Always Room for Jell-O!

It is a well known fact that Mormons are HUGE consumers of Jell-O. Well, our ward decided to celebrate that jiggly, fun, and fruity part of our Mormon culture with an entire ward activity devoted to Jell-O!

And what a great activity it was!

True to form for any Mormon potluck, everyone brought Jell-O. We all brought our favorite Jell-O recipe. I brought the eggs since we have a family tradition of making a huge basketful of colorful eggs for Easter. Only since it is no where near Easter, I decided to try something different - eggs that look like real hard boiled eggs, with pina-colada flavored Jell-O that I discovered. Not much of a recipe, just jigglers, but kind of fun anyway.

Roxanne's rainbow Jell-O was a showstopper! How long did that take her? I loved the cranberry/red hots one myself. Lets just say that we were all on a sugar high that evening!

Everything was delicious! But I must admit, I was rather dissapointed that there was not a single green jello with carrots brought. What kind of Mormons are we, anyway?

The fun started off with some wiggly, jiggly bingo using jello.

The prizes were fruity jello popcorn balls.

Everyone had a fun and fruity time!

They also did some Jell-O trivia and played some Jell-O ping pong. (OK, so it wasn't Jell-O ping pong, just regular ping-pong, but wouldn't Jell-O ping pong have been fantastic? They'd be cleaning sticky colorful stuff off the cultural hall ceiling for years!)

Then came the main event! After everyone had already stuffed themselves with all those fabulous Jell-O dishes, they had a Jell-O eating contest. Well, a Jell-O sucking contest, actually.

But thats OK, because there is always room for Jell-O, right?

This is where I learned just how much my family sucks!

They brought us up on the stage in categories and we had to suck a cupful of jello through a straw. Dennis, Dylan, and Caleb each won their heats. I was so proud!
I had to compete against all my sucky girlfriends, and though I discovered I suck more than most of them, it turns out that my friend Michelle sucks the most. And then in the final, her husband barely out-sucked Dennis.

Well, its good to know we don't have the suckiest family in the ward. I was quite surprised actually. I have always liked the Valdez's and I had no idea they were secretly so sucky! Just kidding. :)

It was a great ward activity! Thanks to Staci for such a wiggly, jiggly, fun and fruity, and yet exceptionally sucky ward party!

Houston, We Have Lift-Off - Day 10

On the very last day of our Texas trip we decided to do something completely out of this world - we visited NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. This is the place where the astronauts train and where all space missions are controlled.

The first thing we did there was to take a shuttle tour of the actual facility. The boys' favorite part of the tour was seeing the big hangar where they actually train the astronauts. Inside are several life-size mock-ups of the space station, space shuttles, and even a few rovers.

We were amazed at how huge the shuttle is.

Here is the huge robotic arm in the cargo bay of the space shuttle where the astronauts practice using it to move huge sections of the space center and check the outside of the entire shuttle during a mission to see if there is any damage before re-entry.

The shuttle also took us to the famous mission control room for all the Apollo missions. This is where the astronauts were talking to when they said "Houston, we have a problem." It was fascinating. Did you realize that they sent people to the moon with only enough computer power to equal two digital photographs, and it took a computer the size of several rooms to do it. It is amazing they could do it at all.

It was also kind of sad. The tour guide told us that there will only be 2 more space shuttle missions before the entire program is retired. No more space shuttles! It made me kind of sad because I grew up watching space shuttle launches. If watching a space shuttle launch is on your bucket list, you better make plans because they are scheduled for this November and next February. When asked what was going to replace the space shuttle program, she said sadly, "nothing." Congress has cut most funding to NASA and scrapped plans for the Orion program that had been in the works. That is a big place and lots of folks and many supporting businesses and corporations are not sure what the future holds. The great space age might quickly be coming to an end. Sobering.

Of course the boys got a kick out of the big rockets. Boys love rockets!

Check out the size of those boosters.

But those tall rockets were nothing compared to the Saturn V rocket that is housed inside this enormous building!

It is unbelievably huge! It is displayed on its side in sections so you can really get a good look at it. Hard to believe that most of it simply held fuel for liftoff!

The actual space craft with the people in it was the tiny little capsule on the tip. I can't imagine what it must have felt like to sit on top of that much combustible power.

The booster rockets were massive!

Back at the visitor part of the space center there was so much to do. We went on the perfect day, because it was the first day of school for whole state of Texas so there were no lines and no crowds at all! Sweet!

