Hello from the MTC!!!

 

Hey you guys! I am email you guys to let you know that <i have recieve to the MTC safely and the my P-day will be on friday! So far things have been good, i met up with some other missionaries in the atlanta airport, so we all  stuck together. There was a kind man who saw that we looked lost at the mexico MTC and he knew right away that we were missionaries so he showed us where to go. I love you guys lots and will email you on friday!
Love,
          Hermana Wagner

*Notes to clear up some “lingo” for those who may not know:

MTC stands for Missionary Training Center – this is where she will spend the next six weeks studying Spanish and being trained in what she needs to know, do, & teach as a missionary.

P-day stands for Preparation Day – a missionary’s focus is on doing God’s work and helping others come to Jesus Christ. They teach, do service, study, etc every day. One day a week is granted to them as a preparation day where they are able to take care of personal things – do their laundry, grocery shopping, etc. It is on preparation day that missionaries are able to read & write emails. So, look forward to Friday for updates!!

*Mom Note: I think when she said “mexico MTC” she meant “Mexico Airport” just a guess though.

I must say it was great to receive this email, I think I was just a touch anxious that all would go well, etc. Now I can relax and look forward to her weekly emails – so excited!! Of course, I miss her like crazy already, but I am so thrilled for all the amazing experiences she will have & I can’t wait to hear about them!

And she’s off!

It seems not long ago I was posting stories about all the trouble our daughter, Dorothy, was getting in – all the silly things she did when she was little. And now, here she is all grown up and choosing to serve an 18 month mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. She’s been called to serve in the Mexico Mexico City South mission. This morning we drove her to the airport and after lots of hugs and pictures, we waved goodbye as she headed through security and off to her gate.

I am honored to be her mom – she has grown into an amazing young woman & I am so excited for all the amazing experiences she will have. We will miss her like crazy & we will look forward to her letters, calls, & pictures!

I will post her letters & pictures here on my blog for those who want to follow her journey.

And, now I leave you with a video we created to bid her farewell – a glimpse through the year at some of her shining (and not so shining? lol) moments….

Last day of National Poetry Month & a long ago goal fulfilled

A long time ago – not too long after I started this blog – so probably at least 10 years, maybe more – I wrote a children’s poem. I always wanted to make it longer – long enough that I could turn it into a children’s picture book some day. Well, for today, Day 30, our challenge from the amazing Stephanie was Free Choice – whatever we wanted to wrap up this amazing month.

I decided, what better way close out this month’s challenge, than to finally finish that poem I started so many years ago. Someday became today. It was no small feet – I had a mere 6 stanzas written and I needed 10 more – and a title! I’m still not sure I love the title, but for now it will do. And now to close out this fun month of poetry I present:

Child’s Play

by Julia Wagner

In my imagination
I rule as would a king.
Each day a new adventure,
a fresh surprise will bring.

I am a fearsome pirate
upon the stormy seas,
sailing in my gravy boat
across the Bay of Peas.

I am a knight in armor,
riding for my lady fair.
Upon my head a helmet pot,
my stallion is a chair.

I am a cunning archer
in my Lincoln green.
I hit the bulls eye every time
with my stick and string.

I am a mighty dragon,
breathing flames both far and near.
The table is my cavern
all who pass go by in fear.

I am a western cowboy,
Daddy’s boots upon my feet.
I can’t see beyond my hat,
But with my lasso, I’m elite.

I am a brave explorer,
Dodging lava on the ground.
Leaping from pillow to pillow
In one enormous bound.

I am a race car driver,
Zooming down the track.
In my painted cardboard box,
All world records, I will crack.

I am a clever wizard
With my chopstick wand.
And if you make me angry,
You’ll be a frog in my pond.

I am a train conductor-
Kitchen chairs all in row.
“All aboard! All Aboard!”
Listen to the whistle blow.

I am a superhero,
My blanket is my cape.
Fighting off the villain,
I keep my dad in shape.

