Telford Twins

Birthday Fun

2012-01-08T09:20:00.000-08:00

Hello Blog! It's been quite awhile. Happy 2012!

Yesterday was the big 3-5 for Paul. We celebrated all day long. The twins made him cards in the morning. Well, they started the night before but because they were drawing so many details, think colorful hearts and butterflies, they weren't able to finish so they finished in the morning. I realized last night when I looked closely at the cards that it seems Abby let Tom write her card for her. She did the drawing but the writing was his. I do a lot of homework with this kids and I think I can tell their writing apart. It was clearly Tom's handwriting on both pieces of paper.

We had cake and gifts in the afternoon and then we went to Jack's for dinner. If you live near Sacramento, and you're not familiar with Jack's, you should be. It's a casual dining restaurant, probably best known for the salads and garlic fries, neither of which I eat, but they have fresh carved turkey, tri tip, and grilled chicken every day and all of it is fantastic.

Tom picked our table, nice and snug next to a couple clearly on a romantic date. Her hair was all done, make up on, glass of wine on the table. I didn't even know Jack's served wine.

As I'm bringing some of the entrées to our table the romantic dinner next to us was abruptly interrupted. They looked quite startled and annoyed. It took me a minute to figure out what happened. Tom had partially unwrapped his straw from the wrapper, stuck the straw in his mouth and aimed the other end at his sister. Well the straw wrapper flew completely past Abby and smack into the middle of the next table. I gushed, "I'm so sorry!" and went to pick up the wrapper, but the guy sitting there just picked it up and smiled at the wryly rascals sitting a bit stunned with their hands over their mouths staring back at him. Nice one, Tom. Nice.

Slug Bug King

2011-11-20T18:21:00.001-08:00

About a year ago, maybe more, we started counting slug bugs every time we get into the car. You know the drill. You see a Volkswagen Beetle and you slug the person next to you. Except our version is more clean, for the twins' sake. We just call out the beetle as fast as we can, "slug bug yellow!" and that is how you gain a point.

Well Tom is pretty obsessed with finding these slug bugs. He and Paul are pretty competitive. Often times I'll see the slug bugs but not call them out because that's not fun. I let the kids find them. Then for some unknown reason Tom got 100 bonus slug bugs on the way home one night. His tally is currently up in the 200's while Abby and I are in the 30's.

Tom calls himself the Slug Bug King. As the king he can make up rules about who gets to call slug bugs and what slug bugs are valid. You'd be surprised how creative he can get in order to ensure he is the king of slug bugs for eternity.

As we were driving to meet my mom today I told Tom a little white lie. I said, while he wasn't with me the other day I saw a lot of slug bugs. I mean, A LOT! There were 298 slug bugs in a parade! There was confetti and balloons! So naturally, I just rounded up and proclaimed myself the Slug Bug Queen with 300 slug bugs to my name!

In the back seat Tom sat protesting, even crying, "Tell me you're lying mom! Tell me you're lying!" *sob* *sob* *sob* I told him I pleaded the fifth and asked for my lawyer. Then we were at our destination anyway, so the case was dropped.

He still doesn't believe me. Do you?

Old Married Couple

2011-11-17T08:49:00.001-08:00

Tom and Abby behave like an old married couple. They have spent nearly every waking moment together at home. They eat together, sleep together, bathe together, and play together.

I don't often witness them getting ready for breakfast, but this morning I was up before them. *gasp!* Well, not exactly up before them, but I made my way to the kitchen before them. Ever since they discovered Sunday's Toys R Us newspaper advertisement they have spent the first hour of each morning carefully copying THE ENTIRE AD onto their Christmas lists.

When they finally rolled out to the kitchen for breakfast I watched as they got their cereal ready. Abby is quite the little mother. She carefully pours each bowl of cereal. Then she goes to the fridge where she pulls out two glasses of juice (pre-poured by Dad this morning) and a tall glass of milk (since the gallon is too heavy to lift for them.) Abby sets the table, placing each cereal bowl in front of the correct seat and then places the cups in their correct settings as well. Then she places the milk in front of Tom so he can pour his first. All the while Tom is messing with the TV, trying to decide which movie the'll watch for breakfast. This week, it's been old re-runs of "ALF" from Amazon on Demand.

Another example: Earlier this week I made some popcorn for them. They decided to eat it outside. I found them cuddled into one of the patio chairs together. And then, almost as if it was subconscious, they each would chuck a piece of popcorn over their head, behind them, onto the grass for the dog to find. Every once in awhile they'd turn around and giggle as the dog ate the pop corn on the grass.

School Pictures

2011-11-10T15:56:00.001-08:00

The prints are back from the twins' annual fall school photos. Before you ask, yes! They did pick their own backgrounds. The photography company uses a green type screen for every photo and then the kids (or parents) can select which background they want behind them on the printed photographs. Pretty slick! Tom says it looks like he's a rock star.

Abby's clearly not looking at the camera. In this digital age it's a bit surprising that a mistake like that can go through. All the photographer has to do is make sure there aren't any funky faces and make sure the kid is... um... looking at the camera? But I decided not to have her re-take the photos. I kinda like the charm of bad school pictures.

Tom 6, Abby 3

2011-10-24T13:58:00.000-07:00

Well, it finally happened. About 10 months after Abby lost her first two teeth (on the bottom) she finally lost a top tooth. She looks like a jack-o-lantern just in time for Halloween!

Tom has lost 6 teeth already and his top two in the front have come in with a nice gap between them which I'm sure will fill in as he gets more adult teeth. I'm hoping this means he will not need braces. On the other hand Abby's two front bottom teeth have come in crooked. Her poor mouth is so tiny, just like the rest of her and I think she inherited my big teeth!

Cheese!

Cheerleading

2011-10-23T09:46:00.000-07:00

On Saturday, October 8, The UC Davis Cheer and Dance Team had an "Aggiette" cheer clinic for children ages 5 and up. They took the kids in at 1pm, taught them how to cheer and dance, fed them pizza at 4:30 and then they got to cheer from the sidelines at the UC Davis football game from 6pm-7:30. At 7:30 they did a half time performance.

Abby was absolutely in love with being on the field cheering with the cheerleaders. She asked me why she can't do this every week! At 40 bucks a pop, I can see why it's only once a year! Those poor cheerleaders had a couple dozen little girls to babysit for 6.5 hours.

Abby was the only one in a pink skirt, so she should be easy to pick out of the crowd in the photos. Keep in mind, Paul wasn't there, so the pictures aren't as good as he would have done.

Abby on the sidelines:

Abby at the half time show:

Abby at the half time show finale.

Birthday Madness

2011-10-07T20:10:00.000-07:00

It happened. A week ago my babies turned 7. At least they still like to be called my babies and they still think that I'm the smartest mom in the world. I know this will not last long so I am living it up!

On Friday night, the day before the birthday we took the twins to their school carnival. The carnival name changes from year to year, this year it was called the Harvest Festival. Nothing like dropping a hundred bucks for luke warm catered food and balloon animals. The twins had a blast and I think a lot of money was raised for the school PTA so that's all that matters.

John and Fran arrived for the weekend festivities that night and the twins were thrilled to see them!

On Saturday we had a family party after soccer-palooza. Though Tom had 3 rare shots on goal, his team lost but put up a good fight. Tom's game ended at 1:30 and we headed home for the 2pm festivities. Paul did a fabulous job creating the perfect cupcakes and homemade ice cream. The twins opened plenty of lovely gifts. Around dinner time all the guests stuck around so we headed to a chinese/Mongolian BBQ restaurant only 1 mile from our house. I love the proximity of this place, close enough to bike to in the summer and the food is de-lish!

Round 1 of singing and cupcakes on Saturday.

Here are the big group shots from Saturday's party.

By Sunday I was spent. I was so over the endless commitments but there was more to do. The twins had their party at a local amusement park for small children called Funderland. It really was a breeze to be able to pay someone to entertain the kids. Well, parents stayed and watched their own children, but having the rides to play on instead of a party at home was definitely the way to go. No mess and the cost is really about the same. Somehow at $13.95/head we had 20 guests ride for 2 hours for only $219. So apparently math isn't Funderland's strong suit, but I wasn't going to complain.

The twins spent most of the day with their eyes closed, but you can tell they were enjoying the roller coasters!

More singing and more cupcakes.

This is the aftermath from the second party.

Totally unrelated but thought I should mention it, Tom tied the school's fastest second grader in the jog-a-thon last month. They both ran 3.06 miles (17 laps around the half track) in 30 minutes!!! Way to go Tom! He has some serious lungs on him. Abby ran about 1.5 miles, which is the furthest she's ever run at one time before. So proud! The jog-a-thon also raised enough money to keep the librarian for the rest of the school year and extra money to keep her around for the start of next year as well.

The Day Before Seven

2011-09-30T10:30:00.000-07:00

Guess who turns 7 tomorrow?

Oh.

My.

God.

Yes, the Telford Twins are 7 in 2011!!!

They wanted to do something fun and spunky for their birthday at school so we went shopping..... for hair dye. Yes it's permanent... until it washes out. I wish I had these kinds of cojones when I was their age. I love them for their individuality. Well, I guess except that they both copy each other. They are twins after all.

Tom was a little upset the dye didn't turn out darker. To be honest, so am I, but we might try and make it darker tonight so it's brighter for his soccer game tomorrow. We'll see if we can squeeze that in between the carnival at school, a soccer game and two birthday parties in the next 48 hours! Wish me luck, I'm tired already, but so excited that Tom and Abby are so excited to turn 7. It's all I've been hearing about for three months!

Here's a picture of the twins 7 years ago today. My how they've grown.

September 13

2011-09-13T14:06:00.000-07:00

Today, September 13, 2011, would have been my Dad's 68th birthday.

Happy Birthday, Dad.

Jeremiah Aloysius Linehan Jr.

September 13, 1943 - March 30, 1999

I'm not exactly sure when this picture was taken, as there's no date on it. He looks to be about 10 years old. I would have properly scanned it for a better quality reproduction to post on my blog, but the technology gods were not smiling down on me today, so I used Photobooth instead. That's pretty fitting, if you knew my father, who died in 1999 and never purchased cable TV, nor an answering machine for the telephone at home. He always said, "If it is important enough, they will call back."

******UPDATE*******

The technology god, commonly known as Paul, came home from work and scanned the photo for me. Here's the higher quality version for your viewing enjoyment.

No Invitation For You!

2011-09-07T15:03:00.000-07:00

Well, it's that time of year again. It's time to invite a gaggle of kids over for some birthday fun. I did my best to get the invites out in plenty of time. I don't have high hopes that we will get many RSVPs from the kids Tom and Abby only see in school. For some reason the act of RSVPing is a lost art. It doesn't really matter though because the party is not at my house this year!!! I've convinced the twins that we can have the party in Sacramento at this tiny amusement park for kids called Funderland.

I sent the kids with 25 or so invitations to school on Tuesday morning. I forgot to give them the etiquette speech, since not every kid in both classes was invited. I wanted them to just hand the envelope to the kid and have them put it in their backpack. I realize that's not what happens in second grade.

As soon as the envelopes were brought out both classes huddle around Tom and Abby waiting for their name to be called. Abby told me this story about a girl we'll call Missy. Missy asks her, "Abby, do you have an invitation for me?" With Abby's hands brimming so full of invitations it's hard to weed through them to find out exactly who she had invited the night before Abby says, "I don't know, Missy, let me see." Then Abby goes on to tell me, "Mom! Then I only had 3 invitations left and Missy's name wasn't on them so I said, "Sorry, Missy, maybe next year.""

My kid is awesome.

So much for being discreet, huh?

First Day of Second Grade Photo

2011-08-16T10:06:00.000-07:00

I know this is going to be a little bit disappointing, but it should be surprising. Here is the blurry photo I took with our bazillion dollar fancy DSLR camera. It wasn't until hours later I noticed the settings were on some program that Paul uses to manually focus the photos. My skills haven't reached that sort of level, so I have to use "Granny Green Square" or Automatic settings. Did I look before I took the picture? Of course not! Read the previous entry to figure out why I obviously had time to pause and look for those kinds of details.

First Day of Second Grade

2011-08-15T13:22:00.000-07:00

August 15, 2011. The first day of second grade!

I don't know how it's possible to be late on the first day of school when you start at 10am, but somehow we almost did it.

I should preface by saying I had a LONG weekend. Fun, but long. I traveled a lot, without the family and by the time I got home at 7pm I was just exhausted.

I ended up getting up at 7:45AM today, thinking I had loads of time to get out the door by 9:30, take some first day of school pictures for 10 minutes and then walk to school to be 10 minutes early! Um, my body and my kids had other plans.

First of all the clothes I picked out weren't sufficient. Both kids found issues. Tom's top was too itchy (what??? It's cotton!) And Abby's shorts under her dress didn't have pockets. The pockets proved to be important because she has a PIN that must be entered to buy her school lunches. No money actually changes hands in the lunch room, the parents set up an account in the office and the PIN deducts the $2.50 every day she uses it. Well, the PIN is the same as last year, but let's face it, June was a long time ago. So I found her cheat sheet wadded up in her coat pocket. It's part of a pink index card that has been folded and wrinkled a thousand times that it's soft and frayed. I asked her if she wanted to pin the PIN to her dress, and she said that's a good idea so I pinned the PIN upside down on the front of her dress so she can read the PIN at lunch time.

Finally it was time to get mom ready. i had done my treatments but I like to shower before I leave the house, gasp! Sometimes I like to wash my hair, but let's face it, that's far too much of a luxury when you're now down to less than 20 minutes to put yourself together. When I was searching for Abby's student ID number to load her lunch money account, which is different than the PIN.... *sigh*.... I must have disturbed some dust in my filing cabinet because I couldn't stop coughing. This was a body convulsion coughing fit that left me with that surge of saliva in my mouth that says, ok, time to puke now. I resisted and recovered after collapsing on my bed for a breather. Great, five more minutes wasted.

Finally we're showered, teeth brushed, hair combed, shoes on, Tom's lunch was made, water bottles packed and we're out the door. We had time now for like zero photos but I didn't care. I was getting my stinking picture. Cheese! And we were off with the neighbors who then took off like a group of race horses and I gasped and coughed the whole race, I mean, way, there.

The numbers of the classrooms do not correspond to the line numbers on the playground so as I was browsing the new school list of students and class lines I failed to memorize all 4 numbers for my two kids. Tom is in line 24, but I didn't know his classroom number. Abby is in line 19, which was missing by the time we got there because all the students had gone into the classroom already! Luckily we knew her classroom number and she rushed off because she was already late. For the record it was only 9:57AM, so her teacher was early.

