And Clayton makes 4

For the first time, ever, we've had my nephew stay with us all week.  The most he's ever been down in Texas is maybe 2 or 3 days.  When the plan was made, I got to creating a list of "FUN" things we could do to show him Houston.  Clayton is my sister's oldest child - he's 14-years-old.  In maturity, that's ages older than Elijah and a decade compared to my 4-year-old.

Before we met in Grapevine where he came home with us, Elijah became nervous.  One night he asked me, "What does Clayton like?  What if he doesn't like it here? What will we do?"  I think my concerns were becoming his concerns.  How do you entertain a 14-year-old, a real teenager?  Would he like the games we play? Would he watch the shows we watch? Would he make do with the rules we have?  Would he sulk in his room playing video games the whole time ignoring my hyper kids who would inevitably show off for him in an endearing, yet annoying fashion?

For as much as I worried, I really didn't need to.  Clayton's laid back, easy-going, and does what we do.  He hasn't eaten us out of house and home, he's not off texting about how bored he is to his friends back home, and thankfully, he's not rolling his eyes at my immature kids, though he does like to call Elijah "a little random."

We've done everything, EVERYTHING this week and to be honest, I"m so tired.  But we've kept Clayton so busy and trying new things that he hasn't had time to miss his regular life, which from what he says involves a lot of sitting at home, video games, football camp and chores.  Compared to that, Chuck E. Cheese, the movies, the beach, an Astro's game, a trampoline park, and watching bats emerge from a bridge, we have given him something to write home about.

Truly, Clay has been a gift to us.  While we were at the beach the other day, I sat in my beach chair, enjoying the sand in my toes and the sun on my shoulders and wished I'd brought a book.  I wasn't prepared for how well everything paired off.   The boys were busy building a seawall of sand and the girls were playing with their little fish, named Sammy Summer that Clayton happened to catch for them. This moment of bliss didn't last long.  Eventually someone needed a drink or something to eat, or for me to help them with sunscreen.  But it was nice.  I liked my 4 kid family and only wish we could easily add an older brother to the mix so Elijah wasn't always on the outside of girl-time.   Don't get any ideas - there won't be any children from scratch added to our family.  It is what it is.






But Clayton makes a good +1 for Elijah, which makes a summer day that much more enjoyable.
He's invited back, any time.

Vacationing at The Lodge

This past weekend we had another Buehring/Ward/Morrison/Downum family get-together reminiscent of DisneyWorld but instead of an entire week of moment-to-moment action in the happiest place on earth, we had a weekend rush of water slides, lazy rivers, lily-pads, cabanas, arcades, birthday cakes, sun and more sun at the Great Wolf Lodge in Grapevine, Texas.

Because my mom is awesome, she planned everything right down to the two birthday parties (one for my nephew turning 5 and one for Lanie turning 5, a little early) on two different days with two different sets of decorations and two different cakes in our own cabana with our own cabana girl.  Whew.  That's a lot to take care of.  But she did it, effortlessly.  Thank you mom and dad, again for giving our family another chance to have an adventure together.


As for my kids, they each met success in some form or fashion.


Elijah --- the ultimate Master Magi of the Magic Quest.  At the Great Wolf Lodge, they have this intricate game where you buy a wand and then follow clues around the entire hotel, all floors, and complete quests.  Needless to say, Elijah was all over this game.  He ran around the hotel, up and down stairs for two hours so he could become the master magi and get his name (aka FireBurster) on the leader board.

Lydia & Lanie --- Master of the Lilypad walk-across.  I was in awe of how quickly their little bodies could run across the lilypads without so much as a bauble.  The adults, not so much.  It's harder than it looks.



Lydia - Master of the water handstand.  And I am the master counter:  "Momma, how many seconds?  Momma, how many that time? Momma, did you count?"




Lanie --- Master of sneaking onto super slides that require her to be ONE inch taller.  When Lanie wasn't given the color band that allowed her on all of the cool slides, I was peeved.  Yeah, I know it's for safety, but I couldn't imagine how her lack of an inch would really affect her going onto an intertube with me.  We did it the right way, though.  We asked the front desk about changing her color.  They told us they couldn't give her a new color, but they could snip off the old one and leave it up to us to talk to any lifeguard that objected.  For all that I fretted, not one single lifeguard asked if she was tall enough.  Not a single one.

And as it goes, they each learned a lesson or two.


