Funny Ol' World

Well, I'm trying to finish packing for college, so I've not been doing much else. Just wanted to share a quick story with all my reader (not a type-o).

God has a way of working things out. I was in desperate need of a new pair of running shoes and a little extra cash. I was putting those things off until after I started school because I wasn't planning on working. I ended up working just a little bit over the past 2 weeks (+$100). I was also working in my neighbors yard, which I was just doing because she has been really busy and her yard needed taken care of. I wasn't going to charge her for any of the work I had done. Well, tonight she took me out and bought me a new pair of running shoes and slipped $100 cash into the box for "all the work you've done". Funny how it ended up working out that I'm now headed off to college with my much needed pair of shoes and $200 cash. :)

Easy Come, Easy Go

On my layover in Denver I checked my messages and I got a call from my boss (the mom of the 2 boys I've been watching) who must've missed out when I said I really wanted to take the last two weeks of summer. I called her back Sunday. She wanted me to work for a couple days a week for the next two weeks and I figured I might as well since I am now a college student and I will undoubtedly be able to use every penny I make. I was actually happy because I could use the extra money for something fun. Or so I thought.

When I got home this week, my car was making a funny sound when I turned to the left, so I decided to take it in and just get a tuneup. I figured that it was probably the power steering fluid, so maybe a $40 repair. No such luck. My car needed a few "minor" tuneups, which ended up costing me a meger $240!! Needless to say, I was not very happy about that. The car does run much better.

In related news: I have begun to purchase books for my very first semester of COLLEGE. So far, I have spent $200 on books and I have two more classes to buy for. At least if I keep the books nice, I may be able to sell them and make a little money back.

So basically, in the past week, I have spent $440. This is very VERY sad for me. Oh well, thats life I guess.

Oatmeal for Breakfast

I thought this would be a fun story to tell.

All my life, oatmeal has absolutely repulsed me. When I was younger, my mom would let me dye it a color with food coloring just to get me to eat it. Finally, when I was old enough to make my own breakfast, I declared I was not going to eat another bowl of oatmeal ever again. Until today. I had oatmeal for breakfast. I ate the whole bowl and I was thinking of making myself a second one. Its pretty tasty actually. I think maybe my tastebuds have changed since I was a kid. Or maybe its that I wasn't forced to eat it. I don't know. But now I'm sort of wondering what other things I "don't" like that I may actually like.

Maybe I should try mushrooms again.

No. They still creep me out.

I'm moving to Texas!

Next year. At least, I want to. I probably won't be able to actually live in Austin, just because I am not actually a resident of Texas, so community college there is 28,000 not including room or board. There is an Adventist school in Keene, which is about 3 hours away, and I'm going to apply there. I just loved every part of Texas and I really want to live there.

Last 2 Days of Texas Trip

Yesterday (Friday) was my last day in Texas. It was just Rachelle and myself taking care of the babies.

We tried on two different occassions to get a picture of me with all the babies. I wish I had set up my Flip so people could see all the effort poor Rachelle and Virginia went to to get a decent picture. I haven't seen the pictures yet but I'm sure at least one of them came out cute.

At lunch time Rachelle and I loaded up all the babies and went to Chik-fil-A. It was pretty tasty, but I'm not going to talk about the food. I don't know how Rachelle loads up all the babies by herself because it took the 2 of us quite a few trips in and out of the house to get 5 babies in and out of the carseats.

After the babies woke up we went over to Virginias house for fajitas (which were also really good! I would get fat living there). The babies crawled/walked all over the place, Riley and Kaiya entertained themselves, and we mostly just sat and watched them. Virginia loves to help people, but she doesn't really accept help very much.

After dinner was completed, Rachelle was going to go to a parenting class so that left Jayson, Virginia, and myself to put the kids to bed. All of the kids needed diaper changes when we got home (not suprising) So Jayson changed Ryder and unloaded things out of the car while I changed Rustin, Kassidy, Kyndall and Kaydence. While we were doing that, Virginia was trying to pull 5 clean sets of pajamas out of the laundry basket. Kaydence was "helping" her by throwing every piece of laundry she could get her hands on and Kassidy was pulling all the "nuggies" (silky blankets) out and running away with them. Virginia, Jayson and I got them all dressed in their pajamas and down for bed. The front room was a little messy and the kids' pajamas didn't necissarily match, but they were all clean and sleeping by the time Rachelle got home.

Rachelle dropped by after her meeting to say goodbye and ended up staying at Virginias til almost 11. It was really lousy having to say goodbye because we were just starting to get to know eachother and then I had to leave. I wish the trip never had to end.


Saturday:
I woke up at 5:15 so I could get to the airport and catch my plane. I was hoping they would bump me so I could stay another day, but no such luck. The flights were really quite dull. I was stuck in Denver for 2 hours but I survived it.

I ended up getting home about 3:00 cali time, and my family met me at the airport. I told them I'm moving to Texas. They laughed. But I am. The people are nice, housing is cheap, and I think its just all around better.

I'm going to bed. Its 11:37 PM Cali time and since I got up at 3:15 AM Cali time and didn't really nap, I'd say I'm about done for the day.