I am a wild jungle man,
Swinging through the trees
And hanging from the bars up high
With all the other monkeys.

I am a secret agent,
Red yarn lasers fill the hall.
I can make it through them
If I somersault and crawl.

I am a mad scientist
In my mom’s lab coat.
I can make a bubbling volcano
And a mind control remote.

I am a spaceship captain,
Hurtling through the stars.
I’ll land my cardboard rocket
On Jupiter and Mars.

In my imagination
I rule as would a king.
Each day a new adventure,
a fresh surprise will bring.

*PLEASE REMEMBER ~ any poetry found on this blog, written by me, is my personal property and may not be used without my permission, other than sharing it as an example in a lesson or to read it to someone.

National Poetry Month Day 27!!

And on the 27th no less!! I know –

SHOCKING!!!

Okay, today is Terse Verse – basically 2 line riddles with rhyming answers – so addictive and fun to write!! I made up a ton some worked and were pretty funny (they will be posted) others were quite lame (they didn’t even make it into my notebook, lol) For the reules of Terse Verse go HERE.

*A note before we begin: Please, even though these are “jokes” or “riddles”, they are still my creation – if you wish to share them, please keep my name attached. Thanks in advance!!

PSA: I am a mom to 3 boys, keep that in mind as you read these poems (ahem)

Terse Verse Poems

by Julia Wagner

What do you call a hyper primate?
Spunky Monkey

What is a large serving of beans?
Farter Starter

What do you call a dirty diaper (especially in Britain)?
Crappy Nappy

What is another name for your nostril?
Snot Slot

And One Terse Verse poem

by Paul Wagner (the amazing husband)
What do you call a matchmaker?
Twitterpater Instigator

*PLEASE REMEMBER ~ any poetry found on this blog, written by me, is my personal property and may not be used without my permission, other than sharing it as an example in a lesson or to read it to someone.

National Month of Poetry Day 18

Today is National Poem-in-your-pocket Day! You can read about it at Stephanie’s blog or go to poets.org.  Just like I have a hard time choosing favorite books, I have a hard time choosing favorite poems, but I did decide to share some of my own.

These first two poems are more serious (not my kid or silly poems, in other words).
The first poem was the first Villanelle I ever wrote – a challenging form and quite fun. I like playing around with the repetition and varying the punctuation to bring different meaning and lessen the constant repetitive feel. I shared it back in 2006, but thought it’d be fun to do so again.

Solar Flare

by Julia Wagner

Fists pound the empty air;
Defeat entwines with chords that bind.
Silent hours of repair

Do not exist where
Exasperation and distress find
Fists. Pound the empty air!

Anger licks a solar flare.
Sparks erupt when spirits declined
Silent hours of repair.

Petulance ebbs to despair,
And upon the weight in one’s mind
Fists pound. The empty air

Falls heavy. Hearts are aware
As souls are chastened and aligned.
Silent hours of repair

Ameliorate through ardent prayer.
Chasms bridged; no more do blind
Fists pound; the empty air
Silent. Hours of repair.

Next is a free-verse – not sure if I used that term correctly, but no specific rhythm or rhyme pattern that I wrote years ago. I’d forgotten about it until I started scouring my poems trying to decide what should go in my pocket today.

Passion

by Julia Wagner

How does one describe
emotions of the heart?
Words, insipid, fail to capture
the ardor with which I love.

Nor can it be painted with
the finest brush in hand.
Colors dull with time,
so opposite my passion.

What resemblance to
nature could I possibly compose?
The most majestic mountain or
delicate rose sallow in comparison.

As time erodes the most formidable citadel,
devotion, secured in the
fortress of my heart,
will crescendo through eternity.

And now, because I especially love kids’/light hearted silly poems, I have to include a couple:

A Wee Little Fella

by Julia Wagner

If I were a wee little fella,
I’d live in a red-capped
mushroom house;
I’d harness the snails and go
for a ride,
tipping my cap to the white-
knight mouse.

