Um........I'm thinking they like hats.....

Jacob loves this hard hat.

John's improvised hat is a basket liner.

Let's talk soft palate.........

I realized just how boring I am when I was driving home from the dentist and I realized I was thinking about posting what happend. Not only am I verifiably dull, I'm like an old woman who wants to tell everyone about her ailing health or diabetes.

I didn't want to wait another couple of months to get my teeth cleaned at a new dental office so I kept my appointment at *the* dental office I wrote about a few days ago. Right when I checked in I was presented with movie tickets and it was apparent the whole office was out to flatter me and make me feel so special I forget all about looking for a new dentist. I wouldn't want to see my family go either if I owned a dental practice. We are a gold mine. We always keep our appointments, and they can count on at least one of us having a cavity at each visit. Anyway, everyone apologized to me for what happened and then had a compliment for me. It's always nice to be complimented, but did they really think I was stupid enough to think they were all complimenting me because today I was so glorious in my sweats and tennis shoes that they had to tell me how great and accomplished I am? "Angie, we were all talking, and we cannot believe how great you look for having 5 children". PUUUUUUUUUULEASE. And my Nike's are sooo cute!

Last time I was there the doctor noticed a bubble on my soft palate that she thought was just a blocked salavary gland. It's come and gone in the past 6 months, but this time the doctor wants the skin biopsied as it now looks like a raised lesion. So, I'm off to see the oral surgeon as I was told that snipping the skin from the soft palate is tricky. These were the doctors exact words. "I'm sure it's absolutely nothing to worry about. The chances of a young, healthy person having abnormal cells is (at this point I wanted to cover my ears and say LALALALALA because I knew what was coming) rare. I'd say you have less than a 1 percent chance there's cancer". Not the less than one percent, PLEASE! I'm getting superstitious about it. It'd be just my luck to have cancer in my soft palate. I mean, I haven't heard of anyone else having that before!

They've moved on....

They won't sit in their high chairs anymore to eat, yet they won't give up their bottles. If only they knew that big boys don't drink out of baby bottles.....

Some of the more interesting things my kids have said or done recently......

Garrett saw this picture and said, "mom, were you really trying to eat me for dinner?"

Here's my favorite. The conversation went something like this:
"Grace, what did you have for lunch today?"
Grace: "um...I don't remember"
Emma: "do you know what I do when I can't remember what I had for lunch?"
Grace: "what?"
Emma: "I put my tongue on my big back teeth and then I can taste what I had for lunch and then I remember".
WHAT????????

John walked straight up to a baby wearing a pink shirt with a blue heart, pointed at the blue heart and said blue. He knows the color blue?

I went to Curriculum night for the girls and read that Grace "has a passion for horses". She does? Since when? I also read that the most important thing I need to know about her is that "she loves her family". Did you just hear the sound of my heart swelling?

Jeff said, "Grace. How many boys have a crush on you this year?"
Grace says, "Just blank and blank (I can't remember their names)".
I said, "How do you know they have a crush on you?"
Grace says, "they make up weird things to say so that they can talk to me like, 'look, Grace, that tree is pink'".

Oops....must run but will add more later.....

Angry Mama Here.....

Here's my vent:

I took my three older kids to the dentist today. I've really liked the office up until now because they usually try to help me with getting all the kids in with the least amount of hassle. Usually, I park right in front and then send one child in at a time and they motion to me when it's time for the next child and then I send the others in until everyone is done. Today I had to take the twins in with me (rather than staying in the car) because one of the kids had a cavity and the dentist needed to talk to me. The twins were being really good, so I ended up staying in the waiting room. Now, the waiting room services both the dentist and a physical therapy office, and is owned by a husband/wife pair. The wife is the dentist, the husband the physical therapist. Someone from the physical therapy office came over and said to me with a fake smile on her face, "can we use our indoor voices, please?" HUH? Indoor voices? These are our indoor voices. Garrett was talking in his 3 year old voice which is a little higher pitched than say a 5 year olds, but he certainly wasn't being loud, and neither were the twins. I was SO upset. How dare she? So, I told them to cancel the appointments that had been made for 6 months from now because I needed to find a family friendly office. I explained that if I couldn't even sit in the waiting room for 45 minutes without being asked to be quiet then it wasn't the office for me. They called and apologized when I got home, and I know that it was someone from the physical therapy office and not the dental office who said something to me, but I'm still mad. Wouldn't you be?

