Monday, January 26, 2009

Not Me Monday

It's that time again . . .





Saturday we went to The Picture People to have the twins 3 month pictures made. Why I scheduled them for 1:20, I am not sure, but the store and the mall were packed. While we were waiting (with our double stroller, four kids, six outfits, three shopping bags & one bag of cookies), I DID NOT try very, very hard to hide the fact that I was laughing as Ken chased Kendall out of the store and down the mall. I kept expecting them to come back in any minute, but I kept waiting and waiting and they didn't come. By this time I was a little worried, but I did not chuckle really hard because that meant that Ken was still running after her through the mall. By the time they got back, I was not about to bust at the seams with laughter, because I knew that he was going to be furious and embarrassed. I think she made it about three or four stores before he was able to catch her.

Once we had the pictures taken (everybody did quite well even though the babies were getting hungry), I did not observe the following behaviors from my family: screaming - despite my best efforts to rock, bounce, stroll, carry, cover mouths, beg for them to "please, please" be quiet, scold and even bribe - from three of my four children, running with head thrown back in laughter as your dad/sister chases you, eating off the mall floor, scattering of every credit card/picture/library card/money/insurance card/receipts in my wallet, multiple phone "conversations" between Kendall and whoever she was calling and gallons and gallons of spit up from the twins that required the use of multiple burp cloths, napkins, and wipes. I did not witness any of these behaviors because my children would never act this way as it would be a poor reflection on their mother.

During the above mentioned time, Ken and I were not sitting on the floor against the wall trying to feed the babies, while at least ten people stopped dead in their tracks and stared. One little old lady just stared with her mouth wide open.

One of my 9th graders (that I thought I taught so well) did not give me this answer to a question about why the "Unsinkable" Titanic sank: "It hit the ICE BIRD"!!!! Yes, I am serious - that was his answer.

My husband did not sheepishly inform me that "it could be the regular Pepsi she drank at Target" when at 10:30 I pondered why Karlee was not asleep yet. I am not so sure what they do on their trips to the store to get groceries and other must-haves, but I can see I need to provide some stricter guidelines.

Again, I would never neglect my teaching duties for something more interesting, so last night I did not play on Facebook instead of grading paper and entering grades.

Hope you enjoyed - Have a great week!!!

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Not Me Monday

A little late, I know, but better late than never (or so they say)



This week . . .

We were not SO late for Sunday School because we just can't get it together in the morning with four kids, that we convinced ourselves that we were just REALLY early for worship service. The very first Sunday we went with all four kids, we made sure to be early but since then . . . yeah, not so much.

I did not get embarrassed by the three buggies/double strollers that we pushed/pulled through Wal-Mart on Saturday. On the same trip, I did not get three aisles past the cereal aisle before I realized that we were about to purchase 3 boxes of strawberry frosted mini-wheats and 2 canisters of Quaker oats. I assume that the pink of the cereal box is what appealed to Kendall, however I am not quite sure what caught her eye about the Quaker oatmeal man?????

I did not eat half the batch of "crunchy munch" the same day that I made it and I certainly didn't hide it in the pantry so the kids wouldn't ask for any. That stuff is just so darn good (for the record - golden grahams, peanuts, pretzels, M&Ms coated with white almond bark).

Sunday, January 18, 2009

Three-Ring Circus

For those of you lucky enough to be out and about in Athens today, you got to witness the three ring circus that is Clan Wells. For those of you who missed it, I will try to fill you in on what you missed. If you were at the mall or Wal-mart and you saw the crowds gawking, pointing and whispering, they were looking at us. We usually get stares when we go anywhere with the double stroller. I guess it is a little unusual to see that many small children, but most people just comment on how cute the babies are. Some people, however, are not above commenting on: 1) the size of the stroller 2) the fact that we have our hands full or 3) how busy we must be. Then there was the lady and her friend today that circled the parking lot TWICE to get a better look and then had the nerve to say something about the MINI-VAN!! Not all the kids, the stroller or even the twins - but the mini-van - because she was "never going to drive one of those". (Ken quickly informed her that sometimes you had to be practical and not worry about how you cool you looked - the look on her face was priceless.)
Anyway, back to the circus. We decided despite the bitter cold, we needed to get out of the house, so we all headed to the mall and Wal-mart. The mall was pretty uneventful - we only went to one store and Chick-fil-A for lunch. But Wal-mart was another story. First off, we had to get two buggies - we needed lots of big items like toilet paper, paper towels, kleenex, laundry detergent and diapers. So we had the double stroller, and TWO buggies. Ken pushed the stroller and pulled a buggy and I pushed the other one. It was quite entertaining since Wal-mart was pretty crowded and it was a little difficult to get three things up and down the aisles and turn the corners. We attracted attention everywhere and there was even a point where Ken took his full buggy to check out and I kept shopping with the girls so I had the stroller and pulled a buggy by myself - that was very entertaining. All the girls were really good - no meltdowns thank goodness - but we were quite a sight with all our groceries. Oh well, so is life with four small children.

