On a Mission

Yes, I'm still alive. I know I've been falling behind in my blogging duties lately but the summer season usually equals busy, busy, busy for the Reynolds household.

Over the last few weeks we've spent time preparing for and going on a missions trip to the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota. Our small group from church coordinated the trip for ourselves and several high school students that also go to our church. There were 8 adults and 11 youth total. The Rosebud reservation is a large reservation in the southern part of South Dakota. We stayed and worked specifically in the town of Parmelee for the whole 5 days we were there. And it was quite an eye opener to say the least. This is going to be a long post, but I really want to share our experience.....

Parmelee is a very, very poor community. The entire town consists of about two streets and has a population of around 700. It is quite common for them to have 15-20 people living in the same house together. And the houses are small. Most of them have no air conditioning and some don't even have running water. It was hard to believe we were still in the United States. The town looked like part of third world country. We stayed in a run-down community center that had no air conditioning. Luckily, they had two working bathrooms and each one had a shower. That was a relief! Our purpose for going was to put on a vacation bible school for the kids in the community. Beyond that, we were there to just hang out with them and help out with whatever we could such as fixing things around the community center.

When we first got there, kids from the community ran over immediately. Several groups visit the reservation each year, so they know that when vans or large vehicles pulling trailers show up at the community center, people are there to play with them. And they get soooo excited! It was shocking how young some the kids were that would just wander over by themselves. There were a couple of three year olds and a few four year olds that came every day. Their parents never escorted them anywhere. Unfortunately, that's how it is there. Many of the adults in the community have alcohol problems and a few of the kids told us that their parents would hit them. It was very sad. Many of the children showed up in the same clothes day after day. One little boy wore the same outfit the whole time we were there....even though he had vomited on his clothes one evening after dinner. On our last day there, we decided enough was enough. A few of the guys from our group washed him and we found some donated clothes in the community center for him.

The kids from the community were just amazing. Most of them were so sweet and just wanted someone to give them love. They would run up and give hugs and kisses and would hold our hands. They just wanted to spend time with us. They seemed to really enjoy the vacation bible school activities too. On our final day there, they kept requesting to sing more and more worship songs. On the first day, we sang 3 and on the last day, we ended up singing 10!! They just loved it. It was a joy to watch them sing about Jesus and dance around with huge smiles on their faces.

One morning, we decided to take a break for a couple of hours and venture outside of Parmelee to check out some other places on the reservation. We went to an Indian artifact museum and, while we were there, we were invited to attend a nearby pow wow. We were a little apprehensive about going because we weren't sure if we'd be welcomed or not, but we decided to go anyway. We were so glad we did. They couldn't have been more welcoming. A few guys came up to our group and introduced themselves and one of them asked if we'd like to participate in "grand entry" part of the pow wow. The grand entry involved several adults and children from the community dressed in their native clothing. They entered the main circle two by two and made their way around the entire circle while performing native dances. We got to walk in behind them and make our way around the circle as well (we didn't dance though). It was incredibly cool. A great experience!

Something else we got to do that was unexpected was attend a church service in Parmelee. One of the older kids that had been coming to the community center every day invited us to come with him to church. Several of the kids came with us. It was a tiny little church and we were crammed in like sardines but it was wonderful. I don't get "choked up" over a lot of things, but I was just overcome with emotion at the church service and had to fight back the tears. I was just so happy to be there in that moment. That may have been one of my favorite parts of the trip.

When it came time to leave it was extremely difficult. All of us had formed bonds with the children that none of us had expected. The youth from our church had the hardest time with it. They were all bawling when we had to leave. It was so hard knowing what kind of an environment we were leaving them in. And the looks on their faces when we told them we had to go was heart-breaking. One little boy I had hung out with quite a bit asked me to play a game with him a few minutes before we were leaving. I had to tell him "no" because we had to leave but that if he asked one of the other kids to play, I'm sure they would. He just looked up at me with the saddest face and said "but I want to play with you". Ugh....I felt TERRIBLE!!!

Before we headed back to Lincoln, we spent a night in Sparks, Nebraska where we did a debriefing session. We also had some fun time and went tubing down the Niobrara River. That was a riot. A couple of the high school boys from our group decided they were "pirates" and jumped into the river and ambushed many of us on our rafts. It was pretty funny. I'm not so sure the high school girls found it as funny though.

