As the World Happens

I stand alone in the distance while the foreground slowly moves.

Dropkick Murphys

Do you ever feel like your life gets all arranged for you and you don't have much say in it? Saturday was like this. We had so many things going on, they wouldn't all fit in the little calendar square. Here's a partial rundown:

• 7:30 am, Aarim's track meet in Kearns
• 10:30 am, Tian Tian's scout bowling activity in Bountiful
• 10:30 am, Amria's piano federation test at the University
• 11:00 am, Amria's church activity in Salt Lake
• 11:30 am, Miara's rock flying (or something) activity in Ogden
• 1:00 pm, friends stopping by to visit
• 5:00 pm, dinner party at friend's house in South Jordan
• 8:00 pm, stop by another friend's house in South Jordan to see their new baby

Meanwhile, Stephanie and I both have things we'd like to do for ourselves once in a while. She's trying to spend some time on the treadmill each day. I'm trying to spend every spare moment I can revising a manuscript I'd like to finish soon (and I have two more in line waiting.)

Yes, the birds and dogs hit the fan Saturday.

Amria barely made it into her test on time. I was parking the car and ran in and couldn't find the room. I kept texting Stephanie, "Which room is it?" She kept texting me "We're in room 006. " But we had no bars in the basement of Gardner Hall. So by the time I found the room, I ended up listening to Amria's performance from the hallway because you can't enter during performances. Then when we got outside, Stephanie's and my phones started buzzing like crazy as all our texts finally made it through.

People keep telling me that when the kids are grown up and move out, we'll miss these days.

But once again, in the end, it all worked out.

• Aarim did well in his events, running at my alma mater, Kearns High
• Stephanie had time to run on the treadmill
• Tian Tian had fun bowling
• Amria did very well in her piano test and had fun at her activity
• I assume Miara fell off the rock OK, but I don't think I've seen her since Saturday, so I'm not sure
• I spent about an hour writing
• We enjoyed Taiwanese food at the Hong's house and saw the Leavitt's cute baby

So even though we try hard to schedule well, sometimes life plops on us all at once, but we manage to survive.

Birthdays, Birds and Burns

I've resisted starting a blog because most people quit after a few postings, which is probably what will happen with me. But I'll give it a try and this first posting will explain why this blog is called what it is.

There's a Chinese idiom 雞飛狗跳, which roughly translated, means, "flying chickens and jumping dogs", and describes an out-of-control situation where everything and everyone is going crazy. This sort of describes our family life sometimes, and probably many of yours. But I find that despite all the busy activities, things usually work out well in the end, especially when the family pulls together to help. The following is a good example.

Last Monday afternoon, we made last-minute plans (we don't have any other type) to have Grandma and Grandpa over for dinner and a small party for Rami's tenth birthday. Stephanie scrambled to make a simple dinner of Costco potstickers and Costco pizza (to which I'd added Costco spinach and Costco artichokes) while Aarim helped shuttle Amria to and from piano lessons while everyone helped get the house in order while I sat at work hoping all was going well.

After an initial exciting moment when Grandpa explained to Rami that they'd brought him some presents but his birthday wasn't actually until the next day and Rami misunderstood and started crying and we had to explain he'd still get his presents that day, we had a nice dinner. As a child with Down Syndrome, Rami sometimes perceives things differently than other people.

Rami enjoyed opening all his presents and thanking Grandpa for each of them, even though some were from us. He even got a toy dog that looks just like Autumn. Then we brought cupcakes with ten candles and Rami blew out each one individually and he was really happy.

After that, Amria put together more cupcakes and candles for Grandma's upcoming birthday. Stephanie tried helping her, but she said, "Mom, I'm twelve years old, I can do this myself." Then she entered the room and everyone sang, ". . . happy birthday dear Rami . . . " "No, this is for Grandma!" "Oh, . . . dear Grandma . . . " I recorded it while Stephanie snapped pictures, and she bumped into the bird cage causing Tiki and Chi Chi to fly all around the room. Then Autumn saw the cupcakes and jumped all over the place trying to get them. And Amria hurriedly put the cupcakes down and yelled out, "Mom, I burned my finger."

But in the end, we all had a good time and ate potstickers and cupcakes and opened presents and put aloe vera on Amria's finger. And the soaring birds returned to their cage while the leaping dog gnawed her rawhide bone.