Monday, January 12, 2009

Not Me Monday

Since nobody commented on Not Me Monday last week, I am going to attempt it again. Let me know what you think!!

This past week . . .

I did not have to change the sheets on my bed because I made a HUGE mess changing a dirty diaper. I did not end up giving Kourtney a bath because she was covered in the said mess from head to toe. I was not secretly excited that I bathed her with the "nighttime" wash that helps babies go to sleep and I did not say a little prayer that it would help her sleep until seven in the morning.

I did not attend a "Christmas" party on Friday night for Ken's office - it is January right? I was not SUPER excited about going because it was a bowling party and I love to bowl - so that means that I am certainly not a dork - and because there were going to be grown-ups there. I have not socialized with other adults since before June. And, I DID NOT laugh (really hard) when they told me Ken was bowling and he threw the ball backward. Nope, not me.

After finally hooking up the Wii, I did not fail to do my lesson plans for the week in favor of playing bowling (we already established that I like to bowl) with Ken. I also did not sit for at least 15 minutes trying to figure out how to play the Disney Princess game that Karlee got for Christmas. And I would never do that by myself!

Wanting a few minutes of quiet, I did not pretend that I had to go to the bathroom so I could read a few more pages in my book.

When Ken called me into the girls' bathroom last night for baths, I did not see Kendall eating the colored foam (really soap) that Karlee was calling ice cream. I also did not see her drinking the bath water because that would be really gross and a good mother would never let that happen.

And I know that I did not hear my 4-year old say "Awww Smack it!" when she spilled her snack the other day. I would never have laughed either!!

Thursday, January 8, 2009

Pink Christmas

I found this really cool, fun Christmas idea this summer (you know, while I was on bed rest and had nothing to do but play on the computer) called Pink Christmas. It is basically a Secret Santa program but instead of buying just any gift, you are supposed to make (or buy) original, handmade products. You pay a small fee - like $15 - most of which is donated to a needy family and then you get a person's name and some background info. Meanwhile, some one else is getting your name. Then you make your gift and mail it to the person so it arrives in time for Christmas. It was a lot of fun learning about my Pink Christmas girl, April, and trying to decide what to make for her and how to design it. I just saw a post on her blog today about my gift and she loved it!!! YEAH!! Be sure to check out her jewelry when you visit her site - it is amazingly beautiful (and she takes the most awesome pictures). My Pink Christmas gift was from Nancy and it was great - a pink and brown bag with little girls on it - one for Karlee, Kendall, Kourtney and Kamryn. She also sent a family decal for my car. I will post pictures as soon as I can get them . Be sure to check out Pink Christmas and consider doing it next year. The deadline is sometime in July.




Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Not Me Monday

I read this every week on a blog that I follow and it is a pretty funny idea. I know that it is not Monday but I am going to try to do this every week. Let me know what you think.



This is from the blog that I follow - my charming kids:
"Are you feeling ashamed for letting your child go to bed without brushing his teeth...again!? Did you eat a Snickers bar during a meeting without anyone knowing? Do you pretend that my Tweets are really urgent messages when you receive them on your cell phone? Are you feeling embarrassed that you kicked the dog? We'll don't be. Not Me! Monday was born out of a desire to admit some of our imperfections and reveal a few moments we'd rather forget. Why? Well, for one, because it's just plain fun to pretend that we really did not do the things that we actually so did do. "

So, here is my attempt:

This past week . . .
I did not forget that my child had school. I did not think that Karlee's school started on Tuesday, the same as mine and then realize I was mistaken around 7:30 Monday morning when I passed all the school buses on my way to work. Nope, not me.

I definitely did not change Kourtney's diaper on the back of the toilet at the new Mexican restaurant because despite the great service and fabulous food, they lack a baby changing station in the bathroom.