Whew, so that was our first experience with mission work. It was emotionally and physically draining, but it was so worth it. We feel so blessed that we were given the opportunity to go to Parmelee and spend time with the children there. Unfortunately, I didn't bring my camera on the trip so I don't have any pictures that I can post on here, but if you're on Facebook there are a few pictures that some of the others from our group shared with me that you can see in my Facebook photos. Our group plans to go back to Parmelee. We would love to go with them, but it will all depend on where we're at with the adoption.

Speaking of the adoption....we have some news, but can't quite share it yet. I know, you probably want to hit me for leaving you hanging like that, but check back in a week or so and we'll have the details!

Love,
Brooke

Viva Las Vegas

Hey there. Sorry I haven’t blogged in so long, but I have been ultra busy over the last month and it takes a sweet eternity to upload pictures onto this blog, so I had to wait for a time when I had more than 30 minutes to spare.

Anyhoo...we recently returned from yet another trip to Vegas. I know, I know…we go there a lot (this is our 3rd time in the last 10 months…it’s possible we may have a problem). As usual, a good time was had by all (at least, I hope). This time, the party crew included Matt & Kelly Reynolds, Michael and Keri Roper , Heather Reynolds and her boyfriend, Rob, Mike Reynolds, Greg’s cousin Katie and her hubby Brian, and Greg’s uncle Dick and aunt Cindy. Oh yes, it was quite a crew.

We stayed at the Flamingo this time and I’ll admit I was a little wary of it at first because of the outside appearance. However, I was pleasantly surprised by our room (you’ll see pics in a minute). Plus, the location on the strip was great and the pool was pretty decent. And the price was unbeatable.


Here are some pics of our room:


Our bed....

The very large T.V....

And quite possibly the coolest part of the room, the bathroom. Notice the T.V. in the bathroom mirror. Pretty cool, huh?

Our first day there, several of us went to the pool despite some rather chilly temps (under 80 degrees…chilly for Vegas) and soaked up some sun while catching up with everyone. Later in the afternoon, we went over to Greg’s uncle Tom and aunt Carol’s house for a night of delicious dinner, hilarious conversation and, of course, pranks. Here are some pics of the evening.

Greg and I......

Under the "archway" of hollyhocks....

Matt and Kelly.....

Heather and Rob......

Kelly, me, Heather.....

Katie and Brian.....

Dick, Brian, Katie and Cindy.....

Rob and Brian each got to experience the decades-old Reynolds family traditions of the “ferret/chuckwalla” and “funnel” pranks. They can now consider themselves “initiated”. I have never had the pleasure of experiencing the funnel prank, but I did fall victim to the ferret/chuckwalla prank about 12 years ago.

I must say, Tom has the chuckwalla prank down to an art. He builds his victim up for an hour or two, talking about how the chuckwalla gets all “stirred up” around large crowds and how we have to let him settle down for awhile before he lets him out. Then, when the time is right, he puts on this heavy duty glove and takes the caged chuckwalla out into the grassy area of the back yard. The victim steps closer to the cage as Tom slowly opens it. Then, a stuffed monkey that makes a crazy monkey noise comes flying out of the cage directly at the vicitm who usually either screams or jumps back in horror. Rob is a pretty laid back guy so he just took a couple of steps back. It was still pretty funny though.

Below is a picture of Rob experiencing the chuckwalla for the first time.

Greg's dad has the exact same chuckwalla trap/cage at his house. When Greg and I first began dating, I fell victim to the prank as well. Only back then it was supposed to be a ferret in the cage and the thing that came flying out at me looked like an old, ratty raccoon tail.

Brian was the victim of the good old "funnel" prank. It started with Greg challenging Brian to see who could roll a quarter down their nose and into a funnel that was strategically placed in the waistband of their pants. Then, when they started rolling the quarter, Tom poured a cup of warm water into the funnel in Brian's pants. I couldn't get a picture of that one because I was too close to where Brian was standing and I was afraid of giving away the prank. It was really funny though and Brian was a really good sport about the whole thing. Good times.

Here is a picture of the whole crew at Tom and Carol's house....

And everyone saying "chuckwalla"....

Our second night there, we ate dinner at "Nine Fine Irishmen" at New York, New York. Here we are after dinner.....

Greg and I....

Then we went to see dueling pianos at a little bar in New York, New York. If you like music at all, then it's pretty much impossible not to have a good time watching dueling pianos. And these guys were great! The highlight was when all four performers of the night joined together to do "Bohemian Rhapsody". My favorite part was the a cappella section at the beginning of the song. The guys did a great job with it. Here's a good pic of them performing the song.....

