up for long. Anyway, Josiah, Abby, Gabe, and I set off for the Great Wolf Lodge in Williamsburg. It is located approximately 2 hours away. Halfway there, we stopped at the Barnes and Noble in Richmond, and they were finally able to get the books they wanted with their gift card. I guess it’s true that the third time’s the charm. When we arrived, we stared in utter amazement at the place. It is a giant hotel with a giant indoor waterpark. After four years in Hawaii and Australia, supersized America still occasionally shocks me. Upon arrival, we received an unexpected blessing. We were given a free upgrade on our room. We stayed in a loft suite which was huge. I had to change our initial reservations when my Dad was ill and the woman was very understanding. I’m not sure if she put us in for the free upgrade, but it was very appreciated. We then went into the waterpark and the fun began. I am quite certain that Gabe would have been content to play the entire time in the massive climbing tree fort: dumping buckets of water on people’s heads, turning on water funnels, and pulling chains that squirted water at people. He really loved the gigantic bucket on top which was filled with thousands of gallons of water and would drench everyone every five minutes. If you needed to get down in a hurry, you could ride a water slide down. My favorite rides were the tube slides that were a bit like the bobsled track in Australia without the danger of flying off and breaking your leg. Josiah had the most fun at night, when the tube slide was competely dark. He thought it most enjoyable to ride the tube backwards on that occasion. We were all quite challenged on the boogie board wave. It was a rush of water soaring upward at a 45 degree angle. You stood at the top, holding a boogie board and jumped down onto the wave. You would ride down the wave and then push back up and ride down and push back up for as long as you could control your board. There were teenagers releasing and catching their boards, performing rolls, and going from laying down to kneeling on their boards. Josiah did finally accomplish kneeling on his board, but one time he decided to land on the wave with his knees already on the board. The wave rolled him and his board up and out the top. It was a spectacular wipeout. I congratualted him and said, “if your going to wipe out, you might as well wipe out with style.” Soon after, I didn’t follow that advice, I wiped out without any style at all. I lost my board and almost lost my swim top. The guy had to cut the power on the wave so I could stagger out. The next day, when I was standing in line to give it another go, the woman behind me was asking if I had done it before, so I told her about my less than stellar performance. She said that she couldn’t believe I was taking it so well. I told her it gave the kids a good laugh and a knock to my pride is occasionally needed. Thankfully, I had a successful run that go and so did she. As we stood in line watching everyone’s attempt, I was thinking that Martyn and Alex should build one of these things in their back yard. We also spent some time in the giant wave pool catching the waves with our tubes and in the lazy river where you just float along on your tube. The two biggest rides were a river rapids ride and one called the tornado. You sat in 4 person rafts and really got a thrill. Gabe went on both once. Josiah and Abby went several times. When you start on the tornado, your raft drops over the edge into a giant funnel and then your raft goes back and forth across the sides until you finally drop through to the slide. When we all rode together, Abby was facing backwards when we went over the drop. She was holding on for dear life. It was quite a ride. She and Josiah rode it again, but because they were so light, they didn’t achieve the break neck speed that you get from a weighted raft. Josiah and I got to experience that break neck speed to a level of fright quite unexpected. Abby and Gabe were back in the tree fort and Josiah and I decided to ride the tornado one more time. When we got to the front of the line, there was a big fat guy who was trying to convince the lifeguard to let him go down alone. The lifeguard told him that you had to have at least 2 people on the raft. So, Josiah and I got on the raft with him. Here is where my knowledge of balanced weight loads went out the window. Thinking that Josiah wouldn’t want to sit next to the guy, I told Josiah to sit opposite the guy. Josiah went over the edge and my knowledge of balanced weight loads returned to me. He was as light as a feather and with the weight load coming behind, I though for sure we were going to flip that raft. The next several moments were sheer terror and hilarity as we barrelled back and forth across that funnel on the edge of disaster. We were flying. When we landed in the pool at the end, the guy looked completely dazed and Josiah and I were laughing so hard we couldn’t stop. So, if ever you’re inside the tornado, take the fat guy with you.

For the last couple weeks, I have been waiting for Daylight Savings Time to arrive. It has always been in October, but this year it is the first Sunday in November. I love Fall Daylight Savings Time because I get an extra hour to be lazy and sleep in. The Sunday of Daylight Savings Time is always a boon for Sunday School teachers as church attenders who forget, show up expecting church, but get to attend Sunday School instead. I may not have experienced the change to Daylight Savings Time, but I have moved from Manry Standard Time to Meloch Standard Time. Dale and I had friends in Germany who would arrive at events well after the start. When people would mention how late they were, they replied that they operated on Klinner Standard Time. I liked the concept and have observed many families who operate on their own personal time schedule. In Hawaii, people operated on Aloha Time and apparently in Iraq, Dale is experiencing Kurdish minutes. Our Aussie friend, Jed, calls the time in between starting to leave and actually departing, “the void”. Jed spends a lot of time in the void. Meloch Standard Time has many parts. There is Thrift Center Day, Prayer Meeting, and various episodes of Law and Order. Within the first 48 hours of my Moms arrival, my cabinets are rearranged, the laundry is washed, and something is broken. But the most important component to Meloch Standard Time is dinner at 5:30pm. Before my parents arrived, I told the kids that we would soon have 3 1/2 weeks of dinner at 5:30pm. To which Josiah replied, “and 3 1/2 weeks of the toilet seat being up.” When Dale and I first married, my Mom tried to tell me that Dale would expect dinner at 5:30pm. Dale was never even home at 5:30pm, and was either personally thankful that I bothered to make dinner even if we ate between 7:00pm and 8:00pm, or figured he better not comment and push his luck. In Meloch Standard Time, not only must dinner be eaten at 5:30pm, but planning for dinner must take place well in advance. Last week, my Mom and I spent the morning working in the yard. We were both tired and dirty when we stopped for lunch. As we walked into the house, my Mom asked me when I was going to start dinner. I had been planning on eating lunch, but soon found myself cutting up potatoes and browning a pot roast to put in the crock pot. I ate my lunch afterwards, I was on Meloch Standard time after all.

