Amy J. Bennett

Melissa and I are continuing to write on topics.  Today’s is about our first athletic milestone.

The earliest memory I have of playing volleyball in high school is during tryouts.  It was the school’s first year with the sport and I think my sophomore year.  The psychology teacher had volunteered to start a team and somehow my friend Michelle and I decided to go for it.  I was never into sports.  I once went to a few tryout practices for cheerleading in middle school but every time I kicked my leg up, some nerve in my neck would snap.  I still laugh out loud thinking about it.  I may be peppy at times but I’m no cheerleader.

I remember the tryouts distinctly because it was in my church’s gym.  It wasn’t my church at the time.  In fact, I hadn’t even met Scott yet.  But I was bad.  Really bad.  I can remember trying to serve the ball having no idea of any proper form and I could not get it over the net.  I may have made it once or twice.  Michelle and I bumped the ball back and forth a few times.

I don’t recall the acceptance process except that I think Coach ended up accepting everyone because he felt so bad.  So there we went.  We were on the volleyball team.  And there we stayed for three years (I think I played 10-12).

There was one girl who was really into volleyball and I think she hated the fact that we were on the team (or at least me) because we had no idea what was going on.  She would practice her spikes by herself against the wall while Michelle and I or even Melissa’s sister (who joined my last year) and I laughed and practiced together.  I can’t really blame the girl, she actually wanted to WIN a game and I will say that I for one was no help.

We traveled to all the games on the bus gathering bruised knees along the way.  I only recall playing in a game every once in a while.  And usually never long enough to serve the ball.  I didn’t blame Coach for that either.  But somewhere along the way, I got better.  Not great, but better.

I missed the Most Improved award in my junior year to a senior.  I honestly still think I deserved it.  Coach even took me aside to explain that he thought she should get it since she was leaving.  But I have no hard feelings.

I found myself in “the game” my Senior year.  The game I will always remember.  I was in the back once and flew forward on my stomach to try to get a ball on the back of my hand.  The local newspaper caught it.  I missed the ball.  But it was a pretty cool picture even though the caption of my only sports picture ever was “Just missed it”.

But the real action happened when I rotated to the front row (honest to goodness I think this was the same game).  A girl on the opposing team tried to spike a ball and I reached up with both hands and actually spiked it back down and it hit the ground!  I can’t tell you the almost out of body experience adrenaline rush I got from that.  Coach actually wrote on my Facebook wall recently that he would never forget the look on my face when that happened.

The team never had a fantastic season and I never won Most Improved or MVP but thanks to a ton of great memories and especially one special game, I didn’t feel like a fraud when I found this in my box of memories Sunday.

In the same way I hit a wall on Tuesday at Disney, I hit one this afternoon.  Since getting back from vacation, I’ve been trying to catch up.  Just today I got done with laundry.  All my sites needed updated. Last night somehow turned into a whirlwind of activity…dinner at Mom’s, visit with IL’s, time at our youth group’s cafe night and a late night viewing of Fast and Furious (please go see!).

Today stayed packed with choir practice, an extended visit at Chick Fil A for an egg hunt and some shopping.  By 3, I needed to go to the grocery store but I just did not have it in me to do anything else.  I moved between sitting at the computer, catching up on Dollhouse in my room and going outside in the hammock.  This evening once Scott got off we did manage to make it to the grocery store.  Other than, I only have watched Dollhouse.  I did manage to give myself a pedicure while doing that.

Now everyone is in bed.  I’ve got the game on and have been working on my book.  Not writing but trying to use some techniques from a book Melissa gave me that I read during our trip The Writer’s Little Helper.  Seeing that English is the only course I ever got a C in, you can imagine it’s not my strongest subject.  I found this little book quite the refresher.  It’s geared towards writing and editing fiction books getting published.   My intent is not to get published.  Not really sure why I’m writing.  I guess just something about having to finish something I started at this point.  And having it out of my head and onto paper would be nice.  Wow, didn’t mean to get on that tangent.

I just took a sleep aid pill and really hope that my late night last night is the explanation for this wall and hope I’m wide eyed and bushy tailed for our choir’s Easter musical tomorrow.

