A week of progress

CHECK this girl out!

Not bad for officially walking for one week, huh?

Once she got the hang of it, she has been on the move!

A little explanation on the background noise: Elise really wanted a flashlight so I told Lucy to come over by me and see if Elise would come get it. When she made it, Lucy was reluctant to give it up. She wanted to let Elise hold it, but keep it tied on her own wrist. She also thinks it is hillarious to put stuff in front of the camera lense.

much better

To update you from Sunday's post, things are much better. It was obviously not a big thing that pushed me to my limit...but lots of little things. Honestly, it did make me more grateful for my well-behaved babies. If they acted like they did this weekend all the time, I think I'd go crazy. I am over my cold and Austin is feeling better. Last night was probably the BEST night since we've become a family of 5... all three kids slept great! And so did I! I didn't stay up late doing projects. This morning, I woke up feeling great and ready to face the day. Its amazing what a good night's rest will do...

THIS

also helped
... CONSIDERABLY.

Of course, just one piece wouldn't have done the trick...

Have some cheese...

...with that whine. Yep, I need a little venting today. If you don't want to keep reading, I don't blame you. But somehow, its therapeutic for me to write this down. Sometimes blogging portrays the Pollyanna-ness of life. And I must say, I think I've been very blessed... but man, today I'm at my limit. Now, this is not for sympathy comments. It is also not for "you brought half of this stuff on yourself" comments. I fully realize that. If I'd had stuck to my new years resolution of NOT doing any project-type stuff, this would not have been so stressful of a week.


I've spent a good deal of my time this week throwing out stuff and organizing. I really love doing both of those things, but I need to do it in shifts because by the end, I start keeping more stuff than I should. At the first, I am gung-ho about throwing away EVERYTHING. I've been shredding my paperwork from all the grading I used to do as a teacher. I can't help but wonder what my students are doing now... Again, it put me in a reflective mood... things I would have done differently if I were to teach again, etc. I also had my evaluations that were mailed to me after I quit. I kept one of them, "Mrs. Tripp needs a raise." Ha, ha! It was also a good feeling, that although I miss some parts, I am quite happy with my current "job." I found myself thinking, "Aren't you glad you don't have to do this right now?" And I am.


That said, these little kids gave me a run for my money this week. George has been working way too much. He's just starting an 8-day stretch working 110 hours. Yuck for both of us. Most of the time, we are doing well, but this weekend was crazy (partly because I have these little side organization projects that are not getting finished and my house is a big fat mess). Friday night was probably Austin's worst night of his life. He woke up at 1:30am and didn't sleep more than an 1/2 hr-1 hr at a time. Poor kid is all congested and he just cried. Part of the problem was that I went to bed at 1:15 after folding laundry, so I was already tired. George was on call Saturday so that means he left for the hospital at 6:30am and got back Sunday at 11:15am. So there I was trying to keep up with everyone by myself with very little sleep. The great thing was that my good friends took Lucy strawberry picking and the babies slept for almost 3 hours simultaneously. I should have napped myself, but I have a really hard time when I get a window like that. So, I cleaned my house and felt much better. Its amazing what a clean house does for your mood. Later that night I watched "Annie" with Lucy. I promised her a girl's night with popcorn after the babies slept. (In case you are wondering, we watched the 1999 Disney version of "Annie." Its not as good as the one I grew up with, but much less scary for 3 yr olds.) After she went to bed, I made strawberry jam. My strawberries were just at the perfect ripeness and I had to do it that night. Earlier that week, I made the mistake of letting a big package sit overnight and they were all mouldy by morning. Needless to say, by the end of the day, I was really tired.