I followed Tom's class when they finally went in, and I took a picture of him sitting at his new desk. Now it looks like I love one of my kids more than the other because I didn't get the same photo of Abby on the first day of school. I walked back around the building to see if I could pop into Abby's class and take a photo, but by that point all the parents had left and I didn't want to disturb the class. Oh well, maybe next year!

I'd love to post my photos today, but you'll have to wait. I can't get my Eye-Fi card to load them all onto the computer for some reason. So the ones I want are currently stuck on the camera until tech support gets home. You'll just have to come back! Bwahahahahaha!

Allergies for Abby

2011-07-22T18:48:00.001-07:00

About 2 weeks ago Abby started with a dry cough. I assumed it was something she picked up at the pool since there are so many people at the community swimming pool. It turned into a wet cough pretty fast and it's been that way ever since. She doesn't have a fever, she's not lethargic, her saturations are good (having this fancy CF equipment is good for something!) but she still has the stinking cough.

The other night Paul and I tired to listen to her with my disposable stethoscope. When you're an isolation patient in the hospital, such as myself, they have to use single patient use equipment, including a stethoscope, which I have taken home on more than one occasion because they just throw them out when I leave anyway.

Well, to the untrained ear, I could hear something in her lungs, but not really what I would describe as a rattle. More like a whooshing monotone rumble, if that makes sense.

So today, enough was enough. i called her doctor and by 10am they had not called me back so I just walked her into Urgent Care. BTW the doctor NEVER called me back, so I think we are done with that office. We were out of Urgent Care in less than a half hour with a diagnosis of seasonal allergy wheezing and bronchospasms. The doctor said he would give her antibiotics if I wanted her to have them, but he didn't think she had an infection. This made sense to me since I haven't caught it, and I catch everything!

So he gave her a prescription for Xopenex, which is something I have laying around the house all the time. It's just the puffer (like asthmatics use). She's had two doses and I don't see an improvement in her cough yet, so, hmmmm... We'll just have to wait and see. If I don't see any improvement over the weekend I think I'm going to have to call in some favors and see if my lung doctor will see her as a new patient on Monday. Normally it takes about 6 weeks to get in there... but I'm hoping since I've personally been a patient there for over 20 years, I can pull some sort of seniority card.

This following picture has nothing to do with this post, but it was taken on Monday after Paul got back from Pezamania in Cleveland. There are a couple new little fellows in there.

Day at the Park

2011-06-30T15:42:00.000-07:00

Today Tom and Abby's friends called and asked if we wanted to help them sell lemonade at Miwok Park. It was a park I had been to only once before. The play structure is under some gorgeous large oak trees and it's an all wooden structure with ramps and bridges. It just gives some different scenery than the standard plastic stuff the twins always play on in the brand new parks in our neighborhood.

Well there was a lot more drinking lemonade than selling going on but the kids had a good time. I had stopped by Carl's Jr to grab a chicken sandwich on the way since it was really late and I hadn't eaten lunch yet. I noticed some squirrels getting rather brave and close to me and my Carl's Jr. garbage. I probably should have thrown the bag away much sooner than I did but I sat there practically on the ground at the edge of the wooden playground for a good hour talking to two other moms while the kids played.

As if the squirrels weren't bad enough, one of the moms says, "Is that a rat?" Sure enough, closest to me, but still quite a ways off, under the play structure out comes a big rat. As long as he stays over there, I'm ok, right? Well, I have my back turned on the rat and all of the sudden one of the moms faces goes blank and she gets up super quick and runs away as I start to feel something bumping into my ankle. (I'm wearing only flip flops on my feet.) Thinking it was the rat I jumped up as fast as my weak legs could go, stumbled into the bark, scraped my knee, recovered (not gracefully) and started shrieking, "Where is it? Where is it?!"

I thought it was the rat, but indeed.... it was only a mouse. Still... THAT WAS MY ANKLE! Ewwwwwww!!!!! I've looked very closely to make sure I haven't been scratched as I really don't want to go get my rabies vaccine today. I think that might be the last time I go to that park.

Wackford Aquatics Complex

2011-06-23T10:14:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we got our first use out of our 2011 swimming pass to the Wackford Aquatic Complex. It topped out at 100 degrees and we swam for 5 hours! Being the superstar mom that I am, when Abby got home she complained of being cold. Paul asked me what she had to drink during those 5 hours, and other than pool water, I guess it was only a few ounces she managed to choke down during her one 20 minute break for a snack. Yes, you can nominate me for mother of the year now. Poor thing was so dehydrated.

The morning started off with lots of sunscreen. It took me nearly an hour to sunscreen the kids and myself. I was completely spent after doing my legs and making sure I didn't miss a spot. Putting on lotion has become one of those really difficult activities. It's just so exhausting! I guess a lot of things are exhausting when you're only working with 41% lung capacity.

Since the twins' swimming goggles broke last weekend, my intention was to stop in Target on our way to Wackford. Luck would have it that I left my brain, and wallet at home. I had just $20 cash and my photo ID with me for our swimming adventure. So I scratched everything off our list and just headed for the goggles. Luckily we were able to stay under budget, but I'm not sure of the quality of our $6 goggles.

At Wackford there is a huge shallow area. It ranges from zero entry to 4 feet deep. (4 feet by the way is "the deep end" for the twins) In order to go into the real deep end where the diving boards are, you have to pass the swim test, which is to swim 25 yards without rest or help. Abby swam her heart out three times! And three times she failed the test. She was a good sport about it. She got about 3/4 of the way down on her last try, which was the furthest yet! Tom tried the test just once and well... that ended in tears when he failed. They were so bummed because they had been jumping off the diving board at Uncle Mike's last weekend and they so badly wanted to do it yesterday.

There is also a big water slide in the shallow end. I think it dumps them off into a narrow 4 foot deep area of the pool where they can reach the sides easily. No swim test needed, however, you do have to be at least 48" tall. Poor little Abby, barely 43" tall, wasn't allowed to go. She was really bummed. So while Tom waited in the water slide line, which took over 5 minutes, but seemed like an eternity, Abby and I practiced her swimming. She'll be swimming 25 yards in no time!

To give you an idea of how crowded the pool was yesterday I snapped this photo. It was insane from about 1p-3p. It seemed to thin out after 3:30 but was still pretty crowded.

And now totally unrelated, but I took this photo of Tom 8 weeks ago and my oh my how his smile has changed! This was just after he lost his first top tooth around April 23, 2011. Now, on June 23, 2011, he's lost both teeth and the adult teeth are nearly half way grown in already.

Eyeglasses

2011-05-11T19:32:00.000-07:00

Abby asked me over the weekend when she was going back to the eye doctor. She said, "You know how you take me back to the dentist to check my teeth? I want to go back to the eye doctor."

Much to her dismay I told her the eye doctor said her vision was perfect and she doesn't need to go back. She insisted she wanted to go back and then the truth came out. "Mom! I'm jealous! I'm jealous of Hassina in class! Hassina wears glasses!"

So now I'm on the hunt for suitable children's eyewear without a prescription. I have a feeling this current fascination could get expensive very fast.

Luke and Ahsoka

2011-04-09T13:43:00.001-07:00

Tom was very serious this morning when he asked me to change his name to Luke. He told me to change it for real so he can ask all his friends to call him Luke. Gee, watch a little too much Star Wars? Yes, it's his favorite series right now. We're a little obsessed.

Abby came in to ask me to call her Ahsoka and I asked her why she didn't want to be Leia. She said Leia carries a pistol and Obi-Wan Kenobi calls it clumsy but with very wide open eyes she told me "Ahsoka carries a LIGHT SABER!"

So there you have it. Luke and Ahsoka.

Pillow Fight!

2011-04-02T19:00:00.000-07:00

Paul took the twins to a public pillow fight in Sacramento today. I was busy getting my shop on in Elk Grove, so click HERE for the photos.

Future Olympians!

2011-03-27T18:30:00.000-07:00

Tom and Abby participated in the Nutrition Fuels Fitness fun run this morning. For ages 6-9 year olds this was a half mile run complete with a medal at the end of the race for each participant. Boy did the twins feel special! Though we had to wake up early to get there and park about a mile away (they're not joking around when they want you to be in shape for this thing) the kids were cold but ready to go.

It was the first day in a long time that it hadn't rained and we were thankful for that. But the 45 degrees made it hard to fully enjoy that fact. We registered the twins on the spot and they got t-shirts and bib numbers for the race. They got to high five Dinger from the River Cats and various other adults dressed as fruits and vegetables. We even ran into an old friend, a preschool buddy from 2 years ago. Though the twins didn't remember him they thought his mom looked familiar.

Tom came in somewhere in the middle of the pack with a time of 4:22 and Abby rounded up the back of the pack with a time of 6 minutes. She was so cute running her little heart out all the way to the finish line.

After the race they each got to enter the food court and choose from salads, fresh fruit, chicken tacos, energy bars, bagels and water, lots of water stations around! Even mom and dad, though we didn't run the race were able to indulge in the after race treats. Nothing like a chicken taco from Dos Coyotes at 9 in the morning!

Februrary 2011 Telford Twins Update

2011-03-13T17:40:00.000-07:00

Abby went to her first father daughter dance this February. She had been looking forward to it since I didn't sign her up last year. She put on her fanciest dress, we did her nails with pink polish and blue sparkling embellishments and we even curled her hair (with a half gallon of hair spray) to her specifications. She had an absolute blast. She told me she was the best dancer there because she takes dance lessons now. She is so confident! In other Abby news she sold 218 boxes of girl scout cookies! She was the second highest seller in her troop. She's going to receive a couple extra patches and pins for al her hard work and she is very excited.

Tom is currently obsessed with Star Wars. He begs to watch the Star Wars movies, he begs for star wars toys. He has a long list of acceptable star wars toys in his mind that he doesn't mind sharing with anyone that will listen. He's looking forward to his half birthday where he may or may not get something star wars to celebrate with. When we drove 6 hours south to the Pezific Coast Pez Convention the only Pez he was on the look out for was Star Wars. He came home with about 20 Star Wars pez. For about a week they were perched up in front of him at the dining room table so they could eat with him and watch his morning cartoon together.

Click HERE for the pictures from February 2011.

When Can We Eat the Snow?

2011-02-22T19:26:00.000-08:00

Tom and Abby were treated to a vacation in Lake Tahoe by their Godmother, Michelle and her husband Charles. Paul and I went along for the ride, along with our college buddy, Amy and her 2 year old, Ella.

The weather couldn't have been more perfect for sledding. Since it hadn't snowed in weeks, the snow was a bit icy, which made for some hard landings, but that didn't stop the Telford Twins! We did some sledding the day we arrived and we did some more at Squaw Creek on the second day. We also had a nice Italian dinner out at Lanza's. Too bad they're not a chain, the food is good!

I spent a lot of time sitting because I didn't tolerate the elevation well at all with these old lungs. I had to be on oxygen 24x7, which meant I had to tote around the concentrator with me. I was also very sick on IVs so I had meds around the clock. While I was sitting enjoying my hot chocolate at Squaw Creek, Abby got treated to a sleigh ride from Michelle and Charles! Michelle asked the driver to stop in the middle of the route so Abby could get out and enjoy the fresh untouched powder. She jumped out of the sleigh and squealed, "I wish Tom could see this!" He was busy sledding at the time. The powder was nearly up to her thighs! She loved it. She got to feed the horse and drive the sleigh as well.

Every single day the twins kept asking "When can we eat the snow?" Our standard answer was if it's white, you can eat it. Well, to be honest, the snow was so packed it was hard to eat. Well on the third and final day the twins got a treat. Fresh snow!

And here's the gang:

Telford Twins Take ON 2011 in Style!

2011-02-08T09:16:00.000-08:00

Abby has always been a petite girlie girl. She recently started wearing rings on her wedding ring finger to practice for the day her prince gives her an engagement ring. Finding the right rings for her tiny fingers was not easy! We found 7 cheap rings in a box at Claire's for 3 bucks! They weren't quite meant to be sized so small but with some help from Dad and some needle nose pliers Abby is set to be a princess in training! She wears the solitaire "sapphire" ring on Fridays because it's her favorite and it looks a little bit like the one Prince William gave to his fiancée.

Tom learned how to play Monopoly and he loves it. Now he's not very good at it because he buys and buys and buys until he has to mortgage, mortgage and mortgage, but he loves playing the banker and buying properties and building houses and hotels. He seems to think the money in his real wallet is like Monopoly money. He will spend and spend until it's gone not realizing that at on $1 a week allowance, it takes months to be able to afford the toys he wants to purchase. Since he got $20 from his birthday and $15 here and there for Christmas he's built up quite the nest egg and he doesn't mind spending it! His most recent purchase was a pair of sunglasses. They have zebra frames that flip up when you're indoors so you don't have to take off your sunglasses. You can just flip the shades down when you go back outside. He likes them because they are grown up size and he will wear them "forever."

For some pics of the twins during the month of January 2011 click Here.

Bike Lights!

2011-01-25T19:05:00.000-08:00

For my birthday I got three bike lights. Surprisingly it's one of my favorite gifts! It gets dark so early in the winter we can't go biking after 5pm. It's such a shame because Abby has Girl Scout meetings twice a month only a half mile away and I was driving the car!

Paul installed the bike lights for me this weekend, just in time for Abby's Monday meeting. Well everything must have looked so different to them at night because normally I have to pedal my little heart out to keep up but last night I had to beg Tom to "keep moving" or "go faster" because I was practically tripping over him on my bike. We have a bicycle order. Tom goes first, Abby is in the middle and I'm last. I like to keep myself last so I can stick out into the road the furthest incase a car comes up behind us.

I'm trying to teach them the rules of the road, but to be honest we mostly have to cruise straight through a stop sign because Abby is not so good on the stopping and starting on her two wheeler yet. So I usually send Tom ahead and have him stop at the stop sign and look for cars. Then he yells the all clear and we just keep on moving.

I do try and keep them to the right of the road as well. Of course we have a side walk, but that's meant for pedestrians. Most parents want their kids to ride on the side walk, but if they don't learn to look for cars, who's going to teach them? I have to constantly remind Abby to "stay to the right." It's like her bike is possessed. She kinda freaks out if she has to ride too close to the gutter. It's like her bike will jolt out in a perpendicular direction, either into the street or up the curb and then she cries, "I can't control it!" It's actually pretty funny. I think in our whole 1 mile adventure last night we were passed by one whole vehicle on the road, so it's not like I have them out on the highway where it's dangerous.

On the way home from Girl Scouts it was just me and Tom after we dropped Abby off. He is quite the little chatter box. I wonder where he gets it? He was fascinated by his light. "Mom! Look at that stop sign! It lights up! That's from me!" "Mom! Look at those street signs! They light up! That's from me!" "Mom! Look at those tail lights! (of a parked car) They light up! That's from me!" Reflective paint is oh so fun, no?

