June

Welcome back for another edition of the Reim Times! This month was chalked full of events…my wife called it craziness! It started out with me finishing busses on the 12^th, while my elementary school had finished the week before, meaning I was only working half the hours for the same pay that week! Woohoo!

Following that Friday, we headed to the Wisconsin Dells with some friends from college. We had a great 2 nights there, put up in a condo, playing at the waterparks and hanging out together. The place we stayed at – the Wolf Lodge – had a great waterpark that Tannin…eventually liked. At first, he screamed in horror when he ran into the water fountains pluming from the ground. The poor kid was scared out of his mind. Once we convinced him that it wouldn’t kill him or corrode his flesh, he was willing to play in it. It took him an hour or two though, but by the end of it, he was very, very tired…as were all of us, and severely dehydrated. It’s amazing how dehydrated you can get playing at a waterpark. Ironic, I know.

The next day I went with the other husband to Noah’s Ark Waterpark while the wives stayed with the kids at the lodge. Us guys went on all the rides, finding all the extreme ones and finished right after noon. I even got to try body surfing! My friend had done it before, sooo he showed me up, lol. There was one ride where you were sealed in a capsule before hearing a countdown “Three, two, one…” and then the bottom dropped out! You were dropped straight down into a tube that looped, generating some serious G-force before finishing the loop to the bottom. Definitely the best ride there! After that, the 100-ft slide seemed like a breeze, hardly even pumping my adrenaline. I guess the crazier stuff you do, the more accustomed your body gets. Not sure if that’s a good thing…ahh, who cares, lol.

After that weekend, we finished packing our few belongings into cardboard boxes...My wife just smirked at me when I said “few”, reminding me that it took us a few weeks of slowly packing our house up, followed by a solid 7 hours of work Tuesday morning before we had finished packing, loading, and cleaning and hit the road. That day, we made it just outside of Indianapolis and settled in for the night. No road problems yet!

The next day, we were making great time! Tannin was doing awesome, being a great sport and playing with a makeshift toy holder that Olivia had strapped up for him. It held his attention for a few hours. He “read” books and watched movies and ate snacks, and slept a tiny bit. We had passed through Nashville and were going to hit Birmingham by supper. We were making great time, flying through the towns.

We had just pulled away from a pit stop and had hit the interstate when all of a sudden, boom my gas was gone! Gas pedal that is. And no, there was no sound…luckily. But there was no power, nonetheless. So, I pulled off the road. Fortunately, we had just hit a section of highway under construction and they had widened it 2 extra lanes, so I had lots of room in between the cones. Unfortunately, I had not pulled far enough off the shoulder to be comfortably away from traffic. The trailer behind us was angled toward the road and I was getting nervous we might get hit, so we started making phone calls.

We were able to get the number of the station we had just stopped at and they had someone pick us up. While the guy was there, I had him help me roll the truck and trailer further off the highway out of harm’s way. Then, we all packed into his truck and headed back to the station. During this time, we had received word that a relative lived within an hour and was on their way to help us.

So, we hung out at the gas station restaurant, had dinner and some ice cream while we waited for them to arrive. They put us up in a hotel for the night and helped me get the truck moving enough to get it off the road. Turns out, the bracket for the gas pedal had broken, so there was nothing for the pedal to pivot on. The throttle had seized as well, so once we got that fixed we had about half the power back. After a great night’s sleep in a wonderful hotel room I got up first thing the next morning and took the truck into a mechanic (who just happened to be a couple blocks away from the hotel). He put the bracket back into place with a screw, told me that it would get me to my destination but I should probably get it welded once we got home.

We had breakfast and then we were on the road again. Instead of stopping in Birmingham, like we had planned (we just wanted to be done by this point), we went straight to Dothan. We were home by dinner.

We spent the next couple of days unpacking the trailer into a storage unit and trying to sort out what we needed right now and what could stay packed away for a while. On Father’s Day I got to go and watch the new Jurassic World movie. It was pretty great. Gotta love the Indominus Rex :)

Since we have been here Tannin has had at least one big change. He’s now the youngest in the house (at least for a bit longer) and enjoys all the attention he gets from his Aunts and Uncles who are more like big brothers and sisters. I think all the interaction is encouraging him to talk. We’ve had a couple of words that just popped out of nowhere that he now uses all the time. For example; he now uses the words “no”, “snack”, and a weird version of “water”. With that last one he sticks his tongue out while making a “lal, lal” sound. He’s pretty hilarious.