The boys got to see and play in replicas and simulators for the Space Shuttle and the Apollo crafts. Pretty cool!

What it feels like to fly the shuttle. Too many buttons and controls for me!

The boys were also thrilled that we got to be there for the coolest traveling exhibit - a hands-on Star Wars Clone Wars exhibit with all kinds of the coolest activities; like laser shooting!

And a two-story high rope course!

And a bicycle that could ride up-side down. They had very limited height and weight restrictions, so Derek was the only one who qualified. It was tough!

There was also this climbing wall where the holds lit up and you could play games where you try to beat the clock and grab the holds as they lit up - like a larger than life video game. Dennis got the high score of the day.

There was a show about what life is like aboard the space station inside a space station capsule that was cut in half to make a stage. Derek got selected to come on stage and pretend to be a space station astronaut. He got to be strapped into the bed so he wouldn't float away in his sleep, and he got to step into a space shower (strange because the water doesn't stick to you well and just floats around in a ball!) And yes, that picture on the lower left is a space toilet. There are some very interesting procedures in using a toilet in space, as you can imagine. No, Derek didn't have to demonstrate that.

He also got to do some astronaut exercise (they have to exercise a minimum of 4 hours a day just to keep their bone density up!) He also got to take a close look at astronaut food. It was all really interesting to imagine life in zero gravity. Take a bow, Derek.

There is so much to do - like play in a seven story play area.

And so much to see - like space ships and space suits that have actually been in space.

I had no idea we sent astronauts to Mars, did you?

They had fun driving radio controlled mars rovers from a remote location.

And of course, with my guys, the build-your-own-robot station was a big draw. The twins could show those NASA robotics engineers a thing or two about building robots.

We even got to touch a real moon rock!

Patches are a big deal at NASA, as every mission crew traditionally gets to design their own patch, so there were lots of patches for our family patch collector, Dylan, to chose from. Then he found these giant patches that were several patches in one. Problem solved! He was thrilled!

When we had had our fill of the immensity of space, we prepared for take-off, and rocketed back on the 10 freeway, headed west - for home. Even though it was late in the day, Dennis decided against getting a hotel and decided that we could just drive through the night. I was pretty wary about that idea.

After several hours of driving we decided to stop for dinner at a place that all the Texans swear by: Rudy's Country Store and Barbeque, "Wurst Barbecue in Texas." It is quite an experience. Apparently Rudy's used to be just a convience store and gas station, but then somebody started barbequeing out behind the store and selling the stuff, and now Rudy's is known all over Texas for it's mighty fine Barbeque. It is still a gas station and small convience store, but if you go to the back it is a huge restaurant with long rows of picnic tables. You buy the meat by the pound, and there are no plates, only sheets of wax paper! Meat, coleslaw, even beans just down on the wax paper. Crazy. At least they have forks!

The barbequed turkey was my favorite, and the cream corn was absolutely sinful! But the Barbeque "sause" was out of this world. I slathered it on everything!

What a wild place! Good eats before hitting the road again. Our last taste of Texas.

Turns out that driving all night was not a great plan because I am not a night person, so I can't drive at night, but I also can't sleep in cars, so I was up all night. The kids slept fine, though, so by early morning Dennis and I were too sleepy to continue, but the kids were done sleeping. That meant that while we were parked at rest stop so Dennis could catch some Zs, I was trying to keep six bright-eyed boys quiet. So not fun. Never again!

We eventually made it home, and how happy we were to walk through those doors!

What a road trip! Texas was really everything a pack of boys could want in a vacation. Astronauts and alligators, bats and boats, rivers and rockets, cannons and cousins, and some mighty fine barbeque!

BLACK is not so Black and White

Tonight I am taking my final of two black belt tests, and I am feeling anxious. Except it is not the kind of anxious I expected to feel. I thought I would feel anxious that I will not perform well, or that I will screw up. That would seem reasonable. But that is not it at all. In fact, I am 100% certain that I will look like a fool out there. I will walk out onto that mat and take one look in the mirror and ask myself the same question I silently yelled at myself the very first time I stepped on that mat and looked myself in that goofy new starched white gi: "What on Earth am I doing here?!?" But now after 4 long years studying martial arts, I suddenly feel more out of place than ever. What am I doing here? I am a pushing 40, uncoordinated, goofy, girlie girl, mother of six, in a dingy gray gi that has always been too short for her long legs, who thinks she should be sporting a black belt. Who am I kidding?