Girl Scout Cookies for Sale!

2011-01-15T11:15:00.000-08:00

Now through Friday, January 28, 2011, Abby is taking Girl Scout cookie orders. Call me to place your order today!

Looking Back on Christmas 2010

2011-01-13T16:53:00.000-08:00

Christmas was awesome this year. I didn't have to do much and that was good since I got two colds back to back since November 7. I'm STILL on antiboitics for them for another 3 weeks, but hey, who's counting?

Tom and Abby were so excited to see that Santa had indeed arrived and left them gifts. They each got a pillow pet, a movie and another toy they asked for, Abby was a toy Chihuahua and Tom got a nerf gun. Of course Mom and Dad spoiled them rotten as well and so did the other relatives. There's no shortage of toys in this house, that's for sure.

Here is a picture of all who gathered to celebrate Christmas dinner (lunch?) in Davis.

Christmas Eve

2010-12-24T20:47:00.000-08:00

Tom and Abby discuss Santa on Christmas eve. They also talk about gifts they'd like to receive tomorrow and show off their new PJs! They went to bed at 8pm on the dot and I have not heard a peep from them. Now why can't I get them to do this on a school night?

In this second video Tom and Abby are getting the carrots, milk and cookies for Santa and his reindeer. Notice how Tom insists on carrying the Santa plate and Santa cup. He's such a stinker!

Movie Night!

2010-12-18T16:31:00.000-08:00

Tom and Abby were quite busy Friday afternoon. I heard them giggling and plotting in the living room with squeals of joy. They had decided to ask me if they could have movie night since it was the first night of winter break. They took their bath early, right after dinner and settled down sometime around 6:30 for "A Charlie Brown Christmas." They watched a couple more short shows and then it was off to their bedroom at 8pm. They laid on blankets, sat up against pillows, ate popcorn. They had so much fun! They love movie night because normally they don't watch TV that late in the day. It's a big special occasion for them!

Here are the twins enjoying their movie!

Abby Lost Her First Tooth!

2010-12-14T15:11:00.000-08:00

I think it was only yesterday that Abby declared she had a wiggly tooth. Heck, it was only two days before that when she told us she felt her grown up teeth coming in behind her baby teeth on the bottom. Then all of the sudden one tooth was wiggly and today it is out! She was so proud of herself. She said she was sitting at circle time on the carpet and she felt it wiggle with her tongue and it came out! She said she held onto it and put it in her pocket when she had to do activities with her hands. She didn't even tell her teacher! I think Abby tells the story best.

T Minus 18 Days For the Man in the Red Suit!

2010-12-07T20:34:00.001-08:00

Due to a scheduling conflict, we missed Santa at Apple on Saturday, so this is what we got.

The nondenominational winter scene. Abby was crushed. Tom didn't seem to mind. I like this picture the best.

Paul took the twins to see Santa at Downtown Plaza the next day. I stayed home and slept. What mother does that? I'm just so tired. I've been sleeping all night and then again from 9am-noon. I have to get up every day at 8 to do my first of 4 doses of IVs. Hopefully this will all end on Thursday. Maybe just in time for me to catch the virus Tom seems to have. You know, the fever, stuffy nose and cough kind. Yeah, exactly what got me into this predicament 4.5 weeks ago. But then again, it is the season of miracles and maybe I'll get lucky and this new virus will pass me by. I can hope!

T-28 Days Christmas Countdown Is On!

2010-11-28T15:28:00.000-08:00

Where has the month of November gone? The twins have been home all month and they have had several play dates with neighbors and other friends. They also had their first two sleepovers this month!

We had a busy day today. Paul drug the christmas tree out from the garage and we set to work! The twins put all the ornaments on, and I traveled right behind them moving them to more appropriate branches. It's funny they way they hang ornaments. Half the time they fall right off the tree because they've been hung on the tip of the branch. I also wanted the ornaments somewhat evenly spread, and this is not the twins' forte. They tend to clump at about twin level and I wanted ornaments on the sides and top as well. I don't even think they noticed I moved 90% of the ornaments they put on. Maybe they'll notice next year.

Tomorrow the twins go back to school. It will be interesting because I'm still on IVs which is making me really tired. I was getting horrible headaches from one of the drugs, but figured out if I infuse it slower (which is a pain to do) I'm still able to take it. I'm on 4 antibiotics right now, three of which I get to juggle as the twins are getting out of school.

North Carolina

2010-11-12T17:29:00.000-08:00

We gave the mother-in-law a fabulous birthday present this year. She had the honor of watching the twins for 4 days while Paul and I attended my cousins wedding in North Carolina. We should probably make that up to her at some point. Many apologies, Jean!

As the kids celebrated Oma's birthday (by being spoiled and taken out for meals and toys and books and play dates at the park) Paul and I got to wine and dine and visit with a side of my family we hadn't seen in years. We saw my dad's two brothers, Bob and John. The night before the wedding the bride took us out for drinks and dinner. Uncle John waved me over to Uncle Bob's table and Uncle Bob just looked at me and asked, "Who are you?" I explained I was Tara, Jerry's daughter. Then he says, "Oh, you have the twins, Tom and Abby!" He has a digital picture frame loaded with pictures of relatives and captions, so he knows my kids very well. It's been 6 years since I had seen him and he is 85 years old. I don't blame him for not recognizing me!

The trip started off with a bang though, when I lost my wallet at the Sacramento airport. I rushed to buy a bottle of water before jumping in line to pre-board the plane and that's the last time I saw my wallet. I either put it down in the airport, or I got pick pocketed or I left it on the plane, or it fell out of my backpack. Who knows! It is gone and I have had the my plane tracked and called all the airports lost and founds... it's not coming back.

The expensive part is I had pulled out $100 cash the day before, just to have some spending money in the airports during my trip. I didn't even realize the wallet was gone until I got to the hotel in North Carolina at the end of the day because my mom had treated me to lunch in Dallas. The most excellent part is no one used any of my credit cards so I'm sure my wallet is lying in the dumpster somewhere and John Doe is buying lots of expensive souvenirs on my dime.

The wedding was gorgeous, but a bit chilly for us Californians. The small amount of rain stopped right before the ceremony and there were plenty of heaters in the pavilion. I am glad I did have a sweater on my sleeveless dress though. The food was good and the bride was gorgeous. The groom seemed very friendly and we had a great time! After the wedding my family met up at Ruby Tuesday's for drinks and dinner. It was a dry wedding and most everyone wanted to drink, so Ruby Tuesday's was the only choice since it was in the same parking lot as our hotel and no one had to be the DD. It was really great to see some cousins I haven't seen but maybe twice in my whole life. One of them even lives in San Francisco!

There was quite a difference in culture between California and the south, which I wasn't expecting. Everyone is very sweet and chatty and hospitable. We got asked no less than 8 times how our meal was during a quick 30 minute trip on the road at O'Charlies. We stopped for fast food at a random gas station Subway near Charolotte and I think we were there for 30 minutes because the kid behind the counter felt obligated to share his life story with us while (slowly) making two sandwiches. So life is definitely different in the south. BBQ is different. It's very vinegar flavored, not the thick sweet sauce we have in CA. I also tried hush puppies for the first time. They were great appetizers at the bar! I had never even heard of them before.

I did get to bring back one cheap souvenir. I caught a cold on the plane ride home. At least that's the best I can tell, since I started getting sick 48 hours after the plane ride. I can always back track my exposure to 48 hours prior to getting symptoms like clockwork. Right now it's just a head/nose cold. I can handle that except it did make my blood sugar whacky today. All of the sudden I felt extremely nauseous, dizzy and tired. I thought I was getting hit hard with some more symptoms. I decided to check my sugars and it was only 51. I had eaten lunch an hour before. I guess I didn't eat enough carbs. Nothing a little snickers bar couldn't cure. That was after I got over the nausea with some compazine. My life is so glamorous!

HERE are some pictures from the wedding.

Leftover Cupcake

2010-10-29T13:11:00.000-07:00

I suppose when you're 6 it makes perfect sense to transport a cupcake IN your lunchbox. *sigh*

Look Who's Biking!

2010-10-16T14:55:00.000-07:00

As we were riding home from soccer on Monday I noticed Abby was flying down the street with her training wheels. I just knew it was time! I asked her if she wanted Dad to teach her how to ride her bike this weekend. Well the weekend has arrived and Paul said she didn't need any help! She just needed some help to get going and then stopping too. But I think this is the end of the training wheels!

I hate that you can hear my breathing in this video. I didn't even notice that when I was taking it. And I wasn't doing any of the running! The curse of Cystic Fibrosis.

Carroll Elementary Read-A-Thon

2010-09-30T14:54:00.000-07:00

Do you remember going to the school library when you were little? Do you remember being excited to check out books and bring them home? I do. And I would love for Tom and Abby to have the same experience.

Because of the lack of funds in the school district one of the positions cut last year was the school librarian at Carroll Elementary. No child at this school has been able to check out a book since March 2010 when the librarian was cut from the staff. It's such a shame for all those brand new books to sit and gather dust for months on end.

Carroll Elementary is determined to do something about this! Next Wednesday, October 6 the entire school is participating in a Read-A-Thon from 8:30am to 10:30am. Tom and Abby are seeking one time pledges to help raise funds for a librarian's salary.

If you think you can help, even just a little bit, please send a check to Tom and Abby this weekend! If you don't have our address, just ask.

Make checks payable to: Carroll Elementary PTA

If snail mail is not your speed, you can choose to send the money directly to our paypal account and we will write the check for you! It's that easy!

Wouldn't it be great if Tom and Abby could each fill in every line on their pledge sheets with you generous donors? If every one of my friends and family on facebook pledged just $5 we would be able to collect over $1,300 for the school! That would be amazing.

Just Cleaning Up the Neighborhood!

2010-09-28T20:42:00.001-07:00

Tom is really into picking up trash lately. The other night we went on a family bike ride. He stops in the middle of the street to pick up a discarded McDonald's cup. Guess who got to travel home with it in her bike basket? Remind me to disinfect that tomorrow...

On our way home from school today he collected an empty bottle of transmission fluid, two plastic bottle caps, a disposable straw (that looked like half of it was gnawed off with a chain saw) and a dirty paper napkin. Guess who got to carry all this home? Yours truly.

The kids get "Comet Coupons" during recess for picking up trash on the playground. Their mascot is the Comet and these coupons are awarded to students caught doing good things for the school or for themselves. They also get coupons for running around the 1/4 mile track during recess. Every week a Comet Coupon winner is drawn by the principle and the student gets to pick a prize.

Well this has carried over into our every day life. I think I should start carrying a trash bag with me on the way home from school, you know, like those doggie poop bags you take when you walk the dog. Good times.

The Great Bunk Bed Switch

2010-09-24T14:44:00.001-07:00

While the twins were at school on Thursday I slaved away for an hour unmaking and re-making their beds. There is nothing easy about changing bunk beds, especially with 43% lung function. As I gasped away I thought about what Tom was going to say when he got home because not only was I changing the sheets I was switching the bunks! I put Abby's sheets on top, and Tom's on bottom.

Well 2 hours went by after school and neither of them had gone into their room. Abby made it back there first and she came running out to the living room to get Tom. She was giggling so hard it was hard to understand her. She was so excited! She told Tom as they both raced back to the bedroom, "Tom! Tom! You have to see this. This is amazing. She did it! Wow! You have to see this, it's so great!"

Tom got back to the bedroom and ... *silence*. He eventually said over and over, "I do not like this at all." He was very calm about it though. As soon as Dad got home Tom explained he was going to "destroy Abby and Mom for this." He got his nerf gun out and pretended to shoot us. He knows he can't shoot an unwilling participant.

It took them awhile to settle last night for bed time. They were too upset or excited to sleep, I'm not sure. But overall Tom took it better than I thought. It definitely went better than it would have, had he been home during the great sheet switch.

Towers of Good Oral Hygiene

2010-09-23T10:54:00.000-07:00

Awesome.

Do you think these towers were the product of the twins' imaginations? Or my husbands?

The Camping Trip

2010-09-20T13:45:00.000-07:00

On Saturday after the soccer game I packed the twins up and sent them on their way with a family Tom met through soccer only just one month ago. They went camping in Yosemite! This was a big weekend because it was their first "sleepover" with friends!

I'm happy to report there was no whining or crying all weekend (until Tom got home, but that's another story.) They came home dirty, tired and hungry on Sunday evening. I think they had a good time!

I didn't get much information but we did hear that they had a camp fire both at night and in the morning, they did some hiking and wading through a river and they didn't run into any bears. Oh and all Tom ate all weekend was pop tarts, which probably had something to do with the two hour screaming fit he had once he got home. He did say, "But they DID have strawberry filling!" That must make the pop tarts healthy. Tom also reported that when Abby got dressed in the morning she put on her jacket, and only her jacket. Why she wasn't wearing a shirt under her jacket, we'll never know. That's about all I'm going to get from two five year olds until I talk to the other parent from the trip I think.

Here's a photo from Saturday night in the tent.

Here they are on Sunday morning on their hike.

As I was washing their jackets and one of their dirty stuffed animals I noticed a loud thumping sound in the dryer. I thought for sure it was the stuffed animal eyes, or the zippers from the jackets, but no, this was more like shoes bouncing around in the dryer. I opened it after a couple minutes to find a rock. Not a pebble, not some sand but a big old ROCK! Mental note: next time, check jacket pockets.

The Disappearing Iron Man

2010-09-10T18:48:00.000-07:00

Well, I admit, in hindsight it was a mistake.

The twins have a fundraiser coming up next month and their class is putting together a "Littlest Pet Shop" and "SuperHero" raffle basket. Us parents are responsible for filling the baskets. I guess between 75 students they ought to be busting at the seams with toys for the raffle.

I decided to buy 2 super heros for Tom to turn in and two Littlest Pet Shop animals for Abby to turn in. Abby has no problem doing what she's told and she'll let you know when she's jealous of something. Like one day after school she said, "Mom, I saw a girl eating a doughnut after school and I was soooo jealous!" So the next day Paul treated the twins to doughnuts (a rarity around here!)

Tom is not so obvious. I bought him Iron Man and Spiderman figurines to turn in to his class. Well, apparently he doesn't have his very own Iron Man and he slyly let me know it.

I placed the figurines in his backpack and then I found Iron Man on the couch a few minutes later. I didn't think anything of it. I told Tom they were a donation for school and I put it back in his backpack.

