My Life in a Nut Shell

3 surgeries for Endometriosis, countless medications, and lots of difficult years trying to conceive. We put the medical stuff on hold and decided to work on being parents instead. In July of 2000 we were blessed beyond all measure with a phone call announcing the birth of our daughter, Megan. Megan's birth mother had given birth the day before and was leaving the hospital. We had no warning that Megan was coming. At 4:29 in the afternoon we were a couple, at 4:30 we were parents. Deciding that we wanted a sibling for Megan, we looked into all our options. This time insurance covered IVF. One round and we were blessed with triplets, Abigail, Brigid, and Caroline. Did you know that there is a 70% chance of divorce in families of Higher Order Multiples? Almost two years after the triplets were born my ex-husband and I separated and eventually divorced. During that time both my Mother and Father passed away from cancer. In February of 2007 my sister came to live with us to help out. In December of 2008 she had to leave so now it is me on my own with the girls. In February 2010, Lisa passed away and finally found her own Peace.

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Another busy day again. We had an appointment this morning for the girls and it took a long time. We didn't get home until around 2 this afternoon. Things have been going rather smoothly. But, Brigie is up to her usual tricks again. Yesterday I let the triplets paint with some new watercolors. The paint is located inside the handle of the brush so there is SUPPOSED to be very little clean-up involved. Apparently the makers of the paint were unaware of kids like Brigie. Everyone did such a super job painting, trying to paint their names and letters, etc. Abby finished up first and went straight into the bathroom to wash her hands. Caroline came in next to do the same. I walked with Abby and Caroline to the living room and at the same time Brigie walked from the dining room to the bathroom by way of the kitchen. I mention her path because it was at most 2 minutes from the last time I saw her in the dining room until I went back into the bathroom to help her out. In that time she managed to paint one hand and her ENTIRE mouth black. I didn't notice the black mouth until she smiled at me and looked like she had swallowed tar. It was everywhere. Her tongue was completely black. When she stuck out her tongue for me to see, she drooled and black spit fell on the counter. Ewww. How does she do it? I can't let that girl alone for a second with any type of fluid because she will have either drawn on her body or some part of the house. Yesterday at dinner we had mashed potatoes with pot roast. The potatoes were pretty firm. Never in a million years did I expect to look over at Brigie who was rolling the mashed potatoes into balls and eating them. Instead of snow balls she said she had made potato balls. I feel like I should create a blog just detailing Brigid's antics.

Of course, I would be remiss if I didn't share the intelligent, adult fun my sister and I were having at dinner this evening. Everyone was done eating and Lisa and I were still at the table talking. During this time the girls were putting their plates in the sink and cleaning up their areas around the table. (I can see some of you smirking right now. Yes I do actually make them clean-up. Honest.) My hands had gotten wet from the condensation on my cup and for some odd reason I made a fart noise with them. Megan started laughing so I showed her the fine art of making farts with your hands. This led to my sister and Megan trying to do the same. No fine fart making would be complete though without....Armpit farts. Just for a moment close your eyes and picture two grown women in their 30s and 40s sitting at the dinner table with their hands up their shirts trying to cup their armpits to get just the right tone. Megan jumped in and I can tell you we had some fine fart making practice.

It takes so little amuse us.

Sunday, January 13, 2008

Creative Spelling

Brigie is my character. She always comes up with something funny. Just today she emptied out an entire bottle of body wash into the tub, poured out the detangler spray into the toothbrush draw, and filled up a Hi-C bottle with Fruit Loops so she could crush them easily and sprinkle them out everywhere. She tends to be a bit grouchy when she gets tired. Before nap she got mad at Abby over something. So she screamed, "Abby! I hate you! I'm going to spell her name A-B-B-Poopy."

It's just always something.

Thursday, January 10, 2008

Thursday, Jan 10, 2008

Well I have been gone awhile. I was having trouble logging on to here to post but have it fixed now. Lots going on at home as always. Some of the bigger stuff I will elaborate on at another time. We painted pictures today. I painted big signs with the girls names on them so they can see their names when they are drawing. I hung them up in the dining room and now it is starting to look like a school.

