A coin, a cast, and a few contractions

     Growing up in a house full of boys who kept my mom on a first-name basis with the ER staff, I always assumed that you had to have a Y chromosome to cause that much trouble. 

Not so.

The Richardson women at our house have been stirring up our fair share this week.

Wednesday: The Coin

     Mindy (Troy’s cousin) invited us to go swimming at her grandma’s condo pool, and we gladly accepted.  I’d been having contractions all day and couldn’t wait to get in the water and get some gravity relief. 
     After a relaxing swim, we buckled in the car and were heading out when Aliyah coughed a couple times in her car seat.  She was making a funny face, and asked me for a drink of water.  I passed her the water bottle and asked if she was ok.  “Yeah,” she said, “I just swallowed my money.”

“What??!!”

     She had apparently found a coin at the pool and thought she would hold it in her mouth.  Gross.  I tried to help her identify what size coin it was, but could only get her to say that it was like a quarter, but not.  Great.  Looked like me and my contractions were going to the Instacare. 
     Fortunately Troy got home about then and took over the dirty work.  Even better when he called a few hours later to report that Aliyah had swallowed something that appeared to be a 50 cent piece, or at least measured as large as one.  The doctors at the instacare and Primaries were baffled that she even swallowed in the first place.  That’s my girl, always going above and beyond. 
     They sent Troy and our little “piggie bank” home with stool softeners, a poop-sifting bowl, and orders for another x-ray if she didn’t “pass” the coin in 5 days. Fun, fun, for everyone.

Thursday: The Cast

     The next day was my dad’s birthday, and we all headed over to the park for a picnic birthday dinner.  We ate, laughed about Aliyah’s new “savings” plan and were just about to head home for some pie when…… CRASH! Aliyah fell off the gymnastics bars at the playground, landing right on the tippy tip of her elbow. 

Our Piggie Bank now had a crack in it.

     So back to the instacare, where everyone still remembered our names, back to radiology, and finally back home, with a newly splinted arm, to be casted after the weekend, assuming she didn’t need surgery (which thankfully, she didn’t).


Friday: A few (more) contractions
     The library sounds like a calm enough place to take your kids at the end of a long, rather horrible week, right?  Really, it would have been, except that I went into labor.  False Labor, as it later turned out, but intense, every-five-minute-contraction labor nonetheless. 
     Now it was my turn to get to visit the very special back room at the Library, to get carted off to the hospital, and then get carted back home again bawling like a baby because my contractions stopped and “Couldn’t anything have gone right this week??”
     Luckily, many a weary frustration can be easily mended by a good, long nap.  So I had me one of those, let my mother-in-law fix me dinner, and put on my big girl panties for whatever is coming our way next week.

BYU, Through and Through

I wrote this between practices for the recent Living Legends Reunion show I had the honor of participating in a few weeks ago.  It’s more a journal entry than a blog post, but since I typed it up on my computer, I had might as well post it so it will end up somewhere other than my hard drive.

I never really thought that I would feel this way about BYU.  Especially not when I left.  In those days I was ready to move on to the next chapter in my life, the next great adventure. 
Today as I walk through campus, I am not the same woman who lived in these walkways.  Now I am a mother, a thirty-something community member of another town. 
so many times I have stood at the kitchen sink, cooking meals and cleaning runny noses, certain that there is no “me” but this woman with spatula and tissues in hand. 
But being here today, in the HFAC where I spent so much of my BYU career, the old me is stirring.  She remembers hours of practicing and performing in the women’s chorus,  midnight rehearsals for Living Legends.  I guess there was studying in there too, but she tries not to think too much about that.  There were days I would wander the building just to soak in the art and music seeping from every wall. 
This is her home, the place where she realized that life holds more doors than she ever hope to open in a lifetime.  That didn’t stop her from getting to as many as she could while she was here. 
Life is full of phases.  The HFAC itself reminds me gently in the photo above that this is all a part of "Growing Up."  Ironic, isn't it how a well placed piece of art can complete the theme of an entire day.
Yes, today I am a mom.  Today I love, teach, guide, cook and clean.  But someday I will come back to these walls.  There is so much more the me that is “she” still has to teach me.

Living Legends

I am sweaty, stinky, and my feet hurt.  I am tired hungry, and gearing up for a long night ahead.  I could not be happier. 

This weekend is the 40 year anniversary reunion for BYU Living Legends.  The years I danced with this group were some of the best of my childless years.  I love dancing Folklorico, and have done it in many groups, but only with BYU could I use that talent to share the gospel.  There was just a different feel to that group, that not only were we connected by dance and culture, but by the desire to spread the gospel through dance. 

I am even more excited that the dance I will be performing is not in the “Alumni Showcase” but in the actual show with the current group of performers. 
I told Troy it’s kind of like if his Mission President called him today and said, “Hey, we need back in the mission!”  I never ever thought that I would perform on the De Jong stage, with Living Legends again in my life.  It’s a dream come true.

So here I sit, in the Wilkinson Center, eating a subway sandwich all by myself, people watching, and running into old friends.  It’s Déjà vu at it’s best.  In a few minutes I will head over for the final dress rehearsal before the show,  and theeeeen……….. SHOWTIME!

Here is a video of our original show, courtesy of BYUTV:  It’s a long video (the whole show) but you can skip through.  I’m in all the Latin American numbers and the Maori number.


Practicing on Thursday before the show.

Running into old friends in the Wilk (Meredith & Jordan Zendejas)

Spacing Practice.  Janielle Christensen directing the alumni for Go My Son.


