Happy 4th!

For those of you who live in the US...

Happy Independence Day!!

We had a pre-4th of July party last night

To prepare us for the big one on Monday.

We played volleyball.

And my team won.

All 5 matches.

I felt bad for the other team.

We offered to mix it up...

But dad REALLY wanted to beat us.

They just never did unfortunately.

At one point I got mad at my brother and bro-in-law

Because they were hogging the ball

And kept taking shots that were clearly in my spot.

Okay, mad is a harsh word...

I just told them that they needed to share.

They weren't the only people on the team after all.

It wasn't the 4 on the other team against the 2 of them.

It brought back memories of when I was in the MTC

(the place where missionaries get taught before they go out into the big world)

We had gym time once a day. And we could do whatever we wanted...

As long as we stayed in the building.

I hated running at that point in my life

(as I do again...we have an off and on relationship, running and I)

And my companion that loved it went with another girl that loved running

My other companion did her own thing

So I mostly ended up playing volleyball.

It's my favorite sport...and I'm decent at it.

And most of the time it was fun

BUT!

There were also the people that were competitive and considered themselves

power players or something...

And there would be games I would never touch the ball

Because they took it from me every time.

It was really frustrating, but I kept going back.

I had hope that one of these days I would play with different people

Or that the normal people would be nice and share

Now, they had their reasons I'm sure.

I'm not very tall, so I can't spike very well.

And unfortunately I gained bad habits when I used to play with the other girls my age in church

Bad habits = ways I should NOT hit the ball

Ways that would be illegal if I was playing for real

But, I gained the habits and they stuck with me

Even though I knew that I shouldn't play that way

And that it was wrong

And illegal

And I would probably go to jail for it

It became a habit

So anyway, the other missionaries had their reasons for not letting me touch the ball

But once I got into the game I was a good player!!

As long as I payed attention to not hit the ball in the bad way...

I was good to go!

But they never gave me the chance...

Except one boy.

He was nice and would give me the ball

And even offered to set me up for a spike every once in awhile

Which I always turned down, but it was nice anyway.

I always played with him...and I always tried to get on his team

Cause he was the only nice one out there

(pretty much....there were a few others...)

Anyway, he had been at the MTC longer than me

(You stay 3 weeks if you're not learning another language,

more if you are...it differed with the language and how hard it was)

So he left before I did

And he wrote me a letter before he left.

(I just spent 30 min looking for said letter...but I can't figure out where I put it...

Drat....that's going to bother me now...)

Anyway, the gist of it was how grateful he was of my example

Of that fact that I kept coming back every day even though I hardly got the ball

And that I kept trying

And that he taught me a lot of patience and non-judgmentalness

(Yes, non-judgmentalness...accept it)

It was a nice letter.

Since then whenever I have the chance to play volleyball

I play. No matter what.

Anyway...

I think I got side-tracked...

Sorry....

So yeah, incident with brother and bro-in-law reminded me of that.

Then one time in one of our games

The ball was coming toward them

And they both moved in a way that I thought they were getting the ball

And I didn't realize they weren't until the ball was going to hit the ground

I ran for it, but it was too late...

So I said "BOYS!"

And bro-in-law said "You said you wanted to play!"

It was totally their ball though... ;)

Boys....can't live with them, can't live without them.

It was a fun night...we ate ice cream afterwards and went home.

My family isn't huge into fireworks...

To end, I give you 3 quotes:

"We must believe in luck. For how else can we explain the success of those we don't like?"

Jean Cocteau

Hehehe. I liked that.

"It is even harder for the average ape to believe that he has descended from man."

H.L. Mencken

I thought that was pretty clever. :)

And last but not least, a quote from the first president of the US...

"No people can be bound to acknowledge and adore the invisible hand which conducts the affairs of men more than the people of the United States. Every step by which they have advanced to the character of an independent nation seems to have been distinguished by some token of providential agency."

Days like this make me grateful to live in the United States and have the freedom that I take for granted every day.

Happy 4th and happy Sunday! :)