The last little bit of June was pretty calm. We just hung out at the house and spent time with family, including a small pool party for my brother-in-law’s birthday.

Oh yeah! Then the job hunt began. It started out with me applying to the different job agencies which offer temporary job placements. After sending out about 20 applications, we decided to try a different angle to see if we’d get more bites. Opening up the phone book, my wife grabbed the phone and tried calling every cabinet/carpentry business in town to see if there were any job openings. I love my wife! The second place she called said they had just fired two of their employees and were looking for good, dependable workers. She was able to set up an interview and I headed there first thing the next morning.

Upon arrival, I noticed there wasn’t any parking. After looking all around the building, I decided to park at the food market across the road, slightly confused. I found out later they had employee parking in the back, but it had a different business marking that area. Well, once I made it to the door, I found that it was locked. I began to get worried that it may be closed or that the address I had was wrong, but the sign for the construction company was still there on the door, so I tried knocking. After a few seconds, a man answered the door and let me in. It was kinda weird, but I was glad that I was in the right place.

I introduced myself and answered questions as he shot them off to me before I handed him my resume. He skimmed over it, looking at me and asking about my different skillsets. Seeming satisfied, he asked me when I could start. It took me a second to realize that he had given me the job before I answered, “Right now, if you want.” I had dressed up a little to look nice for the interview, but I wasn’t about to let pass an opportunity to show him my work ethic. Luckily, I had thought far enough ahead to bring a water bottle. Looking at his work clothes, I didn’t see any stains or tears, so I thought how bad can it be? The worst case is I’ll have to spend a bit of money for some new clothes. So, I headed off to work, calling Olivia to let her know the good news! I spent that whole day pressure washing the finish off a deck, soaking myself to the bone, with mixed weather and spotted showers adding their two cents. But I was happy, happy that I had landed a job within a week and a half of moving into an entirely new area with almost no connections (family definitely helped). Life was good. By the end of the week, I had pressure washed and sanded a deck, packed up a tree, fixed a fence, patched a roof, and installed a door. I’m definitely enjoying the diversity and I hear we’ll be renovating some kitchens soon! I can’t wait.

 

May

Alright, since we’re moving next week we figured we should get a head start on our blog and not put it off until the last minute lol. There was quite a bit that happened in May but thankfully it all held off until after Mother’s Day J, which was great by the way. My wonderful husband made me a homemade ice-cream cake in the shape of an “M” and woke me up with a gift and a homemade card. The card was the best part. J

That next Tuesday was my last day of work here at the school. I breathed a huge sigh of relief as I picked Tannin up from the nursery that day. I was going to miss the 4 hrs in the morning that I would have to myself but I’m so glad to be able to spend it with my little man. Poor Richard still had to work in the kitchen for the rest of the week.

That Friday was graduation for the students. Richard and I volunteered to watch some of our friends’ kids while they sat through the ceremony. Tannin had a blast running around the playground with them for 3 or 4 hours.

The next day was Richard’s birthday! He turned 23 and since his birthday last year was kinda ruined by Graduation (it took the whole day and neither one of us felt like doing anything after that) I wanted to go all out this year. So I planned a backyard BBQ and invited our close friends from the school and the people from our small group. Unfortunately it rained and we weren’t able to be outside but we still had fun hanging out inside. One of the men from our small group braved the rain in order to cook the burgers and hotdogs on the grill and the food tasted great! We had root beer floats and I even made him a cake. Seeing as this was only the second party I had ever planned from beginning to end I thought it was a smashing success. It even stopped raining right at the end so that all the guys could go out and play a round of disc golf. J

We celebrated our 3^rd Anniversary on the 22^nd as we ran through airports in Milwaukee and Charlotte on our way to Florida so that we could attend my friend’s wedding lol. Tannin was as good as could be expected. He slept through the last flight but the first one was a little rough. We got a nice surprise when we arrived in Montgomery, Alabama when my parents met us at the airport. We had planned for them to meet us the next morning in order to drive us to the wedding but they just couldn’t wait that long. They were there at 11:45 pm when we got off the plane.

