Breaking and Entering

I blink and 2 entire weeks have gone by.........and more events that I can even hope to retell in a couple of hours of good writing on here. I will attempt but more than likely fail miserably since each deserves its own entry in and of itself. THere are some days...weeks....that life is so entirely comically crazy and insane that you can't help but just sit back and laugh after taking it all in....that is, of course, after you slow down long enough to think of everything you have endured in the last 14 days.

We start with a week ago Sunday we all headed to church. Brad had been on shift Saturday and the children and I all piled up and set off for town to eat dinner with him at the station and run some errands. In our errand running we had a house key made for him since his mysteriously disappeared a few weeks ago. He had taken it off for something and hung it in its place...just a lone single key....on the key holders where they all go. Being within easy reach it didn't take long to vanish. So, the children and I had a new one made and dropped it off when we made our way to the station for dinner. Knowing he had a key now I left my keys at home Sunday morning as we set off for church. What we failed to realize is that one needs to TRY the key before leaving themselves at the mercy of it. It was dark and overcast....a rare thing here in the desert of west Texas....and before arriving home had begun to drizzle lightly. By the time we made it home the rain fell steadily. Brad stuck his key in with none of us ever doubting the fact it would work. But, alas, it failed to turn. With raised eyebrows he asked if I by chance brought mine along. Nope...they hung within. With all doors securely locked we gathered around and everyone began to brainstorm. With all windows locked into place and being double paned storm windows there was no chance of wiggling, prying or coercing them open. Grayson and I all came to the same realization about the same time. The boys' bathroom window was our only hope. Yes....the same window that sits a good 15 or 20 feet off the ground and is the size of large shoebox. There was no hope of any grown person fitting through that thing. Brad and I looked around for the next best thing. There are indeed more reasons than you think for having this many kids. They come in rather handy when the need arises to squeeze into small places......VERY small places. With Grant being a bit trippy about anything new and unchartered we both knew he'd never work given the situation. Garrett, being his round muscled out 3 year old self ,was too round to fit through the tiny opening. Garrison fit the bill perfectly. Long, lean and old enough to know what to do. He knows no fear and was perfectly sized........and old enough to get the job done by running around and unlocking the door. With ladder on shoulder Brad hoists it up to the window....in the drizzling rain. The camera would've been pricelsss at this point. He then lets Garrison climb up in front of him...in the rain......and once reaching the top carefully sticks him through the miniature opening feet first. With Brad lowering him slowly Garrison eventually hung within the house from his little arms until gently jumping the rest of the way down to the bathroom cabinet now a little out of reach below him. He landed with a thud and after Brad made sure he was ok he promptly instructed him to run to the door and unlock it. Little footsteps pattered noisily on the pier and beam foundation and quickly the latches on the door jiggled and clanged. Suddenly the door was thrown open and there stood the herioc and brave 4 year old. Everyone appluaded him and we heard of his heroics efforts for at least the next 24 hours as everyone......including Garrison himself....sang his praises.

The next morning, Memorial Day Monday, the entire family set off for Nanny and Pawpaw's. With Evye spending her 2 weeks vacation with Mother and being in danger of missing out on the farm party Mother andThomas met us there with her and we all spent the day together celebrating Nanny's life and yet another year for her. We also used the perfectly timed event to celebrate Brad's sister's husband's graduation of his masters. What an accomplishment! With beautiful weather we spent the day loving on family, letting the children run, playing on the gator and visiting the new baby mule over and over..........and over......again. Mother, Thomas, Brad, Grayson and some of the little guys went out to shoot for an hour or so while the rest of us hung out, visited and played with the little ones still too little to watch the gun activities. With happily exhausted children we finally packed up and headed home late that night. Mother and Thomas returned to Fort Worth with Evye to finish out her 2 weeks, since this event came at exactly the 1/2 way point, while Brad and I with the rest of the children returned home to our tiny part of Texas.