Last night the school hosted a family fun night for the middle school kids to get to know each other through game playing. Social events are so successful with a bunch of preteens who wander around aimlessly and don’t talk to each other. Everyone started out having ice cream in the cafeteria and then moved into the gymnasium to play games. Gabe went into the gym ahead of me while I was talking to some of the other parents in attendance. When I finally got into the gym, I found Gabe sitting forlornly by his game and he told me, “I don’t know why they named this family fun night.” Where are the Briens when you need them? I saw Josiah talking to a kid in his class and got my hopes up that he had asked him to play a game. But no, why would he do that? Josiah’s teacher set up a game with her son and I made Josiah go over to join them. I finally found a little girl to play a Spongebob version of Life with Abby, Gabe, and I, but the length of the game proved too long for her. Abby’s teacher pulled the large jump ropes out and Abby went over to twirl them, so kids could jump double dutch. She was doing great when her teacher was on the other end, but then a boy in Abby’s class insisted he could do it just as good and took the teachers spot. For the next 30 minutes, the kids attempts to jump in were futile because he couldn’t get the rhythm of the ropes. Some other kids were playing a form of keep away with the only ball in the room. There were three adults playing Dutch Blitz who needed a fourth, but I was stuck as the Spongebob banker and couldn’t join. By the time the kids gave up the Spongebob game, the Dutch Blitz cards had been put away. “I don’t know why they named this family fun night,” I thought. The only one enjoying himself was Zeke who had found the Uno Attack game and was busy pressing the button and shooting cards at himself. On the way home, I instructed my children that they had to be more willing to go and talk to kids and ask them what game they wanted to play. Abby replied, “That’s just not my personality.”

Feeling that we had not had enough family fun, I decided that today we would go on a family bike ride. I was not deterred even though I knew I had to put air in the tires, straighten the handlebars, put the foot peddles back on, and teach Gabe to ride without training wheels. I thought, “How hard could it be?” When Dale called for his weekly chat with the kids, Zeke was sobbing into the phone in between statements of “Mommy mad angry”. Hard for other people, no. For me, oh yah. I did manage to get the bikes road worthy with some help from my neighbor. The hammer isn’t actually helpful during bike repair, but it made me feel better to bang a bike with it. Gabe had his first bike riding lesson and survived the sticker bushes and wipe outs. Five years ago, I taught Josiah and Abby to ride a bike when Dale was going to Korea. Now, I’m teaching Gabe to ride with Dale deployed to Iraq. I’m hoping that when Zeke is old enough to learn, Dale will actually be here to enjoy all this Family Fun.

Over the last 5 years, I have been a bit removed from the effects of the increased security measures that have been implemented throughout the United States. The year after 9/11, I and the children moved to Minnesota to live with my parents while Dale was in Korea. When we moved to Minnesota, Abby wanted to know two things. 1. Do all Grandmas and Grandpas live at the end of dirt roads? 2. Why are all the people who eat at Culvers fat? So, I explained to her the fundamental principles of life in the Midwest. We then moved to Hawaii and were together as a family again. Hawaii may be a US state, but it is very different then the rest of the US and we soon learned why Hawaiians say “lucky you live Hawaii”. From there, we were off to Australia which is removed from the rest of the world by miles and miles. If we didn’t speak and pretended we were Aussies, the world looked at us fondly. At the end of Dale’s Australia assignment, we flew back to the US and the security situation becomes evident quite quickly. Watching Zeke, who is 3, get patted down because we were traveling on one way tickets was one part amusing and another part unnerving. We traveled into DC to watch the 4th of July fireworks and had to go through security checkpoints to sit on a blanket on the mall. What took me most by surprise, however, was the elaborate security procedures at the kids school. These procedures were put into place to counter the violent events that have occurred at campuses throughout the US. All the cars must line up and proceed through a school drop off zone where the teachers escort the children from the cars. When it is time for school to start, the children are brought into the building and the doors are locked. Those inside can get out quickly, but anyone attempting to enter must be buzzed in. In the afternoon, the children are brought outside and loaded into there cars at a loading zone area. You are issued a name sign which you must display. I was all impressed with myself when I actually laminated or as Abby termed it, lamented, my name sign. I just knew that if I didn’t laminate it, it would get spilled on, ripped, dropped in a mud puddle or thrown away by Josiah (who this morning threw away his school water bottle when he threw out the rubbish in his lunch box). My pride in my laminated sign only lasted a day, because I saw another mother who not only laminated her sign, but she also cut it down to size, clipped it to a child’s clothes hanger and hung it from her rear view mirror. I just can’t compete with the Martha’s of the world. I don’t know why I even try. If anyone else is picking up your children, they must be on an authorized pickup list and their ID will be checked. The driving pattern for all of this changes depending on if it’s drop off or pickup, good weather day or bad weather day. Americans love drive thrus, but I never thought I’d find a drive thru to pick up my children. I do find parts of this amusing, but the necessity for it makes me sad. Today is September 11th and I feel a tremendous grief once again for the family and friends who lost those they loved six years ago. We were living in New York during the September 11th attacks, approximately 1 1/2 hours north of NYC. I can still remember clearly the overwhelming fear I felt watching the towers collapse: fear for my husband, fear for my children, fear for myself, and fear for my country. I also recall the shock I felt when I realized that there were people in the world who hated me simply because I was an American. So, today I am reminded and I pray that “the God of peace will be with you”.