When Jaclyn told me that Durham Regional News had contacted her about featuring us in an article, I wasn’t surprised. After all, she is quite interesting. I wasn’t surprised that they wanted to see the freak show triplets. I can sit and watch them go for hours. I wasn’t surprised that they wanted to feature model Ella, or Supermodel Keona. I guess even the dog is pretty interesting. But when I found out I was going to get to be in the newspaper, I was a little shocked. I even got to have my picture in there! It’s great being the fifth wheel around here.
Jaclyn: We don’t get the Whitby newspaper delivered. So the day that we knew the article was going to be in it, we tracked down some kids with a wagon delivering newspapers. I offered to buy one from them and they said I could just take it. I pulled the elastic off, saw the front page, and folded the newspaper over again right away! Scott asked what was wrong and I told him we were on the front page. At this point, he laughed at me and asked to see it. We figured it was going to be some little article in the back of the newspaper – definitely not front page.
The article was put together by Al Rivett, and was a tremendous encouragement to our family that we are on the right track. Al kept everything in such a positive light. He was great to work with too. The kids were comfortable answering his questions, and Ella even drew him a picture while we talked.
Prayer’s quote made the article! All of the kids’ quotes were in the online article which can be found here.
We heard a great deal of positive feedback from the article, and so far, no negative feedback. We have had a few encouraging things come of it. My wife has found some other home schooling families with lots of kids here in Brooklin. The kids are pretty excited about that prospect. The triplets had a cashier recognize them at the grocery store. And then this past week a restaurant here in Brooklin contacted us to offer us a free meal with the family… but not the dog.
My only other experience of Shoeless Joe’s was not … was not a family restaurant that we would normally go to. This, however, worked out to be quite a blessing. When I spoke to the gentlemen on the phone I asked him if we could come in “pre-dinner rush”. He was rather pleased with the notion, and now we understand why. The place was empty. An hour later, when we left, it was packed. But we had this restaurant all to ourselves, which allowed for quite a nice atmosphere.
My wife talked me into getting an appetizer that we could all share. I didn't want to share with the kids. I wanted Caesar salad. But I’m glad I went with her idea because we discovered some kind of chili nacho amazingness. The best part about it was the random jalapeno peppers all over it. My big brother instincts kicked in and I began trying to find a sucker.
“Elijah, I will pay you a dollar to eat this.”
The kid needs money. I know he’s cheap fun, but he looks at it, looks at my wife’s equally evil smirk, and says, “Five.”
What?!?!?
Well… I wasn’t paying for dinner anyways so I agreed and we began recording. It wasn't that good… other than his squealing like a little girl. Then Lily thought that her little piece of jalapeno pepper was a regular green vegetable, and she popped it in her mouth. Oopsy. She screamed like it was boiling water… Then we noticed the guilty look on Elijah’s face. “Did you feed her that???” Yes... yes he did. We could tell by the chuckle. Thankfully after half a liter of apple juice she calmed down and went back to stealing her mother’s food.
Ella, on the other hand, went for it for a dollar. We definitely got our money’s worth with her.
Here’s the evidence…
She started off by her patented “Momma..” when she realized it was going to hurt. Then she CHEATED! She popped an ice cube in her mouth when she was halfway done chewing the pepper! That is both genius and cheating. I still think it was worth the dollar though.
We took our time eating, talking about the golf that was on TV, and watching Lily steal all… not some… all of Jaclyn’s broccoli, cauliflower, beans, and red pepper. Jed zoned out as he downed his food like a machine; slowly savouring every little nibble.
Who cares about chicken fingers and french fries when there’s freshly steamed broccoli?!?
Then the desserts began to come. Lily was handed Jell-O. We don’t do Jell-O. She has never seen it before. When she got it in her mouth she just let it fall out to the ground. I think she didn’t know it was food. Actually, I don’t know that it is food either. But none the less, after 15 minutes of licking it, she finally
decided to swallow. She still didn’t really eat all that much.
Keona had to order cheesecake. The other kids were delivered a few different things to try. The big winner was the giants homemade chocolate chip cookie with ice cream.
It was a good time. We are thankful for the Lord giving us so many opportunities to enjoy being family, and making memories together. We are also very thankful that people give us so many things. This past week we were given hundreds of dollars worth of non-perishable groceries. Someone randomly passed along a gift card for us through my Dad. And I ordered a breakfast sandwich at Tim Horton’s and it had bacon AND sausage! Well I appreciate that last one anyways. I’m just glad that God is my God. I like having Him running our life. It’s exciting, and encouraging, and fulfilling. I recommend it.
“Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again.” – Jesus Christ (Luke 6:38)
Photo credit: Ron Pietroniro
Very cool! And what fun.
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