Life beyond the Bake Sales...

The PTA this year has been really, REALLY interesting. There is so much I could write, but I promise that someday I will write a book on it all. Or, perhaps a pilot reality show - PTA Moms....what really goes on behind the Bake Sales.

And if only we could just focus on Bake Sales! But oh no. This year, we have had parents who like to complain. A LOT. And they complain at meetings, they call in to the Dept. of Education, and then I get called into the Principals' Office. I also get called at home from the district's office....at 8pm at night. Some of the mean parents have lied to my face, and tell me they will be adult enough to say if something is wrong, and then just text the other mean person who is trying to...I don't know...destroy the PTA. Who does that?! Last week after our co-treasurer resigned, and I had to call out someone in the meeting for trying to destroy our PTA by being malicious and trying to sabotage our efforts, and then one of our Board member's mother came into our meeting to tell us that her daughter was not stealing money from the fundraiser that she wasn't giving us the money for (oh yes - all in one meeting & there was more!) --- there was finally a lull in the meeting and I started to read the revised Bylaws to the group. And I finally broke. I got up from the table and went out into the hallway and just stood there sobbing. Why bother with the PTA --- it was more like a soap opera than a group of parents that could focus on trying to help make things at the school better for all the children.

There was a rally which led to the news reports and being on TV regarding the overcrowding in our school. And there were many, many positive reports after that...but again trouble because I took pictures and used them for the media. Oops. As all other things, there is a learning curve with this volunteer position. I don't know everything, there was no official training but there are 20 pages of our Bylaws and over 40 pages of the Chancellor's Regulations that I should have memorized by now according to someone in the DOE office. I told her I am a mom first --- she didn't seem to care.

I AM getting better at managing my emotions & figuring out how to stand my ground and play the political game - but during the month of September and through mid-October most days I just really wanted to find a fire and light Bylaws and Regulations up, and just walk away and never come back. It's true.

And then there are happy days. Amazing events like the International Dinner with dozens of families came together in costume, and cooked and we danced and played games and had the most incredible time. And the Scholastic Book Fair which made twice the amount of money than any other we've had. And there has been good laughs and good friendships....and I've lost weight. Yes - the stress paid off and I could not eat breakfast for over a month and got physically sick whenever I thought about the PTA and meetings, and I think I can see my cheekbones again. So, there is definitely the silver lining to every cloud.

And there are stories like the following that made me laugh. I just read this a little bit ago, and realized I have to write about all of this that has been going on in my life. Why there haven't been consistent posts, answers to emails and phone calls returned. And the irony is that at the end of the day - I dream of resigning. I want to be "unemployed" by the PTA, however I also do not like to quit or see something through. Which is a little tricky when you dream of how you can exit out of something and make your life less stressful.

So - here you have this little story that one of my friends posted and said she thought of us when she read this....and oh yes, I see some strong similar ties. Ironically - my other friend on the PTA handed me the following quote on Monday - it says: "THE THRILL OF DEFEAT. Why an epic collapse is the best thing that can happen to a {PTA}.

How sad that we all dream of living our posts on the PTA! And without further ado....the letter as found in

http://www.newyorker.com/humor/2011/10/24/111024sh_shouts_semple

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Hi, everyone!

The Mountain Room is gearing up for its Day of the Dead celebration on Friday. Please send in photos of loved ones for our altar. All parents are welcome to come by on Wednesday afternoon to help us make candles and decorate skulls.

Thanks!

Emily

Hi again.

Because I’ve gotten some questions about my last e-mail, there is nothing “wrong” with Halloween. The Day of the Dead is the Mexican version, a time of remembrance. Many of you chose Little Learners because of our emphasis on global awareness. Our celebration on Friday is an example of that. The skulls we’re decorating are sugar skulls. I should have made that more clear.

Emily

Parents:

Some of you have expressed concern about your children celebrating a holiday with the word “dead” in it. I asked Eleanor’s mom, who’s a pediatrician, and here’s what she said: “Preschoolers tend to see death as temporary and reversible. Therefore, I see nothing traumatic about the Day of the Dead.” I hope this helps.

Emily

Dear Parents:

In response to the e-mail we all received from Maddie’s parents, in which they shared their decision to raise their daughter dogma-free, yes, there will be an altar, but please be assured that the Day of the Dead is a pagan celebration of life and has nothing to do with God. Keep those photos coming!

Emily

Hello.

Perhaps “pagan” was a poor word choice. I feel like we’re veering a bit off track, so here’s what I’ll do. I’ll start setting up our altar now, so that today at pickup you can see for yourselves how colorful and harmless the Day of the Dead truly is.

Emily

Parents:

The photos should be of loved ones who have passed. Max’s grandma was understandably shaken when she came in and saw a photo of herself on our altar. But the candles and skulls were cute, right?