One other thing you can always count on while watching dueling pianos is the fact that one or more individuals in the audience will make fools out of themselves to the benefit of everyone else. On this particular night, a couple of those people happened to be a 60-something year old lady and a 20-something year old guy who took turns giving each other lap dances to the song "You Can Leave Your Hat On". In their defense, the piano guys asked for two volunteers to do this. These two really took it seriously though. And, man, was it funny-slash-disturbing. Here is the evidence below....

Oh no she di'int. Oh yes, she did!

Our last night was pretty low key. We went to dinner at the Bellagio buffet and then Matt, Kelly, Keri and Michael went downtown while me, Greg, Mike, Heather and Rob looked around at Planet Hollywood for a bit and then went back to the Flamingo to do some gamblin'. All in all, it was a really fun trip. Can't wait to do it again!

And, apparently, we weren't the only ones who had fun. After I picked Jackson up from the kennel, he was so exhausted that I caught him sleeping while sitting up! And he was sporting a new, edgy scarf with blue and yellow "flame" pattern. Very hip.

And finally, an update on the adoption process. We finally turned in our dossier (i.e. heaps of paperwork) and it is currently in Thailand so we are officially on the waiting list. Woo hoo! That's a huge step and we are thrilled. Now all we do is wait....and wait....and wait :-)

Love to all,

Brooke

The Half-Marathon Experience

Well, I did it people. I ran the Lincoln half-marathon and I finished. And I didn't walk at all. Ran the whole flippin way. And it was painful. But, man was it exhilarating. Word of warning: this is a long post, but I want to document all the details for my own memories :-)

I have to admit, I was really nervous the morning of the race. Which is just stupid because it wasn't like I was off to perform brain surgery or something. All I had to do was put on my Ipod and run for a while with 6,499 other masochists. Big whoop, right? Well, although I had been training for several weeks, I hadn't really been following the training plan as closely as I should have. The longest run I had ever completed was the weekend prior to the half-marathon and that was 10 miles. I was pretty scared I wouldn't be able to squeeze an extra 3.1 miles out of myself on race day. Here I am before we left for the race....


So here is how the day played out....

The race started and ended on UNL's campus in front of the football stadium. The weather couldn't have been more perfect. It was a cool 55 degrees at the start and around 60 or so by finish. All runners (marathoners and half-marathoners) had to line up according to "projected pace" by 6:45am. Apparently this was a record-setting year for number of participants. It was sheer craziness.

So, I lined up at the end of the 8 minute / beginning of 9 minute pace area and said a quick prayer....please, God, don't let me be "that guy". You know, the one who collapses and winds up on the 6:00 news. Oh and by the way, my wonderful hubby not only got up super early on a Sunday to drive me to the race and see me off, but he stayed for the entire race and took pictures. And ate his weight in the various breakfast items that were offered there.
Here I am on my way to line up...

At 7:10, the race began. It took an entire 6 minutes for me to even get to the start line. Then, we were off. There were people lined up all over town to cheer us on. I gotta say, that was so cool. It was a great energy booster. People had signs and noise makers and dressed up in costumes. There was some random old dude playing the bagpipes and some other people brought their speakers out of their houses and blasted music for us. So cool.

I felt really good for the majority of the run. There were some people who looked like they were struggling by, like, mile 3. I felt bad for them because, man, they had a loooong couple of hours ahead of them. But also, I had to pass the strugglers as quickly as possible because I knew that I too was going to look like that in a few miles and I really didn't want to think about it.

It was around mile 11 that I hit my "wall". I have a runner's watch that allows me to set an alarm if my pace dips below a certain mark and I felt like throwing that stupid thing on the side of the road during the last 2 miles because it kept going off every minute or so. I remember at one point I was going up a hill and had resorted to doing the "old man shuffle-run". You know what I'm talking about. It probably would have been faster to just walk up the hill, but I knew if I started walking, I wouldn't be able to start running again.

So, to make this very long story short... I was able to run the full 13.1 miles and finished 1639th out of 4812 runners in the half marathon. I met my time goal of finishing in under 2 hours...barely. And I mean barely. My time was 1:59:21. My pace was 9:07/mile. I was a little disappointed in my pace because I know I'm capable of running a better pace than that, but that's my own fault for not training like I should have. Here I am approaching the final loop (I'm in the hot pink shorts)....

Me and some girl passing me. Whatever.

And on my way to the finish line....

Oh, and I almost forgot to mention...there were two guys who ran the half-marathon who decided it was wise to dress up as Darth Vader and a storm trooper, complete with masks. They ran in full costume the whole way. And they still beat me. Show offs. Greg snapped a shot of them below sans masks.....

