Papa Says...

As Jeffrey would say: Do you remember when...

Do you remember when you were still young enough to believe everything Papa said was gospel truth? I sure do, and the older I get and the more children I have the more I realize how much of it really is true. But I've also come to learn that some of it was just made up for his own enjoyment. He could get us to do almost anything as long as we believed every word. And folks, I'm here to tell you that he didn't stop with my generation.

My kids spent a weekend with Mom not too long back while Leah and I enjoyed a break for our 10th wedding anniversary, and I suppose that Emma Joi must have spent some quality time with Papa during that weekend. Apparently, he let her dip into his pool of wisdom while sitting on his "drawing board" (his dinner tray). I don't know why it's taken so long for it to come to her mind, but just this week she's been sharing all of the pearls of wisdom that Papa shared while she was there. Some of them sound like good advice that he would give, some sound like silly advice that he would give, and the best part is that some of them sound like things she just made up and wants us to believe that he said because, obviously, if Papa said it, it must be true. Oh, to be that young and naive again. :)

Anyway, I thought that you would enjoy some of the great things that she has shared with us:

While eating dinner: Papa says that you always stay sitting while eating.

While in the car: Papa says that you never get out of your seat while driving, Momma. (BTW, Leah was not out of her seat; I think Emma just wanted to make sure she knew)

While getting dressed to go play: Papa says that you always wear shoes to play.

While playing: Papa says that you always play until you're tired.

While petting the dog: Papa says that Lucky needs to be nice.

You get the idea.

I think it's fun, but I also think it's awesome for Emma Joi to know her great grandfather so well that she can look up to him in this way, and I hope that she is always young enough to believe every word he says.

Well, maybe not every word...

It's Hard Being Me

I don't know what's going on with the colors in this graphic. It didn't look like this when I opened the file on my desktop. Anyway, you knew I was going to figure out a way to get an Aggie icon on my site at some point, and trust me, there are plenty more in store for the future. That's not the point of this post, though.

You all know me fairly well, so I know that it is going to come as a surprise to you when I tell you that I have a few opinions on how things should be done. And I'm sure that most of you (except Caci) will agree that I don't share my opinion unless I'm relatively sure that I know what I'm talking about. Of course, being like my mother and grandfather and most of the rest of my family, I know that my way is better (I won't even go into the issues that arise when everyone your related is "right"; you all know what that's like), so I also have this issue with sitting around watching things go wrong.

Now, one of the things about our family is that we all know how to play baseball and softball. Some of us have great talent for the game and some of us don't; some of us really enjoy playing the game and some of us don't, but we all understand it. We all know the rules from a young age. We've all been drilled on what to do when the ball is hit so many times that we almost feel like we were born with the knowledge, and when we watch our kids practice or play and they're not learning how to play their position correctly we get frustrated. So I'm justified because you would all do the same thing in my shoes.

Reagan's team has some girls that could be really good ball players. They have several great batters and a few really good fielders. So why can't they figure out what to do with the ball when they are playing defense? As I watched their practices, I started to realize that most of the girls have no idea what their position does. They don't know where to stand; they don't know where to move when the ball is hit; they don't know how to work different scenarios; and they don't know how to cover bases to protect against a steal. So, at the last practice, I suggested to the coach that she work with them on these things, and she started to.

In her defense, though, our pitcher really needed some one-on-one work so the coach took her to the side to help with that. The assistant coach was pitching batting practice, and the girls in the field were mostly goofing off. Kind of like that photo of Andy on the Hatcher blog. I just had to help. This was Tuesday, and we're playing one of the best teams of the season tonight. We just can't go out on the field looking like we don't know what's going on, so I grabbed my glove and asked the assistant if he wanted some help shagging balls. He agreed.

Yes! I was on the field. My Templin genes kicked in, and I started moving the girls into their correct positions. We started talking about what to do when the ball was hit: where to move, where to throw, what to do with runners on base, etc. It wasn't enough to teach habits, but it's a start. I'm not sure how we'll do tonight, but I hope that they remember a little bit of what we talked about Tuesday night.

By the way, after practice, the coach, assistant and I all talked about the practice and that it had worked well to have someone else available to help, so don't be picturing me as mean and arrogant. I only do that to Caci. I was just helpful.

Wax On....Wax Off

During 180 (high school group at church) last night we watched a clip of Karate Kid. You all remember the scene where Daniel gets fed up with doing all of Mr. Miyagi's chores and starts yelling about how he's supposed to be learning karate. Then Mr. Miyagi asks Daniel to show him wax on and wax off. At the end of the scene Daniel is left amazed that he's been training his body to do all of these martial arts moves and not realizing it. In case you're concerned, we did tie the clip to a theological point, but that's beside the point of this post.

I only had four guys there last night, and after we broke into small groups, two of them started talking about how they do martial arts and how Karate Kid was all wrong, blah, blah, blah. Now, I know Jeffrey and John are going to agree with me here: Karate Kid and anything with Chuck Norris in it are gospel for young ninjas in training. And these guys were talking smack about wax on, wax off, paint the fence, paint the house, sand the floor, and the crane kick which we all know is unstoppable when done correctly. It was time for them to put their money where their mouth is.

I said, "Hey, if you're a martial arts expert, let's see some moves. We can do a little demo right here." The two who had been talking about their training gladly agreed, but the other two weren't so sure about being the crash dummies. They said something to me along the lines of, "This was your bright idea, you be the punching bag." So, went to the center of the room.

The first guy wanted to show us some Aikido. That's the martial art that Steven Segal mostly uses, if you didn't already know, and it's a combination of hand locks and throws. Anyway, he asked me to grab him from behind with one arm and grab his wrist with the other. I'm still not sure why I wanted to grab his wrist because I'm thinking that in a dark alley I'd rather be grabbing his wallet, but this was a demo so I played along. He got out of the hold and pushed me around the room....sort of. He kind of forgot, actually, how to really do the technique.

Next guy decided that he'd show us a cool throw that he had learned. Now, please note that I had not shared with them my experience with Judo. Again, he staged the scene, I grab his shirt and arm from the front in a classic Judo grip and he executed a poor attempt at a hip throw that left him straining to get me over and left me standing. It was difficult to forget my training, and when he tried again I "accidentally" pivoted on the balls of my feet and turned his momentum into a leg throw in my favor. Whoops! He was on his back.

It was right about this moment that they became suspicious that maybe I had done more than just study under Mr. Miyagi and Master Norris, and I confessed to watching a few Steven Segal and Jackie Chan movies and sneaking in a couple of Big Trouble in Little China viewings: "It's all in the reflexes."

Not really. I told them about my Judo training, and I told them that next time they should let me fight back and we'd see what they were really made of. If they still beat me up, then I'll introduce them to the wrath of my ninja brotherhood, or at least to my two brothers, the Tae Kwon Do masters.