The next day we traveled down to my parents’ house where we hung out for a few hours before leaving for the wedding. Tannin loved running around with the dogs. He was a little hesitant about meeting the horse but I think he warmed up to her eventually. After a short nap for the little man, we all got dressed up and jumped in the car to head to Florida. (It was about a two hour drive.) The wedding was outside and Tannin had a blast running around with his Uncle Wyatt and Aunt Sophie. The ceremony was beautiful and the reception was great. Since the bride was a friend of mine from the Civil War reenactment group I was a part of, there was even a cannon fired during the reception. Tannin loved it and didn’t seem phased by the loud boom. It was about that time that we looked at the time and realized it was after 7! We had to get home and put the munchkin to bed. We said a quick goodbye to all our friends and loaded back up for the ride home. That night Tannin got to sleep in Aunty Shebi’s room while mommy and daddy got some much needed alone time lol. He did great and they kept him busy for a while the next morning letting us sleep in!

Sunday, we visited my mom’s church and then hung out at the house. Richard took off with Garrett and had fun riding bikes, sword fighting, and working in the carpentry shop. At one point he came in with a homemade vase made from a slice of tree trunk and a bouquet of wildflowers from beside the road. It was so cute!

After dinner that night we packed back up into the car and drove back to Montgomery. Since our flight was so early the next morning we wanted to make sure we had a good night’s rest. We got at 5 the next morning in order to catch our flight at 7. We had a better flight this time, I think mostly because we were able to find places for Tannin to play in the airport. They had little play areas where he could run and explore while we ate lunch and just relaxed. He slept through 2 of the flights this time and was pretty good for the one he was awake for.

We got back to Milwaukee around 6 where some friends from the school had agreed to pick us up. We treated them to pizza and ice-cream as a thank you J…and that was pretty much our month. It got a little crazy there at the end but it was a lot of fun!

Tannin has almost finished cutting teeth, at least for now. He’s got pretty much all of them except for the two canines on the right. He’s finally started talking! At least a little bit lol. He said “momma” for our small group but has refused to do it since. However, the boy loves his daddy and greets him with “dada” all the time. He even said, “cock-a-doodle-do” at one point. While we were in Alabama he really loved the dogs and what started as him trying to say the name “Blue” (for his favorite one) turned into “bubble”. Now all dogs are bubbles…lol. It’s pretty adorable but we’ll have to work on that. J

Richard’s note: On the 15^th, we remembered my best friend Cam as it would have been his 23^rd birthday. Unfortunately he passed away about 6 months prior due to his brain cancer spreading to his lungs and then the rest of his body. He fought hard, but God knew it was his time. Out of respect for his family’s wishes we won’t be posting pictures, but I wanted to include this video in honor of him. It will be great someday to see him again!

April

Welcome back for another synopsis of life with the Reimers! April opened with Spring Break. This meant that I was also off of busses (except charters, of course).

For Easter, Tannin got to have his first egg hunt. We “hid” them all over the playground. It was the funniest sight to watch him try to coordinate holding a bucket and putting eggs in it. Instead of putting them in the bucket, he kept trying to hold all of them in his hands, lol. It finally got too cold for mommy to take it anymore, so we moved the hunt inside in order to harvest the gummies that we had put in each plastic egg. After he had collected them all, we showed him how to open the eggs and then sat back and let him enjoy eating his Easter snack. I may have “accidentally” given my son an entire Hershey’s chocolate cross…which may have been eaten in one sitting…and may have led to him drooling brown snot out his nose for the next two days…hehehehe.

Two weekends later, New Tribes Bible Institute hosted their biannual Tribal Cup competitions here at the Waukesha campus. Students from the sister campus in Jackson, MI, came to participate in a variety of sports. I was on the Waukesha volleyball team (we won).

Since we now have a bigger apartment, we had room to host a family. They were a fun couple to hang out with, and they had a little girl Tannin’s age. The kids had a blast playing together and us adults had a great time talking. We also got to see a friend from JHBC (Jackson Hole Bible College) whom we hadn’t seen since graduation in 2011! It was great to catch up on each other’s lives and have her meet Tannin and us meet her new boyfriend.