The Park

A friend of mine just gave me these pictures taken of my kids at the park this past July. Thanks, Bev. I'm especially grateful for these shots since I never take pictures of my children at play outside our yard. Too many charges, too little hands. Having a few more arms would be handy.

Books

"A room without books is like a body without a soul"-Cicero With the exception of bathrooms, every room in my house has books. I LOVE books. If I had to purchase every book I devoured, I don't even want to think about what my house would look like. My blogger friend Jojo just posted about books and writing and the blend of the two. It made me think about my love of books and when that passion started. I don't remember learning to read, but I do remember being praised for being an adept reader in the first grade. I know that at that time I wasn't sold on reading. I distinctly recall being sent home with a book full of stories and at the time I knew that this was special. These were the days when homework was NOT given in the first grade and this book was harder than anything we read in class. I was supposed to read the whole book which was comprised of different stories and when I was done bring the book back. What? Read during my play time? I don't think so. I liked being read to. The Old Hag's Long Leather Bag was my Favorite. So, I kept the book for awhile, read the first and last stories, looked through the rest and gave the book back to the teacher. It hadn't occured to me that she might ask me questions about the stories. Yikes. The first thing she asked me was whether or not I had read the whole book. A clear choice was before me. Tell the truth, and risk being sent home with the book again, or lie. I lied and hoped I wouldn't get caught. See, it still weighs on me that I made a poor choice. She opened the book, picked the first story and asked me what it was about. Whew. I'd read that one. She flipped to the last story. I had read this one too. Check. Then she flipped to the middle. Uh oh. So I made something up. And she bought it. And that was the first time that I realized that teachers didn't know everything. Powerful knowledge for a 6 or 7 year old. I still didn't love to read, but I did love being able to read better than everyone else. By second grade I knew I was a top reader, by fourth grade I remember enjoying silent reading time, and by fifth grade I was hooked. I loved reading. All the time. I'd ride my bike to the public library and snatch just about anything off the shelves. Most of it was junk. I distinctly remember reading these "Sweet Valley High" books about identical twin girls who had very different personalities. I'm not proud of the fact that I was good at picking out junk even then, but I have to thank the author for the part her books played in making reading a passion. I remember my summers of reading the best. I couldn't wait for time during the day in which I could "hide" and read. On my bed, outside in the sun, in my tent on vacation........it was all the same. When I could crack open a book I could escape my world and enter another. Seconds, minutes, hours would pass and I wouldn't notice. When I'd have to stop reading I was thinking about when I could steal more time to finish. Books truely got me through my adolescence. I'll be forever thankful to those that write......that have provided me with words to ponder or just enjoy. Maybe I'll try to be one of those writers I admire someday. For today, I'll settle for my little blog.....and enjoy getting inspiration from others.

If you were a fly on the wall

this is what you would have heard in the last 10 minutes at my house:

"clink, clink, clink"......or something like that. That's the sound of about 50 DVD's being taken from their case and thrown on the floor.

Garrett: "I didn't do it, the twinnies did".
Then he smiles because he knows I know he's lying. The three were in kahoots.
"Am I going to get a bare butt spanking?" (this is the ultimate irony since he's never in his life had a bare butt spanking).
Me: "If you ever do that again you will".

About 30 seconds later:
Garrett: "MOM! the twinnies pulled the head off of the Polly Pocket doll".

The sound of a recorder being played. EKK.....

Loud crying. "He BITE, he bite".

2 minutes later:
"mom, the twinnies are in the wipes".

See, there's always something exciting going on at my house.

Oh wait, there is the sound of all three boys crying. Let's investigate.

The Pug Stroll and Eyes Revisited

On my way to see the surgeon who did my eyes I actually saw a woman with her dogs out for a walk. Not on leashes, in a stroller. Yes, you read that correctly. A woman with a twin stroller with her pugs lounging on the seats.

