04 Odyssey

296,000 miles overall. Ten years. about 20 states, and 200k from our family alone. That car was good to us. Thankful.

Bookmarked

Christmas creativity.

Costumes II

First week of November. Halloween costumes: 75 to 90% off. It's a beautiful thing.

Kid Swap

When you have seven extra kids under your roof for the weekend, and another neighbor's kid asks if he can spend the day at the house... you say yes... because at some point (10 kids... versus 11)... it just really doesn't matter.

American Cleanup

Hartsville residents were invited to spend a Saturday morning improving the city’s neighborhoods and streets by volunteering for the Great American Cleanup, on April 29.  After meeting at a park to gather tools and instructions, each group of volunteers walked or drove to a neighborhood of their choosing.

Our family took it as opportunity to be a blessing to a part of Hartsville that often is (and probably feels) forgotten. Between the five of us, I think we filled about 15 bags of trash over about 2.5 hours... in a span of only three blocks. The transformation of that little strip was incredible. The obvious hope is that our efforts helped to restore at least a glimmer of pride, or maybe even hope, to those who live around there. But even if it didn't, what it certainly did was serve as a reminder that we don't connect with our own community as often as we'd like. Hopefully this will be a turning point for that as well.

Poof

The rabbit experiment... has come to an end.



I wanted the rabbit to work out. I really did. The truth is, he wasn't much trouble, and not particularly expensive to maintain, and the kids enjoyed him for sure. But at the end of the day, the one thing he wasn't... was friendly. And here's the deal... if I'm going to feed him everyday and change out his cage bedding multiple times per week; only for him to make it clear that he wanted nothing to do with me or any of my minions (speaking of which, biting the kids was getting old, too)... then it's kinda like, what's the point?

20 minutes a day of being a cute cuddly bunny didn't seem like a lot to ask in return for free room and board. But with no return on investment, Poof just became one more thing. One more thing to keep track of, care for, think about, step over, feed, think about when guests came over, etc. Thus, our fuzzy rodent had to go.

It was fun while it lasted, and we can now check "owned a rabbit" off the list (although I'm not quite sure that it was ever on the list) and get back to keeping our bunnies in books, cartoons, and menus. So long, Poof. It's been real.

Costumes

One nice thing about not celebrating Halloween is that our kids never need a reason to put on a costume. Imagination is in full swing year-round at our house, which means that on any given day there's a decent probably that I'll be greeted at the door by Spider-man, Woody, a waitress, ninja, or some completely odd combination of these or other characters. I love their imagination, and so every year I put it on my to-do list to go to Wal-mart after Halloween to score a few more costumes on clearance... and every year I forget to do it. The window of opportunity is small. I think Wal-mart waits a day or two before they mark the costumes down. Then, it's only a handful of days before those clearance racks are either pilfered to a point of uselessness (ripped parts, missing components, etc.) or boxed-up and sent off to make room for Christmas stuff.

Well, for a change, I caught the window... woo hoo! score! 75% off and only partially pilfered. Thus, we've expanded our custom bin to include the Hulk, a ninja turtle, a golden power ranger.... and Justin's choice... a banana (nope... we still don't understand the mind of our fabulous boy... but we've learned to just go with it. If it's a banana outfit he wants... it's a banana he gets).

 

Jasmine is out of character in the photo because her Power Ranger costume was missing some parts and we intended to take it back... But of course, I'm a pushover dad... and so, unbeknownst to her, I've already found the missing parts and plan to order them from Amazon. So she'll be in down with the super hero / banana posse before she knows it. It'll cut into my wonderful discount but hey... a pushover dad has gotta do what he's gotta do.  Besides, it won't be long before they find no joy in the simple pleasures that a $4 discount rack costume can bring. So for now, like I mentioned just a few posts ago... we've gotta milk these cheap childhood thrills for all they're worth. 

Midlife

My very own pill box.  Welcome to old.

Relocation

When we started this blog eight years ago (wow!), we also sprung for a fancier domain name (digitalshoebox.us), which is the url we've always used to get to these pages. But suddenly... with readership down to just grandma and grandpa, blog entries far a few between, and a million one priorities that we didn't have 8 years ago...  I'm suddenly thinking that there are better things I can do with $19.99 a year than to renew our vanity domain name.

Relocation will be an easy fix for our digital shoebox since blogger.com provides a url for all of it's blogs upon creation. So, for the few that already have our website bookmarked, you'll want to swap that url for the following:

digibox2.blogspot.com 


Relocating our online photo archives is next on the list; but I haven't figured out the new locale for that one, so stay tuned.

Mustache Cam

Mom and Dad always come through with the good stuff... even when you're 40.  After they watched our video of Jasmine's maiden voyage, I guess they identified a need; and then they delivered with a GoPro in my Christmas stocking.  Awesome.

