Catching Up

Well, I have clearly been slacking in the blogging department.  In fact, I have been neglecting the internet altogether.  Right now I'm actually in Denver and it feels like I've been away from home for so long.  (I haven't.)

Leila and Sarah turned seven a few weeks ago.  SEVEN.  How is this even possible?  I can't believe they are seven years old, even though it feels like ages ago that I became a mom to twins.

Sometime in April, Seven decided to start sitting.  And scooting.  And babbling.  She's growing up so quickly.  She'll be 6 months old this week.  Unbelievable.

My dad was exactly right when he told me the other day that he figured I'd have to have another baby or adopt.  He said that once Seven isn't a baby anymore I'll want another.  (Well, duh.)

The kiddos and I are at my dad's house right now while Jason drives back from Georgia and Virginia with our new van (finally!) and a trailer full of the last remaining furniture we'd stored in Virginia.  Expect to see a blog post full of van pictures soon.  I can't wait to start installing our million car seats!

I have so much to share that I don't even know where to start.  We have had my family visit us, taken a mini-vacation, been hiking every week, and Jason graduated from the University of Arizona.  Life just never slows down.  I wish I could blog from my phone because we are always out doing something crazy lately.  You wouldn't believe the situations I get myself into with seven kids!

Broken

Our Saturday started out like any other weekend.  Matthew and Joshua had a soccer game at 9am and I had a LLL meeting to lead after that.  We loaded all of the kids into the van and headed to the soccer field.

I was standing on the sideline watching my boys play soccer when Matthew fell a few minutes into the game.  He fell forward onto his stomach and the coaches ran over to help him up.  As he sat up and brushed the hair out of his eyes, I could see he was crying.  And then I saw his arm.

Matthew's right arm was hanging at a sickening angle.  I ran (and it was quite a sight, I'm sure) across the field and put his head in my lap.  Someone called 911.  I tried to distract Matthew from looking at his arm and tried to keep him calm.  I've seen broken bones before but the ones where the bones stick out sideways always make me a bit uneasy.

A short ambulance ride later and we were at the hospital.  Based on the way Matthew's arm looked, an orthopedist was paged.  Sure enough, the x-rays confirmed that he'd broken both bones in his forearm and would need surgery to reduce the fracture.

Matthew was not very happy...

...but he was able to smile briefly once he had some pain relief.

We spent the entire day in the hospital.  Matthew was upset when he realized his soccer season was over.  He was a little disappointed that his birthday plans would have to change too.  (His birthday is this Saturday.)   The realization that he won't be able to ride his bike for a few weeks was tough to accept.  Not being able to do handwriting or math was not quite such a disappointment, of course.

After the surgery, Matthew was bragging to the nurses in recovery that he was the first kid in his family to ride in ambulance.  And after a few quiet days at our house, he's already back to bossing his siblings around as usual.  Yep, 9-year old boys bounce back quickly!

However, mothers of 9-year old boys don't have such an  easy time.  Maybe it's the pregnancy hormones or maybe it's just that my baby is turning ten this week but I have had a tough time the last few days.  I was totally calm when Matthew got hurt and throughout our day at the hospital.  I'm definitely not a helicopter parent.  (I don't think moms of six children get to hover over their children, you know?)  But on Saturday night I couldn't sleep.  My usual pregnancy insomnia had been replaced with the upsetting images of Matthew falling, his tears on the field, and his awkwardly twisted arm.  I replayed it over and over in my mind, trying to figure out what I could have done to protect my boy from experiencing that pain.

And I can't protect him.  He's going to experience pain.  I know that.

Is it just me or does a tenth birthday feel like a milestone?  My baby is going to be one decade old.  The first ten years with him have been amazing but at some point in the next ten years he will start to like girls, stop wanting to crawl into my bed at night when he has a nightmare, start driving, graduate from high school, and will eventually go off to college and grow up.  And I'm not ready for that!

In my mind, Matthew still looks like this...

While Matthew only suffered a broken arm this weekend, I think his mama has suffered a broken heart. My baby is growing up and these days are passing too quickly...