And on to the eye subject which I promised I wouldn't revisit, but will......still stable. The epithilial cells in my left eye have not moved up under the flap but he still wants to keep an eye on them for the next 6 months. And the reason he spent so much time looking at my right eye two weeks ago? That flap shifted too.....let me say this again......ARE YOU KIDDING ME?

The Name Game

Here's a fun one I stole from my cousin Kristen's blog:

1. YOUR ROCK STAR NAME: (first pet,current car) Itsy Honda
2.YOUR GANGSTA NAME: (fave ice cream flavor, favorite cookie), Double Fudge Oatmeal
3. YOUR “FLY Guy/Girl” NAME: (first initial of first name, first three letters of your last name): alee.........this is also my user name on monoamniotic.org, a support site for parents of monoamniotic twins where I moderate. Most people think my name is Allie as a result. And all this time I never knew it was actually my Fly girl name!
4. YOUR DETECTIVE NAME: (favorite color, favorite animal), Brown dog
5. YOUR SOAP OPERA NAME: (middle name, city where you were born), this could be interesting......I don't have a middle name, and my birth certificate cites a town name, but technically, I was born on the side of the road in the middle of no where; central Utah.
6. YOUR STAR WARS NAME: (the first 3 letters of your last name, first 2 letters of your first), Lee-an.
7.SUPERHERO NAME: (”The” + 2nd favorite color, favorite drink),The White Water.
8. NASCAR NAME: (the first names of your grandfathers), Bruce Eugene
9. STRIPPER NAME: ( the name of your favorite perfume/cologne/scent, favorite candy), Issey Miyake Licorice.
10.WITNESS PROTECTION NAME: (mother’s & father’s middle names ), my mom didn't have a middle name, my dad's middle name is Scott. I guess it could just be Scott. Like Prince. But somehow that doesn't quite work.
11. TV WEATHER ANCHOR NAME: (Your 5th grade teacher’s last name, a major city that starts with the same letter), Beidleman Baltimore
12. SPY NAME/BOND GIRL: (your favorite season/holiday, flower). Autumn Peony
13. CARTOON NAME: (favorite fruit, article of clothing you’re wearing right now + “ie” or “y”) Strawberry shirty
14. HIPPY NAME: (What you ate for breakfast, your favorite tree), Shake maple
15. YOUR ROCKSTAR TOUR NAME: (”The” + Your fave hobby/craft, fave weather element + “Tour”), The Bloggin' Sunshine Tour.

Anyone else have any good ones?

I can't get enough

Tim Gunn, I challenge you..........

no, I entreat you........make me look fabulous. Fly me to New York, teach me how to shop, introduce me to a real designer and buy me a new wardrobe. I don't even need any extras.......well a day at the spa would be nice too. I'm not picky. If Rebecca needed a wardrobe makeover, then you could do wonders with me. I challenge you to help me find an alternative to jeans or sweats and T-shirts that I can run errands in, clean in, get pooped and barfed on, won't show a little errant snot from two babies, and still look stylish and put together. I know you're up for a challenge. Show the world how real people with real kids look and feel spectacular while doing what they do. Oh, one last thing...... I wouldn't mind a free nanny so that Jeff and I can go out to art exhibits and restaurants and oh, yah, vacation so that I can show off my clothes. Hope to hear from you soon!

Vanished days

Just a thought......

The mind's capability to process information, even a little bit of information almost literally blows my mind. Some days I can look out at my world and it looks totally different from the world I knew even a day before. Weather can change my perception, travelling to a different location, or life events color my enviroment a different hue. It amazes me that I can see with my eyes these changes and move right along as if something somewhere hadn't just vanished and the change didn't happen. I wish my memories were more vibrant. I wish I could take back moments of days that disappeared. I wish that I was better at recognizing significant events when they happened so that I could live them more fully before the moment was gone. Sometimes I wish my brain wasn't so adapatable that I can go with the flow and only in retrospect recognize that something really remarkable happened on a day that is no longer.

150th post and I'm it!