Well, it's been a while (i.e., 3 kids ago) since I've had a fancy new gadget, and it's funny because now I find myself asking: Where do people find the time to figure out how to use these things? Truth be told, that's probably a product of my lack of free time these days AND my age.  Wow... It's amazing how quickly we become that grandparent we used to make fun off because they wouldn't use a cell phone or a microwave oven.  I would make a joke here about needing help programming the VCR clock... but I don't think they even make those anymore.  Wow.  I'm old.  Okay... back to the point.  Our birthday bowling trip gave me my first opportunity to take the GoPro cam for a test drive.  In case you're wondering, it's the contraption strapped to my head in the image below this paragraph. I've included a video sample too in order to give you a glimpse of how it went.  In short, let's just say that I may need a few more minutes with the instruction manual. But I'm getting there.

Yellow Jackets

As I was standing in their garage, asking our (former) beekeeper neighbors to borrow this bee suit, I have to admit... I was thinking blog entry the whole time. Ha ha. Now, on to the story.

Every now and then I like to play Paul Bunyan; and so when I came across a dead branch on a dogwood tree by the house, I was happy to go grab an axe.

Swoosh. The axe hit the tree, and the branch hit the ground with a thud.  And less than 2 seconds later, Justin and I learned (the hard way) that yellow jackets build their nests underground.  In this case, underground meant in the exact spot where the branch happened to hit the ground.  We may have well hit a switch that said Attack Mode. I heard the buzzing sound, but I never thought to look down; and they swarmed so fast that I never saw it coming.

I got stung on the eyelid.  A half centimeter up, and it would've been a bull's-eye to the pupil. Strike one.  Justin turned and ran, but he still caught one in the back of the head, right where the neck meets the back of the ear.  Strike two. But I hereby declare, there shall be no strike three. 

Southern Heat

I think this means we're officially southern.

After two trips to the range (and about 10 dozen episodes of 24 and Criminal Minds) I'm suddenly thinking that I missed my calling as an FBI agent. Saving the world from terrorist plots and devastation twice a week is probably higher on the cool occupation scale than adding fractions and grading math homework.  

It's close though.

 

Water Park

Twenty-one sprinkler heads and a well pump.  Method #28 for beating the heat on a budget.  Who said you couldn't be ghetto in the suburbs? Add a few toys and an admission fee, and we could've called it a theme park.  Throw the kids a bar of soap, and we get to bypass bath time, too.

Fun times.

Zip Codes

Nana sent me this photo of her front yard last Tuesday. I think I'll keep it handy for the next time Jasmine asks me, "Why don't we visit NaNa and PopPop more often?"... I can tell her, "Because we don't have a snow plow, sweetheart."

Meanwhile, here's a same-day-snap of our front yard in sunny Hartsville, SC...

See... we get snow, too.

The Jinx

Every year, my school has an opening ceremony during which all of the faculty and staff members are introduced to the incoming class of students.  In 2011, during my first year employed at the school, I missed the ceremony because of the death of a family member and the resulting sojourn to Pennsylvania for the funeral.  Fast forward 12 months and I'm thinking, count me in for the opening ceremony because (two years in a row... same weekend...) what are the odds, right? Well, on July 12, 2012, my maternal grandmother passed away.  Yet, I was still pragmatically optimistic.  My thought was, hey... at least school didn't start yet, right? Wrong...  the service date?  One month later. The weekend of (you guessed it) school opening ceremony.  Fast forward. Fast Forward. Fast Forward. And bam... Here we are, weeks before the start of the 2013 school year.  There's no way in the world a third family member can die on the same weekend.  I mean, come on.  What are we, jinxed? Mind you, no one has passed away on my side of the family during any of the months in between.  It's like we wait for the school to start each year.  Or maybe we wait to get through one last summer, I don't know.  But here we are, a full two months away from opening ceremony, and I find myself taking a mental survey of the health status of my entire family in order to figure out which member is most likely to die this year during opening ceremony.  Morbid... I know, but can you blame me?  I mean, every time my phone rang in September, I was like, "Oh My Gosh! Uncle Joey! I knew it would be uncle Joey!.... Come on kids, pack your bags. Uncle Joey's dead." It was a stressful month to be a Reyes.

Well, fast forward just a hair more... two weeks before the ceremony... and not one but both of my parents are now in the hospital due to chronic illnesses that have taken a turn for the worse.  And I'm thinking, this totally can't be real.  September is officially coombs-reyes-i'm-ready-to-die month, and I evidently won't make it to an opening ceremony until my entire family is dead.

Well... the good news is that (after a lengthy hospital stay for my dad) both of my parents checked out of the hospital with a pulse and escaped the wrath of my school's opening ceremony.  As for the ceremony itself, I was able to attend this year (whoo hoo).  However, I have to admit: Sitting in the school gym on uncomfortable folding chairs for 20 minutes while waiting to wave hello to 125 new juniors turned out to be enormously anticlimactic.  It also proved to be no match for my new fall family tradition.  Just a couple of weeks later, my 48 year old cousin Rosalyn lost her improbable (and somewhat sudden) battle to Lou Gehrig's disease.  Obviously we will miss her, and we also enjoyed the subsequent family caravan to New York as we connected with family and old friends to commemorate my cousin's life.  As for opening ceremony, I have to say that despite how mundane it turned out to be, I still found solace in the fact that I didn't miss it for a third consecutive year due to the death of a family member.  Because that would have just been creepy.

