(Written by me for Lucy’s school paper)

Have You Seen the Big Red Swing?

Question: What has blue eyes, a great big smile and swings back and forth at recess?
Answer: First grader Lucy Coleman on her new red swing!
You may have noticed something new at CV’s playground. A brand new red swing was delivered a few weeks ago. This is a special swing – designed especially for children who cannot sit up or balance by themselves on a regular swing. Lucy is just like all the other first graders. She loves to read. She loves to play. She loves to swing! Lucy is also one of the only students at CV who uses a wheelchair. Imagine if you sat in a wheelchair during class and then for recess you got to sit in your wheelchair outside. Recess is supposed to be different! Recess is a break! Recess is fun! Thanks to the new red swing, Lucy can safely do her favorite thing at recess… SWING! Be sure to stop by, say “Hi!” and see how happy Lucy is on her swing!

I feel like I have been on more planes in the past 4 days than I really have. Maybe there is an unknown equation for hours spent in an airport that somehow adds up to years taken from your life!

Saturday night I took a red-eye flight from SLC to LAS to PIT to ERI. How sad that I actually KNOW most airport codes by heart! We arrived in ERI Sunday morning 9:00am which is a full hour before any car rental company opens. So, Renee and I took a cab to the hotel, 6 hours before typical check-in time. Renee was able to have a small pitiful waffle before they shut down the breakfast bar. I was already upstairs grabbing a 1 hour nap before I needed to get up-and-at-’em as “Rachel”. I actually bought a tempurpedic neck pillow just for this trip. I had a feeling I was going to need as much sleep while traveling as possible! Our cabbie came back for us and delivered us to the library. He said he couldn’t actually estimate how far the drive from the hotel to the library was in time or miles, only in dollars. And it would be about $17. (Yes, I’m still smiling!) So the conversation COULD go-
Q: How long does it take to get from here to the library?
A: Seventeen Dollars.
Or a variation-
Q: How far is it from the hotel to the library?
A: $17

So, there you have it! It takes $17 dollars long and it is $17 dollars away.

I hadn’t done a Signing Time show in close to two months, with the holidays and all. In September or October if you said - I need a 30 minute show including a story. I could totally write up a set list and time it in my head to the minute! Or even- give me an hour show with a 10 minute break in the middle. DONE! But where am I? They requested an hour with a short break mid-way I performed for a solid 50 minutes took a 5 minute break - dropped a song from the list and sang 4 more! WHEW!

The facility was built to hold 170 people and we had over 350 people in there, some of which had driven more than 7 hours to see the show! I don’t know what time I stopped singing, but there was a news crew ready to interview. I did that, came back and met and greeted. Should we coin the phrase “met and gret” or “meeted and greeted”? Well you know what I mean. One more news interview once the Meet & Greet line ended.

We grabbed dinner and went to the airport (ERI incase you were wondering). Caught a delayed plane to PIT, which caused us to miss our flight to RDU. Let me back up. The plan was to get to Raleigh NC at 10pm and drive 2 hours to Wilmington NC. Check-in to hotel, sleep and get up and present twice at an educational conference in the morning.

Note to self - when dealing with airport customer service, ALWAYS speak with a supervisor! The supervisor re-routed me to ILM in the morning. We had him re-route Renee home in the morning! We spent the night in Pittsburgh at a “distressed traveler” rate at the Marriott. (We ordered room service) Renee left the hotel hours before me, for a very delayed series of events and finally arrived home. (One of her planes sat on the runway for 2 hours and THEN got de-iced!)

I went back to PIT for my own series of delayed events. PIT to CLT. I arrived in ILM at 3:30pm missing the conference all together. But rumor has it they had +100 attendees waiting for me in a room that held 30 - so they moved my never to happen presentation to the auditorium!

So, a lot of people say they wish they could just see a day in the life of the Coleman family… now you can. I can’t promise it will be pretty. I can’t promise it will be easy. But, it is pretty good.

MLK Jr. day - no school today. This morning Aaron went to work at the Signing Time office - he must be editing. Getting ready for the re-release of Signing Time volumes 1, 2 and 3. He’s adding special features and updating the “old Rachel” with the “new Rachel”. (I can refer to myself in third person can’t I? I mean that Rachel is a character, isn’t she!?) It’s actually nice to know your spouse is the one picking shots of you.

So, no school and very cold today. I think it is 8 degrees. We were destined to spend the day inside. But NO - I checked out Fandango and 10 minutes before the movie started I grabbed Lucy and Leah to load in the car for an afternoon of Eragon. Lucy likes to negotiate and today it was about her baby doll and her baby doll’s car seat.
Lucy — “Mom can I take Elizabeth to the movie?”
Me — “Yes, Lucy.”
Lucy — “Mom will you fasten her in her car seat?”
Me — “Yes Lucy.”
Lucy — “Mom can Elizabeth come see the movie too?”
Me — “Only if the car seat stays in the car.”
Lucy — “But mom, I promise she won’t make a sound during the movie!”
Me — “Lucy the car seat stays in the car and if I hear any more about it, Elizabeth stays in the car as well.”
Lucy — “Mom it’s illegal to leave your baby in the car!” 

Outcome - Elizabeth the baby doll saw Eragon and the car seat stayed in the car. Since we were late, Lucy’s wheelchair stayed in the car too. Leah carried Elizabeth and I carried Lucy. Oh, when we left the theatre, Lucy was down one shoe. Leah ran back into the theatre and retrieved it. It is so nice to have a “Leah” when your hands are full of “Lucy”.