Last Day of September

I can't speak for everyone but I can honestly say that as far as the Reynolds' Family goes- September flew right by us. We are now firmly entrenched in the routine of school/work/life. The Boy is thankfully still enjoying his class and this year's teacher. The Dad is enjoying his courses this semester. And I am making dinner every night and supervising homework and bed times. (The Dad always wants to stay up way past his!).
My favorite part of the evening is checking out the Pants on the Loose blog for updates on Miss Pants. Too cute for words.

A review of our September goals is as follows:
September Goals:Increase closet space in the playroom (by reducing the amount of toys by 25%)
Increase our ebay income (by selling unneeded items- especially extra purses)
Yes to family time on the weekends- a minimum of two family fun days this month
Yes to volunteering somewhere this month
Yes to developing a positive outlook on life!

The results:
The playroom closet is virtually empty. The Boy purged closer to 40-50% of the toys out of there. Some were set to be donated and some are listed on ebay.
The purses have been photographed and descriptions written for ebay. They will be listed as soon as the Dad has his next night off from school (Friday).
We did 2 fun family activities- went to the Zoo once and to the Apple Orchard and hiking once.
Still haven't found somewhere to volunteer (my bad)
Yes- I think I have cultivated more of a positive attitude this month. As always my attitude is considered a "work in progress".

When it comes to my NS/CS goals- I hit 23 no spend days which was my goal. The NS/CS ladies are planning a future get together in Vegas for next fall. Good times will be had by all.

I have to consult with the Dad and the Boy and will update with a new post when we have finalized our October goals.

The House is Quiet!

For what seems like the first time in over 10 years our house is quiet- both while people are home and awake. The Boy is quietly playing on the computer. He is looking up cheat codes for one of his XBox games so there is no volume to contend with. The Girls are either sleeping (dogs) or staring out the window (cat). The Dad is on his way home from therapy. I am almost at a loss because this quiet is disconcerting and very un-Reynolds like.
In 10 minutes the Dad will walk through the door and wake up the Girls. As a result we will get to enjoy a melody of barking. The Boy will have found some amazing code that will allow his character to be invisible or something. This will require a good bit of "Dad, want me to tell you something?"
And through it all I will find peace because once again my house will be as it should- our own Reynolds' brand of organized chaos.

The Boy is a Dork

The Boy just finished his evening shower and had an announcement to make. Apparently his glasses are as clean as the rest of him. One might wonder why I even mention this. Seems my dear brilliant son forgot to take his glasses off while he took his shower.
Being a parent means trying really hard not to laugh at situations like this. Not an easy task let me tell you.

The Family Picks some Apples

Sunday was the Dad's turn to pick the activity for the day and his choice was hiking and apple picking. We decided to return to the location of our first family hike from over a year ago in Oak Valley. The nature center is located next to a small apple orchard farm, gift shop and restaurant. On the return trip home we stopped by a pick your own fruit place. We loaded up on fruit.
Please enjoy the pictures from our weekend.

The Lazy Lion

The Boy took this picture yesterday at the Zoo and I failed to add it to the previous post. Thinking these Kings of the Jungle are living the good life even in captivity.

The Family went to the Zoo

I made an executive decision today and demanded (nicely requested) that we do something fun today. During a family meeting we voted on the options that we had brainstormed-- zoo, beach, Universal Studios, or hiking in the mountains. We settled on the zoo and hurried through our morning showers and that so we could hit the old dusty trail. We have annual passes to the San Diego Zoo and the Wild Animal Park. Since the Wild Animal Park is 30 miles closer to us we decided to head there. The Boy volunteered to be the Family Historian for the day (take the pictures). I have been instructed to state that unless the Boy is in the picture he is the one that took it.
I shouldn't be so happy for getting to pick the activity this weekend since the Dad has requested we finish the yard work next weekend.

Slow Week

It's been a relatively slow week and the Boy just scolded me for not updating our blog sooner.
Holly, my Dalmatian is home from the vet hospital. Her ear looks terrible (I can safely say this because she lacks the ability to read). Poor baby- stitches on top of stitches. She is still moving a little slowly but is enjoying sleeping on our bedroom floor rather than her kennel at night.
The Dad rocked his phone interview this week. Classes have been going well so far this semester. He did do a little re-arranging and dropped Biology in favor of Abnormal Psychology.









The Boy is currently busy doing his homework for the night. This
year's teacher is pretty consistent with one hour of homework per night. The only downside is that the Boy gets easily distracted (Shiny Object Syndrome). So I have to basically stay close to the kitchen table to make sure he stays on task.



I'd like to give a Reynolds' Family Shout out to our friend Miss Pants for rocking the Potty Training game. I know Elle has kept us all informed with her progress on the Pants on the Loose blog- but we wanted to give her a special woo hoo from us. So Woo Hoo Miss Pants- your uncle has been well reminded that he owes you a cake!

Now if the Boy would stop telling me about his video game and finish his homework I would be one happy Mom.

The Dad is Famous

After being featured in a riveting article in the September issue of Men's Fitness the Dad was interviewed this morning by NPR. Both the article and the interview dealt with his struggles with depression and his recovery.


http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=94379107

The Boy and I are so proud of him.