• We have been eating like gluttons and wasting so much food it’s embarrassing.  I love the dining plan and wouldn’t go another way but wow, you will not go hungry.  We still have extra snacks and even an extra sit down dinner to eat. *Update* I had to use an extra counter meal this morning and took it in the van and still had a snack when we checked out.
• I have given up on Lexi looking at the camera for a picture.  She is always like this but it’s pronounced this week as she is often getting her picture made.  The second you say look at the camera, she looks to the left or right.  I really don’t know what it’s about.
• The weather at this time of the year is absolutely amazing.  The crowds are bad.  Apparently this is peak time but it has been so nice.  We’ve all been in shorts the whole time with just a light jacket in the evenings.
• I love the buses.  Love, love, love.  So worth staying at the resort and not having to drive and park.
• I wouldn’t break my neck trying to plan my trip within the parks.  If anything, be familiar with the map and rides you’d particularly like to ride.  Pay special attention to Fast Pass rides and get those first thing.  But other than that, go with the flow and ride what you can.
• Be sure to buy an autograph book if you have kids.  The kids have had more fun doing the character meet and greets than anything else we’ve done.
• Bringing a teenager along with us probably wasn’t necessary for us but it has been a big win.  The girls have really taken to her and it has helped just having a person that can carry Lexi or hold a hand.  We’ve really taken (good) advantage of her while choosing to shop alone or going on an adult ride together. Those really wouldn’t have been possible without her.  If you’re not traveling with other adults, I’d highly recommend it.
• Plan a day at the resort.  We didn’t even take the time to see that you could rent boats and bikes at the resort as well as an arcade.  It would have been nice to have one last day to actually relax before hurrying back home the next morning.

I definitely don’t see us doing this every year.  Maybe in a few years.  Maybe not.  It’s was a lot of money and exhausting.  And we’re just not Disney crazy.  I think it would be best again when the kids are in the 6-10 age range.  All that said, I’m really glad we went when the kids are still really into the princesses.  It was nice to see them enjoy themselves and I guess that’s what it was all about anyway.

I guess we got really lazy today because we didn’t arrive in the park until 11:30.  Today was a lot of walking and going in circles.  Not because we couldn’t read the map but because the things we wanted to do didn’t seem to work out.  When we first got there the plan was to go get a Fast Pass to Safari and Expedition Mountain.  We got the Safari one and then tried to get lunch but had to back track and ended up taking an hour and a half for lunch.  I have to say Animal Kingdom really needs to work on their restaurants in a few sections.  Since taking so long on lunch, Expedition Mountain was out of Fast Passes by the time we got there.  And it was basically on the other side of the park.

So at that point we ended up going to a bird show.  Lexi was again concerned.  She didn’t want to see a hawk or an eagle but seemed excited about an owl.  But she enjoyed all the birds.  Scott ended up getting called up onto stage.  The lady had him and another lady sit on stage.  A huge bird with a five feet wingspan fly away from them and then right over their heads.  You can see in the pictures when it got close he could only get one wing in the frame.  We all enjoyed the show and I actually would highly recommed taking the 20 minutes to watch it.

After that we went down to Camp Mickey Minnie and got some autographs from a few characters.  While we were there. a street performer named Guitar Dan singled Lexi out and had her try to figure out what was in his hand before he gave it to her.  We answered incorrectly candy and rock before correctly guessing his third choice, a zebra.  Lexi really liked him and said such after he left.  She said he was fun.

We finally got on the Safari towards late afternoon.  Lexi was VERY concerned about this ride because of the lions and tigers.  I told her there were no tigers.  Finally when we got on the bus she calmed down when I told her they were nice lions and Mickey only lets nice animals at Disney.  After that, she didn’t flinch and enjoyed the ride.

When we came out the safari, the parade stopped us from getting out of the park to make our early dinner reservations.  We took the long way out and managed to see the entire parade.  Turns out the Boma restaurant was at a resort and not the park.  But it was SO worth going.

Boma is an African buffet.  I especially enjoyed the chilantro salad dressing, various hummus and yummy soup.  The kids kept it safe with the normal chicken nuggets/fries although Emma ate a bowl of potato bacon soup.  I had an entire sampling plate of desserts.  Yummy!

Animal Kingdom closes at 6 so we were done with the parks for the day.  There wasn’t a bus straight to our hotel so we opted to go shopping at Downtown Disney first.  The kids really enjoyed the Mr. Potato Head and My Little Pony play area in the toy store and loved the candy we let them get.  We got some fantastic pictures of Lexi hitting a sour spot in hers.  There was one face even funnier than I caught.  Needless to say, she refused to eat the rest after that.  About 8:15 Heather showed up and Kristyn stayed there with her for the evening.  The girls stayed with SIL again tonight.

I did make it back for One Tree  Hill tonight and have enjoyed an evening on the Internet.  We’re planning an early day tomorrow as it’s SIL’s first day at Magic Kingdom and our last day at Disney.