The First Day of School

Well, I guess officially it is not the first day for the smaller 4, but here is the picture so humor me. We are off and running. After school, Caleb had soccer practice. I took all the paperwork for the 3 oldest to fill out. Too bad they just can't have a district wide database for all the emergency numbers, addresses, etc. And how many "Code of Conduct" books do we need exactly. The amount of paper that I threw away, wow. Oh, well - here is the picture.

Too bad I forgot to move the girl's toys out of the way, but you know what they look like.

Sitting Up and Getting Wet

Well, the girls are on their way to crawling. They are getting up on all fours and rocking back and forth and today we tried sitting. They actually did it. I have a feeling that they will be doing a lot of catching up in the next month or so. They go back to the pulmonologist this week to evaluate for Synagis again this year. Hopefully they will be able to get it, especially since they are in daycare now. Speaking of daycare, we are starting our 3rd week. Everyone is doing well, just slight runny noses and hopefully nothing more serious creeps up.



We have spent the last two saturdays with both of our parents putting together the playset that has been making our garage smell good for about the last 6 weeks. It looks great and it is DONE! I put the periscope and pirates ship wheel up tonight. We got the slide up just as a MAJOR thunderstorm rolled through last night. We were all running for cover, picking up tools and cardboard trash from the backyard.





Caleb was baptized last week. Daddy did it. It was wonderful. Many people came up to me and said that Rocky had made them cry. I am so proud of him! Here are some pictures of that.

RAIN

Well, it has been raining most of the day. It really hasn't mattered since I have been in class all day, but the evening is approaching and I was wanting to get out and go for a walk. I actually packed my exercise stuff - ready to walk. The gym in the hotel costs, and I may just fork it out. I really feel like I need to do something. There is a Clam Bake party tonight at the conference - hope they have Chicken (I don't eat clams). Rocky would be in heaven!

Forgot to tell you about the RATS I saw running from under the fence of Boston Commons onto the sidewalk to get pieces of food people had dropped. They were HUGE and really bold. They were like squirrls. Actually, they had probably eaten the squirrils and were moving on to bread crumbs. I couldn't believe how many of them there were! NASTY! I got pictures and I'll post later.

Live from Boston

Well, I made it to Boston. It was a good flight, too long, but nice. Quick trip to the hotel for more money than I was told - but, I'm not in Texas any more. Got to the room, unpacked, made room for the Fridge that I have to rent for my stay to keep the breastmilk so I can bring it home, get out the pump and realize that I have made the most horrible mistake - again! I have forgotten a most important piece of my pump, the same piece that I forgot when I left for camp this year. Too bad someone isn't coming from home tomorrow to bring it to me. I called mom, in tears and she looked into shipping the part. Just to get it here by Monday was going to be $150 or so. NOT worth it. So - head to the Concierge desk and ask the poor GUY there to try to find me somewhere to find a breast pump. Probably not his most weird request, but close to it I would gather. BINGO - in the cab, off to Target, buy a NEW pump and then head back to hotel. PUMP. This will go in my book as one of the TOP stupid mistakes I have made (and expensive, too!) I then took off on a long walk to Boston Commons. It was a brisk 25 minute walk there. I also visited the "Cheers" store. The weather is really nice here - NOT 107 degrees, but a nice 80 or so, and once the sun goes down, it is supposed to be inthe 50-60 degree range. Too bad I can't sleep outside. I brought the camera, but didn't bring the cord, so no pictures for now. Oh well, they are not that interesting anyway.

On a side note - We gave the girls Bananas yesterday. I was wondering if it would go down easier if it tasted better than rice cereal. It made no difference for Abby, but Isabelle is really getting the hang of it. They will probably be walking by the time I get home wednesday...

My sweet girls and other stuff

Well, the girls are growing so much. We go back to see the pulmonologist at the end of the month and will find out what the plan is for the winter. I am assuming that means another round of RSV shots. They are officially teething. They are VERY drooly and wet all the time. They might just eat their fingers for dinner soon. They put everything they can in their mouth. I got this cute picture last night. Abby has her arm around Izzy's neck. AWWWW
On other fronts, Josh and Emily are away at Pre-teen camp. I hope they are having a good time, and learning as well. Caleb really misses them. He is getting some good one-on-one time with the grandparents while they are gone, but he really misses them. I hope that they can appreciate that someday. Caleb really has a tender heart.

