WoNDeRFuL WeDNeSDaY

Yippee! It's Wednesday and that means I've survived 1/2 the week already. I've taught three seminary lessons and lived. And I have a fresh email from Trambodia. Wednesday rocks! So here is what I LOVE about this week (so far).

I LOVE - the giggle from a 17 year old boy upon discovering that old people (anyone over 25) have BFF's and hang out with friends too! I was leaving seminary and this voice calls out, "Sister Cox?" When I turn around, he says, "Margaret Noble told me to tell you 'hi.'"

He's almost giddy as if he has discovered something secret. "Yeah Margaret told me that you guys talk almost everyday and see each other a few times a week." He is incredulous! He even asked Margaret, "So like what do you guys do?" I think he had images of us down in the basement "hanging out" and playing video games. I love the innocence. I love that in his own teen aged life, it never occurred to him that anyone else in the universe would have/want a friend.

I LOVE that even when it is -2 degrees, the sun shines in the kitchen window onto the soap and lotion dispenser. Do you know how good WARM lotion feels? It makes me smile!

I LOVE school buses/America/teenagers and LET IT ROCK by Kevin Rudolf featuring Lil Wayne (of Course). I know - weird combination. Hang in here with me. I dropped the kids off from seminary at the high school. Just as they hopped out, Let it Rock came on the radio. (I know! Way to maintain that spiritual high.) So I cranked it! Way up!

And then I looked around the parking lot at all the kids getting out of their cars in their hoodies, with back packs, out into the freezing weather. And then buses pull up and I think, "Wow, look at all these kids coming here in the cold, to get an education, to learn, to live. I love them! I don't even know all of them and I love them. I love America and that education is a priority and that we have so many opportunities." You can see where I am going with this. And then I start to cry as I sing Let it Rock at the top of my lungs in my Molly Mormon skirt and tights because I am so grateful for school buses/America/teenagers and Let it Rock.

Lastly, but not, I LOVE the tender mercies of the Lord! When I got out of bed this morning, I seriously thought I would die! But I didn't!

I Heart NY!

I am slowly crawling toward normalcy (at least as normal as my normal can get.) Yep, the laundry is done. Nope, I didn't find that missing debit card. But I must have breathed in too many suntan lotion fumes because I'm having a hard time caring.

No one wants to hear about the incredible weather, the powder sugar sand, the warm turquoise ocean or the endless sleeping with black out curtains.

Let's cut to the good stuff: We were able to "share" our vacation with 5 families from New York. Not just New York, New York but BROOKLYN. For some wonderful reason, New York schools were our last week.

The women were beautiful and the men were handsome and between them, they had 3,000 children. I don't know ANY of the adults names but the kids were: Evelyn, Katie, Edmund, Rachel, Victor, Daniel, Rose, Lisa, Eliza, Nicholas, Raymond.....and miscellaneous others.

Raymond might have been one of the dads. I don't really know. All I know is that I know all the kids' names because they were yelled loudly thousands of times a day. The mom's only knew one tone of voice - MAD and LOUD. Even their hissed, "Be QUIET. The baby is sleeping. Do NOT wake the baby." was loud enough to be heard five palapas over. While the mom's ruled with iron lungs, the dad's were exceptionally quiet..............and absent.

While never formally introduced to the group, it wasn't long before I learned that

1) "We hate Katie"

2) Victor owns ever shovel and bucket.

3) "The Nintendo DS' were bought for the plane and were not to be brought to the pool ever again."

4) One DS was broken.

5) "Evelyn is Momma's baby."

6) Rose needs to watch Katie in the hot tub.

7)"We came all this way, put down that DS and go swim."

8) "Has anyone seen Edmund's DS?" (it's blue.)

9) The father's had been kidnapped. "WHERE is your father?"

10) Apparently, lots of people from this group were kidnapped. "Evelyn, go find Edmund!" "Daniel, where is Rose?" "Victor, where have you been?" "Has anybody seen Rachel?"

All of this was communicated with a Jewish/Puerto Rican/New York accent.

But, we DID get to celebrate Evelyn's 9th birthday. After they sang to her three times over the course of 6 hours AND broke a pinata poolside, they went inside. We felt so lucky that they chose a lounge area right outside our room to 1) sing again 2) serve ice cream and cake and 3) yell at the children to BE QUIET.

It was really sad when they left. I didn't even get to exchange email addresses with them!

Here in Body but Not in Spirit

Yeah - so I'm back. But not really.

I'm overwhelmed with STUFF to do AND there is so much to blog about.

So where should I focus my energies?

1. Unpacking the suitcase

2. Blogging about the PEOPLE I saw in the airport. Oh that could fill a book. Seriously, I even took notes!
3. Laundry
4. Writing in my Book Journal about the FOUR books I read in four days. That was luxurious! Just sitting there reading and reading and eating and reading and falling asleep. But I don't have time for that right now. Back to the options.

5. Grocery Shopping

6. Going through the mail

7. Maybe putting away decorations and platters and the punch bowl from the baby shower. Well, I could blog about the baby shower too. It was soooo much fun and there were tons of people and really good food and.........focus!

8. Preparing seminary lessons

9. Blogging about the resort.....nice, I took some pics. It's not the JW Marriott but it's not $400 a night either. There is NO way I would spend that to stay there right now.......but hey, more power to them if they can get it. It is my favorite Cancun hotel.........anyway

10. Blogging about the fact that we FINALLY have winter weather. I'm not complaining. REALLY! After whining for months about the 70 degree weather and wishing for snow. You will not catch me complaining. Seriously, the day we left for Cancun, it was 72 degrees in Denver. Guess what the temperature in Cancun was that day? 74. But they have a beach too! Wait. I don't have time to talk about all of that.

