In Texas and We Have a Home

We are currently in Texas enjoying the heat of the day and cool of the pool at my mom and dad's home.  Our time here has been such a treat.  We've been able to regain a sense of calm in the midst of all the hubbub of a move.  It's been great to put up my feet as my ankles have tried to turn themselves into Cankles...

Yesterday morning we were offered a Duplex on base housing up in Fort Belvoir, north of Quantico.  We wrestled with the idea and tried to weigh whether or not we could do a Duplex.  We understand a Duplex is a fine place to live, but we don't really want to live in a Duplex and we imagined it would be very difficult with all the children.  Please don't get me wrong, we're not above it.  On a whim we decided to call a rental property south of Quantico located in Fredericksburg.  It's a property I've looked at for 2 months, but didn't ever call or pursue because of the high rent the owners wanted.  Yesterday was different because of the whole duplex thing.  Jake gave them a call and guess what?  The lady he spoke with was out to Costco, with her 6 children whom she homeschool's stocking up on chow.  Jake told her about us, what we could afford for rent and when we would move in.  She told him how there's been a lot of interest in the property, but that the right people hadn't come along yet.  She told Jake what the absolute low is that she and her husband would rent for and it was still 200 above our max.  She asked if she could call her husband and if Jake would also call him.  Apparently between phone calls the wife told her husband that our family was the one they should rent to.  They came down 400 dollars per month so that we could rent from them.  They are moving out soon and we'll be moving in the last week of April.  I can't tell you what shock and humility has been running through my system since hearing this news.  The Lord answered our prayers over and abundantly more than what we prayed for.

The home sits on nearly 4 acres.  There's more than 4500 square feet of living area.  With 6 bedrooms and 4.5 bathrooms, having the stomach flu all at once will no longer be a problem. The driveway runs the length of the acreage so the kids can skateboard and ride their bikes without any traffic, except each other.  It's about a half hour commute for Jake, but really that's nothing in comparison to the blessing of this home.  The property sits on a well and septic tank, so that's a set of utilities we won't deal with.  Only electricity.  We are so thankful! Thank you so much for praying for us.  We are humbled once again. Thank you Lord!

Leaving

We leave Cali today.  I never dreamed it would be so hard.  The Lord put us in a sweet God-fearing, Christ exalting church filled with Beautiful people and gave us such fabulous neighbors.  Lifetime friendships were established.  On Saturday the ladies from church held a baby shower for me.  It ended up being a crying fest, mainly on my part.  I always marvel at how friendships based on Christ are truly the sweetest, richest that there are.  I was so blessed by prayers, words of encouragement, scriptures to exhort and bless, that I simply could barely hold it together.  Thank you dear, sweet TCC ladies for pouring it on thick and wonderfully!

Sunday after church there was a huge italian feast goodbye fellowship for us.  Not only was there a feast and dessert and hugs and tears, there was a concert too!  I've blogged about a certain band before called, Brother Down.  Well, it turns out that they are actually husbands and fathers who are elders in the church we attend and they put on a concert for us to enjoy.  We were so blessed and the children were elated!  The music was awesome!  We were blown away by the generosity of the dear folks at church.

The trailer left our home Monday afternoon and we left our home Monday evening. It took a bit of time to break away as not all of our earthly things fit in the trailer. We ended up renting a mini U-haul and put all of our bikes and other things that wouldn't fit in there.  We gave away our barbecue grill to our neighbor as well. After doing one more walk/sweep of the house we headed north up here to Santa Cruz for a few nights vacation at a perfect little beach house.  The break has been refreshing and we had some very dear visitors throughout the week.  Jake's had surf buddies everyday. Despite my intentions to cook dinner for my family I wasn't permitted because different ladies from church insisted on bringing us meals.  Such a sweet week!

So today we leave.  No more Cali, no more beach house, a new place awaits and we have yet to fathom what good things the Lord will have for us.  It is a bitter sweet time, no doubt.

We are still on the hunt for a home and a church, so please pray for us.

Pictures, Pictures,

There were never such crazy pictures...

We have been busy, truly we have. So busy that we all have colds right now because we're run down from all of the comings and goings. I'll try to give a quick recap of the past week.  

Last Friday, Jake and I went out to eat to a Dinner Banquet.  It was one organized by the local Pregnancy Resource Center.  They were doing a fundraiser to benefit women and their unborn children.  I asked Jackie to snap a picture of me before leaving.

610 is not how much I weigh.

Jake and I enjoying a quick kiss before leaving the kids for the night.

The week between last Friday and this one flew by! Our trailer arrived and with it came the emotions of moving.  The loading ramp was missing from the trailer, so Jake and his crew of strong men set out to load the trailer without a ramp.  It's amazing how God equipped men to be.  So strong and motivated.  If it was me and some ladies who were to load a trailer I think I'd insist that we sit back and sip tea until the ramp arrived.