The next morning, we made it to church by 8:28am (again I was solo) and Elise was a real grump. She cried for 80% of our 3 hour church. She was so bad, I would have left and put her down for her much needed nap, but I had some church obligations and Lucy loves her church classes, so I stayed. But I was in the hall most of the time, so the spiritual upliftment for me wasn't what I hoped. Friends held one of my babies while I took care of the other one, so that was nice. Immediately after the closing prayer of the first hour of meetings, Lucy hit the cup of puffs I was holding and they went ALL over the walkway. Lovely. Then we had a bathroom emergency. Lucy kept lifting up her dress to adjust her panties during sacrament mtg. so it ended up to be a good thing we had to make the bathroom trip because I discovered she had put her waist in the leg part of her panties. Austin was an angel during this whole thing, except for blowing out his diaper so he had to go shirtless under his sweater. When we get home from church, Elise goes straight to bed and Austin decided to cry continually unless I held him over my shoulder while standing up. Yes, it is very nice they weren't terrible together, but I was so looking forward to a break. Again, looking back I would have done a few things differently so I was not STARTING the day exhausted. My patience level was very low.


One thing I did not bring on with my own overzealousness happened on Tuesday. The washer flooded. You need to know that my laundry room and pantry are combined, next to the garage and on the bottom floor. Anyway, it is 11:30pm on Tuesday night and I am organizing my pantry. I'm almost done and notice liquid by the vinegar. Thinking it was leaking, I hold the bottle up and can't find drips. I swing the door open and notice water pouring out all over the floor. I had started a small load in my washer about 20 minutes before and the water kept filling instead of stopping at the "small load" line. George is on-call, so he is at the hospital all night until noonish the next day. So, I turn off the washer, bail out water from the washer into the sink (I wasn't sure where all the water was coming from), and sop up the pantry floor. This meant I had to move everything on my pantry/laundry floor so the standing water would not warp the linoleum. What a MESS! I hauled all the stuff out to my deck to dry out and then checked the weather forecast which showed hail expected the next morning. Yep, I'm not the brightest star in the sky. So, I hauled it all in the kitchen.





However, in the spirit of Pollyanna, here are a few things I am sincerely GLAD about.

• I'm glad I was awake. If I had started the washer and went to bed (like I normally do) our bottom floor would have flooded.
• The next day, I thought, "well since everything is out of my pantry, I might as well clean it." I'm glad the babies slept most of the time during the extensive scrubbing and my floor and baseboards in the pantry have never been cleaner.
• I'm glad I had a good friend who washed and folded the billion towels that I used to clean up and another who tend my babies while I finished cleaning.
• I'm glad I was able to save most of the food storage type items.
• Earlier that evening, I had a gal and her kids over for dinner. Her husband is in Dallas for the month and she recently moved into my neighborhood. They lived in Galveston for most of residency, but their house got flooded with the hurricane so they move to SA so he could finish up residency. Everything from the waist down in their house had to be replaced. Plus, all their stuff smelled like mold (they couldn't get back in their house for two weeks) AND her third child was only two weeks old when all of this happened. As she was telling me about this, I was amazed at the pleasant attitude she had. She didn't down-play how hard it was, but she wasn't angry or bitter. After she left, I talked to George on the phone about how impressed I was with her attitude. It wasn't two hours after I talked to him that the washer flooded. As I was mopping up this big mess, I couldn't help but think of my new friend and all she went through and kept telling myself, "you have no reason to complain." I was glad to be reminded to keep things in perspective.

On that happy note, here are some pictures of my clean, well-organized pantry. I don't think it will look like this again for a long time.

Walk this way

St Patty's day photo of the kids

Elise is 10 months today! What a cutie! This has been a busy month for her.... here are her new skills:

- VERY good at grabbing Austin's binkie. More on this later... The funny thing is that she doesn't even like binkies. She gave up her's at about 3 months. Its just fun to pull it out of his mouth!

- has 5 (almost 6) NEW teeth. She's had the two bottom teeth since 4 months. Then nothing. Now she has a mouthful!

- learned to sip from a straw.

- LOVES anything with buttons... phones, remotes, etc.

