Missing Taylor

Three months between blog posts? We apologize. If anyone out there in cyberspace is still reading the Team Sabo blog, we bring you an update. Taylor is now in Corvallis, Ore., attending Cornerstone School of Ministry and living with Brenton. He's having a blast. But boy howdy do we miss him. In so many ways, among them hearing him playing worship songs throughout the day around the house, sometimes with Olivia accompanying him on the Cajon (called "the box") as you can see in the photo.

Ethan is sure feeling the departure of his brother. When Taylor left, he passed the mantle of the Friday night youth Bible study teacher to Ethan, just as Brenton passed the mantle to Taylor when he left for Calvary Chapel Bible College. Taylor timed his departure perfectly, leaving after teaching in Genesis 37. That means Ethan got to pick up right where his brother left off ... in Genesis 38, the story of Judah and Tamar. Lovely. The next week Ethan got to break down Genesis 39, the story of Joseph and Potiphar's wife. Ethan thinks Taylor planned that on purpose. But we've heard good reports of Ethan's teaching, so praise the Lord for that. And this past Friday we had something like 50-55 teenagers at our house for Bible study ... an amazing work God is doing here.

Taylor will be back home for Christmas, but other than that he will be out in Oregon until early June. We allowed him to go to the School of Ministry on one condition, and one condition only: He comes back. It's hard enough having Brenton 3,200 miles away. We're hoping he comes back soon as well. Who knows. Maybe he'll drive Taylor home in June -- and stay.

General Ezra

Ezra turned 4 on June 23. Happy birthday big fella. With the new advance in age, it apparently came with some additional authority. Let's just say Ezra is flexing his new found 4-year-old muscle. For his birthday he received money from grandmas and grandpas (Thanks!) and so we trundled off to Wal-Mart to let him pick out a gift. He settled on a Legos Star Wars set and when we got home he instructed Ethan and Taylor they needed to put it together for him. He would be more than happy to play with the finished product, but putting it together took some advanced Legos skills he doesn't quite possess. They were more than happy to take care of it. What great brothers. Alas, it took some doing, perhaps a little longer than initially suspected. Ezra retired to the kitchen for a peanut butter and jelly sandwich -- crunchy peanut butter with the crust off on a plate. After wolfing down his sammich, Ezra climbed the stairs to the loft where his brothers were trying to finish up the Star Wars warship.

Ezra: "Aren't you guys done yet?"

Ethan and Taylor: "We're getting there."

Ezra (He frowns. He's clearly miffed.): "I'll be back in 20 minutes," he said, wagging his finger at them. "It better be done."

And with that he marched back downstairs. I think his brothers got the message. After they started laughing and wondering who put Ezra in charge.

Do I Know These Kids?

As you can see, the Team Sabo dress-up bin is loaded for bear, full of sartorial splendor and outfits for any make and model of child. Take, for example, this bottom photo of a boy we'll call "Abram." At least I know him as Abram. When he's not a cross between Jack Sparrow and a Jedi warrior. We can certainly appreciate the imagination that goes along with donning, in Abram's case, random clothes and paraphernalia and murses and pulling it off. At least I guess he pulls it off. What's important is that Abram thinks he's pulling it off and seems pretty intent on conquering Courthouse Square or whatever adventure he's going to tackle. At least he's dressed for success. We also note that Madeline really pulls off that white dress look, eh?

It's Only June, Right?

Last night I had a nightmare. It was a very vivid dream. I dreamed that it was the end of September, the mornings were crisp, cool weather was in my future ... it was awful. I remember thinking, `Wait, I haven't had summer!' I want to sweat! I haven't enjoyed my little garden! I haven't barbecued ribs in the blazing heat while sweating profusely! The torture of reliving my dream is almost too much to write about ... what would it like to be without summer? Oh, that's right. I'd live in my hometown of Bend. Didn't it snow there last week? Eeech. So I woke up this morning and hustled out to the kitchen where I took a good long look at the calendar and to my pleasant surprise discovered it's still only June 7th. I have plenty of time to drop 5 lbs. sweating through a rib barbecue. The Wiffle ball season is still young so I have time to drop my ERA below the price of a steak dinner. The little cantaloupe plants abloom in my raised bed will grow luscious little melon treats. Oh, the joy of it!

I snapped a couple of photos of our little raised bed garden back on June 3rd and I'll update the progress through the summer. As you can see, things are looking good, as Olivia will attest with her delightful little garden smile. Last night we had one of those Virginia rainstorms complete with falling tree limbs -- Julie and I were out to dinner with some friends and saw an entire beech tree drop across the street in a vacant lot -- and surely an inch of rain or so. The garden appreciates the rain. We should be eating green beans by the end of the week so we're excited about that. I'm sure my dad's green beans in Bend, Ore., are about ready as well. Oh, wait. Today it's supposed to be slightly warmer in Bend than Anchorage, Alaska. The beans may have to wait. Was it last year my sister's garden in Bend got frosted out on June 20th? Sheesh. Where's global warming when you need it, right Sis?