Then I found Iron Man on the couch again. I put him back. Then I found him on the kitchen table. I put him back. Then I found him hiding under the glider's ottoman in the living room. I put him back. Then after the twins went to bed I checked the backpack and guess who was missing? Iron Man.

I told Paul all about the disappearing/reappearing Iron Man and asked him to look in the twins room in the morning and put it back in his backpack if he can find it. Well Paul found it stuffed in the back of one of the dresser drawers. He snuck it out, put it in the backpack and off to school they kids went.

When I picked Tom up from school I asked him if he turned in both toys and he said no! That little stinker! He kept the Iron Man for himself. Paul and I decided if Tom wanted to, he could keep the Iron Man if he worked for it. So after school I put him to work vacuuming up dog hair in the living room, in the kitchen, down the hall and in my bedroom. I think it took Tom a solid hour to complete this task. I guess he earned his $5 Iron Man after all.

Dance! Dance! Dance!

2010-09-08T13:57:00.000-07:00

Abby started dance class yesterday! Over the summer she repeatedly scolded me by saying, "Mom, how am I ever going to be a dance class teacher when I grow up if I don't learn to dance?" So we buckled down and enrolled her in the fall session of "Intro II" which is a tap/ballet combo at Elite Studio of Dance.

There are only 3 other little girls in her class, which I think is great. That means more one on one time with the instructor. I've been told Sandy Gomez is the best tap teacher for little kids in Elk Grove! I hope it's true because by the looks of things yesterday we have a long road to go.

Abby did great following directions. It's so great to see her really enjoying something she is passionate about. She's so passionate that she dances like no one is watching... a little bit like Elaine Benes, if I do say so myself.

At one point the girls were kicking their way across the dance floor. They were all lined up, strutting one leg in front of the other with a high kick. Well, Abby was much faster than the little girl in front of her and she eventually gave her a good kick in the butt. I'm just glad they were wearing ballet slippers and not those tough tap shoes! That's when Abby got moved into her own kicking lane across the stage. *sigh*

August 2010 Update

2010-09-08T13:54:00.000-07:00

Tom and Abby started the first grade this month! The older Tom gets the more picky he is with food. The whole first week of school I packed his lunch with the same three items. Fig Newton bar, Wheat Thin crackers and pretzels. I went shopping and decided to change things up for the second week. When I picked him up from school that Monday he rummages through his lunch box on the way home, pulls out the tupperware with the Honey Nut Chex Mix in it and says, "Mom! What is this?!" Maybe he thought I was trying to poison him at school with such things as pretzels, crunchy breadsticks and cereal all mixed together and coated in a yummy honey flavor. He hadn't even tried one bite. He just zipped up his lunch box and mumbled, "You should really warn me next time."

Abby has been in the habit of collecting "magic fairies" outdoors at school and at home. These magic fairies are mostly dandelion seeds floating through the air but occasionally she happens upon a real bird feather. Unbeknownst to me, one day before swimming in the pool, she had captured a magic fairy and placed it on a deck chair. When she was done swimming she came back to look for her magic fairy. To her horror it had flown away in the breeze. She was beside herself and unconsolable for 20 minutes because magic fairies are hard to catch in the first place. Maybe next time she'll bolt it down with a sturdy rock.

For pictures of the twins in August 2010 click here.

Thank you to everyone that participated in this year's fundraising for Cystic Fibrosis research at UC Davis. With your help we raised a grand total of $4,355. We couldn't have done it without you. Thank you!

First Week of First Grade

2010-08-22T18:57:00.001-07:00

Last Monday was the first day of first grade for Tom and Abby. They are in separate classes this year. I wish I had a wealth of information to tell you about their first week, but if you've ever tried to pry information out of a 5 year old about their day, you'll quickly realize they are not very forthcoming.

I did find out that on the first recess on the first day, Tom went and found Abby and gave her a big hug. What a sweet brother he is.

On the first day I was able to walk them to school because they had a reverse minimum day. Get that? That means they start late and end on time. We went outside to take our annual photos first. They look so big, don't they?

For the rest of the week, and the rest of the year, Paul is taking the twins to school when they start at 8AM. That means, Mommy is a very happy Mommy and she doesn't have nap! She gets to sleep in! They kids have been waking up at 7AM and by the end of the week, we could tell they were getting tired even with our strict bedtime of 8PM.

I hope the rest of the year goes as smooth as the first week.

Just for comparison here are there other First Days.

2009 Kindergarten

2008 Preschool

2007 Preschool

Vanishing Soccer Ball

2010-08-05T11:33:00.001-07:00

About a month ago I purchased all of Tom's goodies for soccer.

Cleats. Check!

Socks. Check!

Shin guards. Check!

Ball. Check!

$75 later were were happy campers, walking out of Sports Authority. Yeah, yeah, I know they have cheap $25 packages, but have you ever been shopping with Tom? He is very specific about colors incase you didn't notice. He tried on a bunch of shoes and to be honest, they didn't have many size 13's anyway.

We went to the park several times to practice kicking the ball around. Tom was so enthused about it. But then a couple more weeks went by and all of the sudden real practice snuck up on us.

Monday was the first day of practice. 20 minutes before we were supposed to hop on our bikes and head to the field I started looking for this soccer ball. It wasn't where I remembered seeing it last. In fact, it wasn't anywhere! We turned the house and garages upside down looking for this stinking ball. Gone.

Luckily we had a spare, but it was a size 4, which was bigger than the required size 3 for U7. We got to the field and the coach was so nice. He said Tom could borrow one of his extra 3's anyway.

Wednesday rolls around and all of the sudden we are panicked to go find a size 3 ball for Tom. Practically sold out at Sports Authority. They didn't have a ball in the colors Tom wanted so off we went to Target. Again, practically sold out and they didn't have a ball in the right colors. Ok, off to Big 5 Sporting Goods. Nearly struck out again there but I put my foot down. "Tom, just pick one. These are the 3 you have to choose from." He chose the white with some black and yellow accents that match his shoes. *sigh* finally done. That only took an hour longer than necessary.

I won't even go into the debacle about pumping the thing up once we got home. Good times.

June/July Telford Twins Update

2010-08-03T13:54:00.000-07:00

The Telford Twins graduated from Kindergarten in June. They are excited to be 1st graders. This will be the first year they will be separated and have two different teachers. Abby has finally stopped breaking down into tears exclaiming, "But I want to see Tom at learning time!" As Tom has assured her, "Abby, don't worry, I will see you at 1st recess and 2nd recess and lunch time." He's such a good brother.

Tom and Abby play in their room for about an hour every night before lights out. One night Tom comes to get me early and says, "Mom, you must see this." He proudly stomps back to the room and points at the floor. Meanwhile Abby has disappeared and I can hear her sobbing while yelling, "Tom! I told you not to tell!" Yup! Tattle Tale Tom was making sure I was well aware that Abby took the yellow crayon and drew all over the light brown carpet. Abby is mortified, screaming bloody murder, "I didn't do it on purpose!" When in fact she did do it on purpose, she just didn't think it would show up. What better way to find out! Needless to say, unsupervised coloring in the bedroom is no longer allowed.

For pictures of the twins from June 2010 click here.

For pictures of the twins from July 2010 click here.

A New Bunk Beginning

2010-08-03T12:16:00.000-07:00

Saturday was the year's most anticipated BBQ. The annual Dairyville Pez Gathering. Tina is so nice to open up her home each year to about 100 Pezheads looking for a place to gather, sell and collect Pez.

On Friday night Abby was inhaling her hot dog. I asked her what the hurry was and she yelled, "I just want this day to be OVER so I can buy Pez tomorrow!"

Tom and Abby are becoming quite the collectors! They each had $10 to spend. I made sure to bring singles because I knew they would most likely be buying 50¢ and $1 pieces. They took their time choosing exactly the pieces they wanted to add to their collection. It was quite the process.

On Sunday Paul put together the twins brand new bunk beds! They were so excited and participated for most of the 3 hour assembly. They ran around the house collecting ball caps and sun hats so they could pretend to wear "hard hats" while they were helping Dad with the construction. They also snapped a bunch of pictures of the process.

And here is the final product.

When I was picking the beds out online I brought Abby into the room and asked her which bed would be hers. She pointed to the bottom bunk. Then I asked Tom the same question and he pointed to the top bunk. We thought that issue was settled. As they were tucked into bed on Sunday night Abby was practically in tears because NOW she wants the top bunk. I have a feeling we are going to have to do a monthly rotation or something to be fair. That's not going to make Tom happy!

Tara Does Daycare

2010-07-26T16:10:00.001-07:00

Today was an especially long day.

11AM Jelly (5) and Justy (3) dropped off for some playtime and babysitting. Her mom needed a favor so I said, sure! Come on over!

12:00PM My brother came by. We figured out how to get the 8.5ft couch on the roof of the pick up he borrowed. It was a pickup with a cab, and the cab had rails to tie the couch down. It was pretty funny considering how weak I am, and at one point I felt like I was lifting the entire thing over my head. Oh wait, I was! I almost fell over.

12:30PM Raquel (6) gets dropped off for the scheduled playdate with Tom and Abby. Now there are 5 kids under 6 years old in my house! The 3 year old is autistic too, so he's more like watching a 1 year old that can understand basic commands. He is really sweet too!

1:00PM Jen comes by with Ian (5) and Ryan (2). She called this morning and I told her I had a full house, but why not. The more the merrier, right? So now there's 3 adults and 7 kids running around.

1:30PM Sean has had enough so he takes off.

2:00PM Jelly and Justy get picked up

2:45PM Raquel goes home

3:00PM Jen, Ian and Ryan go home.

Whew! We went through so much PB&J, I ran out of bread! Good times.

Dirty Dishes

2010-07-15T20:13:00.000-07:00

So the twins have been really into helping me around the house lately. They've (hardly) complained when I asked them to pick up their toys every day and Abby especially LOVES to help out with the dishes. Tom's response today was, "You have to do the dishes AGAIN? But you just did them yesterday."

So here they are happily playing in the water, "doing" the dishes, AKA leaving them covered in soap so I have to go back and re-rinse them when they are done.

And here they are switching places. What? How else would you do it?

News Flash

2010-07-10T20:34:00.001-07:00

The twins are camping with Dad at a local park today. It's a trip put on by the Parks and Rec. Today they did arts and crafts, swimming, frisbee, water balloon fights and jumped in a bounce house. I'm sure there's more.... Paul sent me these pics from his phone.

Wedding Bells

2010-07-09T20:38:00.001-07:00

Tom and Abby have made friends with a pair of neighbor kids across the street. The girl is Tom and Abby's age, the boy is 4. In 1st grade the girl will even be in one of their classes. (Tom and Abby are going to be separated.)

Today I took the twins across the street for a play date. It was also a mommy date, as her daughter had another friend and mommy over to play as well. While we were there the twins announced they were going to marry their new found best friends. This rumor has been circulating since 4th of July. It has been confirmed!

Tom is going to be a little heartbreaker, I know it. All the girls in Kindergarten loved Tom and played with him. Most of the moms told me he was the first boy their daughters ever played with. Today, when we got home he was telling us a story about how Abby and the two other little girls were wrestling him to the ground, trying to kiss him. And those are only 5 and 6 year olds. Ahhhhh!!! I thought we had a few more years before this happened! Luck. Wish me luck. I'm going to need it with these two.

An Elephant Never Forgets

2010-07-06T11:28:00.000-07:00

Just like an elephant the twins never forget!

So last Wednesday Abby came to me with one slipper. She has a large heart shape embellishment gem on this slipper and she asked me to cut it off for her. She said Tom really liked it and she wanted to give it to him.

Rather than ruin her slipper I told her to think about it for a week and come back next Wednesday if she still wanted it off. Well, I had completely forgotten about it and she walks into my bedroom this morning with two slippers and asks, "Is it next Wednesday yet?" I had no idea what she was talking about. She says, "You told me you would cut off these hearts next Wednesday."

I thought I had to completely ruin the slippers straps to do this but she assured me it was only tied on with two strings. She was right. So off to get the scissors she went and I cut both hearts off the slippers. Man, these kids don't forget a thing!

***EDITED TO ADD***

It didn't even occur to me that today is only Tuesday. It was only after I published this blog post and saw Tuesday stamped on top that I realized it's not Wednesday yet! Ah, the life of a stay at home mom when all the days are the same!

The Wheels on the Bike Go Round and Round

2010-06-28T18:17:00.000-07:00

On Thursday I bit the bullet. I went and purchased the bike I wanted from a bike shop in downtown Sacramento. After I got over the sticker shock, picking out the bike was pretty fun. I had the twins there to give their input. Tom wanted me to get red, Abby wanted me to get purple. I ended up narrowing down to the choice of green or pink in the style I wanted. I got the pink hawaiian themed beach cruiser with fenders and three speeds. It's a dream to ride!

We had our first family bike ride last night. I had promised when I got my bike we'd all go to the yogurt shop about 1.5 miles up the road. Even though it was 100 degrees out at 7pm we saddled up and took off. Abby was till on training wheels so she was slow. She was so slow I had trouble keeping up with her. I almost fell over riding that slow! Tom on the other hand "zoomed" ahead with Dad.

On the way home I rode with Tom. He asked me if he could "zoom" and I thought for sure I could keep up. There must be something wrong with my pedals though. They don't seem to go as fast as his. It's most likely operator error, as I was huffing and puffing and my thighs were burning so hot I almost thought they would burst into flame. Next time he wants to "zoom" we'll make sure to pack my oxygen.

One of these days when it's not a bazillion degrees outside I'll get a photo of me on my new bike.

Learning to Swim

2010-06-22T14:55:00.001-07:00

Tom and Abby took swim lessons in early May. I think it may have paid off. Though I wouldn't sign them up for Olympic training just yet, it's a simple accomplishment that they enjoy getting their faces wet this year. I'm no fortune teller, but I see many summer afternoons spent swimming in this little backyard pool!

In case you're interested in the details, we got the 48"x18' Intex Easy Set Pool. I assumed that was going to mean a 4' deep pool, but in reality, it is only 3' deep. I think because of the outward contour of the pool as it fills, it loses a whole foot in water depth. It suits our little fish just fine though!

Happy Day Before Summer!

2010-06-20T14:50:00.000-07:00

Today is Father's Day. As if making breakfast in bed for dad and showering him with gifts wasn't exciting enough, Tom is beaming with excitement for one reason today.

Tomorrow is the first day of SUMMER!

I have no idea why he is so excited about this. I think he thinks all of the sudden mother nature will heat up the temps and he'll be relaxing in the backyard pool for weeks on end. Ok, well, he's probably right, but how that is going to be a change from the last month, I don't know.

So Happy Day Before the First Day of Summer to all you Dad's out there! Enjoy your special day before the special day!