- LOVES to climb (Lucy's toddler bed, books, an old bread machine...basically whatever she thinks looks fun).

- now creeps around everything we own (even holds on to my legs and walks behind me)

- developed a "Stink bug" crawl. I think she thinks this is faster than crawling, but safer than walking.

- Takes a few steps on her own. I've witnessed her taking 17 steps. She does best when she doesn't think anyone is watching. We saw her take six steps after she bent over and pulled the binkie from Austin's mouth. George teased, "I'm going to get that binkie" and she gave a little grin, turned around and took a few steps. He said it again and she looked over her shoulder, grinned, and took a few more. She's a little tease! I've tried several attempts at getting a good video of her walking between us. All I have is dumb video. She either takes two or three steps and falls to her bottom (crawling as fast as she can to get whatever I'm trying to coax her with... usually the phone) or Lucy runs over to "save her" from falling or Lucy grabs whatever it is I'm coaxing with and Elise starts to bawl. Lovely. This is the best we have. Maybe one day I'll post something decent.

A Reflective tag

This past week has been a reflective one for me. Last Sunday, I read my journal entries of all the things that were going on in our lives at exactly this time last year. (More on that below)We've definitely been blessed and I feel like the "windows of heaven" have been opened as we have added two babies to our family. I was reminded of a tag I was given over six months ago and decided to fill the thing out.

20 years ago - 1989. This is tough because I can barely remember the events of yesterday.
1. I was 11 years old. I think I was in the fifth grade. I ran for 5th grade president, but didn't win. :(
2. I turned 12 at the end of the year and entered Young Women's at church.
3. My mom let me wear makeup when I turned 12. On my birthday, I chose mint green eyeshadow and painted it ALL OVER my lid. Boy, did I look hot! Later my cousins introduced me to blue mascara too! My mom gently told me I ought to pick some browns to go with my hair and skin tone, but I would not have it. I chose electric blue, mint green, and bright purples.



10 years ago - 1999
1. I was 21 years old. I was getting over a broken engagement that didn't work out how I thought it should. I thought the world had ended. Of course, only with hindsight can you see the Lord's hand in your life.
2. I was concentrating pretty hard on my schooling at USU. I had a packed schedule and I'm not sure why I was killing myself to speed through college. Probably to take my mind off the above thing.
3. I left at the end of April to serve an 18-month church mission in Palmyra, NY. This is a place of major significance as it is the place where Joseph Smith had his First Vision. I told visitors of the story, testified of its truth and its impact on my life. This was one of the best experiences of my life.


5 years ago - 2004
1. I was living in Omaha, NE. I never dreamed how much I would love Omaha.
2. I was teaching college algebra, business math, trig and some other stuff at Metro Community College and University of Nebraska- Omaha.
3. I made some wonderful friends and I'm glad I get to stay updated on some of their lives through the blogging world. When you live far from home, friends become your family.



3 years ago - 2006
1. Lucy was a few months old at the start of 2006. I was so happy to have her and start my life as a stay-at-home mom.
2. George graduated from medical school at Creighton. That meant we left Omaha and moved to San Antonio, TX.
3. The first bit of George's residency was really tough on both of us. He started with really hard rotations (later they made adjustments to help those rotations become a little more liveable). I think it is pretty mean to put 4th year medical school (cake schedule) next to intern year of residency (junk schedule). It was quite the shock and I spent WAY too much time mourning the time George was gone and how annoyed I was about it. This was also the time that the medical specialists told us our family was not likely to grow in the traditional way.



