My Twins ~ Details

I’m sure that you noticed that my twins are obviously not very twin-like. But they are from the same litter even though they look nothing alike.  They don’t look anything like their momma either. 

We got them by pure incident.  Yes, I said incident.  We were set up.  My father-in-law has a ‘91 Ford pickup.  My brother-in-law sorta inherited it.  He was using it for his landscaping business.  In the last couple of years he has bought two more trucks.  One he uses for the business and one he uses for personal stuff.  Since he didn’t need a third he offered to GIVE it to my husband. 

My initial thought: Nothing is ever free.  I told my hubby, who was ecstatic, that it was awesome but what was the catch.  He swore that there was no catch.  They just wanted to keep the truck in the family.  Uh-huh.

The day arrived for my hubby to go get the truck.  I dropped him off in all his bubbly glory.  I was happy that he was getting it, but us women get these gut feelings, ya know.

He was gone a long time but I figured he was learning about the bugs of the truck and hanging out with his parents.  On his way home he called me. 

“Honey, I bringing home some cats.”

EXCUSE ME

“Before you say anything, we are only going to keep 1 and the rest I’m taking to the pound.”

HUH!

Apparently, this stray cat arrived at my in-laws.  My sis-in-law named her Myra.  She was very lovey but skinny as a rail.  They had no clue she was pregnant until waa-lah, there were kittens in the shed that she was nursing.  They got Myra and her five kittens over to the garage.  They knew right away they couldn’t keep her & the kittens because they already have a ton of cats there.  And we all know that my husband is a sucker for animals!

By the time they stuck their claws into my husband they had managed to get rid of two of the kittens.  When Kevin showed up they were in a box and not very happy.  There were really feral.

Well, to make a long story short, Momma kitty wound up at the pound because our original cat, Winter, was beating her up.  She had horrible abrasions all over her.  And one of the kittens, we dubbed Indiana Jones, was just to feral to make it in our crazy house.  It needed a home where she was it and our house wasn’t like that.  So we were left with two. 

The black kitty is basically Austin’s.  He named it Doom-a-geddon.  I call her Doomy.  She was pretty feral at first but we got her adjusted pretty well.  She is still skittish about going outside but she is getting there.

The multi-colored kitty is Rachel’s.  His name is Brave Heart.  Out of all the cats he was the one who had no problems with people or other animals.  We tease him about being a momma’s boy because he is always stalking me and wanting loves from me. 

So now we have 3 dogs, 3 cats, 2 turtles and a milk snake. Oh and 4 kids.

We have our laser beams on...you will love us

WW ~ My Twins

Back to School

I have survived back to school.  Kevin has survived.  And each of the kids have survived.  I’m glad that transition is over.  I am always nervous about how it will go.  Just to catch you up to speed here is the humps and bumps of the new school year.

Rachel

She is loving 5th grade.  She has the exact same teacher that I had for 5th grade!  That is how small our town is…lol.  Once again she is part of a team teaching group.  There are 3 teachers.  She has Mrs. M for her home room and science.  She has Mrs. E for social studies, reading and English.  And she has Dr. B for her math since it is special ed stuff.  She is quite excited to get to use a calculator for some of her stuff.  She has to try to do it by hand first and then after she puts in a real effort can pull out the calculator. She has had a pretty easy transition.

Matthew

He has doing amazing!!  He had no problem with the transition from summer to the new school year.  His class has doubled in size but for once it hasn’t affected him.  They put him in a computer class and he seems to be getting there.  He actually pushed a couple of buttons and jiggled the mouse the other day…lol.  So maybe in time. 

I’m highly considering asking if he can be put in a 6th grade Spanish class.  He tries to speak Spanish around the house all the time.  He has no clue what he is trying to say but when he gets frustrated or overly happy he has went from biting his hand to speaking his version of Spanish.  It would be interesting to see if he could pick up the language and use it in context.

Austin

For those of you that knew the troubles this poor boy had last year there was no where else to go but up.  And up happened.  He is doing amazing in high school.  We haven’t gotten grades yet but he is so much happier.  He has no problems getting up and getting ready for school.  We pick him up and we know he will be his smiley, funny self.  It’s been awesome.  We really love seeing this side of our boy.