And, last but certainly not least, I did NOT watch Kendall eat not one, but two crayons in the car on our road trip. I did not wipe up the purple drool and clean the pieces out of her teeth only to find her eating an ORANGE crayon five minute later. And that did not happen 30 seconds after Ken asked me if she was eating them again and I answered "NO". NOT ME!!!


Monday, January 5, 2009

Quick Updates

I haven't blogged in forever and every time I started to I got so overwhelmed at how much I would have to go back and catch up on - I just decided to do nothing which made me even further behind. So here is my attempt to catch you up quickly on what has been happening since my last post.

The Twins: The twins are 11 weeks old, Kamryn weighs 11 pounds 12 1/2 ounces and Kourtney weighs 11 pounds 2 1/2 ounces, they are smiling and starting to coo and gurgle and last night they slept from 10:30 until 7:00 when we woke them up to eat

In the News: We have been in the new recently. December is TTTS month so we wanted to get the word out about TTTS and tell our story. We are working with an organization called the Fetal Hope Foundation to offer assistance and more importantly hope, to others by sharing Kourtney & Kamryn's Story. We also did an interview in Ken's hometown newspaper, The Jones County News that was featured in the Christmas issue. We also did an interview with The Athens Banner-Herald that ran the day after Christmas. Both were good articles - we wish the ABH had included more of our comments about our faith and prayer, but what do you expect from the ABH.

Road Trip: The Saturday after Christmas we left for an 8-day trip to see my grandmother in New Jersey. We drove over 1900 miles with stops at Mount Vernon, Washington D.C., CHOP in Philly, grandmother's house in NJ & Hershey's Chocolate World. Everybody was wonderful and we had a blast. My grandmother was thrilled to see the twins and to get to spend some time with the older girls as well.

Christmas: In the middle of all this we had Christmas. We went to candlelight Christmas Eve service with Ken's family and spent Christmas morning with them as well. Santa visited and brought way too many toys (for big kids too) including all kids of nursery stuff - cribs, swings, strollers, etc. for baby dolls, Scooby-Doo figures and the Mystery Machine, a Wii, a Cricut, high chairs, RC cars, all kinds of building things - blocks, Lincoln logs, Tinker Toys, K'nex, Lego's, tons of Barbie furniture, puzzles and clothes. We came back and had Christmas with my family on Christmas night where the girls got a trampoline and we got $$$ for our trip (and a bunch of other cool stuff). It was wild and KRAZY but we had a blast!!!!!

I think that covers most of it - if I missed something you want to know about just leave a comment and I will get back to you ASAP!!!

Back to School (except I forgot that Karlee had to go too!)

I went back to work today - the first time since May 23rd! I was actually looking forward to it in some ways. I will enjoy the interaction with adults, actually with anyone other than my family who is over 4 years old. I am working part-time (half-day from 8-12) as a science teacher at a local high school. I have taught at the school since 2001 so it is a job I am familiar with. I am nervous about a couple things - we have a new principal and I have been out of the classroom for five months. Things went really well considering I had to set-up my new room (it got switched over the break), meet with my collaborative teacher, get my books from the book room, make copies, figure out all the new "housekeeping" policies and procedures, find one more desk (I know - it doesn't seem like a big deal but you would be surprised), organize my desk, clean the gum off the desks, figure out how to accommodate a wheelchair and parapro, make seating charts, hunt down my cubes for an activity I am doing tomorrow, and of course visit with co-workers I haven't seen since May who all want to know "how things are going" and when I am going to blog again (this is for you Becky & Marlana). But believe it or not, I accomplished all of that in exactly four hours and picked up Karlee from school on time. Oh yeah - that is the funny part - see I forgot Karlee had school today. Actually, I guess I didn't "forget", I just got mixed up. I assumed that her school schedule was the same as mine and this would be a teacher planning day. But when I was leaving for work and passed several school buses, I started to wonder if she had school too. I called Ken and he finally found a copy of the school calendar and sure enough, her first day was today. So, Ken had to get her up and explain to her that she was not going to get to play with Mama Sandy and Shanna but instead would go to school - she took the news well and seemed fine - she normally doesn't do well with sudden changes in the schedule at the last minute - she likes to know ahead of time. Needless to say, everybody got to school on time and all was well. Tomorrow will be my real first day - that is when I will have students so we will see how it goes!!