Kindergarten Promotion

2010-06-18T19:20:00.000-07:00

In case you missed it, and most of you did, fear not! I have captured the entirety of the Kindergarten promotion celebration on my flip video. Not only that, but I have shared all the short video clips with you below.

My favorite is "Each of us is a Flower, Growing in Life's Garden." However it's a bit hard to understand with all 19 voices singing at the same time. I'll have to capture Tom and Abby singing it at home for me so you can hear the lyrics better.

Enjoy!

Water Travels in a Cycle

I Live in California

Slippery Fish

Each of Us is a Flower, Growing in Life's Garden!

The World is a Rainbow

Start Spreading the News, 1st Grade, 1st Grade!

Abby's Diploma

Tom's Diploma

PG Movies and Bad Habits

2010-06-14T15:37:00.000-07:00

Tom and Abby have been thrilled this year that we have let them watch some PG movies instead of just G rated cartoons. They started off with the "Superman" series and moved onto the "Ghostbusters" movies.

Yesterday Tom was heard screaming down the hall confidently, "What the hell is going on here? What the HELL?"

Seriously, if you know me and Paul, you KNOW he did not learn that word from us. I'm pretty sure it came from Ghostbusters but when we called Tom into the room to tell him that was a bad word and it wasn't appropriate he wouldn't tell us where he heard it. He was either too afraid to tattle on the kid that told him, or he honestly heard it too many times (too much Ghostbusters?) that he has no idea where he learned it.

I thought it was kinda funny because he was so confident when he said it. He never hears us use foul language at home so he has no idea what is appropriate and what is not. I mean this is the kid that said, "Mom, there's a bad word in this movie." When I asked him what it was, he said, "stupid."

95 Years From Now

2010-06-10T15:54:00.000-07:00

Tom:

"When I am 100 years old, I think I will look the same. It is just a guess (like an estimation jar.) I will live at home because I want to stay with those guys. I will be married and have only two kids, like Abby. I will have two grandchildren. During the day, I will play football if it is football season. If it is not football season I will just be a dad."

Abby:

"When I am 100 years old, I will have my same color skin of course, but I will have a purple dress. I will live in San Francisco. Oh yes, I will be married and have two kids and one grandchild. During the day I will go to work. "

Messy Wednesday

2010-06-09T20:32:00.001-07:00

The twins had some fun this morning, leaving me presents all over the house.

Bath Time

2010-06-07T18:16:00.000-07:00

Doesn't get much cuter than this.

The Vreta Twins Have Arrived!

2010-06-03T11:36:00.000-07:00

See for yourselves.

Aren't they lovely? They are comfortable too. Come over and enjoy them with us!

England Till I Die!

2010-06-01T17:05:00.000-07:00

On our third sight seeing day in London we did something a little different. We spent most of the day searching for elephants in the great london elephant parade! We only found about 40 of the 255 or so, but it was fun hunting!

We bought a Thames Clipper hop on/off pass to jet up and down the Thames river all day long as well. Traveling by boat was quite nice. A nice change from the tube.

We made our way to Greenwich and slowly but surely climbed the steepest hill in the world to get to the Greenwich Observatory. Seriously, this hill was so steep and with 105 year old lungs I had to stop... a lot. We even took the handicap route, which we hoped would lead us to a lift, but no luck. It was just paved instead of gravel. The funniest part was at the end of the handicap route there is a ridiculous two door gate to zig zag through, which was hard to do for a walker, I can't imagine in a wheelchair, and then it led to stairs. So much for equal access!

On the way back to central London on the Clipper I met a lovely gal that knew the city a bit. I asked her for recommendations on a good Thai place. Siam Central on Charlotte Street was awesome! Dare I say the Pad Kra Pow was better than Thai Basil? It was really really good.

On Thursday before we left the city we had to stop by Abbey Road studios for the big Beatles fan of our party. All the tourists were signing the cement wall with Sharpies that looked as if it had been painted over just about every month with fresh white paint. We didn't take part in the graffiti, but we did of course do the walk across the famous crosswalk outside the Beatles studio. The locals must be so tired of fans walking and taking pictures of one another, holding up traffic. Most didn't seem to mind, as there was no angry honking. We did see a delivery van cheering the tourists on as they walked and snapped photos though. It was great fun.

We made the long 2 hour trek to Grantham on Thursday afternoon. With a bazillion people inside Kings Cross station we were able to meet up with Paul's dad with enough time to catch an earlier than planned train up north. We stayed up late in the pub at Stoke Rochford Hall. Those crazy Brits sure do like to drink! Actually I think they were a bit intrigued by us "exotic" crazy North Americans that traveled 6000 miles for a wedding.

The wedding was Friday and it was an absolutely gorgeous day! I was a bit chilly in my strapless dress, as it was only about 60 degrees, so it's a good thing I had my fancy trench coat. But it was nothing but clear blue skies with the occasional cloud blocking the sun and a slight breeze during the champagne hour. Or should I say two! Like I mentioned before, they sure do like to drink!

Ah, but first the church. So the wedding ceremony was actually in the bride's home town....er, home village of Syston. It's a tiny farm village and the whole village came together to beautify the church. There hadn't been a wedding there for 7 years! It's a tiny church with a parish registry dating back to 1562. There is a small wrought iron gate to the entrance which had peeling paint before the wedding. Some residents of the village came together to re-paint the gate, cut the grass and wash the street signs, all in honor of Sarah's wedding.

As we packed into the tiny church we squished 4 people per pew to watch the ceremony. We were under strict instructions not to photograph during the ceremony. I never heard "Now you may kiss the bride." and I'm not sure if it was because the bride and groom just kissed immediately after they were officially husband and wife or if it's not a British tradition to say so.

We joked that the "Wedding Breakfast" (dinner), was made fresh from lamb at the Stoke Rochford mansion farm as there were plenty of farm animals wandering the grounds. The food was most excellent and ended with a creme brulee dessert.

The night before the wedding we had met the groom and the best man at the Stoke pub for some late night drinks. Somehow the idea came about to put a sweepstake on the best man's speech. For £1 in you could bet how long the speech would take. He promised it to be 8 minutes and it ended up being 20! The highest bid was 24 minutes. The winner was sitting at the bookie's table, which I found highly suspect! Half the money went to charity and the other half went to the winner, which I'm sure ended up at the Stoke bar later that night.

After the cake cutting I kept waiting for the servers to appear with cake plates in the ballroom, but that never happened. About an hour later there was fruit, bread and cheese served, with cake as the dessert in the library. Ah! Cake! Finally! One difference with English weddings is the cake. There were 3 layers. 2 layers of traditional wedding cake, or Christmas cake, aka fruit cake and one sponge cake layer, thank goodness for me. I love me some sponge cake! It was served in teeny tiny pieces you were meant to eat with your hands.

Considering the ceremony started at 2:30PM and the partying continued until 2AM it was quite a day! We had loads of fun and I'm totally glad we got to make the trip! I'll leave you with these few pictures, as I'm sure Paul will upload a ton of them to Flickr soon. hint... hint...

Congratulations to the bride and groom, Mark and Sarah!

London!

2010-05-25T13:22:00.000-07:00

This is not going to be a very exciting post, as I don't want to take much time to write it.

We arrived in London at 10:30AM on Monday. After the 12 hour flight my legs were swollen like they were after my surgery in February. I guess my lymphatic system has not fully recovered! Mental note, get up and walk around the plane on the ride home.

We arrived at the Marriott Maida Vale hotel around noon or 1pm, I can't remember. It was the middle night for us so we were tired. We pretty much passed out until 5pm when we got up for dinner. Turns out several of the Maida Vale area restaurants are closed on Mondays. Who woulda thunk? We ended up going to a steak house near Paddington before the big game. We made our way to Wembly stadium just in time to find out that 10 minutes before the football starts, they STOP selling beer. Poor Paul.

The game (England v Mexico) was awesome! The fans are amazing, chanting and singing the whole time. I couldn't figure out exactly what they were saying most of the time, I had to have my british husband translate for me. We were also part of a new world record for the largest human flag. Each of the 90,000 fans were given either a red or white t-shirt depending on where your seat was located. There were then two flags of England on either side of the stadium. Quite a sight! I have to admit, the crowd looked pretty awesome and it was fun to be a part of it.

This morning we slept in to get over the jet lag and finally got out the door in time to find some lunch. We started out in Covent Garden and walked around after lunch all day long. We found Leicester Square, Trafalgar Square, Picadilly Circus, Oxford St, Regent St (and the largest Apple Store on the world!) and of course ended with Wagamama for dinner.

At the Apple store we video chatted with the twins. It was 4PM in London so they were just getting up at 8AM and having a good time with Uncle Sean. There we were in the middle of the biggest Apple Store in the world and the twins changed their background to "roller coaster" (those familiar with iChat will know what I'm talking about) so they were raising their arms and hooting and hollering "whooo wheeeeeeeeee!" as we chatted away in public. (It looks like they're on a roller coaster in the background, instead of just the background of the room they are in) Good times.

Something I don't remember from my previous trips to London are the hills. I don't know if we found the only hills in London, or if they are everywhere, but this time around with only 42% lung function and a very weak body I've had so much trouble keeping up. Poor Paul has to walk at "Tara's pace" and I cannot carry on a conversation and walk at the same time. My legs are sore and aching but we made it through today.

Tomorrow I'm hoping to see more sights by sitting down. We plan to get an all day River Roamer pass and just spend time on/off the Thames taking pictures and eating of course.

Well that's what we've been up to so far. One more full day in London and then we're off to Grantham on Thursday for Mark and Sarah's wedding!

Nine Years

2010-05-19T14:55:00.000-07:00

Without this there would be none of these.

I love you babe! Happy Anniversary!

A Day in the Life of Cystic Fibrosis

2010-05-16T18:55:00.000-07:00

May is Cystic Fibrosis awareness month. In the spirit of spreading the word I'd like to share what my day looks like in terms of Cystic Fibrosis maintenance. Keep in mind this is my "healthy" schedule. It is far more rigorous when I have an active lung and/or sinus infection.

8AM First pills!

800mg Motrin (to control inflammation)

180mg Allegra (to control grass allergies)

40mg Nexium (to control GERD -Gastroesophageal reflux disease)

8:05AM Prepare/mix and warm sinus rinse

8oz distilled water (to decrease risk of exposure to harmful bacteria)

1 packet NeilMed salt

1 vial Pulmicort Respules (steroid to reduce nasal polyps)

8:10AM flush each nostril with 4oz of prepared warmed sinus rinse.

8:15AM Nasal sprays

Patanase 2 sprays each nostril (reduce nasal inflammation)

Nasonex 1 spray each nostril (steroid to reduce nasal polyps)

8:20AM First Vest treatment of the day

Strap into the SmartVest for 30 minutes of pre-set settings as follows

5 minutes, frequency 6, pressure 100

5 minutes, frequency 8, pressure 100

5 minutes, frequency 9, pressure 100

5 minutes, frequency 18, pressure 70

5 minutes, frequency 19, pressure 70

5 minutes, frequency 20, pressure 70

8:20AM Simultaneous first nebulizer treatment of the day

Xopenex 1.25mg/3mL (bronchodilator to open airways)

5mL 3% Hypertonic Saline (expectorant)

8:40AM Reconstitute inhaled antibiotic

500mg Meropenum/3mL sterile water (reduce pseudomonas aeruginosa in the lungs)

Inhale mixed Meropenum solution

This antibiotic is alternated 28 days on and 28 days off. During the off month I inhale Cayston (Aztreonam Lysine) They are rotated to reduce the chance my bacteria in the lungs will build a resistance.

8:50AM Vest is done, continue inhaling Meropenum

8:55AM Meropenum complete

8:55AM Rinse and wash all nebulizer pieces and parts, let air dry

9AM 2 puffs Advair HFA 115/21 (long acting bronchodilator combined with steroid)

9AM Breakfast

3 Ultrase MT20 enzyme pills (to digest food)

600mg Calcium

1000mg Vitamin C

1 ABDEK (prescription vitamin high in fat soluble vitamins)

3 PB8 (blend of 8 probiotics to reduce yeast growth)

11AM Small snack

2 Ultrase MT20 enzyme pills (to digest food)

mix 1-2TBS Miralax powder with 6oz Orange Juice (Laxative)

12PM Lunch

3 Ultrase MT20 enzyme pills (to digest food)

1:30PM Second Vest treatment of the day

Strap into the SmartVest for 30 minutes of pre-set settings as follows

5 minutes, frequency 6, pressure 100

5 minutes, frequency 8, pressure 100

5 minutes, frequency 9, pressure 100

5 minutes, frequency 18, pressure 70

5 minutes, frequency 19, pressure 70

5 minutes, frequency 20, pressure 70

1:30PM Simultaneous second nebulizer treatment of the day

Xopenex 1.25mg/3mL (bronchodilator to open airways)

5mL 3% Hypertonic Saline (expectorant)

2PM Vest and nebs are done.

2PM Rinse and wash all nebulizer pieces and parts, let air dry

2:30PM Snack time!

2 Ultrase MT20 enzyme pills (to digest food)

800mg Motrin (to control inflammation)

5:30PM Dinner

3 Ultrase MT20 enzyme pills (to digest food)

600mg Calcium

1000mg Vitamin C

1 ABDEK (prescription vitamin high in fat soluble vitamins)

3 PB8 (blend of 8 probiotics to reduce yeast growth)

6:45PM Prepare/mix and warm sinus rinse

8oz distilled water (to decrease risk of exposure to harmful bacteria)

1 packet NeilMed salt

1 vial Pulmicort Respules (steroid to reduce nasal polyps)

6:50PM flush each nostril with 4oz of prepared warmed sinus rinse.

6:55PM Nasal sprays

Patanase 2 sprays each nostril (reduce nasal inflammation)

Nasonex 1 spray each nostril (steroid to reduce nasal polyps)

7PM Third and final Vest treatment of the day

Strap into the SmartVest for 30 minutes of pre-set settings as follows

5 minutes, frequency 6, pressure 100

5 minutes, frequency 8, pressure 100

5 minutes, frequency 9, pressure 100

5 minutes, frequency 18, pressure 70

5 minutes, frequency 19, pressure 70

5 minutes, frequency 20, pressure 70

7PM Simultaneous third nebulizer treatment of the day

Xopenex 1.25mg/3mL (bronchodilator to open airways)

Pulmozyme 2.5mL (thins mucus)

7:20PMReconstitute inhaled antibiotic

500mg Meropenum/3mL sterile water (reduce pseudomonas aeruginosa in the lungs)

Inhale mixed Meropenum solution

7:30PM Vest is complete. Continue inhaling Meropenum

7:40PM Meropenum complete

7:40PM Rinse and wash all nebulizer pieces and parts, let air dry

7:45PM 2 puffs Advair HFA 115/21 (long acting bronchodilator combined with steroid)

9PM Last pills!