Megan and Brigie have been sick. Since Brigie is on antibiotics full-time I do not think it was strep. It appears to have been some sort of virus. The bigger problem is that she has broken out into hives big time. She has them everywhere. The Claritin and Benedryl are not knocking them out. If they are not better tomorrow it will be another run to the dr. Bless her heart. She is so used to going lately that when she gets up in the morning she wonders which dr. she is going to see! Megs ran a slight fever Tues. evening. Enough to keep her home from school on Wed. This is a girl who hates to miss school. She has missed more this year so far than in all her years of school combined at Mother of Good Counsel. I fear the triplets will have a big problem when they start Kindergarten next year.

I did have to post two funny things that Megan and Abby said recently. Lisa and I have been trying to work with them to get them to stop sucking their thumbs. Megan is better about it during the day. Abby was sitting on her bed in her room by herself. When I came in and asked what she was doing she said, "I guess it is time to get rid of Mousey." I asked why she would need to get rid of Mousey as this is her FAVORITE lovey. She said, "Whenever I hold Mousey I want to suck my thumb. Since I have to stop sucking my thumb, I have to get rid of Mousey." She was in deep contemplation about this too. I assured her that she could still keep Mousey anyway. She sighed and simply replied, "I don't know." Too cute.

The girls have been talking a lot about angels. Megan insists that she is seeing glimpses of them everywhere. We were sitting at dinner and Megan asked if there was an adoption center in Heaven. I asked her why she wanted to know. She asked if babies that are born here and die go to Heaven. I said of course. She wanted to know who would take care of the babies when they got to Heaven. Then she said that if babies go to Heaven and become angel babies they would need someone to take care of them and if there was an adoption center there then other angels could adopt them and take care of them. Very deep discussion.

It's 10:05 p.m. and I still haven't done dishes from dinner. So I must go upstairs and become domestic, if even for only a little while.

Wednesday, January 2, 2008

A Typical Day

So I'm sitting here with a chocolate mud mask on and got to thinking about my day. Not sure why a mud mask is making me think of my children, but that's for another day. I'm pooped. I'm pretty much pooped everyday around this time. This is nothing new. Megs started the day of fun with waking up at 6 a.m. yelling that she couldn't find Mousy. That woke everyone else up. I once again used my Momma Super Powers and found Mousy tucked under the covers at the end of the bed. Of course this wouldn't have anything to do with the fact that there were 3 kids sleeping in a twin bed. Musical beds again. But I digress. Since there isn't a clock in their room I convinced them that it was still the middle of the night and they all did fall asleep until 7:45. Yea for me. It was like being on vacation. We hit the ground running. It was up, fix four different breakfasts, four cups each with a different juice, and begin the clothing search. The girls are pretty easy to dress. Brigie in sweats, Abby in a cool track suit, and Caroline in anything knitted ( a Didi sweater!). Megs is a typical 16 year old. Wait, she's 7. It took 15 minutes of creating an outfit around a new pair of pants. Woke Lisa up, showered, had a bite, searched for shoes and managed to get out the door by 10:30. Pretty impressive. lol We then drove to the pharmacy off of Dixie Hwy. It's cheap there because I don't have insurance. Next to Fern Valley Rd. for the bank. Paid off the minivan. Waiting for it to break down now. Stopped to have a sandwich with everyone. Two trips to the restroom in the restaurant and one at the bank. Next we drove onto Walgreens to pick some things up. Then to Build-A-Bear again to use up the gift certificates. We went into the Children's Place for tights for Megan and two little t-shirts for Abby. She likes to wear tanks at bedtime. Like me. Next it was the drive through at Kroger for Lisa's meds and then home. We unloaded the car, got the mail, and undressed. (The girls are vying for jobs at Deja Vu.) Once we were settled, Lisa took all the stuff out to make these great little bird boxes. The girls got to paint and decorate them. Then I had to go back to Kroger to pick up other meds for Lisa, a mud mask for me, and nuts. Because my house isn't nuts enough. We got back home, had dinner, cleaned up the living and bedroom, brushed teeth, got jamas on and got into bed. Of course it does take over an hour to get ready for bed but finally eveyone was asleep by 9:30. I imagine this is what most Moms do everyday but I can't help but wonder how easy it must be to do all that with only 1 or 2 kids. It just seems like a tour de force for us to get through our day. This was a pretty typical day.

