American Bandstand

At the beginning of the year, while enrolling my son in a new school, we were told about a play that the school puts on every year. It is comprised of the preschool through eighth grade and they started practicing soon after he started. While the preschool's part was small, Superhero was very excited about participating.

Several months later, while picking him up from school, we were going through our daily routine of asking how school was going and what he learned, enjoyed, was nervous about, etc. This particular occasion he started talking about being nervous about "acting like a bird and singing". I wasn't sure what he was talking about until I received a message from his teacher on Facebook. She explained that they practiced on the stage that particular day and that he was pretty nervous, almost to the point of tears. It all made sense.

My son is the type of person who needs to be forewarned about performing. I spoke with him about it and after a few discussions and a few days passed, he was ready to try again. He got up on stage and performed his little heart out. I received word from his teacher that he did a great job at practice that time. Whew!

Last night was his real performance. He was amazing. I was wondering if it wasn't going to be a disaster because he didn't want me to leave him. However, he finally let me go and did great! Here's a little video of him as he performs. If you see the little birds circling the "tv host" you'll see one who is slapping his thighs, er, I mean flapping his wings. :) That's my boy!

You can view the video by clicking, here.

Chaos & Confusion

Sometimes life is just a mix of jumbled up emotions, chaos swirling around us as we desperately try to find our footing. I often find myself wishing for the next step in life as I find myself treading water tryin to keep myself from being sucked in to the current. I have a really hard time trying to live in the moment and enjoying each passing second with my family without wonderin, "What's next?"

Last month, my mom, my second mom and my sister all attended a religious Women's Conference that shared one of the same messages as this month's General Conference. The message portrade to those attending was to stop living for the "What's next?" and let now be enough. This is something that I have always had issues with and something I strive to perfect in my mortal life on earth.

I have always been happy, upbeat and opptimistic with nearly every situation I have encountered. However, when you grow up in one crappy situation after the next, it's hard to not look ahead to the "What's next?" in life. It's what helped us get through the really crappy times and look forward to getting out of them.

Lately, I have been in the massive whirlwind of postpartum hormones, a thyroid that is possibly not working effectively and a string of infected children. A few weeks ago, three to be more precise, we noticed a dime sized spot on Princess R's back. After inspection, I couldn't figure out whether it was ringworm or a bout of eczema that she has had so frequently. It started to grow and get progressively worse so we decided to take her in during Princess M's well child check and get it checked out. The doctor inspected it and agreed with my findings. It was either eczema or ringworm. If it popped up in any of the other kids, however, it was definitely ringworm. He perscribed her a cream and we were on our way. The very next morning, however, we found 4 spots on Superhero. The spots have since quadrupled in size and now he's up to 10. Princess R has 4 and as of this morning, we found 4 spots on Princess A. Thankfully Princess M has yet to get any. While at the doctors office we also found out that Princess A has a pretty awful ear infection and a raging fever. He prescribed us four prescriptions for the 3 kids, talk about mess.

I also questioned him about my ongoing hormone issue. I constantly feel like I am dying of heat stroke. I am aways sweating, my cheeks are flushed and I feel like it's always 85 degrees in the house. I cannot tell you how many times my husband has come home to me sweating and it's 60 degrees in the house. No wonder everyone constantly complains that it's cold in here. Problem is.. if we raise the temperature, I'm even more miserable. The doctor thinks it's because my thyroid is protesting life. Not his exact words but close enough. He took a blood test and we'll see what the results say. Now I get to nurse my horribly sore arm where the vein blew when they drew my blood. Fun times!

I feel like our house is slowly but surely being sucked into a bacteria infested pool and I can't seem to keep everyone out of it. I'm constantly running in fifteen different directions trying to keep everyone healthy, happy and content in the moment but I am nowhere close to succeeding.

One of the speakers at General Conference just gave a talk this past Sunday in which he stated (I'm paraphrasing) "How can we be thankful for the rainbows in life without first thanking God for the rain?" This resignates so much in my heart. I need to stop and enjoy my family, now. I need to be thankful that the troubles we're having right now are small in comparison to what they could be. I need to be thankful that overall, our family has not had to endure anything too serious and that usually we're all fairly healthy. I am so grateful for the times in which we are healthy. I need to be more grateful for the times in which we aren't because during times of trial, it makes the happiness that much sweeter when we arrive.

I need to learn to let this be enough and in doing so, know that it is my perfection. My situation, however tough or rocky the road, is perfect for me and that is enough.

Super Hero Humor

Oh my sweet boy. I go to get Super Hero on the bus this morning and after hugs and kisses he goes and sits in his seat. The bus driver waves me on and proceeds to tell me a story about last week.

Last week? Last week we were running a tad late. Late to the point where when we showed up at the bus stop, the kids were already on the bus and in their seats. The bus was getting ready to drive away when it seen me pull up.

*pause for a little backstory*

We live in a super tiny town. Population about 3,000. We have one elementary school and one high school. However, we have chosen for my son to go to a school that is about 15 minutes north, which is smaller and much more child centered. In order for him to go to this school, he has to ride a bus from our town, up north. We all have to drop our children off at one buss top behind our local grocery store which is about 5 minutes from my house.

*continuing on*

As I'm running to get Super Hero on the bus before it pulls away, I told him I loved him and to be kind and listen. This is something I always say to him. He yells back that he will and hops on the bus. The bus driver then pulls out and proceeds up to the school as I went home.

Two minutes into the bus ride, Super Hero starts wiggling in his seat. She reminds him, "Super hero! You need to sit still in your seat, for safety." He says okay and calms down. A minute later he starts wiggling again. That same gentle reminder comes from the front of the bus again as they proceed up to the school.

Then from the back the bus driver hears my sweet Super Hero says the following, "Excuse me, Bus Driver but my mommy fixed my hair and if I sit back, it will mess it up."

We both couldn't help but laugh hysterically when she told that story. My sweet little Super Hero.

I should note that when he came home that day, he did tell me that he wasn't listening on the bus. I explained that he always had to be kind and listen to the bus driver and if he didn't, he would loose his privilege of riding the bus. Since then he has come home every day from preschool to tell me that he has listened on the bus and been kind. The bus driver has agreed. :)