500mg Zitromax (Mon, Weds and Fri only)

Lo Ovral Birth control pills (an unintended pregnancy could jeopardize my lungs)

50mg trazodone (sleeping pill)

10mg Singulair (to treat asthma component to Cystic Fibrosis)

800mg Motrin (to control inflammation)

40mg Nexium (to control GERD -Gastroesophageal reflux disease)

9:05PM Fire up the oxygen concentrator. My lungs don't exchange gases well anymore at night when I breathe shallow in my sleep. My oxygen saturation levels drop into the 70's so I have to sleep with 3 Liters of continuous flow oxygen through a nasal cannula to keep my oxygen sats in the 90's.

Snow Play!

2010-04-24T20:01:00.000-07:00

I uploaded 5 very short new videos from our snow play day today at Yuba Gap Sno Park in CA.

All in all the twins had a blast. They did not want to leave. We spent about 3 hours in the 55 degree sunshine on top of a snowy mountain. It was a gorgeous day to play in the snow. I had a really hard time keeping up with the kids so I mostly stood and watched. I stayed at the top of the hill and helped them get onto their sleds a lot.

Of course at 5,800 feet I needed my oxygen tank. Boy was the air thin up there! At one point Paul and the twins climbed even higher to the fresh soft snow to build a snowman. It took me about 20 minutes to get to the same spot that took them about two. I had to stop and try and catch my breath about 10 different times. Paul finally pulled me up the rest of the way. The powder was so fresh at the top we sank nearly up to our thighs walking through it.

We ended our day with a trip to a furniture store. How's that for a weird combo? We sat on about 50 different couches. I think we may have found a winner. Details to come...

PS It's not the $3,000 red leather masterpiece Tom is begging for.

Picnic Day 2010

2010-04-22T12:17:00.001-07:00

Saturday was the UC Davis annual Picnic Day. If you're not familiar with this event, you should be. We go every year!

The weather was perfect and the food was delish! Tom and Abby really had a blast this year. Despite saying they were not going to watch the parade at all, they sat through the whole 45 minute parade and ate all the candy that was thrown at them. I think that's enough bribery to watch again next year.

After lunch we left the twins with Grandma for a couple hours and they made all sorts of art projects. During that time, Paul and I, being the bus nerds that we are, made the extra long hike to the pad to check out the busses. Surprisingly quite a bit has changed in the last 11 years since our graduation.

The most exciting part of the pad was.... get this... driving the new Alexander Dennis. What IS that you say? Why, it's this delicious looking 40' long 14' tall piece of machinery:

All you busnerds are jealous now. The most surprising part of this adventure is the fact that I don't have a class B license nor have I ever had one. I only got to drive it in circles on the pad. They didn't let me drive it in the parade as show above.

I was nervous of course:

Totally afraid I was going to plow into another bus or building. AD, as I like to call him, came away without a scratch on him and I earned my wings...er wheels for the day.

For more fantastic photos from our day on Saturday click here.

Sleeping Twins

2010-04-02T08:20:00.001-07:00

On My Way Home!

2010-03-17T18:28:00.001-07:00

Fingers crossed, I get to bust out of club med on Friday! That will be an 11 day stay. I still have a long way to go. My FEV1 on Monday was 1.12 Liters (36%). I'm sure I'll have one more check before I leave here on Friday. I hope it goes up from there. My goal is at least 1.4 liters by the end of this IV round.

This hospital stay has flown by in some ways and dragged in others. It surprised me that I was as sick as I was and to have to go from feeling short of breath, getting an xray, to being told you are being admitted the next day, well, that's never happened to me before. I had no idea I was that sick with pneumonia.

I'll be glad to be outtta here there because the last three nights I've had nurses that just won't leave me alone! I swear they stand by my door in their yellow precaution gowns and wait for me to get up at pee at 2 in the morning so they can burst into my room, turn on the light and ask me how many times I peed and if they can take my vitals. I usually throw them out and tell them I'm SLEEPING and I have ORDERS in my chart to LEAVE ME ALONE! It's pretty annoying. I hadn't had any problems with this up until the last three nights. So I've been exhausted during the day because I get up to pee about 4 times a night, thank you antibiotics and I'm interrupted several times during the night with questions and such.

Overall it's relaxing to be here because I don't have to take care of the kids, but I miss them. Oh, I miss them so much! They are coming home from Grandma's tomorrow and I will be home around the same time I hope. We'll see. My orders have already been written, so my goal is to be home with my IV meds in hand for my 3pm treatment. Wish me luck!

Heading to Club Med!

2010-03-09T11:57:00.000-08:00

I'm heading into the hospital today. I don't know how long I'll be there. If I can finish a 2 week course of IV antibiotics and then be done for good, I would love to just get it all done there. But if the IVs will last longer than 2 weeks, I'll probably come home around day 9 or 10.

I had a very long day yesterday. I went to see my surgeon as a follow up for my hernia surgery. Everything looks good except my swelling. I'm having severe swelling in my feet. But the repairs all look good. I might even get my last drain out in the next day or two. He's going to make a house call to my hospital to take it out for me on Weds or Thursday. It's still producing a lot of bloody fluid, which is good, so it's doing it's job. But it's annoying and I just want the thing out.

After the surgeon I went to see Dr. Chipps only he wasn't there so I saw the nurse. Once I saw my PFTs I knew it was bad. I knew I couldn't breathe and I knew I couldn't get off the oxygen (I'd been on it 24x7 since the surgery on Feb 26) but I had no idea I was at 29/30%. That's like transplant stage. Crazy! I have never been that low in my life. 0.95 liters. Under one liter. That's..... uncool. No wonder I can't walk! Off then I went to lunch. Lunch at a restaurant by yourself is not nearly as much fun as it is with friends. So I ate and left to get a chest xray. By the time I got home the nurse had the xray results and had already talked to the doctor. He said he definitely wants to admit me today, Tuesday, because that's my lowest PFT ever! Then he also said I have pneumonia in my right upper lung. Great.

The did a sputum culture during my surgery 11 days ago and they had the preliminary results, which were good. Basically I'm not growing anything new or devastating down there. It's just the regular old PA rearing it's ugly head. Poor Abby, thought SHE gave me her pneumonia. She had a different kind for sure b/c healthy people can't culture PA. I told her in no way did she do that and she did just fine while I was taking care of her. Now the fact that Tom gave her the cold that gave me the cold... well, it's debatable to say Tom actually did this. But that is the price I pay to send my kids out in public, *gasp!* where all the germs are! I think we had a good run, no colds since August when they started Kindergarten. That's pretty fantastic if you ask me!

So my 2.5 year streak of no IVs is over. I'm back on the juice. They'll have a bed ready for me at 2pm today. Wish me luck!

Telford Twins Feb 2010 Update

2010-03-09T11:56:00.000-08:00

February is already a short month, but add two sick kids and a sick mom for weeks and it's just a blur. Tom and Abby's cold brought on severe ear infections for them. They were sick for weeks and part of the fun was hearing loss. Some of the hearing loss brought some great stories about miscommunication.

For example, when Tom returned to school he jumped into the car on the way home and was so excited to share what he learned. It went a little like this:

Tom: "Mom! Guess what?! Did you know there are fifteen stars on the American flag because we have fifteen states?"
Me: "Ms. W said there are fifty stars on the flag, not fifteen." As I try and annunciate as well as I can for the hard of hearing in the back seat.
Tom: "NO! She said FIFTEEN!"
Me: "No, Tom, she said fifty."
Tom: "NO! She said FIFTEEN. How do YOU know anyway? Did YOU count them?!"

And then he scowled at me in the rear view mirror the whole way home. He didn't say another word.

Abby had similar stories that went a little like this:

One morning she had just gotten up with 105 degree fever and pneumonia and I asked her if she wanted a straw cup so she could sit on the couch and drink her juice instead of having breakfast right away. She stared at me blankly. I asked again and she stares at me and in total and complete honesty says, "Yes, I would like to watch a movie."

We did manage to have some fun adventures in February, like a trip to see Disney on Ice World's of Fantasy Tour and Tom losing his very first tooth!

For pictures from February 2010 click HERE.

Lots of Sleep

2010-03-07T16:51:00.000-08:00

Since my surgery I've been on some pretty heavy drugs and they make me sleep a lot. Today after I got up at 7am for breakfast I went back to bed utnil 1pm. Well around 4pm Tom comes up to me in the kitchen and complains that he wants ice cream before dinner because I'm having ice cream before dinner.

Well we all know that's not how it works around here. Dinner first, fruit second and then dessert. I wasn't feeling well and the only thing that sounded good was ice cream, so ice cream I had.

Tom looks at me and says, "Mom I thought you said you were going to be sleeping a lot these days. So how come you are not sleeping." I told him I am doing a lot of sleeping, but right now I'm going to eat my ice cream.

As I turned around to walk away, I can feel the fire coming out of his eyes as he follows me down the hall and he says, "Fine! I'm going to do this." and then STOMP! He stands on my oxygen tubing and sends me flying backwards almost spilling my ice cream. Nice. Real nice.

Caramel DeLites

2010-02-24T20:33:00.000-08:00

Tom spied my stash of Caramel DeLites tonight after dinner. So after he ate some yogurt and apples he broke into my "special box" of cookies. Those were his words not mine. Then he complained for about 15 minutes trying to convince me he needed 3 of them because they were SO small. I told him, just one and that if he liked them he could choose it for dessert again tomorrow.

Well guess what.... thumbs up! Shoot.

He walked into my room with a scowl on his face after his taste test. He holds up three fingers and says, "Mom, I have 3 things to tell you."

"First, I liked your special cookies and I wish I didn't."
"Second, I wish they were THIS big!" (holding his hands about 1 foot apart from one another)
"And third..... well, that is all."

And off he stomped.

Three weeks ago...

2010-02-22T09:43:00.000-08:00

Let's rewind to three weeks ago when somewhere, somehow Tom picked up a virus, probably from a classmate and that virus decided to wreak havoc on his body. If we could go back to that day and skip that virus, I wouldn't be where I am today.

Three weeks ago, Tom got sick. A week later, Abby got sick. A week after that, I got sick. Fantastic. That's just the way the cookie crumbles.

Now it's not so bad when the twins have colds. First they get runny noses then they get a cough and then poof. The cold is gone in about 7-10 days and no one is really bothered by it. Not this time.

This virus was a doozy causing secondary infections in every one of us. For me, that is to be expected. The first sign of the cold for me and I called in massive amounts of antibiotics and steroids to attempt to keep this raging bacteria in my lungs under control. And yay, it DID work! My sinuses did not fair so well, and 10 days later I'm still battling a huge infection treated with 750mg cipro twice a day. Yes, that is the dosage they give you when you have joint eating bone disorders. And it's JUST for my sinuses. Lucky me.

Aside from that, my poor poor babies. Last Monday like a light switch, Tom got an ear infection. Of course I didn't know that's what it was because I didn't bring him to the doctor until Thursday since the only symptom was a fever. Well 8 days later his antibiotics seem to be working well aside from the fact that this morning his right ear is oozing clear fluid mixed with now creamy wax. Yum. Oh, and the fun part. The hearing loss. This kid cannot hear a thing! I look directly at him and talk in a normal voice, annunciating my words and he just stares at me and then says, "WHAT?" It's almost comical.

Now for the mother of the year nomination, I sent Abby to school last Tuesday with pneumonia. She came home with 104 degree fever. Off to Urgent Care we went. After 6 days on zithromax she woke up this morning with 105.6 fever. So yeah, we're off to the doctor again this afternoon.

So my one and only question is, when will this end? I could care less about me. I'm a big girl. But my babies. They don't deserve this.

All Dressed Up and Nowhere To Go

2010-02-16T19:27:00.000-08:00

Thursday is a day we've been looking forward to for about.... 365 days. Thursday is the beginning of the Pezcific Coast Pez Convention. Every year the twins decide which Pez they want to hunt for. Every year they help Daddy in the scavenger hunt on Thursday night. Every year they participate in Friday night BINGO. Every year they participate in the Saturday charity auction. But not this year.

It all started with a simple cold about a week and a half ago. After I got really cocky, bragging about how the twins hadn't brought home one illness from school since they started in August. That will teach me! Tom passed it to Abby, Abby passed it to me, and as we tried to carry on with our lives, just a little bit slowly, Abby has now come down with pneumonia and Tom has spiked a fever today, although no cough. Oy ve. It's a good thing I'm on massive amounts of steroids and antibiotics to fend off these evil germs. Now Abby has the antibiotics too.

I think I'm just going to lock the door and hide in the house until Paul gets home on Sunday.... from the Pez Convention. Someone should be having a good time, right?

Tooth Fairy

2010-02-06T12:32:00.000-08:00

Yes! The rumors are true! We had a visit from the tooth fairy last night. She left a golden $1 coin! Tom is beyond thrilled.

Tween Already?

2010-01-29T15:23:00.001-08:00

Abby is very passionate about a lot of things. When she gets her mind set on something and then it doesn't turn out the way she expected, all her little tiny emotions erupt into big shiny tears and sobs heard around the block.

Today it was one thing after another. I picked her up from school and she asks if she is going to the dance tonight. There is a fundraiser at school. It's a father daughter dance, for $30 per couple. Paul and I talked about it a month ago when the flyer came home and we decided it's better to go when she's older and might appreciate it more. Well we should have consulted her first!

She burst into tears right there in front of her classroom when I told her she was not going. "But H. is going!" sob sob sob. H. is her teacher's daughter and somewhat of a celebrity around here. It wasn't enough that it could have been a quality evening between her and her father. No. She wanted to go because H. is going.

Once we got home she was reminded that I threw her snow white toothbrush in the trash bin because I forgot to take the trash out of the bathroom today even though I knew as soon as she got home she was going to wash her hands and see snow white in the trash bin again. I bought her a shiny new toothbrush yesterday, but alas, it does not have Snow White on it. She sobs, "Mom! What if I change my mind and I want to use my Snow White toothbrush again?" sob sob sob. This being the toothbrush that is so worn the bristles do not stand at a 90 degree angle anymore, rather a 180. *sigh*

I heard her continue to mumble as she was washing her hands. I went into the bathroom to try and calm her down and she says to me between her tears, "Mom we need to move." sob sob sob "This house is too old! It's so boring." (the house was built in 2004) "We need to buy a house closer to school." (because we live 1/4 mile away from school right now.) "You know that long sidewalk?" (less than 2/10 of a mile long) "I hate that sidewalk!" sob sob sob. I picked her up as she clung to me like a little monkey and just said, "ok."