Yes, We're Still Blogging

It came to our attention that it has been like 5 weeks since we filed a blog post. We apologize. So for our friends out in Oregon, we interrupt the constant rains to bring you up to date on the Sabo family with some random recent photos. As you can see from the photo right up there, it's sunny, warm and the pool is open here in Virginia. Taylor is working on his tan, as are his sisters, so you won't have to wear shades to look at our handy dandy blog. Fortunately it's been so warm lately -- upper 80s, chance of thunderstorms again today -- that it shouldn't take long for Taylor to look a lot less white and you can put the shades away when perusing the 12 kids blog. In gardening news, we're a couple of weeks from harvesting our first batch of green beans from the raised bed in the back yard and the peas have been tasty. The tomatoes are stretching out nicely and we're looking forward to some heirlooms here in a month or two & for some tasty salsa. I can spy little bell peppers on the pepper plants so that's very encouraging. We apologize for lack of news on the blog. We have been extraordinarily busy here at Team Sabo headquarters. May was an absolute blur and I was alarmed to learn it's already June. We had 3 birthdays in May -- Brenton and Madeline on May 1 and Claire on May 17 -- and Taylor hit 18 on April 29. For his birthday he decided to take the whole family bowling. Showing what a hospitable, kind husband I am, I let my beautiful wife beat me in bowling. What a wonderful husband I am! (Editor's note: If I remember correctly, I caught you clapping when I bowled a gutter ball. How is that wonderful? Author's reply: Well, um, my love, I think actually I was, well, technically I wasn't clapping in the sense of applauding a sudden downturn in your bowling fortunes. It was actually a form of encouragement in the sense of trying to encourage you to overcome this sudden little blip in your bowling success because clearly you're a tremendous natural bowler with extraordinary bowling talent. My love.)

Anyway, Taylor prevailed in the bowling tournament although Eli had a nice showing, even if he had the bumpers. (Editor's note: Which you could have used. Author's reply: Cheap shot! I'll have you know I beat Ezra!) For Claire's birthday she decided to have a slumber party and invited something like 9 of her friends to spend the night. I had to get a permit from the county to operate my house as a hotel for the night because we surpassed the local housing capacity ordinances. I'm telling you, things can get crazy around here. On Memorial Day the whole family except for Claire went to Busch Gardens to ride roller coasters and such. It was in the low 90s, as humid as a sauna ... sounds like fun, eh? The kids had a blast and I kept my lunch down so all in all it was a grand day. Basically, we survived. We took 10 kids and came home with 10 kids and had only a couple of relatively minor fits from tired little kids to deal with in the closing minutes of our time at Busch Gardens. Finally, in closing, we pledge to write more blog posts.

"Daddy Say 'K"

This is Olivia, as you may be able to tell from the photo. As you can see, she likes chocolate. She's trying to smile while mowing on a beater lathered up in some sort of chocolate concoction. She is very 2ish, with all the baggage that goes with being a post-toddler child thinking the world is theirs for the taking and that whatever her long-lashed eyes spy is, in her words, "mine." This morning she bit Eli, I immediately caught wind of it and Olivia was soon made to understand this doesn't qualify as playing nicely. She refused to say, "Sorry" to Eli, (Hmmmm Eli, where do you think she learned that?) but after some not so gentle encouragement eventually ponied up with the word of apology. She also is understanding the art of deception. Or maybe it's lying, but I'm not really sure if her newly minted 2-year-old mind understands that concept. You see, yesterday I was downstairs working on a story and she was upstairs with Claire and some other kids. My office is right at the foot of the stairs so I can hear everything going on up there -- for better and worse. (For example, today the little boys and Olivia were upstairs playing when they decided they didn't want to play Ezra's game and walked out of his bedroom. "Well," Ezra said very loudly, "everyone is stupid." That qualified him for some behavioral reformation remediation efforts.) Anyway, Olivia is who we're talking about. So I hear Olivia ask Claire if she can watch a movie and from the sound of things she's holding a DVD.

Claire: "Go ask Daddy."

Olivia: (Walking to the top of the stairs) "Dada, can I watch movie?"

Before I can answer, Olivia turns around to Claire.

Olivia: "Daddy say 'k."

Then I hear Claire laugh. I have to admit, I found it amusing as well. I can only shake my head and think I have my work cut out for me already. Kids are fascinating creatures. She's learned to put words in my mouth at 2 years old. This could get interesting.

Another Ezra-ism

Some people have uncanny abilities to do great things. Like the woman who holds the world record for bearing children. In the 18th century in Russia, Mrs. Feodor Vassilyev birthed 69 children. That is not a typo. That's 69 children...from the womb of one woman. Talk about a fertile Myrtle. Sheesh. Imagine the blogging that woman could have done, calling it "Sixty-nine kids ... and counting?" So Mrs. Vassilyev had 27 pregnancies, birthing 16 sets of doubles, seven sets of triples and four sets of quads. An impressive feat, no doubt and something that qualifies as an uncanny ability to do great things. Imagine family reunions in the Vassilyev clan. Christmas must have been a hoot. Or something like that.

Anyway, enough about Mrs. Vassilyev. Let's get down to the nitty gritty. We're here to talk about Ezra and the uncanny verbal greatness about him. It's something that comes naturally. You can't teach it. He's a child prodigy of the spoken word. Among his more infamous utterances include the time he shut the door during a thunderstorm: "Don't let the thunder in!" he said. Or his defiant statement when he's making a point: "That's just how it be's!" His latest gem of the tongue came the other morning when he and his younger brothers and sisters were outside riding bikes. Ezra hopped on his trike, but lo and behold the seat was wet. Whe he got back up and ran around a bit he stopped and scrunched up his face. "Hey," he said in his wet britches, "someone peed in my pants."