I decided for my big 150th post I'd do something different. So, here goes 15 Random tidbits about me. I've been tagged, and I'm it. Keep reading though, because you may be next!

1. I always fall into random 1-5% percent categories. Monoamniotic pregnancies only occur in 1% of twins, red hair occurs in 1% of the population, the werid Lasik stuff that has happened with my eyes happens in about 1% of corrective eye surgery patients, Garrett had a 2 vessel umbilical cord (most babies have 3 vessel cords-2 arteries and 1 vein) which happens in 1% of pregnancies, 2 to 5% of caucasians are carriers of the CFTR gene mutation (having one normal and one abnormal gene) but have no overt clinical signs of disease. That's me!

2. Some of my best writing is done in the very early morning when I wake up with thoughts and then let my fingers fly over the keyboard.

3. If you want to make me lose it in two seconds or less, while I'm looking for a missing item, ask me where I lost it.

4. I've met: Hulk hogan, Henry Winkler, Billy Idol,Cassandra Peterson Elvira, Steven Williams (police cheif on 21 Jump Street), Richard Grieco (21 Jump Street), Chris Penn, Michelle Phillips, Angie Everhart, and Chad Allen. Now if you actually remember all of these people, then I'm really impressed.

5. I was really health conscious in High School. Everyday for my Freshman and Sophmore year I had a cactus cooler and a package of lemon flavored Grandma's Cookies for "nutrition", the 10 minute break between 2nd and 3rd period.



6. I consider the summer of 1985 my summer of terror. We were living in Southern CA and Richard Rameriz/The Night Stalker was on the loose. I was PETRIFIED he'd break into our house and kill us. I'd follow my dad around the house each night making sure he shut and locked each window and door. Never mind we didn't have air condiditoning and we didn't sleep because it was so hot, and we were so scared........it didn't help matters that a few weeks before the newspapers were publishing sketches of the suspect we (siblings) were sleeping on our trampoline in the front yard and awoke to flash light beams in our faces and police men asking us first if we had seen a man with dark curly hair and then telling us to go inside right away. Have you made the connection yet?

7. At the end of my senior year of high school I was invited to an "Awards Breakfast" to honor those that had earned special awards and/or scholarships. I thought it must be a mistake because although I had been in honors classes, I dropped down to "regular" courses once I figured out I had to pay for my college tuition and I decided I'd start at a community college. So, I sat through this long breakfast as they called up one after another all the "smart" kids in my class and my name wasn't called, and wasn't called. I started panicking because I thought someone would ask me why I was invited if I didn't earn an award. Then, finally, the last award of the morning was presented. One of 6 or 8 "Tartan Medallions" for the best student in each subject. I earned the Medallion for Home Economics-the teachers voted me most likely to start a new race under one roof. Just kidding. It was for business.

8. I was so freaked out when I saw this 3-D ultrasound picture that I didn't show anyone for a whole day. When I did finally reveal the picture to a select few I had prepared myself to give birth to not one but two boys with bulbous, disproportionately large noses. It just didn't seem fair that they'd survive a monoamniotic pregnancy and then have to go through life with a HUGE nose. I mean, I'd never even see a baby with a big nose in my life. The conversation with the doctor went something like this:

Dr. Curran, "here's a great picture of baby A's face".

I look at the picture, take a double take, and then look at it again. I think to myself, "is that nose for real?"

I'm not brave enough to ask the doctor yet.

Finally, I summon the courage. "Uh, Dr. Curran?"

"is his nose really this large?"

The doctor looks at the picture. "yes, pretty much".

"And since they are identical, his brother's nose looks the same way?"

Dr. Curran: "that's correct".

9. Grace and I took a "scholarship" art course at the Worcester Art Museum when we were living in Massachusetts. I am almost afraid of attempting anything artistic, so this was a stretch for me, but so much fun. Each session we did an art project together with a different medium for half of the class, and the other half of the class was spent in a mini museum exhibit lecture.

