true love

I wanted to get up at 5 this morning so I could get a head start on what plans to be a busy Monday but instead I awoke at 4 to Zach at the side of my bed telling me he puked...all over the bathroom floor. I rolled over, hit Rick on the shoulder and shared the news and like zombies we both rose. Rick cleaned, I tended to Zachy, and then grabbed a crying Lizzie. While all of this is going on JT stumbles from the couch and asks if he can take a bath. JT is on the couch because he spent all night puking including once in his bed and the most awesome moment of trying to get out of his bunk and instead hurling puke on the floor and our personal favorite in the lego bin. Of course all of this came after Lizzie puking all over me earlier in the evening while I was talking to my dad which was then followed by her code browning in the bathtub and her puking through two sets of sheets and her sister puking on me once. But all of this comes fun comes after Rick taking Lizzie to Urgent Care on Saturday night because she won't sleep; all she will do is scream and scream regardless of how you hold her, where you hold her so that has to mean an ear infection but two hours later it means that the Urgent Care people think Rick is crazy. And all of that comes after  what may have been the most hectic week of our lives between things I have going on at work, school events, and Rick's Top Secret project (which is more grueling than we imagined) and all of us having a cold. And let's not even talk about Christmas or the lack there of thus far at our house! And now I sit at 5 AM at my computer waiting for someone from IT to answer the phone and change my password.

But through all of the puking, crying, and sleeplessness Rick has made me laugh because there is really nothing else we can do at this moment but laugh. Things are shitty but this too will pass and on the other side there may be rainbows and unicorns or more shit but either way at least I know I have a friend that is willing to sift through legos to find the pieces that were puked on, take a baby to urgent care despite his exhaustion, and make me feel better with a little laughter.

And because we aren't nearly as cute here are the chickens at their last baseball game of 2012.

opossum, opossum

I am woefully behind on posts but I can't skip this story. I will try to do the quick version.

Thursday Night
I am home working. Kids are asleep and Rick is out doing whatever he does when I let him leave the house. While sitting on the couch I hear all sorts of crazy eating noises coming from the laundry room and I think "What a pig that little Cora cat is!" The loud eating goes on for a while and just when I am about to go see what she is doing in there I hear all sorts of commotion; trash can knocking over and something hitting the door that leads to the garage. I continue to work while Jet sleeps peacefully on the floor and Albert sleeps next to me. Then I hear a quiet little meow and I realize that Cora is out on the back deck. When I get up to let her in I go to the laundry room and see that there is no cat food left, the trash can is knocked over and there is cat litter everywhere and the door to the garage is open. My first thought is that there is a stray cat hiding in the garage but I can't see one anywhere.

Saturday Morning
So I told Rick my story and he of course thinks I am crazy. Rick heads out to the garage to do something and returns telling all of us to come out quietly. We follow directions and curled up in a box of last season baseball uniforms is a tiny little possum.
We called Mike and Alexa over and they helped remove our little friend (yes, I did ask if we could keep him) to a more opossum friendly location.

Halloween

Here are some photos from our Halloween adventures. JT went as some hazardous waste zombie, Zach is a secret agent/spy guy, Alexa is Annabeth (from Percy Jackson books) and the chickens are chickens.

woefully behind

So much has been going on from opossums eating cat food in the laundry room, JT turning 10 (hold shit that is a two-digit age), lots of baseball, and general chicken cuteness. I need to get you all caught up but for now I am trying to ensure we are ready for Halloween tonight and catch-up on work (a never ending tasks these days).

Here is some cuteness to hold you over until I can provide more. I am fairly certain they did this pose in my belly.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Lizzie

tales from the crib

making a commitment

long ago, in a galaxy far, far away rick and i had time on our hands, weighed about 20 lbs less, ran regularly, and completed the san antonio rock 'n roll marathon.

return to the present day, the start of baseball season and the re-gathering of my baseball mom friends at practice and a reminder from a friend that during spring season i promised to run a 1/2 marathon with her. i did what? does she not remember i was hormonal and lacked sleep? and apparently i not only signed myself up but also my friend lexy. and of course this friend had already scoped out a 1/2 in october.

so a couple weeks i dusted off my running shoes and took the girls out for a run/walk and then followed up with a text to lexy that there is no way i am running any sort of event in october but that i would find something for after november. so i found a race and i have made my friends pinky swear to do it with me. it is slow going but the girls and i are working on putting work aside for an hour during the day and getting in a routine. it also helps that lexy and i are keeping tabs on each other. i really am a codependent exerciser. i am not breaking any records just yet but it feels good to get started again.

so now it is public and hopefully that will keep me committed. now if only rick would join in!

watermelon and beans

first day of school

Hard to believe school is here already. It wasn't our normal summer but it was still good. I think all of us are ready to be back at school but I am sure by January I will have a different opinion.

We love each other and are excited to go school photo

 We can't believe we have to go to school photo.

No clue why we are up so early but we are starting with a fight over this rattle photo. 

For the record - Kat is on the left and Lizzie is on the right.

