I'm off to see the Wizard!

In all the discussions we have had of late, one strikes me as particularly amusing. RADAR our robot at the mall day was erratic in his movements at points of the competition. The judges even saw it and started checking it out. They inspected the batteries, the parts, and all the other pieces that make up RADAR. In doing so they finally suspected and finalized that they believe RADAR's brain maybe had a malfunction in its hard wiring and therefore they gave us a new brain to reprogram and attach to RADAR before Game day. Now as I was thinking about this, I started pondering how many of us has a hard wiring defect in our brain and would love to trade up! I know I would. My children, as sweet as they are, often tell me that my brain must be leaking or malfunctioning. I forget to do things like go down an alternative road to get to my house because they have my main road blocked off. I've forgotten a half dozen times and every time they seem to be with me and say, "Mom, where are you going?" I want to tell them something smart you know, but usually it is just, "Yes, mom forgot AGAIN!" I forget other things as well like to pick up milk when we are out, to sign them up for this or that, or get something copied for school. These are all simple in their nature however to children when Mom forgets something to them is wrong. They also love to point out when Mom doesn't do everything right! Kids truly help you become humble. Well at any point of this discussion I realize that I would love to have someone give me a new brain, an upgrade, and reprogram my design. While we are at it, maybe they can reprogram all those quirks I seem to have and those eradicable movements I get every now and then. I would love to have a brain for math and science because I still don't like those subject. My brain would function to a more outdoorsy kind of view of life than a stuck in the mud and in the house kind of person I am. Maybe I would even be a genius! Who knows, but because I am in the midst of the wildest kind of chaos that ensues my days here lately, I truly feel like the scarecrow without his brain. He and his friends simply followed the yellow brick road and set off to see the Wizard, the Wonderful Wizard of Oz, all to receive parts of themselves they needed. So today I'm off to see the Wizard to get a new brain. Hmmm. . . isn't that a lot like going to see the God every morning in our quiet times. Oh Lord, truly I need a new brain or at least someone to reprogram it. He says to me, "Go to my Word!" His Word is all we need! It will reprogram all of us!

Toilets (to clean or not to clean!)

Interesting enough we are having such a funny little discussion in my house in the midst of the robot mess, stress, chaos, we are in. You see all my three darling children have chores to complete in the mornings and one of those is the bathroom. They scrub the sink, the mirror, the counter, pick up things from the floor and so on. Also they are to wipe down the toilet every morning (because too many little people who don't care too much about toilets reside in this house and use this bathroom a lot!). Also until about a month ago they scrubbed the inside of the toilet every morning. Well mom found a neat invention, but costly and therefore has changed this routine to scrubbing once a week. This neat invention is just a handle that you attached a scrubber that already has bleach, cleaners, and scrubbers in it. You simply attach it to the handle, dunk it in the water, and voila the cleaners are released and off you go.

So the reason for my post is this: All my little people are getting mad at the others because they haven't had a turn to clean the toilet! LOL! Isabella's turn is on Mondays and even though she has been told she isn't to clean the toilet, she does so anyhow and there ensues the arguement. Zech and Sarah haven't had the pleasure (too funny I know) of cleaning the toilet with Mom's new invention (or purchase). So I have to tell her, yesterday once again, DO NOT clean the toilet because your brother and sister want too. Now you can't punish her for this, I mean seriously who punishes their child when they WANT to clean the toilet. Not this momma, however these new cleaning scrubbers are $4.00 (w/tax) for 6 of them and that categorizes them expensive and I don't want to have to buy them every week for the enthusiam of my children wanting to clean the toilet.

Maybe in the wake of all this robotics event they will figure out a robot to do their chores for them! Happy scrubbing!

We are going to Public School!

Well at least for an hour anyway! R.A.D.A.R. is becoming famous these days and he is making many public appearances on TV, radio spots, and newspapers. Because of his popularity, some public school have requested a demonstration of his wonderful abilities. Sarah will demonstrate Radar today at Katy Haynes elementary school to a group of 6th graders! So we in our MARS T-shirts and camo pants are headed to public school to put on a show of our robots abilities. The kids are excited about showing off their talents and getting a chance to peek inside public schools! (for some reason they think these schools are exciting?!, it is just a world unknown to them and so it is a mystery ready to unsolve for them).

Video of Sarah Driving

Meet R.A.D.A.R.

Radar has two forklifts in the front to pick up the plane pieces and a claw in the back that will place the plane pieces where they belong on the plane.

Here are some pics of mall day and our T-shirts/camo outfits and of course the star of the show R.A.D.A.R. Our team really stood out that day with their t-shirts/camo outfits. The back of the shirt is designed as a machine being built saying, "Release the machine."

Full Speed Ahead

Well Mall day was a success and we are racing towards the end of a very long six weeks. 5 days and counting we are on our mark, ready, and about to say, "Go!" To see who of all the teams truly built the best robot. We have already had a meeting on drivers, two meetings tomorrow, three on Tuesday, two on Wednesday, three or four on Thursday and who knows how many on Friday to try and beat the clock! We leave out of here at 5:15 am Saturday, to get to our destination on time and set up, check in with our robot, and much more.

We are all very dead tired, cranky, stressed, and yet still trying to do school in the midst of all the chaos! We will survive and so very glad that God is faithful and will see us through!

Drivers Needed (and prayer too!)

Friday our robot was finally complete and we had driving competitions to see who our 6 drivers are going to be for mall day and for competition day. Sarah had made up her mind that she wanted to try out. Honestly I think for me I sit on two fences half the time with my children. One is the fence of doubt. Doubting whether or not my child can or cannot do something and knitpicking all their flaws. The other fence is the cheerleading fence when you believe beyond on a shadow of a doubt they are truly the best children in the world. Well Friday I was on the doubt fence! I watched her perform and my thought was, "No way will they pick her." Now to defend her and be on the other fence, there were only about 2 drivers I thought were even worthy for it. So we had about 15 children try out for driving auditions. They were timed, had to go through and around obstacles and such and mimic a dry run. Sarah was about 5 down in the line. They had a few kids who scored the same and so they had a run off and I'm still thinking Sarah will not get picked. So what happens when they announce the winners? I about dropped my jaw, and so did Sarah by the way (she was on the doubting fence too) that she was 3rd from the top!!!! Also she was the only girl picked! I was awed, amazed, shocked, and everything else in between.

Now here is where the prayer begins. She did very well under pressure at Mall day! We survived and we were one of two teams who even got close to building out planes. Even her daddy (who was on the doubting fence too) was impressed! But Mall day is a totally different day than game day. So please pray for her throughout this week to take this completely seriously and that she really understands the workings of the robot. She is now the leader of the robotics team (as all drivers are) and we score by her building or failing. Also pray for us because there are a ton, and I mean a ton of meetings this coming week including one today. Sarah will have meetings everyday this week on driving and Zech will have meetings for the Oral Presentation to tell why our robot is the best and Isabella will have meetings with the Spirit Team (she was chosen team captain of that and you should see her lead, she is quite the cheerleader and leader for this team!). Please pray for our sanity, we are so very tired from everything and we just need rest but that won't happen for this week for sure.

One more week to go! Please pray also for the competition on Oct. 25th, safe travel, safety of the kids, and the pressure/competition of it all! Way to go Sarah! (I promise to post some pictures as soon as I am able!)