I’d drink the dew from blue-
bell cups and dine on daisy plates,
And glide across the ice puddles
on a pair of grapevine skates.

Excuses

by Julia Wagner

I cannot write a poem today
I promised I’d help Fannie Mae
I’m her back up wedding singer
You see she sprained her pinky finger
Then I need to dye my hair
and find pink polk-a-dot underwear.
I need to practice my ninja skills
And pay grandpa Joe’s ballroom bills.
I have an appointment at ten
to decide ownership of a pygmie hen.
I need to pickle some pigs feet
and tame a wild parakeet.
I promised old man farmer Zirkle
I’d investigate his crop circle.
I also need to catch a tree frog
I spotted hopping through a bog.
And so you see, I’m sad to say,
I just can’t write a poem today.

Thanks for reading and poke a poem in your pocket to share today!!

*PLEASE REMEMBER ~ any poetry found on this blog, written by me, is my personal property and may not be used without my permission, other than sharing it as an example in a lesson or to read it to someone.

National Month of Poetry Days 13-17

Wow! What a weekend! Things have been just hopping around here! So, I don’t think I mentioned earlier that my daughter, Dot, has chosen to serve a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. She has been called to serve in the Mexico Mexico City South Mission – we are so excited for her and preparations have been fun, busy and a little crazy wild at times! (Like an unexpected jaunt up to Detroit… 4+ hours away)

This Saturday she went to the temple and it was absolutely wonderful in every way. Consequently, that filled our day and we had grandparents visiting from Utah which filled subsequent days and I got behind on my poems. So here are the past several days worth of poems (with links to the how to!)

A lot of these are just silly kids’ poems, but they tend to be my favorite kind!

Day 13

we did Triplets– you can read about them HERE This poem was inspired by my daughter, Dot (her middle name is not Rose), who really did get a rock stuck up her nose – but she stuck it there herself (and not with her toes). She was probably about 4 or 5 and we were in the Wendy’s drive through when she started hollering about a rock in her nose. I hopped out and opened the side door, pushed on the empty nostril and told her to blow & out it popped! lol

Woes of the Nose

by Julia Wagner

Jimmy, how do you suppose
Sweet little Dorothy Rose
Got a rock stuck in her nose?

It wasn’t me! I oppose!
I was washing my elbows.
I bet she picked it with her toes.

Day 14

we did Couplets– you can read about them HERE. I did two….

Turtle Troubles

by Julia Wagner

I wonder how my turtle
wound up in Grandma’s girdle?

After the Rain

by Julia Wagner

After Spring’s clouds and showers
Earth dons her robe of flowers.

Day 15

we learned about the Tyburn. You can read about it HERE. This was totally new to me and a really fun challenge!

Speedster

by Julia Wagner

Funky
Spunky
Junky
Clunky
Classy cruiser, funky spunky sped,
Now it sputters, junky, clunky, dead.

Day 16

we did a Windspark poem – a kind of fill in the blank poem. You can read about it HERE. I did this one right after writing the previous poems, so I still had rhyming in my brain, so this silly little ditty popped out:

A Frog’s Life

by Julia Wagner

I dreamed
I was a frog
Nestled in a bog
Hopping from log to log
Gleefully

Day 17

Today!!! We did Haiku– specifically a poiku, which you can read about HERE. I just did traditional haiku because my poetry brain was starting to die

April

by Julia Wagner

Month of weeping clouds
bleeding hearts, forget-me-nots
hope grows with flowers

*PLEASE REMEMBER ~ any poetry found on this blog, written by me, is my personal property and may not be used without my permission, other than sharing it as an example in a lesson or to read it to someone.

A Brief Shining Moment

Today was such a fun day. We started off with a concert at the high school – Dot performed with the jazz band and had her first solo and did AWESOME!!! – and then we headed out to Metamora (a cute little Christmas town in Indiana). Even though there were the usual little reminders and stresses over “look with your eyes, not with your hands” everyone got along and we played games at the park and climbed trees. It was just a wonderful day… which brings me to the main point of this (rather long?) post: While today was a wonderful day without a lot of trouble or drama it was not a normal day.

