Update Blog

Lots of stuff going on.

First of all, Ayyam-i-Ha ended last night. It was a good one. We did it up big this year, since we'll be on a much tighter budget next year and for years to come. One of Bella's gifts was a Razor scooter. Not the motorized kind, just the "kick" scooter. Even though she learned to ride a bike in the past couple of weeks, she really wanted a scooter and is enjoying it. Sunday we had Roben and Freedom over to help make Ayyam-i-Ha gift baskets for the faculty and staff at DMS and ASA (Freedom's son goes to DMS...and she's a Baha'i, thus the connection with Roben). Freedom brought her little Boston Terrier, Charlie, who enjoys pulling people on scooters or skateboards. Of course Bella had to try it out. I should have made her wear her helmet, because, well, see for yourself:  

https://youtu.be/FUnV7ERAN3A

So if you thought Alex was our only daredevil, think again. In other news, Sofia entered a library contest a few weeks ago. The contest was to design a bookmark. I thought her design was beautiful and probably had a good chance of winning, but it was a nationwide contest, so we didn't get our hopes up. Well, she won. But guess what she won. And this is the funny part. Apparently, the contest is sponsored by the WWE. For those who don't know, that stands for World Wrestling Entertainment. Yes, the same people who brought you Hulk Hogan and "Stone Cold" Steve Austin and The Rock. They have a a touring "wrestling" show (I use the word wrestling in quotes out of respect for the athletes who actually wrestle as a sport in high schools, colleges, the Olympics, etc.) The show is called Wrestlemania. It's coming to Phoenix in late March, and Sofia won an all-expense paid trip for two to see Wrestlemania live! Something like 18 kids won from across the U.S. and Canada. WWE is flying those kids to Phoenix and putting them in the Hyatt Regency Hotel. Of course, since we already live here, we don't need airfare or hotel (although we're considering getting the hotel just for the fun of it). Alex and I will be driving to North Carolina that weekend, so it will have to be Cristina who takes her. Cristina and Sofia. At Wrestlemania. Now that's funny! And it gets better. WWE is having a reading competition at the Burton Barr Library from 10 to 12pm on the Saturday before the event. All the 18 winners were sent books to read, and then they'll have a quiz on the book, kind of "Jeopardy" style, I'd imagine. And the winner of that competition gets ringside seats for Wrestlemania. I checked on Ticketmaster. Ringside seats cost $750 a piece! So after a brief education of what WWE is (Sofia had no clue...nor did Alex or Bella), Sofia decided she'd go to it, and she'd bring a book in case it got boring. She considered giving the tickets to someone who cares more about WWE, but I encouraged her to go, for the experience of it. She had to fill out a questionnaire, and one of the questions was "Who is your favorite wrestler?" It would have been funny to list Rulon Gardner, the U.S. Olympic wrestler who shocked the world by winning the gold medal in Greco-Roman wrestling in the 2000 Olympics. But we were respectful of the sponsors of this competition. I suggested The Rock, since Sofia enjoyed Dwayne Johnson in The Tooth Fairy and Race to Witch Mountain. She had no idea he was a "wrestler" before he was an actor. I showed her a bit of his wrestling days on YouTube.

Sofia read the book they sent her. She read it within a couple of hours. The book is about stock car racing, or something like that. It seemed very male-oriented, not surprisingly, but she enjoyed it. She said she'd read it a few more times before the competition. She does like to compete, even if the prize is not that big of a deal to her. Oh yeah. In addition to the tickets to Wrestlemania, Sofia won $300 cash, and $2000 for the Phoenix Public Library System. And her bookmark will be published for schools and libraries around the country. Here's Sofia's winning bookmark. This is a scan of a color copy, so it has lost a lot of the detail. She has the things in her picture labeled, like the sun is labeled "Sun of Reality" and the lightning is coming from the "Cloud of Dreams." The lightning bolt itself says "Hardship." And the tree is labeled "Tree of Life." Very metaphoric and meaningful. Which is probably why it won! I can't wait to get my own to use in my books. Hopefully I can get my hands on a few cases of them.

In other news, Cristina's mother, Jarue, had a nice visit with us and is back home in Florida now. No broken bones, which is always a preferred thing when a mother/mother-in-law comes to visit.

We made brownies for Alex and Bella to give to their classes for Ayyam-i-Ha

Last Friday, the drama department at my school went on a field trip to the University of Arizona in Tucson to tour their theatre department and watch their production of Shakespeare's "The Taming of the Shrew." The drama teacher asked the faculty if anyone could chaperon. I said I'd do it if my daughter could come along, which she was fine with. So Sofia took a day off of school and we went to Tucson for a little Shakespeare. Since Sofia enjoys drama, I thought it would be a great experience. We had a good time.

Before the show, the students got to go backstage and check out the set, which looked really cool