Lauren

Oh, little Miss Lauren.  This is her senior year.  There are lots of transitions for her.  She is becoming more of an adult every day and realizing how much it can suck and how unfair it is.  She is trying to grasp it but it’s not easy for her.  I’m thankful that she plans to hang at home for two years and do community college.  I think she will need those two years before she sprouts her wings.  Who knows what will happen.  Only time will tell.  For now, we all just take it one day at a time, especially her.

Wow! What a Month

The past 35 days have been insane.  First, we had school start which was nuts.  To be honest I still don’t know what teachers my high schoolers have because schedules changed so much. 

Then, we had an issue with Lauren.  She isn’t a bad kid.  But it involved something no one ever wants to have happen to their daughter.

With that and some other stuff that had happened nationally and locally, I went into a major funk. At one time I seriously considered asking Kevin to take me to the ER and just commit me for a week.  And then one day, with no reasoning at all, I woke up and I was back to me again. 

And of course, I had to round the month out with the all important abdominal pain that no surgery can seem to stop.  Every surgery I have just seems to take one pain away and add another.  I think I’m on the downhill side of the latest episode but who really knows.  I, for sure, don’t…lol.

And that evil E word is hitting us hard core.  We are all praying that Kevin can find a different job and fast.  We are sinking pretty fast.

So I’m hoping for good things for the next 35 days, for me and for all of you.

Fighting Myself…and Losing

“increased shyness and social anxiety have been reported in some women with the (fragile x) premutation” Franke, P., Leboyer, M., Hardt, J., Sohne, E., Weiffenbach, O., & Biancalana, V., et al. (1999). Neuropsychological profiles of FMR-1 premutation and full mutation carrier females. Psychiatry Research, 87, 223-231.

This is my hell.  I’m locked within myself.  A piece of me will be reaching out while the rest of me is holding me in and down. No one understands.  I know I’m disappointing the ones I love.  But the force keeping me away is too strong to fight. And even though I know this, I still fight it.  Then I get sick.  Sometimes it is a simple cold or an upset tummy.  But lately it has resulted in a migraine.

Where is all this coming from?  My latest disappointment in myself and to my family that occurred yesterday. We had a family reunion.  (I just heard a collective groan from all you carriers out there.)  I had no clear cut plans.  No specific time.  No idea of what was going on or what was expected of me.  In my mind, I would know very little outside of my mom and my aunts. It was in a place that I wasn’t sure where to find and haven’t been to since my early, early childhood.

The effects started Friday.  I had tried to contact my mom to find out specs on this thing.  I was told by my young cousin that they were heading out to eat.  I won’t lie.  I freaked out!  I had children wanting to make plans.  I had exes wanting their kids.  So I did what I thought best and decided to battle the 1 instead of the 3.  I sent my kids with their other family and let Austin go to his friends.  And then I stressed.  And I worried.  I do both so well, I must say.  I do it so well that I managed to give myself a handy dandy migraine.

Saturday morning rolled around.  I forced myself out of bed around 8:30 so I could get showered.  I had to take Lauren to work and get Matthew a tooth fairy gift.  I still hadn’t heard from my mother and the pain started to settle behind my left eye. Typical, so very typical.

My mother called later to finally give me some insight on this reunion.  She was really stressed and I just couldn’t tell her that there was no way I could do this.  Especially knowing that she wouldn’t understand.  So I played along and kicked myself with every word that seeped from my lips.  Kevin got off of work at noon and by this time my migraine was in full swing.  I tried another one of the meds that the doc had given my to try out.  It didn’t work for the pain but it knocked me out most of the afternoon.

I know Lauren wanted to go.  She is such a social person.  I envy her that.  I’m glad she can be.  Kevin was following my lead.  He is such a good husband.  He tries to understand the inner workings of my crazy, defected mind.  My mother never called and I feel horrible that I bailed on her.

Today, my head is still pounding but nothing like yesterday.  My entire Labor Day weekend has been shot.  And I have no one to blame by myself.

Happy Birthday Austin

Today Mr. Austin is 15.  So just for him and his skull crazy mind…

May take a longer break…

We had a sort of family emergency type of situation yesterday.  I have a child, a husband, and myself that is going through a lot of emotions as we deal and heal with this newest situation.  I’ll be back when I can make a coherent thought in my head.  Sorry for the delays…but at least you can read from the beginning over there on the selector thing.  —->