Soundbites from dinner

Brian: "Jill, McKailyn looks very tired, has she taken a nap lately?"
McKailyn: "Dad! I'm a grown woman!"
Brian: **speechless**

While making cupcakes & brownies for McKailyn to take to school tomorrow for her birthday:
Jocelyn: "Wow mommy you are really good at pouring the batter."
Jill: "Thanks Joc! I've been doing it for a while and have had a little bit of practice."
Jocelyn: "A little bit? You're much older than us!"
Jill: "Thanks Joc"

Hi all

Hi all, Rhode Island is awesome. I got to go to the Bungals vs Patriots game and hang out with the Wrights. Then last tuesday I went to the Matt Light Celebrity Shoot out and was shooting guns with the patriot players. I was shooting shotguns with Tom Brady, michigan weenie, see how I did not capitalize michigan. Today, Monday, I went to the ocean and was swimming in 7-8 ft waves it was pretty cool. Tomorrow I am rock climbing and playing some golf with a coworker. Oh yeah, work is going well. Just continuing to work on my patience with these little crazy children.

Nick Schuckman, OUT

Hey Family-

Thought I'd post a quick message from here in St. Paul, Minnesota. Everything is going well. There are 10 men in my first year novice class; there are 11 men in the second year novice class; and 3 ordained superiors in the house. It's a slow process getting to know everyone, learning the norms of the house, and acclimating to a new city, but it is interesting. The best way to describe this place is a three story college dormitory, substituting all the debauchery with holiness. There are common areas for reading or television, a chapel, laundry facilities, recreation room, music room, work shop, a classroom, and kitchen and dining to accommodate the twenty-four people that live here.

Along with communal daily mass and prayer periods we've been taking short classes on the history of religious orders and have just started a class session on homiletics. On Monday and Thursday we've begun Spanish classes and on Wednesday we spend the morning in a Spanish immersion experiment. I will be volunteering at "El Centro", a center for Latino people of the Twin Cities area who need help adjusting to American culture. They provide a number of services such as day care for mothers who are taking classes at the center, senior citizen day care, mental health, job search and training, and also English as a second language classes (which is where I come in). I'll be helping people of varying English proficiencies with their situational language needs. Such as, the words necessary to buy and use a bus ticket, or conversational requirements to calling and scheduling a doctor's appointment, or beginning to learn and understand the English words associated with working in hotels, which as we've all seen is staffed by many Latinos.

The first year men as of last Saturday have graduated from first probation so I can now officially refer to myself as a novice. There was a nice in house ceremony where we were presented with a St. Ignatius medal and a copy of the book Jesuit Constitutions and Complementary Norms (The historical writings of the Society from inception until present day).

Hope this message finds everyone well.

I'll keep everyone notified of the highlights as they come, so stay tuned.

Love,

Rich

Great Reno Ballon Race

The Great Reno Ballon Race is awesome. At first, the idea of waking up at 3:30am didn't really excite me, but I was wrong. Yes, Jill & I did get up at 3:30am, bundled the kids in warm clothes and hit the road. Since we live on the other side of town, it took us a little over 30 minutes to get to the park. By 4:45am we spread out our picnic blanket, wrapped me & the kids in blankets (Jill was busy taking all the pictures and videos you see below).

FYI It's very cold at 5am

At 5am, the "Glow Show" started, and this is where 4-5 balloons take turns "glowing" their balloon. When it's pitch dark and mountains are in the background and music is playing, this "glowing" is much more beautiful than it sounds.

Soon after the "Glow Show", the "Dawn Patrol" began. This is when 4-5 different ballons inflate and then take turns ascending into the sky....all before sunrise. Again, the glow, the mountains, the music and these balloons ascending one at a time is something spectacular to see.

Then right after sunrise, approx 7am, the "Mass Ascension" began. This was amazing. 100 balloons ascending all over the place. We were allowed to walk right up to the balloons as they were taking off. The first balloon up carried an American Flag as we all sang the National Anthem. Kinda gives ya the chills.

Once all the balloons were in the air, the race officials placed a large "X" in the middle of the field. The balloons then took turns throwing bean bags at the "X".....kinda like "closest to the pin" in a golf tournament.

Again, yes, it was crazy getting up at 3:30am, but it was well worth it. I hope some of our friends & family will be able to visit for this event in the future to share this awesome time with us (it occurs the weekend after Labor Day every year). Enjoy the pictures and videos below, there are 10 videos but they are all less than 35 seconds long each.

Let's go fly a kite

Gun education in the wild, wild West

Out west, we started teaching the girls how to shoot (from the "Best in the West Rib Cook Off").

Skype

I'm still amazed that on Monday McKailyn called her best friend in Ohio, Rachel, and asked her, "You wanna Skype?" Don't forget, she's only 5 years old.

So......if you are on Skype, let Jill or I know! If you're not on Skype, GET ON IT! It's free to download and just as free to use. If you aren't familiar with Skype, learn about it here.

First week of school

Jocelyn and McKailyn finished up their first week of school at Reno Christian Academy last week. To no one's surprise both of the girls did great. Of course, they were a little shy & timid the first two days, but by Friday morning they couldn't wait to run away from me and play (we got there early) with the rest of the kids.

On the first day it was memorable how 2 little girls walked up to Jocelyn (they briefly met at orientation the week earlier) and said, "Hi. We are going to be in your class and want to know if you'll be our friend." I think that helped Jocelyn feel much more comfortable. She already told us that she was nervous about being "the new kid." When I dropped the girls off Friday morning, all the kids had their "About Me" posters hanging outside their classroom. Just about all of the other kids listed Jocelyn under their "My Friends" category. Jocelyn is already writing in cursive and I'm pretty sure she's better at it than me. On top of that Jocelyn already got invited to a birthday party that she attended today and had a blast. Outside of school, Jocelyn is playing in an all girl 8 year old recreational soccer league. Again all the other kids were great and welcomed Jocelyn, she's having a blast. She then informed us that she's going to play soccer until she's "really old and needing a cane".

McKailyn is loving Kindergarten. She's been the first one awake every day of school, waking all us up and making sure we are getting her breakfast right away. We think she really enjoys going to school and following the same routine she's watched her big sister follow for the last two years. She also is doing very well in her school work and is excited about learning even more. We're holding her off from any extra curricular activities until she's fully used to all day school 5 days a week, but she has a list of everything she wants to do (gymnastics, horse back riding, karate, guitar lessons, piano lessons, etc....)