Thursday I had the opportunity to help judge the District Spelling bee. The school district here is working hard to meet the requirements necessary to be part of the actual Scripps program, which means they have to hold spelling bees for a requisite number of years following Scripps rules (I'm not sure how many years). But I was so impressed by the 8 kids there, all of whom won their school spelling bees--and two of whom had memorized the entire nearly thousand word list. (And one of whom was nearly heart-broken when he got ahead of himself and misspelled a word he knew.)
Our Thursday was unexpectedly complicated by a leak under the kitchen sink--the connector for the hot water hose popped off, spewing hot water all over the floor (and, courtesy of a vent at the floor level), all over the storage/laundry room below. Luckily we were able to contain the leak pretty quickly and nothing major was damaged, but it was still a mess to clean up. Bonus: we did get the storage room cleaned and organized . . .
We salvaged a remnant of the break Friday by taking the kids out of school. To make sure things were still semi-educational (actually, we just wanted to go), we took them to the zoo. Oliver was fascinated by all the "puppies" (his only animal-related word); Evelyn got to see not one but two wolves (her current favorite animal, thanks largely--I think--to Frozen); and Andrew got to show off his impressive knowledge of animals. He did not, to his immense disappointment, find a stuffed piranha in the giftshop.
(Can you tell Oliver loved the bird nest? Nice snot rocket, kid . . . )
That night, we went and saw Dan's nephew, Jake, in an actually decent middle school performance of Oliver! (No relation to ours). Most of the leads were pretty good, and the cast had a great energy. Jake, who is normally a calm, mellow, gentle giant of a boy, got cast as Bill Sykes. It was impressive (if startling) to see him transform into a violent criminal. And I have to admit I got a little emotional watching the performance. Not because of the storyline, which, in the time-honored tradition of musicals, doesn't actually make a lot of sense if you think about it too much (and don't know the longer backstory of the novel). But because of the kids. All these thirteen and fourteen year olds on the cusp of big and tremendous things in their lives. Most still in that awkward phase (though the lead for Nancy seemed pretty comfortable with herself). But so much potential there . . . makes me grateful that I get to work with the youth at church.
Which incidentally reminds me of one other highlight from the week: for our mutual activity on Tuesday, the Mia Maids and Laurels (14-18 year olds) played hide and seek at the university president's house (his daughter happens to be one of our Mia Maids). It was pretty awesome--and not something I ever expected to do!
On Saturday, we spent more time with family. We saw my brother Justin and his kids for a little while Saturday morning, and then we headed up to Salt Lake to spend a little more time with Sarah. Actually, I wanted to go to a book signing for one of my sister's author friends and got to see my sister in the bargain (score!). I enjoyed listening to the author, Bree Despain, talk about the story genesis of her newest book. And it's refreshing to hear a published author confess that she waited so long to write this book (She started it 7 years ago) because she wasn't sure then that she was a good enough writer. I just have to remind myself of this: if I'm not good enough yet, that doesn't mean I won't ever be good enough.
And that night Andrew and I went to my niece Emi's dance recital. I'd forgotten until after I arrived that my niece studies Irish dancing--but that made for a nice surprise. I love Irish music and dancing and I loved the costumes and dancers. The younger dancers, like my niece, weren't quite as proficient, but they were still fun to watch.
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