Yin/yang - the symbol life, of balance - is black and white, representing opposites. In taekwando you start out as a white belt - new, fresh, unlearned, and then work your way to black, which represents a belt that has become blackened with much use, sweat, and wear; one who has mastered the art, and is in turn qualified to teach others. That is kind of the thinking of the ancients.

Only the closer I get to black, the more I feel like a white belt. I know nothing. I thought black and white were supposed to be opposites, but not so, at least not with me.

I suppose that is why I feel so anxious about getting my black belt. I don't feel black. If anything, I feel a pale shade of gray.

I always thought a black belt was someone who was tough, who you didn't dare mess with. A black belt could swagger down the street in full confidence that they could take down anyone who dared mess with them. You know. "These hand are registered lethal weapons, mess with me at your own risk! Hi-YAH!"

Ummm. No.

Lets just say I will not be walking down any dark alleys, OK?

I guess I could put the blame for not feeling that way on the fact that, to be frank, my training has not been what I wanted it to be. I have been pretty clear on this blog about my feelings for my previous vs. current martial arts instructors. Loved, loved , loved that ones I got my white through brown belts with, and not so much the one I have now, the one I am getting my black belt with, by default. I have said it all before. I really wanted to get my black belt with the Muchenjes, not just because I love them to death, but because I know that they would not let me test until I was good and ready. I would walk into that test knowing I deserved it. I think I need that confidence - their confidence.

But that is not to be. Tonight I will walk into that test with nobody's confidence but my own, and that is where my anxiety lies. My confidence is shaky, at best. Not exactly the swaggering black belt of my imagination. Even worse, I am fairly sure I will walk out of there, a certified black belt, feeling even less confident than when I walked in.

Like a white belt.

Yin/yang.

Black and white may be opposites, but then again, they are swirled together in the yin/yang symbol in an infinite cycle, inseparable. Maybe my feeling of being closer to a white belt than a black belt are not so off at all.

The truth that I have to keep telling myself when get that same sick feeling I got that very first time I looked at myself in my new gi, is that I have put in the time. I have put in the work. I have been studying martial arts for 4 long years and have been coming consistently several times a week. I have really worked hard, and given it my all, even if my all wasn't much.

And while it is true that my training as of late has not been what I would have hoped, it has been decent. And there is not much I could do about that, anyway. I did my best with what I have. I came and I worked hard. I can absolutely claim that. I am not quick and I am not smooth. I am not exactly impressive out there on the mat (well, you might just ohh and ahh over how high I can kick, but I can only attribute that to the long legs I was born with, not any real skill on my part.)

At the beginning of my training I stamped up a pretty little notebook, embossed with kanji and Asian design and tied together with a black ribbon - knotted, of course. In it I kept all my notes on different techniques and forms, etc. I carried it in my purse to study from when ever I had a moment (that is until I got my iPhone. Guess what? There is an app for that too!) My once pretty little notebook is now in pieces, tattered from use. That has to mean something, right?

Last week I finally had a long talk with my current instructor. I told him that I was frustrated that all we ever do is kicking the bag, or controlled, I-kick-then-you-kick type sparring, and that I felt completely unprepared to actually fight anyone in the ring. There is a lot more to sparring than blocking and returning kicks. You must read the other person and react to what they do. There is so much more involved than technique. It is a mind game. An art. A cross between a dance and a chess match. But I know none of that. Not that I like sparring. I hate it, quite frankly, especially when I have to fight kids (because they are only kids) and men (because they are mean). But it is an unavoidable part of taekwando, and something I have not gotten enough training in. So I finally sat down with my instructor and explained to him my concerns (as best I could. His English is limited.) I told him I did not feel like I deserve to be black belt since I have never mastered the art of sparring. He said "Good!" in his choppy, Mr. Miagi-like, Confucian wisdom type way. "Black belt mean beginning. Black belt mean you know technique - kicking, blocking, punching. Black belt mean you ready to begin to learn art of fighting. Before black belt - skills. After black belt - art." He is seriously so old school. Basically, what he told me is that a black belt means that you have learned all the basics - the kicks, the blocks, the punches. It means you have learned control, so when you do start the actual fighting, you don't hurt yourself or anyone else. Your first degree black belt is not the final goal. It is not the end. It marks the beginning. Learning all that other stuff is what all the other black belt levels are for.

