J's First Emergency Room Trip

Today we had our very first emergency room trip for J. With as brave and daring as these little twins are, I'm surprised we haven't and any before this.

I had just made the girls popcorn, and put it in a large mixing bowl, as soon as I set the bowl down J tried to pick it up. I told her not to carry the bowl and just sit at the table and eat it. Then I went into the hallway to switch the laundry over.

Of course as soon as I am starting a new load of laundry I hear the bowl hit the ground in the living room and then J screaming. Irritated, because I just told her not to pick it up, I went to get her. I picked her up to give her a lecture and saw the bridge of her nose was split open and bleeding. I inspected a little and decided this probably needed stiches. It looked like she hit it on the corner of the coffee table. I started to have some anxiety as things raced through my head.

Who do I call first?

K and A need to be picked up in an hour and a half. Do I call their friends mom? My mom?

Where do I go? Urgent Care? Emergency?

Get in the car and drive and then call?

E said "J need to go to the Dr." and she started to walk outside to the car. Such a smart kid.

Things couldn't have gone smoother.

I called Adam first, and he said he'd leave work right away. Then I called my mom, who just happened to have the day off today, to come get K and A from school. And finally got on the phone with Kaiser, they advised me to go to Walnut Creek Emergency. I called my best friend "D" on the way to WC and she was sweet enough to let me drop E off at her house on the way. E was totally excited when we got there and went with D no problem. I was worried because she is my clingy Mama's girl. Whew! I then rushed to the hospital.

My car was totally, gas light on out of gas, yesterday. I wasn't planning on filling up until today when I went grocery shopping. For some reason, I stopped real quick and put gas in yesterday. THANK GOD!

The ER at Walnut Creek Kaiser, was wonderful. They were so nice, it was clean and there weren't a bunch of weirdos hanging all over the place. They triaged her and took her right in. The nurse said she'd need at least a stitch. She was feeling a lot better by then and wanted to run around. She was quite entertained by the rubber glove balloon I made. Adam made it there in time. And the surgeon came in to fix her up.

The Dr. was worried about her squirming around so they wrapped her like a little burrito in a sheet and had a nurse hold her head steady. The surgeon decided to glue her instead of stitch her. He said it's a medical grade super glue. She was so good while they worked on her. She didn't move or cry or squirm. She closed her eyes and stayed real still. She was such a tough cookie. I was so proud of her.

As soon as they said she was done, she hopped right up and said "Yay, now we can go to D's house and play with E and the boys".

Here she is all patched up with her glove balloon.

God must have given mothers very strong hearts, otherwise we'd be dead from the frequent heart attacks children give us.

ARCHIVES: All the "twin" questions answered!

I posted this a long time ago on a myspace blog. I thought I'd dig it out and post it, because I still get asked some pretty stupid questions while I'm out. People need to think before they speak.

I've been a mother of twins for almost 11 years now. Over the years I have heard some of the most rediculous questions/comments. Well, add a second set of twins to our freak show and the questions get, well, annoying. I wonder if one thinks before they ask a question. Do they walk away thinking, "wow that was a dumb question, why did I say that?" Do they ponder all night about being a moron? Now don't get me wrong, some questions are normal, ie: are they identical? how old are they? etc. But some just baffle me!!!

All of your "TWIN" questions/comments answered. Some of these are answers I only wish I could give.

1. Are they twins? No. it was 2 for one day at the hospital. DUH!!!
2. Are they a boy and a girl? Um. 2 PINK blankets, dresses and bows in their hair. Hmmmm. That's a tough one.
3. You have your hands full!!! YOU THINK?
4. I'm glad I'm not you! ME TOO
5. Did you use fertility? Nope sure didn't. These are the result of drinking way too much beer. But, if we had used fertility, would it matter? This is actually a really rude question to ask someone.
6. Do twins run in your family? Actually there was one set, 80 years ago, they were fraternal ours are identical and identical twins are not genetic. (the every other generation thing is a myth)
7. Do twins run in your husbands family? I'm generally puzzled by this question. Twins are determined by the mothers, not the father. Fathers have no control over how many eggs are dropped during ovulation. And they have no control over a egg splitting.
8. (a day without the kids) Wow you have identical twins? Do they really look alike? *sigh* Actually, they look, well, IDENTICAL.
9. Which one is the good one? You watch way too many Lifetime movies.
10. Which one is the evil one? Which one of your children is the evil one?
11. Do they have their own language? Yes, boths sets did. It's quite cute actually, though I have no idea what they are saying, but they certainly do.
12. (someone said this to my mother) WOW!! You don't look old enough to be a Grandmother let alone a Grandmother to Twins!!! My forehead still hurts.
13. How do you do it? Well, just like you actually, but everything you do, has to be done again.
14. (just walked up and said) Vaginal or C-section? Quite taken back by this. How does one just say "vaginal" in the middle of a crowded store? And why do you care, they are out aren't they?
15. Which one is older? K is 31 mins older than A, and J is 1 min older than E.
16. Can they hear one anothers thoughts? Feel what the other one feels? I don't know (pinching Kiley), "August did you feel that?"
17. Are you planning on having more? I wonder why people care how many children you have or will have? If we get pregnant again, then yes, we will have more.
18. Oh I'm so glad you didn't give them rhyming names. I wonder what the response would have been if they did have rhyming names?
19. UH OH, Double Trouble. Wow, that was original.
20. Why don't you dress them alike? Why do you dress them alike? I can't win.
The next one takes the cake. I don't know if anyone will ever be able to top this one. And the Oscar goes to......
21. (loud) WOW!! YOU HAVE 2 SETS OF TWINS? DID YOU GUYS PLAN THAT? (she was serious).

