What about MY PLANS?

Today was one of the worst days in the history of the world. It started out very very good and then it all got all ruined.

Luci and I were ready for swimming lessons a whole month or 3 weeks ago. My stuff was all layed out on my dresser. Mom even got me some pink lemonade lip gloss. We counted down every day until the final day. And the final day was this morning. I called Luci on the telephone to tell her that it was almost 9:00! Our swimming lessons start at 9:30 a.m. (that is the morning time...because then there is p.m. and that is 'past morning' and that's how I know).

"Mom said I just have to fold one more set of towels and put them away and then she will be ready to take us," I told Luci. "We will pick you up really really quick! Don't forget your paper and your towel and your money."

I folded all of those towels in a winky dink! I was so excited because Luci and I could go to swimming lessons every week for life and it would be so fun. Luci is not so brave with holding her nose and jumping in...but I could help her. Luci is not so brave about opening her eyes under the water...but I could help her. Luci doesn't even want to jump off the diving board on the last day...but I could help her! Luci doesn't know what treat to buy after swimming lessons...but I will show her for SURE! and maybe she will buy a banana popsicle just like me. Or a Chico Stick or red licorice or maybe Dots. Yeah. She will buy Dots. But I will get a banana popsicle...cuz' Dots just stick to my teeth...that's all. I like the colors and all...but they aren't that great. Swimming lessons are the best part of the year. Well, that is...they WERE the best part.

Now for the worst day in the history of the world part. We had our papers signed by our parents...yup. Towels...yup. Money...yuppers! "Okay then," the lady with the whistle and orange sun-visor said, "let me S-E-E just a minute h-e-r-e, and she looked up our names from last summer and that made me so excited because last summer we got Mrs. Janter and she is the best swimming teacher in the galaxy and she let us jump off the high dive two times last year and she let us toss some colored noodles in the water and then we would dive in after them and they were every color you could think of. Plus, she let us take the foam-boards down to the deep end once and we got to paddle all the way across the pool and when we did, she gave us a coupon and it was for a free movie for our families! BUT NOT TO BE!
"Hadley K Merit Shay is in the Guppies class this summer...so follow that sign to your teacher...and Luci Megan, you are in the Minnows class...so follow that....

WHAT?! This CANNOT be happening! We paid REAL money for this. Luci is my best friend. I felt like my crayons in car window sun.

W-A-I-T just a minute here. "MOMMMMM..." I sighed my best sigh e-v-e-r. So mom talked to the orange sunvisor lady about friends and stuff and the lady pushed her sunglasses up tighter and said that somebody else had figured it all out and she was just the inbetweener and could NOT change a thing. She didn't feel bad, or even hardly look at us, or blow that whistle which is supposed to save kids lives. That's what I wanted to tell her. But she turned to the next kid in line and pretended that Luci and I were not drowning in sad. My feet were stuck to cement.

Mom explained to us that we could still go to the lessons together and we would still have matching towels and we could still get a small treat after lessons together and still come home together but I said, "Maybe we should just quit these swim fin bin lessons together." How could they do this?

Mom took us aside and said that we needed to make a decision. If we quit, then the money would just go down the drain. But it was up to us. I couldn't understand why they would just throw our money down the drain. Mrs. Janter would be very mad about that. She told us that we should never bring small things into the pool because of the drain and if it got all plugged up then we were through. Oh My!

Luci just looked at me. How could she learn to swim if I wasn't there to help her and stuff? Now...she would never open her eyes under water and it was all that sun-glassed-orange-sun-visor-whistle-lady's fault. I bet she doesn't even have children and I bet she doesn't even make cookies for them either.
"Okay, Luci, just go to the Minnows and be brave...and remember...DON'T RUN...because Mrs. Janter knew somebody's uncles cousins friend once that fell...remember Luci? Oh, and meet me right by the Guppies sign when you are done."Then, I gave mom a hug, "Thank You for taking and paying...but MOSTLY for telling that 'take our money lady' that Luci and I are friends...even if she didn't listen." Mom said that everything would work out and that she thought we had made the right choice to stay and take the lessons. And really...I sorta think we did...too. But I was still not happy about it.