1 year ago - 2008
1. We took a vacation to South Padre Island to celebrate George's birthday. While eating at Wendy's dad's restaurant, our social worker called and asked what we were doing. He had a birth mom who was possibly interested in meeting us, but she wanted to make sure we were the type of people who got out and did stuff. Wasn't that great timing?!?
2. We met R & A on March 14 and a week later (March 21), they told us they'd selected us as adoptive parents for their daughter! What a great day! Six days later, we found out we were expecting. We were thrilled, but nervous R&A would change their minds. I took A out to dinner to give her the news and had one of my favorite talks with her. She told me about her emotions as she made the adoption decision and all the grief/opposition she'd faced at school and from her family. This is the time I really grew to love A. When I broke the news of our upcoming arrival, she was shocked but said she still wanted her baby to come to our family. Elise was born in May and we love her dearly.
3. Austin was born in November and has been a joy in our lives! He is an easy-going baby.



This year so far...
1. Got the news we would be staying in SA for at least a year. YEA!!! We have great friends here and also some great friends are moving on... :( That is one reason I don't love the military.
2. We continue to attend our neighborhood music class and do our preschool co-op. Both things have been really fun for me!
3. My day-to-day routine is busy with lots of baby stuff (of course) but most days are good days.


Yesterday
1. We sold some stuff at an adjoining neighborhood yard sale. We made about $120 and then promptly went to Lowe's and spent it all on flowers, fireant killer, etc.
2. George spent a lot of time transferring stuff from our old computer to the new one. We've been going through our house and throwing out junk.
3. We gave the kids night baths. Normally I bathe them in the morning, but since we were busy with the yardsale, we had to do it at night. All three slept from 8pm-6pm. HEAVEN!!! Maybe I'll change my bath routine...

Today
1. We were on time to church. It starts at 8:30am, so this is no small thing. George worked at the hospital so I was flying solo. I'd say it went well, thanks to some people who looked after Lucy and Austin while I was in the hall 3 times with Elise. I have to say, I've been on time to church every Sunday in 2009. If you know me well, you will really appreciate that statement.
2. We had leftover pizza for dinner and I made pineapple cookies.
3. We visited with the Cain's and Pieroni's. Three hours passes like 3 minutes. The husbands talk peds continually and the wives talk about all sorts of random things.



Tomorrow
1. Clean out three boxes of junk from the garage. Its my old college stuff and its time to get rid of it.
2. Plant a pretty blue flower if the fireants have died in the place where I want to plant it.
3. Cook a dinner with vegetables in it.


Next Year
ha, ha, ha... if its as wild as this past one... well...bring it on!

I like pi

Warning: Math Nerd Alert!

Yesterday was Pi day. For you non-math nerds, it was March 14. Get it... 3/14? So, of course we had to celebrate. The question was who to celebrate with? Luckily, our great friends Bogie and Wendy agreed to join in the dorkiness. Wendy baked Fiesta Pie for dinner. Yum! I baked a cream pie for desert. It was good too, but I remembered why I only make that recipe once a year. It takes way too long.

Lucy was my big helper and made her own little pie with the pie dough scraps

We also had a contest to see how many digits of pi we could recite. I warned you this would be nerdy, right? Wendy emailed the day before to announce this contest, so it was not unrehearsed. We are not that nerdy. Anyway, Bogie was the BIG winner... he memorized 200 digits past the decimal point. NO LIE! We were so impressed!!! His prize was a PI-neapple! Way to go Bogie! I think this should be a tradition. Next year, I am going to know more than 8.

Two pies... cream and fiesta

passing our nerdiness to the next generation

The pi day crew

Celebrating Adoption

Last week we had a photo shoot as a gift from Sara Blanco photography. She does a "Celebrating Adoption" gift which includes a complimentary sitting fee and a set of 4X6 pictures. Isn't that nice?!? The tricky part will be choosing which one to buy. My plan was to buy an 8X10 picture of Elise in sepia tone to match a 9 month photo I have of Lucy, but I'm having a hard time deciding which to get and not getting a color shot. I know I'm the mother, but I must say... those beautiful blue eyes are one of my favorite features. :)

Here are the photographers favorites (as well as the pic above):

The picture above was taken while I was getting Elise ready. By the time it was actually time to take the photos, Austin's smiles didn't come so easily. :)

For a few more photos, here is a link to the slide slow (its not very long).
www.sarakblanco.com/tripp


Thank you Sara!