Six Years, Six Thousand Miles, and Being Sick

On Saturday, Leila and Sarah turned six.  Who gave these girls permission to grow up?!

As usual, I spent their birthday reflecting on their birth.  I can still clearly recall the slight feeling of terror that I felt when I held them both and realized that I'd just given birth to twins.  I can also clearly recall the euphoria that followed when I realized that I'd just given birth to twins in my bedroom.  (You can read their birth story here.)

It's hard to believe that my baby girls are six now.  They are still the size of 3- or 4-year olds and they still sleep together in the same bed.  They still hold hands when they cross the street together and they still get scared of the dark sometimes.  I hope I will always remember these sweet moments.

In just a few short days we will be leaving on another road trip.  The timing is not-so-great, but that's pretty typical for us.  A few weeks ago I started having problems with my ear and throat and that culminated in a peritonsillar abscess that had to be drained.  Twice.  The infection made me feel like garbage, which was rough because the morning sickness already made me feel like garbage.

On that note, I do seem to be feeling better.  I'm just about in my second trimester and the fog of nausea seems to be slowly lifting.  I know that everyone is dying for me to have an ultrasound to see if I could be having twins again.  If I had to guess, I would say that there's only one baby in there.  I haven't had an ultrasound yet and I'm not sure when I'll have one, so for right now I'm just going with my gut.  And if I had to guess, I'd say the baby might be a girl.  I was never sick with Matthew or Joshua and I've been horribly sick this time.

As we get ready to hit the road again, Jason and I have mixed feelings about our trip.  Our family is in Virginia and the burden of traveling to visit definitely falls on us.  We don't mind the travel part (we actually love it) but the expense is a tough pill to swallow.  Dave Ramsey would definitely not approve of us going into debt to visit family, but we feel that seeing family once a year is not asking too much.  With gas prices being what they are, our 6,000 mile trip will cost a pretty penny.  I wish that there was a way to cut costs, but the majority of our expenses are just for gas since we eat and sleep in the RV.

I have heard from other military families that they don't travel to visit family and request that their family visits them.  Some even offer to pay for family to visit.  (Might be cheaper that way for us!)  If you live far from family, what do you do?  Do you travel to visit?  If so, how often?

My children (Matthew, especially) are disappointed that we aren't going to any "new" states on this trip.  I hate to tell them, but I doubt we'll be visiting those last 3 states anytime soon.  If I could drive to Hawaii, maybe...

Angry Birds Invasion

I realize that these pictures are more than a month old now. But better late than never, right?

Joshua's 7th birthday was on June 30th and he was blessed with one glorious day of sunshine for his party. It had been raining on and off around his birthday, but the Saturday that we celebrated ended up being nice and warm. And when I say "party", I mean there was a cake. And when I say "celebrated", I mean that his friends came over. Because I am still the lamest mom ever and don't do the whole big party and gifts thing for my kids. Joshua is our little video game nerd and he requested an Angry Birds vs. Mario birthday cake. In the end, it was just an Angry Birds cake. This was only my second time using fondant and I greatly underestimated the amount of time it would take to make everything. Still, all of the kids loved the cake and even Nathan proclaimed his love for the "ankry bawds."
We filled up the inflatable pool in our front yard and invited all of the neighbors to come swim. Our new dog loves the water so she was jumping in with the kids. We put out the slip 'n slide so that the big boys could let their testosterone flow and show off their stunts. It was very, very entertaining!

It was a great birthday for Joshua and was even more special because Jason was here for it. Joshua is Jason's mini-me and has Jason's big heart. I love that kid.

In the end, this is what I found in our garage.
Scary.

Surviving Twins: The First Five Years

As we prepare to set off on our journey across this big country, we are also celebrating a few birthdays.

Leila and Sarah turn 5 this week. And with their fifth birthday, I'm reminded that we have also survived 5 years of parenting twins. (And nearly 3 years of parenting two sets of twins!)

When I was still pregnant with the girls, I could not even imagine what it would be like to have two babies at the same time. I heard horror stories about twins and "double trouble" and how we'd be lucky to survive the first year. I was so scared that something would go wrong that I didn't even buy two of anything until I was almost in labor. I wondered whether having four kids ages 3 and under would be the end of my sanity. (It was not. Having six kids ages 5 and under was.)