The Minnow class got a really pretty teacher with a braid wrapped up on her head and purple sunglasses to match her purple swimming suit and it kind of matched mine too. I spied on that class because our teacher was late. There were six kids in my class and I only knew five of them...that's all. We couldn't even get in the water until our teacher came and so we watched all of the Minnows and Dolphins and Shark classes having fun and talking and plugging their noses and we just sat there. All at once a MAN teacher came to our side of the pool and yup...he came right straight for the Guppies. I just want to be a MINNOW! At least he had a blue and green and yellow and purple shirt on with little green fishes on it and so maybe....BUT NOT TO BE...he was climbing up the life-guard highchair...because next came orange-visor lady and announced that she was our very teacher.

I looked across the pool at Luci and she was pretending to have lots of fun because I saw her laughing at Angela and Angela is in our class at school sometimes and their teacher had all kinds of colored noodles. Pretty brave of Luci I thought. So when we got in the water and I could splash water in my face...and wash away one little tear...I decided to get brave too.We talked about all of the rules and this lady had LOTS of them. No Running. No Splashing. No Talking. No Smiling...probably. We got in the water and practiced going under for the count of 20, then 30. I can count really fast and so that part was easy. She had us float, and then try arm strokes, and then we held onto the side and kicked our feet for awhile. She had us say our names again. Then she whistled real loud and that means: 'Guppies get out NOW!'...because three little whistle beeps mean 'All Guppies slide to the Side'...and one little tiny whistle means: Listen Fish and DON'T make a Swish! We practiced those whistles over and over.

I peeked over at Luci and she was holding a salmon colored water noodle next to her happy teacher. Life is not fair. No matter what anyone says, I don't CARE! Life is not Fair. My mom always says that everything will work out right...but my day was all wrong.

Some days are just bad. It's bad when that lady won't even listen. When we don't get colorful water noodles. When we have to wait on the edge for a long time. When we don't even know everybody in our class. Plus, I think I got a little sunburn and they didn't have treats cuz' the vending machine was broken. They only had chips and pop and those are NOT good choices.

I am SAD and I am MAD. This is MY Summer vacation and MY Swimming lessons and none of it is working out like MY plans. I thought about when my hair was frizzy, when I didn't get my homework done, when Sienna didn't invite me to her Birthday one time, and last summer when I couldn't go to Luci's until I finished all the vacuuming, when I scraped my arm on the fence, when my brother got all mad at me because I got his best kite stuck in our tree, (like I planted the tree right there!) ... and the time I had to do dishes for two days in a row because I back-talked a bit to my mom about them, and when my best doll fell and broke her arm right off, and when I got the flu, and when I wanted a horse really bad, and when I lost my best book, and then I thought how ALL of MY IDEAS and PLANS get ruined ALL OF THE TIME and now I am in orange-visor lady's Guppies class and that is the worst of ALL the game.

I decided to sit on my bed and pout it out. And an idea just plopped right on top of my new pouty plans. It's about fish and water and stuff cuz' who wants to be a guppie? What about a angel fish or a dolphin, or big whale or something cool. And that's when the idea came. Not so much about swimming, but maybe about lessons probably.

I remembered about a Jonah scripture man that made great plans and nobody listened to him and so He got all mad and decided: Forget it! And then he got in a gigantic whale and had to think about things for three whole days. OH MY that would be very scary. And he finally got out and decided to do what is right even if it wasn't what He Planned or where he wanted to be. My dad says that sometimes our plans are not the Plans that are the most important and after the whale spit Jonah out he learned to be patient and to trust about Heaven's plan for him.
I guess I would rather be a Guppie than swallowed by a whole whale!