Ahh. Confucian wisdom. The whole swirling yin/yang thing again. The end is the beginning. Around and around we go.

I must admit I felt much better after finally talking to him. I guess it is OK after all if I walk into that black belt test not with swaggering confidence but like I know nothing and should be wearing a white belt all over again. Maybe that is how the ancients would want me to feel.

But I have to remind myself why I got into taekwando to begin with. Was it because I wanted to be an ultimate cage fighter? Um, no. It was because that is the activity that my whole family chose to get involved in together, and because I had just had my last baby and it looked like good exercise, and well, because we were getting family rate, so it was free for me to join. I never even dreamed of getting a black belt at first. And I never thought I would enjoy taekwando. But I did. Once I got over the shock of how extremely goofy I looked in that gi, I really started enjoying it and the feeling I got from learning something new and pushing myself. Then the belts just came, and as I achieved higher and higher belts, getting a black belt became a real possibility. So I set that as a goal and started pushing myself even harder to finish what I started. It was important for me to do this to be an example to my kids that when you work for anything, you can achieve it. (Plus, it is important that my teenagers understand that they can't mess with Mom! Hi-YAH!)

And now here I am. Yikes. I have done it. I am not great, but I have achieved, step by step, my goal. I should feel good about that, right? I should feel confidence. My old instructor texted me yesterday "You put in the time - you deserve the belt." Maybe he's right. Maybe I should be satisfied with that. But still, a part of me is afraid that when I put on that pretty black new belt with my name embroidered in gold, I will feel like a fraud. It might take me a while after wearing it to feel like it fits. After all, I have been wearing my senior red belt a solid year and still don't feel like I deserve it. But I can't wait forever and I'm certainly not getting any younger or quicker or more agile, now am I?

It seems like my teacher Kylee once told me that when you feel like you are tough enough to be a black belt, you are not ready. It isn't until you feel completely unworthy to be one that you are. I don't know if that is true, but I hope so because right now that is exactly how I am feeling. Completely unworthy.

My old instructor, I know, would have given me a tough test, taken me to the beach, made me fight and do forms on the sand, do a million push-ups and sit-ups, ran me into the ground, and who knows what else. She would also have me write an essay, I know. But I guess that I have written one anyway, haven't I? It would be horribly tortuously tough, but I would know I could do it because she would not have me test unless she knew I was ready, and I would have walked away (if I could walk, by that point) knowing that I had really accomplished something great.

I don't know what my test will consist of tonight. I already had one test a few months ago and it was pretty tough. I'm thinking tonight will be less stressful since I have already done it all before and since it is only a small group, not a big audience. He says the test will be short, so at least I won't have to sit on my nerves for hours like last time. But I'm betting it will be just working me until I am ready to drop. It won't be pretty, but it won't be the tough test I would have gotten from her. I should probably be glad about that. I just want to walk away feeling like I have accomplished something. That is why I am anxious.

Right now I have a bruised big toe which may seem like a small thing, but can be a big deal when you are kicking people and things. Hope it won't be a problem tonight.

Anyway, ready or not, worthy or not, I am getting this thing done! I'll let yin and yang take their course as they may.

Man, I'll be glad when this night is over.

See Y'all Later, Alligator! - Day 9

We went to Houston for two reasons - astronauts and alligators. My boys have been wanting to see real alligators in the wild for forever, so we headed down to Brazos Bend state park hoping to catch a glimpse of the king of the reptiles - the alligator.

First we explored the nature center.

Petting a snake was cool...

...but just not a cool as petting a real baby alligator. He was a year old and pretty cute.

It was hard to believe that that little guy could grow as large as 18 feet long with teeth like this!

As exciting is it was to touch a baby alligator, but now they all wanted to see some full grown ones. You know, the scary teeth-filled kind.

But there was more to see in Brazos Bend than alligators, like the huge trees hanging with long clumps of moss and giant cicadas screeching up in the trees.

It was very hot and humid. We ate a picnic lunch and tried to stay cool as we enjoyed the views of the swampy lake and waited for it to get cool enough for the alligators to come out and play.

Huge water lilies, bugs, and water fowl were all we saw, however, so we decided to drive over to another lake to see what we could find.

Am I the only one who is a little disturbed to see this alligator warning sign on a playground? Yikes! There is also a campground here. People actually go camping with wild alligators running around. I was getting a little nervous.

