The Pruetz Family

You're Gonna Need to Pee First

2009-06-05T15:43:00.003-05:00

Do you even remotely have to go to the bathroom? If you do, you'll need to take care of that before you watch the video.

Done? Did you flush and wash your hands? Okay...

I was introduced to this video a few days ago and have watched it ad naseum ever since. It never ceases to make me roar with laughter.

Even if you don't remember the video for the song, "Total Eclipse of the Heart," you'll still find this to be hysterical.

Enjoy!

It's Been a Rough Few Weeks

2009-06-02T14:05:00.002-05:00

I swear, I have had plans to make sure I update my blog regularly. And I continue to intend to do so. But we've had a few curve balls thrown at us lately that have kept me away.

I'll try to explain.

On Tuesday, May 19, my little devils-in-disguise turned three years old. It was a school day, so we left the house early to hit Krispy Kreme as a special treat for their class.

We had a great day at school and that night was their favorite dinner -- enchiladas! We opened gifts that night and both girls got new bathing suits, new cover ups and a slew of hair doodles and bows. It was a lot of fun and both girls felt duly celebrated.

On Friday night, my parents came into town for more festivities. That Saturday morning was sports galore, as Dad and Jean spent their time between Devin's soccer game, niece Presley's soccer game, nephew Brendan's t-ball game and niece Addison's swim meet. Somehow, during all of this, Todd managed to disassemble both cribs and arrange the girls's room as official "big girl" abodes.

That afternoon was a rockin' celebration at Chuck E. Cheese. Devin had his third birthday party there, as have nearly all of my sister's kids, so it was a pretty easy fit.

The girls had a blast, although the larger-than-life-size Chuck E. was a little more than they wanted to deal with. They were fine keeping the rat at a distance.

After the party was church and then further celebrations at our home.

This is where it got ugly.

As you may remember, less than two years ago, the Pruetz family gained a new member -- Welsh Corgi named Zoe.

Well, Zoe has been a huge part of our family now for two years. She's loyal, sweet, outgoing, good on leash, excellent with the kids and totally obedient. We just knew she'd be ours for years and years to come.

Well, that all changed the night of the twins' birthday party.

The whole family was over here -- the five Pruetzes, Dad, Jean, ZZ, Brian and their four kids. When we're all together, we are a force to be reckoned with.

The kids were all outside playing in the nice, cool weather and Zoe was her usual, silly self, chasing after the swings on the swingset or roughing it up with one of her chew toys.

All of the adults were inside, and Todd just happened to look out the window.

"What's wrong with Zoe?" he asked. I told him probably nothing, but then noticed myself that she was hunched over and throwing up. We figured she'd probably gotten a hold of a bug or something and just brushed it off.

But moments later, we realized that she was really struggling. By the time Todd got out to her, she had collapsed. She died in a matter of minutes.

We're not sure what happened...was it heat stroke? Shock from a bug bite? Was she poisoned? We weren't willing to spend the money on an autopsy, so we may never know.

Needless to say, for this animal-loving family, it's been a hard week-and-a-half. Even the girls intermittently ask, "Where Zoe?" Devin misses her tremendously and when he got to make a wish book in his Kindergarten class, his only wish was "To have Zoe back."

That just about broke my heart.

We're muddling through. In perspective, I'd rather lose a dog than a child, but she was still a very dear and loved part of our family. We just really thought we had so many more years with her. It's hard to let go of that.

But we're moving on and continuing with life as usual. We finished up Devin's soccer season last night (Todd was his coach and loved it as much as Devin did!) and are gearing up for the last day of school this Thursday. It's just so hard to believe that my little guy will be a first grader in only a few days.

And then I think to myself, "What am I going to do with these kids all summer???" Thank goodness we have a fantastic neighborhood pool...otherwise, I'd be pulling my hair out by the end of week one.

And Finally

Now that the girls are finally speaking in sentences, I realized that Devin's Doozies aren't really going to cut it anymore. I'm going to need Gracie's Gaffs and Faith's Foibles. This outta get good. Maybe I should start a whole new blog just for this sort of stuff.

So, without further ado, here is my first of what I am sure will be a long list of sill things.

(Picture this, the girls are in their rooms, which are next to one another. I can't see this exchange, but I can hear it from the living room).

Faith (whispering): Gracie?
Grace (whispering back): Faif?
Faith (whispering a little louder): Faif here.
Grace (now in a totally loud voice): Faif...I love you.

Gratuitous Mother's Day Post

2009-05-11T19:44:00.005-05:00

As a mom, it's my duty to document all of my Mother's Day activities and top the post off with a zillion photos of my kids. And so, I'm going to do just that.

I got to sleep in yesterday, and was awoken around 9:00 by Todd who said, "Breakfast is waiting!" I went into the kitchen to find my favorite breakfast waiting for me -- Eggs Benedict with lump crab meat and Mimosas. YUM!

All five of us ate breakfast (yes! My kids eat Hollandaise sauce!) together and then hung around in our jammies, watching movies and playing.

Around 11:00, we packed up our cooler with lots of goodies and headed to our neighborhood pool. At first, there weren't many people there, but as the afternoon moved forward, more and more friends began to show up. Our across-the-street neighbors, our next-door neighbors, the neighbors behind us, the ones up the street. Pretty soon it was a party atmosphere, with the kids splashing around, the dads doing cannonballs and the moms enjoying some yummy peach and mango bellinis. It was paradise!

We all became hungry and realized it was pretty late, but instead of packing it in, we just ordered pizza to the pool! It was delivered and we all feasted on a Texas tradition, Double Dave's Pizza. Yum!

By the time we'd eaten, had let it settle and had taken a final dip in the pool, it was 6:00! We'd been there for SEVEN HOURS! Holy cow!

We brought three very tired kiddos home and they all fell asleep within minutes and slept a good 12 or 13 hours each. They were exhausted and so were we!

It was a fantastic mother's day, with much to celebrate. I am honored to be a mommy to this incredible family.

And now, without further ado...here are the pictures of my kids that we had taken a few weeks ago. Major Pruetz-kid overload!

Faith is in pink, Grace is in Green

Pretending to like one another :)

This one would have worked better if they had been dressed in the same colors...but you get the picture (pun not intended)

My little boy is getting so big

My three part-time angels

Love these kiddos

Happy Mother's Day from Who?

2009-05-05T21:43:00.003-05:00

I just got what may be the most ridiculous email subject line I've ever seen (save only the spam mail I get every once in a while, offering me a way to enhance my male genitalia). Get ready for it...

Happy Mother's Day from Chuck E. Cheese

Are they kidding? Unless the email said, "Bring your kids in and we'll feed them and entertain them for free while you go home and catch up on some sleep," (and I imagine that such an email would hardly be considered a sound marketing idea) I don't think there is anything that would make me want to celebrate Mother's Day at Chuck E. Cheese.

I didn't even open the email. I checked it off and hit "Delete."

Worst. Idea. Ever.

Devin's Doozie

2009-05-03T16:37:00.002-05:00

This afternoon our church held a reception for our priest who is retiring from the priesthood after 22 years at our parish alone (that doesn't include all of the years he spent at other parishes). He founded our church in 1987 and has been the only priest Holy Trinity Catholic Church has ever known. To say his retirement is a big deal would be an understatement.

The reception today was a nice, classy affair with white linen table cloths, catering and professional decorating. It was held in our banquet hall, which can comfortably hold around a thousand people. The reception went on for three hours, in an open-house style.

Anyway, we got to the church shortly after the reception began. We signed our names to the guest book and then waited in line for 45 minutes to speak to Monsignor Fater. As we were getting close to the front of the line, I told Devin, "I want you to shake Monsignor's hand and tell him, 'Congratulations,' okay?"

Devin turned to me and said, "Okay, but I need to wash my hands. I've been picking my nose!"

You're NEVER Going to Guess What Happened...

2009-04-30T17:20:00.002-05:00

So it's been six months since my last post and I doubt you'll believe it when I tell you what happened to me.

Well it seems that our Wi-Fi connection is somehow connected to a distant planet named Xargon. Apparently, when I hit "Publish Post" after my last entry, a signal was beamed to Xargon and moments later their space ship arrived on my front lawn. Todd and I invited the little green men into our kitchen where we had a couple of beers and discussed intergalactic politics.

It turned ugly, though, when the aliens started asking Todd to please come with them back to Xargon for a few months, as a sort of foreign exchange program. Todd argued that he was just too busy to leave earth for that kind of time, but I volunteered to go after I found out that it would take six weeks alone to get to the distant planet. I figured, "Finally! A chance to catch up on some sleep!"

I've been sworn to secrecy about my trip to Xargon, but let's just say I'm a better person for the experience. My long distance bills are outrageous now, though, and T-Mobile has yet to establish coverage 60 million light years from Earth. When will they ever catch up?

So I'm back on Earth now and back to blogging. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

So I'll give you a recap of what went on when I was away.

1. Devin has successfully come through his Kindergarten year and will be classified as a first grader in only a couple of weeks. Where the heck did this year go??? He's playing soccer this season and Todd is his coach. So far, it's a lot of fun.

2. The twins are potty trained (mostly) and are working on life outside of crib sleeping. They have big girl beds set up in their respective rooms, but insist upon sleeping with one another. We saw it coming, though, and set them both up with queen sized beds. May as well have room for guests when they come.

The transition to big girl beds hasn't been easy, though, as it's sort of like a slumber party every night to them. After about the sixth night in a row of finding the two of them awake and playing with the dog and cat (see #3) at 3:00 am, we decided to go back to cribs and try again in a few months. We'll see.

3. We got a cat. She's black and white and her name is Lola. She and Zoe get along famously and she puts up with all of the abuse three little kids can dish out. Can't ask for more than that.

4. I am nearly done with my first year of teaching and I can't believe how much I've loved it. I had no idea that I would enjoy it this much and I am looking forward to many more years in my new career. I'm considering getting my teaching certificate, but I may just stay in the preschool arena, because I like the age so very much. I also like that I am home in time to get my kiddos off the bus.

5. As for health, as of today we are all well. I've had a heck of a year battling strep, a sinus infection and even pneumonia. Dev's been fine and it seems that the girls managed to keep any major respiratory issues at bay this past season. They are still tiny, though, only weighing about 26 lbs. apiece. I'm certain we will address that issue at their three year appointment (see #6) in a few weeks.

6. The twins turn three in 19 days. HOLY COW.

7. We're settled into our new home and just loving it. We miss our old neighborhood a lot, as we had neighbors you just can't beat. We're going back there for a block party this weekend and are looking forward to reuniting with everyone. But the new house is great -- we have gotten some paint up (red in the family room, green in the kitchen...about to do metallic mint green in the formal dining) and are working on drapes and such. It's a work in progress.

Certainly there's been a lot more since then, but remember, I was in another galaxy for the lionshare of the past six months, so I have an excuse for not recalling every single little thing that happened.

So in the immortal words of Gloria Gaynor (with a little artistic license thrown in for good measure): "So now I'm back...from outer space!"

More to come soon...I promise.

Trying to Catch Up

2008-11-01T15:46:00.002-06:00

Just when you think things are settling down...BAM! You get hit all over again.

After my last post, in late September, we thought we had it all under control. Life was going to go back to normal and we were going to get settled into our new home.

Hours after posting, though, Todd's dad ended up in the emergency room again. He was transported back to San Antonio where he spent another week in the hospital, recovering from a second surgery to stop the bleeding from the subdural hematoma. Todd spent much of his time up at the hospital and I played single mom for a number of days. Time was a luxury I didn't have.

Orville went home again, but ended up, only 48 hours later, back at the ER again, this time with a high fever and the complete inability to utter a sound (his speech had been affected by the first two surgeries, but he'd never completely lost the ability to speak before this). Another trek to San Antonio and more time in the ICU with lots of tests and a scary few hours when a possible stroke was considered.

Luckily, MRIs and CAT Scans ruled the stroke out and it was found that Orville had some considerable swelling on the brain, causing the speech problems. Luckily, the swelling was not deemed to be dangerous, though it certainly wasn't something that they didn't want to get in check. Orville spent another week in the hospital while medicines were tested and adjusted and he was given strict instructions to not go up and down any stairs, to not bend over and to not even sneeze or cough too hard. Hmmmmm...I'll see what I can do, Doc.

Orville finally went home two weeks ago and, with fingers crossed and with many knocks on wood, he has stayed put, doing well and regaining a little bit of speech ability every day. He and Todd's mom, Dorothy, will be coming to San Antonio this week for Orville's checkup. Here's to hoping for more good outcomes.

So that's what's been going on with us. And, because of all of this, we're still living out of some boxes and looking for missing items around the house. Now that we've had a couple of uninterrupted weekends, we're really feeling settled and getting into the swing of things. I'm hoping to have a little more free time to get back to blogging a few times a week. *Knock on Wood* *Again*

Last night was Halloween and we had a great time in our new neighborhood. My dad and stepmom are in town and they split the difference between our house and my sister's house. Dad stayed here and handed out candy to the neighborhood beggars while Jean did the same at ZZ's house. That afforded us the chance to go and do a little begging of our own as a family.

Last year, the girls didn't quite catch on to the idea of trick-or-treating, really just wandering around, wondering why they were dressed so silly.

This year, though, in their matching witch dresses and hats, they approached the first house and followed Devin's (aka - SpiderMan) lead in putting their little bags out in front of them when the homeowner opened the door. Once the goodies had been put in their bags, they just stared into them.

"That person just gave me candy. I must eat it now." And they did.

On to the next house. Again, they followed SpiderMan to the door and held out the bags. More candy.

"Hold on here. That person just gave me candy, but I'm not finished with my first piece. I guess that's what this bag is for."

Next house.

"This is the third time I've gotten candy for just ringing a doorbell. Is everyone doing this?"

Fourth house.

"Now I'm getting the hang of this and this is the best day of my life!"

From there on out, there was no stopping the dynamic duo. They rushed from house to house, as fast as their little, short legs could take them, and charmed the socks off of anyone who opened their door. They got "Trick or Treat!" down pretty well, as well as "Thank you," and "Happy Halloween." Being the efficient little things that they are, though, by the end of the night, they were just saying, "Happy Treat!" to those who answered their doorbells for the umpteenth time.

The five of us had the best time together. We went up and down just about every street in our neighborhood and finally said, "We're done," when we noticed that the majority of houses had their porch lights turned off. We shut down the 'hood!

Devin did great as well and got to see quite a few kids from his class. He was great with his sisters and didn't complain at all about having to go slow for them. I have three little girls from my class who live in my neighborhood and I got to see each of them, all dressed up and having a blast. It was awesome. Definitely one of the best Halloweens to date.

It's been great, too, that we've started to make friends in the neighborhood. It was nice to see familiar faces and hang out with some of our new found companions. We just couldn't be happier with this neighborhood. We couldn't have asked for more.

Here's to hoping for more time for more updates and a found USB cable with which to connect my camera to my computer.

'Till next time...

Settling In? Ha!

2008-09-28T19:44:00.002-05:00

It's been nearly two weeks since we moved into our new house and things have been going swimmingly. We've gotten most of the important stuff unpacked and have hung quite a few things on the walls. It's really starting to feel like home around here. By the end of last weekend, we were starting to feel as though things were really starting to settle down, giving us back our much-needed "life as usual" status.

Until Monday night.

As Todd and I were sitting down for a comfortable night of television when the phone rang. Caller ID said the call was from Todd's sister, Jill, and we, of course, happily answered the phone, anxious to talk to our favorite Anthropologist.

But Jill wasn't her usual perky self. In fact, she was downright upset. She'd just gotten off the phone with her mom and had gotten some bad news about her dad, Orville.

Apparently, my mother-in-law, Dorothy, had noticed some strange behavior from Orville in recent weeks. Withdrawn, lack of interest in favorite hobbies, etc. But Orville recently lost a sister, and his melancholy attitude was attributed to his loss.

But on Monday morning, Orville announced that it was time to go. When Dorothy asked where they were going, he said, "To the park. The kids are getting off the school bus." Now Dorothy and Orville's youngest child -- Todd -- is 40 years old and no one in their family (with the exception of Devin) has ridden a school bus for 30 years. Dorothy tried to question Orville about his expectations about this, but he couldn't give any details. He just knew they needed to get to the park.

So Dorothy made a call to the family doctor and got an appointment for Orville. When they got to the doctor's office, though, Orville offered to wait in the car while Dorothy went in and had her appointment. Dorothy had to remind him that he was the patient that day.

A test of cognitive awareness led to CT scans and those led to hospitalization. Turns out, Orville had a subdural hematoma. Essentially, bleeding on (but thankfully, not in) the brain. Pressure was building up and causing his confusion. The pressure needed to be relieved immediately -- using a drain -- and once it was, Orville would be back to himself.

That was the good news. The bad news was that Yoakum Community Hospital was not set up for this kind of surgery. Orville needed a neurologist and those aren't exactly a dime a dozen in rural Texas.

Because of the extent of the hematoma, Orville was life-flighted to San Antonio early on Tuesday morning. Todd got to the hospital just after he landed and was with his Dad until the surgery at 11:00 that morning.

The surgery was a success and I'm happy to say that Orville went home today. It's been a scary few days -- while we were assured that as long as the pressure of a subdural hematoma was relieved quickly, a full recovery was expected -- it's still brain surgery and those are words that strike fear in the heart of any family. God is good and has given us more time with Todd's dad. We're thankful that our prayers were answered.

So here's to another week, hoping that things will settle down for good and that "life as usual" will be attained.

The Big Move Debacle

2008-09-21T19:48:00.002-05:00

It's been a long time comin', but I've finally got a few moments to sit down and chronicle the craziness that has dominated the Pruetz family for the past month.

Grab a snack, folks...this won't be short.

So, back in late July, our house sold and we started looking for a new home in which to move. Within a few days, we had found the home we knew was for us -- four bedrooms, three-and-a-half baths, a game room, and a study, in a still-under-construction gated community. It looked brand-new, as though no one had ever lived in it and we jumped at the chance to put an offer in.

So we sat down with our friend and Realtor, Monique, and went through the whole process. The reason the house looks so new is because it's a foreclosure -- the previous owners moved in, never made a single payment and were promptly thrown out on their rear-ends. They barely had time to move in, let alone paint or hang picture. The house had been sitting vacant since May.

We were warned that buying a foreclosure could mean a long, drawn-out escrow process and that there would be lawyers and government agencies involved. We were told to expect stress.

We listened to Monique's advice, but behind closed doors, Todd and I looked at one another and said, "What could be so hard? A bank owns a house and needs to recoup its money. What's the big deal?"

Famous last words of a fool.

All went well for the first few days -- our offer was accepted and our former home did well during the inspection and appraisal. The inspection at the new house came back with only minor issues (the doorbell would "dong" but not "ding," etc.), most of which were still covered under the builder's warranty since the house is less than two years old.

With it looking as though the green light was on for all parties, we started to pack. Boxes upon boxes, upon boxes filled our home and we started to live with less and less.

We started discussing finalizing the closing dates for both houses and it looked as though all of the documents for both homes were ready to arrive at the respective title companies and be ready for our signatures.

Suddenly, though, there was a glitch. The deed for the new house was missing. It needed to be prepared by a bankruptcy lawyer (something that should have been done in May when the house was foreclosed upon), and then needed to be routed to Countrywide for signatures and then to Fannie Mae for signatures. After that, it would be sent to the title company for final recording and the closing could commence.

The process seems pretty simple, but going through a title company, two mortgage companies (one of which is run by the government!) and a group of high-priced lawyers in Dallas proved to be an experience we would not soon forget.

With the closing of our former home fast approaching, we had to so some fancy footwork and ask for a lease-back so that we could have a place to live if our new home didn't close in time. Luckily, the woman who bought our house was very accommodating and allowed us up to three weeks to lease the house from her.

For about a week, every day was a new story from the title company -- the deed is here, the deed is there, we don't need the deed, we do need the deed, what deed? who said anything about a deed? The list went on and on.

We were getting extraordinarily frustrated and stressed out. It looked as if we might not get this house, as time was running out. Monique spent countless hours on the phone with the title company and the Realtor for the selling party (who was on our side from the beginning, thankfully). She went to church and petitioned prayers on our behalf. We couldn't have asked for a better advocate.

But despite the nudging, arguing and downright ugliness, the deed was still nowhere to be found. It seemed that the title company, who is supposed to be the mediator between the two parties -- a unbiased third party who facilitates closings and the documents that go along with them -- was somehow connected to the lawyers, Nationwide and/or Fannie Mae. It was almost as though they didn't want this house to close because the longer it took, the more money they got.

One afternoon, though, it finally happened -- the deed was found. It was only an e-copy, but the bankruptcy lawyers all agreed that it would suffice to go ahead and close.

So we closed on our former home and went ahead with the final preparations to move out. We stayed in the old house for about five days and planned to close on the new house on the 11th.

Thursday, September 11 came around and an 18-wheeler arrived bright and early. It was a long, hot day as four men loaded everything we owned into a truck. The kids were upset at seeing their belongings go away, but we explained to them over and over again that they would be at the new house waiting for us. We were confident that we would close late that afternoon and move into our new home the next day (my sister graciously opened up her home to us!). We wouldn't have to live in a hotel for a week, as we thought we might have to do. And what a blessing! Hurricane Ike was heading straight toward Houston and a million people were trying to get out of its path...many venturing to San Antonio. There was not a single hotel room left in the city.

The morning turned into lunch and lunch into afternoon, and still no closing. We were starting to get worried. Around 4:30 in the afternoon, Monique showed up at our door. She did not look happy and was on her cell phone, having a very heated conversation with someone. Yikes. I would hate to be whichever client was getting screwed on this deal. Whatever it was, it was bad.

And then I realized the client of whom she was speaking was us. She got off the phone and said, "The lawyers have changed their minds. They want the original deed to be found before we close."

That was it. I completely lost it. Tears started flowing, as I watched my furniture, belongings, memories, clothing, keepsakes and personal items being loaded into a truck. Our lives where on hold with no way to move forward. Our kids were freaking out and we had no place to go.

As I was sobbing, Monique called the title company and demanded to speak to the highest-up person available in the office. She out-and-out accused them of taking some sort of kick-back, attacked the escrow officer's ethics and abilities and let a few choice words fly. And then, she pulled out the stop and did the ultimate...she handed the phone to me.

I lit into the woman on the other line. Tears of anger, frustration and exhaustion poured down my face as I gave her my sob story and when she had the audacity to tell me she understood, I ripped into her like I've never done. Don't you dare tell me you understand, when everything but the clothes on your back are on a truck and you don't have a destination for them. Don't you even venture to think you know what it's like to explain all of this to a five-year-old and two two-year-olds. I informed her that we had no place to go, that there wasn't a hotel room to be had and asked if she had any extra room in her home, because we needed shelter.. I invited her to come over and see our home for herself and experience our lives for one minute. I informed her that her company "would pay for this."

Once the woman could get a word in edge-wise, she apologized over and over again and said that she would right the wrong. She promised me that we would close on this house and that we would be in it on schedule.

After I got off the phone, Monique and I talked and I called ZZ to ask if we could stay for more than one night. In fact, we didn't know how many nights it would be. My wonderful sister and her equally as wonderful husband welcomed us with open arms, never asking how long we'd be there. At least we had a roof over our heads.

Monique had an event to attend that night, but informed us that she'd be back at the house later that night to help us clean. The movers finally left around 7:30 and I took the kids to my sister's house for baths and bed while Todd scrubbed the old house for its new owners.

After the kids were tucked in, I headed back to our former residence to help Todd and sure enough, at 9:30, Monique showed up, ready to scrub. How's that for service?

We were done with cleaning the house, though, so we took a moment to sit down (on the floor, of course, since the house was empty) and discuss what had happened earlier. Apparently, Monique had spent her whole event on and off the phone with the title company and the seller's agent. They were all burning the midnight oil after my little fit. She couldn't tell us when we would close, but she assured us that, for the first time since we'd started this process, she was certain that everyone was working on our account and not just giving her lip service.

So we loaded up the car with our final belongings and handed the keys to Monique. We said our goodbyes to our home of six years and tearfully drove away, exhausted and questioning everything. I sobbed the whole way back to ZZ's house. I needed a good emotional outburst and I got it.

Our night was fitful, to say the least and Todd left for work extra early, having barely slept a wink. I got Devin off to school and got the twins up and fed. I hopped into the shower, but checked my phone just after getting out. Sure enough...there was a call from Monique.

I listened to the message -- the deed was magically found and we were closing at 1:30. I called Monique back, talked to Todd and had it all arranged. It was really happening.

Sort of.

Around 12:15, I got a call from Monique, asking about our wire transfer. I informed her that I had authorized our financial advisor in Houston to send the wire to the title company the day before and that it should be at title company's bank. After a thorough search, though, it wasn't there. Our down payment had never made it.

So I called my financial advisor, thinking this would be an easy fix. That is until I heard her voice mail.

"Thank you for calling Morgan Stanley. Our office is currently closed, in preparation for Hurricane Ike. Please leave a message and I will respond as soon as our office reopens. Or you may call customer service."

Oh my Lord...is this a joke? Can anything go smoothly for me? Our transfer never made it and the only person who can make the transfer happen has been ordered to leave her office building!

So I called customer service and explained my situation. I needed a large sum of money to be sent to my title company's bank ASAP, as we were closing in an hour. They informed me that they didn't know how to get in touch with our advisor and that maybe I should contact the nearest branch office for a cashier's check. I asked them to please look for any method of getting in touch with Julie, our advisor, while I called the only Morgan Stanley branch office in San Antonio on the other phone.

So they put me on hold and I called the branch office. I asked for their hours and directions to their offices. Just as I was about to hang up, I said, "Thank you for your help. I'll be there shortly, as I'll need to order a cashier's check."

I'm so glad I said that, because the woman responded, "I'm sorry. We don't issue cashier's checks at this location." Grrrrr! Another set back, but thank goodness I knew not to go all the way downtown to get a product that wasn't available to me!

Meanwhile, I was still on hold with customer service, who finally comes back on the phone and says that they'd located Julie and to please continue to hold. By this time, Todd had made it home from work and was walking in the door, ready to go to the closing. I explained the whole thing to him and we called Monique from the home phone to give her the update. She told us to stay on hold with the bank, but to get in the car and start driving to the title company for the closing, just in case we could get the transfer to go through.

So we did just that...while holding the cell phone for dear life, hoping to hear anything at all. Customer service finally came back and told us that Julie would be calling ASAP. We confirmed both of our phone numbers and hung up. Sure enough, the phone rang moments later and a very sorry Julie was on the line. She was in her car, heading toward the office. She had already called her boss who was going to meet her there because he needed to authorize the wire. They had to all but bribe the building security to let them in, but they got it done (and even managed to pull a few strings to get it though more quickly than usual).

By the time we got to the title company, everything was in order. We had a confirmation number for the wire transfer, the bank knew to send their portion of the payment and we while we were looking pretty ragged, we were ready to sign.

We walked into the title company's office and were greeted by the woman at whom I had yelled the night before. Fully expecting her to give me the cold shoulder, I was astonished when she greeted me with a hug and apologized again for everything we'd been put through. She assured me that she would be handling our closing and that the escrow officer who had been so difficult to work with would not be present. That escrow officer has no idea what she dodged in not being there, because I had more than a few words planned for her.

So we signed our lives away, as anyone who has ever signed for a mortgage understands, and walked out of there owners of a new home. It was hard to believe, considering all we had done to get to that point, but we had it. The house was ours. We just had to wait for it to fund and we could move in.

Because of Hurricane Ike, though, the movers weren't able to get us in that weekend, so despite the fact that we were fully funded within hours of closing, we didn't move in until last Tuesday.

We spent the interim days at my sister's house. It was quite an experience, as ZZ and Brian have four kids and Todd and I have three. And, of course, Presley's 6th birthday party fell during the time we were staying there, so that added an additional five six-year-olds on Saturday night. Oh, and ZZ's friend Tiffany had to evacuate from Houston and stayed there too.

Can you keep up with that? Let me help you.

5 adults
12 kids
2 dogs
2 fish
1 cat
1 rabbit
____________________________
Total Chaos

It was a mad house, but ZZ and Brian never once complained. They were so accommodating and loving that we couldn't have felt more at home. Thank God for family. Thank God for good family.

Tuesday rolled around and again, the movers were here bright and early. The move in was much quicker than the move out and by Tuesday evening, we were all settled in our own beds, ready to spend the first night in our new home.

Since then, it's been a whirlwind of activity around here. Unpacking boxes, putting stuff away, wondering what happened to certain items (we didn't find our silverware until this afternoon!) and finding places for every little thing we brought with us.

It's tiring work, but there's something about setting up your new home. The kids are loving it and have already met some of the neighborhood kids. Devin has successfully ridden the bus to and from school and we're all settling into our new lives. We miss our neighbors and our old neighborhood, but this was a change that truly needed to happen.