Today came the much anticipated day of graduation.  Jake had worked very hard for 21 months as had his family.  We were proud and relieved to see him cross the stage.  Samuel was a little stinker during the ceremony and I was taken back in memory to a similar time when Jake was getting Winged as a Naval Aviator and Colby was just a little bit older than Samuel is now, but boy did he give me a hard time that day.  It's funny because on this day Colby was helping me with Samuel.. I don't think back then I would have ever imagined a finer 14 year old young man helping me with a little toddler fit now.

Following the graduation we headed over to the Del Monte Hotel for the reception.  It was pouring down rain outside and because we've packed everything useful into the trailer we were pretty wet by the time we walked the short distance to the hotel.

  Samuel's mood quickly changed when he was given this cookie, notice it's nearly the size of half his head. He ended up with two of them and a some cake.

 Then it was time to cut the cake.  The children were so excited to see their daddy unsheathe his sword and slice the cake in half.  I have to admit I was pretty proud too.

This is my favorite picture.  They're all posing for a different camera, so I got the sweeter, profile view.

I can tell you that Jake could care less about what President Oliver is saying, he'd really just like to lick the blade of the sword. 

No worries, he made the right choice and used the provided napkin to wipe the blade clean.

Family Photo.

Lt. Larkin, Major Lizarraga, and my man.

The day was busy, but so sweet too.  We wouldn't have had it any other way.  We had several friends trek down from church to support Jake.  Thank you Pastor Farley, Bertsch Family, Benjamin Flores, and Bill Garaway for making the trip.  Our time was even more blessed knowing such dear people were there too!

Crazy Busy Funny Life

We are in the middle of moving.

There is no time for blogging.

Trailer comes tomorrow.

Jake was the top graduate and received 2 awards.

Benjamin has no secondary infections from the dog attack.

Praise God.

We are still without a house in Virginia.

So, please pray!

Libby's on steroids for her asthma.

NO homeschool right now, except Colby with his online courses.

I'm getting big... on the backside particularly.

Our house is completely torn apart.

You'd think we were slobs judging by all the holes in the walls and stains in the carpets.

Salt is still a naughty little doggie.

Samuel adores saying the word, "No."

I'm supposed to be in the shower right now.

I'll try to post some pictures later.

However, do not hold your breath or hold it against me if it takes a while.

XOXO

I Simply Remember my Favorite Things

and then I don't feel sooooo bad!

On Saturday upon returning from the movies with the girls, life was already happening at the Reynolds house and it continued to happen despite what the birthday girls were doing.

Our dear Benjamin has been awaiting a particular baseball card to arrive in the mail for a couple of weeks now. Ben gets really excited, I mean really excited about baseball.  He discovered there was a card worth $5.00 and he found someone online selling it for .75.  A bargain of course!  So, with his allowance he made the purchase and started checking for it in the mail every day after the order was placed.  Saturday was no different.  I came home and he was waiting anxiously for the mail key which I happily handed over to him.  He took off on his skateboard and was gone for about 5 minutes.  I was in the kitchen when he came home and he was limping and crying.  I told him to try and stop crying and reminded him that he is to conduct himself like a young man even when no one is watching.  He then proceeds to tell me that a dog had bit him.  This changed my response quite a bit, from being the instructive mother, to being a protective mother.  I rolled down his sock and there on the back of his ankle was a nasty wound from a dog!  I was livid and yelled to Jake what had just happened.  He went out into the neighborhood to track down the dog.  He had found the dog and the owner of the dog.  The owner was rather non-chalant about the whole thing. When Jake came home he phoned the PMO, basically the base police.  They arrived soon after and took a look at Benjamin's ankle.  They immediately suggested we have it looked it by a paramedic.  We weren't going to bring him in to the hospital because even though the wound was deep the skin hadn't broken yet.  You could see teeth marks and the release point of the dogs teeth from where he'd fallen off the skateboard he'd been cruising on.  Of course upon the urging of PMO we agreed to have the paramedics come take a look.  They came in all of their emergency glory along with the fire department. The police spoke to the neighbor and examined the dog's records. Praise the Lord that the Rabies vaccinations for the dog were all up to date.  Benjamin was extremely brave in his response as he was interviewed by the the police more than once.  He sat in his chair eating a large bowl of mint chocolate chip ice cream with his ankle wrapped in ice bravely telling of how the dog, "bolted from the common area and bit his ankle." He then fell off the board and tried to get back on it when the dog charged him again.  It wasn't until he picked up the board to carry it home that the dog left him alone.  Apparently the dog had been off leash and out of its home most of the day and the dog has got a fear of skateboards... Last time we checked this was a family neighborhood not one that's run by the dogs who live here.