In fact, it was quite out of the ordinary. I tend to focus on happy positive things – mainly because I think life is better when we accentuate the positive and focus on all the amazing blessings we have. But that can tend to make it appear like we have it together all the time. Someone once told me that we must have so much fun as a family at home and that they could see how much we loved each other. I remember thinking about that morning where there had been multiple arguments and fights. The day before where I had completely lost it with my kids and how up to that one very precise happy moment it kind of felt like a war zone in our home.

So, here is the thing – life is hard. It has its good moments, it’s bad moments, it’s gorgeous moments and it’s phantom-of-the-opera-ugly-scary-face moments. Raising a child with severe ADHD is not easy, pretty or even fun, nor is raising a teenager, pre-teen, grade-school aged, preschool aged, toddler aged, or infant aged child – even when they are as amazing as ours (because despite their and our many faults, they are amazing). At any point you could probably stand outside our house and hear yells and screams – not the happy kind – coming from within our walls – and, I’m rather embarrassed to say – sometimes it’s me. Sometimes I catch myself stuck in pitty mode saying if only… if only Lizy were still here everything would be better – which is hogwash because we would still have the same problems, the same issues, the same horrible, rotten, very bad no good days. And sometimes those days turn into weeks and longer. Oh sure, there are good spots, but sometimes the good spots can be overwhelmed by the bad ones and I have to work really hard to find them.

Sometimes life feels so hard I can hardly breathe and I just want to be done. Sometimes it feels hard and I feel “I can do this!” Sometimes it’s scary and I’m terrified. Sometimes I’m brave. Sometimes it’s stressful and overwhelming. Sometimes I feel like “I’ve got this”. Sometimes I feel lost and utterly alone. Sometimes I feel purposeful. Sometimes I feel like a total failure. Sometimes I feel like a million bucks. I love my children and often feel they are the most amazing people on the planet and sometimes they are terrors and I hide from them because I’m tired of dealing.

This post isn’t meant to be a feel sorry for me post, or wow she’s awesome post… This post is to say we are normal everyday people with ups and downs. Our friends are normal everyday people with ups and downs and even the seemingly perfect and amazing spiritual giants that we strive to emulate are normal everyday people with ups and downs. Sometimes it’s easy to look at someone and say “wow, they are so strong, incredible, inspirational” – what have you, and it’s easy to compare your weak moments with someone’s shining moments. But when it all comes down to it, we’re all mucking our way along in the trenches of everyday life and dealing with challenges in one unglamorous way or another while trying to keep our faces to the light. And because of that, days like today, the rare gem in the pig-sty of life are greatly cherished. And at the end of the day, week, month, year – if you’re really taking tally, the good actually does out-weight the bad.

I opened an Etsy shop!

I never thought that when I started painting little wooden figures & chess sets that I would end up selling any – let alone open an etsy shop! What started as a way to make Christmas happen has become something fun to do on the side for other people. Sometimes it can be a bit of a juggling act – taking the time to paint (one figure will take usually 1-2 hours to do – more if it’s highly detailed), work on my writing (and yes, I am still going & making progress! woohoo!), & of course, above all else, being a mom & wife and all that great stuff.

It also took more than a little bit of courage – it’s a bit daunting deciding to open your own shop – no matter how little it might be & I had to learn about things I never thought I would (like sales tax, heh). But I decided that it doesn’t matter if it is an epic flop – I don’t want to become world famous  – I just want to share something fun with others. So, swing on by & take a look – favorite my shop (it makes my heart glow when people do that) & like my shop’s FB page.

Here’s to having a little courage!