Caleb won the prize for spotting the first alligator. It was swimming under a fishing dock. (top right picture.) Of course, the boys were so excited and ran onto the dock and peeked through the floor boards to catch a peek! It was so exciting to be just a few feet away from an alligator!

Within minutes the whole gang of boys were on deck.

Pretty soon there were more alligators swimming around right under our feet! I think we counted about 7. Some were pretty big! It was an eerie feeling to have huge alligators so close.

We soon figured out what the alligators were doing there. Fishing. Well, sort of.

We met this guy, Kenneth, who come to Brazos Bend from Louisiana once a month to go fishing. He fishes, and then when he catches something the alligators try to grab his catch before he can get it out of the water.

It is ultimate competitive fishing. Man vs. Alligator!!!

Once Kenneth determined where the fish were biting, he would go to the other side of the pier and throw his line in the water as a lure and wait for the alligators to arrive. As soon as they arrived to wait for the next catch, he would run back to the other side of the dock and throw in his line and hope to catch a fish before the alligators realized they had been duped and came back. Most of the time he would snatch the fish out of the water just in time before the angry alligators came snapping up out of the water! Just like in the cartoons. It was unreal! But Kenneth was quite good at competitive fishing because even with the alligators in hot pursuit, he caught about 30 fish in the time we were there.

The alligators were not always too happy with this friendly competition, and a few times they hissed and growled. I was not prepared for how LOUD their growls were - like the roar of a bear. Two alligators started fighting under the dock and let out a growl that scared me so bad I think I jumped two feet in the air! In this case, though, I have a feeling their bark is not as bad as their bite!

Of course, the boys wanted to play fishing-with-alligators too, so they grabbed a few poles and tried their hand at it. Who says fishing is boring? Not with a half dozen hungry alligators swimming around!

Nathan did great! He caught a few fish...

But his catch of the day was a large 15 foot alligator! It jumped and grabbed the fish Nate caught, and the hook must have gotten caught in his teeth because he started swimming all around with the line still in his mouth. Nathan didn't know what to do. His line was unwinding and he didn't dare try to reel the humongous creature in! Finally he cut the line.

The one that got away!

Now Nathan has a whopper of a fishing tale to tell!

For the rest of the time we were there that alligator was still dragging that fishing line around. See it above?

That didn't deter anyone. Now ALL the boys wanted to try their hand at alligator fishing.

Even little Caleb found a long piece of twisted up fishing line and tied little bait fish on the end and hung it over the side hoping to get a nibble... or a CHOMP!

Isn't he cute? I think he was smiling for the camera.

I was still creeped out, by the way.

Originally we had planned on taking a hike around the lake and visit an observation tower on the other side of the lake, but the alligators at the fishing dock distracted everyone for several hours. Finally, before it got dark, Alex, Caleb and I decided to leave the others to fight off the alligators while we went on a nice, leasirely, alligator-free walk.

Such a pretty time of day! There is the tower we were heading for, but we stopped to look at the beautiful yellow water lilies,

blue dragonflies, large spiders on elaborate webs, and old trees draped in silvery moss.

We were so busy stopping to smell the flowers that we almost ran into this ominous fellow casually sunning himself right on the trail about a fourth of the way around the lake. Hello there, pal.

He was huge, and though he was kind enough to stay over to the side and give us our own lane, we were reluctant to share the road with him.

The thing is, they are very clear at this park that you have to stay on the trail for safety reasons. Period. Well, in this case, the trail was not looking very safe either. We couldn't go around him because there was a lake on one side and a dark and ominous wood on the other. We stood there at a safe distance for a while, hoping the road hog would slip back into the lake, but no such luck. We just stood there, eyeing each other for a while. At once point he even raised his claw up toward us. It looked just like he was beckoning us! "Come on. It's fine. Walk on by. I'm not gonna hurt you." Ya, right, pal. Nice try.

We turned and walked back the way we came. We never made it to the observation tower. This time the alligator won.

But on the walk back we made another discovery. Lightening bugs! My boys have never seen them before, so at first they didn't quite know what they were seeing - small flashes of light in the darker parts of the woods. They started chasing them around, and catching them in their hands before someone got the idea to put them in an empty water bottle. They ran off the find their brothers who all got busy catching fireflies for their bottle. We had a bottle that glowed all the way home.

See y'all later, alligators!