I will be travelling to Boston Saturday and returning on Wednesday for a Transplant Conference. I am going by myself, and will probably not have computer access for the entire time - yikes. I kidded about going and buying a laptop just for this trip, but that got poo-poo'd really fast. Too bad. Maybe they will have a business center that I can sneak in and keep somewhat up to date on everything. I hope the kids are easy on Rocky while I am gone. School is about to start. I think we are ready. I have been shoe shopping with the kids and only have Josh and Emily to finish up. I did the underwear shopping yesterday, without the kids. They will just be surprised. They probably won't even notice...Oh well. Off for laundry and to clean up...it never ends!

San Antonio

We just returned from our quick trip to San Antonio. Mema didn't want to go with us, so she packed up and was off to her sister's house in Garland for the week. We last spoke with her last night and she was having a blast. They were going through old pictures and reminiscing. She sounded wonderful. So, back to our trip. We left sunday morning and headed for the riverwalk. It was quite an experience traversing the riverwalk with two strollers. People just don't understand physics, you can't be in the same place as me or my stroller. SOMEONE has to move, and I'm not going to dump my child in the river so you don't have to walk in the dirt for a minute! People kept asking us if we had Quads or two sets of twins. In the side by side stroller, Matthew and Olivia were almost the same size. We had a yummy mexican food dinner on the river, saw the Alamo and then headed for the hotel. Sleeping arrangements in the hotel room were less than optimal. Olivia has never slept somewhere other than her bed, so needless to say, at 11:00, she is still up, bouncing off the walls. Finally, Sleep. We get up, eat breakfast in shifts so we didn't have to take the girls downstairs, and load up to head for Sea World. We had never been, and didn't know quite what to expect, but it was good - HOT - but good. It was amazing to me that there was NO wait for the roller coasters, we just walked on but if you wanted to walk around all day with wet underwear from the log ride, you had to wait 1 1/2 hours! CRAZY! There is a water park on the other side of the lake - go jump in the wave pool if you are hot! I totally didn't get that. Well, the kids surprised us. Josh and Emily rode the Great White multiple times, and all three rode the Steel Eel. They did great. We saw Shamu and cousins, dolphins and other marine life. The shows were great. We headed back to the hotel for swimming time. This time, I took Olivia into the bathroom, sat on the floor with her and wrestled her to sleep, singing all the time. Finally, after about 30 minutes of screaming and fighting, she gave it up. She slept very well between Josh and Emily. We took out two drawers from the dressers, lined them with blankets, and voila, baby beds! Fast forward to the second day of Sea World. We decided to go to the water park first, as it has a tendency to fill up and you can't get in later in the day. It was nice, but Matthew just couldn't cope with the fact we would stay in one pool for a short time and then head to another. We had to drag him out kicking and screaming so we changed clothes and left to go see the rest of the park again. More roller coasters, shows and REALLY expensive chicken finger kids meals. We closed down the park on the second day (well, they close at 8pm). We stopped by Chick Fil A and took dinner back to the hotel. I had booked another night, not wanting to leave the park at night and drive all dirty and stinky - and believe me - we were stinky. Even the girls were nasty! We got up, did some laundry, packed and then headed for home. We stopped at the Stagecoach Inn in Salado for lunch and then home to pick up the dog. Here are some pictures of the trip!















Julie

Why Hello, Officer

Tonight, right after dinner, the doorbell rings. I see through the front window that it is two police officers. I quickly run through my head why they would be at my door and can't come up with anything. They ask if everything is alright - it is - because someone has dialed 911 from our house. I quickly retrieve both phones - no dial tone. I check the bases to make sure all is ok, nothing. After about 5 minutes of quizzing each one of the children, I remember a phone from college that we have recently unearthed from the garage.

Turns out, one of the kids (that 8th child we have named "not me") has plugged it in upstairs and dialed 911. Well, we have Callnotes, where if you don't answer your phone, or if you are on the other line the answering service picks up. Turns out the police dispatcher had tried to call twice to check on us, and since there was no answer, sent out the police. I guess they saw all the children running around and felt sorry for us, certain that it was an accident and left. How embarrassing!