Quiet Endurance

There are those ladies (ahem, Emily) who love a good trip to the salon. And then there are Reynolds girls.

Maggie's first haircut! She loved it, can't you tell?

Ole! Ole! Ole!

That's what they say at soccer matches right? What about soccer matches involving children and border collies? I was picking the kids up from childcare at the gym the other day and they asked if I would be interested in pitting my children against dogs in a soccer match for the nightly news. I figured this is my shot to get my kids discovered by talent scouts, do some commercial work for a while (you know, Juicy Juice and a few Gap ads), then head on over to sitcoms and work their way into major motion pictures and eventually we can all be on E! True Hollywood Story after a quick stint in rehab.

This was a demonstration to promote an upcoming City of Lancaster event called Bark in the Park and raise money for the local animal shelter. This dog's name is Ms. Z and for that reason, I don't like her.The dogs might be better trained than the children... Patiently waiting for a turn...

The dogs never had much chance against this crew.

1992 Chevrolet Camaro RS

That was Erik's first car. Mine was a 1992 Pontiac Grand Am. Have you ever noticed that when you ask people, especially teenagers, "Where do you see yourself in 10 years?" they see themselves in a particular car living a life that is exemplified by that car. Side note: Some people make decisions based off of what they desire to happen and others out of what they desire to not happen. I'm the latter. Back to the point: I don't know that I pictured a certain car but I absolutely said on many occasions that I would never drive a minivan. If you recognize this vehicle then you know it was my beloved minivan. Of course I made all of those proclamations before I tried to wrangle 3 carseats into the backseat of a Camry and before I realized how handy the sliding doors are and before Toyota sought to make minivans cool.


But even with as many rash words from adolescence that I've had to eat as I entered adulthood and parenthood, I never in my wildest dreams could have imagined that not only would I cave and join what I perceived to be a very non-hip, not-with-it minivan crowd, but that I would leave the minivan-driving, 2.1 kid toting crowd behind and blaze into this territory.


Seriously! I didn't set out to be here, driving 4 stairstep kids in a Ford E150, homeschooling and getting ready for two more. How, in less than 8 years did I go from the cute little Camry I drove in college to upgrading into a "bus van" (as the children call it). The big thing that changed was in the summer of 2002 when Erik and I first realized that we were living a life that worshipped ourselves instead of Our Creator.

We started attending church, reading the Bible and seeking His will instead of ours. We were slowly convicted to make little changes here and there. I wonder what my reaction might have been if God had instantly asked me to quit working, trade my Camry for the bus and fill it with children. The scene I imagine is quite colorful but, all that to say, I'm thankful God has walked me from there to here. I love here! And driving a "bus van" is totally worth it for these guys and for the next two, Lord willing.

Packback School

My children have difficulty with a few words, namely syrup, airport and backpack. Yeah, I don't understand either but they come out "syry-up," "airy-port" and "packback" no matter how many times we practice. They must get this from Erik because I have perfect diction.

This year we are breaking ground by moving into a charter school. This essentially means Jake goes to "packback school" one day a week but still does the majority of his learning at home. Erik and the Dan walked him into class and picked him up on his first day, apparently I couldn't be trusted to not do something embarrassing. Apparently I seem like the type that would try to *gasp* kiss him in front of the other kids or yell "Make good choices!" across the parking lot.

Of course I wanted every detail at the end of the day and all I get out of "What did you do today?" was "I don't know but it was fun and I want to go every day instead of doing work at home." Essentially what this boils down to is food from a lunchbox just tastes better and I like to color with the markers you won't le tme use on your tablecloth. He was given free time with markers to draw whatever he wanted and he did this:

Just waiting for the teacher to call! :-) So this is what school looks like at home. See! It's fun! What isn't fun about a white board and standing on a chair and phonemic blends?

And cute little desks are fun too, right?

Not to mention the bubblegum I give out at the end of the day! Beat that packback schoolteacher!

Yesterday's Impromptu Science Discussions

Jacob's:
Me: Jake, take this diaper outside to the trash can.
Dan: Mom, can we just put it in the kitchen trash?
Jake: No Dan, it's bigger outside so it doesn't smell bad.
Me: That's right Jake! Dilution IS the solution to pollution!

Dan's:
Dan: Mom, what's in my heart?
Me: It's a big muscle.
Dan: But what's IN it?
Me: Blood.
Dan: But what's in blood?
Me: Cells and water.
Dan: What's in water?
Me: Molecules.
Dan: But what's in mol-culs?
Me: Atoms.
Dan: But what's in atoms?
Me: Subatomic particles.
Dan: But what's in subatomic part-culs?
Me: Quarks.
Dan: But what's in quarks?
Me: I don't know.
Dan: Oh, okay. Can I have some Goldfish crackers?

Summer Flashback

We trekked to Texas for the first third of summer this year and though I've been too lazy to blog this until now, it's been in the back of my mind. Every year that we've ever (and I mean ever) taken Jacob to Texas, he has found a new and exciting reason to go to the emergency room. It started out simple enough as a newborn with an eye infection and HMOs that don't allow you to go to Urgent Cares when out of state. We had a couple other nice random illnesses in there and then in 2007 he stepped it up with a broken leg. Not to be out-done he pulled a skull fracture on us the next trip and we got to go to 3 ERs and overnight in the PICU with a couple ambulance rides in there too.

That being said, I was nervous about our trip this year. My dear father wanted to take the boys to do fun stuff at his office and I thoroughly reminded him of my reservations. I was promptly assured they would be kept out of harm's way. And then I see these pictures from that day.

Pump jacks, blow torches and air compressors. Nice, Dad, totally safe. I love the progression of Daniel in the last 3 pictures though! First thing Daniel said when he got home was "I cut steel with fire!" Love you Papa!

The Calling is the Coolest

We really like our Sunday school class. It's called The Calling (Erik and I ate alot of Pazookie at BJ's while trying to come up with a name) and it is for the 23-30 year-old crowd. And for two more months, I'm still technically in the age range and then I don't know what's going to happen. We had a really fun BBQ for Labor Day because we are good Americans and here are some of the extremely adult, career-oriented, mature folks eating popsicles. Um hm. Jolly Rancher popsicles I might add!
Most of us swam, except for Erik and Brad. This is Brad, he's nice, plays a mean guitar and recently discovered motorcycles are dangerous.

Here is Erik. Scoring a kiss from a cute girl.

I got to be a floating bus for toddlers! I love hearing people yell, "Mommy's a bus!" when I'm in my swimsuit!

Happy Labor Day!