Note: Geo is 2 days post surgery on his mouth... so he's a bit swollen. Poor guy!
Note2: This is the shot of Lucy I am trying to match. The idea is to have 9M shots of all my kids displayed someplace in my home. Image courtesy of Premier Images Photography.

Curse the ground they crawl on

Recently, we received the good news that we will be staying in San Antonio for at least one more year. Both of us are really happy about it. The prospect of trying to keep by house "sellable clean" was a little scary with two babies around. It easy to blame it on the babies, but truth be told, it is hard in general for me to keep my house "sellable clean." That's not one of my best talents. So, we postpone the selling of our house and moving all our stuff for another year.... yea! George is going to be Chief Resident next year. For pediatrics, that basically means that he is now a staff doc, but his primary job is resident scheduling, keeping the peace, etc. We were surprised he got it, but happy. Except for one thing. The worst part of living in San Antonio again is that I will have to survive another summer with the FIRE ANTS. I honestly hate them. When we first got here, we put our 11-month-old Lucy down on the grass by the flower bed, not realizing what was lurking. We heard her whimper and saw her leg covered in fire ants. For those of you who are not aware, they crawl around a desired part of your body. One bites and then all the rest of them bite. It stings (like fire), swells up red, becomes a pimple looking thing and itches like crazy during this whole process. George doesn't have as much of a swelling reaction, lucky guy. Yesterday afternoon, I was reminded of the little beasts. I sat on the edge of my deck and felt my foot sting. How could I forget??? Now, I only got a couple of bites, so nothing to write home about. Or blog about. But it just brought back some nasty memories. Once again, its time to spray the lawn and watch where you stand. I got an email that claims you can suffocate them by pouring club soda on their mound. The thought behind it is that the CO2 in the soda is heaver than air so the oxygen is displaced and the ants are suffocated. The email is not actually legit. This guy says the science is right, but you'd need a lot of club soda to give that the credit. The ants probably just get annoyed and move. However, I might just add club soda to the Wal-mart list anyway. It is worth a shot... Really, I'd rather not have the mounds in my yard at all. So, if anyone knows of a good method to prevent them from coming, please share.

On a happier note, I had a "I-love-being-a-mother" moment last week. I was holding Austin and feeding Elise some kind of fruit. Sometimes she ignores Austin and other times she tries to "play" with him. This time, she was grabbing for his hands and making her little "uugh" sounds. He started waving his hands and cooing back at her. They smiled back and forth, talking baby talk. Awwwwwwww! So sweet! This is the first time he has actually acknowledged her. Being six months apart, these two kids are going to be spending a lot of time together. I'm sure there will be the not-so-nice-to-each-other moments, but it was sure fun to see a glimpse of the times they will love each other.

32!

Happy Birthday Geo!

1 for 4 in looking at the camera
Who loves Lucy's 80's style headband?!?

Looking at his birthday card

Lucy thinks her daddy is amazing. Whenever she breaks anything, she says "Don't worry, mom. Dad will fix it." And most of the time, he does. He also fixes a grumpy mood in the house with his positive attitude and contagious laugh.

We love you!

9 and 3

Elise at nine months
This girl is a MOVER!! She does not sit still. Elise has a sweet two-tooth smile (but the third is just starting to poke through). She is also a human vacuum and is especially good at finding hair or fuzz on the carpet. She has taken one step on her own, but thought it was overrated and hasn't tried again.

Austin at 3 months

Austin kicks when you come over to his bouncer and gives an irrestistable "pick-me-up" smile. He is NOT a fan of "tummy time" anymore, but otherwise is a good natured baby. He likes tub time and when both of his sisters give him attention... except maybe when Elise dumps puffs on his head or Lucy pretends he is a girl.

Here is my attempt at an "artsy" picture.