Okay now, if you can think of any other strange/rude/stupid questions that I haven't covered. Please ask. I would love to add to my list.

Updates and changes

Adam took this picture. I just love it. I want to have it oil painted.

We survived our summer, barely. After all of our trips we were pretty vacationed out. Now that we are back to a semi-normal schedule we can relax. Um, not really. Since school has begun, I barely see K or A anymore.

The girls started middle school nearly a month ago. The excitement has quickly subsided. Two days a week they start school at 7:30 am and end at 2:30, the other days they start at 8:30, this followed by roughly 4 to 5 more hours of homework. This all lumped together with, daily chores, violin practice, soccer etc, where is our family time you ask? GONE! (more on this later)

E and J are growing so quickly. They are such a joy. They just amaze me daily. They are so sweet, so curious, so loving. They want to do and know everything. They have just started to make friends this year. They have befriended a little girl who is the same age as they are. The little girl has a sister the same age as K and A who is on their soccer team. Twice a week E and J get to play with their "fwiend" at the park. They are just so cute. This is the first interest they have shown in playing with other kids their own age. Usually they are more fascinated with older children.

I have been in the process of trying to find a home church for us. This is harder than one would think, when you have a few specific criteria that church should meet. I have visited a few in my area and have not found "the one" yet. I have two more in line for the next couple of weeks, that I'm hoping will end with one of them being the one for us. I've been lazy in not attending church weekly for sometime now and have decided I'm letting all my laziness go. K and A can't wait!

Finally, I've decided that 11 hours a day should be more than sufficient to properly educate my children. Am I wrong? The fact that they still need home teaching for 4-5 of those 11 hours, has me wondering why they need to be gone for the first 6-7? They are still little girls. They are having to endure way too much stress for a child. Don't get me wrong, my children are not coddled. They are hard working, taught to be independent and responsible. But, they are still, children.

I have been in prayer for a while for God to make it possible to homeschool them with a Christian curriculum. Since, I have been asking God for this, we have had an increase in jobs and money. Go figure. Ask and you shall receive right? YES! Adam has been called back to his full time job that he was laid off from 9 months ago. He still has work and clients, from his own business he started after being laid off. And, as I watch so many unemployed people not being able to find jobs, I have managed to get a part time night job. SWEET! So somewhere in all of this should be the $50.00 to $100.00 a month I need for the girls school curriculum. THANK YOU GOD! If you're interested in seeing what we hope to have be our new school, the link is below.
http://www.schooloftomorrow.com/

I myself have certification in supervising this particular curriculum. I attended the education classes and have my certificate. I used this curriculum while I was in high school for 2 years. 10th and 11th grades. Though, I still don't have my husband completely on board, but hopefully he will be soon.

I forgot I had this blog. haha. It's been busy here. I'm hoping to remember to write more often.

Thanks for reading all of my ramblings. HAVE A WONDERFUL DAY!

Summer has been busy so far

It's been a while, I know. We have just been hit with a whirlwind of events and just being plain busy.

A and K officially finished elementary school. So they will be starting at the middle school at the end of August. They are very excited. A can't wait to try out for the track and field team. She is the fastest girl in her school and the 2nd fastest kid all together.

School ended June 11th, we had 3 days off to relax and then all the girls started VBS (vacation bible school). E and J are even going this year. They are all having so much fun. We've had a neighbor kid coming with us too.

