A Spelling Tale

Once upon a time, my daughter made it into the finals of her middle school spelling bee. There were 18 finalists out of a student body of over 800. I was impressed that she was in the finals, but certainly not surprised.

My daughter was devoted and studious in the weeks leading up to the event. I dictated words to her every single night. There were lots and lots and lots of words to learn. Some of the words were very tricky, like lieutenant and chlorofluorocarbon. It was tedious and time-consuming. But my daughter cracked on and fit in spelling words between all of her extracurriculars.

She was tired.

Finally, the big day arrived. We started the morning with a nourishing mound of bacon for breakfast. 

Just before lunchtime, I drove myself to the school to watch my daughter compete. 

I was nervous. I was sweaty. I had a swirly-whirly stomach. I think my daughter did also.

Round after round I watched her compete. Round after round these kids just kept correctly spelling words. Round after round I sweated through my shirt and jacket. Soon there were only 10 kids left. Then 6. Then 5. Then 3.

I felt like I might pee in my pants. 

And then there were 2. My daughter was one of them! They went a few more rounds until finally...the other kid misspelled a word. My daughter walked trepidatiously to the microphone. The final word was dictated. If she spelled it correctly, she would win the spelling bee!

I sat on the edge of my chair. I nearly vomited as I waited for the winning word to be called. At last, the word echoed from the loudspeakers: equality.

In this moment, I knew that my daughter was going to win the spelling bee.

And win she did!

A week later, she and the runner-up were recognized at the school pep assembly and were awarded trophies. The principal announced my daughter's name as, "Ava Maze." He definitely wouldn't win a spelling bee.

Now my daughter will move on to the district spelling bee in January. And we will all live happily ever after.

The End.

Water Sissy

Sissy joined the middle school swim team this year. She has been on a non-competitive team for a little while but the school team was a big change for us. She now had swim practice every weekday for 2 hours. And there was a 90% attendance policy. Whew. 

Sissy was sore and tired at first but she built up her endurance and was looking like a Sissy torpedo by the end. I was impressed with her coach and the way he taught life skills in addition to swimming. He was strict but fair and Sissy respected him for it. She had a great season of growth. It was exciting to watch her.

Let me give you a glimpse of her improvement over the course of the season from beginning of the season to the end:

25 Freestyle: beginning: 22.75 ending: 19.89

50 Freestyle: beginning: 50.67 ending: 41.90

50 Backstroke: beginning: 52.37 ending: 47.91

50 Breaststroke: beginning: 55.90 ending: 47.18

It was fun to go to the meets and cheer her on. I loved seeing her confidence in the water grow. I was very proud. Sissy took practice seriously and never complained about going every night. And she especially enjoyed riding on the bus with the team to away meets. 

After the final meet of the season, we celebrated with balloons.

Congratulations to Sissy!

Thanks-a-givin

We were graciously invited to my sister's house in Rhode Island for Thanksgiving.  Or maybe I graciously invited myself. Either way, it worked, and we found ourselves on a long journey up north.

And I mean long. Because of this:

I guess everyone else also invited themselves to their sister's house.

No matter. We had a new kitty to keep us company. My niece desperately wanted a cat and couldn't find one for a reasonable price so my sister asked if I could possibly bring one with us. I poked around on the interweb and found Steven. He lived with us for a couple of weeks and during that time, Michael fell in love. 

He really was a sweet little guy.

But back to Thanksgiving. Did I tell you I invited myself to Rhode Island?  Well, I did and it was totally worth it. I had a lovely time. "What made it lovely?" you might ask. I'll tell ya.

We played games like Skittles, Lord of the Rings Risk, Skull King, and Polish Poker with cards from a cottage cheese container.

We watched Wicked. Well...some of us watched Wicked. Some of us stayed in the lobby with Baby the whole night.  My sister and I took turns. We chose the later show because Baby was supposed to fall asleep during the movie. She was still wired at 10:30. Turns out my brother-in-law let her suck down half of his Coke Zero before the show. Way to go, Jared.

We ate delicious food. Every meal was delicious. Yeasted waffles, clam chowder, biscuits, guacamole, and the prettiest charcuterie boards you ever did see. I ate about a gallon of pimento cheese. Worth it.

My sister also took a tip from a patient and greased up a paper bag to cook the Thanksgiving bird inside. It seemed like a questionable idea when her arms were covered to the elbow with Crisco, but it actually turned out great.  Who knew?

We had ice cream at the Ice Cream Barn.

We set up for Christmas and Baby loved the train set. Almost as much as my brother-in-law.

We went to the Boston temple to do baptisms. It was beautiful and serene. Sissy accidentally left her underpants behind when she changed out of her wet clothes and my sister kept bringing it up to annoy her. It's an aunt's duty to lovingly heckle.

We stopped by a nerd store in Boston that Michael has long wished to visit. It's called Micro Center. That guy darted around like it was a theme park. When I took their picture, Baby hung her head in shame to be with nerds. She got over it quickly though when I let her roam free. Then she darted around like it was a theme park.

Baby did a lot of darting about over the week and she done wore herself out.

And of course...of course, of course, of course, we talked and laughed and talked and laughed.

Dadgum the days flew by. I loved every minute. Except the drive home. It was long. And long. Baby lost it at Wendy's when I wouldn't let her drink my soda. It was time to get home.

But it was a wonderful trip. How grateful and blessed I am to have my siblings as friends.

Happy Thanksgiving! 

45

My vision blurred a bit and my stomach jolted just now as I admit out loud that I turned 45. Disgusting!

I absolutely love birthdays. Even as an adult, my birthday anticipation and excitement is real. Except for this year. This year I felt old and weird and on the verge of total incontinence.

45?! How?! Why?! This is an outrage! 

I better calm down before I pee myself.

Despite my disdain, it was actually a very pleasant birthday. I wept on the inside over being 45, but I cried out exuberantly on the outside when I bit into this beauty:

So I guess that makes me Even Steven. My birthday fell on Monday, so we went out Saturday night for BBQ with my cousin and his family.  Worth it.

On my actual birthday, Mykey took the day off from work and we went for a morning drive.  Clearly I'm old if going for a drive is the main event of the day. Baby napped, we ate burritos for lunch, and then we went to look at Christmas displays at the home store.  Baby loved it.

When evening arrived, it was full of gifts and a delicious chocolate cake that I made with my own two old and gnarled hands.

Sissy made me a delightful card. My sissy sent me dutch ovens, my boss (also called my brother-in-law) sent me fancy maple syrup and fancy chocolate covered peanuts, and my parents gave me money, money, money. And Mykey bought me chocolate, body scrubs (they don't scrub off the wrinkles or cellulite), and the best gift of all: a heated vest.  I look forward to frolicking in the winter cold with my vest on.

It was a great day turning 45.  So great in fact that Baby didn't want it to end.  Or maybe she just didn't want the cake to end.  

Either way, Happy birthday to me!

Special Interests

Baby realizes the importance of expanding her mind so she works hard to try everything. She's interested in things like:

Globetrotting

Construction

Gabbing

Sharing kibble

Sous-Chefery

And toilet paper. She's especially interested in the toilet paper.

So much to experience...so little time.