10. Whenever I see pictures like this one of my youngest babies I get teary eyed. We've come a long way, baby!

11. Every once in awhile when I'm eating chicken (which I love) it pops into my consciousness that I am eating a feathered, stinky bird. I don't even let my kids pick up bird feathers (because of disease), yet here I am eating a bird. I get a little sick to my stomach and then resume eating. AND, I was 30 before I found out why some eggs are brown and some are white.

12. Someone was once offered $10,000 to not marry me!

13. When I was 5 or 6 I did some modelling. This is a snap shot from a shoot for a exercise/spa type fitness center catalog (the other little girl is my sister), but my favorite was for a toy company called V.I.P. toys. They made wooden toys and I loved going shopping and seeing my picture on the toy boxes......doing what, you might ask? Playing with their toys!

14. Apparently one of my greatest and most obscure talents is that I am able to balance a spoon on my nose.

15. I wrote an article about my twins that a publication actually paid for and is slated to be published in April of 2008. If it doesn't meet the chopping block I'll let you all know.

OK, my blogger friends, you're next. This is how it works......if you see your name below you're supposed to post 8 random facts (I did 15 because, well, it's my 150th post!)on your blog and then tag others if you feel so inclined. If your name is not listed it's because we visit the same blogs and I know you've already been tagged.

Taggee's: Laurie, Kirsten, Kristen, Brooke, Casey, Shannon, Arizona, Hi my name is mommy, Debra, Stacy

Shhhhhhh, don't tell.........

but I'm the master mind behind a massive tad pole genocide. I guess technically "genocide" refers to humans, not creatures, but I'm the director behind the death of hundreds of tad poles. I don't feel even an ounce of guilt. Jeff drained and cleaned our pond because I asked really nicely (really I did) and you cannot believe the stink, the mess, the absolutely disgusting bacterial plethora that was there. But, now we know about how many gallons the pond is, we know the shape and depth of the pond, and we can see the bottom! The best part? Jeff also replaced the pumps and now our water flows down the rocks from the top like it is supposed to.

My big 150th post is NEXT!

First Day of School

Where did the summer go? Is it really September? Grace and Emma started school yesterday. First day of Kindergarten for Emma and she didn't even look back. I'm so happy that they both had a great day to kick off the new year.

My big girl heading to the bus....

Second grade? Gulp..........

Golden statues?

Who could resist? (Notice the dirty camera lense?)

Funny Faces

CAUTION: Crazy pictures alert:
Why is it that kids (or is it just my kids?) LOVE to make faces at the camera? Here are their funny faces......

John
Jacob

Garrett

Emma

Grace

all together, now!

Oregon Coast Aquarium

The Oregon Coast Aquarium is fantastic. We really enjoyed ourselves, and the displays were spectacular. Clean glass, clear water, great specimans. Enough to see and do to make it worth the money, yet not too much information as to be overwhelming. We found it to be very engaging and really a great time for the whole family. I'd rate it as a definite "score".
This is inside a glass enclosed walkway with fish, sharks, bat rays, etc. all swimming around and above us.

Jeff and Emma

A sea urchin "hugging" Grace's finger. This was by far Grace's favorite exhibit. A hands on display where children and adults can touch sea stars, sea urchins, sea cucumbers, a variety of other "things" and even an occasional fish if you're fast enough.

Garrett touching a sea cucumber.

Starting a new race?

I thought I'd heard them all. All the funny, not so funny and just plain assinine comments people make about our family. This weekend I realized I hadn't heard them all. Someone asked Jeff and me if we were trying to start our own race. Not as in a team relay, but as in a new race, like group of people. A new ethnicity. So it made me think. If we were a whole new race of people, what would we be characterized by? I'm going to have to think on this one!

Otter Rock Beach

Remember that vacation I was dreaming about a few weeks ago? DONE. And it was wonderful. Oregon's coast is pretty spectacular. The beaches are great, although this is not the place to sunbathe. Bring your sweatshirt, camera and be prepared for some walking. You won't be disappointed!

Otter Rock Beach

Ahhhhh......my family. Do you hear the affection I have for them in that sigh?

So apropos. The twins going one way, the other kids going another.

Walking down to the beach after a swim in the hotel pool.


Our hotel is the building you see here.