E and J were a little reluctant to go at first but are now loving it. They have latched on to one of the teenage volunteers and they just love her and talk about her all day long. This is their very first experience with any type of "school-ish" setting. They have always been home with one of us so I was worried how they would take it. Their first day was awful, they cried so much I was called back 30mins later to get them. But, forutnately the rest of the days were just fine.

I was glad when they setteled into their VBS class, because I was taking the womans bible study class that is provided during VBS hours. I was really looking forward to going to this class. The subject just called out to me and I knew that God was trying to tell me something. The class has been wonderful. I felt like this class was just for me. I have met some very wonderful women and have decided to start going to church again and brining my girls. I would love to attend the church where the bible study is being held but it's a bit far so I think I will be visiting one a little closer to home. I am quite nervous since I don't know anyone and I'm shy and I haven't been an regular church goer for some years now. I feel now like I'm being led to make sure my children are learning about God and knowing him. So if you pray, please pray for me and my courage.

This Thursday is our last day of VBS and then we get 3 weeks to relax before we head out to Arizona.

CAMPING!!

We left Friday to Memorial Park in Loma Mar, CA kinda near Half Moon Bay. It was a 30th Birthday camping trip for my friend Danielle. This was also E & J's first tent camping trip. The drive there only took us 1 1/2 hours. This is by far the shortest distance we have ever gone to go camping.

I'm always amazed at all of the stuff you (think) you need to bring camping. We only had 4 of the 5 girls this weekend so we removed one of the center seats in the van to have a little more room. It was still packed. Our rooftop bag was packed, the trunk was packed and the inside of the van was so packed the kids were burried upto their necks. With all of the people in our family, I think we need a trailer, becuase Mini-vans are definately lacking in the cargo storage department.

After about a week of getting stuff ready to go & a blissfully short drive, it was time to set up camp. We had two tents this time. E & J stayed with Adam and I and K & A were going to be in their own tent next to ours.

Here is my very first encounter with a Banana Slug. I'd never seen one before. The kids went to science camp in January and learned a song about Banana Slugs so of course they had to sing it.

The finally finished tent. Our tent was dubbed the Taj Mahal of camping. I think it's our very comfortable looking bed. And it is pretty comfy for an air mattress. In fact, E and J were a little weirded out by sleeping on the ground in sleeping bags on our floor, so they ended up sleeping on the air mattress with Adam and me. It kept us very warm (it was freezing outside) but also a little cramped.

The little girls loved being in the tent. They loved camping.

Scooters. We didn't bring our scooters because if we did, we couldn't have brought the children. Luckily D and J brought their boys' scooters. And thankfully the boys were nice enough to share.

This was A's favorite part about camping. She was just flying down those hills, in fact J can't stop talking about going camping again and the scooters.

Hot Chocolate time at our campsite was a big hit. All the kids came over for some yummy warm chocolate.

A, E & R look happy about it.

E even sang us his hot cholate song from Polar Express, something like,

"Here, we only got one rule:

Never ever let it cool!

Keep it cookin in the pot!

Soon, ya got hot choc-o-lat!"

That's how R said it too. I want hot chco-o-lat! So cute.

I learned as long as you are camping and it's cold, 11 am is not too soon to start drinking wine. D, M and K are here to prove that, they even have camping wine glasses!

This, is a centipede. I think

Night time was fun. We roasted marshmallows. E and K are bundled up near the campfire. Night time was sure cold.

And, of course D the birthday girl.

E loved roasting marshmallow's. In fact that's all she wanted to do with them. The would light them on fire and watch them burn into nothing. J, on the other hand would pretend to put them in the fire and then quickly eat them.

K roasting away.

E and all the other kids were racing their cars down the road hills. A couple of our diecast cars got run over by big cars passing through. When a car was coming we had to hurry and try and get the toys out of the street so the car could drive by. There weren't too many cars so that was good.

Ah, trying to sleep in while camping is not usually an easy thing to do. I think the thought that as soon as he gets up he has to repack the car he just packed two days ago was discouraging him from moving. hehe

K took a picture with me and the giant redwood trees.

Me and my hubby.

We packed the car back up, for some reason it seemed like less room then the first time we packed. And, we had less stuff to bring home. I don't understand. All of the kids had a blast. We had fun too. I hope we can go camp again this summer. It sure is fun for everyone.

I don't know how I ended up with more pictures of E and K, maybe they were just more hamish than J & A.

For a more complete camping photo album you can go to this link and see them all:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2023592&id=1043624689&l=dd8da48ac2

PS: I can't figure out how to name the links yet