Till We Meet Again

I have had such an emotional day after hearing that our dear Prophet has passed. I knew that I needed to record some of my feelings about this time for my children to read in the future. For totally selfish reasons I wanted so much to hold on to our sweet Prophet for even more time then we were blessed to have him with us. What a truly inspiring man he is. Gordon B. Hinckley is the essence of kindness, charity, love, hard work, integrity and obedience. I marvel at all of the good he did for the church in his many years of service. Just one example of a lesson I learned from the actions of our Prophet occurred in April of 2002 when Jeremy and I were able to attend the dedication of the Lubbock, Texas temple.

We made our arrangements and got our tickets a couple of weeks prior to the big day. We knew that we would need to leave Amarillo very early so we could get to Lubbock (120 miles away) and drop Jake and Riley off with my cousin Vickie and her family. Our stake was assigned the earlier session of the dedication and even though this was such a joyous time I was feeling sort of bitter about the fact that we had to make this huge sacrifice to be their so early when the members who lived in Lubbock were going to be attending a latter time slot. I even spoke the words out loud to Jeremy that this just doesn't seem fair it was just bad planning in my mind. We woke up very early that morning and I was feeling a little under the weather I had this bad attitude and as horrible as this sounds I considered for a moment cancelling the trip. We got to Lubbock and dropped off the kids and got to the temple in plenty of time in fact we were a little early. Many people were walking around the temple grounds and rumors started circling that the Prophet was on his way over for the ceremony. A sudden wave of emotion enveloped my whole being as I saw a black car pull up, park in front of the temple and then the Prophet and his sweet wife were assisted out of the car. The Prophet turned to the people and waved at us all as he used a cane to walk into the temple. I felt the spirit so strongly just being in his presence knowing that he is the Lord's mouth piece. What a change in my attitude I had as I saw this elderly man who had made many sacrifices to be with us in Lubbock on this special day. President Hinckley could have easily sent another General Authority to preform this ceremony but he knew how important it was to us to have our own temple close to us and he wanted to be there himself as it was dedicated. From this experience I took with me several lessons including the lesson of being where you should be at all times. It is so easy for us to think I won't be missed at church or convince ourselves that we are not feeling 100% so we can catch up with sleep instead of attend a 9:00 am Sacrament meeting. How does taking the easier road ever help us grow? It does not and will never. I also gained such a personal testimony of the love of our Prophet for each of us. At the time of this experience President Hinckley was 92 years old. Standing in the same place as our prophet was a wonderful experience I felt his love as well as the love of our Savior. Everyone did. We will all miss President Hinckley greatly, the words to the hymn "Till We Meet Again" keep playing in my head I believe this is a great time to read those lyrics once again.

God be with you till we meet again;

By his counsels guide, uphold you;

With his sheep securely fold you.

God be with you till we meet again.
Till we meet, till we meet,

Till we meet at Jesus’ feet,

Till we meet, till we meet,

God be with you till we meet again.

El luchadores no es bueno... :(

Another Friday night in Amarillo and another oportunity to watch me some wresteling. I heard some of the kids at school talking about the underground WW(whatever) scene. I decided to check it out even if that meant on my own. The venue for this wrestling happens to be right around the corner from where we live so tonight I waited until Jeremy got home. Tucked the kidos in bed and prepared myself for an adventure. In my mind to make this a sucess and worth my time I had to see a few things:

1. masks

2. stretchy pants

3. capes

and to make it extra special I wanted to see:

1. a little person

2. some sort of hairy dog/man

3. a vendor selling some nice hot corn on the cob

As a deprived gringo my only exposure to this sort of cultural experience was of course Nacho Libre. I looked through my closet to find my best wrestling outfit and finally settled on a hoodie sweatshirt and jeans. I was definitely NOT going to wear any jewelry or freshen up the deodorant (I didn't' want to stick out like a sore thumb). I was ready and I was pumped!! This is a picture of me "pumped" I do NOT have a lazy eye and that would be the "rock on" sign not the "by jove I've got it" hand shape the pinkie is just a little hidden there.

I get there and the lady at the front door tells me it is going to cost me eleven bucks. I was kind of shocked at the pricey entry fee but my people were all expecting pictures so I handed her a twenty and what happens next is still a little confusing to me. She hands me back a five and a one and apologized that she is out of ones. I look at her like this isn't going to cut it and then she says wait a sec takes the change back from me and then hands me a ten and a five. I still didn't get it then she explains to me, "I don't have enough ones so next time you come I will have to get it to you." I was very confused. Perhaps she meant eleven pesos and I totally over paid her. I was in and there were already a couple of guys in the ring fighting. As I walked over toward the crowd and action I was hit by a total funk of cigarettes, beer and a generic bad hygiene smell. Pretty gross but I was glad I choose the no touch up on the deodorant. FUNKY!! The second thing that shocked me was exactly who the wrestling fans were. Apparently wrestling bridges all race, age, mental capacity, and economic gaps. There seemed to be a representative from all paths of life. Grandparents with their small grand kids. Random children running around unattended, very preppy looking college kids, middle aged clean cut "we just finished dinner at the Outback" kind of people mixed in with what I am sure was the homeless community of Amarillo. When I checked out the action in the ring I was totally disappointed, it was a couple of gross white 20 somethings without a mask in sight. "This isn't what I just paid to see!" I don't know what I was expecting but it was all totally fake too. Fake hits to the face and body while the hitter slapped his own leg really hard and loud. Throw in some basic tumble moves and you too can be a "semi-professional wrestler". The sillier you make your "I'm in pain" face the more the crowd eats it up. It was so loud and if your guy gets hurt you boo and hiss at his opponent. People had signs and shirts made up it was a little like a white trash version of American Idol. At this point I was mostly enjoying the fabulous people watching. I had my camera out and I was snapping pictures left and right. I was a little nervous that someone would ask me why I wasn't taking any pictures of the fighters so in my mind I had a cover story already about writing an article for some "online magazine".