Elijah learned several things.  1) Arcade money doesn't last long and that sometimes, you don't get the 1000 tickets that your cousins do. 2) Agile sisters are sometimes better at the lilypad walk-across.  3) Being tall enough to ride EVERY slide with his cousins is AWESOME! 4) It's okay to be silly with your sister when you're on vacation.

Lydia learned that it's okay to do something scary, like ride the Howling Tornado, because in the end you'll be glad you did.

Lanie learned the difference between a digital camera & a disposable camera when she was given a throw-away with her birthday package.  She was so concerned with it and asked me so many questions.  "When can I use it?" "How do I do it?" "Where are the pictures?"  "When can we go to Walgreens to get them?" It was so foreign to her, but she got such a kick out of it.






And of course, there's me and Kenny.  We learned and re-learn that trips are a lot of work but completely worth it. We may endure late, late nights, awkward sleep arrangements (hotels are not friendly to families of 5), poor eating habits, and kids on hyper-drive but, and you know this, we just gave them a memory.  So again, thanks mom and dad, for helping us do that.

An Explosion of Collectibles

Elijah has always been a collector.

He's what you call obsessive when it comes to his "likes."  And many parents would agree that their children go through stages of "likes" but after having two girls who have Not become obsessive about any one toy, I know that this is not universal.  First for Elijah it was lining up trucks, then it was collecting trains, then it turned to parking 100 hot wheels, and then creating a city of roads for hot wheels to finally racing hot wheels in a made-up track and keeping a running list of winners.  And then tangible playing stopped.
     
This was about the time Mario Bros. and Wii Sports and Madden entered our life and then those darn free addictive game apps like Temple Run and Candy Crush and Book Worm.  This has given way to so many available games on so many devices that my head spins.  There is always Something, Somewhere electronic to keep little hands busy.  At times, like when we're taking a long car trip or when I'm in a meeting or when we're at a restaurant for a long time trying to chat with friends, these games come in handy.  But, I am always the first person in the house to call a strike on all video not because I think that the games will turn their brains to mush, but because I want my kids to love board games and playing cards and reading and writing and make-believe as much as I did. (Read that again:  "as much as I did.)
   
But then . . . Kenny did something amazing for him.  He got up in the attic, aka the sauna, and got him 4 boxes of old comic books and baseball cards.  His room exploded in dusty old stuff.  Come to find out, Kenny was a collector himself.  With great fervor, Elijah poured through the boxes, with one thing in mind . . . how much money is this worth?  If I haven't mentioned, E is also an enterpriser.  He always wants to make money - garage sales, lemonade stands, selling his stuff on Craigslist, searching for coins on the floor at Kroger.  The kid loves money.  If he were more political and liked to wear ties, I'd call him Alex P. Keaton.
   
Looking up the current price of old baseball cards and comics is the perfect summer job, so he and Kenny went to Half Price Books and bought 4 giant books filled with card after card and price lists.  So far, I think about $35 is the highest with a lot of $1.00 cards so this isn't going to pay for our retirement.  But, it's exciting and fun and very, very cluttery.  But it may just help pause the electronic fever, and if I"m really, really lucky, I can sneak in some Gin Rummy, or Uno or maybe some Solitaire, with real cards.
     

Another Kenny Collectible.
Each bear had a special name, like Cub Caneveral, the Statue of Libearty, and the last one Kareem Abdul JaBear which in mint condition could be worth something.
After almost 30 years and a lot of attic, not so mint(y).  

The Apple Doesn't Fall Far

In honor of Father's day, I give the fathers' of these two little girls (Lydia & our friend, Ella) a priceless picture. 

Lanie may order kid's mac and cheese, and Elijah may order chicken strips, but you can count on Lydia to make her dad proud, fall in his footsteps and order messy, sticky wings. 

The apple doesn't fall far, does it?

Now, to complete the picture,  all they need is some beer.  

But, we'll wait awhile for that one.  A really, really long while, preferably. 

Ready for a little FOB

What self-respecting parent of some-what young children would sleep til 9:30am, okay closer to 10am on a Saturday morning?  After the week I had, this kid would. And it felt sooo good to sleep that long. I had only a minute of guilt before I woke up to start the most relaxing Saturday in weeks.  And I don't think I was alone.  Kenny was up only a little before me and Elijah slept later than he ever has, probably ever in his life. We were all recuperating.

My lack of writing can be blamed on my week full of KIDS KIDS KIDS at VBS all morning, and then afternoons of long lunches and more kids piling into my van to come over, and then evenings with my own kids and their "so, what are we going to do now?" questions.  Talk about spoiled with activity. How many times did I remind them, "Mom just needs a little break. Just a minute to catch my breath."  And then we'd be gone again.