The very next weekend was the Senior Banquet. I was working in the kitchen in charge of making the salads. Olivia got to go though and enjoy the meal with some of our friends in the senior class. I made a 10-step layered salad (I called it the Citric Laminous), complete with mandarin oranges, strawberries, and a whole assortment of other awesomeness that I wouldn’t eat, lol, but I know most people like. I really got to grow an appreciation for people that work banquets serving gourmet meals. All I did was a salad, and it took us 3 hours non-stop, and we barely got them out on time. Working in the back, I got to eat all the leftovers once the seniors were done. It was some pretty fantastic food!

Well, that’s April. Tannin doesn’t have much news to tell you other than his chocolate snot. Since May is just about over and we’re just getting this out, we should have more news to share with you very soon. Until then….

March

Well, Richard decided to give me this month because he didn’t know what to write. Turns out neither do I. lol March was pretty slow. We did have some big news at our ultrasound though! We found out that we’re having a girl! We’re both very excited to meet our little Alana Rose. Tannin did great during the appointment. He sat in his stroller and hugged his stuffed animals. Towards the end we had to pull out the iPod but for the most part he just enjoyed watching the screen. We immediately went out and bought a couple of outfits for her and have slowly been adding to the collection ever since.

On St. Patrick’s Day Richard decided to play a joke on everyone and dye the Ranch dressing green. Unfortunately it turned baby blue instead and everyone joked that they were eating smurf blood. lol The kitchen staff didn’t think it would get used but it went pretty quick.

Tannin continues to grow. He started cutting 4 teeth, two molars and two canines, so he’s been pretty uncomfortable which gives mommy a chance to practice patience. J Hopefully they come in quickly and we can get life back to normal.

February

Well, this was a short month, and as such, this will probably be a short post. Shelby went home on the 2^nd. Thanks again for being an awesome birthday present for my wife! We really enjoyed having you here for 10 days!

On the 9^th, Olivia took Tannin to the Pediatrician for his check-up and discovered that he isn’t gaining weight. It’s not like he’s unhealthy or anything. He’s a great weight for his age…but apparently not his height. See, he’s in the 99^th percentile for height at 32 inches and showing no signs of stopping. The doctor told her to make sure she feeds him a lot, especially, fatty foods. She said to give him lots of butter on his veggies and Nutella, ranch, and peanut butter on his snacks. How would you like a doctor to tell you to pig out on fatty food?!! So, we’re trying to feed him “right”, but he keeps running it off cuz he seems to think life is entirely about motion, kinda like the energizer bunny. J He just keeps going…and going…and going, lol.

Besides this, he’s begun to play peek-a-boo by himself and thinks it’s the funniest thing ever! He’s a pretty awesome kid.

There was one big thing this month (other than Valentine’s Day), at least for me. I got to teach Flood Geology from the 9^th-13^th! I had a blast! To mix things up a little, I decided to bring my Nerf gun and shoot all volunteers…unfortunately the gun wasn’t very consistent so I rarely hit anyone. Everyone seemed to pay full attention and seemed to get a lot out of the class. Monday was all about how the world was before the Fall, Tuesday was all about the catalysts that led up to the Flood, Wednesday was all about how the Flood went down, Thursday was all about the aftereffects from the Flood, and Friday was all about a specific aftereffect of the Flood: the Ice Age! The only assignments I gave were reading throughout the week and a paper over the weekend. They could do 1 of 3 options: write a summary of what I taught; create a timeline; or, write an application paper. There were definitely more summary papers than anything else, but the timelines and applications were really neat to read through! Actually, all of them were because it showed me just how much everyone got out of the class!

On the 13^th-14^th, we were able to watch the kids of some of our friends so that they could enjoy a night out for Valentine’s! We had a blast and kept the kids busy until bedtime, and then it was rush, rush, rush again once they woke up.

For our Valentine’s celebration, we ended up getting some Chinese buffet to go and ate it at home while watching 10,000 BC (don’t worry, we watched a chick flick the night before). That food tasted sooooo good…until I ate too much, that is. Then it just started tasting worse and worse, but we were soooo full.

Well, that’s all I can remember. Other than a few highlights here and there, the month passed by pretty quick. Enjoy your month and God bless!

January

Where does the time go? Sorry about the delay. February has been a busy month (plus we kept forgetting to write it…) but now we are finally able to sit down and catch you up on the lives of the Reimers in January.