11. Catching up on facebook...........WHAT A WASTE OF TIME! Cross that one off the list.

12. Blogging about the fabulous food. The restaurants were awesome. We went to some of our old favorites and we tried some new places that we have been unable to try in the past because we've been accompanied by.....CHILDREN. Steak, lobster, shrimp, this huge, incredible salad bar.......WAIT! This will all have to wait.

13. Looking for the debit card that I didn't know I was missing but discovered missing earlier today.

14. Watering the plants that are drooping from lack of attention.

15. Taking Parker to the doctor because this is the 5th day he has had chest pain. Do you think I should wait one more day?

So many options. So little time. We all have our priorities!

I'll Be Back

Maybe!

Why I can't have another baby:

It took 7 of us 6 hours to set up the stinkin' Pack n' Play or Play n' Pack or whatever it is now called.

Back in the day, way back in the 90's, we used the original Graco portable crib. It was revolutionary. It was relatively lightweight, it could travel in a car or on a plane and most importantly, no one was killed in setting it up! It took about 12 seconds to assemble. It was so easy that upon arrival at a hotel or at Grandma's house, you could set it up in the dark and not even awaken the baby from a Bendryl induced coma. It was small enough to fit into bathrooms at the Motel 6 (or at least in the space between the closet and the sink) so it was LIKE having TWO rooms. Kinda.

And it was a marked improvement over the wooden guillotine of my younger brothers' youth. One false move, and the whole thing folded up on itself with a slam, sending body parts all over the room. that will mess up a vacation!

Anyway, IF I was having a baby, I would probably want one of these new, super duper Pack n Plays. You do have to plan your trips so that you arrive at your destination by noon.........so you have enough time to get it all set up by midnight. But once you follow the 23 (I'm NOT exaggerating) easy.......well easy if you have a master's degree in diagram interpretation.....steps, this thing rocks! Literally.

It comes with this: The boys thought it was a space age "cup" and took turns holding it up to themselves. They were close!!!! It's a vibrator! Well it plays music too. It has 8 or 16 songs and white noise and a night light and it vibrates the bed.........without putting quarters in it! Oh AND it comes with a remote control. Crazy!

Lest you think it is just for sleeping, it has a bassinet for babies under 20 pounds, a changing table and a mobile for entertainment. All for the low, low price of a down payment on a car!

Although this Play n Pack is tempting, I'm not going to have any more kids until they come out with the newer version which also feeds te baby, raises it and pays college tuition.

Man Up!

We arrived at church yesterday at our usual time: 8:30, one full half hour before church starts. Since we are on the "early" schedule, we are the first ones in the chapel.

We selected our pew and Parker went off to prepare the sacrament. Garrett went off to set up chairs in the overflow. About ten minutes later, the lady with the programs arrived and Tyler brought one up to me. He opened it and pointed, "Is Garrett ready for this?"

Huh? Oh Gee! There was Garrett's name emblazoned on the program as the second youth speaker.

I snatched the program from Tyler and took it to the back and showed Garrett. He asked in a panic, "What do I do?"

Me: "You have no choice. Grab your scriptures and go to your car and start preparing something."

We didn't waste time discussing it because what was the point now, but we both vaguely remember a member of the bishopric calling during Sunday dinner two weeks ago. Oops!

So Garrett's topic was something about the power of faith. He came in a few minutes before church started and sat on the stand.

He did a good job. He spoke about faith. He had a few scripture references. He then talked about Job and the faith that Job showed in the face of adversity. He even threw in a little humor. He ended by bearing his testimony of his own experiences of relying on faith. For a 17 year old speaking extemporaneously, he did really well. Several people came up to me and said they thought he did well. When I told them that it was impromtu, they upgraded their reviews to "amazing."

Garrett was embarrassed that he forgot. He didn't even hint at it in his talk. But as a result, he wouldn't accept any compliments as legit. He didn't want to talk about it.

But yea for Garrett! That's what we do! It was great preparation for being a missionary. They don't get tons of prep time. So it was a good exercise. I'm proud of him for getting in his car and coming up with a talk......instead of getting in his car and driving away!

Pearls of Wisdom from Tiny Baby

I went downstairs to witness the carnage from last night's SNL viewing.

There were wrappers, hot sauce packets and half eaten burritos covering the coffee table.

NOTE: I didn't say I went downstairs to CLEAN up the carnage. I was merely on an information gathering mission so that I would know what tone of voice to use when I spoke with Garrett. "YOU have to clean up all the stuff on the coffee table." or "You HAVE to clean up all the stuff on the coffee table."

Me: "Wow! Look at all these wrappers!"

Parker: "I know! They bought like $15 worth of food."

Me: "Ewww.........they didn't even eat it all. Did you have any?"

Parker: "No, I'm never eating food from there again."

Me: Ignoring his last statement. "You didn't have any? Why didn't you eat any?"
Parker: "Ever since I found out they use Grade D beef, I am never eating food from there again."

Me: Authoriatively, "Nah uh!"

Parker: "Yeah, they use Grade D beef. I looked it up! Grade D beef is used in dog food. I'll never eat food from there again."

Hmmmmmm........interesting! And gross! I'll probably eat there again though....just like I ate at the restaurant that had been condemned. But thanks for the info Parker!

UPDATE!

Dear Parker,

Not that I don't believe you but I checked Snopes.com, Wikipedia and about 4 other sites and............

1) Grade D Beef doesn't exist. Beef isn't graded like English reports.

2) Restaurants and school cafeterias are prohibited from using ANY beef that isn't USDA approved.

Long Live Taco Bell!