Kam Sa Hammy What?

MeiLin started Tae Kwan Do three weeks ago. She is thrilled. She is memorizing the belt colors and order. She has already asked how far she can get in the 20 months we are here. She does it with gusto and is very quick with "Yes, Sir".

Maiya has been watching from the sidelines. The move has startled her. She is timid and clingy. She misses Daddy and she hasn't been ready to plunge in. But, she couldn't deny her inner hyper-fairy gymnast for too long. Today, she finally decided to give Tae Kwan Do a try with sister. And, no surprise, she loved it too. She wants to go back tomorrow (Sunday, honey, there are no lessons). We'll have to have the Master order a special outfit for her as the smallest in the studio would have the pant's waistband under her arms.

I love to watch them. They are strong, nimble and co-ordinated. They also listen and respond, quickly. And, on a day like today where we had some really wild, not listening, not behaving moments out in public, I remember that they do know how to listen and behave--really they do. Maybe next time I should take them to Target in their white Tae Kwan Do pajamas.

Once upon a time...

There lived a olive-skinned, brunette maiden on an island barely inside the circle of the north pole. She fell in love with a fairer young shiny knight disguised in chammies and seargent's strips. After treks back and forth around the world seperately and quite a bit of snail mail (alas, this was such a once upon a time that email simply wasn't available for most peasants, maidens or knights), they met again, declared their mutual love and were married.

Many years later, they had built a castle of memories. Memory castles are easier to move and being nomads, they simply couldn't afford to build a stone dwelling. The books were heavy enought to move from place to place. While sometimes parted, they still remained true and faithful. They made each other strong. As time went on, they had children, fairy-like little ones that both glitter and amazed while still also driving them as crazy as gnats somedays. The maiden and the knight grew comfortable together and were parted less oft.

And, then, a challenge was raised. The knight would go far away among strangers for a fortnight while the maiden would unpack the castle of memories and set it up in a rather colder, damper location than the sunny coast they had enjoyed for a few years. The knight left. The maiden began by distracting the spritish children with treats and grand stories. Whether or not the maiden survived the fortnight depends greatly on her resourcefulness, patience and humor. That is another chapter.

Rain

Today, it rained. This doesn't seem earth-shattering to many people, but it was refreshing and exciting to us. The girls walked to school with their umbrellas open (fairy purple and cow black and white, complete with ears) even though the rain hadn't actually started.

I remember moving to Carmel in the month of June. Sometime in late fall of that year, maybe November, Mike and I heard this odd sound late one night after the kids had gone to bed. We went and opened the front door: rain! We realized we had not had rain in the months since the move and had not really noticed the change from Missouri.

Now, we back in rain. It is nice, enjoyable and exciting today. In a month, it may be slushy, cold and grey. We'll enjoy it today. And, we may have to get some rain boots.

Homesick

I have been homesick today, which is strange as I am not missing a place and have no real home apart from where my family is right now. But, I am missing a people, a church, a way of life and a comfort level. I find this a bit of a new feeling. I've missed people before and certainly was sad and nervous and even angry when we moved in my childhood. This is different, though. I can't say why for sure yet.

We visited a church today. It was nice (enough). I find it hard not to compare to the church, the people, the spirit we are missing at Carmel Pres. When we moved last time, we left a church that had many issues, struggled and we didn't quite fit. We were excited about "church shopping" - a chance to find a place where God would use us, where we would fit, where we would feel at home. And, God is amazing--because he put us right where we so desired, blessed us and helped us grow in directions that we didn't even know about.

Now, having left that place, we are grieving. I left the new church today. Mike asked me "what did you think?" "I don't want to church shop. I just want some of Carmel Pres to move here."

Irrational. New place jitters. A bit melodramatic and melancholy. Yet, I understand when MeiLin says she doesn't want to go to her new school tomorrow because she won't have recess (the class lost recess time on Friday for being rowdy at lunch).