Maybe I better not be so MAD...maybe just a little mad.
Maybe I really should be in the Guppie class. Maybe if I am nice to the orange-visor-lady (I don't even know her name)...then maybe... she will be nice too? Maybe nobody made her cookies or listened to her when she was little. Maybe Not. Maybe So. (doesn't matter)... FINE.

I will listen to her billions of rules and stuff...and I will be kind...and maybe I can take her cookies at the very end of the summer with my thank you note...IF she lets us jump off the diving board at least three times...that is.

First and Last School Days

Well…the thing about school is that I like the first day and the last day. All the other days inbetween are the problem. But mostly I like school alot. I like all the art days and I like recess and I love, love, love, library days and my birthday-day and field-trip days and science fair days, and lots of other days too.

I like the first day because the crayons are all new and my backpack has new pencils and two new notebooks that smell like fresh paper. Plus, my shoes are all new and I have an extra pair of new shoelaces for when they aren’t.

I like to look around and see who is in my class. Our desks are all clean and we get to see where our tote trays are and we can put our stuff in them whenever we want. (except when teacher is tired... and then we stay in our desks and be quiet.)

I like the last day at school because we get to take everything out of our desks and tote trays. We get to wash our desks off with spray and use the paper towels at the back to scrub them off…and we get to put our chairs upside down on our desks and just be done. And we get to keep the rest of our crayons (usually I throw away the box because it is taped one time too many and so I bring a baggie and sometimes the boys give me some of their crayons too! I save all of them except the bitty pieces I just scoop up and throw away because they are tiny.) Plus, sometimes we even get to take a book home from the reject table in the hall by the library. They are still good books, but Mrs. Havers, the library lady, just doesn’t need them anymore. (Well…sometimes they have writing in them or some crinkly pages and stuff…but it’s still a book.)

I get to take my teacher a thank you note and a little present and everybody is going to miss everybody and it is way good to not have any more mathy stuff and we can just go have summer and go swimming, or do whatever we want, and go to grandma’s house and stay for 12 days or the whole summer or something.

Plus, we get to be done with Eli and Regge! Some days I wonder why they even let them come to school.

Oops. Sorry. I broke our family rule. (If we say something nice about someone then we can use their names…but if I write something not so nice about someone then I can’t even say or spell their names). Fine. So there are two boys at school (who I won’t name) that aren’t even worth it! One of them says swear words sometimes. And when they are supposed to stay in line, they don’t…and when they are supposed to raise their hands…they won’t. I don’t even know if the boys, that I won’t write their names about, know what manners are? Maybe they don’t even have parents? Cause’ that what parents are for is to tell their kids about RESPECT and stuff.

Moms always say “Say Thank You, honey, or say Sorry or stand up when grandma comes and give her a big hug.” I know to turn off the TV if company comes and I know if somebody is an adult…then I should listen. Who doesn’t know that you shouldn’t talk with your mouth full and that ‘Please’ is the magic word. Maybe those boys (I won’t say who) don’t understand about sharing a piece of cookie with everybody who smells it. Yeah. They must not have parents because they are rude. They think they are the only ones that count in the whole galaxy.

My mom says that talking on cell phones can be rude too. She turns hers off when she is by real people and when it wiggles in her pocket, then she goes into another room or waits til’ later. Dad said that sometimes people text right in front of other people. I bet if those no-name-rude-dudes in my class had cell phones, they would even text right in front of the teacher! Those boys call our teacher by her first name too and that is not respectful AT ALL. WHO DO THEY THINK THEY ARE, anyways? I think they don’t EVER take turns or take time-outs… or take baths. Anyway, they can take a hike…AWAY from me.
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OK, now when I think about it…our first day on earth we all came brand new and on our last day we get to go back home to Heaven…and stay FOREVER…and all the inbetween days are the days where we study the stuff we have to learn…and even those yucky boys started their first day like a child of God…and He has sent them here…too. Maybe when school starts again or in about 34 years...they will be much much nicer. My grandma says people change sometimes. ‘We never know…do we.’