Fun fact about Tourette Syndrome. It comes and goes as it pleases. It's like the phases of the moon, sometimes you have a full moon, which is like having a lot of tics. No, I'm not a werewolf and no, my tics are not more frequent during the full moon. It's a comparison. Just for the record. 🙂 Sometimes, I won't have many tics, just like how once in a while you have no moon. At least that's visible. Just as the moon is always there, so is my TS.

This makes it a little hard to be consistently writing stories my tics do, when the tics themselves aren't consistent, much less when they aren't new and different during the dry spells. I think I might have been in too much of a good routine because I went on vacation last week (Banff National Park in Canada- it's amazing and you should go!) and oh boy did Paula love it! She was quite active and I suddenly have LOTS of great stuff to write about! Keep your eyes peeled, I'll release them slowly, just in case I hit another dry spell for stories.

In the meantime, here is a great picture to get you excited about the stories to come!

Mirror Lake in Banff. Also, as beautiful as it is, I sure love these people and they are the best part of the picture!

Little Paulas

So this new congregation I'm attending for church... remember how I was so excited about the little kids' reactions because they are always so great? Maybe I shouldn't have been so excited about it. I was asked to help teach the 6-8-year-olds. While I love kids, I haven't spent much time with them, especially extended time like this, so I'm a little nervous, even though I'm sure I'll just love them.

It's just hard because kids are active. They don't sit still, they are rarely quiet and can be very touchy. I was always more of a quiet kid myself and was always an old soul, so it's already different for me. The other thing that makes me nervous is that the older I get, the hard it is to process all of the senses simultaneously like I could before. It's not a bad thing at all, I'm seeing, hearing and experiencing things in more detail. But too many details too fast gets overwhelming. I'm going to have to start taking a fidget spinner to church just to have something to focus on and calm me down.

The final thing that makes me nervous is that maybe I don't want to have Paula show up at church after all. The thing about having an adult yell is the kids suddenly feel like they have permission to yell, too. And they are already plenty loud. This week, even without the help of Paula, they were making lots of noises that made me wonder if they had heard her before. If they actually heard Paula, chances are it will get chaotic. One Paula is enough, I don't need ten miniature versions of her running around.

At least Paula doesn't really run around...

Not What I Was Hoping For

Well, she finally did it! Kind of. Paula finally showed up at church. It wasn't quite what I was hoping for, but it's a step in the right direction. It didn't happen during the first-hour meeting with all the kids like I was hoping for. She showed up in the next class where there were all of nine adults who witnessed that this is a thing.

I'm thinking she must still be a little gun shy, because she even reverted back to one of my earlier tics- the simple little squeak that sounds a little like a hiccup or maybe even a sneeze.

In fact, that was pretty much the reaction that I got. I didn't even realize it had finally happened until there was a small moment of silence, followed by one man bravely acknowledging the sound with a timid, "Bless you?"

After a quick explanation, the class then continued. It wasn't until afterward that the teacher came up asking if he had handled that ok that there were any questions. He had simply said, "Oh. Cool." Which was entirely fine by me. He was so worried that it may have been insensitive and wanted to make sure there isn't something he should do differently in future classes.

People sure are great.