Dinsey Land Marathon

We just finished 2 days at Disney Land, our first visit (except for Mike when he was a child and "It's a Small World" was new). My cell phone pedometer says we did 20.8 miles ... almost a marathon. I will admit I was going for the girls. I have never been a theme park person, but Disney Land suprised me. It is clean, overly cheerful, amazingly busy and fun. The crowds were not packed; it is October.

We did the Ariel's Grotto Princess Luncheon and scored the sigantures and photo opps of six princesses. We rode rides and more rides. We found out that none of us liked the "storybook" inside rides--scary, dark and noisy. We all like roller coasters. Maiya is just over 40" with shoes so she squeaked into the Splash Mountain and other rides, but still can't go on the really big ones. The girls made it to fireworks one night and woke up in the middle of fireworks the second night. The pyrotechnics are impressive and whoever plays Tink is brave indeed.

We are off to somewhere in the desert of Arizona today.

Next Adventure or Are We Crazy?

We have our next assignment. Actually, we have our next two assignments. At the end of October, we move to the Washington DC area for 20 months. In DC, we will both attend Joint Military Attache School (JMAS) and then Burmese language training. Burmese? Yep, because in 2010 we will depart for Burma\Myanmar for a three year tour. Have you found it on the map yet?

As part of our move to DC, we will do a DITY move - Do It Yourself. This is where the comments from friends and family come in: "are you crazy?" I guess we are. We've been casing the neighborhood for any boxes and have about 200 in the garage. The packing will begin in a few weeks, although the girls want to start now. Apparently, packing is fun when you are six. We'll let you know how fun it is.

45 Rolls of Toilet Paper

Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable then they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? – Matthew 6:26-27

So I get home from the grocery store the other day, and as I’m putting stuff away I realize that I’ve amassed 45 rolls of toilet paper. This isn’t a one-time thing but a consistent level I’ve maintained each time I go shopping. Mind you, we are a family of four; mom, dad and two girls, three and five. And those 45 rolls are just the ones in the main storage area on the shelf above the washer and dryer. There are also positive balances in all three bathrooms, mainly under the sink. Conservatively, I estimate there are 60+ rolls in our house on any given week.

Why the horde of white rolls? I’ve thought about this a lot this week (yes, I’m that busy) and I haven’t really come up with a single reason. If you know me at all, this revelation of Boy Scout like preparation is not a big surprise. In that same cabinet are 8 big boxes of tissues and 14 rolls of paper towels. Maybe it appeals to my sense of organization to see the nice, neat columns of white—my Parthenon of Charmin. There’s also a keen sense of security in knowing I’ll never be caught on the throne without…well, you know.

Apparently, paper products are not the only items I stock up on. My wife, Heatherly, is always suspicious of my insistence that we are running out jars of jam and jelly (there are 8 in the cupboard downstairs right now, not to mention the 3 or 4 open ones in the fridge). Mom insists I get this from my dad who apparently stocks up on jellies too (thanks, Dad).

But there doesn’t appear to be any rhyme or reason to the items I stock up on. There’s the 8 boxes of butter in the freezer (salted and unsalted), 30 lbs of flour (wheat, organic unbleached, bread) and the 25 lbs of jasmine rice in three separate containers in the cupboard.

I know it’s not a response to Homeland Defense to have a home emergency kit. We have no water stored away, no candles, batteries or emergency radio. And it’s not because as a child I had some traumatic experience to subliminally drive me to buy these certain items (well, not that I know of, nor would I or else it wouldn’t be subliminal – I’ll have to ask Mom and Dad about this one). The more I think about it, the more I suspect that amidst the craziness of life, stocking up gives me a small sense of control and security. I’ll never run out of toilet paper. Need jelly? Got it. And as long as the water is on and the gas is flowing, Heatherly can make bread to go with all that butter and jam.

If there’s ever an emergency situation, I only hope my neighbors stock up on things that I don’t. That way, we can combine our resources and hopefully survive. Pardon me while I go check with Pat and Lee to see if they have any extra water and salt.