You're Gonna Need to Pee First

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

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

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?

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

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...

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

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...