Emily

Mountain Room Parents:

It’s late and I can’t possibly respond to each and every e-mail. (Not that it comes up a lot in conversation, but I have children, too.) As the skulls have clearly become a distraction, I decided to throw them away. They’re in the compost. I’m looking at them now. You can, too, tomorrow at drop-off. I just placed a “NO BASURA” card on the bin to make sure it doesn’t get emptied. Finally, to those parents who are offended by our Day of the Dead celebration, I’d like to point out that there are parents who are offended that you are offended.

Emily

Dear Parents:

Thanks to their group e-mail, we now know that the families of Millie and Jaden M. recognize Jesus Christ as their Saviour. There still seems to be some confusion about why, if we want to celebrate life, we’re actually celebrating death. To better explain this “bewildering detour,” I’ve asked Adela, who works in the office and makes waffles for us on Wednesdays, and who was born in Mexico, to write you directly.

• Emily

Hola a los Padres:

El Día de los Muertos begins with a parade through the zócalo, where we toss oranges into decorated coffins. The skeletons drive us in the bus to the cemetery and we molest the spirits from under the ground with candy and traditional Mexican music. We write poems called calaveras, which laugh at the living. In Mexico, it is a rejoicing time of ofrendas, picnics, and dancing on graves.

Adela

Parents:

I sincerely apologize for Adela’s e-mail. I would have looked it over, but I was at my daughter’s piano recital. (Three kids, in case you’re wondering, one who’s allergic to everything, even wind.) For now, let’s agree that e-mail has reached its limits. How about we process our feelings face to face? 9 A.M. tomorrow?

Emily

Dear Parents:

Some of you chose to engage in our dialogue. Some chose to form a human chain. Others had jobs (!) to go to. So we’re all up to speed, let me recap this morning’s discussion:

—Satan isn’t driving our bus. Little Learners does not have a bus. If we did, I wouldn’t still need parent drivers for the field trip to the cider mill. Anyone? I didn’t think so.

—Ofrenda means “offering.” It’s just a thing we put on the altar. Any random thing. A bottle of Fanta. Unopened, not poisoned. Just a bottle of Fanta.

—We’re moving past the word “altar” and calling it what it really is: a Seahawks blanket draped over some cinder blocks.

—Adela will not be preparing food anymore and Waffle Wednesdays will be suspended. (That didn’t make us any new friends in the Rainbow and Sunshine Rooms!)

—On Friday morning, I will divide the Mountain Room into three groups: those who wish to celebrate the Day of the Dead; those who wish to celebrate Halloween; and Maddie, who will make nondenominational potato prints in the corner.

Dear Mountain Room Parents:

Today I learned not to have open flames in the same room as a costume parade. I learned that a five-dollar belly-dancer outfit purchased at a pop-up costume store can easily catch fire, but, really, I knew that just by looking at it. I learned that Fanta is effective in putting out fires. I learned that a child’s emerging completely unscathed from a burning costume isn’t a good enough outcome for some parents. I learned that I will be unemployed on Monday. For me, the Day of the Dead will always be a time of remembrance.

Sunday Funnies

We got a big laugh at dinner a few days ago, when Bryson decided to do a twist on asking about our day. It was a Tuesday night, and on those evenings Madeleine has theater class, and Bryson Jr. and Jacob have soccer practice.

The conversation went something like this....

Bryson Sr: "Madeleine, so how was soccer?"

{she looked confused, and started to say "Dad, you know I don't....}

Bryson Sr: "And Bryson, how was the PTA?"

{the kids looks started to change from confused to a look that seemed to read, 'something funny is going on here!'}

Bryson Sr: "Jacob how was theater class?"

{pause}

Jacob: "And Dad, how was Kindergarten?"

 We instantly started to laugh and couldn't stop for a few minutes.  It was a great ice-breaker for the meal. A different routine than usual and we had a great big-belly laugh that lasted well through the meal. The kids tried different spins on the game, trying to think of how to ask about the day using someone else's activities.

And then, as if we didn't get a good enough laugh.....at the end of the meal, Madeleine was helping to clear the table with Jacob they passed by Bryson.

Madeleine stopped and pointed to her Dad's head and told Jacob;

"See, this is where the pancake flew and burned the top of Dad's head.

That's why he has the missing circle of hair right there!"

Jacob's face was priceless. He has been reading 'Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs' lately and this statement has him believing the book is for real.

Daddy/Bryson's face....well, he is a great sport! :)

i like to ride my bicycle...

Bicycles!

Since our stay in Hawaii - the children have been begging to ride bicycles again. They love any sort of bike and ask all the time if we move can we get a bike. They ask if they can have one in our place too - but they usually say very quickly, "I know, I know - we don't have enough room". Which we don't - so that is why it's fun to find a place where we can ride together as a family & get some of the cravings out for a bike ride.