JT is officially a 4th grader and Zach a 2nd grader.

the houston zoo

Our visit to the zoo was quicker than normal for a few reasons.
1) it was ridiculously hot
2) every daycare, summer program, bible school was at the zoo
3) it started raining
4) it was now ridiculously hot and muggy

All-in-all it was a fun zoo and one of the firsts that we have been to that had so many babies. We saw a baby  in almost every exhibit including the snakes. I spent a lot of time at one particular monkey exhibit to after Rick noticed someone taking a free ride. I have over 20 shots but finally got the one below.

 Not sure how these two got in the zoo!

 Or any of these monkeys

seven is heaven

When I was little and we would go visit my (maternal) grandparents my grandpa would ask us our age and then say a rhyme about that age: eight is great, nine is fine..  And of course seven is heaven.

Zach complains about his birthday some days. He doesn't get to take treats to school, it is hard to  pull together a party because most of our buddies have headed out to escape the Texas heat.

This year was special though because his beloved Reds were playing the Houston Astros in Houston on his birthday. What are the chances? So despite it not being the beach vacation I yearn for we packed up (it is almost like a military maneuver these days) and headed to the Houston for a few days.

We had dinner with Rick's sister, spent a lot of time in the rooftop pool, and made a trip to the zoo. And of course we went to the game. The game was great fun as we spent the last of our life savings and got seats as close we could to the Reds dugout (11th row is what that means and since the Astros aren't that great, seat prices are). We went early so the boys could watch batting practice and get autographs. The ballpark was packed with Reds fans and had a dramatic comeback 8th inning for the Reds which included them bringing out their star closer (Aroldis Chapman - Zach got his autograph). Every pitch he made except one was 99 or higher with the fastest topping out at 102.

 If things weren't so hectic here, I would have time to contemplate Z turning 7. SEVEN! How can that be? I am getting old.

half of a year

Hard to believe the chickens are 6 months (or because I am so late with posting almost 7 months). Of course I have already misplaced the paperwork from the doctor's visit but the girls are close to 15 lbs and long. And  with this age comes movement. Both girls are combat crawling and this week they have discovered that there is more to the house than just the small patch of rug that we typically have them. This also means that they have discovered bookshelves and it is high time that I edit my bookshelves to remove items from the lower level. ugh! I feel too old to be doing this again!

So with all this movement and activity we have renamed the girls the Daughters of Destruction (DOD) as most days the house ends up looking like the first photo below. The top interests on their list: diapers especially if they are still packaged or nicely stacked in their bin, power cords, shoes, and paper. Lizzie especially liked the baskets of magazines that we keep under the coffee table. And even better was that the other day Rick and I both complimented each other on the fact that the baskets were finally removed along with the chorus of  "Lizzard stop eating magazines!" only to discover that it wasn't the parents who thought of that but JT and Zach who wisely moved (and even nicely stacked in a corner) the magazine baskets. Obviously removing torn up magazines from their sisters was interfering with their TV time.

They've also been eating like crazy and have yet to find a baby food they don't like or really any food. On several occasions I've had to fight a baby over dinner as they see any plate (or bowl) of food and immediately dive for it. They seem to take turns as to who eats the most but both are busy at it. 

And to keep life in perspective, the other day JT and I were talking about how this time last year we were en-route to Charleston for vacation, we were all adjusting to the news of twins and I had just scheduled my appointment to learn the sex of the twins. We didn't even know at this point that they were identical.  Crazy what a difference a year can do and how this entire experience has made me realize that there is so much I can't plan or rather that it is silly to try to plan too far in advance because life can change so quickly. 

And one last note, school starts in less than a month. How did that happen?

party of six

We have this thing going that you can read about on Rick's site. This thing meant that at 6 AM Rick walked in to the room while I was mid mental debate about getting out of bed and working and told me we needed a family photo.

I always want to do family photos. I secretly spend too much time looking at photography blogs and then I look at the prices and decide that the world will have live with the photos that I take. Apparently though when you have a thing going on, they want a photo that has the entire family.

So we all got dressed this morning (which made me mental note that working from home means I have nothing to wear that is appropriate for a family photo or anything beyond sitting in a chair and working), enlisted the help of our favorite teenager, and got a few decent photos.

the fourth

This house is busy and not busy all at the same time. We are constantly going and constantly not going. I am not sure how it is possible but I think 2 boys and 2 babies does that to you. Work has been insanely busy hence my long absence from blogging. I've taken to being a night-owl compared to my early bird past. I've managed to get through 2 seasons of an angsty teen-age drama because I stay up late working. It hasn't been ideal but it gets the job done.

So a few things that I've missed since work and life have been so insane. First off 12 years ago (and a few weeks) Rick and I got married. Not sure it has been at all what either of us imagined those 12 years ago but we both agreed to go for another year.

And this past 4th of July weekend marked another anniversary of sorts. It was this week last year that JT went with me to the ultrasound that has become a favorite tale of ours. Just 1 short year ago we learned that we were having twins. I just remember the panic when the tech said she couldn't do my ultrasound and then the mix of shock and fear when she said it was because we had twins. And of course we can't forget that I texted Rick and he thought I was pulling the greatest prank of all time. It has been a wild ride but we wouldn't trade the chickens in.

This 4th of July was much calmer and more relaxing although someone opted for one too many drinks and found herself wondering why anyone would put the 4th of July in the middle of a week. We spent the day with some friends and Rick's "Uncle" Gene who made a quick trip to see the Chickens.