Well, it's taken me over an hour to write this and if you haven't fallen asleep yet, then there must be something wrong with you. It's not exactly thrilling. But in 20 years, when all of this is a distant memory, I plan to look back, read this and laugh. I seriously doubt that the laughter will come any earlier than 20 years, though. I have a feeling we'll have a pretty bad taste in our mouths for a long time to come.

I'm off to bed. Nighty night...

Still Breathing...

2008-09-19T07:23:00.002-05:00

Hi! I don't have a lot of time right now (of course, when do I ever?), but I wanted to give a quick update to say that yes, I am still alive! We finally got moved out of our house and into our new one and while we are happily here and loving it, the move was not without drama. As soon as I get a few minutes to myself, I'll be sure to fill you in on the details.

Thanks for bearing with me!

Our Neighbor's Weeds

2008-09-05T10:20:00.002-05:00

Last night was the Kindergarten parent orientation night, so Todd and I went to Devin's school to hear all about things like core knowledge, D'Nelian handwriting, self-managers and how things are done at his elementary school. It was very interesting and I feel like a (mostly) prepared mommy of a Kindergartener.

On our way home, though, Todd and I had quite the encounter. As we were driving through our neighborhood, we began to smell smoke. As we rounded a corner, we saw a house on the main street that had smoke billowing from the backyard. I mean just pouring out of there. It was incredible.

Todd slammed the car into park and jumped out to run around to the back of this house. While he did so, I grabbed my cell phone and dialed 911. But as I was directed to the correct department, Todd came around the corner of the house, waving his arms as if to say, "False alarm." I apologized to the 911 operator and told her that no, indeed, there was no fire.

Todd got into the car and informed me that there was just a man sitting in his back yard, burning stuff in his chiminea. The man had told Todd that all was well, that there was no out-of-control fire and thanked him for checking on the situation.

So we pulled down our street and walked into the house (Todd's parents were watching the kids). We told Grandma and Grandpa about what had happened and Todd said, "There was so much smoke, I even reek of it!"

I walked over and took a sniff of my husband's shirt. As I sniffed, he sniffed too, and we both just sort of stopped and looked at one another. That wasn't just any kind of smoke coming from that backyard.

I am not, and never have been, a drug user. I've just never understood the allure and even through innumerable college fraternity parties, I never tried any sort of illegal drugs. I felt like a real wild woman when I bought a pack of cigarettes once. I'm pretty mild, to say the least.

But just because I don't smoke weed, doesn't mean that I don't know what it smells like. There was plenty of it at the aforementioned frat parties, as well as pretty much anywhere along fraternity (and even sorority) row.

And if I had never smelled it before, then I certainly smelled it a lot on our honeymoon in Jamaica.

So I am familiar with the odor and I knew what it was as soon as I took a whiff of Todd's shirt. Holy smokes (no pun intended)! That guy was totally burning out his entire backyard!

Todd and I laughed so hard that my hysterical spouse even went over to the next-door neighbor's house (who happens to be a police officer) to ask for his opinion. Billy confirmed that, indeed, that was the small of marijuana and suggested that this guy may have found the drug in his kid's backpack and was "teaching him a lesson" by burning it in the chiminea. In doing so, though, he was managing to get the entire block stoned.

I couldn't resist writing this down -- it was just so funny and so typical of something that would happen to us. Despite our living in suburbia USA with homeowners' associations, minivans and disposable income, we still manage to live a few houses down from the guy who believes everyone should be enlightened by the use of a controlled substance.

I'm outta here now...I have a sudden craving for Doritos.

PS - No, we haven't moved yet. I'll upload pictures as soon as I unpack the USB cable for my camera. It might be awhile, so don't hold your breath (unless you're sitting outside with my neighbor...in that case, take a deep breath and hold it in as long as you can).

Self Discovery...Sort Of

2008-08-30T19:07:00.001-05:00

I've been wondering when this was going to happen...and today it finally did.

This evening, Faith and Grace were standing in front of a mirror. I walked into the room to see what they were doing, and they were admiring themselves, being typical girls.

When I asked them, "What do you see in the mirror?" they each pointed toward their reflection. Faith said, "Grace!" and Grace said, "Faith!"

I'm not sure they are 100% aware that they are separate people!

History in the Making

2008-08-27T19:38:00.002-05:00

Tonight, as I was making dinner, I turned on the news...just as I always do. Despite the fact that the six o'clock news has been broadcast from the Democratic National Convention in Denver for the past three days, I still turned my head toward the television set to see why Katie Couric sounded so different. Oh yeah...the DNC.

I haven't paid much attention to the DNC and, next month, I doubt I'll pay much attention to the RNC. The truth is, these conventions are just a bunch of pomp and circumstance from which no real news is generated. But they do serve to unite and rally their respective parties and there is something to be said for that.

Regardless, though...it's not very interesting to those of us who aren't there.

Tonight was different, though. The news was being broadcast just as the roll call vote was beginning. If you're not familiar with it, the roll call vote where each state takes turns announcing who their delegates and super-delegates have voted for in the primaries. No...you're not wrong that this information was available months ago. This is what I mean by a lot of pomp and circumstance.

The roll call vote was interesting nonetheless. I'm a sucker for all things American. My heart swells at the sight of Old Glory waving in the wind and rarely is the Star Spangled Banner played without bringing a tear to my eye. These conventions, as well as a lot of other things in our government, may be antiquated traditions that truly serve little points today, but that may be what I like the most. It's a link to the history of our country.

But today was even more special. Today, for the first time in United States history, a minority was given the Presidential nomination.

I truly don't believe that it matters if you are Republican, Democrat, Independent or certified Wack-Job...seeing Barack Obama get the Presidential nomination is something everyone should take pride in.

Look how far our country has come! Only forty years ago, African-American citizens weren't able to vote. They drank from different water fountains, sat in separate areas of restaurants (if they were allowed in at all) and were given lesser educations than white kids. Their churches were bombed and they feared for their lives at times. And all of this in a country that touts, "freedom and justice for all."

Wow...with friends like that, who needs enemies?

Racism (against any minority) is still alive in the US, but to think how far we've come in such a relatively short amount of time is truly awe-inspiring and today, as much as any other time, I am especially proud to be an American.

Another Milestone

2008-08-25T12:25:00.002-05:00

Today, I took my first born and dropped him off at the local elementary school where he started Kindergarten. That little bundle, who came home from the hospital what seems like only days ago, is now in "big boy school." It was a momentous occasion.

The day started early for us, but Todd was home to celebrate the big event and we managed to get all three kids out of bed, dressed, fed and out the door by 7:20. We arrived at Devin's school and ended up parking in the grass, amid a sea of minivans and SUVs. We marched straight into the cafeteria and found the table at which Devin's class would meet.

We met Devin's teacher, Mrs. S., last week and so he spotted her right off the bat. Luckily, one of D's friends of his Pre-K days last year was also in his class, so he sat right down and began chit-chatting. Todd, the twins and I sat back and watched, snapping pictures and even taking a little bit of video.

Soon it was time to go back to the classroom and we followed 22 five-year-olds down the hall. We were behind the class and by the time we reached his room, Devin had already found his cubby and put his backpack away. He was looking for his seat and promptly found it. And there he sat, a Kindergartener among many.

There was a little ceremony at the flag pole shortly after school started, so we waited outside Devin's classroom while they talked about where they went this past summer, told a little about themselves, etc. I loved being able to peek in and see my son's interaction with his friends and teacher. I got a warm-fuzzy inside and felt very good about where Devin was.

We weren't able to stay for the ceremony, so as D's class walked down the hall, we said our goodbyes and gave our final kisses. I told him how proud I am of him and that Daddy and I love him very much. And then Devin looked me square in the eye, hugged me and said, "I love you, Mommy. I'll miss you, but I'm going to have a good day."

And with that, he was gone. Down the hall, in a straight line, remembering to be quiet and use his manners. My son, the elementary school student.

Todd and I were left standing there. We looked at each other, shrugged and said, "Well...I guess that's it."

So we shuffled out, quietly, and loaded in the girls into the car. Neither of us cried, though neither of us said much, either. We both sort of took in the surreal morning in our own minds, and dealt with the bittersweet feelings of letting go by ourselves.

I've had a good morning. I've enjoyed the quiet and not battling over who's watched too much TV or what we're going to have for lunch. I'm enjoying some one-on-one time with the twins and am getting some more packing done.

But as I type this, the whole event is sinking in and I'm getting a little misty-eyed. Devin is my true love -- I doodle his name in the margins of pieces of paper and my tummy gets all fluttery when he gives me a kiss. I still go into his room at night, after he's fast asleep, and run my fingers through his soft hair, whispering, "I love you," one last time before morning. I have joked for more than five years now that I have a crush on him -- I want to be his prom date.

But life goes on and I will let go just like my parents did and so many other parents have done. Devin will do great, will share his own personality with others and will learn life's lessons. It's sad that not every lesson is from me, but then I remember that I didn't learn everything I know about life from my mom and dad -- I learned them from the world and people around me.

So Devin, the world is yours. Go explore it, love it, learn from it and teach to it. I love you, son, with all my heart.

Whirlwind of Activity

2008-08-06T16:54:00.003-05:00

I know...I know... I am painfully aware of how long it's been since my last post. And I won't lie to you... it's not likely to get better anytime soon. Allow me to explain.

As you know, per my last post, our house sold. This means that we've been on a mad-dash to find another house, lest we be homeless at the end of this month.

Well, find a house we did! We found a great home that fits all of our needs and that is brand new. Apparently, it went into foreclosure before the residents could live in it for more than a few days. I'm not exactly sure how that works, but if you could see this house, you'd know that no one has lived in it -- no nail holes in the walls, no traffic wear in the carpet, no paint on the walls. The microwave even still has some of the original package left around it. It's a gem! And being a foreclosure, it's also cheap. About $30K less than we should have paid for it!

But you don't get something for nothing and buying a foreclosure comes with its own set of issues. There is about three times the amount of paperwork (if you can imagine, since buying a house is already paperwork-laden as it is) and every process takes about three times as long. Todd and I signed the contract nine days ago. The selling party just signed theirs today. Fabulous.

In all of this, too, is the issue of elementary school. Since early spring, Devin has been enrolled at the school nearby our current home. The new house, though, is in another elementary school's attendance area. That means that I have to go down to the school district's central office, bring my buyer's contract and get a letter stating that we are, indeed, moving into a house in the new school's area. Then I have to take that letter to the new school and get Devin enrolled there.

Sounds like a pain, huh? It is. And to make matters worse, school starts next Monday, so I need to get this worked out by then and somehow convince Devin that going to his new school is way cooler than going to the school I've been talking up for over a year now.

He's not buying it. In fact, the poor kid is really having a hard time with all of this. The timing is great for making a clean break -- new house, won't have to change schools, etc. But the timing is terrible for a kid who doesn't like change -- new house, new school, etc. I guess it just depends on how you look at it.

So, with all of this comes the craziness of moving -- packing up five people and six years worth of stuff, shopping for homeowner's insurance, doing mortgage paperwork, running around looking for special boxes in which to pack the good china, changing addresses on statements and bills, transferring utilities from the old house to the new one, get the old house ready for the new owner, finding a mover... The list goes on and on. Needless to say, our days are long and our patience is thin. We're looking forward to being settled in and into a new routine!

If you were in the middle of all of this, what would you do? Why, take a vacation, of course!

Late last year, long before we ever put our house on the market, my parents decided to rent a house in Flagstaff, AZ for the month of August. Not knowing much about Northern Arizona, I couldn't figure out why my parents wanted to trade summers in Houston (where it is 95 degrees and 99% humidity) for a summer in Arizona (where it's 110 degrees and 0% humidity). Weren't they just substituting one extreme for the other?

Apparently not.

Flagstaff is an oasis of cool weather and summer storms in what is believed to be the hottest, driest state in the country. Near the center of the state, Flagstaff sits at 7,000 feet elevation and looks like something right out of a coffee table book about mountain towns -- towering pine trees, crystalline lakes, soaring mountains and breathtaking views. The highs in August are in the high-70s to low-80s with brief summer storms almost daily. For a girl who grew up in the flatlands of Texas, hearing thunder rumbling from one mountain to another is a sound that won't be soon forgotten.

So the call of cool weather and a pre-Kindergarten getaway was too much for me to pass up and I booked a trip for Devin and I to go visit Nana and Papa during their time in the Southwest. If I had known it would fall during the middle of all of this, I would have never done it. But since I haven't yet learned to see into the future, I booked the trip during the worst possible time (in our lives, anyway) to do so.

Oh, but I am so glad that I did. Flagstaff, and all of the surrounding areas, was amazing. Simply beautiful and not easily described in words.

Devin and I arrived in Phoenix at 8:30 on Wednesday morning. It was already 95 degrees outside and I just had a hard time believing that a two hour drive could really make that much of a difference.

Lo and behold, though, it did and by the time we arrived in Flagstaff, around noon, it was 78 degrees and perfect. Oh it felt so good!

We pulled up to the mountain retreat that my parents rented and Devin and I both drew a breath. Picture in your mind what a luxury house in the middle of the mountains should look like. Are you seeing log-cabin detailing? A huge front porch and an even bigger back porch? Wood floors and soaring, beamed ceilings?

Well add to those things a gourmet kitchen that is about twice the size of my current kitchen, three bedrooms, three-and-a-half bathrooms, a huge loft, an enormous laundry room, a dedicated study, high-speed internet access, big screen TVs, and upgraded and custom amenities and you've got quite a retreat. It was fabulous, all the way from the in-suite bathroom to the 400-count cotton sheets on the pillow-top king bed. San Antonio? What San Antonio?

We were pretty exhausted when we arrived, so after a quick lunch we took a nap. Not long later, we were refreshed and ready to go. Dad and Jean took us out to Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument where we got to hike (I use the term loosely -- it was more like a walk around a park) around the base of a volcano that erupted about a thousand years ago. The path that the lava flow created is still more than visible and you can even see the cap that blew off the mountain about a mile-and-a-half away from the mountain itself. The park was beautiful and we had a great time peeking into caves and looking at different types of lava rock.

We were pretty tired that night, so after dinner and some good conversation on the back porch, we hit the hay.

Arizona is two hours behind Texas, so Devin woke up on Thursday at his regular time -- 7:30. Only it wasn't 7:30. It was 5:30. Good morning, sunshine. *Sigh*

We got ready pretty quickly, as Devin was excited about the day's adventure. We drove to nearby Williams, AZ, where we caught the local steam locomotive to the Grand Canyon.

The ride was about two hours long, during which we saw incredible landscape, were entertained by musicians and actors and learned about the Grand Canyon and its surrounding area from our tour guide. It was fantastic!

We arrived at the South Rim of the Grand Canyon around 11:30 and headed to the Arizona Room for lunch on the rim.

This was my first trip to the Grand Canyon and it's far more than expected. As with everything else in the world, pictures just don't do it justice. The enormity of the expanse, coupled with the peace and profound beauty was enough to bring tears to my eyes.

After lunch, we hiked along the rim of the canyon, up to Yavapai Point, where the view was spectacular. Of course, there's not a bad view of the canyon, but this was certainly something special. Again, words just can't explain.

After our trip to Yavapai, we took the bus back to the train station and after a little shopping, boarded the train back to Williams. Along the way, we were "robbed" by bandits and the town sheriff came on board looking for them. It was very entertaining and something I doubt we'll soon forget!

Our Grand Canyon day was a long day, so after a quick pizza dinner, we all folded in for the night.

Friday's wake up call also came nice and early - 5:45 a.m.

After a yummy breakfast at a local Flagstaff eatery, Dad, Devin and I drove to the Arizona Snow Bowl, which is the local ski park. During the summer, they run the ski lift and you can take a ride up to 12,500 feet and get a bird's eye view of the whole region. You can even see the Grand Canyon from way up there!

It was a fantastic sight and Devin even got to use the highest toilet in Arizona. What a claim to fame!

After the 35 minute trip back down the mountain, Jean picked up Devin and Dad and I got to do some father-daughter bonding on a hike down Kachina Trail. Hiking is one of my favorite past times, though I admit I haven't done any serious hiking since high school. There is something about being able to get out there, with the trees and the rocks and the wildlife and just walk.

The trail started off pretty easy and pretty typical -- dense trees and underbrush that would suddenly open up into a field of yellow sunflowers. A way into it, though, it became very rocky and Dad and I found ourselves clamboring down boulders and slides to follow the trail.

We knew we needed to turn around and had back, as clouds were rolling into the area and there was thunder in the distance. But the trail just kept getting prettier and prettier, so we kept saying, "A little further... a little further..." Finally, we couldn't deny the approaching weather and turned around to go back.

What we found, though, was that those rocks we'd climbed down a few minutes earlier now had to be scaled up. It wasn't easy, but it was a lot of fun. My stamina kind of surprised me, as the inclines didn't do much to phase me, but the rocks really made me huff and puff. I had to make my poor dad stop more than a few times so I could catch my breath. I couldn't figure out why I was having such a hard time until my dad reminded me that I am used to a 650-foot elevation in San Antonio while we were hiking at nearly 8,000 feet. Oh yeah! The air is much thinner up there! Whew! I thought I was losing my mind!

We were pretty tired upon our return, but true to his word, Dad took Devin to the local fire station where the owner of the home they are renting works. He took Dev on a personal tour of the station and Devin came back with the dreams of being a fireman. Keep dreamin' kid...keep dreamin'.

Saturday came with another trip to Williams, this time to see the classic car show. Everything from 1930s roadsters, to 1950s Chevy Bel Aires and 1960s Ford Mustangs lined the Mother Road, Route 66, as old coots and young fanatics alike gazed at the cars of their dreams.

We ate lunch at a classic 1950s diner Cruiser's and headed back to Flagstaff for a nap and relaxing afternoon. Dinner that night consisted of Thanksgiving dinner, with a roasted turkey, dressing, cranberry sauce, green beans and two pies - pumpkin and pecan. Yum!

We went to Mass on Sunday and then just spent some time hanging out before having to head back to Phoenix (where it was 106 degrees) to go home to San Antonio.

This was such a fantastic trip and I loved having one-on-one time with Devin. He loved being the center of attention with his Nana and Papa and I loved watching him discover a part of the country he didn't even know existed. Pictures will follow soon.

So there you have it -- that's what we've been up to. Sort of sorry you asked, huh?

I apologize for the long post, but like I've always said, this blog is as much for me as it is for everyone else. I want to make sure I write down every detail before the memories begin to fade, so that one day, my kids can look back and know what my thoughts and recollections were at the time.

Forgive me for what I am certain will be a long time before I post again. Life is crazy and I just can't seem to help it. :)

PS - Todd re-synced our Internet browser with his browser at work. So now we have all of his favorites bookmarked, but managed to lose all of mine. That means that if you haven't gotten a comment on your blog from me recently, it's because I lost your link and haven't memorized your URL. I'd love to have your pages back, so please leave me a comment with your URL or send me an email.

It Was All Worth It...

2008-07-30T10:10:00.003-05:00

Yesterday's post all about my crazy day of scheduled, reschedule, re-rescheduled and re-re-reschedule showings has all paid off:

Our house sold!

Here's to the next ten days, a good inspection and buyers who don't exercise their option period!

Seriously?

2008-07-29T14:07:00.002-05:00

Today started out with a phone call from Centralized Showing Service, the company that schedules home showings in San Antonio. Our house was scheduled to be shown between 9:15 and 10:15.

So I raced around, cleaning, vaccuming and mopping, only to get a call at 9:10 that said, "The Realtor would like to reschedule from 5:30 to 6:30 tonight."

Fabulous. Okay, fine. Whatever. I'll hold off on the rest of the cleaning until this afternoon.

11:00 came the phone call, "The Realtor would like to re-reschedule for tomorrow morning between 9:30 and 10:30.

Grrrrrrr. FINE. I'll clean tonight and shuttle the kids out the door first thing in the morning.

At 1:00 the phone rang again.

"The Realtor would like to re-re-reschedule for today between 3:00 and 4:00."

Okay, that is IT.

I okayed the showing, but I flat-out refuse to leave this house. The girls haven't been feeling well for two days now (Grace had a 102.3 fever!) and Devin woke up with a horrible cough this morning. There is no way am waking up my kids just to leave for ten minutes.

Please pray this house sells soon.

A Mystery Solved?

2008-07-23T20:53:00.003-05:00

I think we may have solved the mystery of Grace's strange finger injury. But before I get into that, I'll update on the injury itself.

Luckily, we've got a real trooper on our hands. Todd and I both held our collective breath as we had to keep Gracie's right hand (her dominant hand) clean and dry until the stitches dissolved. Neither one of us quite knew just how this was going to happen.

It seemed, though, either through her own trepidation or the Grace of God (or both), Gracie has learned to use her left hand a lot. She eats with it and picks things up with it and has really favored her right hand, allowing the wound to heal nicely.

The stitches completely dissolved earlier this week, so we took the bandages off and started letting her bathe again without a baggie over her hand (believe it or not, she even held her hand out of the water during bath time!). For the first time, I really took a look at the scar. I'm not usually squeamish about this kind of stuff -- as a mom, you just can't be. But this one hit me right in the heart and I couldn't really bring myself to look directly at the wound.

But I've taken a closer look at it now and it's pretty amazing, really. The cut goes a good two-thirds of the way around her right ring finger and is obviously very deep. It won't be a scar that will ever completely fade, though her young age does lend itself to a pretty complete healing. For now, we call her Frankenbaby.

I worry a little about how much she's still favoring it, though. Today, for example, she was getting herself to a standing position from sitting on the floor. As she leaned forward to place her hands on the ground, she put her left hand down flat, but put her right hand down with her palm up, using her wrist to pull herself up. Hmmmmm...

Devin has his five-year-old appointment tomorrow, so I plan to ask the pediatrician if she wants to see Gracie or not. I suspect I know the answer to that.

Anyway, onto the point of my post...

Yesterday, the girls were playing together, babbling in their own little language. I'm usually able to pick up every third or fourth word and get the gist of their conversations. This particular exchange was about bites they had gotten. Faith pointed to the one that Grace had laid on her this past weekend. Grace pointed to the area where an ant bit her a few weeks ago. Faith then showed off the part of her heel where our herding dog, Zoe, had tried to get her to go a certain direction (by the way, before you call Child Protective Services on me, Zoe is very gentle and only herds the kids away from danger).

Then Gracie put up her injured finger, pointed to it with her left hand and said, "I bite!"

Well...I guess Todd's assessment was right. Grace must have fallen onto her own hand, with mouth open and, CRUNCH! Nearly bit off her own finger.

There's one for the family album, huh?

The Preferred Pacis

2008-07-22T17:11:00.002-05:00

We are a pacifier household. When Devin was little (little-er, really), he had to have three pacifiers at a time -- one in his mouth and one in each hand. It took an act of God to get him to give them up.

But he did give them up, just in time for the twins to get addicted to them.

Luckily, they aren't nearly as dependent upon them as Devin was. They don't walk around all day with them in their mouths, they don't care to take them places with them and if they need one because of some injustice that's been done to them during the day, any paci will do in a pinch.

But bedtime is another story.

We have four pacifiers that will do at bedtime. And they are the only pacifiers that will do at bedtime. We call them "The Preferred Pacis."

They are just Gerber brand pacifiers, so you'd think they wouldn't be hard to find. But they aren't the NUK pacis, which are the most easily found. Instead, we somehow got hooked on the Gerber, soft-centered latex pacifiers.

Okay, no big deal, right? They're Gerber -- they can't be that hard to track down.

Wrong.

It seems that Gerber has discontinued making these pacifiers. They are still making the smaller sizes, but my girls won't have anything to do with those small ones. They have to be the larger sizes (6+ months) and these are the sizes that are no longer being produced.

I'm stressing about this. I can't imagine the girls' reaction if we ever lose all four preferred pacis. There will be a lot of sleepless nights on our hands.

I've sent a strongly worded email to Gerber, asking about getting my hands on some of these now-worth-their-weight-in-gold pacifiers. I've bid on a few on eBay ("Ewwwwwwwww!" I know, but I'm at my wit's end!) and even won one of the auctions in which I will be paying nearly $14.00 for two pacifiers.

Desperation has set in.

Despite completely different subject matter, I feel a lot like this:

Devin's Doozie - A Visual Journey

2008-07-15T19:41:00.002-05:00

Tonight, Devin got himself ready for bed. He walked out of his room in the following get up:

Cars jammie bottoms
Space-themed jammie top
An Ace Bandage, wrapped around his lower left leg
Spider Man house slippers
One Spongebob Squarepants gardening glove

Unfortunately, he disrobed before I could grab my camera.

Giving the Finger

2008-07-10T17:56:00.002-05:00

It's been awhile since my last post because life in our house has suddenly just gone off the deep end. I mean, I fall into bed every night and fall asleep in minutes, only to wake up eight hours later and run like a mad woman again until bed time. It's a cycle I just can't seem to break.

I'll recap about our 4th of July weekend a little later in this post, but first I need to write the post that goes along with today's title.

Today, Grace gave me the finger. Specifically, the tip of her finger.

This week, Kimberly, Todd's best friend's daughter, is here visiting and helping out with the twins. She loves the twins and makes my life fantastic when she visits. I look forward to her being here every time!

So this morning, Kimberly, Devin, Faith, Grace and I were in our living room. The kids were all playing and everything was normal.

Grace was walking along between the couch (where I was sitting) and the coffee table holding her little toy bongo drums.

All of the sudden, the poor thing took a spill after stepping on a toy truck. The bongo drums went flying and down went Gracie.

She, of course, began to cry and I, of course, picked her up. But when I did, I saw blood on her lips. My first thought was that she had cut her lip on a tooth. But when I got her onto my lap, I realized that she was pouring blood. Gushing it.

So I flew into the kitchen to set her on the counter and figure out where the red stuff was coming from. The mouth? A cut on her leg? Where the heck was origin of all of this???

And then I saw it. The tip of the ring finger on her right hand was dangling. It was almost off.

I shouted out my findings, a few expletives and declared that I needed to get her to the ER.

Kimberly, being the angel that she is, helped me get Grace in the car, got my purse for me and called Todd to let him know what happened.

Meanwhile, I drove like a crazy woman all the way to the hospital, with my hazards on and blaring my horn as I took illegal turns and sped around other cars. I was a woman on a mission.

I drove the car up to the porte corchere at the emergency room and pulled Gracie out of the back seat. I left the car there and hours later, realized that I had parked in such a way that others couldn't really get through the driveway. *Gulp* I hope no one else had an emergency today.

I hauled bottom into the ER screaming, "Help! My daughter nearly severed her finger!" At this point, both Grace and I were covered in blood.

We were taken back, assessed, and gotten to a doctor in a matter of minutes. The doctor took a look at the finger, wrapped it up and gave me the scoop.

"We're going to need to put her under to reattach this. When was the last time she had anything to eat?"

"8:30 this morning."

"We can't put her under until it's been six hours since she last ate, so we'll have to wait until 2:30 to do the procedure."

With that, Grace was given some Tylenol with Codeine and we were left to wait five hours for the "okay" to reattach the dangling digit.

So we killed time watching TV, alternately going to get stuff to eat (Todd had left work to join us at the ER) and trying to get Gracie to rest.

Right on cue, though, around 2:00, Grace was given a drug similar to Valium that made her loopy and relaxed her enough to allow the nurses to get the IV in her arm.

Once all of the pieces were in place, Gracie Too was given a sedative that knocked her out in seconds. 45 minutes later, she had two internal stitches, four external stitches and the hope that any nerve damage will heal with time due to her young age.

Our little one slowly woke up, demonstrated that she could drink fluids and keep them down and we were discharged. Now we just have to keep that finger clean and dry for two weeks. This is where I just laughed.

It's all pretty typical, really. Grace is just like Devin and Devin is always two steps away from the ER. It would only stand to reason that she, too, would end up at our local emergency room.

What's a major mystery is how her finger got involved.

Kimberly confirmed that while there was plenty of blood on the floor and kitchen counter, there was no blood on the toys. As we expected, the toy that was held/thrown and the one that was tripped over did not cause the gash.

The only thing we could come up with is that when Gracie fell forward, she caught herself on her hands and her front teeth hit one of her fingers upon impact. That would explain why she had blood on her mouth when I first picked her up.

So really, this is the utter definition of freak accident. "One in a million, Doc. One in a million."

I'd planned to blog about what else we've been up to, but I'm a little weary and am looking forward to the date I have with my latest novel. I'll blog more when I can. If that day ever arrives. :)

So this is

Devin's Doozie

2008-06-29T18:00:00.002-05:00

In recent weeks, the Pruetz family has been passing something around that's had our stomach in knots. If it's not nausea, then it's a lack or appetite or indegestion or...worse.

Anyway, we've been using the term, "stomach bug," to describe this general malady and today, out of the blue, Devin asked, "Daddy...how big is a stomach bug?"

Dear Abby...

