Deep breath, here we go...

Today, I am headed to an interview for school. It has been years since I have been to an interview.

With what may appear to be years of failure behind me, I am making a move forward. I used to think they were failures. This may sound cliche, but I am realizing that they were not necessarily failures, but redirections. I am one of those people who can get so focused that God must use a little bit more than gentle words to get me where I am supposed to be. Today, is the culmination of many months of gathering my broken pieces and seeing a mosaic beginning to form. I am beginning to see that maybe my life was meant to be a mosaic, and not a uniformly beautiful vase. The pieces are coming together in a beautiful way, so unlike the objects from which they originated.

I am excited. I am praying that this mosaic is pleasing to God. I am praying that I can remained focused on glorifying God, even when I'm tempted to focus on paper cuts and stubbed toes. I am praying I don't throw up in the interview. I am praying.

Remember that entry I posted a few months ago? The Monsters Behind the Closet Door? This is one of those moments I wrote about, but I'm not going to allow the monster outside the closet to prevent me from opening it, and finding out that the closet is really a doorway.

Deep breath... in... out... in... out... in...and here we go.

Feel free to pray with me.

Oh, yeah... We flew.

The last time my sister had been to Disneyland was seven years ago. Melody really could not remember it well. Recently, Melody has fallen in love with the Peter and the Star Catchers series by Ridley Pearson and Dave Barry. Who could blame her? It's a great series. (It is especially good as an audiobook. The narrator is amazing.) This series is a collection of books in response to a question asked by the author's daughter, "But how did Peter become Peter Pan?" 

A few months ago, I went to Disneyland with my friends. When my sister heard me mention the Peter Pan ride, she gasped, "There's a Peter Pan ride?!" I told her that of course there was, and that she even rode the ride when she was there last time. She was very disappointed to realize she had no recollection of it. This began her dreaming about a trip to Disneyland. Last month-after accidentally ending up with a season pass to Disneyland on a spur of the moment trip with my friend, Morgan- I had an idea.

I called Melody and asked her, "Would it be a lame Christmas present if I offered to pay half your ticket and take you to Disneyland?" 

She quickly responded, "That would not be lame at all!"  And that set the trip in motion: A "sisters only" Disneyland trip to recover lost memories, revisit a fading childhood, enjoy the freedom of adulthood, and make all new memories, most of all: to fly.

Our adventure began very early in the morning. Normally this would be an issue, because both of us consider 10 AM to be the earliest portion of the morning we are willing to tolerate, but we were both pretty excited.  As we drove there we listened on audio to the first book of the new spinoff series of Peter and the Starcatchers, this new book is called The Bridge to Neverland it is by the same authors, in a more modern setting. It seemed fitting for our adventure.  We got to Disneyland just before the gates opened, got Melody's ticket printed off, and then bolted through the front gate, directly to the most important ride of our trip: Peter Pan's Flight. We got there so fast that there was hardly a wait at all.

 I have to say, Peter Pan's Flight happens to be my favorite Fantasyland ride. I have always wanted to fly.

And this is about to become a photo-tastic blog, so brace yourself for experiencing it visually.

This is Captain Hook threatening Melody, the only person in the crowd wearing a Peter Pan hat.

 

So Peter Pan chased him off and gave Melody a high five, and told us "He's just jealous because you guys have two hands!" Which I think must have been Melody's absolute favorite part of the day. I was so happy, because Peter Pan didn't do a meet and greet that day and we were disappointed about. We went to the parade simply to lay eyes on the boy.

Basically, we had a great time. I think Christmas should start early every year. 

Before we left, we had one last Peter Pan ride, because it's always better when you exit the ride and it is still dark outside, so you can pretend it was real and you can still fly.

 

Oh, by the way... I didn't let Melody drive home. I mean, she just doesn't have the driving style I do.

And that, my blog friends, was our awesome trip to Disneyland, my early Christmas present to Melody, and just a plain good time shared by sisters.

Thanks for reading along. I hope you enjoyed it at least half as much as we did.

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