The Hazard Chronicles

Alright. Get ready for a crazy post that is all over the place. This has been a super busy week and I don’t really know where to start.

First, the schedule of events: As we wrote last week, we had driven down to Utah for Shannon’s wedding. I also went to a course where I learned to place dental implants. On Monday I flew back to Post Falls so I could work during the week. That’s a whole other story that I won’t write about here. Anyway, I worked all week and then flew back to Salt Lake just in time for Shannon and Tyson’s wedding. The next day we drove to Rexburg and hung out with my family for a while. We got back to Post Falls on Sunday (actually Monday morning) around 1:00am. I was up bright and early the next day to go to work.

So that's that.

Out of everything, the major event of the week, of course, was Shannon’s wedding. It was a beautiful wedding at a gorgeous reception center in Salt Lake City (or somewhere around there). Evelyn was the flower girl and did a great job throwing handfuls of flower petals. The only thing is that when she ran out of petals she took off into the gardens and began picking off more to replenish her supply. I thought that was kind of funny. We took pictures and more pictures, and then we went to eat while Shannon and Tyson took even more pictures. The reception place provided babysitting during all of this and we fully took advantage of these services. Addy, Jackson, and Evelyn (after the actual ceremony) happily played and watched movies while we partied and danced and got reacquainted with family and friends who we hadn’t seen for a while. It was a good night.

After Shannon and Tyson left I was laying on the grass next to the giant fake waterfall with Evelyn and Jackson and looking at the stars. It was a nice quiet moment of reflection after an evening full of noise and activity.
Suddenly, Evelyn looked at me and said “Daddy?”
“Yes, Evelyn.”
“Daddy, this is a very beautiful place.”
“Yes it is, Evelyn.”
There was a small pause then where we just laid there. And then Evelyn turned to me again. “Daddy?”
“Yes?”
“Jesus must love me a lot. He made this beautiful place for me.”
I hugged her tight and told her that Jesus did love her a lot and that I did too. I am so proud of my little girl. She is getting it. She is starting to recognize what a gift life can be and much beauty can be found in everything all around us. And now she is starting to remind us of these things. Sometimes being a dad can be so rewarding.

Alright, I’m going to move on to another topic now that has gotten under my skin. Evelyn’s dance class.

First, some background. Evelyn has been in a dance class since she was barely two years old and she LOVES it. So naturally, when we moved to Idaho we looked around for a little dance class to put her in. There are a few studios around here that do classes for kids, but they are super expensive and I think a little over-the-top for a 3 year old. Her other classes were with a bunch of her friends in a pretty laid back type of environment with her teacher being a member of our ward who had some background in dance. It was a perfect place for Evelyn to explore this new medium of expression. Ever since then, any time there is music she will search for a “stage” to stand on and will perform a surprisingly emotional impromptu dance for anyone who is willing to watch. She has no inhibitions and is one of those people who can express herself almost perfectly with just movement. Oh, and did I tell you she loves it? She totally wants to be a ballerina and at home she loves showing off her new moves to Addy and Jack. I think it is amazing (but that also might be because dance is a complete foreign language to me).

Well, we finally found a little 6-week long city-sponsored class (sort of like little-league, but for dance). It was relatively inexpensive, it was close, and since it was a city thing we thought it might be a little more relaxed and fun than an actual studio.

Well, we were wrong on two of those counts (It is close though).

The first red flag came during the first day of class. All the parents were dropping off their kids and getting paperwork filled out and stuff. While I was doing that stuff, I showed Evelyn the dance floor where the other kids were running around and explained to her that it was a stage. She immediately caught on and started into a dance. Suddenly the teacher turned around and explained that there was to be NO DANCING until she told them to. She didn’t want them to develop bad habits. Woah.The next event came when we saw Evelyn dancing barefoot. After the class we asked the teacher where her shoes had gone. She explained to us that she would not allow Evelyn to dance in her shoes because they did not allow her to point her toes in the proper ballet form. We pointed out to her that the class was made up of a bunch of 2-4 year olds, and for many of them this was their first experience in dance. NONE of them were pointing their toes in “proper form.” The teacher wouldn’t budge though. We needed to buy real ballet shoes.

So we grudgingly went to Wal-mart and bought her some shoes.

Yesterday, the teacher informed us that the shoes we had purchased were inadequate.They weren't made out of real leather. They still did not allow proper form. I felt like giving her a piece of my mind: “Look, lady- I get it. You graduated with a degree in dance and had great aspirations to be on Broadway, but now you find yourself in a small town in Northern Idaho teaching dance to 3 year olds. You are bitter and mean and you are taking it out by punishing my daughter. You don’t realize that she is crushed every time you make her take off her dance shoes, telling her that they aren’t good enough. You don’t realize that she goes home and tells us that she doesn’t like dancing anymore because of your insistence on proper ‘form’ and you constantly telling her that she is wrong. SHE IS THREE YEARS OLD! DON’T YOU GET THAT? This could be something really fun for her- and it should be- but instead you insist on using it as a personal stage for your own insecurities. Well, get this. The kids don’t like you. The parents don’t like you. This is not Broadway. These kids are not interested in ‘proper form’ right now. They just want to dance. Period.

It felt good to write that. But of course she will never read this blog, and I will never say that to her (unfortunately). Instead, we smiled and politely asked her what we needed to do to make it so that Evelyn could dance. And she told us. So finally, after spending a total of $80 on ‘proper’ attire which is totally not needed, our daughter is ready to learn how to dance. The only catch- she doesn’t want to any more.

Here’s a story for you. I wasn’t there for this one (thankfully), but here is what Rachel has told me.

Last week she was at a kid store with Evelyn, Adalie, and Jackson. Rachel’s friend, Stephanie, also came with her two young children. At the store there was a little play area for children so they left the kids there while they looked around at clothes and stuff (don’t worry, it was a very small store). Well, when they were done looking, Rachel went back to get the kids. As she approached the play area she could smell dirty diapers and she started wondering who needed a change. And then she got there.

Addy had pooped, and then had taken off her diaper. The other kids saw finger paint. You get the picture

Yep. Everywhere.

Stephanie took the kids. Rachel took a package of baby wipes and went to work cleaning up and guarding the area from other mothers who wanted to let their kids play. 45 minutes later she had things mostly clean (as much as you can with baby wipes) and she left the store as the employees were applying Clorox Bleach to everything.

Alright. Next topic.

Yesterday we had a fun morning. First, we dropped off Addy and Jack at a babysitter’s house (who, we later found out has seven children and home-schools. Oops!). Next, Rachel, Evelyn, and I all drove to the doctor’s office where we got to see an ultrasound. Evelyn kept pointing at the screen and saying “Mommy, look. There is a baby. Maybe that is an eye (or arm, or whatever).” It was fun to let her take part in that. And at the very end, we got to find out what we are having.

Evelyn is very excited to announce that she will have a new baby SISTER!

Really, Evelyn is VERY excited about this. Jackson and I are rapidly being outnumbered in this family. As far as names go, we like Maren, so our “bubba” is now our little Maren. I couldn’t be happier.

Well, I better stop there. I could write more but I’ll let it wait until next week. For now, time marches on (or in our case, races on) and we are just trying to keep up with it. Life is exciting.

Oh- also, our camera is still somewhere in the car that we have yet to clean out. Consequentially, we have no pictures this week. Sorry!