I did have to chuckle at a few things that happened or were said today:

1. I actually said 3 different times, "We do not sit on our sister's head".

  1. Caroline decided the best way to eat lunch was to sit on her own head.
  2. I took a different way home from the bank and the kids were convinced we had left Kentucky and driven to Missouri.
  3. Megan got some VO5 oil treatments for her. When she got home she wanted to know when I was going to do the oil change on her hair.
  4. Megan wanted to know why a character on TV called another character "a maggot". I explained that a maggot was a gross, disgusting, white, slimy bug that liked to hang around garbage. Caroline responded with, "You mean like Aunt Lisa."
  5. Brigid would not go anywhere without gloves because she was convinced her fingers would freeze off.
  6. Abby said that when she grew up she wanted to be big, not an adult. She said she didn't want to be adults like Aunt Lisa and I, only a grown-up. I'm too afraid to find out what she thinks "adult" means.

All in all, a pretty standard day.

Tuesday, January 1, 2008



Brigie, Abby, and Caroline on Christmas morning. Megan is holding up her magical cookie creation for Santa Claus to eat on Christmas Eve. Notice her admiring sister, Brigid, in the corner of the pic. They girls had sooooo much fun making the gingerbread house and cookies. It was fun because Lisa and I just put out the stuff on the table and let the girls create. There was no arguing and everyone was sharing. One of those rare and magical days that make me so thankful for this gift from God called Motherhood.

Our new Christmas pictures that I have finally been able to upload on here. Brigie, Abby, Megan and Caroline dressed to go to Daddy's house.


NEVER EVER LET TWO 4 YEAR OLDS PLAY WITH A BLACK MARKER.

(Thank goodness it was washable. )

After making our gingerbread house. Abby, Caroline, Megan, Brigie, Sylvester, Lisa, Ella.

Happy New Year!



I hope everyone had a festive new year evening last night. We went out to dinner (Thanks Joyce) and dessert at Dairy Queen (thanks Delaney and Rachel!!). The girls loved it and were so wound up by being out in a resturant. We got home about 9:30 and set up a sleepover in the living room. We pulled two mattresses into the living room and had sheets and covers. I slept on the couch. I think I am too old and out of shape for the floor! The girls did make it until midnight. It was funny because I kept telling them that this would be the only time I would tell them that they COULDN'T fall asleep. It was much excitement and I felt thrilled beyond all belief to be with my most favorite people in the world to start off the new year.
For those of you that know me you know that I have had some rotten luck in the last few years, some out of my hands and some because of poor decision making. I used to be certain that every new year would be better than last year. But things seem to be remaining similar. So this year I am trying something different. Rather than feel like I am starting off the new year at the top of a mountain and rolling down hill as the year passes to finally hitting bottom on new year's eve, I am going to picture this year in reverse. What I mean is that I am going to imagine that the end of the year is my peak that I will be reaching toward. I will take small, guided steps to the top. Picking up learned lessons, good luck, friends, love, success in career, stability for the kids, and generally a sense of peace along the way. I gotta start small. I believe things will change for the good. I believe I will start feeling happy with the above list. My girls ALWAYS bring me joy and peace. Comfort, laughs, joy, thrills, happiness. But I want to extend that to lots of other areas.
Prayers are always needed. Encouragement. Anything you give to me in spirit rather than in physical things. Does that make sense? It will be much appreciated.


What can I do to help you?