Luke Warm

This time of year drives me crazy.  As a phenomenally frugal individual, it's bad enough when summer creeps around and we have to crank the air conditioner up for the next 3 months... or likewise, when the last leaf has fallen and the thermostat stays glued on the heat setting until the birds come back in March.  During those months, if you listen closely enough, I think you can actually hear the electricity bill going up 12 cents every 15 minutes.  tick...tick... nickel...tick... tick... dime... But that's nothing compared to the dreaded in-between stage that fall and spring bring.  Jacket or no jacket?  Am I hot or am I cold... wait... I need a coat when I leave the house in the morning... but I should pack some shorts in case we go to the park after school.  Yep, it's that financially inefficient time of year when you have to use the heat AND the cool setting in the same day.  Can I get an amen?!  Oh it's horrible.   AC in the day... heat overnight.  And somewhere, the general manager of your local electric company is slapping mother nature high five.  Evil little man.

But there's one good thing that almost makes it all worthwhile... despite the financial trickle that the in-between seasons bring, they also bring with them the perfect weather to enjoy a backyard fire and some "mushyellows" on a stick.  Highs in the 80's.  Low's in the 60's.  And somewhere in the middle, the warmth of the fire feels nothing short of magical.

And as the fire crackles, the wood goes snap... crackle... pop... tick... tick... dime.

Slither Hither

At 4:03pm, I got a text from Venesa that read...

Big lizard in house.
Come home now!!!

And like Bruce Wayne responding to the Batman signal in the dark skies of Gotham, I was off and running! Home in a flash and packed with plenty of jokes to poke fun at my hyperventilating wife.  And I was ready to crack my first joke... until I saw the lizard.  Okay, so she had a point.  At about 16 inches long, this particular space invader was probably double the length of the slimy fellows that we've gotten used to seeing in the yard. And he was in the house.  Ready to make himself a ham sandwich and watch some television. Anyhow, fast forward a few minutes later and Roberto (hey, a lizard that big deserves a name) was scooped up and out the door.

But wait... there's more.

5 hours later, the kids and I arrive home from Awana.  It's already past bedtime and I'm mentally mapping out the optimal strategy for getting them from the van to the bed in 10 minutes or less.  I click the garage remote opener, the light comes on and... bam... right there in the middle of the floor... Roberto the lizard? nope... That wouldn't be nearly as interesting.  This time it's a snake.  And all I could think was... seriously?!  Here we go. I'm back in animal hunter mode for the second time today.  But first things first: Back away slowly... get the kids out of the car... and bring them closer to the snake for a little science demo and discussion.  Hey... we homeschool! No way I'm missing a free science lab opportunity.  One less thing we have to cover tomorrow.  Science lesson? check!

But before I could make the switch from biology teacher to snake charmer, the serpent was around a corner, behind a bookshelf and gone.  Thirty minutes and a lot of rearranged furniture later, still no dice.  He probably slithering between the walls somewhere, and I had no choice but to hedge my bets and assume that he'd find his way out the same way he found his way in.

Sure enough, the next afternoon I walked by the side of the house and bingo... same snake, headed away from the house and towards the swings for a little recreation. I boxed him up (after a photo opp and a follow-up lesson, of course) and helped him on his way.  Through the woods and hopefully far enough from our property that he won't be back for an encore.

Unexpected guests.  Four legs. No legs, and everything in between.  The virtues of living in the woods.

Dedication

For over two years, for anyone willing to pay attention, you have unknowingly modeled the love of God and have exemplified levels of loyalty, dedication, and sacrifice that we should all strive towards. Here's to the life lessons that you've inspired, and the Christ-like love that you've endlessly demonstrated. Endure.

Celebrity Status

As much as we were on the road, I'm thinking that we should've been exempted from paying our mortgage last month. On the heels of about 4 other trips, we made our way to Clemson as a family in order to support Venesa and her awesomeness. She was invited by her alma mater to be a panelist for their "50 Years of Integration" Homecoming panel discussion. Here's an excerpt from the bio that was published in the program:

While at Clemson, she was active in a number of organizations; including the Student Government Minority Council, PEER (Programs for Educational Enrichment), Blue Key and Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. One of the feats she is most proud of is founding the Latin Fest, an event started to create awareness of Latin American culture. With the gracious support of Altheia Richardson and the Office of Multicultural Affairs, Latin Fest continued for 15 years and became one of Clemson’s signature events.

Go, Mommy! So proud of you.

Sidenote: It was cool that the kids got to visit two of our alma maters (Georgia Tech and Clemson) in the same week. I won't ask them which one they enjoyed more since they clearly know a real engineering school when then see one.
*cough* Go Yellow Jackets *cough*