2008-06-25T18:35:00.002-05:00

If I were to write a letter to Dear Abby at this very moment in time, it would go like this:

Dear Abby,

My son is running around the house in nothing but a pair of too-tight denim shorts and a his sisters' pink feather boa around his neck.

So my question is this:
Should I pour myself another martini?

Erin Pruetz
San Antonio, TX

The Big Four-Oh

2008-06-22T13:32:00.002-05:00

This past Thursday, June 19, my Todd-e-o turned 40 years old. This is especially fun for me, since I am still in my 30s. My early 30s. :)

We celebrated the occasion with Todd's parents, his sister Jill, her boyfriend Tom and my dad. We had a feast of a dinner, topped off by a specially made cake by me -- in the shape of a coffin. I joked that we were mourning the passing of Todd's youth.

It was a fun evening, but I wasn't about to let his momentous occasion slip by without doing something special for my husband.

A few weeks ago, I booked a room for us at the Omni La Mansion del Rio Hotel and set us up with reservations at one of the fine dining establishments on the river.

But I didn't just want to take Todd to a hotel and to dinner -- I wanted to make it a production full of surprises and unexpected twists. As my sister ZZ always says, "I love a good caper!"

So I kept all of this, except the dinner, a secret from Todd.

My dad came into town under the guise that he was just here for a visit. After Todd returned from a Saturday morning church meeting, I told him that I was going to visit a friend of mine who I hadn't seen in forever (thanks for the excuse, Polly!). Instead, though, I took a pre-packed bag down to the hotel, checked in and set up our room with chocolates and champagne.

I returned home from "visiting with my friend" and my dad said to us, "I'm here, so why don't you all just go down to the river to hang out? There's no reason to have to wait until your 6:30 reservation!"

So we decided to go ahead and head downtown to the river.

During the drive down there, though, I told Todd the story my dad, sister and I had concocted the night before.

A little background information: When I was a kid, my dad commuted from Houston to San Antonio every week so that our family wouldn't have to be uprooted. Subsequently, he became very familiar with San Antonio. That helped aid in the story I told Todd to get him to the hotel without any suspicion.

I told my unsuspecting hubby that when my dad was working in San Antonio, he used to take his clients to a little-known, private bar at the La Mansion Hotel. I told him that it was a converted hospitality suite that was open to the public, but that you had to know it existed and that you had to ask for a key from the front desk, the concierge or the bar tender. The bar, I explained, was simply known as "Room 430."

I explained that my dad had gotten us a key and that there was a bottle of champagne waiting for us there.

The whole ride down there, Todd talked about how cool it was that we were going to get to be a part of this exclusive club and that he couldn't believe we'd never heard about it. He bought the story hook, line and sinker.

So we got to the hotel and I pretended to not really know where I was going (the hotel is 150 years old and has been built in stages, lending itself very well to my story). We finally made our way to "Room 430" and I said, "Well, I guess this is it." I took out the "special" key and we both leaned into the door to see if we could hear any voices from inside.

We heard nothing (of course), so Todd said, "Well...try the key. See if it works."

It did, of course, and I opened the door into our beautiful riverview suite, replete with a private balcony.

Todd stepped into the room, looked around and said, "This isn't a bar."

I was standing behind him and as he turned to me, he saw the smile on my face and realized that he'd been duped.

"We're staying here tonight?"

"Happy 40th birthday!"

We popped open the champagne and stepped out onto our balcony to people watch (a place like the San Antonio Riverwalk is a great place for people watching). We relaxed for awhile and enjoyed the quiet and solitude of our private room.

We then hopped a River taxi to the Fig Tree Restaurant and sat down for what was one of the best dining experiences of my life. White linen table cloths, waiters who attended very need, an extensive wine list and award-winning entrees. It was fantastic.

After dinner, we walked back to our hotel, where I suggested we stop by the hotel bar (the real one) for a drink.

We made our way through the lobby and into the quiet bar, where about a dozen of Todd's closest friends, including his sister, were waiting to celebrate with us.

This is the point where Todd cried. So many people were there to wish him a happy birthday and celebrate with him. It was just magical.

We had a great couple of drinks and enjoyed our friends and finally retired to our room around 11:30. We had another glass of champagne and ate the cake that the hotel had placed in our room for Todd's birthday.

We fell asleep around midnight and didn't get up until 10:00 this morning. I don't recall the last time I slept until 10:00. It must have been high school.

It felt so good.

We ordered room service and ate our Eggs Benedict out on the balcony, as we watched the Riverwalk awaken for another busy day of tourism and fun.

We headed home around 11:30 and here I sit, quietly typing as my family takes a rest. It was a wonderful weekend and I am so happy to have been able to celebrate Todd's birthday in style. Thanks to my dad and my sister for helping set everything up and for everyone who came to the bar to celebrate with us.

Happy 40th birthday, Todd. You are loved beyond measure.

The Chocolate Spoon

2008-06-18T12:54:00.003-05:00

When I was a freshman in college in 1994, I got care packages from my mom a couple of times a month. Cookies, cards, pictures and trinkets were always a part of the mix and one time I got an extra-special treat -- a bunch of chocolate-dipped spoons! I loved these things, as they released just the right amount of chocolate in your coffee as you stirred it with the spoon. Definitely one of man's greater inventions.

I used just about all of the spoons and enjoyed them immensely. I got down to my last one, though, and decided to save it. You know -- for that perfect, cold day cup o' joe. It was worth waiting for.

So the spoon stuck around for the rest of my freshman year. It also stuck around for my sophomore, junior and senior years. I just never found the right "time" to use the spoon.

Around that time, my mom was diagnosed with Alzheimer's Disease and I clung to everything she gave me, knowing that care packages and trinkets from my mom were things of the past.

So the spoon stayed on through college and moved to my first apartment. Two years after graduating, I bought a condo and the spoon moved to the condo with me. Two-and-a-half years after that, Todd and I got married and moved to San Antonio. My mom died a little more than a year after moving into our current home and I just couldn't bear to throw the spoon out. That chocolate-dipped utensil has sat in our silverware drawer for more than six years now.

Until today.

While I was on the phone with a friend of mine with whom I needed to do some major catching up, I turned my back on the twins, knowing they would amuse themselves with baby dolls and other such notions. I watched them carefully enough to pluck them from the kitchen table a few times and break up a fight over a pacifier, but didn't pay much attention as they started rifling through the drawers I allow them to rifle through.

But when Grace toddled into the living room with a huge hunk of chocolate, I knew immediately what had happened. My mom's spoon -- 14 years in the making -- was being devoured by two little devils in my very own kitchen.

I didn't cry. Actually, I laughed. Th whole thing is pretty silly and it was just my obsessive-compulsive personality that made me keep the spoon for more than a decade. I knew my mom was laughing hysterically up in Heaven, watching my girls get chocolate all over themselves and laughing at me for holding onto something so inconsequential.

But the whole thing did raise one very important question:

Is 14-year-old chocolate bad for babies?

The answer to that question will be in the next 24 hour's diapers.

1...2...3...JUMP!

2008-06-16T15:10:00.004-05:00

A few months ago, Faith jumped out of her crib. We thought it was an isolated incident, because she didn't do it again. We just assumed it scared her and she was going to stay put.

Two weeks ago, she did it again. Todd and I both wondered when this would become a habit.

Today was the day! All was quiet around the house and suddenly, "THUD!"

I ran upstairs to find Faith standing next to Grace's crib, looking a little stunned, but obviously trying to help her sister get a dropped pacifier and blanket.

As soon as Faith saw me, she started to cry, so I picked her up, rocked her and made it clear that she needs to stay in her crib from now on.

Fast forward about 15 minutes and I heard a lot of screeching upstairs. I went back up to the twins' room and opened the door. There was Faith, feet perched halfway up the rungs in the corner of the crib, ready to make a leap. I got there just in time to stop another, "THUD!" from happening.

I am not ready for these girls to be in "big girl beds" yet, so I guess it's time to purchase a crib tent.

It's just another day in paradise!

Devin's Doozie

This doozie happened a long time ago. In fact, I was pregnant with the twins when it happened! However, it remains one of my favorite memories of Devin and I am writing it down to make sure the moment is never lost.

When Devin was two, Todd decided it was time to teach him the ol' "Pull my finger," joke. You know the one. Don't make me explain.

So anyway, the joke became very popular in our house whenever Todd felt "the need." Devin was very impressed by his Daddy's ability to do such a thing on cue.

One day, while Todd was at work, Devin decided to play the trick on me. Not fully understanding how it works, he turned to me and said, "Mommy...pull my finger."

Being the fabulous mom that I am, I obliged, and pulled on the chubby little digit pointed toward me.

Upon doing so, nothing happened. Only silence and fresh air.

With a hurt look on his face and a question in his eyes, he looked at me and said, "It didn't work!"

Darn It!

2008-06-10T09:54:00.002-05:00

As we were filling out the paperwork to get the house listed and on the market, we came to a horrible discovery:

We are required to take the children with us when we move!

This changes everything.

*Big Smile Here*

Naked Baby

2008-06-09T09:43:00.002-05:00

What is it about my child (specifically, Faith) taking off her clothes all the time?

It happens a few times a week. I'll walk into the twins' room, to find that Faith has taken off her shorts (we gave up on shirts months ago) and is sitting there in her diaper. Sometimes, shirts come off randomly in the living room or while she is sitting in her high chair. You just never know.

Yesterday, after nap time, I went to get the girls out of their cribs and there was Faith, stark naked, lying in her stomach, chin resting on her hands and feet in the air, looking like a 1920s poster girl for a burlesque show.

Today, I got back from taking Devin to Vacation Bible School and before I could even get Gracie out of the car, Faith had already taken off her dress and was running around the house in only a diaper.

I can't imagine where this comes from. ZZ? Any insight? :)

Movin' On...

2008-06-08T20:18:00.003-05:00

It's been a long time comin', but we've decided to put our house on the market.

This is a bittersweet time for the Pruetz family, as this house holds just about every memory our family has made.

Todd and I bought and moved into our home after only nine months of marriage. We bought this four-bedroom, two-and-a-half bath home knowing we would start a family and fill the home with the pitter patter of little feet.

Sure enough, only 13 months after moving into our home, Devin was born and we went from being a couple to being a family.

We knew this house wouldn't be our "forever house," but it worked very well for our family of three. Devin had his room and bathroom, we had a study and a guest room, as well as our bedroom and bathroom, along with a big kitchen, a family room, a formal living room and formal dining room.

When there was some doubt as to whether or not we would be able to have any more kids, we started to think that this abode may be the one we sell after we retire.

And then the shoe dropped. Two shoes dropped, actually.

We became pregnant with the twins and suddenly, our house didn't seem quite so big anymore. At first it wasn't bad, but now that three kids are sharing one bathroom (a big bath with two sinks, but still not big enough) and we are swimming in toys ranging from baby dolls and toy high chairs to Hot Wheels and monster trucks, we just plain don't have enough room.

So, with some sadness and yet a bit of excitement, our home will have a "For Sale" sign in its front yard tomorrow.

We're looking to upgrade, but are resisting the desire to go hog wild. We'd like to stick with four bedrooms (the girls will have their own rooms, but can sleep together if we have guests over), three full bathrooms (Devin will have his own and the twins will share), a game room and a study.

Luckily, we live in an area of town with lots and lots of growth, so we don't doubt that we'll find something great.

But until then, we've got to keep this house clean with three kids and a dog living here.

Jealous? I didn't think so.

So if you read the headline, "San Antonio mom goes psycho after scrubbing kitchen floor for the fourth time in 24 hours," you'll know who's the star.

Obsessing... Again.

2008-05-30T10:48:00.005-05:00

By now, you all have probably figured out that I obsess. It could be about events or a meal or what I'm going to say to so-and-so or... The list goes on and on. It's a part of my personality that I just like to classify as "quirky."

Of course, "quirky," is really just code language for "annoying."

But I digress.

Anyway, this time around, I am obsessing about today's release of Sex and the City: The Movie.

Now I have to give you a bit of background here. Anyone who knows me well knows that I am pretty conservative about this, er...topic. I like a good joke about sex and can talk about it ad nauseam with my girlfriends, but promiscuity and casual sex are just not things I've ever been able to understand.

So it's a little surprising that I would like the show "Sex and the City" so much, but the truth is, I do.

Maybe it's because I have been blessed with some incredible girlfriends who have seen me through the toughest, roughest and loneliest times in my life. I have found friends in places I never knew I had them and have been disappointed and betrayed by women who I thought would never leave my side. During the highlights and the lowlights of my life, my girlfriends (even the ones to whom I no longer speak) have seen me through. I hope that they all feel the same way.

So "Sex and the City" is a good reminder of how powerful female relationships can be and it draws me in.

I'd be lying if I didn't say, though, that Carrie's relationship with Big, Charlotte's quest for a baby, Miranda's struggle between family and career and Samantha's all-around over-the-top personality don't draw me in. They do.

So the movie, a continuation of the show that ended four years ago, opens today and I am ecstatic to see it. I am going with my three best friends (think of us as the married, conservative, Catholic versions of the four women in the movie) and can't wait.

And when I say I can't wait, I mean I can't wait. I've been looking at spoilers all morning, trying to get a grasp on what happens. Does Carrie marry Big? Does Charlotte really get pregnant after adopting a baby? Are Samantha and Smith still together? Inquiring minds want to know!

As I was reading through speculation upon speculation, there was some talk of the ultimate loss: death. Apparently, there is a rumor that Big dies on he and Carrie's wedding day. Could it be? Holy smokes! That's terrible! He's smarmy and gross and self-centered, but what would SATC be without Mr. Big???

There's talk about Steve's mother dying, about infidelity and about Samantha moving to Los Angeles. Los Angeles? How could SATC take place in any city other than New York?

So here I sit, reading spoilers and speculations, wondering how I am ever going to make it to Sunday afternoon before I get to see this movie.

Is anyone else sitting in their living room, stewing over what may or may not happen? Drop me a comment if you are! Misery loves company!

And one last thing

I don't have HBO. I have never had HBO, so the SATC episodes that I watch are the very watered-down versions on TBS. I've never seen an un-edited episode of SATC and I have to wonder how I am going to react to what I am sure will be pretty explicit scenes. Who knows? I may end up hating it!

Where In The World is Erin Pruetz?

2008-05-28T20:48:00.002-05:00

I am such a slacker. I wish I could say that I'd been on some fabulous cruise around the world, or that I have been hanging out in a luxury spa every day for the past three weeks, but believe me when I tell you that this is not the case.

In fact, nothing is the case. Life around here has been status quo and every day little things have happened that have made me say, "I should blog about this!" But, invariably, I would become distracted and not write a word.

Then something else would happen. And I wouldn't write. And again, and again, and again.

After awhile, my thoughts and desires to blog just overwhelmed me and I reacted in the classic Erin manner: I just ignored it all and now, here I sit, with a huge gap between posts. Hopefully, I can play catch-up in this entry.

Todd
Todd shaved his head completely bald in support of his best friend Tim's wife, Ivy, who is going through chemo to treat a cancerous lymphoma. I took quite a few pictures, but a symptom of my avoidance has been that I haven't downloaded pictures in quite a long time, so I don't have any to post at the moment.

Happily, though, Ivy's tumor has shrunk 60% after only two rounds of chemo. Woo hoo!

Mother's Day
I had a great Mother's Day, during which I got to sleep in and dine on my very favorite breakfast: Eggs Benedict. I got a day of not having to clean the house or cook and even received a new Dust Buster! I know...quite a gift for Mother's Day, huh? Well, I asked for it. Literally...I asked for a Dust Buster for my special day.

March for Babies
Our whole family, my sister and her twins, along with some very good friends of ours all participated in the March of Dimes March for Babies. It was an amazing experience to meet so many people whose children were born premature, but who had survived their ordeals due to the miracles of modern medicine. I can't wait to do it again next year!

The Last Day of School
Devin's last day of Pre-K was last Thursday and we said a sad goodbye to Crown of Life Lutheran Preschool as we graduated to Kindergarten. I can't believe how fast this past year went and now I'm in the, "What the heck am I going to do with these kids all summer?" mode.

Okay, not fabulous, but truthfully, that's about as good as it gets! I promise to get back on track with blogging a few times a week. Thanks for bearing with me and my "issues." :)

Me

Devin's Doozie

2008-05-12T13:01:00.001-05:00

This Doozie is less of word and more of deed.

I just found my son grooming the dog with one of our forks. Fabulous.

*Side note: I know I need to update. I promise to soon -- I've just been lazy.

The Angel and the Devil

2008-05-06T12:24:00.002-05:00

My girls change personalities weekly. One week, Faith will be the aggressive biter while Grace is the unwitting recipient of her sister's personality quirks.

Seven, ten...maybe 14 days later, though, they will switch personalities and Faith will be the withering rose while Grace creates a reign of terror over her identical twin.

This week, Grace is the antagonist while Faith is the protagonist. Actually, now that I think about it, it's been this way for a few weeks.

A few minutes ago, Grace hit Faith a couple of times and then threw a toy at her. It was an immediate time out for Gracie, so had to sit on the bottom step of the stairs for two minutes.

These girls know what time out is and Grace was none-too-happy to be alienated from her mommy and sister. She cried and wailed, but knew better than to get up. She just sat there, looking very pathetic.

Well Faith, being this week's sweet twin, saw that Gracie was very unhappy and decided to make it "all better." She picked up Grace's paci and blanket (we call them "minkies") and took them over to her sister. Knowing, though, that Grace's foul mood could rear its ugly head in the form of a slap, Faith gingerly set the pacifier and blanket down on the step about six inches from Grace. Then she backed away carefully, keeping both eyes on the tiny tyrant. She's no dummy.

After time out was over, Grace and I had a hug and a little bit of snuggle time, to assure her that mommy still loves her very much. During this time, Faith found her cup of orange juice. Most incredibly, though, after she found her own, she went on a search for Gracie's, just trying to make sure that her sister knew she was loved and cared for by many.

I have to admit, it made my heart melt. They do love each other, despite the fighting.

On a different note...

Yesterday afternoon, as I was on the phone with my good friend, Sheena, I had my back turned toward the kitchen. I should know by now to never turn my back on the twins, but I guess I just wasn't thinking.

As I turned around, though, I saw what I had been missing. Both girls had managed to climb up on the kitchen table and help themselves to the apples in the bowl that sat upon the dining apparatus.

Every apple in the bowl had a bite out of it.

The whole scene reminded me of the time Devin did a similar thing.

Anyway, despite plucking the girls off the table as quickly as I could, the damage was done. It is now their favorite past time to get up on the table and make a mockery of me. We've done time outs and even light spankings to let them know that this is not acceptable. So far, nothing's worked. They're still climbing on the table, laughing in my face as I try to keep from smiling. Despite the obvious defiance and testing-of-limits, they look simply adorable, perched up there like that.

I don't really know how to stop this latest phenomenon. I tried pulling the chairs away from the table, but our entire downstairs is either tile or hardwood, so wherever the chairs go, they just scoot them over to the table and start climbing.

This is my reality.

You Asked...I'll Answer

2008-05-05T14:20:00.003-05:00

I really didn't know if anyone was going to ask any questions on my blog, but apparently this is a pretty popular trend in blogging! Some of you (Tina Z...) were smart-aleks about it and I plan to answer each of your questions -- So there!.

Q. Good friend, sorority sister and mommy-of-two, Tara, asked, Where exactly did you learn the words to the Aardvark song and what are they?

A. I learned the words of the Aardvark song from college best friend, Heather Moore. It was a camp song that she sang when she was a counselor. The words go like this: "Aardvarks are my friends, Aardvarks are my friends, Aardvarks are my friends..."

For those of you who don't know this lovely little ditty, it's just those same four words over and over again, sang to the tune of "Yankee Doodle." If you sing it correctly (some words and syllables will be broken up strangely), you'll end it in perfect timing with the music. If I have counted correctly, you actually say, "Aardvarks are my friends," 11 times.

When you're done with verse one, you yell, "FASTER!" and move onto verse two which is -- you guessed it -- the same as verse one...only faster.

Q. High school buddy, Christi asked, "Do you believe in ghosts?"

A. We don't have enough time for the answer I'd like to give, so I'll try to keep it as short as possible.

I most definitely, 100% believe in ghosts. I don't know why they hang around or why they're not in Heaven with God. I don't know if they are "stuck" here or if they have unfinished business or what. I wish I had the answers to those questions, but those are truly two of the biggest mysteries I'd like to have solved.

Everyone has special talents -- artistic, athletic, creative, etc. God gives us those talents and abilities to use for His glory. I truly believe that one of my abilities is to see ghosts (yes...I see dead people). I see them daily, in my house, around my house, etc. They don't scare me and they don't bother me, though they do perplex me. Why are they here? What can I do to help them? Devin sees them, too, but the girls don't seem to have picked up on their presence.

I'm also haunted. Not my house, not my car...me. I have had the same ghosts following me around my entire life. I can tell the new ones (they come and go) from the old ones (of whom I've been aware since I was about three). Sometimes I go months without seeing them and other times they won't leave me alone. Last week, in particular, I think they were playing games with me. I just couldn't get rid of them.

My sister is the same way. She, too, is haunted and when I'm at her house, I see her ghosts.

So there. Now you all think I'm a lunatic.

Angie, from whom I got this idea, asked a series of questions:
Q. Did you really think my question/answer thing was dumb at first? j/k

A. Hah! And you thought I wouldn't answer! I didn't think it was a dumb idea. I just didn't "get it" at first. Now I'm totally into it!

Q. Do you prefer dark or light chocolate?

A. Milk chocolate, any day of the week, any time of the day, under any circumstance.

Q. If you could meet one momo mom, who would it be? (totally just kidding here)

A. Hah! Another one you thought I wouldn't answer! I'd love to meet Angie! Of course, I'd like to meet all of my Mo/Mo friends -- just to share the experience with another person would be amazing.

Q. Do you ever read gossip magazines?

A. Nope -- don't really like magazines.

Q. Who is your favorite author?

A. I don't have a particular author, rather a type of book that lends itself to some pretty big names. Murder mysteries are always a hit with me, so people like James Patterson top my list. I also like true crime, so Ann Rule ranks up there, too. My favorite book is, "To Kill a Mockingbird," so Harper Lee (a Chi Omega!) is a definite favorite by default.

Q. If you could have been named something else (first name), what would the name be?

A. My parents almost named me Ivy. I've always loved that name and secretly wished it were mine.

Q. What traits do you admire most in others?

A. Honesty. Humor. Faith (in something -- you don't have to believe in my God...just believe in something). Hardworking.

Q. Annie asked me, "Are you still obsessed with Robert "what's his name" from The Cure???"

A. Obsessed...no. I've definitely grown out of that stage in life (you know -- the stage I was in when I was 13!). But I do still really like The Cure and listen to their music often. I even have my kids listening to it! I think they are talented guys and their work still speaks to me after all these years.

Robert Smith, the lead singer of The Cure, known for his wild hair and white makeup, is still good looking to me. Obviously, my tastes have changed a little and marrying a guy who looks like he just crawled out of a grave isn't high on my priority list like it was back then. But the core of who he is still a handsome man in my eyes.

All the way from New Zealand, Mo/Mo mom, Jocasta asked three questions:

Q. Where would you go on holiday if you could go anywhere in the world?

A. Italy, particularly Tuscany, Venice, Rome and The Vatican. I will go there some day before I die!

Q. What song is guaranteed to lift your mood?

A. "All Just to Get To You," by Joe Ely. It was Todd and my first dance at our wedding and it reminds me of a life that was simpler and easier, but also how far Todd and I have come together and how I could never have this life without him.

Q. If you could choose 1 thing to be the best at what would it be?

A. Being a mommy. I think I'm a pretty good mom -- we take fun trips to parks and zoos and even places like Disney World. We dance and sing and talk and do all of the normal stuff. But I wish I were one of those moms who does art projects with her kids and orders cocoons so they can watch them hatch into butterflies and who teaches them to read when they are three... You know those mommies. I've always wished I could be the mom who does stuff like that.

Casey asked me a few questions as well:

Q. What was your first car and what sone reminds you of driving it?

A. That's a tough one, since I had a lot of cars at varying stages of my learning to drive. I learned to drive on my mom's 1968 Willys Jeep which didn't have a radio. The first car that was mine after I got my license was a 1982 Datsun 280 ZX. I didn't drive it much, as my dad didn't trust it. So instead, I drove his Toyota Cressida while he drove my sports car. Wait a second...

Anyway, the car I drove the most was the Cressida, so I think anything by REM would be what reminds me most of that car. The album, "Automatic for the People," takes me back to cruising around my hometown of Kingwood, being as cool as cool can be. Or so I thought...

Q. Favorite ice cream

A. It depends. Usually something chocolately, with a crunch to it. But every once in awhile, I have to get a Daquiri Ice from Baskin Robbins. Just thinking about it makes my mouth water!

Q. What was the last GOOD movie you saw that you would recommend to others?

A. Wanna hear the saddest thing you've ever heard? I don't recall the last movie I saw (aside from reruns on TBS). Give me a month or two and I'll come back to this question.

I suck.

And finally, my friend and favorite smart-alek, Tina, asked, "Do these pants make my butt look big?"

A. Yes.

So there you have it! This was fun -- at least for me! If you have more question (I have a distinct feeling I'll be fielding a few about the ghosts), let 'em rip! I'm up for (just about) anything!

First Haircuts -- Goodbye Mullets!

2008-05-02T15:06:00.004-05:00

Today I took the twins for their very first haircuts. Since they were as bald as eggs until after they turned one, I've been waiting for this for a long time. Over the last 12 months, their wispy, fine hair has grown little by little, but I've resisted the urge to cut it, knowing that the longer I waited, the better off they would be.

Well this week, I just couldn't take it any longer. The girls had both developed major mullets and I could no longer stand looking at my daughters, picturing them driving El Caminos and drinking Nattie Light. Something had to be done.

So Devin and I took the girls to Cool Cuts 4 Kids, one of those salons that caters to toddlers and young kids, keeping them busy with TVs at each station, toys, movies and video games.

After a short wait, Faith was up. She sat right in the chair, didn't make any sort of fuss as the cloth was draped around her shoulders and sat perfectly still as her hair was straightened up and styled in a cute little bob. She was topped off with a little red bow to match her dress and I was given a lock of her hair and a photograph of her sitting in the chair (well...the fire truck, as it were), all in a handy-dandy little folder.

Knowing that I would never get this lucky again, I plucked Grace away from all of the toys and sat her in the fire truck. Sure enough, the tears began to flow. I dug a lollipop out of my purse (placed there just for this occasion), and while she held onto the confection for dear life, she didn't actually suck on it until after she was out of the chair.

My poor little girl just sat and cried the whole time. Oddly enough, though, she didn't squirm. She literally just sat and cried. It was as if she knew that she needed to sit still or was going to be getting a lot of funny looks for the next few weeks. So, despite the wailing, she really did just as well as Faith had done.

Soon enough, Gracie was done, too, sporting a white bow and I got a little folder with her picture and a lock of her hair as well. Devin got his first haircut at the same place (at eight months old!), so now we have a matched set of these little keepsakes.

Afterwards, we went next door to Target where the girls were obviously very happy with their cuts. They were strutting their stuff like two little proud peacocks. Mommy was pretty happy, too. :)

Here are some pictures from our first salon adventure.

The before: Mullet city

Faith patiently waits as she gets a new 'do

Grace managed to scream and sit still at the same time

Afterwards - Faith is in red, Grace is in green

And here is a bonus shot of Faith throwing a fit at lunch today. The best part is how Grace is reacting

Interactive Blogging

2008-05-01T16:27:00.002-05:00

Friend, fellow blogger and Mo/Mo mom, Angie has been doing something intermittently on her blog that I'm really starting to get into.

At first I didn't get it...why is she inviting people to ask her personal questions on her blog? I mean, isn't this her blog? Shouldn't she get to write about what she wants to write about, versus writing about what others want her to write about? It didn't make sense.

But then, as the progression of questions went forward, I started to see the fun in all of this -- accepting all sorts of questions from her readers made Angie's blog interactive. It gave her readers a way to direct the subject matter of some of her postings, while allowing Angie to still give updates on the day-to-day life in her household with her five children. Cute!

So will this work with my blog? Maybe. I don't know -- I have different readers from Angie and maybe no one is interested in shooting random, silly or thought-provoking questions out at me. Truly, it matters not to me.

But if there is a burning question on your mind, drop me a comment and ask it. I'll answer just about anything, though I won't promise that I'll answer it all, because there may be a question out there upon which I refuse to comment.

And questions don't have to be about me, my family or my kids. Truth be told, I'm not really that interesting. Queries can be something that you'd ask any ol' guy on the street -- Why is the sky blue? Is glass really made with sand? I can't guarantee I'll know the answer, but it will give me something to research. And I love to research!