And here I am after finishing. The minute I stopped running, I got this shooting pain in my left knee that eventually went away by the end of the day, thank goodness. I was a little sore in the hamstrings on Monday but really the only bothersome pain I had was sore lungs of all things. I mean I guess it makes sense and all but it was a weird feeling. I'm all better today though.

If you ever find yourself toying with the idea of running a half-marathon, I say DO IT!!! If I can do it, anyone can. Seriously, I'm not just saying that. I have NEVER been a good runner. Ever. Heck, there was a time not too long ago when running 3 miles seemed impossible to me. It's amazing what you can train your body to do. Just give yourself time and it will happen. Plus, and excuse me for saying this, if there is ever a time in my life where I felt like a bad-ass...this was it...totally worth it!! And now, I am officially addicted to running.

Love,

Brooke

Stalker at the Race

Happy Sunday everyone! Hope you've all had a great weekend so far.

Yesterday, I participated in a local 10k race. A 10k is 6.2 miles so I was a little nervous since I'm pretty new to this whole running thing. It had been raining pretty steadily right up until the start of the race but we lucked out because it stopped just before the race began. The 10k race usually brings out a lot of competitive runners, so my goal was just to finish in the upper half. I was very pleased when I came in 195th out of 470 runners. My time was 53:22 for an average pace of 8:36 per mile. This pace was even better than my 5k time from a couple of weeks ago, so I was really proud of myself. I will admit though that I am feeling it today. Here is a pic Greg took of me right before the race. You will notice that Jackson always manages to make his way into my running photos.


At the race, I noticed a woman there who lives in our neighborhood. Not only does she live in our neighborhood, but she also goes to the same gym as me and we have taken a few of the same classes there as well. I've never met her before, but since I see her everywhere and since she appears to be around my age, I figured I'd introduce myself after the race. Unfortunately, the conversation didn't quite play out as I had hoped. Here is how it went....

Me: Hi, I just thought I'd introduce myself because I think we live in the same neighborhood and go to the same gym. Do you live in Parker's Landing?

Neighbor lady (smiling): Yes, I do! I live on 79th and Hunter's Ridge.

Me: Yeah, I know. I live on Nob Hill. My name is Brooke.

Neighbor lady: I'm neighbor lady, nice to meet you. So, do you know Chris & Jessica Such and Such?

Me: Uh, no.

Neighbor lady: How about Rick and Christy So and So?

Me: Hmm. No, I don't think so.

***About this time, neighbor lady's friend, who is standing right beside her, asks "Where exactly on Nob Hill do you live?" Only, she didn't say it in a manner of curiosity, but more like she didn't believe me.***

Me (nervously): Ummm, well, it's at the end of one of the cul-de sacs (note: there are about 5 cul-de-sacs on Nob Hill) but I can't remember the name of the cul-de-sac. Actually, you and I have the exact same house but yours is made of stucco and mine is made of brick (just as those words leave me lips, I think..too much, Brooke, too much).

***about this time, neighbor lady is looking at me like I just might be a crazy person who is planning to break into her house and kill her***

Neighbor lady: Oh, okay. Well, um, maybe we can go running together sometime.

Me: Yeah, definitely. Well, anyways, I just wanted to say hi so.....it was nice meeting you.

Neighbor lady(looking sideways at her friend and smirking): Uh huh.

Ok, so that was my version of the conversation. I'm sure neighbor lady's version of the conversation included me saying "Hi, I'm Brooke. Nice to stalk you."

After the conversation I walked slowly away with a "deer in headlights" look thinking "what just happened???" Then I ambled over to the food area for no apparent reason, at which point I decided... Time. To. Go.

As I started the long walk to back to my car, all I could do was replay in my mind one of the famous Chris Farley skits from Saturday Night Live..."Dangit...That sounded so stupid!!". About that time, I saw someone running at me, pretending like they were some sort of "bird of prey". It was Greg. He had come to watch me cross the finish line. And although the eagle/falcon/hawk scene would have been embarassing under normal circumstances, I was just too shaken up to care.

So, I proceed to share with Greg that I introduced myself to neighbor lady. He says, "that's great...I'm proud of you". I was starting to feel better about myself, like maybe it wasn't so bad after all. That is, until I re-enacted the conversation to Greg, at which point he lets out a muffled laugh and says "Okay, stalker".

Great. Guess I'll be finding a new place to walk the dog.

Brooke