Later when I was talking to Benjamin he told me, "I'm so glad my baseball card didn't come in the mail when that dog bit me, because when he did bite me, I dropped the mail and my card might have been damaged."  I was proud of Benjamin for remembering his favorite things and trying to "see the good" in the situation.  

We had a follow up appointment with the Doctor and he reminded us of how lucky Benjamin was. Though he has a lot of bruising and will have scarring there are no secondary infections at the bite site and we are very thankful.

Benjamin did have a strange dream after the incident and we don't think it's an effect from the bite.  He dreamed that, "I was at Target spending my gift card from my Meme and Poppy.  I wanted to buy a game boy with my money, but instead of game boys, they were trying to 'issue' me wives.  One of them was yellow, and one had a carrot crown.  They were little short girls about 15 years old, mom." I laughed out loud at that Benjamite dream..  Very funny. I shouldn't be concerned or should I?

Jackie is 12

Saturday, March 12, 1999, was a day that changed our lives forever. Our 2nd child was born and a daughter at that! Most of you know Jackie came rip roaring into the world. My labor was so fast that my dear husband couldn't get me to the hospital to deliver our baby. He did get me to a gas station where our little girl came into the world. She was born blue, but once awakened from the shock of a fast birth in the cold weather, she took a helicopter ride to the hospital. To be honest, she hasn't slowed down since. Jackie is a marvel to us and we adore the child so much. She is smart, so beautiful, an amazing sister, a delightful daughter, a Christian and in her free time a ballerina. Her last birthday "party" she had was back in Okinawa when she turned 5 years old. There's a picture of her below. She was so little then.

Jackie is growing and changing.  This year she asked for another party. After the morning ballet class I took her, some ballet friends, as well as a little friend from church to an afternoon of celebration.

Here they are loaded in the van and oh. so. excited.

We went to lunch at a local pizzeria.

They filled their cups to the brim with sodas of sorts and snacked on breadsticks and marinara while we waited for the pizza.

After lunch we headed over to the local mall and shopped around for about an hour.  After the hour had passed we went to the movies and watched, "Gnomeo and Juliet."  The girls really liked it. After the movie was done we headed back home.  The girls played for a bit while we waited for the moms to come and pick them up.  During this time we also had a visit from the local law enforcement, paramedics and fire department.  More on the that in another post.

Once the emergency team was gone and all of the guests had left except Jack's friend from church, we started the family celebration.

Jake's folks popped in for a surprise visit and were able to celebrate with us.

Here's Jackie opening some of her gifts.  She's cracking up at a card she got that sang, "Girls Just Want to Have Fun."

Butterfly.

Red Velvet Cake.

Sweet delivery of the cake by her sweet poppa.

With the candles blown out it's time to eat some of that cake.

Sweet family happy to celebrate Jackie.

We had a very fun, eventful birthday party for Jackie, but in contrast to her original Birthday it was pretty calm. We praise God for blessing us with Jackie. She is a delight to us all. Jackie, grow and glorify the risen Lord darling!

Benjamin is 10

Benjamin turned the big 10 this week.  He celebrated over the course of two different days. Monday we had his, "party."  He wanted to invite two of the neighbor boys and because of a prior conflict on his true birthday, Wednesday, we decided to celebrate early so everyone could be there.  We had a lot of fun and he was thrilled to have so much attention poured on him.  He wanted a Texas Ranger themed party.  That is his favorite team and baseball is his favorite thing right now.  Louisa organized a, "pin the bat to the player" game.  I did my best to create a baseball-ish looking cake and we celebrated fully.

Here's the lad looking into his blazing cake.  We used up the rest of the "tricky" candles from Jake's birthday.  Benjamin didn't mind and had equal success attempting to blow the things out.  

Sam's excited for the game or maybe he's just excited because he's got his blankie between his teeth.

We continued the celebration of Benjamin's birthday on Wednesday. His official birthday. Jake took him and his older brother, Colby, by special request, for breakfast. After which, they dropped off Colby and headed over to Pass and I.D. where Benjamin had his I.D. card made. He was excited about the event and Jake told me it was a very serious moment having his picture taken. Judging by the expression on his I.D. card I couldn't agree more. After the appointment was finished Jake and Benjamin headed North to Santa Cruz and spent the day together. They shopped for a skateboard for Benjamin's present, they hit baseballs at an indoor batting cage, they cruised on their boards up and down the cliff and they topped it off with some pizza.

Benjamin at one of his favorite newly discovered places, Pleasure Point Pizza.

Posing with a cool board and helmet near a cool truck.

Benjamin's celebrations were just right for a decade old little lad.  We are so thrilled to be the parents of such a passionate, beautiful young man.  We praise the Lord for the life that he has given Benjamin and the life he has given us through this child.  Benjamin, may you bring glory to our Lord in whatever you do and may you cause His face to shine upon you.

We love you son!