Since Bryson's schedule is somewhat open right now with work, I had a feeling he would be off today as it's the last holiday weekend in the summer. I hoped that work might stay a little calm, so that we could go back to Governor's Island! We went there exactly one year ago today when Nana & Papa Lord were in town - which I just went back to my old blog and realized I posted a 'Coming Soon' post with a few pictures & hardly any descriptions of what we did. I can't believe a year later and I still haven't finished that --- and OTHER projects!

Well, a year ago to date, we went out to Governor's Island. It's a natural island that is out in the New York Harbor - it's a short ferry ride from Manhattan or Brooklyn - you can see the Statue of Liberty close at hand from the north shore of the island (we must really have a thing for North Shores! That's where we stay in Oahu, we live on the Northern tip of Roosevelt Island, and we loved the Northern part of Governor's Island....funny to think about actually!

We did miniature golfing and walking around the island last year, however the one thing that we had told the children we would do was bike riding and by the time we got to the rental hut on the island they weren't letting any more bikes go out for the night. The kiddos have not let us forget that we need to go back to ride bikes!

We took the ferry over from Brooklyn since I was already there on Thursday @ Pier 6, and realized a ferry left right from that Pier. I also needed to take back some items to Ikea which is only about 10 minutes away from the Pier. We decided to drive and make a morning out of the errand before we took the ferry over to the island. By the time we parked (which luck is usually on my side, as I've been able to find street parking this entire week when we go out for an adventure!). When we got to the end of the Pier, the boat was just leaving and we had 20 minutes to pass until the next ferry came along. Thankfully - the Pier is full of the different playgrounds that we had discovered on Thursday - that way it was a playtime until we needed to load up.

We hoped on the ferry & some gentlemen we were standing next to offered their seats - which I gladly took, however Madeleine was rather keen to stay right by Dad as much as possible today :)

e

After walking through the island to the family bike rental shack - we made our choices and then were off to explore the biking paths around the island. It was a little bit muggy outside - however look past Bryson Sr. on the first bike - and you can see a glimpse of Lady Liberty from this vantage point.

Our view from where we stopped for a snack and to refuel with water. Speaking of fuel - little Bryson saw a dial on the front part of Bryson's bike and asked him if that is where we needed to put the gas in!

This bench was over by the tire swing, and I decided to move it closer so I could watch the kiddos. Have you seen anything so clever and functional as this bench? It was so easy to move - if we ever get a backyard I'd love to put some benches like this back there.

Last year it was the Unicycle Conference or meet-up on the same day/weekend. We enjoyed watching a few tricks each time we saw them!

What a fabulous day! I'm so glad the kiddos reminded us that it was definitely time to go on a long bike-ride together as our family. We all had a really, really good time!

Until next time Governor!

Oui ou Non?!

Gazing out the window tonight, Bryson Jr. exclaimed,

'Oh look!

It's a croissant moon!"

{it must be that New York accent! He thought he was saying crescent - or that croissant was crescent. I love his little accent on some words...it's darling & hilarious!}

Which that darling little homemade french saying, brought me back to last week....a good laugh of a story. We went to a friend's home out in New Jersey last Friday night to escape Hurrican Irene....more on that will come, but it was rather interesting as we ended up going more into the storm that out of it . We didn't know that at the time, but of course hindsight is always quite perfect.

We stayed with friends that we know through work, as the wife and the children were off to another state to visit family. The entire home open - except for the husband, and one day, we were in the kitchen cleaning up after a meal and I asked about their recent adventures over in Europe. I asked what his favorite place was they had visited, and he replied enthusiastically, "Oh, it was definitely Ver-sal-es."

Hmmm...I thought to myself for just a moment. Ver-sal-es? Where in the world....and then he went on to say that the Hall of Mirrors were magnificent and the incredible gardens, etc. That is when I realized where he was talking about.

At an appropriate time in the conversation, to reply to what he was talking about this area, I told him that I also had been to and loved Versailles - trying not to be obnoxious but also speaking clearly so that hopefully he could hear that the ending of the word is silent, the LL's are dropped and your voice almost seems to sound like a sigh to go along with that you say it Ver-SIGH {this explanation is phonetic, not correct grammar!}

He once again was very excited as he came back with more things that he loved about Ver-sal-es. And I did a different kind of sigh and realized that unfortunately this was one French word that would not be pronounced correctly during this conversation!

Oh la la!

Oh, the places you'll go!

Pier 6 ~ Brooklyn NY.

I love finding new places around the city that we love.  Today, we ventured down to Pier 6 in Brooklyn - it's an area that they have slowly been converting, and now there are 6 Piers dedicated to being part of the Brooklyn Bridge Park.  Pier 6 opened last summer, and I heard rave reviews about the space and it had a water feature -- -which we love water features! --- so I knew that we needed to try it out.