Mishaps in the Rain

2010-01-26T20:57:00.000-08:00

On our way to school this morning Tom slipped in a huge slippery puddle and we had to go back to the house to change his pants. That's how awful the mess was! Lucky for us this puddle lives only two doors down, so we didn't end up being late to school. From now on, we will be avoiding that bit of the sidewalk and walking around it to be on the safe side. It's got some mossy goo on it that makes the rain and sprinkler run off quite slick. The better solution would be to go take a shovel to it and scrape the goo free, but that would take some work and we all know, I'm not one to volunteer for yard work, let alone in front of my neighbors house.

In other news Tom has been turning around his sight word lists very quickly. In fact just last night he memorized sight word list 18 and got the new list, number 19, today in class. The teacher mentioned to me that she's never had a student turn them around so quick and she wants him reading books as soon as he's done with all 20 lists... which will be tomorrow evening. He did read two whole stories out of one of his early reader Thomas the Tank Engine books that he got for Christmas tonight. Once this kid gets a grip on something he just takes off! He'll be reading my blog in no time, in which case I guess I better stop writing such embarrassing stories about him.

Abby said the cutest thing the other day. We were talking about Tom's wiggly tooth and he was all worried that the tooth fairy wouldn't get notified in time. Like what if his tooth falls out one afternoon? How will she know to come to his house that night? I told him we can write her a letter, but he knows how the mail works. It might take a day or two to get to her. Abby suggested we email the tooth fairy. I think we'll be composing that email soon!

It's Raining It's Pouring

2010-01-22T15:20:00.000-08:00

We've had buckets of rain here in the Sacramento valley this week. Once the gale force winds died down the twins squealed with delight upon using their umbrellas to walk to/from school in the steady drizzle.

Tuesday was particularly blustery with 60mph winds so I actually drove 1/4 mile to the school to drop them off. We sat there in the parking lot before school as the car got pounded from side to side with wind and rain. "Is the car supposed to shake like this?" Tom asked.

We prepared for our exit outside the car. I instructed them to get out and start walking toward their classroom. Easier said than done. They kinda wandered behind me in all sorts of directions at the wind pounded us from the front. Abby had a particularly rough time walking in the wind, barely able to keep pace with a snail. But we made it, all 50 steps into the classroom. I really should have taken video. It was quite a sight!

The rest of the week was less windy, therefore we walked with umbrellas and the twins were so so pleased about this. Abby has an obsession with stepping in the gutters because there are better puddles to splash in there. Maybe I should have invested in rain boots for them?

15 Going on 16

2010-01-15T16:24:00.000-08:00

In Kindergarten the twins have these sight words lists which are to be learned at home. They get 1 list at a time and each list has 10 words on it. The first few weeks took awhile for the words to sink in, but lately Tom has been some sort of memorizing machine. It takes him about 2 minutes to learn all 10 words. Basically I give him a chance to figure it out, and if he doesn't get it, I tell him what it is, just once, and then he commits it to memory. Sounds simple if you're an adult, but for a 5 year old that doesn't know how to read yet, it's pretty amazing!

He turned in list 15 this morning. That means he's committed 150 sight words (common first reading words) to memory. He came home with list 16 tonight and he already knows them all. Too bad we have a 3 day weekend. He's not going to get the next list until Tuesday.

Not all the Kindergarteners are like this. The goal is to learn 50 words by the end of June. Abby has already passed that mark as well. Now if only I could get them not to cheat in class......

This is an actual conversation Tom had with me after school yesterday, except the names have been replaced with letters.

Tom: "I know why Ms. W moved C to a new spot."
Me: "Why?"
Tom: "Because he was copying off J."
Me: "You know you're not supposed to copy, right?"
Tom: "Yeah, I know, Ms. W didn't move me because I copy off R."
Me: "No! You're not supposed to copy off R or anybody!"
Tom: "But Ms. W didn't move me to a new seat."
Me: "You never copy on exams, do you?"
Tom: "No."
Me: "OK, good. But you know, you should never copy because you should always do your own work."
Tom: "But R told me it was ok to copy."
Me: "No, it's never ok to copy in school."

*silence*

And that was the extent of our lesson for the day.

RIP Shawn

2010-01-12T17:16:00.001-08:00

I just heard the news that Shawn passed away last night. CF really sucks.

RIP Shawn.

She will be missed.

The Day I Volunteered

2010-01-11T17:18:00.000-08:00

Against my better judgement to stay in hibernation during flu season I volunteered at the twins' school today. I have to say I wish I could do this more, but seeing as there were lots of kids coughing and sneezing and spewing all sorts of viral yumminess all over me today, i think it's best I lock myself in an underground germ free safe zone the rest of the winter.

In the first classroom I got put to work marble painting. What? You've never done this? I ended up with swirly colorful paint all over my clothes. Awesome. You're totally missing out.

In the second classroom I put my BS in Mathematics to work by trying to teach long division to fourth graders. I had 4 students that needed extra practice with me in the back of the classroom and all but one of them really got it. At least I had a 75% passing rate at the end of the hour.

In Tom and Abby's class I got to sit at the math table once again. This time though, there was no long division and there were nearly knock down fights as to who got to sit next to Ms. Telford. I feel so loved. All the little chitlins wanted to sit next to me. They weren't even wise to my antibiotic/compazine combo sleepiness and low blood sugar grumpiness because being five is so innocent. I love it.

And let's not forget my rockstar mom moment when I walk into the twins classroom and realize Tom's got his shirt on backwards. There's clearly a pocket in the back that's supposed to be on the front. Brilliant.

Tomorrow I'm going to Target. I haven't been there in 3 days. I miss my second home.

And for your enjoyment, this just overheard from the twins in the living room.

Tom (pauses video game) "Abby! What are you doing?"
Abby (out of breath) "I'm doing my workout."
Tom "Can I try?"
I come around the corner to see what all the fuss is about. Abby's doing bicep curls with her Little Tikes basketball hoop.
Abby "Tom, No! I'm doing my workout so I can be as strong as you. I want to be as strong as my big brother"
Tom commandeers basketball hoop anyway.
Abby runs to bedroom to get her toy double stroller, comes walking down the hall out of breath and into my room:
Abby: "Mom! Look at me! This is a workout. It's heavy" (as she bench presses her double stroller)
Then she asks me, "Mom, is running a workout" and proceeds to run up and down the hallway as fast as she can giving herself a pep talk the whole way.

Good times at the Telford household!

Reverse Gifting

2010-01-08T14:54:00.001-08:00

At the request of a fellow blogger I bought some preemie clothing to donate to the Sutter Memorial NICU in honor of my own daughter that stayed there for 5 days, as well as to celebrate Gwyneth's second birthday today! I wasn't actually able to find "preemie" clothes at my Toys R Us but I did find "newborn" which is supposed to fit 5 pound babies. I'm sure they will be well used. Since I have a boy and a girl, I got a cute little girlie sleep n play with cherries on it and a cute little long sleeve onsie for a boy.

Happy Birthday Gwyn!

Wrapping

2010-01-06T16:52:00.000-08:00

Oh lord.... my son wraps gifts just like his old man.

Step 1. Place item on tissue paper

Step 2. Fold tissue paper around item

Step 3. Roll item into a ball

Step 4. Two points for tossing item into gift bag

These images are not brought to you by a crappy cell phone, rather a great camera with a crappy photographer.

Speaking of gifts.... Tomorrow is Paul's BIRTHDAY!!! The old man will be 33.

December 2009 Monthly Update

2010-01-04T09:15:00.000-08:00

December started out with dusting off our Advent calendar and stuffing it with chocolate goodies. The twins get to alternate nights on opening the doors. There were 4 treats in each door, 1 for each of us. I asked Tom if he wanted odds or evens. Tom sat there for a long while and asked which one had more doors to open. I lied and told him they were both the same. Then he saw the number 25 door in all its larger than the rest of the doors glory and simply asked if 25 was odd or even. After I told him 25 was odd that sealed the deal. He gloated the entire month that he gets to open the largest door on the box when Christmas finally arrived.

One Sunday morning Abby was perusing the toy store advertisements and found stuffed dogs for sale. There were 4 of them in the picture so she got it absolutely stuck in her brain to insist on asking Santa for 4 stuffed dogs. If you have seen her bed you would know why I was hesitant to encourage this behavior. Her bed is FULL of stuffed animals. They take up more room than her little 35 pound body does. Well, Santa heard her loud and clear and obliged. I have to say, she hasn't let them out of her sight since. She teaches them to play fetch, feeds them, makes them take naps and dresses them. They certainly are her favorite gift this year!

Click here for pictures from December 2009.

Pictures

2010-01-03T18:03:00.000-08:00

A little of what we've been up to lately.

Bi-monthly Friends Dinner

Christmas 2009

New Year's Eve 2009

The Complicated Hamper

2009-12-26T14:33:00.001-08:00

Before I forget, I must tell you that something clicked in Abby's head last night. For the last 2 years or so, we have been letting the twins put their own clothes in the family clothing hamper. This hamper is very nice in that it has 3 sections. I choose to use one for whites, one for light colors and one for dark colors. This hamper also happens to be on a plastic frame with castor wheels for convenience. Though I never actually roll it anywhere because each section also comes with it's own bag with handles to carry to the washing machine. I suppose if I had three washers I would roll the whole hamper so I could do all 3 loads at once. (right now I have no washer.... but that's for a different kind of sob story blog post)

Every single night Abby dictates each one of her articles of clothing to me and asks specifically which hamper category it falls into: "Front" (white), "Middle" (light colors) and "Back" (dark colors). So then I start rattling off, "the socks go in the front, your shirt and underwear goes in the middle and your dress goes in the back." Or something to that effect.

But last night, finally, finally, finally, she says, "OOOOOOOOH! I get it! The front is for white colors, the middle is for light colors and the back is for dark colors." And like that, viola! That little brain of hers finally clicked.

Tom is a whole other monster because he doesn't actually care where I want him to put his clothes. He pretty much insists on putting them where he thinks they belong. As in, he insists that red is a light color and belongs in the middle bag. *sigh*

Food Poisoning!

2009-12-21T09:18:00.000-08:00

Yup! That's right folks, Abby got an early Christmas present thanks to the Red Robin restaurant on Friday night.

She came into our room around 2AM on Saturday morning. She said, "Mommy, I called you! I threw up." Oh, broke my heart. Kids get scared when they throw up, well, at least mine do, because it's so rare! This is only the second time she's ever thrown up. The first was last March, when we all spread a stomach flu around our house. It spread like wildfire. One day after the other, we all had it within a week. That's one reason I know Abby had food poisoning, none of us caught it!

She had different food than the rest of us at the restaurant and any one of them could have caused it. She ate a hamburger with ketchup, some fries, apples, cantaloupe and ranch dip. Who knows which item cause it, but she was so sick and so weak all weekend. She's feeling back to normal, and even somewhat enjoyed a trip to Grandma's house for Dani's birthday.

Here are the sibs plus mom:

And Auntie kate brought her bunny for the twins to meet:

Christmas is Coming!

2009-12-15T14:31:00.001-08:00

The Christmas excitement in our house is building! Remind me never to tell Tom any secret that actually has to be kept. This morning he was so excited to tell me all about the Christmas wreath he is making for me in class. Then he told me all about the Christmas Pajamas he bought for me and Abby. He didn't actually tell me about them, which is good, and the fact I'm getting PJ's isn't a secret, it's a Christmas eve tradition. But still. He was bursting at the seams. "I know one of your presents! Do you want me to tell you? It's pajamas!"

I told Tom and Abby that mom and dad buy presents for them as well as Santa Clause. So this morning they were totally on a present hunt! First they were in my closet, which is of course where all the presents are hiding... unwrapped. So I told them the presents were elsewhere in the house and there was only one. And once I told them they were unwrapped, they stopped looking for them. Guess it's not as fun to really find out what you're getting for Christmas.

So of course today of all days Paul's gift arrived via Fed Ex and I ended up having to tell him not to answer the front door, because today of all days was the day he was going to be home for lunch, and home when the kids got out of school at 2:30. So I waited all morning until 11AM when I had to leave for the dentist and no Fed Ex. I was so worried it would come while he was home and it would be ruined because I wasn't sure if it would be in a brown box or not. Turns out it was in a brown box, which is great and it is safely wrapped and hidden. So at least that surprise did not get ruined!

Now about my dentist appointment. So I have these 4 fillings from 1994 that are slowly cracking my teeth, causing me to need crowns and must be replaced. So I had to get one crown, one filling replacement, 2 fillings, some laser gum surgery and a lingual frenectomy. For the first time in my life, I actually didn't feel any pain or pressure when they did one of my shots. They had to do 2 shots, one on either side of my mouth. That is a record low for me. Usually I get 3-5 shots in the same spot to get numb enough. So 2 thumbs up for this new dentist! The second shot hurt a little bit, but that's to be expected I guess.

First she started on my upper teeth, which were not numb, and filled a small cavity. After it was over and squealed with a tiny bit of pain at the end she did say, she had to drill deeper than she thought but was still proud of me that I did it all without novocaine in that area. Then she moved onto the replacement filling. It was a big filling so it took awhile. And there was a tiny new cavity on that same tooth that got done as well. Finally she moved to the bottom left side to remove like half my tooth or something because it had cracked. This is the one that needs the crown, which I will get on Christmas eve. Merry Christmas to me!

Second to last, but not least was the lingual frenectomy. Basically I was tongue tied. How I ever learned to speak, with great enunciation to boot is beyond me, from what I have read about this condition. My sisters tell this story that my mom and dad didn't want to fix this for me as a child. I have no idea why not. I'll have to ask my mom. So basically they stretched that muscle that was tying my tongue down and vaporized it off with a laser. I don't know how long this took, but it seemed like a long time. And it did hurt quite a bit but not excruciatingly. Apparently the frenum can grow back. I hope I'm not one of those lucky ones!

After my tongue was vaporized she vaporized some of my gum surrounding a different bottom tooth during the gum surgery. All of the sudden in the last few months my gum has turned blue and infected and we don't know why. So while I was numbed up, she decided to deep clean it. I hope it works!

Now that the novocaine is wearing off I can feel some weird lumps under tongue. I hope this is normal. It kinda hurts too. Wish me luck in healing!

CCCCCCCOLD!

2009-12-08T09:05:00.000-08:00

Ya know, one of the first things I do in the morning after I wake up is eat breakfast. When I open that fridge door and the cool air comes pouring out onto my naked legs and feet I get numb. It's so cold.