So go ahead -- shoot! Or not. Whatever. :)

Beach Bums

2008-04-28T19:22:00.005-05:00

Yesterday we returned from a four-day, three-night jaunt to my favorite local vacation spot, Galveston, Texas.

I've blogged about Galveston quite a few times, as it truly is my heaven on Earth. I've said it in the past -- it's no tropical paradise like Hawaii or Jamaica or even Florida, but it's home to me and the best memories of my life come back to me when I am down there. I'm so lucky that Todd has embraced going to Galveston, as it would be so easy to just jet down to Corpus Christi or Port Aransas, which are only two hours away. But instead, my husband packs up our minivan at least once a year and endures the nearly five-hour drive to, through and past Houston so I can relive my childhood, one week at a time.

This year, for the first time, we didn't meet my family down in Galveston. Instead, we met our best friends, the Micek family, the Sauter family and the Schaefer family, along with their combined four children (and two on the way, via Sylvia and Destiny!) at the same resort in which we stayed last year with my family.

We fell in love with the resort last year, as it has everything a family could want. Pointe West is a community of homes and condos, all built in the same architectural style, centered around a huge beach club with a pool, hot tub, baby pool, cabanas, a restaurant, a bar, a lounge and a game room. Across the highway, on the bay side of the island, is another pool with a lazy river, a beach-entry pool and little river inlets to sit and relax in.

We all arrived on Thursday afternoon, and got "moved in" to the four bedroom, four bathroom house. We ordered pizza and spent time chatting and enjoying the beautiful weather on the enormous front porch of the house.

Friday morning we went to the Beach Club and then down to the beach for some fun in the sand. We made our way back up to the pool and played and splashed until lunch time. After sandwiches and chips, everyone took a good, long nap (what is it about the beach and naps?). Most of the group went to the bay-side pool that afternoon, while the Pruetzes stayed behind for some family bonding time.

That night was a Mexican fiesta, cooked by the matriarchs of the four families, and a walk on the beach for all. The night was topped off by a rousing game of Apples to Apples (and if you are reading this, Steve, I lost to Sylvia on purpose).

During the night, a thunderstorm rumbled across the island and we woke up to a rainy Saturday. The decision was made to actually drive into the city (the city of Galveston is about 20 miles away from Pointe West). The Miceks and the Sauters opted to go to Moody Gardens, while we, along with the Schaefers, went to the Galveston Railroad Museum. The Schaefers' three-year-old son, Drew, along with Devin and the girls, had a great time climbing aboard vintage steam engines, Pullman cars, dining cars and private accommodations.

I used to love to go to the Train Museum as a kid, as walking through the Victorian-era cars was like stepping into a haunted house. These were real trains, used for various cross-country purposes, carrying everyone from every day Joes to executives and even dignitaries. It still amazes me how many amenities can be crammed into such small areas. One car, created for the higher management of train companies, had a lounge, a dining room, a study, two private bedrooms (each with queen-sized beds and closets), a full bathroom and a living area for the porter. It was coupled with a car containing a full kitchen, complete with a cast-iron stove, and a dining room that could have easily sat 30 people.

We returned to the resort for lunch and a quick nap and by the time we had all wiped the sleep from our eyes, it was a beautiful, cloudless afternoon, perfect for another trip to the bay-side pool.

That night, the men of the group cooked us a manly man's dinner, with sausage, fajitas and grilled corn. They even cleaned up the kitchen afterwards! All of the kids went down shortly after dinner and the adults stayed up way too late laughing, talking and having fun.

Sunday came way too soon, and after one last quick trip to the pool, we packed up the house and headed off the island, just as another storm rolled in. We even got a quick glimpse of a water spout in the bay as we rolled North toward Houston.

This was one of the most fun four days I've ever had. We are so blessed to have such good friends with whom to do stuff like this. They bring so much to our lives and are all incredibly special people. I love that we have the kind of relationship that we can go on vacation together, that our children can grow up together and that years from now, we'll all be rocking together on the front porch of a beach house, "remembering when." We plan to make this an annual trip and I am already looking forward to next year's adventure.

Until then, here are some of my favorite pics from the weekend.

Amanda, Andrew and Devin

Gracie's feet

Jenn hides from an onslaught of love bugs

It's a twister! It's a twister!

Todd and the kids at the Beach Club

The view from our porch

Gracie found a Faith!

The Schaefer Family -- Destiny, Steve and Drew

Andrew and Devin

The twins at the Train Museum

Go Speed Typer! Go Speed Typer! Go Speed Typer, Go!

2008-04-23T19:51:00.004-05:00

I got this from my friend Angie's blog. I just had to share it.

94 words

In all honesty, I took the test like four times, with results ranging anywhere from 72 WPM all the way up to 94 -- I just happened to have a lucky moment.

But it was fun nonetheless! I never knew how fast I could type and it was interesting to be "tested." A great resource for wasting time...

Growth Spurt

2008-04-23T09:51:00.002-05:00

Devin must be growing again. It's 9:50 a.m. and so far this morning he has had:

1 biscuit with peanut butter and jelly
2 bowls of Cheerios with milk
A half of a package of strawberries
1 package of peanuts
A cup of orange juice

And the size 5 shirt that I bought him in February is already too short on him.

Devin's Doozie

2008-04-21T09:00:00.001-05:00

This morning, as he was watching TV, Devin announced to me, "I'm not wearing any underwear!"

Of course, this caused me to stop and ask, "Why not?"

"Because my hiney was itchy."

"Oh...okay."

"Wanna see?"

Ummmmmm...no...thanks.

The Office

2008-04-18T15:11:00.003-05:00

Do you watch The Office on NBC? It's on Thursday nights at 8:00 (that's Central time) and it's the highlight of the week for Todd and me.

That's pathetic, I know, but there is something about this show that is addictive. It's the perfect mix of hysterical and uncomfortable, while also being sincere and even a little suspenseful (Jim and Pam).

Not everyone loves this show like I do and I can see why. I think you either love it or hate it, but there's really no in between. Just like my sister loves roller coasters and theme park rides that drop you straight down, I find no fun in having my stomach thrust into my brain. Similarly, some may feel that the "squirm in your seat and avert your eyes because you are embarrassed for the main character," feeling that The Officeelicits is just not their idea of a good time.

Fair enough. To each his own.

But for those of you who do watch this fantastically written show, did you watch the, "Chair Model," episode last night? True to form, it was hysterical. Michael (the main character, Regional Manager of Dunder-Mifflin paper's Scranton branch) has just come out of a terrible relationship with Jan (his former boss) and is ready to move on.

As he is searching for the next woman-of-his-dreams, he happens upon a picture of a model in an office chair catalog. He "falls in love" with this girl and informs the others in the office that they should set him up on dates using this girl as a template.

Did anyone notice the chair model? It showed her briefly, and I missed it, but my quick-eyed husband picked up on the inside joke without hesitation.

The chair model is Jan (Melora Hardin) in a dark wig.

I am sure of it. Here...see for yourself.

I've sent an email to an Office fan site (this is where Todd extends his hand to shake mine and says, "Hi Captain Freetime...my name is Todd.") to see if I can get a confirmation.

So Far, No Video

2008-04-16T09:41:00.003-05:00

I've had lots of inquiries about an online video of the twins' story. Unfortunately, as of now, there is none.

KSAT is the leading news station in town, but their newscast isn't completely Web-enabled yet. They post the hard news stories on their site, but editorials, features and fluff pieces aren't posted on www.ksat.com.

Our DVR does not have a DVD-burner, but my sister's does. If we can get it to work (it's a little tempermental), I'll burn a copy of the story I can upload it to Blogger.com, YouTube.com, etc.

So bear with me and thanks for wanting to see story!

Our 15 Minutes of Fame

2008-04-15T09:19:00.002-05:00

We are local celebrities -- or at least we were for one minute and 20 seconds on Sunday night. KSAT aired their story about the girls and we were very pleased with the job they did.

They spotlighted the girls, their condition, my hospital stay, their prematurity and the medical expertise that had to go into their care.

It was great fun being a celebrity-for-a-moment, although they did mispronounce our last name. We're used to it, though, as P-R-U-E-T-Z would normally be pronounced Proo-ets. Not many people (myself included when I first met Todd) pick up on the German spelling and know to pronounce it Preets, so there are no hard feelings.

Anyway, it's life as usual around here. Last week was crazy and fun, but now everything has returned to the status quo -- just the way we like it.

Those Photos I Promised?

2008-04-12T15:55:00.006-05:00

Here they are!

On our way to Devin's first soccer game. He'd just woken up from a nap and was in less than a good mood.

=Devin and his cousin Presley played their first games on the same day.

Dev throws the ball in.

It's a jungle 'round here! (Grace is in Zebra)

Us with the giant check, the Director of Threads of Love and two representatives from Methodist Hospital.

Here is the story, if you're interested!

A Day for the Record Books

2008-04-10T19:44:00.002-05:00

This may have been the longest day of my life. We really only had two things to do today, but they were big things.

We started out the morning by getting the kids up and dressed and heading over to Methodist Hospital. There we met with the Director of Public Relations for the hospital, as well as the news crew from KSAT-12. Nancy Gonzalez, the morning news anchor, as well as one of the news photographers, joined us in the Antepartum unit where I spent six weeks of my life. It was strange going back there, but pretty heartwarming all-the-same, knowing how beautifully our story turned out.

As we were setting this whole thing up, I gave Methodist the names of my two favorite nurses, Kecia and Paula, in the hopes that they would be able to join us for the interviews. I was told that neither one of them were on staff that day and I was disappointed that I wouldn't get to see them again.

Imagine my surprise when I turned the corner to see Kecia standing there. Despite having the day off and being able to spend the day with her ten-month-old daughter, Kecia still came to the hospital to greet our family. Talk about a gift from God.

So we sat in one of the Antepartum rooms and Nancy interviewed me about the girls' story, my stay at Methodist, the girls' stay in the NICU and the Times of Your Life contest that I entered. We talked for about ten minutes and then it was time for Kecia to give her professional thoughts on the whole situation.

Afterwards, the photographer shot some footage of the girls playing in the room and then we moved to the Children's Hospital lobby where there were plenty of places for them to crawl, run and just be cute. Devin got into some of the shots, as well, and we are all looking forward to our 15 minutes of fame. Maybe tomorrow night? I'll be taping the news until it airs!

Todd went onto work and I took Devin to school. I got the girls home for a quick lunc and then down for a nap. Now I am a napping sort of girl, but lately I've just been so busy that I have gotten out of the habit of taking a nap during the day.

So knowing I wouldn't fall asleep, I laid down on the couch for some quiet time before taking the girls' to their 1:15 GI appointment.

I woke up at 1:20.

ARGH!!!

I bolted upstairs, got the girls out of their cribs and tossed them into the car, without even putting shoes on them. We made it to Dr. Elizondo's office in record time and I dashed in, begging them to see us and apologizing profusely for my oversight. I knew if we didn't see Dr. E today, it would be another six weeks before we could get into see him.

Luckily, someone had canceled their 1:45 appointment and they were able to get us in. Whew!

Since Grace was doing so well at her last appointment, Dr. E didn't really need to see her. So we got into the room and got Faith weighed and measured where she rang in at 22.1 lbs and 32 inches. That's the 3rd percentile for weight and 12th for height.

This made me very anxious.

So Dr. Elizondo came in and we talked about how Faith is doing on her new formula and about the allergy. I asked him to clear some things up for me about what she can and cannot eat. I also told him that I was worried about how much Faith didn't weigh.

So he left the office for a minute to check her growth curve and returned a moment later to say, "I'm not concerned! She's still growing and she's growing proportionately and while she's still small and underweight, she's moving up the curve and that's the most important thing."

I decided then and there that if Faith's GI doctor wasn't going to worry about her weight, I wasn't going to either.

We went on to talk about Faith's diet and I was totally prepared to hear all of the things that this cow's milk protein allergy was going to exclude her from. I just knew life was going to change drastically from that moment on.

Surprise again! Faith needs to avoid milk (done!), yogurt (she never eats the stuff because it's too messy!) and cheese. That last one will be difficult, but soy cheese is acceptable because Dr. E believes she's already on her way to growing out of the allergy. In his opinion, she'll have grown out of this in three to six months.

*Big Sigh of Relief Here*

I walked away from this appointment with a big smile on my face and a dramatic realization: This was the first and only time I have had an appointment with the twins that ended happily. Every appointment I've ever taken them on has ended in bad news: prematurity, staph infection, intubation, low weight, failure to thrive, asthma, cystic fibrosis, ear infections, strep throat...the list just goes on and on.

But today -- FINALLY -- an appointment ended happily.

It was a long day but I'll always remember it as a good day.

Thanks to all of you who sent good thoughts, prayers and well wished our way. It worked and I am blessed to have you.

Woo hoo!

The Giant Check

2008-04-09T21:46:00.002-05:00

Yesterday morning, Todd, Faith, Grace and I met representatives of Methodist Hospital at a local church where Threads of Love gets together every week to sew their items for area NICUs. We got to stand up, tell our girls' story and explain how it came about that we won the opportunity to donate $1,000 to Threads of Love. It was a great little meeting and, much to my surprise, one of my antepartum nurses was there, sewing! She didn't know I would be there, and vice versa, but it was great fun to see her nonetheless!

Then it was time for the photo op, and much to my delight, a gigantic check was given to Threads of Love from Methodist Hospital, with the four of us smiling on as the cameras flashed. We milled around for a few minutes, hugging and thanking each of the women (and man!) who do so much for the tiniest San Antonians. As soon as I get copies of the pictures, I'll be sure to post them.

Tomorrow (Thursday) morning, all five of us (how could we deny Devin the opportunity to be on TV?) will meet at the antepartum unit where I spent so many weeks, and the local ABC affiliate TV station will do a taped package on the contest and the money given to Threads of Love. I originally thought it was going to be a live shot, but I believe it will air on the morning news on Friday. I'll have to get the details and as soon as I know when it will be on, I will post it here so that all of my local friends can turn on their TVs and laugh at what will certainly be me making a fool of myself in one way or another.

Slainte!
(Ahem...who can tell me what that means -- and better yet, how you pronounce it??? Bridget Daughaday you are not allowed to answer that question on the grounds that you are too Irish).

New Formula But No Weight...

2008-04-07T11:47:00.003-05:00

Faith had a weight check today and despite being on the new 250-calorie-per-cup formula (that she drinks three times a day), she still hasn't gained an ounce.

Am I worried? YOU BET.

We see the GI doctor on Thursday.

Weekend Update

2008-04-06T20:32:00.002-05:00

I've been pretty remiss in updating my blog lately -- I've lost the cord that connects my camera to my computer and I can't get my photos into iPhoto. So I've been waiting to get the photos uploaded before I update my blog.

But I realized tonight that if I wait until I find the cord or buy a new one, we might all be six feet under by the time it happens.

So you'll just have to suffer through a non-visual presentation of the last few weeks.

Last weekend, Devin played his first-ever soccer game. I use the term "soccer game" lightly here, in that it's really more like eight kids (four from each team) running up and down a field that's only 25% the size of a regulation field with "four- to six-minute" quarters (what does that mean, anyway?), no goalie and no score keeping. So it's soccer in the sense that they use a soccer ball and aren't allowed to use their hands, but in every other way, it's really just a game of "chase the ball."

All joking aside, though, I was very proud of my munchkin. I thought for sure that it would be all about just puttering the ball around and that he would have no interest in listening to his coach. But he did listen and was really into moving the ball toward the goal and even passing it to his teammates. He even scored three goals! Of course, one of those goals was for the other team, but we'll ignore that for now.

I have a bunch of pictures of the kiddo in action, but...well, you know.

That same week, we had Kindergarten Round-up here at our local elementary school. That's where incoming Kindergarteners get to go check out their new edifices of education while the parents get all of the "dos and don'ts" of being parents of elementary school kids.

Devin did great and I walked away thinking, "How did it happen that I have a kid old enough to go to elementary school?" Wasn't he born like three weeks ago? Ugh...

But the most exciting news is about the contest that we won on Methodist Hospital's Web site. We won $1,000 to give to our favorite charity. It's all coming back, huh?

So we're all set up for a photo op on Tuesday. We'll present the check (I hope it's one of those big, novelty-style checks...I've always wanted to take a photo with one of those!) and smile pretty for the camera. We'll get to meet some of the women who sew the tiny clothes and blankets for Threads of Love and introduce them to two of the babies they helped in the NICU.

We're very excited and assumed that it would end here. Why wouldn't it? The contest was to win and present $1,000 to your favorite charity and it's an honor to do so.

Turns out that Methodist Hospital's PR firm really liked the story (not necessarily my writing, but the whole tale about the girls' harrowing trip into this world) and asked for my permission to send out a press release to local media -- the four TV stations, the major newspaper and a few other local outlets. I said, "Yes," of course, without really thinking that anyone would pick the story up.

But in another dramatic twist of Erin-style fate, the story did get picked up, by the local ABC affiliate, KSAT 12. So on Thursday, we'll have a bit on the morning news about Faith and Grace, their story and Methodist Hospital giving the contest money to Threads of Love.

I'm super excited about it! With the March for Babies coming up, it's great timing for raising awareness of prematurity. I'm humbled that this nearly catastrophic pregnancy has turned into something that was able to earn money for a local charity, as well as raise awareness of a problem that could potentially touch every parent on earth.

As soon as I rescue the photos being held captive in my camera, I'll post them here, as well as any video or photos I can get my hands on from our "media tour" this week.

Too Much Time On My Hands

2008-04-03T08:55:00.004-06:00

There are a zillion other things I could be doing, like laundry, scrubbing the kitchen floor, taking my kids to the park or updating this blog.

But instead, I've just spent 45 minutes doing this.

Don't send a lame eCard.
Try JibJab Sendables!

200th Blog Post Extravaganza!

2008-03-29T11:21:00.002-06:00

This post marks my 200th! 200 posts about pregnancy, extended hospital stays, evil nurses, crazy children, health problems, momentous occasions, jobs lost, jobs gained, minivans, hurdles overcome and celebrations. It's been quite a ride -- thank you for being a part of our lives.

And, without further ado, here are the answers to the ten questions I asked in my 190th post.

1. What are the themes of my kids' bedrooms?
Hot Wheels for Devin and Tinker Bell for the Girls
2. What happened in Concan, Texas that caused Devin to have to visit the emergency room?
A cut in his foot that resulted in a localized staph infection
3. How many stepsisters do I have?
Four -- Amy, Heidi, Amanda and Lindsey
4. What kind of car do I (begrudgingly) drive?
A 2006 Kia Sedona minivan
5. What was Devin for Halloween this past year?
A ninja
6. What are my primary nicknames for the girls?
Faitharoo and Gracie Too
7. What was the name of the nurse-from-hell that I had in the post-partum unit after my twins were born?
Jasmine
8. What color did I paint my bathroom?
First a canary yellow that gave me a headache, but a lighter, buttery yellow shortly thereafter
9. What day did we find out that we were having twins?
December 9, 2005
10. What is the name of the church my family attends?
Holy Trinity Catholic Church

Thanks to all of those who played along and thanks to everyone who has read my blog for the past two years. I love the extended family I have formed via blog-land and being able to share my life with friends all over the world is so special. I'll keep blogging if you'll keep reading!

And now is the big announcement that you've all been waiting for. NO. I AM NOT PREGNANT. Bite your tongue.

The randomly chosen winner of my blog scavenger hunt is...

Casey Quilao!

Congrats, Casey! You get your choice of a $10 Starbucks, iTunes or McDonald's gift card! Send me an email with your choice and your address and I'll send it to you this week!

More Gastro Fun!

2008-03-25T09:35:00.002-06:00

I've been meaning to update about this for more than a week now, but as all of you bloggin' mommies know, finding the time to write everything down in a somewhat cohesive manner is not always easy.

On March 13, I got the call from the girls' GI doctor. If you recall, Grace was cleared of Celiac Disease as well as any sort of food allergies. She was given the title of "Underweight" and will be seen every few months to check her progress.

Faith's diagnosis was up in the air, though, so we went and had blood work done. The doctor told us that if she tested positive for Celiac, we'd get a call. Otherwise, we'd discuss the results at our appointment on the 10th of April.

When Dr. Elizondo's number came up on Caller ID, my heart skipped a beat. This was it. The call that would tell me that Faith had Celiac Disease, that she'd have to be on a strict diet for her entire life and that our entire family would need nutritional counseling to manage this.

I almost let it go to voicemail. I just didn't want to hear it.

But I picked up and talked to the receptionist, knowing full-well what she would say.

To say I was shocked by what she said is an understatement.

Faith does not have Celiac Disease. She does, however, have an allergy to a protein in cow's milk.

Praise God! I just couldn't believe it!

I was so elated that I barely had time to think about what this woman was saying. Faith would need a special formula, they had samples for us, etc, etc.

Since I wasn't talking with the doctor, I wasn't able to get many questions answered. I guess I'll have to wait until the 10th to do that. But I was able to go pick up some of samples of formula from Dr. E's office in order to "test out" and decide which flavor our little Roo likes the best.

So we are adjusting to this new part of our lives. It seems relatively small -- just mix eight ounces of formula every time you would serve her milk. Simple, right?

Wrong.

Faith hates the stuff. It's not anything like cow's milk, as it's 150% of the vitamins and minerals she should get daily. It's also almost completely broken down, so her body doesn't have to work to process it. These things alter any yumminess that might have been present in the thick liquid.

And to top it off, it's very high in fat and calories -- 250 calories in six ounces! So it's got a sort of greasy quality to it and little globules of oil can be seen floating in it. Ewwwwww... I wouldn't want to drink it either.

Faith's no dummy. She knows that Gracie is getting regular milk while she is getting, "special Faith milk." Calling it "special" has not helped out one little bit, either.

So when Grace gets a cup of milk, Faith just howls for some. I hand her the formula and she hurls the cup across the room. I've tried all of the flavors -- vanilla, strawberry, chocolate and tropical -- and have even added extra chocolate syrup to them. No dice. It's just not going to happen, I fear.

So I don't know what to do. Has anyone else had their kids on Neocate Jr or something of the like? Did they hate it like my kid hates it? What did you do?

I'm anxious to get to Dr. E's office, as well, and ask all of my questions. Will she grow out of this? Do we need to do a completely dairy- or milk-free diet? What if she won't drink the formula? The list goes on and on...

Until then, though, I'll have to beware of projectile sippy cups.

Moving on...

Easter was a great holiday around here. My dad got here on Friday and on Saturday Todd took the girls to Yoakum to pick up Devin from his parents' house. I calculated that it was the first time I was alone in the house in 17 months. It was sheer bliss.

I took a little bit of time for myself to read and watch some chick TV (You-know-what and the City episodes!), but I also got a lot done around the. Very invigorating.

We had dinner here at my house that night and made it to 9:30 Mass on Easter morning. It was a fantastic celebration of the resurrection and it truly helped me get into the spirit of the day. I love Easter...it just makes me happy and thankful to be a Christian.

After Mass was an egg hunt at ZZ's house and then some unbridled candy-eating by all seven kids. It was a sugar-rush massacre and we finally got home to get the kids down for a nap. Faith and Grace snoozed well, but Devin managed to keep Todd and I up. No rest for the weary.

Afterwards was back to ZZ's house for a big Easter meal and playtime. By the time the day was done, though, we were exhausted. We all tumbled into bed pretty early and the week began on Monday. Ho hum...

I wish I had more exciting news, but the thrill of the moment is finding new and innovative ways to get Faith to drink her formula. Any suggestions are welcome. :)

It's Raining Mud! Halleluia, It's Raining Mud!

2008-03-19T20:54:00.002-06:00

This would only happen in Texas.

Yesterday, a cloud of dust and ash blew up into West Texas from Mexico. This is not an unusual occurrence, as dust clouds are blown from Mexico during the springtime into various parts of the Southwest. You often hear about Arizona and New Mexico getting dust storms from our neighbors to the South.

But it just so happened that while this little system of ash was spinning Northward toward El Paso, a area of low pressure was barreling Eastward across the country. The two independent trajectories met up somewhere between West and Central Texas and shook it up in the upper atmosphere. Moisture from the Gulf of Mexico joined the party and whadda ya know? You've got a mud storm.

Yes, that's right. A dust storm met with a rain storm and created a mud storm. It rained mud here in San Antonio on Tuesday, March 18, 2008.

Don't believe me? Check out the story on MySanAntonio.com and the incredible pictures that came with it. The storm was so disgusting that it actually created traffic jams around car washes today and caused the new, much-anticipated Grand Hyatt San Antonio Hotel to delay its grand opening for an entire week so they can get the hotel's thousands of windows cleaned.

Unfortunately, we missed this extraordinary (and messy) event. Devin, Faith, Grace and I left early on Monday morning and drove to Houston to see my parents.

My dad wasn't feeling well, so we didn't do much when we got there. A quick walk to the park and some good conversation with my stepmom. It may not have been exciting to the kids, but it was relaxing bliss to me!

Dad was feeling much better on Tuesday, but the four news stations in Houston swore up and down that tornadoes, hail and all kinds of end-of-the-world-style weather were heading into the city and that anyone who could stay put, should.

So we did. We made plans to stay close to home, instead of going to visit the rodeo, the Children's Museum or the Museum of Natural Science.

First we were going to go to Pump It Up, but they weren't offering open play that day. So then we tried Kids in Action, but they were only offering Spring Break camps and were not allowing open play either.

Not wanting to venture any further from home since a flood of Biblical proportions was coming, we decided to take Devin to the viewing area where the airplanes come into Houston's Bush International Airport. This is a really cool place where you can sit just next to the runway, while planes land so close to you that you can nearly see the faces of the passengers inside.

We got poor D all revved up for the experience, but wouldn't you know it? 95% of the time, the planes land coming in from the East, heading West on the runways. But 5% of the time, when the weather is bad and the winds are coming in from a non-typical direction, the planes are routed in a North-South pattern.

We never saw a single plane.

Okay, onto Plan G -- Lunch at Fuddruckers. That was a hit with Dev, as any place that features hamburgers, French fries and video games will cause my kid's head to spin with happiness. Add in Devin's three-year-old cousin, Luke, and you've got a fabulous experience. Finally! Something went right!

By this time, the wind was strong and the sky was dark, so we headed to Dad's house to wait out the storm. We all took naps and woke up to...nothing. It never rained. All of the hype, all of the talk of the end of the world and nothing happened. I could have strangled every meteorologist in the city.

We did have an enjoyable evening with two of my stepsisters and the three kids they have between them, as well as various other friends and family members.

The kids and I left this morning to head back here, but took a minor detour to Yoakum to drop Devin off for a few days with Todd's parents. It's the ultimate spring break for a four-year-old -- a week with the grandparents. Woo hoo!

So now I am home, exhausted after nearly seven hours in the car today, but only a mommy to two kids until Saturday. I miss my little boy already!

And Finally...

This is my 198th post, which means my 200th Post Blog Scavenger Hunt Extravaganza is soon to end. If you don't know what it is or haven't provided your answers yet, you can do so here. Remember, you could win your choice of a $15 Starbucks gift certificate, a $15 iTunes gift certificate or a $15 McDonald's gift certificate.

You don't even have to get the answers right, for heaven's sake! You just have to enter! :)

Thanks for indulging me...

Just Wondering...

2008-03-15T17:19:00.002-06:00

Which one is weirder?

That I was jamming out to "You Shook Me All Night Long," by AC/DC while driving my minivan through my decidedly suburban neighborhood

OR

That listening to "You Shook Me All Night Long," by AC/DC reminded me of my wedding reception

You decide.

Devin's Doozie

2008-03-12T09:10:00.003-06:00

This is one for the books...

Yesterday, after breakfast, Devin was getting ready for school. I had brought a pair of jeans and a t-shirt downstairs for him. While I try to keep my kids looking presentable, those of you with four-year-old boys know that it's a lost cause. No matter what you put them in, they look like they've been dragged through the mud within minutes.

So I've all but given up on good clothes for Dev. Barring only church and special events, old shirts and ratty jeans are pretty much the norm around here.

Yesterday was a particular low when I allowed my son to wear jeans with a large hole in the knee. Again, it's just not worth the fight.

So Devin took off his jammies (which were promptly flung into the corner of the living room -- the most appropriate place for jammies) and pulled on his jeans. At this point, he called to get my attention.

I turned around, and there was my partially clad son striking a pose in the living room. No shoes, no shirt and a pair of worn jeans. I had to smile and he said, "Mom? Do I look cool?"

Trying not to laugh, I told him that he, indeed, looked super cool, knowing full well that he'd somehow gotten into his head that he'd like to be a model at Abercrombie and Fitch.

The best part came when he said, "I think I'll just go to school like this."

In Other News...

All three of my kids have taken to the same new plaything -- spoons.

If I had known that spoons could provide so many hours of fun for my children, I could have saved a lot of money at Christmastime.

My Story Won!