It has been a little tricky to actually get to many of these places to try out their water features.  We have left the previous 2 summers right when school gets out and then when we return there is a frenzy to get ready for back to school.  This year is busier than ever - PTA could easily consume my life, and some days there has been a lot going on.  Tuesday for example - we finally got out of the apartment around 6pm.  That was a long day.
                                                     





















I knew that the kids deserved a break & to help me stick to the plan of getting out on an adventure - I signed up to host a playgroup for today in our ward.  It turned out that there were only 4 of us that showed up...but those kiddos played, and played to their hearts content.

And we now have a new favorite place to go!

Thankfully one of the other moms sent me all the pictures from today, because I did not take my camera out once!  I actually had to leave early from the playdate - I had a meeting back at school with The Trio - I finally found a nickname that works for our Principal, Assistant Principal and Test Administrator - which I think she has another official title, but I can't remember what it is...and since it is obviously so long to type out all their titles I realized today I shall refer to them as 'The Trio'.  So much easier!  The amazing thing, is that my friends offered to let the kiddos stay with them, and then they would bring them back to the island.  Seriously - that is a wonderful offer and I was a little nervous about leaving them in a place crawling with children...but then I realized they would be bored if I took them back to the meeting....because in meetings you can't be as goofy as one can be walking from the park to get ice cream!!!

 The crew - not sure how she got this group picture - but look how fun!  I'm at the meeting - so these are the amazing moms that are watching my kids...and the crew of kids.  Madeleine was in heaven that another girl showed up --- whew!

I had thrown out the idea of stopping at the Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory - however there was another amazing ice cream shop they walked to where everyone got a nice cold treat.  What a perfect day!  The sun was out - it as warm.hot - but not too hot.  And to spend with friends --- I think we need to balance life with a few more of these outings!

Thanks Brooklyn.....we'll be back for another day in your area!

p.s. remember how I was excited to come back to consistent Internet access?  That will happen NEXT week.  The past 2 weeks we have been home, I have to sit in a chair and be connected to the router - wireless is a thing that is not working at our place for whatever reason.

I don't know who is more excited ---- me for wireless internet again, or Bryson for the Cable T.V. that he decided to sign up for --- because after all, why just get wireless internet when you can get the BYU Football games for fall season?!

Hopefully when wireless is on, and once our big school supply fundraiser is over and the kids are all in school full time (yes - all 3!  hooray!) --- I'll be back to posting more regularly.  There is still summer to post about you know! :)

checking-in....

....takes on two meanings right now. 


First I realized I haven't checked-in at all since we've been in Utah! We've been here since July 20th and have had an amazing 4+ weeks. Absolutely wonderful. Full of swimming, sun, family, fun, cousins, get-togethers, friends and chocolate covered cinnamon bears. I love being able to come here to visit. It does not feel like home, but I love coming to a place so familiar so I can drive without looking at maps and knowing where to get good food. Did I mention Cafe Rio in the above list?! Their new mint lemonade was amazing, and a new love along with my favorite salad.  The only thing I didn't want to try was the worm that Bryson found and enjoyed.....even after he washed it I could not be convinced to try that delicacy!

Totally opposite of yucky - look how sweet! Madeleine loved being an older cousin who was called upon to hold the babies.  She was in baby heaven!  

I haven't had consistent internet access - my mother doesn't believe in it. Okay - just kidding! My mom just doesn't use it - so she doesn't have it. Good for her - a tad bit exasperating for me. So I visit my in-laws and let the kids play here and jump online to catch up...but usually it's been to do PTA things which are more than in full-swing and causing me to have slight heart jumps every few hours. We start school in 3 weeks and there is a lot that is being done...but so much to still do.

Which is why - I'm checking-in tomorrow to fly home....a week earlier than I had planned, and I'm taking the kids back with me. Which was totally not planned. I mean they are our kids - so of course they were going to come eventually! I have some friends from college coming next weekend for a girls get-together so the kiddos were going to stay here for the weekend spending time with my mom and Nana & Papa Lord, then my mom was going to fly them home. However, we couldn't nail down a schedule where my mom could reasonably fly them out - life is too exciting with a zillion things going on...and most importantly - Bryson missed us. Terribly.

And we miss him. And are ready to wrap up an amazing 7 weeks and go HOME. It's so incredible to me that as much as I can't wait to leave the city when school gets out, my body and mind needs to go back after a break. It's our place. Our abode. And we do love it because it's where we are supposed to be right now. I'll probably not love it so much mid-January --- but for now, I'm missing our city.

Ta-ta for now...I'll post again and catch up on the summer adventures when we land and get SOLID Internet back. Whew - I've missed that. Until then...here are some quick pictures to enjoy.