And once Leila and Sarah arrived on the scene, I was pleasantly surprised. Life was crazy, but it was crazy good. And manageable.

Holding two babies became second nature. Nursing two (or three, or four) started to feel normal. Diapers took over the laundry room. Toys took over the living room. And pink shoes, purple dresses, and princess crowns found their place among the toy cars and camouflage.

If nothing else, having twin girls has taught me patience. In fact, I suspect that just one girl would have brought a good dose of patience, but two was just what I needed.

We have weathered our share of crises over the last 5 years. Today Leila collapsed into a fit of tears over a seat on the swing in the backyard. Girls are so dramatic! The wrong color dress can bring on hysteria. The wrong sideways glance from an older brother is the end of the world. But, all in all, they are so much fun! And they really are the sweetest girls. They have the most amazing connection and they can barely keep their hands off of each other. They love each other in the most incredible, fascinating way.

Just the other day, we were discussing our trip and how we are going to visit Granddad With No Hair (my dad.) Leila said she can't wait to go see him but she does not want to go to the mountain house. I asked her why and she replied that Matthew would scare her with those "scary heads with hair sticking up." (AKA: the tiny, little Halloween toy shrunken heads that make creepy sounds and have glowing red eyes.) For some reason my dad has two of them at the mountain house and Matthew immediately discovered that the girls are terrified of them. He exploited their fears, chasing them around the house as the girls screamed, until I got them calm enough to tell me what in the world was wrong. My girls are emotional and sensitive. And so ridiculously cute!

Leila and Sarah will be spending their actual birthday in Colorado this week. This will be the first year they've not celebrated their birthday in Georgia, although we'll be arriving in Georgia very soon after. For now, we have already baked cakes, opened gifts, played dress up with friends, and partied hard in Washington.

Five years of being parents of multiples? It hardly seems possible. I'm looking forward to watching this sweet duo as they celebrate many more birthdays.

Cupcakes, Campers, and Chaos

Yesterday we celebrated Joshua's sixth birthday. It's hard to believe that six years have passed since I held my little baby boy (ok, he was never little since he was 11 lbs, 1 oz at birth, but still...) for the first time and we became a family of four.

Today, Joshua is definitely the most sensitive, compassionate, generous boy that I have ever met. He loves to please others and he loves to give. You couldn't ask for a better brother in this family of 6 siblings. Last night he shared his birthday ice cream with each of them and gave them more than he even ate himself. At six years old, that is love. Sharing your ice cream sundae? That's a big deal!
It was bittersweet to celebrate yet another birthday without Jason here. It was even harder when I hadn't heard from him in days and wasn't even sure he'd get to call Joshua to wish him a happy birthday. Eventually he did call but it was cut short and he never called back. I hate that. It is really just a painful reminder of Jason's absence.
Joshua had a great day and I managed to throw together a Toy Story cake and cupcakes at the last minute. His big birthday plans were ruined when we got a last-minute call to show our house. We ended up cleaning the house and rushing to get out before the realtor arrived. Joshua didn't mind too much though.

I, on the other hand, am really sick of the house not selling. It's mentally and physically exhausting to keep the house ready for showings and then do the quick clean-up and evacuate on a moment's notice. Part of me wants to light a match and laugh hysterically as the house burns to the ground. Part of me wants to try to minimize our losses and just do my best to sell it. And part of me wants to drive away and worry about it later because my husband is coming back and I just want to be with him.

I'm choosing the third option.
I've really been struggling lately to understand where God is taking me in all of this chaos. What is He trying teaching me? How is this all going to end?

I know that I'll never have the answers. But it's only human nature to wonder. I want to think I'm in control of my life... but I'm not.

Why did I end up back in Georgia?
Why is the house not selling?
Why am I suffering from a random attack of dizziness?
Where are we going to live when we get to Washington?

I have no answers.
I'm going to go ahead and just blindly step out in faith again. I did that when we moved back to Georgia and I was never sure that I was making the right choice until I got here. And now I know that God brought me back here for a reason.

