Beautiful Baby Girls

I'm in Denver where - thankfully - Spanish teacher is recovering nicely. We visited the girls at the NICU today where I got to hold them and make goo-goo noises at them and generally make a total fool out of myself.

It was wonderful!

They are gaining weight, starting to nurse and doing a good job keeping their body temperatures up. Hopefully they will be able to come home soon where their big brother and sister are eager to get to know them better.

Thanks for all the prayers and get well vibes, everyone is on their way to getting healthy!

Grateful

Remember Spanish Teacher? I've written about her a couple of times. She's the sister I always wanted and the kind of friend that everyone should have.

She had twin girls last week. (Yay for surprise pregnancies and YAY for surprise twins!) The girls were seven weeks early, tiny, but are healthy and thriving in the NICU.

Not so much my friend. She developed pulmonary embolisms (blood clots in her lungs) because of being on bedrest and we came way too close to losing her. She's still struggling to recover from that as well as the c-section so on Thursday afternoon I'm flying down to Denver to help her husband Computer Whiz with their older two kids and the house-laundry-cleaning-cooking crap so she can concentrate on getting well and being Mommy to four now.

Please say a little prayer, cross your fingers, send good get-well vibes - whatever - to Spanish Teacher, two very tiny little girls, an exhausted husband and worried big brother and sister in Denver. They need it.

Super Genius

I have discovered that writing a resume is an exercise in extreme self-promotion with a dash of exaggeration thrown in. Here is a list of Things. I. Have. Done.

At least according to my resume.

Served

Managed

Coordinated

Increased

Participated

Developed

Maintained

Observed

Assisted

Tutored

Guided

Adapted

Taught

Integrated

Facilitated

Supervised

Presided

Conducted

Mediated

Delegated

Marketed

Promoted

Oversaw

Created

Whew, I'm exhausted just thinking about everything I've done over the past seventeen years.

Pass the beer.

Questions I Have for the Universe

Why do I need a resume to apply for grad school? Isn't there just a form I can fill out? For God's sake it's been SEVENTEEN YEARS since I made a resume. I can't remember half of the shit I've done in seventeen years let alone make it sound fabulous!

Why would a perfectly lovely girl make herself look ridiculous by wearing daisy dukes and Uggs? It was all I could do to keep from laughing out loud at the total stranger I saw wearing this getup in Costco today.

Why is it that whenever my pencil lead runs out in class, I never have the right size of refill lead in my bag? NEVER.

Why does my dog still have fur on her body when she has shed enough on the floor of our house to make another dog?

Why does someone always have to step in dog shit and track it in the house the day after the cleaners come? Would it be too hard to do it the day BEFORE instead?

Why does my whole family ask me where their stuff is when they can't find it?

Why do I always know where their stuff is? It's not MY stuff and yet its location is taking up valuable real estate in my brain - that's why I can't remember anything I've done for the past seventeen years! All those brain cells are keeping track of coats, shoes, clothes, medication and tools that don't even belong to me. Dammit. Can I erase those files?

Why am I cutting back on red wine again? I know there was a good reason but right now I can't quite think of it...

Gratuitous Cute Kid Pics

Here is Thing 2 playing with Sillyboy in the water trough...

And me with Princess A...

I miss the little rugrats!

Answering Machine Win

The Cousins Invade

We got the very best Christmas surprise ever - COUSINS! Army Cousin called me a week or so before Christmas because he was getting to bring his two beautiful kids to Washington to spend Christmas with his whole family and they were going to stay with us!!! Since daughter was off wrestling Sharks With Frickin' Lasers in Australia, we had one bedroom vacant; the Things offered to bunk together so another bedroom would be vacant and voila - instant Christmas chaos!

Princess A is six and Sillyboy is four - I had forgotten how much FUN little kids are to play with! I got to be a Tickle-monster and chase them all over the house (boy am I out of shape!), cuddle up at bedtime to read them stories and just hang out and get to know them better. I hadn't seen Princess A since she was nine months old and I had never met Sillyboy so their visit was truly a gift for all of us.

The added bonus was getting to hang out with one of my favorite cousins who - because of his penchant for flitting around the damn globe every six months rather than staying put like a normal person - I have not got much time to hang out with since we grew up. His Mom took care of Scientist Genius Brother and I a lot when we were little and we always had such a great time playing cops n' robbers, cowboys n' indians or just running all over the yard "shooting" each other and yelling our fool heads off. He is smart, funny, loving and a *wonderful* father to his kids and I'm so glad we got this time to spend together.

Here he is with his beautiful babies...

Princess A and Thing 2 really hit it off and spent hours playing Legos together. He told me just the other day that we need to send her some Legos for her birthday because she loves them so much.

Army Cousin and I took all the kids to the Seattle Science Center one day and the Things had a great time showing the kids all the cool stuff. They are so good with little kids and were a big help to us keeping track of them! (Another thing I forgot, how fast little kids can disappear from sight!)

Princess A and Thing 2 at the GIANT table and chairs. I thought this was hilarious!

This Christmas was so much fun for all of us. I couldn't have asked for a better gift than time with my family and all the giggles, hugs and love from Princess A and Sillyboy.

I hope they come back soon!