Tuesday and Wednesday were fairly uneventful but Thursday held surprises of its own. Brad was once again back on shift. With Friday being the Dallas wedding we were to attend the plans were to head out the next morning, arrive in time to change clothes at Mother's, pick up she and Evye, grab dinner and then continue on to the wedding in downtown Dallas. With Brad following us in his truck he would make the return trip home late Friday night after the wedding so that he could make his shift Saturday morning. With those plans firmed up the children and I once again set off for town Thursday afternoon to fill up the van and grab road needs for the trip the upcoming morning. He traveled out to station 8 which is located at the airport.....the most fun station of them all, according to the children. So, we paid him a visit as long as we were in town and then made our way to the feed store and gas station to fuel up. Somewhere in there the van hesitated when starting. It struck me as a bit odd but I didn't heed it much. Next stop for gas......it REALLY hesitated. Down the road a little the a/c suddenly failed to blow and when trying to roll the windows down it was all the van could do to power them enough to get them down. So....ummmm.....really not so good. When they failed to roll back up at all I knew we were in some trouble. I finally put a call in to Brad. In my mechanical expertise I surmised it to be a mere battery problem. A pretty easy fix and a fairly cheap one to boot....which seemed to be a blessing after having just sunk quite a bit of money into the van replacing the windshield that the vulture took out. We then tuned in enough to figure out that at speeds of 40 or so the van ran fine but any lower than that and it began cutting out.....as in, failing to run. We were sitting in the Sonic parking lot for ice cream to test the waters and see how it ran before getting out on the 32 miles of lonely roads where help is few and far between on the road home. The experience at Sonic was not promising at all. My heart began to sink a little as I realized this was probably much more than a battery problem. And we had plans to make a road trip the very next day. With more calls back and forth to Brad I was told to turn around and return to the station where he and the guys could take a look at it before it fell apart and succeeded in stranding the children and I. Somewhere along the way back to the station Gavin began to choke on a piece of M&M candy that was in his ice cream and succeeded in turning scary shades of blue. Pulling across 4 lanes of traffic I found a spot and had to bring the barely running van to a stop..not a good thing at this point. Gavin coughed it up about the time I yanked him out of his carseat and eventually he began to regain his normal coloring. Running back to the driver's seat I hop back in, slam it into drive and eagerly step on the accelerator before it fails to run at all, successfully throwing us all to the 4th row seat as I hit the gas. We did eventually make it back to the station. The van was pulled up in the bay, massive pieces of airport apparatus and a fire truck towering over it. The children were turned loose and allowed to run and watch the planes come and go. Helicopters set on helipads and the runway hosted its usual array of small planes, mesmerizing its audience. As the guys worked the children and I sat and watched the summer storm blow in over the vast west Texas prairie, tall hills rising majestically in the background. With problem diagnosed Brad took Grayson and headed to the car part store to purchase the new alternator we seemed to now be in need of. Lovely. The rest of the children hung out at the station and kept everybody company.....LOTS of company. The guys were great about it and found some cartoons that held the children's attention for all of 5 minutes. It didn't take long for them to gravitate to the room the guys occupied and join them in their much more entertaining NASCAR race coverage. Ivye crawled around freely, smiling and talking, winning the guys' hearts over instantly. Given the fact we were now headed into our 4th hour stuck in town when the original trip was only suposed to take one at the most, we raided A shift's pantry and found some decent snack stuff for them all. With the storm now raging in full force, awe inspiring thunder and lightening that rivals any 4th of July show, they sat and ate Cheerios contentedly. We all watched the amazing God given entertainment now before us through the stations massive picture windows. Somehow in it all we managed to make a completely fun event out of the completely unexpected day's events.

Brad and Grayson eventually returned with new alternator in hand and the guys set to work putting it in. With storm passed the children were turned loose outside and ran freely in the newly washed, rain scented world. Given the length of time it had taken to deal with it all Brad took the last 1/2 off and by the end of it was free to return home with us. It was now approaching 8:30 that night. After lots of laughter and good natured teasing we finally left the station and were bound for home. The next day's road trip loomed before me. I had very unexpectedly spent my entire preparation time in town dealing with the van crap. With the children living on ice cream and Cheerios I had to insanely fix them all dinner once we arrived home....at 9pm. They were finally bedded down around 10:30 only to have to awake the next morning bright and early to hit the road. Needless to say, that plan didn't go so well.