The month began with us heading home. Heading out from Great Falls, MT, we began our long flight to Chicago. We arrived at 3 in the morning only to find out that the hotel shuttle service didn’t start until 4, so we opted for the taxi instead, crashing in our room only to wake up 6 hours later to make sure we didn’t miss the continental breakfast. Getting our belongings together, we signed out and began heading home. Tannin slept the whole way, making it a great time for Olivia and I to talk and enjoy music.

The next day, Tannin got to go to a birthday party for our friends’ baby! We enjoyed some great snacks and I decided to spill some hot chocolate all over myself…and the wall…and the carpet floor, lol. Whoops. Luckily, everything cleaned up fine.

A huge milestone for Tannin, he jumped with both his feet off the ground on the 6^th! This isn’t supposed to happen until he’s 2 ½ to 3 years old! Wow, our boy is pretty awesome!

Right before this, I began driving bus again on the 5^th, followed by NTBI starting up again on the 9^th, though I was working in the kitchen well before then. Olivia got the break up until the 9^th though, lucky her!

One important thing we need to share with you guys that we have been holding back for over 2 months now (I suppose it’s over 3 months as of this writing)…my wife’s pregnant!!!...again, lol. So, on the 13^th, she went to her first midwife appointment and got to hear the baby’s heartbeat. Definitely assuring for her since she hadn’t been able to see a midwife for over a month since knowing.

The month closed out with a big surprise for my honey. I had been communicating with her family in Alabama and on the 24^th, right before her birthday, I picked up her sister Shelby from the airport. She had decided to surprise my wife and so I told Olivia I would do all the errands that day and she could relax at home until I got back. I originally was going to take Tannin as well, but he decided to get sleepy – those kids, lol. Well, that gave me the perfect excuse to go pick Shelby up, so I left early to get as many errands done as I could (because they did actually need to get done J) and then picked her up, stopping to pick some flowers up on the way back home.

Once we arrived at the school, I had her hide out of sight until I could go home and keep Olivia from accidently seeing her. We almost messed up, but Olivia thought I was just hiding a surprise present (which I was, lol) behind my back. So, she closed her eyes and then I gave her the flowers and we went to our house. A few minutes later, as we were talking in Tannin’s room, the doorbell rang. I told Olivia we should see who it is, and when she opened the door, boy was she surprised to see her sister standing there! It was a great time!

The next 10 days were great having her around. She was a real help, especially babysitting for us. She watched Tannin all day on the 25^th so that I could treat my wife for her birthday! We went to a tactical laser tag facility called iCombat and got to shoot each other with guns that made shooting sounds and had recoil to match it. Not to mention, the guns looked like real M16’s! It was a great time…even if she beat me. Then we had to race back for me to play a NTBI league volleyball game. Following that, I brought her out to Texas Roadhouse, one of our favorites!

The rest of the month was spent hanging out with Shelby and letting the two sisters catch up. That meant I got a lot of reading done…a lot, lol. It was good though. I had been wanting to get caught up on some of my reading projects and it worked out perfectly. I got a charter that last Saturday which meant that they got a full day together going to the mall, etc. From what they told me, they had a great day!

Well, that’s all folks. Hopefully we can get February’s done a little quicker. J God bless.

December

Wow! We are getting on this early! Woohoo, go us J This month began with our intern oral book reports. Richard got to go first and tell how he didn’t like his book lol. Then I got to do mine on how amazingly wonderful my book was J

This month we also had the Christmas party for the married students. It was so much fun and Richard’s first time to attend. Both times it came around while we were students Richard was working in the Resthaven café and I would have to bring him some food. I was so excited when I realized he could come with me. It was a get together and white elephant ornament exchange. We gave a spiderman ornament wrapped in a juice box and ended up with a small, mounted deer head.  The first year we got a homemade ornament that looked like a tootsie pop and last year we got a Gandalf/Santa/God the Father tree topper. So much fun!

The next day was the school open house. Pretty much everyone decorates their houses and dorm rooms and then opens them up for everyone else to walk through, admire, and eat their cookies and goodies they left out. It’s always a blast! Tannin loved getting wheeled around in his stroller from room to room, listening to the music and seeing the lights and decorations. He also loved the cookies…his face had chocolate chips smeared all over it lol. One room had racing chickens in it. LIVE CHICKENS! Mine lost but Richard’s won J So in preparation for that our tree when up, we hung our pretty new garland on the wall and got a couple of wreaths to hang in the hallway. We had the Veggie Tales, Star of Christmas, playing on a continual loop on the tv and I even made cookies!