TGIS

Thank God it's Sunday! After the week we had I am relieved to have the opportunity to start a new week.
Friday was a long and stressful day in court dealing with a hearing for a restraining order that we filed. We have been dealing with a stalker for the past several months and we are finally now able to move on. We had our day in court and emerged victorious. We are now the proud owners of a restraining order again a woman who was making our lives a living nightmare. So hopefully we won't have to change any more phone numbers or email addresses.
After getting home from the court house we noticed that Holly's ear looked swollen. Like significantly swollen compared to the other ear. Yeah- a trip to the vet to find out she has a hematoma that requires surgery. Her ear flap has a air pocket that is full of blood and it needs to be repaired first thing Monday morning. My poor baby....
Curious how stressful it is sitting in a court room 3 feet from your stalker and waiting hours for your case to be heard? We were so wiped we were in bed and sound asleep by 9pm.
Saturday was a day for running errands and catching up on our chores. With our week day schedules so busy Saturday is errand day for the Reynolds' Family. With the Dad in class from 8 am until 1 pm- family errand day is really the Mom's errand day.
Today was a very peaceful day for us. We drove to Palm Springs so the Dad could attend a therapy session. Since the temps are still in the 100's we enjoyed a nice dip in the pool to cool off. The Boy finished his book report while the Dad took an on line test for one of his classes and I made granola bars.
Reading over this I can see the peaks and valleys that our family has. Days of drama followed by days of simple, peacefulness. Thinking I much prefer the boring yet simple and peaceful days more.
The Dad's 15 minutes of fame continues tomorrow. He has a 6 am phone interview with NPR to discuss depression issues. The interview is a result of a magazine article in which the Dad was on of the men that discussed their depression and therapy. The magazine's marketing department has been discussing a possible tv interview with CBS on the article as well. Who knows what will happen with that, but I do know that the Dad will be up and on the phone at 6 am tomorrow. I should probably be a good wife and wake up that early too.

The Girls

Within the Reynolds' Family I am the only female so to keep from being out numbered I factor the "Girls" into the equation. The Girls are our four legged family members.




Holly- our 12 year old Dalmatian was my First Christmas present from the Dad. She is my Dog and spends all of her free time in whatever room I happen to be in. When The Boy was younger Holly acted as a nanny to him. We don't have a single picture of him crawling or walking in the first 2 years of his life that doesn't have Holly somewhere in the Background.









Zoe- is The Boy's dog. She is a 6 year old Pound Puppy Lab Mix that we adopted from the Humane Society. If Zoe were a human she would be of the "short bus" variety. By far the sweetest pet you could ever want but a few cards shy of a full deck if you get my drift. The girl will play fetch until she passes out in exhaustion.






Bella- the newest member of our clan. She was a stray rescue that the Boy adopted in lieu of the reptile he wanted to get for Christmas. Thank you Bella! She is my first cat and enjoys tormenting the dogs every chance she gets. The Dad is just relieved to finally have a pet of his very own in the house.



The Dad suggested that I add the Girls to our blog since "hello they are family members".

New Start September!

September- the month of new starts for the Reynolds' Family. As a family one of our overall goals is personal improvement.
The Boy is back to school and so far having a successful first month back. He has been taking his school work very seriously and devoting a period of time every night to school work. He has made a commitment to expanding his personal library. The last book he read was "Animal Farm" and he is currently reading "The Hobbit".
The Dad's fall semester starts tomorrow. This semester is going to be very busy for him. In addition to his Monday through Friday full time job he is taking 5 classes. He has a combination of evening classes, a Saturday class and 2 on line courses.
Myself- most of my days revolved around work and the Boys. With the DH breezing in a out briefly for dinner before he heads to his night class it is my responsibility to oversee the household side of life. Dinner, clean up, grocery shopping, the Boy's homework etc. are all items on my to do list. I am happy to do these things since it was only a couple of years ago that the Dad did them all for me while I was working and going to college full time.

As a result of our busy schedules, previous goals and frugal lifestyle we have designated September as the Month of Yes. Rather than police ourselves and establish a series of "No" goals we are going to flip things around and establish only positive goals.

September Goals:
Increase closet space in the playroom (by reducing the amount of toys by 25%)
Increase our ebay income (by selling unneeded items- especially extra purses)
Yes to family time on the weekends- a minimum of two family fun days this month
Yes to volunteering somewhere this month
Yes to developing a positive outlook on life!

Day one- so far a success as we have ear marked some sale items for ebay and started planning our first fun activity for next weekend.

August Roundup

All 31 days of August have come and gone and it is now time to review and evaluate our August Goals. To review- our goals for August were:
Buy nothing new
Work out 20 times
Play games with Boy
No candy for the Boy
Find a Volunteer Opportunity
Build Compost Bin

In theory the goals looked to be as easy as 123. In reality we had more obstacles than we imagined we would.

Buy Nothing New: Pretty much a success. We did purchase the 3 new beach towels at the very beginning of the month. Towards the middle of the month we did purchase some school supplies and school shoes (on clearance) for the Boy. This weekend I purchased a new purse for myself with the birthday money that my parents sent me.

Work out 20 Times: Complete failure. Other than family activities and yard work we didn't work out at all. This goal will be forwarded to September as well.

Games with the Boy: Didn't play any traditional board games with him but we did spend quality time with him this month. We did the beach, mini golfing and swimming. The Dad and the Boy have a computer game in common so they have been playing that together on a regular basis.

No Candy for the Boy: Failure- sort of. We try and so far have limited his candy snacking down to an occasional treat. He doesn't have things like candy bars but he does having a pack of sour patch kids from time to time. Progress but still have room for improvement.

Volunteer Opportunity: We continue to struggle with this. We participate in a community organic produce club and donated school supplies this month. However, we continue to try to find somewhere to volunteer. We have contacted local elderly homes and a local aids project but so far no one is calling us back.

Compost Bin: Cancelled this goal because the Dad donated his comic book money toward the purchase of a compost bin. We have found one that will allow us to compost the dog waste and kitty litter. A home made bin does not "cook" at a high enough temperature to allow for this hence the manufactured one we will be purchasing.

Bring on September!