Janielle Christensen directing Green Room.  The spirit was so strong we were all crying by the end.  What a gift to be involved in such a great show!


Michelle Wilson and Carina


Even after 6 years, my old shoes and my old earrings still have strips of gaffers tape with my name on them.  After all these years I’m still a part of the show! (even when I’m not dancing!)

Me, Meredith Zendejas (Schramm), Dezi Lynn Hendershot, Jordan Zendejas

Annya Becera & I weren’t in LL at the same time, but we have danced in many shows over the years together.  Jorge Sanchez was in the group when it was still Lamanite Generation, and he was my partner for La Vieja


The show went off perfectly!  I didn’t make even the slightest mistake, and I have never felt so confident and alive on stage.  It was like being given the chance to go back in time, knowing what I know now, and truly enjoy something I had always taken for granted before.  I guess you could say it was my own personal “It’s a beautiful life” experience. 

The crowd (full of alumni and LG/LL fans) was one of the best I’ve ever performed for.  I thought I would cry at the end, when we sing Go My Son and I Am A Child of God, but I didn’t.  I was so uplifted by the power of the words we were singing, I couldn’t cry.   I was too happy to be doing what I love most. 
After the show they held a reception in the Wilk for all the alumni.  The only problem, they had ordered the food in “white people” proportions, and it was gone in about 5 minutes.  No joke.  Still it was fun to mingle, chat, and watch videos of past generation’s performances.

Lohi Tui, Me, Leticia Michalek(Hames) (who was also one of my bridesmaids at my wedding) and her sister Adriana Michalek(Villamizar)

Vileena Begay (Peterson) and me

Top Row: Jen Fuentes, Charmay Lee, Adam Lee, some guy.  Middle Row: Lohi Tui, some girl, Meredith Zendejas, Channy Tuitele, some girl.  Front Row:  Me, Fili Sagapolutele, James Senior.

Ellen Fuentes, her daughter Isa, and me


Michelle Wilson, James Senior, Chauma Jansen, Chris Kryzmenski, Adriana Trejo
I am so very grateful that I had this chance to relive one of the greatest passions of my younger life, and to do it with the very same people who made it special in the first place.  What a great day!

Drill and Dresses

You may not know that Aliyah is not my first daughter.  Shocked?  Well relax, I’m not confessing past indiscretions.  From the time she was a few months old, I have loved my little sister more than is common for sisters.  She is the first baby I lever loved with that  of a mother for a child.   
Now that she is getting older, our relationship has shifted.  For the first time I am stepping into the role of a sister, rather than a protector or caregiver.  She is growing up to be such a talented young lady, and her friendship means more to me than she will ever know. 
I am so proud of her every time I see her perform for Cottonwood High Drill team, or when I see her studying her brains out for Calculus.
 
This week I came up to visit Sarah as she got ready for Prom.  What did I find?  The typical Seron scene.  My mom was getting ready to finish sewing Sarah’s dress a mere 3 hours before her date was to come pick her up. I come from a long line of procrastinators.  We got to work and sewed like nobody’s business, but alas, poor Siale was left waiting in the living room for a good half hour while we finished her dress. 
The next few years will see fewer and fewer afternoons spent chatting out on blankets in the back yard, but I’ll always be waiting for the day when life brings our paths closer together again.
 

Snow Day!

We got so much snow today, and all at once.  It was perfect play snow and we had a blast.  The kids and I joined up with some of the neighbors and frolicked for about 4 hours straight.  In the end we were exhausted, soaking wet, and happy from head to toe!

Dusting off the Cobwebs

Hello?     

 hello, hello, hello...

Anybody there?      

there, there, there...

Cricket...Cricket.....Cricket...

Hmmm...   It may be that I've neglected the blog a little too long this time.  Well just in case there are one or two of you still checking in from time to time, I'll give this post a go. 

Not only have we been running like crazy this summer, but blogging has fallen precariously low on my prioritized to-do list.  Would you believe that I (yes me, Melissa Richardson) have decided to organize and schedule my life?  I knew you wouldn't, but that's ok.  I have finally made a little headway into becoming the Emily Gibbons/Kelly Andersen/ Angie Munnerlyn type person that I have been making goals about every January for years.  One. Slow. Step. At. A. Time.  And since the pursuit of learning to write has somewhat consumed my free time, I find myself on the outs with the blogger-world.  But the important stuff is that we are busy, happy, healthy, and just the slightest bit out of our minds.  Pretty average for Richardsons.  And since Costco is already setting up Christmas, I'm going to make a new-years resolution to show my face around here just a little more often.  Coming soon.... Aliyah's birthday post (only one month late!) Wahoo!

Happy Birthday Ma'am!

That's what Troy said to me when he called me on my birthday this last sunday.  He'd been reminding me all week that 30 is officially "ma'am" territory, and that I can no longer ignore people who address me this way.  I thought about threatening to start calling him "Sir" but figured he might actually enjoy that more than I could stomach. 

For my birthday, my wonderful mother took me for a "girl's trip" to St. George to party with my California aunts and my favorite Cali Cousin Terra.  Let me tell you, those girls are a riot and I had so much fun. We went to my favorite St. George restaurant Haven for my birthday dinner.  The food alone was worth the trip, and they even brought out some chocolate cake that was to-die-for, complete with sparkler and birthday wishes.  We went for an early morning hike up snow canyon, swam in the pool and relaxed, and then hit the Tuacahan for Cats later that evening.   All in all, it was a great way to break into my 30's!