So now I'm packing up and heading to Washington, trusting that God will find a family for our house and find a house for our family.

The logistics of this impending trip have my head spinning. The prospect of driving across the country with a camper and 6 kids is daunting. But I think I can do it.
On Tuesday I went to pick up our new (to us) camper. It's a travel trailer with plenty of beds and space for all of us. It's not huge, but somehow when I went to the dealership to pick it up it looked as though it had grown to twice the size it had been when I first decided to get it.

I am wondering how I'm going to drive and tow a camper my myself. How will I park it? I'm more than a bit intimidated. In fact, I was so intimidated that I left the camper at the dealership and told them I'd be back to pick it up later in the week.

Now I have to work up the courage to go get it... And I'm still nervous!
I've decided that I'm going to find the biggest, emptiest parking lot in town and practice parking and backing up with the trailer attached until I'm comfortable enough to bring it home.

We've got less than 4 weeks until we leave Georgia (again!) and I am going to have to get really brave, really fast!
Last night I took six kids to Red Robin for a birthday dinner. By myself.

Maybe I am getting brave?
I'm thrilled to report that we survived. The kids were really well-behaved and Joshua had a bast. Right when they brought him his birthday ice cream sundae, Leila & Sarah both had to go potty. And then it hit me. I am by myself with 6 young children in a crowded restaurant. How do I take two little girls to the potty?

(See what I mean? Sometimes I don't think things all the way through!)

Fortunately I had already cleaned up the kids and the table and everyone was ready to leave. Joshua shared his ice cream and it was gone quite quickly. I ushered the kids out of the restaurant and into the parking lot where Nathan promptly did a full face-plant in a 4-inch puddle of rain water. He was drenched! But in the end, the girls made it to the van and used the fabulous pink potty just in time and we all made it home safe and sound.

Now, if I can handle that I am hoping I can handle a monumental road trip across the country in a camper...

Wordless Wednesday

(turning 6 today...)

(Happy Birthday, Joshua! Six years ago you were the sweetest gift I could ever hope to receive.)

Keeping Me Humble

On Friday I had to get some lab work done (more on that in a minute) so I took the kids and went to hospital on post. The kids watched through the door as I had my blood taken and then we started to leave. On our way out the receptionist called me over. In a stern voice she said "Ma'am, come here please." This receptionist has worked there for years and she's never been the friendly type. In fact, I was sure she disliked children. I was scared to approach her desk for fear that she'd reprimand me for bring six young children into the lab.

Instead, the receptionist looked at me and without cracking a smile she asked "What is your secret?" I must have looked confused. She said, "Your children are the most well-behaved and quiet children that have ever come into this lab." I was afraid she was being sarcastic until she offered the kids a snack and pulled out her personal box of crackers and gave a pack to each child. I was still in disbelief but I politely thanked her and thanked the kids for being so good in the hospital.

I left the lab smiling and feeling grateful that Ms. Receptionist had never seen my children in my kitchen fighting over the last cookie or sucker punching each other over a stolen toy in my living room. Yes, they sure do know how to behave in public though!

I returned home and was enjoying my day, despite the constant spinning, until the babies woke up from their nap. In a span of 60 seconds, my phone rang, visitors arrived on our doorstep, and Nathan awoke from his nap covered in poop and diaperless. Suddenly, I was snapped back into reality.

And this is what keeps me humble...
See that? That brown substance smeared across my dress?

It's poop.

'Nuff said.
In addition to being Mother's Day, yesterday was also Jason's birthday. Since I couldn't bake him a cake or tease him in person, I settled for shipping him a cake. Yes, amazingly, you can ship a cake overseas to a war zone and it actually arrives fresh and edible!

Jason enjoyed his cake and I'm sure everybody laughed at the picture I had put on the top of it. It's a picture of Jason with his half dozen children. What could be funnier?
Jason is doing well and the countdown until his homecoming has begun. We're still counting months, but eventually we'll be counting weeks, then days. The end is in sight!

A few weeks ago an Iraqi brought Jason and his coworkers a gift. It's a sweet, little kitten! And the cutest part is that they (not Jason) named her Leila! My kids got a kick out of that.