Woodnplaytime

 

Woodnplaytime Facebook Page

Two Boys, a Man, and a Prayer

I was in between running errands. Home just fifteen minutes before running off to do the next thing when my doorbell dinged. Twice. I was annoyed. Partially because double dings always feel so impatient. I reminded myself that this was most likely no fault to the person at the door, but when I looked through the window and saw an older man I didn’t recognize the irritation came back. I yanked the door open fully prepared to tell the man we didn’t want any and go about my business.

He spoke before I could utter a word. “You have two boys, right? Jacob and James.”

“Yes,” I replied.

“I have something for them. Did they tell you about what happened yesterday when I was looking for my cat?”

“They mentioned it.”

He then proceeded to tell me a story. A story of two boys, a man, and a prayer.

He and his wife had lost their cat. They had been searching for four days. He was near our yard looking when the boys got off the bus. He told them he was looking for his cat and asked if they had seen him around. The boys said no and helped look for a while. After a bit they paused to rest, the man’s knees were bothering him. Jacob whispered in James’ ear.

“What are you two plotting?” The man asked with a laugh.

They laughed, whispered a bit more and then asked, “Can you kneel?”

“Yes,” he replied, “I can.”

“We want to say a prayer for your cat,” the boys said.

The three of them knelt on the grass and one of the boys prayed and asked for the cat, Biscuit, to be able to safely return home. After the prayer they stood and one of the boys looked at the man. “We prayed. God will help and your cat will come home now.”

The man looked at me, very emotional. “Our cat came home last night. He had gotten trapped in a neighbor’s basement area.”

He then proceeded to hand me an envelope for each boy. “I really appreciate the prayer they said with me. You have very fine boys.”

When my boys got home, I told them the man had come by and had left something for them and that his cat had been returned. Immediately my two boys knelt down to pray and thank Heavenly Father for the return of Biscuit, the man’s cat.

Kid’s Proverbs

I was going through files tonight on my computer, deleting nonsense or unneeded files, organizing stray files into folders, etc, when I came across this gem & boy did it give me a great laugh!

Apparently, in January of 2009 I did an activity with my girls where I gave them the first half of a proverb and let them come up with the rest. The results were rather hilarious – especially six years later. At the time, Lizy would have been 9, Dot 8, & Em 6. The first line is the given line, the second is what my kids gave me 😀 Some are wise, some are endearing, a couple are right (or pretty close), and a bunch are just plain funny! I didn’t change anything – just copy and pasted (so comments in paranthesis are what I wrote 6 years ago)

1. Don’t change horses
Until they grow up (Emily)

2. Strike while the
Bees are gone from the hive (Dorothy)

3. It’s always darkest before
The light comes up (Elizabeth)

4. Never underestimate the power of
God (Emily)

5. You can lead a horse to water but
Not to a lake with sharks in it (Dorothy)

6. Don’t bite the hand that
Is alive (Elizabeth)

7. No news is
Until morning – we only get news when it’s morning (Emily)

8. A miss is as good as a
Hit (Dorothy)

9. You can’t teach an old dog new
Tricks (Elizabeth – she didn’t know that is really the answer)

10. If you lie down with dogs, you’ll
Get dirty (Emily)

11. Love all, trust
Heavenly Father (Dorothy)

12. The pen is mightier than the
Eraser or a pencil (Elziabeth)

13. An idle mind is
Blank (Emily)

14. Where there’s smoke there’s
A fire – not always though (Dorothy)

15. Happy the bride who
Marries the groom (Elizabeth)

16. A penny saved is
Saving money (Emily)

17. Two’s company, three’s
Trouble (Elizbeth)

18. Don’t put off till tomorrow what
Is rotten (Dorothy)

19. Laugh and the whole world laughs with you, cry and
I’ll cry with you (Emily)

20. There are none so blind as
One who can’t see (Dorothy)

21. Children should be seen and not
Hid (Elizabeth)

22. If at first you don’t succeed
Try to do it again (Emily)

23. You get out of something only what you
Need (Dorothy)

24. When the blind lead the blind
You fall (Elizabeth)

25. A bird in the hand
can fly away (Emily)

26. Better late than
kicked out of school (Dorothy)