I love VBS - I said that earlier but for some reason, teaching 150 children in a 3-hour period takes a lot out of me.  And I'm not the only one.  I had friends going home at noon and taking 3-hour-naps.  I saw those exhausted eyes on every volunteer by Thursday, some even earlier than that.   On Friday, everyone had a lift in their step because it was the last day and we had made it!

When I think about our dramatic re-action to 5 little mornings jam-packed with enthusiasm, I begin to wonder how I made it through an entire summer as a counselor at church camp.  At camp, there are rare breaks.  You're responsible from sun-up to sun-down and then some weekends are filled with weekend campers and you're only break is an hour of FOB (flat on bunk) time.

But then I remember, oh yeah, I was much younger then and full of energy and a desire to teach and a love for the outdoors and being in God's creation.

I don't think my love and compassion for the children who came to our VBS has changed at all from when I was twenty and working in the woods surrounded by mosquitos, in fact, as I've gotten older, I find myself more passionate about reaching the kids who come across my path.

So, why are we 30 and 40 somethings so tired when the big finale Friday comes around?
My short answer - 3 Ward kids.
Holy cow, they have energy.  They don't nap, they don't rest, they don't nod off.  There's certainly no FOB time in our house.  And they don't care that I've been working all morning trying to get 150 preschoolers to listen, to absorb the Gospel message and to have fun at the same time.

It takes everything I have to keep up with them.
And then when I say something like that, I feel like 100 years old.
So, I take it back.
I've got a whole summer to keep up with them, oh my, and it's going to take every ounce of energy and prayer I've got.  This week of VBS was just the beginning. And it truly was a great beginning.
I'm ready now.

Well, sort of.  But I'll take a little FOB every now and then.

Kingdom Rock

     It's here again.  I can hardly believe a year has passed since our last Vacation Bible School when I was critiquing my non-classroom.  This year, we are moving on up because not only do I have a classroom with air conditioner, but it also has a bathroom, an itty bitty kiddie bathroom, but still.

 I think I'm moving into my 13th summer working with children and teaching them anything I can about Jesus' love for them.  It's always such a wild week that carries so much anticipation.  The night before we started, Elijah couldn't sleep. Which I know doesn't hold as much weight if you know him; he can rarely sleep; but he was so pumped up with what was to come, who he was to see, what he was to do.  And even though Kenny and I were up past midnight planning our Games and Imagination Station classes (respectively) that we slacked til the last minute, I was pumped up too.

      I love so many things about the week -- and these are only a few.   I love the sea of yellow shirts as the kids walk through the hallways, all with the same "Kingdom Rock" slogan.  I love the chaos of day one and the hundreds of questions of where's and when's.  I love the loud music and motions that my children will sing for the rest of the summer.  I love the traditions of this week. I love that after every day of VBS, my kids think (and rightly so) that we will meet friends at Chick-fil-A or McDonald's and stay for two hours so we can debrief the day.  I love that this week of church-going means as much to our friends as it does to our family. I love the preschool kids I get to teach, especially those who blurt out the best, and most unrelated comments.  (Side note:  today I asked the kids a time when they were feeling sunk - low, bad, sad. etc.  This kid jumped up, twirled around a few times and did a spastic dance. All I can say is, "Great dance.  Nice idea.")  I love the fast-paced day where one class cycles in only to be replaced by another one, no time for a water break much less a potty break in the itty bitty potty.  (I would maybe like a water break.)  I love that the theme of the day is standing strong in Christ -- and showing kids that they aren't alone.  That they have a God who loves them more than anything else in the world, that he would send his Son just for them. Yes, especially that.  Every kid needs to know that.  Every adult needs to know that.  And I get to help remind them.

       That's what I love.