Finally, thank you all for the input about my whole spinning fiasco. Yes, I'm still spinning. And to make things even more exciting I now have tingling and numbness in my hands, arms, legs, feet, neck, scalp, and spine, as well as tingling around my right eye. Today I started having electrical pulses traveling up and down my back and I headed back to the hospital. This is starting to get scary!

Another examination revealed little new information. My lab results showed no obvious clues. My thyroid is fine, no B12 deficiency, no anemia, no diabetes, and nothing out of the ordinary. My ears look fine and the doctor doesn't think I'm even suffering from vertigo because I have no nystagmus (pupils moving side to side) and no nausea or vomiting. He does not think it could be anxiety. He doesn't think it's a peripheral disorder and is pretty certain it's a central disorder, so he referred me to a neurologist. He told me that the symptoms may or may not go away and that a diagnosis make take weeks, or even months. In the meantime, his suggestions were to have family come and help me since I shouldn't be driving. Ha! I tried to explain my situation and request a rush on that neuro consult, but to no avail. They told me to call on Friday to see if I can schedule an appointment but it will be a few weeks before they'll see me.

I'm not sure what to think. I have no idea what's wrong and I just know that something is not right. Yesterday I briefly lost motor coordination and had no control over my hands because of the numbness. How could this not be urgent? How can a mother of 6 children just live like this for weeks? Ugh. I hate the system sometimes.

Tomorrow my mom will get the results of her biopsy. And then I have to remember to be humble. My problems are small potatoes compared to the possibility of breast cancer. I'll save my complaints for later.

Keeping me humble, see?

This Is How We Party!

I am a pretty lame mom when it comes to birthday parties. We don't do the whole party thing. It's just cake and presents and a special day with family. I always bake a special cake and let the birthday child pick what they'd like to do. Lately we've gone out to eat at Red Robin and had cake at home for dessert. It's totally low-key but I think that's good when you've got 6 kids ages 7 and under.

This year Daddy observed the festivities from his perch over the mantle. (He has startled several guests who don't know about Flat Daddy!)
I decided to let the girls open birthday presents before breakfast. 'Cause I'm cool like that.

Do you see Nathan trying to put the Tinkerbell crown on Ryan in this picture? So funny!
Leila and Sarah donned their Tinkerbell gear and fluttered around the house sprinkling us with imaginary pixie dust. It made me realize how much fun they are at this age. (I can't believe they are four!!!)

The fairies took a break to have their first pedicures. I had promised them that I'd paint their toenails for their birthday. So I did. And then Matthew cried and insisted I paint his too. I told him that most boys don't wear pink, sparkly polish on their toes. I think he just needs some more of my attention sometimes.
My cakes this year were definitely some of the worst ones I've made. I didn't have my cake pans or icing bags and so I had to wing it. I borrowed some things from a friend and threw together two ballerina cakes with hearts on top. It was pink and there were ballerina Barbies, so Leila and Sarah were totally ok with the final product.
And because Barbie kept falling over, I had to shove her legs down into the cake until she was knee-deep in icing. What could be better than licking sugary sweet icing off of your new Barbie? The girls were pleased.
We had friends over for cake and it was so much fun having 12 kids (all ages 7 and under!!!) in the house together. Amazingly, our kids play really well together and it doesn't feel any harder having a dozen kids than just having my own six. Interestingly enough, my fiends' children include 3 sweet foster children, the younger two being only 19 months and 8 months old. So with her 19-mo boy and my two 19-mo boys, we had virtual triplets! Then when you look at the ages and birth dates of the other kids, we had more virtual twins as well. It's so much fun to spend time with them!
Leila and Sarah had their hair styled by master stylist Matthew. He was so gentle as he brushed their hair and fixed it just right. Why can't they always be so kind to each other?

The party was so much fun! My mom even drove down to bring the rest of my boxes to me so she was here with us when we went out for dinner at Red Robin. Good times.
And now I have twenty cute, little pink toes running around in this house of testosterone. It's such a blessing having twin girls!

Now, if I can just survive another year...