2008-03-07T09:17:00.002-06:00

A couple of months ago, I posted an entry asking everyone to vote for my pregnancy and delivery story, which I submitted to a contest on the Methodist Hospital Web site. Methodist Hospital is where Faith and Grace were born.

I just got an email informing me that I won the contest and that Methodist Hospital will donate $1,000 to the charity of my choice. I am so honored!

As promised, I plan to donate the money to Threads of Love, an organization that makes and donates clothing, blankets and care items to area NICUs. For those of you with preemies, you know that regular sized blankets and clothing are nearly impossible to use. They simply swallow up the tiniest of babies and you can imagine how helpful these little items were to me and to hundreds of other NICU families.

To all of you who voted, Thank You. I am so happy to have the opportunity to give something back to such a special charity.

A Pox on You!

2008-03-06T12:34:00.002-06:00

Chicken Pox, that is. Grace has Chicken Pox.

Do you want to take a second to re-read that and make sure you got it right? Go ahead. I'll wait.

Yep, Gracie has Chicken Pox, despite having gotten the vaccine and despite the fact that the virus has all but been eradicated. I mean, come on...this is my family. What else would you expect?

Poor Gracie has been acting "off" since Sunday. We just can't seem to make her happy. She doesn't want to be held, she doesn't want to be put down, she doesn't want to eat, but she begs to be in her high chair...it's just been an ongoing saga.

Truthfully, I figured she was just hitting the terrible twos a few months early. I mean, we're only two months away from the big second birthday, so terrible twos must be on their way, right?

But when I got her up this morning and got her dressed, I noticed a little spot on her shoulder. Hmmmm...must have gotten a little bug bite or something.

But then another dot caught my eye. And another.

I turned her around and there on her back must have been a dozen red spots, all varying in size, but all localized to the area around her left shoulder.

I lifted up her hair and they were all up her neck and the back of her head.

Combining all of this with her bad attitude and loss of appetite, I decided she needed to see Dr. Trexler.

So an hour later, the three of us (Devin is at school today) were waiting in the hall outside Dr. T's office. Since their office isn't divided into "sick" and "well" areas, anyone with a rash must wait in the hall and be taken in through the back door. I felt like the redheaded stepchild of Stone Oak Pediatrics.

Cheryl came in, took a look at My Girl Spot and said, "Well, we've seen a few cases of Chicken Pox this week and while I'm not 100% sure, I'd like to treat it as Chicken Pox, just in case."

And that was it. She did a strep test on Gracie, just in case, but it came back normal. She did think that Grace's left ear looked pretty red, so we got an antibiotic for that and were sent on our way to wait it out.

These girls never cease to amaze me, especially with the strange maladies they keep catching -- even those for which they have gotten vaccines.

I'm taking bets on when Faith will get it. Any takers?

Our First Time Out

2008-03-05T10:56:00.004-06:00

Today marked quite an occasion -- the twins' first time out.

I've probably waited too long to truly discipline the girls' bad behavior, but I sometimes forget how old they really are. Neither one of the twins speaks many words, so I assume that if I can't understand them, they can't understand me, thus rendering any discipline useless.

Of course, this isn't true. The girls understand so much of what we say. They understand directions, exclamations, signs and facial expressions. In fact, just yesterday I asked Faith to hand me a pacifier for Grace and she turned around, picked up the paci and handed it to me.

So I figure if they can understand stuff like that, they can start understanding that bad behavior gets punished. I didn't have to wait long for the opportunity to put this theory to the test.

The girls have been especially playful today. They've been up and down the stairs, playing with their baby dolls, "vrooming" Hot Wheels around the family room and just plain acting like little girls.

At one point, though, Grace threw a toy car at me. I reminded her that throwing is not allowed in our house. So what did she do? She threw another car. I warned her that this was her last chance, and if she threw anything else, she'd be punished. She stopped.

But Faith picked up where Grace left off. Moments later, Faith hurled a car at me. Same drill -- reminder that we don't throw and then the threat of punishment.

But this is Faith we're talking about. She is my little Roo who pushes the envelope at every opportunity. She decided to see if I was bluffing and threw another car at me, smiling the whole time.

I said, "Okay, then it's time out for you." I put her on the bottom step of the stairs and stood there, making sure she wouldn't get up.

As I am standing there, trying very hard to keep from cracking a smile, while trying to look menacing, I feel something hit the back of my leg and then the sound of cheap metal hitting the hardwood floors.

I turn around to find a Hot Wheel lying on the floor behind me, with Grace standing nearby, smiling.

So it was to the stairs for Grace as well, where both girls sat for one minute (a lifetime for an almost-two-year-old!). They both tried crawling up the stairs, standing up, moving around, etc, but I made sure they sat the whole time. It was sort of a game for them, seeing if I would do something if they tried to get out of their seated positions.

So I'm not sure the concept quite got through to them, but at least we've set up some boundaries and some consequences. I'll continue to do this "time out on the stairs" thing and hope that, eventually, they'll get that it's not a game, but rather a punishment.

Stay tuned. This could get interesting.

I'll leave you with some gratuitous photos of my kids.

The Roo and her shoes. Actually, the Roo and Devin's shoes. She looks like a cartoon character!

I expect a 21-month-old (Grace, in this case) to experiment in eating dirt...

But not a four-year-old. Shouldn't he know better??? Gross!

My fourth child, Zoe

The Update on Celiac Disease

2008-02-28T16:21:00.003-06:00

I took the girls to see their GI specialist today, as a follow-up for their February 4 endoscopies.

We weighed both babies, with Faith clocking in at 21 lbs, 14 oz, and Grace at 22 lbs, 7 oz. They can both face forwards in the car now (although they have been doing so for months...illegally. i'm soooooo bad.).

Dr. Elizondo came in to see us and said, "Let's talk about Grace first."

Apparently, Grace is fine. The biopsy showed no signs of Celiac disease and the anatomy of the lower intestines looked fine. She'll be labeled as "underweight," and be seen by Dr. E every few months, just to track her progress.

Then there's Faith. When he said, "Did anyone call you about her?" my heart sank. No, no one had called. I wondered why, but instead wen to the, "What's wrong?" portion of the appointment.

It seems as though her biopsy showed signs of Celiac disease, but not definitively. It also showed what may be an allergy to a certain protein in cow's milk. It's either one or the other, and only a blood test will give us the answer we need.

So, of course, I asked, "Isn't this the blood test that you didn't want to do and instead did the endoscopies?"

It turns out that the answer to that question is, "Yes." I was puzzled, so Dr. E explained it like this.

The endoscopy should have given us a 100% conclusive answer to the Celiac disease question, but it didn't. Some levels of certain hormones/enzymes/etc, indicated Celiac, whereas others looked perfectly normal. And some of the chemistry pointed toward this milk allergy, while other chemical elements looked just fine.

In short, it was inconclusive, which is where the blood work comes in.

If we do the blood work, then it can be compared side-by-side to the endoscopy biopsy and, hopefully, give an idea of the bigger picture. I'd liken it to a criminal trial -- one piece of circumstantial evidence will not win a case, but with a number of pieces of circumstantial evidence, you can build a story and put a criminal away. Same deal. Sort of.

So we left with orders to get blood work done on Faith. Both of the girls were in bad moods as it were, so I decided to just go ahead and get it done. Faith was less than thrilled about this attention she was getting, but recovered quickly.

We have an appointment with Dr. E on April 10 to discuss all of this. He said I'll get a call if it looks like it's Celiac disease, but otherwise, we'll just come in in April and go from there. Whatever that means.

So one question is answered, but two more have cropped up. Such is the story of my life with twins.

The Trip of a Lifetime

2008-02-25T20:34:00.003-06:00

It's been quite some time since my last post, but I have a good excuse. Wanna hear it?

Wait for it...

Wait for it...

WE'VE BEEN IN DISNEY WORLD!

Yes, again.

Beware of this post...I plan to post detail upon detail of our trip, so I can be sure to remember them when I'm old and feeble. If you're not interested in the minute details of our vacation, you may just want to view the slide show for the highlights.

So, here goes...

A few months ago, Todd and I were talking about Devin and how proud we are of him. He went from being an only child to having not one but two little sisters in the blink of an eye. Combine that with a host of health problems and the amount of attention babies need, and you have an older brother who often gets put on the back burner. He's been a real trooper and Todd and I really wanted to do something special for him, especially before he starts Kindergarten.

So it hit us -- where would you take a kid in order to show him or her the time of their life?

Well, duh.

So we planned a trip to Disney World. Four days, three night, just the three of us. Not a super-long trip, but long enough for us to give Devin the undivided attention he hadn't gotten in a long, long time.

We left for the airport before the sun came up on February 21. Todd's parents graciously stayed with the twins while we headed to Orlando, via Atlanta.

We arrived in Orlando around 1:30 and jumped right onto the Disney Magical Express bus. Like last year, we took full advantage of this awesome service, skipped baggage claim and were taken straight to our Disney resort.

After stopping at the other All-Star hotels (Sports and Music), we arrived at the All-Star Movies resort. We hopped off the bus and headed for the registration desk. Our good friend, Ed, noted that we were celebrating Devin's first trip to Disney World and gave Devin a special button to let everyone know that he's a first-timer. He also made sure we got a good room, in the building we requested.

Now remember, this is Disney, so your hotel is a dream-come-true, and the All-Star Movies resort did not disappoint. It's one of Disney's "budget" hotels, but they still spared no expense.

There are five "themes" to the hotel, each section dedicated to a different Disney movie -- Herbie, Fantasia, the Mighty Ducks, 101 Dalmations and Toy Story. We requested to be in the Toy Story section of the hotel and were put in a prime location, close to the pool (but not so close that we could hear the noise), on the first floor, looking out on a giant RC Car, straight from the movie. The buildings of our hotel were adorned with huge Buzz Lightyear and Woody statues (38 and 45 feet tall, respectively -- each significantly taller than the three-story buildings next to which they sit), as well as a three-times-the-size-of-real-life replica of Andy's Room. Devin was in Toy Story heaven.

After checking out Andy's room, we found our own room and were so excited to see that it, too, was decorated in Toy Story theme, complete with bed-spreads, artwork and wall-paper border.

We got settled in, locked our valuables in the room safe, poked around the grounds of the hotel for a little while and then hopped on the bus for the Magic Kingdom.

It was at this point that Todd and I really started to play up the excitement of seeing Main Street USA for the first time and by the time we arrived at the park, Devin was about to explode.

We made our way through the turnstiles, through the front gates and onto the circle at the end of Main Street. Before we rounded the corner, though, we stopped Devin and said, "This is it, Dev. You're about to see Disney World for the first time."

Then we slowly walked him around the building and pointed him toward the castle.

What happened next was nothing short of...well...weird.

Devin didn't gasp, or breathe or make a sound. He was perfectly still. It was almost as though he couldn't get a grip on what he was seeing. It was such a totally immersive experience that he just couldn't wrap his mind around it. Truth be told, the poor kid was kind of off-kilter for the rest of the day.

So we walked up Main Street, pausing to pay homage to the statue of Walt and Mickey holding hands. Then we asked the kiddo what he wanted to do first and he said, "Splash Mountain." That surprised us, since he'd been saying all along that he wanted to ride the Haunted Mansion first. But whatever!

We went to get in line for Splash Mountain, but the line was over an hour long. Luckily, Disney has a fantastic innovation called a "Fast Pass" in which you get a ticket at a particular ride (most rides have the Fast Pass option) that gives you an hour period of time in which you should return. When you come back, you get to skip to the head of the line and get right on the ride. It's a fabulous arrangement as your ticket sort of waits in line for you while you go do something else.

And that we did. We went and rode the Pirates of the Caribbean (Devin was not impressed), Aladdin's Magic Carpets (he loved that), and toured the Swiss Family Robinson tree house.

We also walked through the castle where we ran into a character meet-and-greet. It was Lady Tremaine (more commonly known as the wicked step-mother from Cinderella) and Anastasia and Drizella (the wicked step-sisters) and I couldn't have been more excited, as Cinderella was my mom's favorite movie and it holds a special place in my heart. Devin wasn't interested in meeting these three ladies, so I jumped in line with his autograph book and took a picture with the meanest of the meanies.

I held up a picture of the twins in my photograph and Drizella said to Lady Tremaine, "Mother! Look how cute they are!" Lady Tremaine replied, in a deep, growling voice, "How adorable." She never cracked even a hint of a smile. She actually gave me the chills.

We snapped the photo, but before leaving, the step-sisters reminded me that there are two sides to every story and not to believe everything Cinderella tells me.

By this time, though, it was time for our dinner reservations at the The Liberty Tree Tavern. We chose to dine here because it was a character dinner, meaning that various Disney characters will greet you at your table while you dine.

During our dinner (which was fabulous, by the way), we were visited by Minnie Mouse, Goofy, Pluto and Chip & Dale.

After dinner, it was time for us to head back to Splash Mountain. Sure enough, we were escorted to the front of the line and hopped right on the ride. Bada bing, bada boom.

Again, Dev was not impressed. He especially didn't like the big plunge at the end where we got all wet. I'd like to remind everyone, though, that it was his idea to ride this ride, even after watching it a few times. Needless to say, Splash Mountain was not on the itinerary for the rest of the weekend.

At this point, we were exhausted. We trudged through the park, pausing only for a trip through it's a small world (yes, it's meant to be with no capital letters). This was much more Devin's speed.

We got back to our hotel, but Devin saw the pool and that was the end of the idea of bed time. We put on our bathing suits and Dev and Todd went to splash around. I stayed in the room for a few minutes (our bags had arrived by this time) to "get some things arranged" and met them at the pool a little later.

Begrudgingly, Devin finally got out of the pool and grumbled his way to our room. His mood lightened, though, when we opened the door to find a gift basket on the table in our room.

Apparently, Mickey Mouse himself had brought a welcome basket to the room for Devin! It was filled with a plush Mickey Mouse doll, a coloring book and crayons, a Lightening McQueen die-cast character and some Captain Jack Sparrow stickers. There was even a card, featuring all three of these characters, that read, "Welcome to Disney World, Devin!" It was only the beginning of the magic.

We got some much-needed sleep and headed out the next morning to EPCOT.

We immediately made our way to Soarin', a ride designed to make you feel as though you are hang gliding over various parts of California. I rode it last year and it was almost a religious experience.

The line was pretty long, so we got a Fast Pass for Soarin' and decided to check out the Nemo Ride in the building next door. It was a fun ride, but sort of scared Devin, who was still not quite himself. After riding, we took a photo opportunity with Bruce the Shark from the movie and went next door to Turtle Talk with Crush.

This is an incredible, interactive show in which you are looking at an animated screen with Crush, the sea turtle from "Nemo." The cool part is, though, that Crush can see you too, can hear you and respond to your questions. How is this possible? It was amazing.

The kids all sit down in front while the parents side on benches behind them. Crush "swims" onto the screen and greets the audience. In our particular show, he picked one little boy out from the audience and asked him his name, where he's from, etc. When he was done talking to this little boy, he spotted another boy in the audience, wearing an "orange shell."

Wouldn't you know it? Devin was wearing orange that day.

The attendant handed the microphone to Devin and Crush asked his name.

"Devin."

"Well hi Devin! Who brought you here today?"

"I slept here last night!"

"You did? And you came to EPCOT alone?" (Laughter from the audience)

"No. My mommy and daddy are here."

"Where are they?"

So Todd and I raised our hands.

The attendant then brought the microphone to us and I introduced Todd and myself to Crush. Todd and Crush laughed about Devin and his excitement and his propensity to ask a lot of questions. Soon, though, the mic was passed to someone else and we were left laughing at how we were the only ones in the audience whose entire family got to talk to the famous sea turtle.

After exiting the auditorium, Todd picked Dev up and said, "DEVIN! Crush picked YOU out of the crowd and talked to you! You are so special!"

Suddenly, Devin burst into tears. Todd and I exchanged alarmed glances and put Devin down. What could possibly be wrong after that?

Todd asked Dev if he was hurt or upset, but instead he said, "I'm just so happy!"

My four-year-old was crying tears of joy. He was so completely overwhelmed by the whole experience that he just couldn't get a handle on his emotions.

After we got the tyke calmed down, we went back to Soarin' to claim our place in line. We shuttled to the very front, where we were told to wait until the next "concourse" opened up.

As we stood with another family of three, I noticed a group of Disney employees (Cast Members, as they are called) standing nearby. They were all huddled around, talking and one of them even counted down, out loud, from ten, while looking at his watch. What was this all about?

One of them, the only one not wearing a uniform, approached us. She began talking with Todd, Devin and me, along with the other family standing there with us. We talked about Disney and how great of a time we are having, etc.

The mom of the other family asked, "So what do you do?" since it was obvious she was someone special -- not wearing a uniform is a dead giveaway in Disney.

The lady answered, "Do you really want to know?"

We all replied, "Yes..."

"Well, I have nothing to do with Soarin'. In fact, I'm not employed by EPCOT. I'm in charge of the 'Year of a Million Dreams' program. Are you familiar with it?"

We all said, "Yes," again and she continued.

"Then you know that we have to give out a million or more dreams come true this year. Some prizes are small and some are huge. Some are worth nearly $90,000 and others involve shopping sprees. There are a ton of wishes we can fulfill.

"One of those wishes is a Dream Fast Pass. It's a card that you wear around your neck that allows you to go to the front of the line on any ride, at any time. You don't have to get an electronic Fast Pass and wait for your specific time. You just show up when you're ready and hop on.

"Sounds cool, huh?"

Now we were all pretty excited.

"How would you all like to have a Dream Fast Pass? You've all just become the latest winners in the Year of a Million Dreams!"

And with that, we were each given a Dream Fast Pass, good that day only in EPCOT, but allowing us to ride all of the best rides with no wait.

I thought I was going to cry. Devin did. More tears of joy.

I found out later that the daily wishes and dreams are granted using a computer generated random sequence. That morning, the computer told the Dream Fast Pass team to hand out 15 Dream Fast Passes to the people in line at EPCOT for Soarin' on Concorse 1 at 11:15 a.m. Whoever was there at that time, got the Fast Passes. We just happened to be there. Luck of the draw.

And that's why that guy was counting down on his watch. A few seconds earlier or later and we wouldn't have been the winners. For the rest of the day, too, we were treated like celebrities, with people congratulating us and shaking our hands. It was a big deal!

On the biggest high of our lives (well, almost), we boarded Soarin' which did not disappoint (except Devin, who was scared of it). From there, we left, knowing that we didn't have to worry about wait times or coordinating our Fast Passes with timing on other rides, lunch, etc.

So we took our time, by-passing lines at Living with the Land, Spaceship Earth, and Test Track.

We had a late lunch at the Coral Reef Restaurant where we got to watch sharks, sea turtles and fish swim around, and then headed back to our hotel for a nap. It was already quite a day!

We did have a great surprise in our room when we returned -- Mousekeeping had taken our washcloths and made them into little bunnies. They placed them on our window sill so they were greeting us upon our arrival.

We returned to EPCOT that evening to make our way through the World Showcase. The World Showcase is a fabulous attraction built around the lake in the center of EPCOT. It showcases nearly a dozen countries from around the world, giving tourists an idea of the architecture, culture, food and history of each country. It's a celebration of the differences and similarities that we all have, giving a reminder that we are all a part of a global community. Each county's pavilion is employed by visiting students from that particular country, who help to lend realism to the experience.

We made our way through China, Norway, Mexico and Morocco, stopped for a glass of wine in Italy, a glass of Champagne in France and a beer in Germany. We headed around the lake to the UK Pavilion where we decided to have dinner at the The Rose and Crown pub. We were seated on the patio, where we had a perfect view of the incredible, awe-inspiring IllumiNATIONS fireworks show. It even caused another round of tears of joy from Devin.

After dinner, Todd and I took turns again riding Soarin' (since Devin didn't want to ride again) and we finally went back to our room. We were exhausted.

The next morning we headed to Disney's Hollywood Studios. This is one of the smaller parks and we intended only to spend half a day there. Most of the rides are pretty geared toward bigger kids and adults, so we bypassed the rides to take in shows and meet characters.

Our first order of business was to meet Lightning McQueen and Tow Mater from "Cars." These two guys are Devin's heros and he was actually shaking when they made their appearance and revved their engines as they went by. He was second in line to meet the famous race car and rusty tow truck. We all three approached the two automobiles and were able to touch them, talk to them (though they didn't talk back, they did respond by revving their engines) and take photos. It was the chance of a lifetime for Dev.

Afterwards, we headed to meet Buzz and Woody from "Toy Story." The characters had a great time with Devin, each pretending to deface the other's promotional posters on the backdrop of the set while the other was taking photos with our kid. Devin proudly told Buzz that he went as Buzz Lightyear for Halloween in 2006 and spent a good five minutes with the two heroes. It was so much fun!

We were pretty hungry by now, so we headed to the real Pizza Planet, the pizza shop in Toy Story. We had...what else? Pizza and played a few arcade games, as well as looking for Hidden Mickeys throughout the restaurant.

It was starting to rain, but luckily, we were right across the street from the Muppet Vision 3-D theatre, where we took in the show starring Kermit, Miss Piggy and even the guys from the balconey. Devin loved it.

Afterwards, after sprinting through the rain, we took in the Playhouse Disney Live on Stage show, starring Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Daisie and Goofy, with help from the characters of "Handy Manny," "Little Einsteins," and "My Friends Tigger and Pooh." It was an interactive show, that invited the kids to jump up and down, shout out answers, call to "Toodles," pat their legs to help Rocket go faster, find Pat for Manny and "Think, think, think" with Darby, Tigger and Pooh. Needless to say, this was a highlight for Devin.

Finally, we took in the Lights, Motors, Action! stunt show, which Devin just loved. It featured specially made automobiles, stunt drivers and big sets all created to show you how high-speed chase scenes are filmed. We learned that the scenes where cars drive backwards at high speeds are actually built backwards, so the driver is actually facing the back of the vehicle and driving it very safely. They even created a driving suit with a dummy head in the front so you couldn't tell that it was someone sitting backwards. Pretty ingenious!

The rain picked up, however, and cut the show short. Devin was disappointed, and we thought this would be a good time to get back to the hotel for a rest.

Lo and behold, though, the rain stopped and Todd and Devin were able to take a dip in the pool while I took a nap. Afterwards, we took off to the Magic Kingdom where we took the Monorail to the Polynesian Hotel (where ZZ and I stayed last year) for dinner at the Kona Cafe.

Then it was back on the monorail to the Magic Kingdom. Devin loved the monorail so much, though, that he wanted to ride it some more. Since it just makes a loop between a few different resorts and the Magic Kingdom, we just sat, rode and enjoyed the scenery. At one of the stops, I hopped out and asked the monorail driver if we could sit up front with him. Sure enough, the cab was open and we were allowed to "drive" the monorail. Devin felt so special and even got an official monorail co-pilot license. Again, the right place at the right time. Our kid must be our good luck charm!

We finally got off the monorail at the Magic Kingdom and, for the first time during our trip, really had no agenda. We took Devin on the Snow White ride, which he did not like. I was starting to think this kid wasn't going to like anything!

We did manage to make it on the Winnie the Pooh ride, which he loved. FINALLY!

We also spent a lot of time playing in Pooh's Playful Spot where Devin was able to burn off some energy. We also went to Mickey's Toontown Fair, a section of the park just for little tykes. We toured Mickey's house and played on the playground. I was hoping Devin would want to ride the kid-sized roller coaster or meet Mickey, but he was more interested in just running around.

We finally pried him away from this area and rode Stitch's Great Escape, where Stitch sneezed on us, burped chili dogs on us (yes, smell included) and generally disgusting. Devin and Todd loved it. This time, I was not impressed.

Finally, we made our way down Main Street to watch the Wishes! Fireworks Show above the castle. Tears of joy flowed again, this time from all three of us.

Our last night was a late one and we zonked out quickly. We woke up on Sunday, got packed up and took our luggage to the front desk. Again, utilizing the Disney Magical Express option, we were able to check in for our flight and check our luggage right there in our hotel. From there, we departed again for the Magic Kingdom, where Devin announced that he was finally ready to ride the Haunted Mansion.

If you remember from my Disney Trip last year, the Haunted Mansion is a family tradition. As a kid, ZZ, our parents and I all laughed at the hilarity of the silly ride, from the paintings in the stretching room, to the ghosts that sit on your lap and follow you home, it's just good fun. To take my kid on it was like passing on a legacy.

So we entered the house, went straight into the stretching room and Devin immediately wanted out. He noticed, though, that one of the portraits in the stretching room was the same as the Haunted Mansion tapestry we have hanging in our house (oh stop laughing) and the familiarity brought him a little bit of peace.

It didn't last long, though, and he was asking to get out. We put him in between us in the Doombuggy and proceed through my favorite attraction.

In the year since I've been there, though, the Haunted Mansion has been remodeled. And the changes are awesome! The hallway of portraits now includes a bay of windows through which lightning lights up the corridor and changes the seemingly benign portraits into hair-raising images of ghost ships, headless horsemen and Medusa-like creatures.

The library, piano room and coffin room are the same, but the scene with the big spider webs is gone, replaced with an Escher-style room filled with staircases going every which way and upside down.

The sceance room is different, too, in that Madame Leota's head is now floating in a crystal ball, instead of sitting on a table.

The best change, though, was the attic scene. Instead of the bride with the red-beating heart, you now enter an attic dedicated to Constance (the new bride) and her many husbands. As you pass each of their Victorian-era wedding portraits, you notice that each of the husbands' heads disappear after a few second, leaving Constance there with a beheaded beau.

You pass one, two, three, four husbands before rounding a corner and meeting Constance herself. She's beautiful, standing there in white, repeating her wedding vows, but in true Disney form, out of nowhere, she produces a silver-edged axe and says, "'Till death to us part..." Yikes.

We got off the ride, with my grinning ear-to-ear and Devin protesting that he will never, ever ride that ride again. I'll just add that to the list of a zillion other rides he'll never get near.

We ate a quick, early lunch, and redeemed our Fast Pass for Peter Pan's Flight, another favorite of mine. Luckily, Devin loved this as well. Whew! I had redeemed myself.

We took another ride on Aladdin's Magic Carpets, rode The Jungle Cruise and hopped a horse on the Carousel.

We ate lunch at the Pirate and Parrot cafe, trying to coax Devin back on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride. No dice. He wasn't going to fall for it.

We made one last trek through some shops, picking up souvenirs for the family and a t-shirt for Todd (which, when we got home, we found was a children's size shirt, not adult!) and walked through the castle, back down Main Street. We all paused, in the middle of the street, blew a kiss to the Castle, made a wish and turned our backs on Disney World.

(If you've read this far, leave me a comment. I'd love to know if anyone actually read through this whole thing, despite my warning at the beginning. Just to put it into perspective, it's taken me nearly three hours to create this post.)

After a short delay, we were home by 12:30 a.m. on February 25 and spent the day together today, as a family reunited. We missed the girls terribly and enjoyed spending some time with them.

It was a fantastic trip. A totally different experience from what I had a year ago. This time, I was the mommy, where as last time I was the kid. I loved watching the world of Disney through Devin's eyes, but nothing could have prepared me for how he reacted. He only started to come out of his shell after two days. He was just totally overwhelmed, but in a good way.

Of course, it's all Dev can talk about now. How he talked to Crush, how he ate dinner with Goofy. Suddenly, the Pirates of the Caribbean and the Haunted Mansion are his favorite rides and we laugh at how by putting few states between you and a scary ride can really give you a lot of courage. He's excited to take his sisters to meet the princesses (yes, he actually said that) and wants to make sure that the next time, all five of us go. I never saw that coming.

To sum the trip up, I'll recall the conversation I had with D on the Magic Kingdom Railroad. As he sat next to me, quietly watching the scenery go by, he turned to me, with big eyes and a slight smile and whispered, "This is the best time of my life, Mom. Thank you."

And they lived happily ever after.

A Blog Scavenger Hunt

2008-02-18T09:57:00.004-06:00

This post marks the 190th on this blog. It's been over two years since I began this online diary, starting with just blogging about my then-upcoming pregnancy. The blog expanded, though, once we realized we were having a rare set of twins. I never actually anticipated it going on this long, but writing has become my therapy and this has become the best baby book I could ever accomplish. All of my favorite moments have been captured here and I hope that, in years to come, this blog will be a keepsake for my kids to treasure.

That being said, a number of my blogging friends have created contests to mark different blog milestones -- an anniversary, a specific number of posts, etc.

And since I subscribe to the "BASE" method of creativity (BASE = Borrow And Steal Everything), I decided to do the same thing.

So, the "Erin Pruetz 200th Blog Post Scavenger Hunt Extravaganza" was born. It works like this:

For the next however-long-it-takes-me-to-input-nine-more-entries, the ten questions below will be available for answering. To answer them, you must leave a comment on this post.

My 200th post will feature the answers to all of the questions, along with the declaration of a winner. Winners will be chosen randomly from all of the commenters on the this post. You do not have to answer all of the questions correctly to be eligible to win -- you just have to leave a comment with some semblance of trying.