After the first fight was over one of the crowd favorites stood in the ring and offered to take pictures with people for five dollars. I loved how the parents, who just seconds earlier were cussing, and flipping off the wrestlers were now throwing their young children up on to the ring to have this sweaty greasy guy hold their baby for a Polaroid souvenir of the evening. CLASSY!! I try not to be judgemental of other's parenting techniques but come on. After the photo session was over the announcer (this is the guy with the suit and microphone for all of you newbies at wrestling) yells out, "I have good news and great news!" The good news was that the main event was about to start and "El Grande" was in the house, the great news was that he had two bags of candy for all the kiddos in the audience. I was a little surprised that even the announcer thought the candy was the more exciting of the two pieces of news. This is when all the little unattended children had to fight off the homeless community for all the free candy as it was thrown into the audience. After the candy was cleared off the floor the lights all started to dim and some fantastic mariachi music started to blare. I knew I was getting what I came for as they announced the next two fighters El Grande verses El Gringo. My mental list came back to me as the guys walked to the ring. Masks CHECK, stretchy pants CHECK, capes... well two out of three ain't bad. I took some pictures of the main event and their eclectic fans but just couldn't stick it out to see the finish. The smells, language and atmosphere was just getting to me. I got what I came for and I had enough to make my report.

It was seriously hilarious but honestly the funniest parts were all of the people as shocking as it is to see big masked, greasy guys in spandex "fighting" each other it was much more shocking to see these parents and what goes on just around the corner from my house. I would say that the pictures and description of the evening should be enough to satisfy most of you.

Martin Luther King Jr. Day

I have been called out several times by several different people about not updating lately so I guess I will let you all know how we celebrated the late great MLK Jr. I was off work today however all of the teachers had to use today as an in service day. Jake and Riley's school had parent teacher conferences and I was able to visit with both of their teachers this morning. I got wonderful reports on both of them. Let me just stop right here and tell you we live in a very colorful, interesting neighborhood. I often tell people that if they truly want a spooky Halloween they ought to trick or treat in my hood. That being said I was able to meet the mother of one of Jake's friends. She seems very nice and to be a very involved mom (something you can't say about too many mothers at this school). Her name is Pepsi (no she isn't black). I think Pepsi and I are going to try and get the boys together someday. I just love saying her name I smile every time I say it. After I visited with Pepsi (snicker snicker) I hurried home so Jeremy could get to work. The rest of the day we decided to remember the great civil rights leader by watching one of our most favorite movies ever Hairspray (the new version) we LOVE this movie and can sing and dance to every song (when I say "we" I mean the kids and I, Jeremy isn't such a fan). This movie of course takes place during the civil rights movement and although it might not be the most accurate films on the subject you really can't beat the soundtrack. We did a little dancing and singing and then got the house in order and caught up on the laundry. We were suppose to take Jake into his dermatologist for a UV treatment however when we got out to the van it wouldn't start. I guess a door was left open or a light was left on what ever the problem was I needed someone to give us a jump start. I look around the neighborhood (ghettohood) to see if I recognized any one's car so I could ask for some help. I didn't so we were stuck. I had taped some MLK program off of the History channel so I had the kids watched that while I started dinner. No giggles but I did make some mac and cheese for the kids to eat (this was not a planned part of MLK day we just enjoy mac and cheese) the kids also each wanted a jell-o cup from the fridge so the girls all chose a flavor and then Jake looked down at the options and said, "I want to pick BLACK cherry because it's Martin Luther King Jr. day." I thought that was kinda funny. We ended the day out with chocolate cream pie (once again the color of the pie was not intentional part of our celebrations we happened to find it on the "day old shelf" at the grocery store for 40% off) and we talked about what MLK did and what his dream was for our FHE. The kids all went around the table and said how they could help make the dream of everyone being kind and loving one another possible. Riley thought that she could share crackers with Tanashia, a girl in her class.

Well I updated for everyone so no more gripping out there from anyone. This is the boring mundane stuff you have all been missing from my updates I am sure you are all thinking maybe I should wait and update when I have something more interesting to say. Sorry no pictures I didn't think it was really interesting enough to warrant documentation so just use your imagination.

*** I just thought of something else that I need to post. You all remember my girl's night out drag show incident I hope. Well I have discovered (much to my joy) that Amarillo has a very active La Luchadore (Nacho Libre style) wrestling. We are talking masks, capes spandex the whole nine yards. I of course started calling my girls to see who was up for another adventure they were all in so we went a couple of Fridays ago and somehow missed it. The thing starts at 8 and ends promptly at 10 (who knew it would be so punctual?) We got there at about 10:30 and saw the aftermath. Let's just say we will not make the same mistake twice. We will try this again and by golly we will be there on time. Pictures will be posted. Love ya guys!!!***