Book Closed and Completely Satisfied

 
    Just finished reading Old Yeller with Elijah.  I couldn't even read the last chapter.  My words were thin and my breath was short.  Elijah who always sits opposite of me on the bed while I read, kept knocking my feet with a "MOM, it's okay.  It's okay, mom.  Just stop, okay." I can't believe how badly I broke down.  If you haven't read the book then I hope you've seen the movie and if you've done neither then shame on you.  Old Yeller was the first movie I ever saw that made me cry.   The Fox and the Hound was the second.  I remember them both so vividly.  While I was reading those last chapters and * spoiler alert, the dog dies, I was picturing the actor who played Travis through all his tears as he had to make the hard decision and shoot his beloved stray dog.  Like yesterday. And I haven't seen it since.
      I finally got through it.  Closed the book, heaved a big sigh and Elijah ran into the girl's room where Kenny was reading to the girls and told them all about mom crying.  I admit it.  I'm a wimp.  But it was so, so satisfying to cry.  There is something great about reading a book that is set in a location and time and way of life completely unlike your own.  A time like Little House on the Prairie when every single thing you owned or ate took work, lots of hard arduous labor.  And while you're reading a book like that, you start to understand the mentality that life is not cush, and that things have to die, and animals who had hydrophobia (rabies, we call it) must be shot.  What's so satisfying is that the author Fred Gibson, made me care so much about this boy and his dog, so much so that I was a blubbering idiot. He made me care that in a life where everything works on Survival of the Fittest, where animals come and go as needed, this dog who protected a family from a bull, a hog, and a wild wolf meant something to them.  He meant something to me. And I don't even own a dog.

But like every other reader in the world who has a soul (just kidding), we get it.  We understand animal stories.  And we cry when the heroic dog dies. And then we close the book, relieved it's over.

And then our kids poke fun at us.
The price we pay, dear readers, to be satisfied.

So Many Windows

Just a short work funny.  It's not ha ha funny, but more of a side smirk funny.

This is the last week of school for Pasadena kids so I've been waking up early, trying not to rouse the whole family and leaving them to sleep in while I trek across town to work.  But it's all good.  It's been so hectic and that helps take my mind off the fact that my kids are being dispersed to wonderful friends (thanks Kendra and Mary) so that Kenny can get a little work done each day.

I've been working my tail off in the library trying to work with the discipline counselor to get back hundreds of overdue books.  It's been non-stop traffic and a really, really terrible time to have an emergency drill, let alone four in one day.  But, I don't make the rules so this Monday, we were tested, one after another how well the kids could pull it off.  A quota? Maybe.

Imagine my eye-roll as another alarm dings and another announcement comes over the intercom.  We had fire, tornado, and a couple of lockdown procedures. I don't want anyone to think I am discounting these drills and the necessity of them, especially after what happened to the victims in the Oklahoma schools and the victims in the Houston hotel fire.  I did wonder though how the drill would help with merely 3 days of school left. But who am I ?

What finally set me off with giggles was the perimeter lock-down.  Of course I had to search the office for any information as to what a perimeter lock down is, but it's just that.  You lock down the perimeter of your room - this means all students inside, doors locked and blinds closed.  No big deal.
But did you get a looksy at the picture above?  Do you want to count how many windows are in my room?  Do you know it takes me a good two to three minutes to open all 36 of them in the morning? Which isn't a problem until you're in an emergency situation and you have THIRTY-SIX windows to close in a hurry.  I don't know if I was just tired, or silly, but I laughed so much.
And all it took was a perimeter lock-down.

I'm going to love this job.

My new office with even more windows

Swimming on Easy Street

On Your Mark 

Get Set

JUMP!

                                                                                                         

       

       First day of swimming pool excitement and Lanie has already jumped ahead, and I mean literally jumped, off the board.  We weren't prepared for it.  Usually it's the end of the season when she finally gets up her nerve.  It must have been those two weeks of swim lessons that brought on the confidence because on our inaugural neighborhood pool visit, right away, she asked to jump.  No floaties.  No one to catch her.  No help.  The big lifeguard rule that we have tried to sneak around the past nine summers is that the CHILD MUST BE ABLE TO JUMP OFF AND SWIM TO THE SIDE ALONE.
       Jumping was never the hard part.  All 3 of my children have always been quite fearless in the water, but it's the swimming to the ladder without help.  I have a video when Elijah finally did it, and then a few of Lydia, and now, Lanie has joined the ranks.
      I feel like we have stepped over to Easy Street.  Gone are the days of watching steps, for fear a child will swim off into the deep end.  Gone are the days of must-have floaties, although we will probably still keep them around.  Gone are the days of "put your hands up and catch me" moments as kids jump from the side of the pool.
        It's a different world now.  Everyone is older, taller and (sniff sniff), I'm not as needed.
Well, I shouldn't say that.  I'm not as needed to keep my life-guard eye on the pool in case of accidental drownings, but I am totally needed to "watch this, mom" and "count how long I hold my breath, mom," and "look at my somersault, mom," and "mom, let's race to see who can get to the side faster."
       And I guess, as far as my kids are concerned, that's just as important.