The winner will receive his or her choice of the following, to be sent via US mail, by me.

1. A Starbuck's gift certificate, valued at $10
2. An iTunes gift certificate, valued at $10
3. A McDonald's gift certificate, valued at $10 (that's for all you mommies out there)

There are quite a few usual suspects out there who will comment, but I want lurkers and regulars alike to be a part of this contest! This is my opportunity to find out more about my own blog and the more comments I get, the better my blog will be!

So, without further ado, here are the ten questions, all of whose answers can be found somewhere in my blog.

1. What are the themes of my kids' bedrooms?
2. What happened in Concan, Texas that caused Devin to have to visit the emergency room?
3. How many stepsisters do I have?
4. What kind of car do I (begrudgingly) drive?
5. What was Devin for Halloween this past year?
6. What are my primary nicknames for the girls?
7. What was the name of the nurse-from-hell that I had in the post-partum unit after my twins were born?
8. What color did I paint my bathroom?
9. What day did we find out that we were having twins?
10. What is the name of the church my family attends?

Okay! Let the comments and answers begin! Good luck!

Clip from The TODAY Show

2008-02-18T09:53:00.001-06:00

Here is Jill's segement from today's TODAY Show.

The Big Premier

2008-02-16T21:35:00.002-06:00

Sister-in-law and mad scientist, Jill, is in New York this week for various television appearances surrounding her research on Senegalese Savannah Chimpanzees.

For those of you who are interested in watching, here is the line-up as we know it now. There may be more, depending on what her PR rep is able to do with David Letterman and Jay Leno.

Monday, February 18, 2008
The TODAY Show
7:00 a.m. - 11:00 a.m.
Jill will likely be on the earliest segments, between 7:00 and 8:00

Tuesday, February 19, 2008
NOVA episode Ape Genius
Check local listings here

And, for good measure, here is the link to the online version of the National Geographic Magazine, which will be available on newsstands next week.

Fongoli Chimps

While in New York, Jill will tape a segment for Inside Edition and should have more information about when her National Geographic Channel special will air. More details to come!

Valentine's Day

2008-02-15T10:07:00.005-06:00

We had a great February 14, filled with lots of love, kisses and candy. You can't ask for much more than that!

Devin had school yesterday, which meant his Valentine's Day party fell on the actual day. I was the party coordinator for his room, so the girls and I headed over to his school around 1:00 to get all set up.

First we had a craft in which the kids made foam door hangers decorated with hearts and other such items. Then there was red punch and cupcakes. Afterwards was a rousing game of Valentine's Day bingo and then a quick game of "Heart" Potato, where we passed around a red plastic heart while the music played.

Finally we had a quick story and then handed out the party favors and sent the kiddos along their way.

By this time, the girls were exhausted. They'd woken up nearly an hour earlier than usual that day and had to be taken in for their monthly RSV shot. Combine that with just being shuttled around all day and you have two very cranky babies. Grace was inconsolable by the time we left D's school, so I put her in her crib immediately after arriving home.

I went back downstairs to get Faith and by the time I got her upstairs and into her crib, Grace was already asleep. Poor girl!

The real celebrating was last night, though, when Todd arrived home. Before he could even get his jacket off, Devin was begging for his Valentine's Day presents. So we ll exchanged gifts in the dining room, as is our family custom.

The girls got feather boas from Todd and t-shirts from me. Devin also got a t-shirt from me, while he got some "Cars" characters from Todd (as if we don't have enough of those). The kids also all got clothes from Grandma and Grandpa, which made mommy very happy! Because of Grandma and Grandpa, I hardly have to buy clothes! Good thing my in-laws have good taste!

Todd opened his gift from me -- a skin for his iPod. Now he can clip his player to his belt, his keychain, etc. He was very excited.

But the best part of Valentine's Day was my gift from Todd -- a digital camera!

I know I've talked about it more than a few times, but we have a fantastic digital camera. It's one of the best cameras on the market and takes exceptional pictures because there are lots of settings and options.

Unfortunately, this professional-grade camera is not meant for someone like me. It's meant for someone like Todd, who is a mix of techno-geek and artist. Todd knows all about saturation, aperture and other such photo-related items. I only know, "Point. Click."

And I haven't mentioned the size of this thing. It's enormous and requires its own case. Not exactly something you can just throw into the diaper bag or purse. It also weighs more than a pound.

The camera that is smarter than I

So I've complained for awhile that I needed a camera that I could take with me when I go places with the kids. I'm not very self-indulgent, though, so I could always find a reason to not spend upwards of $100 on myself. And our family photo albums suffered!

Knowing this, Todd took it upon himself to research and buy a camera for me. He knew that once I got my hands on it, I wouldn't be able to say, "No." The same thing happened with the iPod Todd bought me for Christmas. Can't say he doesn't know me well!

So I've been busily learning how to use my new camera. It has all kinds of odds-and-ends to it and has many of the same features the Nikon has. But I don't have to use those features like I do with Todd's camera. If all I want to do is take a photo or a video, I just turn it on, point it and hit the shutter button. Ta da! No muss, no fuss.

One of the best features the little beauty has is a voice memo that you can activate after every photo or video. Normally, I wouldn't use this very much, but with identical twin girls whose distinguishing features are often lost in photographs, it will be a lifesaver in determining who is who. Now, after I take a photo, I just have to say, "Grace is on the right," or, "Faith is the one standing."

I anticipate that I'll have to get used to always having a camera with me, but I am making a promise to myself that I'll keep my new camera accessible everywhere I go, so I won't miss another moment of adorableness or silly antics.

To top all of this off, though, was one of the best Valentine's Day cards I've ever gotten.

It's no secret that I think Goran Visnjic from ER is a very good looking man. I've always had a soft spot in my heart for his dark eyes and accent. Todd is well-aware of my fondness for this particular Croatian and likes to make little jabs about how doey-eyed I become when he comes on screen.

I'll just let my Valentine's Day card from Todd speak for itself.

Hope your Valentine's Day was as sweet and perfect as ours!

I'd Like to Thank All the Little People...

2008-02-11T11:37:00.000-06:00

And by little people, I mean the three shortest Pruetzes -- Devin, Faith and Grace. Without them, I'd have no blog. And without a blog, I wouldn't be eligible for the awards that Casey, author of the Quilao Triplets Blog gave to me!

Casey is a mom to three, odds-defying micro-preemies, Makena, Riley, and Alyssa. These girls' fighting spirits and incredible journeys after being born at only 25 weeks and one day makes for some of the best reading around. Combine that with Casey's talent for writing and ability to capture some of the best moments in kid-dom, and you've got one heck of a blog. If she hadn't gotten the "E for Excellent" award and the "Bodacious Blog" award first, I would have given them to her!

And now, it's time to pay it forward and give these awards out to the most Excellent and Bodacious blog I know.

There are certainly a lot of them, as I have established quite a community of friends via blogland. Many of them are moms of multiples and some of them are friends of mine from around San Antonio. All of their blogs are interesting, thought-provoking and even challenging. If they weren't, I wouldn't read them daily.

But if I had to vote, the most Excellent and Bodacious blog that I have the privilege of reading comes not from a mom of twins (or more), a neighbor or fellow parishioner at Holy Trinity Catholic Church.

Rather, I give these awards to a long-time friend of mine. I've known her since she moved to Texas from the Northeast in the sixth grade. She claimed for years that the Yankee way of life was the only way of life for her, but after many years of living in Texas and even moving back to New England for awhile, she's finally seen the light and realized that Texas is truly the only state worth living in (I can hear the groans all the way from Maine, Oregon, Utah and California). She now lives in Dallas with her husband, Matt (also a high school friend of mine) and their son, Travis. They are excitedly awaiting the arrival of their second child any day now!

She started her blog, about her "Zoo," when she was pregnant with Travis. As I become more and more ensconced in her writings, I realized what a treasure a blog could be, with musings, stories, thoughts, experiences, movies, photos and more. Her blog inspired me to start my own, long before I even knew what a huge role it would play in my life.

My blog was originally going to be something only for close friends and family and to share with my kids as they grew up, but quickly became a method of disseminating information about our high-risk twins and recording events I knew I'd forget during the most stressful time of my life.

Since then, my blog has evolved into somewhat of a diary of my life, chronicling the ins-and-outs of my days with Todd and the kids. I love to go back and re-read my posts and I look forward to the day my kids can appreciate the memories that are being preserved right here. I am so thankful that I have kept this diary.

So, for the inspiration that has been given to me to write my own blog, for the wisdom that has been shared and for the incredibly heart-felt and engaging posts, I award Meg Beach at The Beach Zoo with the "E for Excellent" blog award and the "Bodacious Blog" award.

My Mom -- Molly Devins

2008-02-08T10:21:00.000-06:00

I'm not sure what prompted all of this, but this morning my mom has been on my mind more so than usual. We're not near the anniversary of her death and we're still more than six weeks from her birthday. Maybe it's the beautiful weather or my conversation about the beach yesterday -- or maybe she's just placing herself near me today. Regardless, something has put her at the forefront of my mind today.

In my thoughts and recollections of her, though, I realized that I've never really posted about my mom. I've mentioned her here and there, but never really described her or went into my memories of her.

My mom was fantastic. She was a fun, vivacious woman who was as proper as the South is warm, but could drink a beer and act silly with the best of us. She couldn't tell a joke to save her life, but would pick up a banana and be "talking" on it whenever ZZ or I brought a friend home -- just to get a rise out of us. She obnoxiously sang to us in the morning, but also gave good back scratches while we were still in bed, "just to get the blood flowing."

Mom insisted on a good breakfast every morning and wouldn't let us do our homework as soon as we got home...she believed we needed some "down time" after a long day at school.

My mom was devoted to my dad and lived for my sister and me. She took on roles in the community that she truly hated, but did so for the betterment of my sister and me. She sat through countless gymnastics, ballet, jazz, tap and piano lessons and attended basketball games, swimming and diving meets, as well as school plays and vocal recitals. Mom tirelessly drove ZZ and me to friends' houses, birthday parties and social events without ever once asking when it was her turn to have a social life.

My mom would welcome anyone into our house at any time. Friends learned quickly that if you "coincidentally" showed up at our house around 6:30 pm, you'd be invited in for dinner.

Mom was also as strong as an ox. Back in the 1950s, before it was known how bad cigarettes are for you, she took up smoking. Like anyone else, she was hooked and didn't want to give up the habit. However, as my sister and I matured and started to understand about drugs, alcohol and cigarettes, my mom put her foot down and quit smoking. Cold turkey. After more than 20 years.

Mom's favorite place on earth was our vacation house in Crystal Beach, Texas. The beach was magical to her and she passed that same feeling along to me, my sister and even my Kentucky-born dad. She was close to her parents and made sure that ZZ and I forged the same close-knit relationships with her mother and father, better known as Nana and Poppa to us. She valued family and made it her goal every day to make sure our family was a fortress of love, commitment and trust. She succeeded greatly.

On September 9, 2003, before Devin was even two months old, my mom passed away. She had battled Alzheimer's Disease for nearly ten years and bravely stood in the face of her diagnosis, wondering what would happen to her husband and kids, never once asking, "Why me?" She was selfless, right up to the end.

Letting mom go was hard, but after seeing her suffering for so many years, it was a relief to know that she was finally out of the pain and confusion that had become her prison.

Life goes on. We've all learned to go on without mom, while keeping her memory alive in our hearts. My dad has remarried, to a woman who truly rounds out our family. She's never tried to replace mom, but rather fill a void. It's a thin line to walk, without wobbling from side-to-side, but my stepmom Jean has done an incredible job.

ZZ and I both had to learn, years ago, how to make do without our mom. It strengthened our bonds with one another, as well as with our dad. The three of us hold a bond that no one could ever break. Every cloud has a silver lining, and the cloud of my mom's passing is lined by the silver strokes of my very strong and bonded family.

I miss my mom every day. I regret that she was not able to attend my wedding, or ever really "meet" Todd (she technically met him, but was already living in an assisted living home when he and I began dating). I hate that she never had the opportunity to know any of her seven grandchildren, including two sets of twins. I hate the she and my dad didn't get to retire to Galveston or see the world like they had always planned. I hate that her life was cut short by such a meaningless disease.

But I love my mom. I always will. The death of her body means nothing, as her soul continues to live on in heaven and in our hearts. I can feel her near me and I know she is a guardian to me, my kids and my entire extended family. I know she is proud of me, proud of ZZ, proud of Dad. I know she approves of Jean and is reunited with her mom and dad. And I know that one day, I will see her again.

Molly Myers Devins
March 30, 1944 - September 9, 2003

As a baby

As a toddler

Mom's first car was a Jeep. ZZ and I both learned to drive on this Jeep and many years later, my Grandfather restored it and gave it to me. It was painted blue and white and I called it, "The Blue Angel."

Mom and Dad on their wedding day, August 19, 1967

My Disney problem started a long time ago

I was a little scared of Santa, but Mom came to my rescue

The Devins family, at our favorite destination on Earth

Mom, me, ZZ with our grandparents, Nana and Poppa

Mom and me on my First Communion day

My family in London, June, 1994

Dad, Mom and me at a New Year's Eve party, December 31, 1997

My mom

Endoscopy Update

2008-02-04T09:56:00.000-06:00

After a restless night's sleep and a very early 5:20 alarm, we got Devin off to a friend's house (a very good friend, who was willing to take D at 6:15 AM!) and made our way to the hospital down the street.

We checked into the surgery center, were taken back around 7:00 and got a chance to talk to the girls' nurses, doctor and anesthesiologist and ask and answer a lot of questions.

Todd accompanied Grace to the procedure room just before 8:00 (after an enormous number of kisses from me). Grace was chosen to go first because of her two heart conditions -- special consideration has to be made when using anesthesia. A few minutes later, Todd returned to the pre-op area where Faith and I were, and there we sat for what was only about 15 minutes. We were very surprised when Dr. Elizondo poked his head around the corner and said, "All done!" We know it would be quick, but that was really quick!

He showed us some photos of Grace's interior (YOWZA! I wasn't expecting that...) and told us that he didn't see anything abnormal -- nothing cancerous, no polyps and no sign of Celiac disease. He told us that he did biopsy both her esophagus and lower intestine, because those will give us a 100% diagnosis on a number of things.

After we asked questions and felt comfortable with the information he gave us, both Todd and I took Faith back, as Grace was still waking up in the post-op area.

I held Faith and laid her little bitty body on that big gurney. I gave her lots of kisses and whispered lots of, "I love yous," as they put the mask on her face. She fought for a second, but the gas did its job quickly and she was out like a light before we knew it. One more kiss and we left the room.

Dr. E lead us into the post-op room where Grace was awake. When Devin had tubes put in his ears, he woke up from his anesthesia and was a nightmare. He kicked, screamed, threw up, heaved, etc. It was awful and I was completely expecting the same, but was pleasantly surprised when I walked to Gracie's side and there she was, lying on her side, with her pacifier and favorite blankie, just staring at me. No cries, no disorientation, nothing. Even her nurse kept commenting, "She's so good!" We warned her that when Faith came in, it would be a different story.

I held and rocked Gracie and gave her some juice. She was just so happy to sit in my lap and look around. Not a peep from her.

Soon Dr. Elizondo popped his head through the curtain and said, "Faith did great too!" He had more pictures for us, from Faith's digestive tract, and a similar story: Everything looks good, but the two biopsies will tell the whole story.

We heard them wheel Faith into the bay next to Grace's, but they asked us to please stay behind the curtain until they told us to come around, as, "There are certain things parents just shouldn't see."

I agree -- I really don't want to see my baby unconscious and breathing through a tube (even though our days in the NICU were filled with that kind of stuff).

But it was hard to sit there and listen to Faith wake up, just on the other side of a thin piece of fabric, and not be able to look at her touch her or tell her I was there. It seemed like an eternity before they pulled back the curtain and told me that I could hold my daughter. By this time, Grace's IV had been taken out and she had asked for her Daddy, so I headed toward Faith and quickly took her from the nurse's arms. She told me to be careful, as Faith's head was still a little wobbly. Sure enough, it was like holding a newborn for the first few minutes!

But soon, like her sister, she started to come out of it and look around. And, like her sister, no crying. Just content to be held and wake up. I couldn't believe it. Not a peep from either girl!

After a couple of cups of juice and some discharge orders, we were let go! I was wheeled out, holding both babies and we were off to pick up Devin. We got home from this whole thing before 9:45!

All is well now. The girls are eating, Devin is playing and it's just another day in paradise! I suppose the girls will take a good nap, but from the looks of it, you'd think nothing had happened today. They're just as silly and spunky as ever!

I'm very happy that Dr. E did not find anything, although I wait with baited breath for the biopsy results. We have an appointment on February 28 to discuss the findings.

Of course, if the biopsies show nothing, then we're back to square one -- why are the girls so small and why don't they gain weight? Maybe the diagnosis is, "They're just small." That's what I'm hoping for at least.

Thank you for the well-wishes, support and prayers. An endoscopy is a very easy and simple procedure, but going under general anesthesia has inherent risks. Now that it's over, I can breathe again. For now... :)

More on Jill...

2008-02-03T19:44:00.000-06:00

This whole Jill thing just keeps getting better and better. I can't tell if this is actually interesting to other people, but I know to me that it's just about one of the most exciting things I've ever experienced, and since this is my blog, you have to bear with me.

*Big Smile Here*

Anyway, Jill will be on NBC's TODAY Show on February 18. While she is in the states that week, she'll also be filming a bit for Inside Edition.

The PR firm she is working with, as well, is in talks with David Letterman and Jay Leno, although nothing has been set up yet. I'll keep you posted on firm dates for all of her appearances.

In other news...

Tomorrow, February 4 (Happy birthday, ZZ!), the girls will have their endoscopies to look for signs of Celiac Disease. Look for a post here for updates. Please say a prayer for a good outcome and a good reaction to anesthesia. They've never been "under" before and it scares the heck out of me.

Ah-hem...

2008-01-28T10:38:00.000-06:00

It has been brought to my attention that I have not posted photos of my children recently. Of course, this could not possibly be right. I have become very adept at posting photos. That's why the number of photos still on my camera is...68.

Ooops. Yes, upon inspection, I have not posted photos (or even emptied my camera!) in a very long time. In fact, pictures from Todd's company's family Christmas party on December 3 were still on there, as were photos of the Red Rider Leg Lamp that we put up the day after Thanksgiving. Whoopsie!

So here is a condensed version of our past few months. Thank you to Laura and Casey for prodding me!

The Leg Lamp, proudly displayed in our front window during the holidays

Faith dancing at the Southwest Research Institute's Family Christmas Party. Think she knows what a camera is?

Grace took part in the dancing, too!

Devin was impressed the most by the steam engine outside of Sunset Station, where the Christmas party was held. Sunset Station was, at one time, a functioning train station, but has since been made into a multi-purpose entertainment and concert facility

Santa came! This is what greeted our kids on Christmas morning.

We have an antique church pew in our kitchen and the girls have taken to crawling all over it. It seems that Grace didn't quite understand that it's easier to sit on it when the seat is actually down.

Faith has it figured out, but is about to fall off!

On a completely different note
I just got off the phone with my dad. I admire my dad for a number of reasons, and one of those reasons is that he is in better shape than anyone I know in my own age group. He runs and lifts weights three days a week and walks 18 holes of golf three days a week. Sunday is his "day off." He is also very cognizant of what he eats and makes sure that his mind is never idle. He's an awesome example of discipline.

He and some friends have placed a bet as to who will and will not be able to run a half-marathon (13.1 miles) this spring. Dad is determined to win the bet and set out to prove to himself that he is capable of this feat. On Saturday, he ran 14 miles.

My dad is going on 68 years old.

Jill's Got a Blog!

2008-01-28T08:37:00.001-06:00

Shortly after that long post regarding my sis-in-law, Jill's, research work in Senegal, I got an email from her that she has started a blog for the online distance learning course she is conducting. For those who are interested in her work or just want to take a peek into her life of living in a hut and walking 15 miles a day tracking down chimpanzees, here is the address:

Fongoli Chimps

Why, Oh Why?

2008-01-24T12:35:00.001-06:00

Today marks the beginning of the rodeo season here in San Antonio. For those of you who are not from Texas, rodeos are a big, big deal in the Lone Star State. But I guarantee, they are nothing like you are envisioning.

In the defense of Hollywood, there are hundreds of small-town, small-circuit rodeos around Texas that fit the bill of what is portrayed in the movies: small, outdoor arenas with hour after hour bucking broncos and injured cowboys.

But around the major metropolitan areas, namely Houston and San Antonio (Dallas is more well-known for the State Fair each fall), Rodeos are major tourist attractions and huge draws for the locals.

San Antonio's rodeo is much like Houston's, only on a smaller scale. They both last just under three weeks and take up the largest arenas in town (her in town, it's at the AT&T Center where the San Antonio Spurs play). Along with the usual rodeo events like calf-roping, bucking broncos, barrel racing and calf scrambles, there is also a huge midway with hundreds of "lose your money quickly" games and lots of thrill rides. Of course, there are dozens of booths selling Armadillo Eggs (deep-fried jalapeno peppers, stuffed with cheese), funnel cakes, King Henry VIII-style turkey legs and so on and so forth...

There are also a number of other areas around the grounds of the actual indoor rodeo competition -- a pavilion dedicated to all-things Texan, a marketplace where local vendors sell everything from hand-made saddles to jewelry to clothing for your pets. There are demonstration areas where you can sample foods from the different eras of the Old West, an arena for live stock auctions and, of course, rows and rows horses, cattle, poultry and assorted livestock just waiting to be sold or have a prize pinned on them.

Probably the most surprising thing about these large-scale Texas rodeos is what happens after the competitions are done and after you've toured the grounds and sampled their offerings. Every night, at 8:00, a major headlining act takes the stage in the middle of the competition arena and puts on a full concert. When I was a kid, it was the likes of Crystal Gayle, the Judds, the Oak Ridge Boys and George Strait. These days it's Brooks & Dunn, Alan Jackson, Gretchen Wilson and a few surprises like Lynard Skynard and the Jonas Brothers. It's quite a sight to behold because where else, other than Texas, can you buy a bull, eat a funnel cake, ride a Tilt-a-Whirl, try on clothes, get yourself a new cowboy hat, see professional cowboys rope calves and then see a classic rock band perform -- all on the same 50 acres? It truly is a fun time!

But now, onto the topic of this post...

Unique to the San Antonio rodeo is an event that I just can't figure out. Every year, to kick off the rodeo season, the city hosts the Cowboy Breakfast. This is a huge, free event that is open to the public. It's always on a weekday and starts, of course, at 5:00 a.m. Otherwise, it would be called "Cowboy Brunch."

Anyway, this isn't just a grub-fest, but an event with multiple stages of live entertainment, and even an after-party that begins at 9:00 a.m.! Apparently, it's a lot of fun.

But something else that's apparent is the time of year: January.

I understand the allure of free food and fun, but thousands upon thousands of people get up at 4:00 a.m. to make it to this event. They brave what are almost always icy conditions, bitterly cold wind and miles of traffic just so they can get their biscuits-and-gravy, breakfast tacos, menudo and bratwursts. Then, after stuffing themselves with coronary event-inducing foods (most of which are delicious, I admit), they go work an eight-hour day.

Does anyone see anything wrong with this picture? Thanks, but no. I'll stay warmly in my bed and watch the news coverage from the comfort of my couch. The Cowboy Breakfast takes place tomorrow morning. And you can bet that rain, sleet and freezing rain are in the forecast.

Why, oh why? I just don't understand, but more power to those who are braver than I.

Let's Rodeo San Antonio!

Anthropologically Speaking...

2008-01-23T09:19:00.001-06:00

More than a few times in my blog, I have mentioned Todd's sister, Jill. She is a professor at Iowa State University and a doctor of Anthropology.

Last year, her ongoing research in Senegal, Africa, made front-page, headline news all around the world when she videotaped chimpanzees fashioning spears and using them to hunt and kill other animals. This put the biological and historical Anthropology worlds on their ears, as now we have to rethink our theories behind who made the first tools and who was first to do what throughout the evolution of man's mind and capabilities.

Jill has been interviewed by and quoted in some of the world's most respected publications, including the New York Times, the London Times, Associated Press, NPR and the BBC. Google the words "Jill Pruetz" and over 7,000 pages are found.

It's been about a year now since Jill released her research. Film crews and documentary-makers are just about done with their footage, while photographers and journalists have gotten their shots and spent days on end in the field with Jill. Now the fun part begins.

Starting in February, you will start seeing Jill all over the news. It will start with her being interviewed on the Today Show on NBC sometime during the week of February 14 - 21. This will be for the purpose of promoting her NOVA special on PBS, titled, "Ape Genius," which airs February 19 at 8:00 PM Eastern.

Also in mid-February, the month's National Geographic magazine will feature Jill's findings as the cover and feature story.

Finally, in March, the National Geographic Channel will air a special documentary about Jill's chimps and her findings.

We are so proud of Jill. Her work has incredible worldwide and historical ramifications -- she has literally caused the world's greatest minds to rethink and reanalyze theories that have been in place for centuries. Text books will be re-written with her findings and long after her time on Earth, the name Dr. Jill Pruetz will be taught and revered. WOW.

To me, this is such a juxtaposition of worlds. I see Dr. Jill Pruetz, renowned Anthropologist, on TV and magazine covers, but I experience Jill, my husband's sister and the woman who calls and sings messages on my home phone with songs that she knows will be stuck in my head for days. She bought Devin a Transformers voice-changing helmet for Christmas, and then proceeded to spend the entire day playing with it herself and chasing her dogs around the yard with it on her head. She drinks Shiner beer, listens to AC/DC and could eat pizza for every meal if she had the chance.

Jill is an extraordinary person not only for what she's done, but who she is. She's a daughter, sister, aunt and friend. I hope you'll join us in supporting her by following her story through the worldwide media.

I'll keep you updated on specific dates and times.

Peidatric Pulmonolgist Appointment

2008-01-18T12:37:00.000-06:00

In this, the month 'o illness in the Pruetz house, we continued our tour of medical offices by seeing Dr. Tarak Patel, a pediatric pulmonologist.

Dr. Patel saw Grace in the hospital last week and we both agreed that it would be a good idea for both babies to see him because of their long histories with respiratory infections and wheezing.

We were first seen by a medical assistant who told me that we were going to play a game. She said she usually calls it, "50 questions," but that this time we would play, "100 questions," -- 50 for each girl.

So we started with Grace, which really screwed me up since I almost always start with Faith on stuff like this because she was the first one born and because her name comes first in the alphabet.

The MA took Grace's medical, personal and family histories and asked questions about her environment, including the age of our house and the carpet inside it.

Then came all of the same questions for Faith, which were all answered exactly the same as Gracie's, with a few exceptions:

1) Grace has two heart conditions, Faith does not have any
2) Faith had an MRSA staph infection in the NICU, but Grace didn't
3) Grace was hospitalized with pneumonia, but we caught Faith's in time

After the game of "100 questions," Dr. Patel came in and listened to each girl. He asked a few more questions about their histories, etc and then started to discuss with me what he believes is going on. Here is how he explained it:

Lungs develop differently in utero than they do outside the womb. When lungs are forced to develop outside the womb, they are prematurely exposed to all of the air-born germs we encounter every day. Since the lungs aren't equipped to deal with these germs, they react with asthma-like symptoms, causing wheezing and coughing. This is what the girls' lungs are like every day, even at their healthiest -- always behaving like they are on the verge of infection.

When infections do occur, the lungs spring into attack mode, but already being partially constricted, they constrict even further and thus the respiratory distress begins. That explains why Gracie went from heaving breathing in the morning, but ended up hospitalized that night. Respiratory infections just escalate faster in preemies.

For now, we're going to treat this like asthma and do inhaled steroids every day via a nebulizer. The girls hate their nebulizer treatments, so I am not looking forward to this. But the steroids will help their lungs to remain less constricted on a daily basis and hopefully keep infections from becoming so intense so quickly.

We're still going to do the Cystic Fibrosis test, just to rule it out, but when I asked Dr. Patel how concerned he is about CF he said, "Not at all concerned." So that makes me feel a little better, but I doubt I'll get a full night's rest until I see the "negative" test results for myself.

I have to admit, I'm pretty happy with this diagnosis. There could have been way worse things that they could have been diagnosed with. Asthma is not that bad and their form is highly manageable.

Thank you to everyone for your prayers, happy thoughts and good vibes. Keep 'em coming!

Have a great weekend...

PS - It's a day early, but in case I don't post tomorrow, this will be my yearly birthday shout out to Bridget! Happy big 3-2, sister!

Pediatric GI Specialist Update

2008-01-17T11:30:00.001-06:00

And this time, there is one!

We saw Dr. Elizondo this morning regarding Faith and Grace's small statures. I've heard great things about Dr. E -- that he is good with kids, very thorough and caring. He did not disappoint! He was excellent with my girls and they never cried a moment when they were with him. Woo hoo!

