Salaygoos Salaymah

This is MTN blogging from our beloved Nashville - here for a conference on education pedagogy and policies.  It is great seeing old friends and old places, though I have mixed feelings as I recognize the truth in the ancient notion that you can never step in the same river twice.  I am certain that our stay in Nashville (2000-2003) was too short, and equally certain (and saddened) that it cannot be recreated.  I think I am personally more honest than most in my retrospections, and I have not forgotten the stresses of money, uncertain futures, academic challenges, adjusting to adulthood, sleepless babies, and SJZ’s intolerance for humidity.  But the depth of our friendships, the beauty of this segment of earth, and the intellectual, spiritual, musical, social, and familial growth we achieved/experienced/endured makes us suffer saudades for 1803 Blair Blvd/Harpeth River Drive.  As the Wreckers say, things are sweeter in Tennessee.

Dear Nathen i like you becus yoursmort love your freed Miles

Katie hav a great day love Miles

Mrs. Hardman (aide) i like it when your hear love Miles

Macie i hop you stil like me love Miles

Rhett i hop your fealing graet love Miles

McKenna you rae so biewtuful love Miles

Shaffer i like it when weply togthr love Miles

Camberly i like it how you pay atetchan love Miles

Ashtyn i like you’r voies love Miles

Crittenden (teacher) i like it when you teach love Miles

Jane it is cidav siley when you blok my way whenIm puting my suff away love Miles

Zac i like it when you sit by me on the bus love Miles

Brody you hav the coolist backpack love Miles

Gabriella i do cinda like you love Miles

Daegon it is funy taht you wear snowpants love Miles

Jocelyn i like you so much love Miles

Larell you rae so coll and nice im bing nice toyou love Miles

Kayo i like you becus yourcool loveMiles

Bailee i like your haircut love Miles

Logan i like you becus your nies love Miles

Boilikeyou becusyour a cowboy love your freed Miles

(and here’s a letter he wrote to me while I was away this weekend)

Dad i hop your having a grate chrip wahte are you doing thair i hop you hav a grate time thair love your sun Miles.

(He then realized that I was coming home, so he rewrote it in past tense.)

Dad did you hav a grate time on your chrip was it nise thair i hop it was I wode like to go thair with you some day love your sun Miles

Vicki stayed with SJZ while MTN was in CA for a debate field trip.

Owen woke up early, ran to Vicki and said, “Hey Grandma!”

Vicki said, “Owen, you need to go play, Grandma doesn’t feel well right now.”

Owen said, “Oh, I don’t know how to play that game.”

The boys dressed up as pirates after church today. The nice thing there is we can pass off their violence and agression as ‘playing the part.’

One of the big Christiansen twins (who were practically conjoined they were so close to each other) once told me that they had a fist fight with each other every day of their life until they turned 16.

It’s hard to watch Miles and Owen being mean to each other so often, but those big Christiansens give me hope that they’ll figure out eventually how lucky they are to have each other.

For months, Owen has been praying for “an electric guitar that’s white and red with gold stars on it.” He will forget to bless the food in a prayer, but he never forgets to pray for the electric guitar.

We do not intend to manipulate the boy’s faith with this, but we went ahead and got him a guitar (it’s white…we told him we’d get stickers to make it look just right) for his big present for Christmas. Before he opened it we asked him what he thought was inside this big box.

He said, “I think it’s a Hot Wheels race track with a Pteradactyl inside.” Then he started unwrapping. When he saw that it was a guitar, he started beaming and shouting and jumping. He was ecstatic. It was a lot of fun to watch. We should put the recording up once I figure out how to do that.

Many hours later at dinner, we asked Owen to say the prayer. Matt reminded him to be sure to bless the food and to thank Heavenly Father for the wonderful day we’d had. Here’s his prayer:

“Dear Heavenly Father, Thank you for this day. And thank you for this food. And thank you for the wonderful day we had. And please bless me that I will get a hot wheels race track with a pteradactyl for Christmas next year. Amen.”

Miles runs upstairs yelling, “Mom! Owen is hitting me!”

Owen runs upstairs yelling, “Mom! Miles is telling on me!”

So, the boys were fighting one day and Sara said, “That’s it. All you ever do is fight with each other and I’m sick of it. Fight fight fight. No more! Both of you pick a country. I’m sending you to a different country so that you never have to see each other ever again and so you won’t fight anymore.”

(We’ve been reading a lot of child rearing books and none of them talk about deportation as a means to behavior modification, so we thought we’d give it a shot.)

Owen said, “China! I get China!”

Miles said, “I get Oakley.”

Sara said, “That’s not far enough. I might see you at the grocery store.”

Miles said, “Fine. I will go to India.”

Sara said, “Great. You go to China, you go to India.” Then she turned down the hallway to her room. As soon as she turned, she heard Miles whisper at Owen,

“India is better than China.”

Brad Penny is having a Cy Young kind of year. He will be pitching against Bonds tomorrow night. It’s a record-breaking situation for Bonds, and it’s a must-win for LA with Padres and D-Backs breathing down their necks. SJZ picked the perfect game for us to attend. I hope Penny is perfect too.

We have arrived at cousin/mission house-mate Josh Zollinger’s house. He has a phenomenal home with a phenomenal little family. We’ll say more when they actually get home!

So Barry Bonds is also headed for Dodger Stadium Tuesday night.  If he hits one more home-run, he will tie Hank Aaron.  If he hits two, he will break the record.  We will be there. I hope they skunk him.  I’d rather have him get the record in San Diego later in the week since Padres fans REALLY hate him.  They will give the moment all the drama it deserves - booing probably.  Actually, I imagine they would soak up the historical aspect of it and give it a standing O.  Anyhoo, it will make Tuesday night a bit more tense.  With a couple of losses to Colorado this week, the Dodgers need wins to stay in front in NL West.  So we should be seeing some good baseball.  Last I read, the Dodgers’ best pitchers had minor injuries, so I don’t know who we’ll see on the mound.  But it should be good baseball no matter.

(SJZ’s Grandpa Morales was a Dodgers fan, and he took SJZ to her first games way back in the day.  This will be our fourth year in a row, and third time for the MTN2 and OMN.  It will be HEN’s first, unless he can’t break the fever.  Yvonne offered to watch him and maybe that’s the best idea.  We’ll post pics of the boys with the field in the background.)