ICloud On Mac :: Turn On Reminders Without Turning On Calendars

Since Reminders was released, I have had them synced fine between my phone and computer. However, in the past week this is no longer happening. I'd like to turn on my reminders on both my iPhone and MacBook without turning on my iCloud calendar sync. However, it seems that on the iPhone end of things, I can choose to turn on just reminders, while on my computer they are lumped together in the same checkbox (see images.) 

I would be okay with syncing them via my gmail, but again there is a discrepancy in the options I have. On my phone, no reminders option exists, but on my accounts tab on my laptop, there it is: reminder sync with gmail! I have also posted images of this. I found out that if you turn on calendars AND reminders on both ends, then the reminders work. Which is not what I want. 

So my question: how can I sync reminders with my computer from my phone, without having to sync my iCloud calendar? Note that i use google calendar exclusively, for work/personal use. I have NEVER used iCloud calendar, never had it synced, and my reminders have worked fine until now.  

UPDATE: before, i could get reminders to work by turning reminders+calendars on and off on both devices in iCloud. now it doesn't work at all, no matter what! 

iCloud:

Gmail:

I am using mountain lion 10.8.5 and iOS 8.1.2

Info:
Reminders, iOS 8.1.2