First, Dr. E took a long family history of both girls, asking about me, Todd and both of our sets of parents. Then he took a listen and look at each girl, feeling their tummies, checking out the condition of their skin (which can be linked to GI problems. Who knew?)and generally just poking them around. And remember, all of this with no crying from either baby. Amazing!

As we sat and discussed the girls' growth and progress, we talked about how they are very proportionate -- they are small in weight, but they're also short (and being an offspring of Todd and me, this should come as no surprise). He said it's good news that they are so proportionate, but that all of this may be an indicator of something else: Celiac Disease.

Celiac Disease is an autoimmune disease which prohibits the body from properly digesting the protein gluten. Instead, the gluten causes damage to the small intestine and malabsorption of key nutrients, resulting in decreased weight gain, especially in children.

Celiac Disease is a very common disease, but goes largely undiagnosed. A family with a history of autoimmune diseases is more likely to have children with autoimmune diseases.

Did I mention that Todd was diagnosed with Grave's Disease last week? It's an autoimmune disease. My mom also had an autoimmune disease. Ta da!

The only way to accurately diagnose Celiac Disease in children under five is to do an endoscopy. So, on February 4, we will arrive at our local hospital at 6:00 a.m. and, while the girls are under anesthesia, Dr. E will send a camera down their throats to look at their throats, esophagi (by the way, that is that the correct plural form of the word) and small intestines. He'll look for signs (whatever that means) of the disease and we'll have an initial diagnosis that day. It will be a week to ten days before the final and conclusive diagnosis will be ready.

If it turns out that they are positive for Celiac, then we'll have to do some major overhauling of our diets. Gluten is in everything and most commonly found in breads, grains, cereals, etc. It comes from wheat, barley and rye, so imagine having to cut out anything that has any of those components in it. We'll have to find a dietician to help us out -- it's not something we could do on our own. It's a pretty massive undertaking.

So how am I feeling? Okay, I guess. There is a chance this may not be Celiac Disease, and that keeps me hopeful. If it is Celiac, then we'll adjust. I'm glad to know that my babies are not at risk of having some sort of life-threatening illness or condition, but it does break my heart to know that no matter where they go or what they do, they're going to have to always be cognizent of what they are eating. It's one thing to do it when you're at home, but can you imagine being seven-years-old and at a slumber party where all of the other kids are eating brownies and chips while you get to munch on carrots. Hardly seems fair.

For now we'll just go on with life as we've been doing it and we'll survive, no matter the diagnosis. Like I said, it looks like there's nothing life threatening going on, so everything else can be handled with a little education, support and discipline.

One down, one to go. Tomorrow we see the Pulmonologist. Let's hope for good results.

A Perfect Explanation

2008-01-14T17:46:00.000-06:00

I started this blog more than two years ago, in the hopes of documenting my pregnancy and subsequent journey into becoming a mommy of two. I did it mostly for my own memories, sharing the address with friends and family, but never expecting to make my blog a major, public deal.

That all changed, though, when we found out we were having twins and especially when we found out that the girls were Monoamniotic -- a rare condition that affects only 1% of all identical twin pregnancies. According to one of my doctors, if you put four OB/GYNs in a room (or is that a row boat? Wait -- it's a room. This isn't a joke), each with 25 years of experience, statistically none of them will have ever seen a patient with Monoamniotic twins. It's just that rare.

This blog became an excellent way of letting loved ones know about what was going on without having to rehash the details over and over again (and thus sending me into a fit of tears). The blog has since evolved into my diary about my family and the ins and outs of our lives.

Friend, mom of Mo/Mos and fellow blogger, Laura, recently created a post recalling her experiences during her pregnancy with her twin girls. Like me, her experience is never far away from her mind and each time she sees her twins, she sees an extraordinary set of miracles.

Her post regarding her Mo/Mo pregnancy was so well-written and such a good explanation of her situation, I just had to post a link to it. This is great reading for anyone who is new to my blog and wants the basics of what a Mo/Mo pregnancy is about without having to read two years worth of posts from me, or for anyone who never quite got the full understanding of why I was hospitalized for nearly six weeks, why my babies were forced to be born no later than 32 weeks and why they still struggle today with respiratory and growth issues.

Thank you, Laura, for taking the time to write such a thoughtful explanation of the condition and your experience with it.

An Explanation of Monoamniotic Twins

A Moment of Apology...

2008-01-13T16:58:00.001-06:00

Just a few moments ago, I got a strange comment on my blog (my comments are emailed to me where I can either accept or delete them). The comment was left on a post from over two years ago and it was regarding my switch from one doctor to another. I left Dr. Casiano's office to see Dr. Harden and wrote about it in my blog at the time.

It seems that my just-found-out-I'm-pregnant-with-twins emotions and hormones got the best of me, because I re-read the post and I think I was a little harsh on Dr. C. The anonymous poster pointed out that I slighted the doctor for not knowing that I was having twins.

The truth is, Dr. Casiano is an excellent doctor. He delivered Devin and treated me through endometriosis, including doing my laparoscopic surgery. I trusted him with a lot and never intended to make him out to be a bad doctor.

I am still happy that I switched to Dr. Harden, as she is renowned for her work with high-risk twin pregnancies and I feel I got the best care for my situation.

But if there is any question about Victor Casiano's reputation, please let me put any questions to rest. He is a wonderful doctor who I have and will continue to recommend to many.

If the anonymous poster is reading this, I hope you will accept my apology.

I'm It!

2008-01-10T21:43:00.001-06:00

Fellow blogger and mom of triplets, Casey, tagged me with this fun blog game. Here are the rules and my contribution to the game.

The Rules:
Link to the person that tagged you and post the rules on your blog.

Share 5 random and/or weird facts about yourself on your blog.

or

Share the 5 top places on your “want to see or want to see again” list.

or

Share 5 things you never pictured being in your future when your were 25 years old.

Tag a minimum of 5, maximum of 10 random people at the end of your post and include links to their blogs.

Let each person know that they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

The tagees have a choice of which they want to do.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Hmmmm...what to choose, what to choose. I've already done "Eight Things About Me" and I'm not sure I could come up with five new ones. Casey did "Want to see or want to see again," so I guess I'll go with "5 things you never pictured being in your future when your were 25 years old." That outta be a good one.

Living in San Antonio, Texas
I moved to Dallas when I was 18 to attend college. I immediately fell in love with the city, as it had everything that single girl could want -- restaurants, night life, an awesome singles scene, etc. I just knew I'd live in the Big D until the day I died.

But when I met Todd and settled down, I realized that I had outgrown Dallas. It was no longer fun to put on a full face of makeup and my hippest outfit just to go to the grocery store. I never visited bars and when I called the cops on a production crew filming "Walker, Texas Ranger" on my street at 3:00 a.m., I knew it was time to move to where life was a little slower and a little simpler.

San Antonio has everything I love -- it's pure Texas, through and through and has a great small-town atmosphere. People here value family and faith and do things like camping and hiking. It's a pretty cosmopolitan city, too, with excellent shopping and good eateries. It's a perfect fit for our family.

Goodbye Dallas...

Hello San Antonio!

Having Twins
Really, I doubt too many people see that one coming in their lives, so it should come to no surprise that I didn't spend my childhood dreaming of having identical twin girls. I love it, though, even though it came right out of left field.

Married to Todd
This really applies more to me when I was like 22 years old and planning a wedding to my college boyfriend. If you had told me then that I'd meet someone completely opposite of college boy and marry him instead, I would have laughed at you. But God has a way of making everything right and He did just that for me. If I had gone through with that first marriage, I'd be divorced by now, but instead I'm happily married to the man of my dreams who makes my life extraordinary.

I just love this guy...

Owning a Video Game System
I swore, up and down, my entire life that I would never own a video game system. They do nothing but rot your brains and kids should be outside playing instead of inside, sitting on their butts playing games full of violence and sexual innuendos. So there. Hrmph.

Have I mentioned that I love my Wii?

Okay, I was wrong. Not all games are violent and anyone who is a halfway decent parent knows to keep video playtime to a minimum. Devin gets two half-hour sessions per day and no more than that. Everything in moderation.

Driving a Minivan
Isn't this a horse that I have just beaten to death? I mean really...how many times can a person mention their car in a single blog that has nothing to do with automobiles?

But like video game systems, I swore on the graves on numerous family members that I would not drive a minivan. Give me an SUV or a station wagon, but no minivans. Uh uh, no way.

The truth is, though, despite its shape (you know -- minivan shape) I absolutely love my van. Automatic sliding doors mean no door dings in the Target parking lot and lots of room means I'm able to help Devin get buckled into his seat or sit between the girls and entertain them on long trips (when Todd is driving, of course).

The DVD system is a lifesaver and the little creature comforts like an eight-way seat, bun warmers and a set of little buttons that keep my preferences for my seat, mirrors and pedals (yes, the pedals move) separate from Todd's just make life a little easier. I love that the driver's seat slides all the way back when I turn off the car and that I have a little "table" between the driver's and passenger's seats that can be put up or down and can expand six inches toward the back.

I adore the 17 cupholders, the wireless headphones for the DVD system and the oodles of space we have for all of the crapola that comes with three kids.

So there you have it -- Five things I never thought I'd be doing in the future when I was 25 years old.

So, dear friends, I have some tagging to do. Meg, Susan D., Alicia, Susan N. and Sharon you're it! Start blogging, girls!

A Pruetz Family Blog Song

2008-01-10T09:49:00.000-06:00

To the tune of Frère Jacques

Where is Erin?
Where is Erin?
She's with Grace!
She's with Grace!
We've been in the hospital
Wi-ith Pneumonia!
Ain't that great?
Ain't that great?

To clear this all up, Grace has pneumonia, not me.

It all started on Sunday when we drove to Yoakum to visit Todd's family. His sister was in town for a couple of days before leaving for a multi-month trek to Senegal. We were all geared up for a fantastic family day, but it was obvious that something was wrong when Gracie cried the whole way to Yoakum. And not just crying -- screaming. She was so unhappy, but we just chalked it up to her being a bad traveler. Our trip home was exactly the same, although she did finally scream herself to sleep.

Monday morning rolled around and Todd was home for a doctor's appointment. When the girls woke up and we brought them downstairs, we both stared at Gracie for a few moments, wondering if we were really seeing what we were seeing. She was gasping for air, using her stomach and chest muscles to breath. Her breathing seemed awfully fast, as well, with it getting up to as high as 60 breaths per minute (it should be between 25 and 30).

I gave her a Xopenex breathing treatment and when that didn't help, I called the pediatrician who brought us in immediately. She examined Grace, did another breathing treatment, took a pulse-ox, did a chest x-ray and determined that it was pneumonia, caught very early. We did another in-office nebulizer treatment and were sent home with instructions to call if her breathing didn't slow.

Both babies took a good, long nap that day and didn't wake up until after 5:00. I got Gracie up, noticed that her breathing was still really rapid and did another treatment. No help, so I called Cheryl (her pediatrician). She told me to do another double treatment and call her back if I didn't notice an improvement.

Sure enough, despite a huge dosage of the inhaled medication, Grace's breathing never slowed and my call to Cheryl resulted her in sending us to the hospital just a couple of miles from our house.

We got there, settled into our room (where I even had a bed!) and got Gracie all taken care of with an IV in her hand (she just loved that), and bloodwork taken (another treatment she just adored). People were in and out of our room until nearly midnight, doing breathing treatments, getting her antibiotics started, etc. We finally fell asleep, but were interrupted multiple times for vitals to be taken, meds to be administered and breathing to be monitored.

Tuesday was more of the same, with a visit from a pulmonologist who took long family and personal histories and a trip to the awesome play room where Grace played a little too hard and pulled out her IV tubing -- three times. The pulmonologist ordered another chest x-ray to make sure that the infection hadn't spread and the rest of my time was spent trying to keep my little spunky girl happy despite her being tethered via IV.

By the end of the afternoon, my kiddo had managed to pull her IV completely out of her arm and her doctor determined that she'd gotten enough IV antibiotics and could take the rest of her meds orally. We were free from the IV!

I talked at length with Cheryl about what the pulmonologist had to say about Grace (and Faith, for that matter, since they're identical) and where his concerns lie. She never said the words, "Sweat test," but I saw it coming from a mile away. According to the pulmonolgist, Dr. Patel, Grace was looking good, but her history of breathing problems, bronchiolitis and RSV made her a fantastic candidate for long-term lung problems. Not surprisingly he asked to see both girls for a full work-up within the next two weeks.

We got a little more sleep that night and Grace woke up on Wednesday morning all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, ready to play! The playroom opened at 9:30 and we were there, knocking to get in.

Unfortunately, the oral and inhaled steroids made my little girl quite the mean one and after a few toys were strategically thrown around the room, I had to take Grace back to our room -- something she was not thrilled about.

I got to talk to Cheryl again on Wednesday morning and what I knew was coming was finally said -- "We need to do a sweat test on both girls to rule out Cystic Fibrosis." I knew it...I just knew it. Truthfully, I'm not extremely worried about it, but reading into the symptoms of the disease, I do see the need to do the test. The girls display quite a few of the most common symptoms. For more information about it, click here.

We got a visit from one of the San Antonio Delta Society's animal ambassadors -- dogs that visit sick children in the hospital. We were visited by Newman, a Sussex Spaniel, who made our day. My sister laughed at me because she thought I got more out of the visit than Grace did. I think she was right!

Shortly after Newmie's visit, Grace was discharged and we were able to leave. We were home by about 4:30 yesterday afternoon with a page full of instructions and medications. As we were leaving, I told the nurse, "Thank you! See you next week when I'm here with the other one!"

So far, so good, though. Grace is doing really well and Faith has nothing more than the cough she always seems to have. Devin, too, seems to be fine, so we're crossing our fingers. Only the coming days will tell us what kind of fun we are up against.

So now, to put it all on virtual paper, here is what we are doing:

1) Seeing a pediatric GI specialist to figure out why my girls eat like pigs but don't gain weight
2) Seeing a pulmonologist to figure out what we can do to keep these persistent infections from being so...well...persistent.
3) Seeing the pediatrician weekly to make sure all is working the way it should be working

Despite all of this, I feel very, very lucky. A friend of mine gave me a Willow Tree Angel of Miracles figurine that has served as a reminder to me that all of these problems with the girls' health are not problems -- they are miracles. I'd much rather be battling these problems than mourning the loss of my unborn twin daughters. I'm trying to see it all as opportunity and I look forward to the day when I am telling my grown daughters about how they were always sick when they were little, but grew up to be such healthy adults.

I have some catching up to do on my blogging, so I'll try to get more in in the next couple of days. Hang in here with me, though...I'm trying! :)

Me

Pediatric GI Specialist Update

2008-01-03T10:46:00.001-06:00

There is no update. Dr. E. had an emergency and was unable to keep his appointment with the girls. We have rescheduled for January 17.

Signed,
Frustrated and Annoyed

Mounting Frustration

2008-01-02T10:27:00.000-06:00

This morning was the girls' second Synagis shot to help ward off RSV. I made the appointment for 8:10 a.m., hoping to get in and out before the doctors and nurses got behind on their schedules. You know how pediatrician's offices are.

Anyway, we got into the room (Devin was with me as well, making the conditions even more cramped) and the nurse immediately took the girls' temperatures and then weighed them. Much to my dismay, Faith is still not even 20 lbs. We've been trying to hit the 20 lb. mark for months now, but despite everything, she's still only 19 lbs, 14 oz completely naked and after a big meal. It puts her in the 3rd percentile for weight and her 30 inches puts her in the 4th percentile for length.

Gracie is 21 lbs, which is a little better, but not fabulous. She's in the 4th percentile for weight and at 30 inches is at the same percentile for length.

Apparently, this set off some alarms, so instead of just seeing the nurse, we had to do a full exam on both girls before Dr. T. would okay the Synagis shot.

Dr. T. is very thorough, so it was tempanograms and tested oxygen levels for both girls, to make sure they are getting over their bouts with RSV and ear infections. She listened to their chests, checked their ears and peeked down their throats. After all of that, we were given the go-ahead to do the shots, making our "in-and-out" visit for a shot into a 90-minute full exam for the babies.

I just hate this. Every time I go to a doctor's office, I get more bad news. It's never life-threatening news (aside from the RSV diagnosis), but just enough to add a few more gray hairs to my head. This morning was a perfect example -- a simple shot turns into a question of oxygen levels, ear infections and questions about why the twins aren't gaining any weight.

We see the pediatric GI specialist tomorrow, so I guess we'll get some more answers after that.

Will this ever end?

A Devin's Doozie to Lighten the Mood

Of course, life around here is never without humor and I just have to share this story.

We went to Mass this Saturday night and put the girls in the nursery. Devin went with us to "big church" and did fairly well. But he's a four-year-old boy, so there was a fair amount of squirming and, "Are we done yet?" inquiries.

Toward the end of the Mass is the consecration of the host -- the most important part of the Mass and the hallmark of Catholicism. It is where we believe the Holy Spirit descends upon the altar and transforms the bread and wine into the true body and blood of Christ. It's a solemn and quiet few moments, when we kneel in reverence and meditate on the incredible sacrifice that Jesus Christ made for us.

During this time, while Todd and I were on bended knee and had our heads bowed, a gas bubble apparently formed in Devin's stomach. He let out a loud burp and after two simultaneous glares from Todd and me, he said, "Excuse me."

Following his apology, though, was, "Wow -- that burp tasted like peanuts."

A Few Good Christmas Stories

2007-12-27T09:33:00.001-06:00

I have a couple of specific Christmas stories that I didn't put into my last post, but that I believe are very worth mentioning!

Dressed to Impress -- Again...
Last year, Faith and Grace wore these adorable red velvet dresses to Christmas Mass. One was borrowed from ZZ and had been worn by all three of her girls. The other was borrowed from one of my best friends, Sheena, and had been worn by her two girls. They didn't match exactly, but complimented each other well.

As I was getting the girls' clothes out for Mass on Monday, I came across these same dresses. I looked at the tags and decided that they may be able to wear them again. Todd got the girls dressed and, sure enough, the dresses fit. They were much snugger and much shorter than last year, but they still fit! I guess there is some advantages to having kids who don't seem to want to grow very fast!

Merry Christmas, Mommy! Oops...
Weeks ago, I told Todd that I wanted him to buy and install under-counter lighting for me for Christmas. I hadn't made much mention of it since then and when he and Devin went on a covert shopping mission this weekend, I had to wonder if Home Depot was on the list of stops.

Later that day, Devin and I were standing at the kitchen counter, making cookies. In a moment of sheer evil, I told Devin that I would love to have some lights under the counter so that I could see better when I was cooking. With a face full of delight, Devin turned to me and said, "That's exactly what we're doing!"

As if this isn't funny enough, as Devin is blurting out that he and Todd just bought under-counter lighting for me, Todd comes running into the kitchen from the dining room yelling, "No no no no no!!!" in an effort to get Devin to keep his mouth shut.

I baited him, I admit it. But it was so worth it, especially to see always-calm-and-collected Todd lose it for just a moment.

Hello Devin? This is Santa!
That same day, a little while later, the five of us were playing in the front living room. A shadow was cast from the window in our two-story entry way and made a shape high up on on the wall that Devin deemed to be a sleigh on our roof. He ran outside to see if he could see Santa and his team and swore up and down that he heard jingle bells.

During all of this, I slipped away and found a Web site that allows you to place a personalized call to your child from Santa. As if that weren't enough, you got to pick the theme of the call -- the elves are wrapping presents, we're loading the sleigh, etc.

One of the themes happened to be "Flight Practice," so I chose that one, made sure they had the pronunciation of Devin's name correct and placed the order.

Sure enough, seconds later, our phone rang with Caller ID reading, "North Pole." We picked up the phone, put it on speaker and there was Santa, telling Devin all about how he was in the area, practicing landing and taking off from San Antonio rooftops. The call lasted for about two minutes and we missed parts of it because Devin kept yelling into the phone, "I love you, Santa!"

When the call was over, Devin looked at me and Todd with tears in his eyes. We recently taught him about tears of joy and I asked him, "Are you crying?" He answered, "Yes." I asked, "Are they tears of joy?" and that's when he lost it.

I'm not talking about a little bit of tears and sniffling, I'm talking utter wailing and sobbing. He just couldn't believe that Santa had placed a personal call to him and that he, Devin Pruetz, had made it to the top of Santa's "Nice" list.

It was the happiest and yet most pathetic thing I have ever witnessed. If I had known that the phone call would elicit that kind of reaction, I would have broken out the video camera!

And a Devin's Doozie for good measure
The girls gave up morning naps a couple of months ago, but often go down for "quiet time" around 10:30 a.m. if they become cranky. It's a good time for them to decompress and for me to get a few things done.

On Friday, the girls were staring to get restless upstairs, but before I could go get them, Devin volunteered to go upstairs and play with them.

Hmmmmm...

2 19-month-olds entertained
+ 1 four-year-old doing the entertaining
_________________________________________
A few moments of peace for Erin

"Sure Devin -- go on up there!"

Devin loves to play, "Boo," with the girls, where he runs down the hall and does a flying-leap into the twins' room and yells, "BOO!" making the girls laugh hysterically.

Sure enough, it didn't take too long for me to hear lots of jumping around and laughing upstairs, and I assumed that it was just another rousing game of, "Boo."

A few minutes later, Devin came downstairs, breathless. I said, "It sure sounds like you all are having fun up there!"

He responded with a question, "Do you know what game we were playing?"

Knowing fully well what the answer would be, I still asked, "What?"

His answer surprised me, "We're playing, 'I'm not the baby!' "

"How do you play that game, Dev?"

"Well, I climb into one of the the babies' cribs and say, 'Hey! I'm not the baby!' and then I jump out!"

Hold on...you mean that my kid has been climbing into the cribs and jumping out of them for the last half-hour?

A lecture ensued.

Our Big, Fat Christmas

2007-12-26T19:42:00.000-06:00

Lordy! I'm having a hard time just determining which day of the week it is! The past seven (or so) days have flown so fast that I can hardly remember what I've done. I'll try to recap is as best I can, but remember, this blog is as much for my memories as it is for everyone else's reading pleasure, so if this gets long, feel free to just say, "Forget it!" and wait for my next post. :)

I guess the Christmas holidays really started last Thursday with Devin's class party. We arrived at 1:15 and the kids were already in full swing with a craft of making a bell-shaped tree ornament. There were games (musical chairs, snowball races) and a snack and then a story. We got out of there at 2:00, but not after the gift exchange in which Devin received a pirate ship complete with a cannon ball shooting cannon. I've been picking up little plastic cannon balls ever since.

Friday was our "final preparations" day where I spend much time wrapping and getting ready for the big event.

On Saturday, we trekked to Yoakum to celebrate Christmas with Todd's parents. They opted not to join us this year for the holiday, so we joined them for some Christmas cheer at their house. We munched and laughed and opened gifts. Devin got two new Transformers, a new Lightning McQueen (just what he needs for his already amassed collection of more than a dozen), the Dinoco Helicopter, Al Oft (aloft -- get it?) from "Cars," and a few odds and ends. He was in hog heaven, playing on the floor with his new loot. As far as he was concerned, Christmas was a success and we needed to go no further! :)

The girls got strollers for their yet-to-be-delivered baby dolls from Santa -- strollers that they promptly got into and took turns pushing each other around. They also got dolls and stuffed animals and, like Devin, they were as happy as two kids can be.

We returned to San Antonio on Saturday evening, got the kids in bed and had a low-key night.

Sunday morning brought Grace looking a little puffy and red in the face, so I spent all day near the phone, waiting for the doctor to return our call -- something that never happened (I plan to have words about this). We were worried that she was having an allergic reaction to something, but it didn't seem to get any worse over time, so we determined it was probably just going from warm to cold temperatures or maybe hand slap disease, which the boy across the street had a couple of weeks ago. During this whole time, Devin and I made cookies to leave for Santa.

My dad arrived on Sunday evening and we all had dinner over here and we all folded in early.

Monday, Christmas Eve, was a flurry of activity, as it always is. We got up pretty early and I started making the Christmas day casseroles -- one for breakfast in the morning and a green bean casserole for Christmas dinner at my sister ZZ's house. We also decorated Santa's cookies and made reindeer feed.

The children's Mass at our church was at 4:00 and ZZ and I got there at 2:30 to get seats. Our 1,000-seat church fills up with standing-room-only by 3:00 and we wanted to make sure that we would have room for five adults and seven kids.

Mass started and the kids did their reenactment of the Christmas Story (we opted for Devin to not be in it because we weren't sure he had the ability to stand still that long). After sitting for nearly two hours before Mass even started and just being over-tired from the adrenaline and excitement of the season, Devin was in a poor mood, kicking at his sisters and cousins, whining, crying and just plain being loud. Todd finally took him out of the sanctuary with Grace, while I stayed in the pew with Faith.

I did a cardinal "no-no" in the Catholic church and skipped out after Communion. We never do this, but Devin just couldn't take any more and frankly, neither could I. Todd was much calmer than me, thankfully, and talked me off the ledge in the parking lot. I am so glad Christmas Mass only comes once a year.

We got home, got changed into our "comfy clothes" and headed over to ZZ's for our traditional BBQ dinner. Afterwards, we had a "Come to Jesus" talk with the kids, in an effort to not have a repeat of last year's Christmas Eve event where the kids went completely berserk and started ripping into packages without even bothering to ask who the recipient was supposed to be.

While 2007's gift-opening event was still pretty wild, it was definitely tame by last year's standard. We all made out like bandits, with my highlights being an iPod, under-counter lighting for the kitchen (which has already been installed by my fabulous husband!) and a Pandora charm bracelet. What more could I ask for?

My dad got our family (and my sister's) each a Wii gaming set, so we've spent the weekend learning how to play. I don't know if you've ever played a Wii, but it may be the single coolest thing on Earth. I have always been very anti-video games, as I can think of a thousand things better for my kids to be doing than sitting in front of the TV. But the Wii is different, which is why I acquiesced. Rather than sitting and just passively playing a game, Wii players use a gyroscope-controlled remote that knows where it is in space and in relation to the Wii console. So instead of pushing a button to steer a car in a racing game, you actually use the Wii remote to steer the car. And instead of using a joystick to roll a bowling ball or hit a tennis racket, you actually roll or hit the ball yourself, using the remote.

I think I may be the one in the family who uses this thing the most, as I have already become addicted to the boxing game and the "Cars" racing game. And let me be the first to tell you that I suck. But hey -- I can get better, right? It just takes practice. :)

Anyway, after opening all of our gifts from our family on Christmas Eve, we returned home, got the girls into bed, set out a note, cookies and a Coke for Santa, cheese for Santa mouse and put out our reindeer feed. Then we put Devin into bed and put up a baby gate in the upstairs hallway so he couldn't get out and get downstairs without us!

After Devin was fast asleep, Santa's helpers, known to most as Todd and Erin, set out in putting together a Christmas wonderland. On Devin's side of the room was a bicycle, an enormous Hot Wheels track, FireStorm McQueen (just one of the many marketing ploys of Disney), two Wii games and a bevy of die-cast Cars characters (did I mention Disney marketing???).

The girls each got some clothes, a baby doll, a purse and the biggest crawl-through toy you've ever seen. It's like one of those habitrail deals you see in hampster cages, only for kids. It's got a big, circular center "hut" from which three tunnels radiate. One tunnel leads out, one leads to a tent and one leads to a house. The darn thing was so big that we couldn't even set the entire thing up. Regardless, though, it's already been used a LOT.

Christmas night was a tough night, as all of the kids were over-tired and had pretty bad dreams. We were up a couple of times with the girls and for awhile with Devin. 7:00 rolled around pretty darn early on Tuesday morning. I had set my alarm the night before so I could get up before everyone else and get the breakfast casserole into the oven.

Unfortunately, it seemed that my whole family was really ready to get up, because they all heard my alarm, so while I was trying to get the casserole ready to go, the boy was upstairs begging to come down and see what he got from Santa and Todd was telling me, "I can't believe you're doing this to him!" Hey -- it's not my fault. I tried getting up before them all to avoid this situation!

Finally, the moment arrived and I videoed while Todd walked the girls and Devin down the stairs. Devin just stopped and stared for a moment while he took in the awesome sight of a dozen new toys, just ready to be played with and all for him.

We set up the crawl-through toy to where Devin actually had to crawl through it to get to his gifts, so he dived right into it and made his way across the room. The babies, ignoring everything else, climbed right in and started having a blast. Money well spent, for sure!

Devin had a great time exploring his new Cars toy, climbing on and off his bike (which is just barely too big) and climbing through the crawl-through toy. It was so much fun to see.

Papa had spent the night at ZZ's house but came over shortly after we got up. He played with Devin and the girls and had some breakfast with us. We spent the rest of the morning playing and enjoying the fun of Christmas.