The 12^th brought the last day of classes for the school which meant no more kitchen for Richard and no more desk work for me J He still had buses for a while but then got the rest of the day off.

Oh yeah. That last week of school Richard developed a weird swelling on his leg that by Wednesday got so big he could barely walk and was in constant pain. At that point we realized it was a boil. We tried to get it to the surface so we could pop it but the thing just kept getting bigger and bigger. After a failed attempt at lancing it ourselves (we looked it up on youtube) and Richard’s inability to go to work the next morning, I finally convinced him to go to the doctor. At the clinic they lanced it and packed it really good. Richard said that it felt a lot better while he was sitting. He could still barely walk but at least now he could get comfortable. He told me it was one of the most painful experiences of his life and gave him a new appreciation for the plight of Job who had them all over his body. After the lancing the swelling started slowly receding and now he just has a really nice thick scab.

The staff Christmas party was that weekend. There was a formal sit down dinner and potluck. Several of the ladies had claimed different tables and did the place settings and decorations. They were all different and it looked so cool. After the meal we played family feud with each table being a different team. Ours won! It was a blast.

To continue the theme of Christmas parties, our small group had one as well. It was a great time to laugh and talk. Richard almost got an electric thermos that plugged into the car lighter but it was stolen at the last minute. I got an interesting glass tankard and Richard ended up with a pretty, lacy, black apron with pearls on the neck. lol He traded with me when we got home ;)

Richard finished his buses for the year on the 19^th and we headed to Chicago on the 20^th for our flight to Canada. But before that, on the last day of school Richard went to work in a Santa coat and batman mask. lol He was Bat-Santa and the kids loved it! My husband is the best J

Anyway…we flew out of Chicago on the 21^st. It was Tannin’s first plane ride and he pretty much slept through the whole thing! lol We made it to Great Falls, Montana at about 4 in the afternoon. Richard’s parents met us at the airport and took us out to dinner at Denny’s. We had a good time catching up and letting them see Tannin for the first time in about 6 months. He’s grown quite a bit in that time. After dinner they drove us up to their house in Coaldale, a 3 hour trip.

Our first day in Canada was spent at the memorial service for Richard’s best friend Cam Enns. The two had been together almost since birth, in fact they were born two days apart! Cam had struggled with brain stem cancer for most of his life and had undergone three surgeries trying to eradicate it. We found out in October that it had come back and there was nothing they could do. He held on for as long as he could but in the end he passed away a week before we got there. Thankfully, Richard had gotten a chance to Facetime with him while he was in the hospital so he had gotten to see Tannin and the two talked for the first time in a while. If you guys could pray for his family and friends they’d really appreciate it.

The next few days we spent relaxing and helping out here and there with different things. Richard got to help his dad with scrap metal again and I got to go shopping for groceries with mom. Richard finished his slideshow for his class in February and started working on the homework booklet.

On the 25^th we visited Grandpa Reimer in the nursing home and got a four generation picture.

Christmas day, for us, was the 26^th. Everyone was there except Mike, Amy, and Jayda (Richard’s brother, sister-in-law, and niece). Amy is expecting and didn’t feel up to the trip. We got to meet Nathan and Vicki’s little boy, Julian, our nephew. Tannin wasn’t quite sure what to do with him and ended up barreling him over a few time, poor guy. lol Tannin got lots of toys and fun outfits from the grandparents and assorted aunts and uncles. We got some great stuff too, including the famed chocolate letters J The siblings had a gift exchange as well, Richard got some customized mugs and I got a quad-copter. Afterwards we enjoyed a turkey dinner and family games.  

The next day we headed off to Saskatoon, Saskatchewan to spend some time with Mike and Amy. We got to meet Jayda for the first time and her and Tannin seemed to hit it off right away. Tannin followed her everywhere and she taught him how to go down the stairs. lol We enjoyed a couple of nights of family games and then headed back home to Alberta.

The last couple of days we lounged around the house and just hung out preparing ourselves for the long trip home on the 1^st.