Um, not today. Today I had to open the front door to get the paper and it took my breath away. COLD! Then I had to let the dog out. Again, open the sliding glass door this time and COLD! Then I noticed the dog's water was frozen over so I got some hot water from the tap to melt the ice so he could get a drink. More time spent with the door open, again, COLD!

So after those experiences once i finally got around to opening the fridge to get my milk for my cereal, ya know what? It wasn't cold at all. That's because my FRIDGE is warmer than outside my house right now. Excuse me while i go crawl inside my FRIDGE to warm up.

PS It was 26 degrees outside when I woke up at 8AM. Brrrrrrrrrr!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Snow Day?

2009-12-07T15:31:00.000-08:00

So the Christmas ornaments were a huge hit! So much so that Tom took his immediately from me and started walking down the hall to his bedroom with it. When I told him it's not actually a toy, it just looks like one, and he cannot play with it or touch it because it may break he looks at me with tears in his eyes, "But mom, I had different plans for this. Is there any where else we could hang it? Like in my bedroom?" I told him it was real special and he would see it every Christmas hanging on the Christmas tree. Poor guy.

In other news the twins had a fantastic weekend. Paul and I had a date with some friend on Saturday and our babysitter had to cancel at the last minute (um... because we got her sick the week before and she still wasn't feeling well... Sorry Jean!) so we made plans to drop them off with a friend from school all evening. We dropped them off at 4:30 in their pajamas and they had a pizza, pajama and popcorn party! They had so much fun, even though it was way past their bedtime when we picked them up they were full of energy.

On Sunday they had a birthday party to go to. When I dropped them off I stayed for a couple minutes and then I went to find them to say goodbye. Their first "drop off" party! Tom looked like he was going to cry. Abby could have cared less. I assured Tom that he wouldn't even know I was gone and he ended up having a blast! When they got home they were so excited to show us the bag of candy from the piñata. They also said, "Dad you would have LOVED it! The piñata had some of your favorite things inside!" What is that, you ask? Newspaper! hahahahaha! Could five year olds be any funnier?

This morning Tom and Abby woke me up bright and way too early at 7:15 to report that I had lied to them and there certainly was no snow on the ground. Perhaps we missed it. Perhaps it will snow later in the day they thought. None of which came true. Most of Sacramento county saw snow, but we did not. I was just talking on the phone to my mom telling her how upset the twins were that they didn't see any snow. Well, Abby came into the room and Abby gets on the phone and my mom starts telling her about all the snow that fell at Grandma's house. Abby hung her head, fought back tears and then slowly, quietly walked back to her room. I later found her crying on her bed and had to tell her that Grandma didn't really get all that much snow, not enough to even make one snow ball. That's what the twins really wanted was enough snow to have a snowball fight. Looks like we may be going on a trip to Lathrop sooner rather than later!

2009 Ornaments

2009-12-03T14:53:00.001-08:00

Every year I buy Tom and Abby a special ornament that captures their current fascination. The idea is, by the time they are 18 and move out of the house they will have a box of ornaments that are truly theirs and hopefully will bring back all sorts of childhood memories. This year, I really wanted to get Tom one of the super heros and I really wanted to get Abby a fairy. Well I couldn't resist buying the brand name Hallmark Keepsake ornaments I found today that were just perfect! I was expecting to pay $20 each, but I guess they were on sale for $15. Yippee!

So here they are.... shhhh, doing tell the twins yet, because they won't see them until tonight when Paul gets home from work. I'm just too excited not to share them with you NOW!

October/November 2009 Telford Twins Update

2009-12-01T21:11:00.000-08:00

Did you miss me? I somehow skipped the October update. Tom and Abby had a wonderful fifth birthday and of course, were spoiled beyond belief with gifts and celebrations lasting nearly a week long.

Tom has learned a hard lesson about the gender gap. He wore stickers on his ears to school because he likes earrings and many of his classmates wear earrings to class every single day. His teacher was so caught off guard by a BOY wearing earrings that she made him take them off and put them in his backpack. It has since been communicated to the teacher that Tom may, on occasion. wear sticker earrings to class and he will only remove them if they become a distraction. In other Tom news, he learned to ride a two wheeler! He zips and zooms up and down the driveway, on and off the sidewalk and all over our neighborhood.

Abby's hair went pink for halloween at school and she LOVED it! I'm seriously considering letting her dye her hair semi-permanently for awhile. She is so perfectly content playing around the house, sometimes by herself and her imaginary friends. I caught her the other day, dressed up as Snow White, singing into her microphone and then pausing to cheer for herself and take a bow. She is amused by little things. Two days ago she put on a pair of cargo pants that had six pockets. She squealed with joy as she bounced up and down on my bed, "Mom! Can you believe it? Look at ALL these pockets! I can fit so many things in these pockets today!" And then she must have forgotten about the pockets because I never saw her use them once that day.

October 2009 Photos

November 2009 Photos

Happy Holidays!

Manic Monday Start

2009-11-30T12:29:00.001-08:00

Today was the first day for the twins to head back to school after a 4 week break. They are on the year round system so they get the months of November, March, July and the first half of August off school, instead of the 3 month summer brain drain all at once. So far I like the year round system. I got used to having the kids home with me again and it was nice to just not do anything most days.

I walked in to get the twins from their room around 8:30 this morning and Abby was already in tears. She was upset at some game she and Tom were playing. I don't know the details. I asked them what they wanted for breakfast and Tom told me Abby didn't want any kind of cereal. So I asked her if she wanted a frozen waffle to which she screamed and cried like I was forcing her to eat broccoli for breakfast. She wanted a pancake because we just bought some new syrup. Logical, no?

So off to the kitchen I went to try and figure out how to make a small batch of pancakes as quickly as possible. I cut the recipe in 1/4 to make about 5 small pancakes and that meant it called for 1/2 an egg. Because I know my way around the kitchen I was able to pull this stellar skill off. Of course out of the 5 pancakes I made in record time, Abby ate, ONE. *sigh*

Tom and Abby rode their bikes to school, which meant they also wore their gloves. They've been wearing their newfound favorite gloves all month long while they ride their bikes. Best 50¢ I've spent all year at Target! Once Tom and Abby were in line to get into the classroom this morning though, they started freaking out. What to do with the gloves? Tom panics and hurls his gloves at me from across the sidewalk, hitting a complete stranger. Abby runs to me to hand off her gloves all the while it's far too confusing for them to receive instruction in this panicked state as I'm telling them, "just put the gloves in your backpack!" We'll have to work on this one.

I See You

2009-11-27T10:24:00.000-08:00

Playing with Daddy's ski goggles.

Go Ags!

2009-11-22T14:09:00.000-08:00

The whole family came out for the Causeway Classic yesterday. It's the one football game of the year that I can manage to drag Paul to with me. It was quite cold out so we came prepared with lots of layers and hats, jackets and gloves. Abby pretty much ignored the whole game. She sat with her back to the field and colored for about 3 hours. She finally turned around long enough to watch the Aggies lose in the last minute of the game. Despite the loss, it was a great game!

Two Wheeler!

2009-11-19T12:25:00.001-08:00

Tom and Abby have had 3.5 weeks off school already. Boy has it flown by.

I think the biggest news this month so far is that Tom learned how to ride a bike. He is very pleased with himself. He pretty much learned how to balance over the weekend and this week he has mastered all sorts of skills like turning and going up/down the sidewalk and driveway. He's very confident and sometimes he just bails. But then I get a thumbs up from him as he dusts himself off.

He's currently suffering from bully syndrome as I type this. We have a little friend visiting and Abby has taken to following her on her bike verses Tom and he's thrown several fits already. He's just completely confused why he isn't Abby's world right now. He's always been the bigger badder bully and leader of the house so this is very confusing for him as Abby is not listening. Yes, there are lots of tears and I'm just sitting back letting them sort it out. I wonder what kind of stories our neighbor friend will go home with tonight.

Quiet House

2009-11-08T15:01:00.000-08:00

Today I slept in till 10AM and boy did I need it. In fact i could use a nap right now, but instead I'm blogging to all of you because I know you miss me.

Last night Paul and I packed the kids up and shipped them off to Grandma's for a few days. The length of stay will be determined by Tom's will power. If he decides it's ok for Grandma to wipe his bottom after he poops on the potty, Grandma will keep the twins until Wednesday. I'm really looking forward to that! But since Tom only likes mama to wipe his bottom, he may be coming home tomorrow. As of noon today, he had not pooped for Grandma. I think Tom's record is holding it for 5 days. Yes. He is THAT stubborn.

After we dropped the kids off last night we went to Macy's to get a shirt for Paul. Before we left, Paul was looking through his closet asking me what he should wear to this 40th birthday party of his friends and I told him he'd be fine in a t-shirt, but he didn't think that was dressed up enough. I then told him to wear a polo shirt and it turns out that's just too boring. So I suggested we swing by Macy's on our way to the party. Macy's always has the clothes I need when I'm looking for new party outfits! *sigh* I miss Macy's.

So we get into Macy's and I start scanning the place looking for someone young and hip to help us out, point us in the direction of the "cool guy" shirts. I can't remember who thought of this term, the cool guy shirt, but we both knew what we were looking for. Now how were we going to find it in this three story building in less than 20 minutes so we weren't late for the party?

Luck would have it Paul found something right away. First he found a shirt that had a logo that said something about Cuban Cigars, and though we really liked the shirt, we didn't want to condone smoking. I even rationalized him buying it because isn't it true that unless you're hardcore cigar smoker, you don't even inhale anyway? I dunno, I've never smoked! What do I know? On the same rack we found it though, THE SHIRT. Instead of cuban cigar shirt, it was a similar cool guy design with "Mojito Bar" logo instead. This was perfect! Paul LOVES Mojitos. He makes his own simple syrup, buys fresh mint and makes Mojito's at home all the time.

Off to the dressing rooms. And it fit. Yay! Off to the cashier who didn't know what he was doing at all and he confessed to us it was his first day. Poor guy was sweating bullets.

Then came the bag. He didn't know where the bags were and I said to Paul, "You're making him put it in a bag?!" I always bring my own shopping bags into stores. I never use plastic bags anymore and when I just have to, I feel so guilty. So Paul says, "don't worry about the bag, we don't need one."

Still the cashier fumbles though the register area, finds the bags behind him and then can't get one out. Then the experienced cashier next to him, helps him tug and pull on the big shirt bags and brings one to the counter for us. We're like, "No really, we don't want a bag." She insists that this cream colored shirt is going to get dirty and starts opening the bag.

Paul says again, "I don't need a bag. Seriously, I just going to put the shirt on as soon as we get outside." By this point he has the attention of the couple checking out at the register next to us. The lady's jaw nearly hit the floor as she says disapprovingly, "Oh... really?" And then we left with our receipt and our new shirt flapping in the wind on the hanger and out the door. In hindsight, we should have left the hanger too.

And Paul looked really good and got compliments on his new shirt at the party!

New Goal: A Mile a Day

2009-11-07T12:54:00.000-08:00

I've been running about twice a week since I last blogged 3 weeks ago. I have been meaning to get in 3 runs a week, but I'm not sure that happened. I just want to be sure to keep up with my running for my lungs and for my legs. Since I had so much trouble with my knees and hips over the summer, I'd hate to be back at square one after all my hard work. So far so good! I have had no knee or hip pain since my race on October 4.

Today I set out to improve my 1 mile time. I did a run/walk combo. And by run, I mean faster than my jog. I was going to alternate running and walking every 30 seconds but the first minute flew by so fast and painlessly I decided to alternate every 60 second instead. Well sometime down the line I got super duper out of breath and nauseous. But I kept pressing on.

I tried to run only 30 seconds and walk for 30, but that wasn't enough time to recover, so I walked for 60 seconds. Somehow by the end of my run I was running 30 seconds and walking 90 seconds. It was just so hard! I was kinda seeing spots and i was pretty dizzy. I'm wondering if maybe my oxygen saturation cannot keep up with these sprints as well as my jogs even though I was wearing my oxygen tank. I'll have to bring my pulse ox with me next time.

I ended up with a 1 mile time of 12 minutes and 47 seconds. That's my fastest mile thus far! But I'm not sure I want to repeat it with that much enthusiasm tomorrow.

Since I'm going shorter distances (less than 2 miles) I am going to check to see if my body can handle running every morning.

Stay tuned!

Bubbles

2009-10-31T15:34:00.001-07:00

Even at age 5 the twins are fascinated with bubbles. They played with them for over an hour yesterday.

I took a ton of pictures and hardly any of them turned out. You see, no matter how fancy the camera, you still have to be a good photographer to take good pictures.

I mostly just took pictures because I knew Abby would wash the pink out of her hair that night in the bath. I'm thinking about letting her dye her hair with semi-permanent dye. It was just so cute! I wonder if she'd be asked to shave her head and put the hair in her backpack though... if it's too distracting in class??

Last Day of School!

2009-10-30T12:04:00.000-07:00

Today was the twins' last day of school for the first trimester. They were not allowed to dress up into halloween costumes, for fear of offending those that don't celebrate this holiday, but they were allowed to wear their PJ's to school. It was also "bed head" or crazy hair day and Abby wanted to go PINK! She loved it!

Now I have the twins home with me full time until November 30. Should be interesting!

Oh No You Di'int!

2009-10-29T14:52:00.000-07:00

This morning I sent the twins to school as usual. They have a very unique sense of style, or lack there of. Today they had sweat bands on their wrists and ankles. This is in addition to Abby wearing her Easter dress over some pants, with long sleeves underneath. Well, Tom decided last night he really wanted to wear clip on earrings to school. He was hesitant because it is jewelry and there is a no jewelry policy in their kindergarten class, but I insisted that it was ok because there are girls in their class that wear earrings every single day, even dangly earrings! I did talk him away from the dangly clip on earrings and encouraged him to wear the stickers instead.

When I picked him up from school the first thing I noticed was that he didn't have his earrings on. I asked him if his earrings fell off and he almost teared up and didn't say anything. I asked again, what happened to his earrings and again, silence. As we got closer to home I started guessing, "Did your teacher make you take your earrings off?" He said yes. Then Abby dictated exactly what happened.

She said, the teacher said, "Tom, are those stickers on your ears?" When Tom said yes, she said, "Take them off and put them in your backpack."

Now, had she made every single child in the class remove their earrings, I would have no problem. But why my kid? Is it because he's a boy? Is it because they're stickers? What would have happened if Abby had worn them? If sticker earrings can be interpreted as contraband jewelry, why weren't the sweat bands considered contraband as bracelets? Or the watch they have worn on several occasions? Something just doesn't seem fair here.

Believe me, I sent the teacher an email the instant I got home. I'm waiting to hear back. I would totally understand if there was a no earring policy, but there's not. I'm just so sad for Tom. He really was and is heartbroken.