Around 11:00, we headed to ZZ's house, but by then, we were already exhausted. Turns out, they were too, and the kids were all pretty cranky. No one wanted to share their toys and there were a lot of tears and, "No, you can't have that!" statements thrown around. We finally sat down to eat and we all gobbled the meal up, as we were so ready to get our kids down for their naps!

So we came home, rested and napped and then spent the rest of the day playing, riding the new bike, giving bottles to the new dollies and setting up the iPod.

The night winded down with some pretty tired children (okay -- and adults too) and we were all in bed pretty early.

Today was more family togetherness, with a walk/bike ride through the new nature trails near our home (and some good play time at the local playground!). We learned the Wii, played the new "Cars" board game that we got from my stepsister, Heidi and tried on new clothes. So much fun!

And now the kids are in bed, Todd is getting ready to go back to work tomorrow and I'm wondering where the holidays went. In a way, I am relieved that it's over and that, soon, life will return to normal. But on the other hand, I'm sad to see the magic of the season go, only to return again as the buildup begins around Halloween 2008. October first always seems to be the kickoff for the holidays, while January second seems to be the official "end." It's bittersweet, I guess.

In closing, I'm happy to add that one of Todd's gifts this year was a contraption that allows us to upload video to the Mac. As you may remember, from previous posts, our DVD cam is not compatible with our Mac computers, so we were not able to put any video on our hard drive or my blog. But this new piece of electronic fun will allow us to do so, but first I need Todd to show me how to work it. Look for video and photos later -- hopefully not too late.

And finally, Merry Christmas. Technically, the Christmas season just started yesterday and goes until January 5, the Epiphany or the 12th Day of Christmas, when the Wise Men reached Bethlehem, bringing gifts to the new King of Kings.

May the spirit and magic of the season be with you both now and throughout the year. May Emmanuel, King of Kings, Lord of Lords and the Prince of Peace guide your life and bring you the peace that only He can provide.

Me

Cast Your Vote!

2007-12-18T16:16:00.000-06:00

Methodist Hospital, where Faith and Grace were born and where they spent five weeks in the NICU, is holding a "Times of your Life" contest in which people can share the experiences they had at Methodist. Each story can be voted on and those authors with the most votes at the end of pre-determined time-periods (quarterly, I think) will be given a $1,000 donation to the 501(c)3 organization of their choice.

I was told about this contest by a friend who suggested that I post my story. I did so and it is now ready for voting. If you'd like to read it and vote, you can do so HERE. You can vote once a day until the contest ends.

If my story wins, I plan to donate the $1,000 to Threads of Love, an organization that provides clothing, blankets and other care items to local NICUs. Often, NICU babies are too small for traditional blankets, swaddlers and clothing, so Threads of Love donates hand-sewn items just to fit them. At the end of your child's stay, the clothes come home with you and Todd and I still marvel at the tiny gowns, blankies and positioners. I would simply love the opportunity to give a significant amount of money to Threads of Love, in appreciation for the kindness they showed my daughters.

Just Another Day in Paradise

2007-12-17T11:17:00.000-06:00

A friend of mine emailed me the other day and said, "Do you ever ask God, 'What's next?' " I told her that I try not to, because I don't like to ask questions to which I may not want the answer.

I got a call from the Pediatric GI doctor last week. The girls' paperwork had made it from their pediatrician's office and the GI doc wanted to see them as soon as possible. I doled out the insurance and contact information to the administrator on the phone and then she said, "And what are Faith and Grace coming in for? Oh here it is...'Failure to thrive.'"

My heart sank. I realize that "failure to thrive" is an general medical term for people who don't gain weight or develop normally. But the word "failure" just threw me into a tizzy because I don't really believe my girls have failed to thrive, but rather are doing so at a slow pace.

Again, I know I'm just mincing words here, but nothing strikes fear in a mommy's heart like the idea that her kid (or kids) may truly be very ill.

On top of all of this, the girls have contracted another something or another that's causing them to produce snot like it's water and hack and cough just like they did when they were diagnosed with RSV last month. So far no fever, but I don't doubt that sometime this week we'll be back at Dr. T's office for another round of looking into their ears and swabbing their throats.

And a second ago, I caught Faith (who is my climber and will craw up on anything she can get her hands on) standing upright on her little ride-on toy. I promptly picked her off of it, verbally scolded her and told her that it was dangerous and "ouchie" and then trotted to answer the phone. Before I could even pick up, I heard a thud and there was Faith, lying face-down on the tile floor next to the toy. Sure enough, there is a goose egg on her forehead and while she doesn't seem to be greatly injured, I think it really scared the heck out of her. Who knows -- maybe we'll get to go to the ER today. Wouldn't that be fun?

Why can't anything just go normally for these girls? My heart just breaks knowing that they are constantly being scrutinized by doctors or plagued by some sort of ailment. From the moment they were conceived they've faced adversity and while they come through every test with flying colors, I have to wonder if they'll ever just catch a break and have a chance to be normal.

On a lighter note...

Just prior to the head-bonk incident, Faith was carrying around her sippy cup of water. She set it down, it toppled and dislodged the valve. A little bit of water spilled out onto the kitchen floor.

Upon seeing the "mess" she created, Faith toddled over to the drawer where I keep dish towels, pulled one out, toddled back to the spilled water and mopped it up.

So proud! There may be hope yet for this mess of a house of mine. :)

World's Best Hot Chocolate

2007-12-14T18:19:00.000-06:00

There are so many things to love about the Christmas season, not the least of which is the food. Sweet cookies, sticky cakes, warm dips, tender roasts, juicy turkeys, endless pies and mounds of whipped cream.

Sadly, though, at least in our house, Christmastime beverages seem to take a back burner (pun intended!) to baked goods.

Until today.

I thought I'd look up a recipe for real hot chocolate, as I am pretty sure I've never had anything more than Swiss Miss from a package.

I am so incredibly happy with this recipe, I thought I'd share it with the world. I found it on my favorite recipe-sharing Web site AllRecipes.com. I hope you enjoy it as much as we did!

Oh, and for those of you who like a good nip to warm up those winter nights, add some Rumple Mintz peppermint schnapps. Yum!

INGREDIENTS
1 cup water
2 (1 ounce) squares BAKER'S Unsweetened Baking Chocolate
1/2 cup sugar
3 cups milk
1 teaspoon vanilla

DIRECTIONS
1. Place water and chocolate in heavy medium saucepan; cook on low heat until chocolate is completely melted and mixture is well blended, stirring constantly with wire whisk. Add sugar; mix well.

2. Bring to boil on medium-high heat. Boil 3 min., stirring constantly. Gradually add milk, stirring with wire whisk until well blended. Stir in vanilla. Reduce heat to medium.

3. Cook until mixture is heated through, stirring occasionally.

Makes four servings.

I'm Rubber, They're Glue

2007-12-12T10:57:00.000-06:00

Wait...let me amend that statement. I'm glue and they're even stronger glue.

Lately I have noticed that my kids cannot seem to cope unless they are with me at all times -- and this goes for Devin as well. Whether I am in the kitchen, on the phone, in the bathroom or stepping out on the front porch for a much-needed breath of fresh air, my kids are constantly at my side.

This is especially annoying during meal times (Casey, you're going to have to share those Crock-Pot recipes with me, because I've about had it with dinner time too!), when I'm trying to move between the fridge, the pantry, the oven, the stove, the sink and the island. If the twins aren't each hanging onto my two legs, then they are going through the Tupperware cabinet and pulling out every piece of plastic I own. Normally, I don't mind this, as it keeps them entertained, but when the oven is at 400 degrees and I've got boiling water going on the stove, it's just not a good time to create an obstacle course.

And why is it that I can't so much as walk into another room when I'm on the phone? They follow me no matter where I go and if happen to lock the door (such as my few-and-far-between potty breaks), they scream and cry until I let them in our I come out.

I know this is every mom's complaint. I can just hear my Aunt Shirley in Kentucky laughing about how this would happen to her and her five kids who were spaced awfully close together. And I know it will be worth laughing at in years to come.

But for now, this is my reality and I still dread trying to get anything done, as I know I will be pulled in a hundred directions and whatever task I have at hand will take ten times longer than it should have.

'Tis the season, huh?

Devin's Doozie

2007-12-05T17:07:00.001-06:00

As you know, we have in our possession (and displayed in our front window), the leg lamp from A Christmas Story. We are very proud of this piece and have become the envy (or laughing stock) of the neighborhood.

If you recall, the lamp is referred to as "A Major Award," in the movie, as it was an award for some sort of contest Ralphie's dad entered.

So, it stands to reason that we would refer to this beauty as our own, personal, "Major Award." Such use of that term may go something like this:

"Honey...please plug in the Major Award."
"Wow -- I love your Major Award."
"Have you seen our Major Award?"

You get the picture.

So today, Devin and I are shopping for a friend's birthday present (happy almost birthday, Amy!) at a store that sells jewelry -- specifically Pandora Jewelry. In the display case was a delicate blown glass hand and wrist wearing a bracelet full of ornate and beautiful Pandora charms.

Devin, very loudly pointed to the display case and said, "Look mom! They have a Major Award too!"

More Please

2007-12-01T17:42:00.000-06:00

Faith just combined her first two signs to make a sentence. "More Please..."

Sign language has been slow going with these two. Devin could speak in complete sentences with his signs, so I'm a little frustrated and don't practice as much as I should. But now that I see it working, I think I have incentive to keep going.

Being Thankful

2007-11-26T12:43:00.000-06:00

Yesterday I gave a recap of our Thanksgiving holiday, but I failed to mention all that I am thankful for.

Friend, fellow blogger and mom of triplets, Casey, created a very special Thanksgiving post that I just loved. I told her that I planned to copy her idea and here I am, doing just that.

First of all, I am thankful for my life -- God has granted me so much, despite the fact that I let Him down every day. His unending love and desire to see me happy never ceases to amaze me or humble my heart.

I am thankful for Todd, who works very hard to give our whole family the good things in life. We're not rich, but being rich doesn't equal happiness. We are comfortable, are able to do the things we want to do, see the things we want to see and buy what we need, while all the while maintaining a lifestyle in which we are given the opportunity to count our blessings every single day -- and all of this is because of Todd's hard work.

I'm also thankful for the gift of laughter that Todd bring to my life. I am thankful for the shoulder he always has for me to cry on or the ear he lends for me to bend. I'm thankful for his kind spirit, his nurturing personality and his desire to lead our family toward our goals in life.

I am thankful for my sister, her family, my dad, my stepmom and my stepsisters and their families. I am thankful for my friends, my neighbors, my community, my church and my faith. I am thankful for my home, my cars and all of the luxurious things that the vast population of our world will never have.

But I want to take this opportunity to address each of my kids, both individually and together, and tell them how thankful I am for them, because without them, we would not be a family -- and family is the thing I am most thankful for.

All Three of You

I am thankful for...

Our days spent playing on the floor in the living room

Our nights upstairs in the hall, playing and acting silly

Our family dinner

Our bedtime prayers

Our silly songs

Our walks to school in the morning

Our trips to the Zoo, Sea World and other fun places

Your laughter and smiles

Devin

I am thankful for...

The love only a first born can teach a mommy

Your desire to do the right thing

Your energy (even if it does make me crazy sometimes)

Your big, bright smile

Your enormous vocabulary and how beautifully you use it to express yourself

The heart-to-heart talks we can have together now that you're growing up

Your enthusiasm for learning

Your endless list of questions

The tears of happiness you bring to my eyes every single day

Faith

I am thankful for...

That sweet face that still fools me into believing you couldn't possibly be up to something bad

Your shrill laughter

Your constant asking of "What's that?"

Your bold personality

Your girly attitude

Your desire to find every pacifier in the house and keep them as your own

How you snuggle your "babies" and rock them back and forth, just like I rock you

The tears of happiness you bring to my eyes every single day

Grace

I am thankful for...

Your belly laugh

That funny, wailing, siren-like yell you do when you're ready to get out of bed in the morning

Your desire to get the heck away from Faith before she steals whatever you're holding and hits you upside the head with it

Your command to "Do it," when you want me or Daddy to demonstrate how something works

Your love of animals

Your quiet spirit and snuggly nature

Your command to be held (arms thrust upward with a grunt of, "UP!")

The tears of happiness you bring to my eyes every single day

From the Pruetz family to yours...

We hope you have many things to be thankful for, both now and throughout the year.

Thanksgiving Recap

2007-11-25T13:14:00.000-06:00

Holy smokes! What a Thanksgiving! This has been a fantastic holiday, with all the cheer and good times a holiday can bring. But with all of that comes a hectic schedule and one very tired Erin.

Our Thanksgiving started on Wednesday afternoon with the arrival of my dad, his sister Peggy from Kentucky and their cousin Mary Lou from Chicago. Todd, Devin, the twins and I were anxiously awaiting their arrival in the front yard on a beautiful, 85-degree day. Welcome to winter in South Texas!

Aunt Peggy had never met my girls before and the last time Mary Lou saw them, they were still in the NICU! So it was a wonderful and fun meeting for us all.

After a few moments here at my house, Dad, Peggy and Mary Lou made their way to my sister ZZ's house and later on we all joined up over there for a yummy spaghetti dinner. Seven kids and six adults makes for one busy and loud meal!

We retired back home where I did last minute preparations for the Turkey Day meal. We got in bed fairly early and were awoken at 7:30 on Thanksgiving morning by Devin asking if it was time to eat turkey yet. Ummmmm...a little longer, okay?

So we began our morning pretty slowly, but around 10:30 things began to pick up as the family started to trickle in. Dad broke out the scotch and ZZ and I imbibed in Port Wine and Sherry all day long. A steady buzz was had by all.

Overnight, the weather turned cold and the high temperature on Thanksgiving Day was only in the 40s -- a very big deal for South Texas.

So we all stayed indoors all day long, watching football and alternately taking naps on the couch. The kids ran around upstairs like feral children and finally, around 2:45, we sat down to a dinner of roasted turkey, homemade dressing, raspberry green beans, bourbon sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, brown-n-serve rolls, and cranberries. It was all topped off by pumpkin and pecan pies after the kitchen was cleaned off.

After such a long day, we weren't up for much more than just hanging around, which is just what we did.

On Friday we all went to lunch at a favorite local BBQ restaurant. Afterwards, Todd took the twins home while the rest of us went to see Enchanted. If you are a Disney fan (and you know I am!), this movie is for you. It lampoons just about every Disney princess movie, as well as a couple of Dreamworks movies to boot. And, in true Disney fashion, it ends with true love and happily ever after.

Of course, Patrick Dempsy isn't hard on the eyes, either. :)

We got home in time to watch Texas A&M beat the pants off of the University of Texas -- a totally unexpected upset. That night was pizza at ZZ's house and another early bedtime.

Yesterday, ZZ's twins, Kaelin and Brendan, celebrated their 3rd birthdays with a party at Chuck E. Cheese. The girls had a great time in the toddler area and Devin nearly mastered SkeeBall. He's really good!

Dad, Peggy and Mary Lou left from there to go back to Dad's house in Houston and we all returned home for naps and a lazy day, as rain and 30-degree temperatures kept us from wanting to do much more than that.

Today hasn't been much better in terms of weather, so we've all spent a good part of our day in our jammies and dining on Todd's yummy homemade tortilla soup. It's our last day of the Thanksgiving holiday before going back to our regular schedule tomorrow.

Usually, today is the day that we decorate the house for Christmas. By now, we would have already gone out to the Christmas tree farm and cut down our own tree, but the rain and nasty weather have caused us to have to push this tradition back until next weekend. The girls and Devin are all on the mend and doing much, much better, but we don't want to chance it. Keeping them out of the cold weather can only do good.

So, in contrast to my neighbors' homes, our house is decidedly undecorated. I have a little bit of anxiety about this, since I'm usually putting up lights and garland before the Thanksgiving bird is even out of the oven, but I'm just going to have to hold tight and remember that while our normal decorations are not out, the one, ultimate decoration that I've been dying to purchase as arrived and is in place.

Have you ever seen the movie A Christmas Story? Of course you have...unless you're Tina Zimmerman. Oh, and Tina -- I know you are reading this and I will kidnap you sometime this holiday season and force you to watch this flick. M'kay?

Anyway, what's the greatest decoration in that whole movie? I mean, what, of everything in that house, stands out as the most stunning and unusual piece of decor you've ever seen?

The leg lamp, of course!

And isn't it something that every home needs, especially around the holidays?

But of course!

You guessed it, my friends. Todd and I are the proud owners of a 45" reproduction of the leg lamp from A Christmas Story. It arrived the day after Thanksgiving and within the hour, Todd had it assembled and in the front-and-center window of our home above our front door.

It's a thing of beauty and is already the envy of all of our neighbors. I've been trying to get a good photo of it, but so far nothing has come out. I'll keep trying, because this is a sight to behold, for sure. Until then, check out the Red Rider Leg Lamp website.

And, in closing, I am happy to say that I finally have access to all of the Blogger.com editing tools that everyone else has. Our Mac has not been fully compatible with Blogger.com and therefore I have not been able to change font, sizes, colors or do any sort of formatting or block qouting.

But we upgraded our operating system and Ta Da! Eureka! I've got it all! Now I just have to figure it out all. Thanks for bearing with me.

Happy Thanksgiving to all and here's to a fabulous Christmas season.

A Few Minutes Later

Why won't this darn thing stop using the large font size letters? Ugh...sorry for the inconsistency! It's driving me crazy! I think I like having no ability to format better than formatting tools that have their own minds!

The RSV Update

2007-11-19T19:34:00.001-06:00

Faith and Grace saw Dr. Trexler today for their 18-month check-up and for a check on their RSV status.

After listening intently to their chests and backs, Dr. T said, "They're not wheezing at all. What you're doing is working!" She said that their nasal congestion, sore throats and ear infections (oh yes...ear infections on top of all of it) are very typical of RSV, but that the wheezing and oxygen intake are what we really need to be concerned about.

She made it clear that we are not out of the woods yet, but was very happy to see the girls doing so well despite their diagnoses.

So, for the moment I feel good. As soon as I hear one of them cough or something of the sort, I'm sure I'll go back into panic mode, but for this moment in time, I'm doing okay.

Thanks for the continued prayers. More updates to come.

Me

Where Has the Pruetz Family Been?

2007-11-19T09:24:00.000-06:00

The better question would be where hasn't the Pruetz family been? I'll try to start from the beginning, without making this too lengthy.

Last Thursday (not this past Thursday, but the one before), after school, Devin and Todd jetted off to fabulous Ames, IA to visit Aunt Jill in her stomping grounds. They went to the Iowa State football game (where they beat Colorado 28-21!), a wrestling match (that was Devin's idea), and generally had fun around the college town.

Meanwhile, back here in San Antonio, the girls and I had a quiet Thursday night while I got the three of us ready for our weekend.

The twins stayed here with my sister (bless her heart) while I flew to Houston on Friday afternoon for my friend, Bridget's wedding. Bridget and I were best friends in middle school and high school and while life has taken us in opposite directions for many years now, we've still remained close.

Along with Bridget and me, our friend Karen was a major part of our lives our senior year in High School. You may know Karen from my comments -- she always signs with her last name, though...Blake. Surprise! Blake is a girl!

Anyhoo...Karen lives in Houston where the wedding was taking place, and offered to house me and be my date to this fabulous event. She picked me up from the airport on Friday night and we went to her place to get ready for the rehearsal dinner.

Karen lives alone in a condo that took me back to my days as a single woman in Dallas. It's a great place with a living room, dining room, kitchen and half bath down and two bedrooms, two bathrooms and a study upstairs. Very similar to the one I owned in the Big D and I immediately felt myself relaxing.

The rehersal dinner was a lot of fun, as we reuninted with old friends, reconnected with Bridget's family (who were like a second family to me when I was younger) and had a generally great time.

We retired early that night and woke up on Saturday morning and just hung out, catching up and relaxing. Karen went to the gym at 10:00 and I took a shower and got ready for the bridesmaids' brunch. I was finished getting fixed up, though, long before Karen was due home and I found myself wondering what to do with all of this time and quietness on my hands. It was bliss! I plopped myself into Karen's comfy living room chair and read my book. WOW! Alone, quiet and reading -- there's something I haven't done in years!

Karen came home, got herself ready and we were off to the brunch. It was a lovely affair with incredible food and great company. The wine flowed like water, too, so by the time we got out of there, we all had pretty good buzzes.

To keep the buzz going, we bought another bottle of vino and headed to Karen's favorite nail salon. Karen had her fingers and toes done while I had my toes done and my eyebrows waxed. Two hours later, we were looking fine!

A trip home and a quick nap on the couch (to sleep off the afternoon's libations) and then we got ready for the big event.

The wedding was held in a Cathedral-style church in Houston and was simply gorgeous. Bridget was just beautiful and the whole event was perfect. The behind-the-scenes bumps we were privvy to went unnoticed by all of the other guests.

The reception was at the Houstonian hotel and club and was gorgeous. Ben and Bridget even provided a photo booth for guests to take photos in and then put out a scrapbook in which to paste your pictures and write a little note. It was too much fun and after a few glasses of wine, you can imagine the kinds of pictures that came out of there. :)

The party ended around midnight, after quite a few rounds of dancing, and Karen and I returned to her house, exhausted. I fell asleep pretty early and managed to sleep through the night until 9:45 Sunday morning. There's something else I haven't done in years!

We grabbed a bite to eat and hit Starbucks, but soon it was time to head to the airport where I said goodbye to Karen and thanked her over and over again for being such a gracious and wonderful hostess! It was an awesome time, indeed.

I arrived back in San Antonio Sunday afternoon and that night, Todd and Devin flew in. Once again, the Pruetz family was back together and things went back to normal.

HA!

Wednesday of last week, both girls woke up with a fever, so I did what I always do: Call the doctor's office at 8:00:01 and set up appointment for both of them that afternoon.

Sure enough, it was strep and we were sent home with antibiotics for both. Seems pretty cut-n-dried, right?

HA!

They woke up Thursday not feeling much better, but I didn't think much of it. Friday rolled around, though, and they were wheezing and coughing really, really badly. I called the doctor's office to get a recommendation on what I could give them to make them more comfortable, but I was told that due to their age, there was nothing more that I could do than a cool mist humidifier and the snot sucker. I threw in a few Xopenex nebulizer treatments for good measure and we headed into the weekend.

Saturday, though, the wheezing wasn't any better. We spent plenty of time in a steamed-up bathroom, upped the nebulizer treatments and continued with the snot sucking and humidifier.

But to no avail, as Sunday morning was even worse than Saturday morning. As the girls both had 20-minute continuing coughing fits, Todd and I looked at each other and said, "Something's wrong."

So we paged the on-call doctor and she as alarmed to hear about the girls' condition and how it had escalated so quickly.

Then she said something that nearly stopped my heart: "There's been an outbreak of RSV in the past few weeks. You need to get them to the ER as quickly as possible."

For those who don't know, RSV is a virus that causes the common cold. It's pretty harmless, aside from making you feel miserable, in healthy people. But in babies who were born before 36 or 37 weeks, it can be deadly. Mothers pass antibodies that help their babies fight infections outside the womb, but RSV antiboties aren't transfered from mom to kiddo until fairly late in gestation, meaning that preemies lack any ability to fight the virus if they catch it. There is an RSV vaccine, which the girls got last year and will get this year, that gives those antibodies in a monthly shot. The shot is fairly new, though, and RSV is still a very scary thing for preemies.

So the twins and I headed to the ER while Todd took Devin to the after hours pediatrician's office because we were sure he had gotten strep from the girls -- coughing, wheezing, fever, etc.

We were triaged as soon as we got to the hospital and the girls were okay, aside from pulse-ox levels of 94 and 95. That's borderline, "Uh-oh," and the nurses decided to do the RSV test on them just in case.

We were sent to the waiting room where we did just that -- we waited. And waited, and waited and waited.

Three hours later, I went to the same triage nurse and asked if the RSV tests had come back. She told me that she could not tell me, that the doctor has to give me the results. She asked if I'd like to come have the girls' vitals taken again and I said that yes, that would make me feel better.

So my two charmers went back behind the desk and, of course, everyone flocked around to say hello to them again. The nurse who was helping us this time was the same one who had administered the RSV test three hours earlier. She saw the look on my face and said, "I'm not technically allowed to give you the results of the tests, but let's just say that your girls won't be catching RSV here -- they'll be doling it out."

And with that, my premature babies were diagnosed with the deadly RSV virus. They were scheduled to get their first RSV vaccination today at 2:50. We were 24 hours too late.

After leaving triage, I got a call from Todd. Devin didn't have strep -- he had a sinus infection. And an even bigger surprise was the diagnosis of seasonal asthma. He was sent home with orders to see a pediatric pulmonologist and with three different steroids to get the problem under control.

Todd and Dev drove to the ER and met the girls and I in the lobby. We waited another hour and were finally seen by the doctor. By this time, the babies' pulse-ox levels were at 98 and 99, which is significantly better and after a thorough examination, the girls were deemed "Pretty Good," despite their diagnosis.

She said to keep a close eye on the girls, look for signs of respiratory distress and dehydration and to not hesitate to call if we had any questions.

And with that, we were discharged. We are now doing nebulizer treatments every four hours, even at night, and hoping for the best.

The girls are miserable. They cry constantly and are awake at night every hour or so. It's like having newborns again and I'm barely surviving on three hours of sleep. Devin, too, is miserable, and the Prednisone steroid that he's on is making him a bear to deal with. I'm just about at the end of my rope.

Wanna hear the best part of the story? I have 17 people coming to dinner on Thursday.

Any prayers you can spare are appreciated. The girls have their 18-month check-up today (the appointment when we should have been getting the RSV shot) and I'll post more after we see their doctor.

Peace.

Me

Get Out Your Kleenex...It's Time To Laugh

2007-11-07T12:19:00.000-06:00

I've actually gotten this as an email a couple of times now, but for those of you who haven't seen it, below is a link to the actual blog that produced what may be the funniest series of photographs and comments ever published.

The language is a little much in places, but somehow the profanity seems to work. If you have kids who can read, you may want to make sure that they aren't peering over your shoulder while you're viewing this blog.

Enjoy -- And if you think I'm kidding about needing Kleenex...you're wrong.

1977 J.C. Penny Catalog

Bath Time = Math Time

2007-11-06T10:45:00.000-06:00

Tomorrow, it will be two years since we found out that we were expecting Baby Pruetz #2, having zero inkling that we were also expecting Baby Pruetz #3. It's hard to believe how quickly it's gone.

When the news came that we were pregnant with two, both Todd and I started to envision all of changes our life would take once we tripled the number of kids we had. More diapers, more bottles, more car seats, bigger strollers, another crib, more middle-of-the-night feedings, double the colic, etc...

But, as those of you with mutiples know, you can never be fully prepared for the crazy things you will have to do to keep up with your brood.

One of the things that I wasn't expecting what the quirkiness of bath time. In recent months, we've decided to bathe the girls together and then give Devin a bath separately, as the girls have recently learned the fun of standing in the tub (something we've unsuccessfully tried to stop) and Devin likes to play rough. You do the math -- it spells major trouble.

So usually it's Todd and I tag-teaming with the kiddos, making sure everyone is supervised, washed, dried and jammied.

Last night, though, Todd and Devin went on an excursion to hear Aunt Jill speak at her alma mater, Texas State University, so I was home alone with the babies. Bath time rolled around and it suddenly became apparent to me that this was not going to work without Todd's help.

Not only do the girls have a tendency to stand up and walk around in the tub, but they also know how to climb in and out (and by climb, I mean get both legs over the side and plop down with a thud and a splash), so I quickly questioned what was going to happen with the baby who wasn't being bathed while I was getting the other one ready for bed.

I could just see Gracie falling, fully clothed into the tub while I had Faith up on the changing table, diapering her bottom and so forth.

So I actually had to lock one baby out of the bathroom while the other one was being bathed. Then, once that one was clean and ready to have her jammies put on her, I had to close the bathroom door so the roaming baby wouldn't wander while I was busy in the nursery.

Then...switch babies and do it all again.

Nope, it's really no big deal. Granted, bathing them one at a time take a bit longer, but it's really not an issue. It's just so funny how many things I would have never anticipated being an issue with twins. I guess you just adapt as you go...

Devin's Doozie

2007-11-02T16:45:00.001-06:00

Lately, Devin has become very expressive toward me, thanking me over and over again when I do something for him (I bought him a new pair of Crocs this week and you would have thought I had just handed him a check for a million bucks).

He's also become very thankful for the meals I cook.

"Mom, you make the best tacos!"
"Mom, this is the best pot roast in the whole city!"

Every meal comes with some statement like this. I can't say I mind it!

So tonight, Todd called on his way home from work and I said, "Hey -- it's Friday. Why don't you get a pizza on the way home?" He agreed and when Daddy got home, we all dined on pizza.

Afterwards, Devin turned me and said:

"Mom! You make Daddy get the best pizza!"