Texas Trip Day 4

Today it was just myself and Virginia with the babies in the morning. The babies love their "Gigi" and so they were pretty giggly and cute for most of the day.

I got a bunch of video of them which I will compile into better movies of them when I get home. I think I have footage of every last one of the babies hands or faces right on top of the lens.

Riley went to a friends house after school and so Kaiya had Gigi, her mom, and me all to herself after school while the babies napped. She really enjoyed that to the fullest. She was moving from couch to couch sitting with each of us just to make sure all the focus was on her. Which of c0urse, it was. :)

For supper we went to this really quirky place called Rudy's. Its a big deal in Texas and when I tasted the food I could tell why! It was so good. They serve you on big sheets of paper and they have a really ammusing hand washing machine which I have a picture of. Its like a drive through washer for your hands. The babies were getting a lot of stares at the resturaunt. I guess it isn't often that you see quintuplets, so its okay to look. What really got me were the people who asked dumb questions. "Did you know there were five?" "Are they all yours?" "How do you survive?" God bless Rachelle and Jayson for not responding in the sarcastic way I likely would. "No. I had no clue there were five. I couldn't figure out why I was getting so big with one." "No. They aren't all mine. I just picked them up at H.E.B and they were on sale for a great price."

After we put the babies down for bed Virginia took me out shopping. She won't let me pay for any food or any thing really! It drives me nuts! We did have fun though. People here sure do have a lot of pride in their state. Virginia bought me a really funny t-shirt that says "Y'all wish" next to a big picture of Texas. I'm hoping to find a more femine cut shirt later on in the week.

Today was a true Texan day with going to Rudy's and to the mall. It was fun.

Texas Trip Day 3

Virginia couldn't be there to help with the babies yesterday so two of Rachelle's friends came over while Rachelle got a chance to go out and go shopping.

That was actually one thing I had wondered about, how she went shopping. One day a week some people come and watch the babies so that their mom can go and get things. Kassidy clung to me for most of the morning because I was the only volunteer that she knew. Kyndall and Rustin fought over toys for the whole morning. They have a ton of toys, but Kyndall and Rustin always want the same toy. Kaydence is a koala baby. She doesn't walk independently yet, so she likes to be carried.

Some of the babies napped from 1:00 until 3:30 after napping from 9:00 to almost noon. They sure do play hard!

I did get a chance to meet their older child, Kaiya, but Riley was not seen very often. Virginia said that he tends to be very busy in his room after school and so you don't hear from him much.

Kaiya was a crack up at dinner. Riley told her to sniff the pepper shaker, and being that she is only 5, she did it. Of course, for any of you who have ever sniffed pepper, it made her sneeze and then she complained about her nose hurting through the whole meal.

After we got the babies down for the night Rachelle took me out to see some of Texas. I really appreciated that and I was also a little surprised she was willing to do that. She took me to see a bridge where 750,000 bats migrate to to have all of their babies. There were so many and they kept flying out from under the bridge for at least 40 minutes. This description does not do it any justice really. It was just incredible. Then Rachelle took me to the capital and she told me some really interesting things about Texas. I never knew that Texas had been owned by 6 different countries. Rachelle also told me that every time they have a picture of every Governor up on the wall inside the building. Each time they get a new Governor they move all the pictures of every single previous Governor up on the wall for the new picture. It seems like a huge waste of time to me.

Rachelle is so nice and smart. She is funny about numbers just like I am. She doesn't like to have prime numbers of anything. Too bad she had 7 children!

I haven't seen much of Jayson. He seems very tired when he comes home and I don't want to bother him. He is a good father though, he reads with all the kids every night.

After touring some of Austin with Rachelle, I went back to Virginias house. She is the nicest lady you could ever meet. She is always trying to push food on me and refuses to take any money for it. She is just a genuinely amazing and kind hearted woman.

I am really enjoying myself here and I would love to come back again.

Texas Trip Days 1 and 2

Most sincere apologies about the fact that the first three days are posted together. Videos and pictures will come up in a later blog.

For those who don't know, I had the oppurtunity to go meet the Wilkinson Quintuplets in Texas this week.You can check out their story at http://www.msplinks.com/MDFodHRwOi8vd3d3LndpbGtpbnNvbnF1aW50cy5ibG9nc3BvdC5jb20=.

Day 1:
I got on the plane and left Redding at 9:45 AM by the time I got to Texas it was 5:25 their time (3:25 Cali Time). I didn't sit next to anyone terribly exciting. I think that girls only sit next to good looking guys in movies.

Anyways, it took me about 20 minutes to find Virginia (the lady I'm staying with) in the little tiny, 6 round baggage claim. Virginia is one of the sweetest people ever. She is this tiny typical Southern woman, drawl and all. She is so nice though, really friendly and outgoing.

We ended up going to meet the Wilkinsons that night which was suprising to me since I figured that since it was already like 6 o'clock they probably wouldn't want people around, and maybe they didn't, but they let us come anyways. The babies were absolutely adorable. Rustin (the bigger of the 2 boys) came up to me right away, and by the end of the evening, most of the babies were actually okay with me.

I got to help with mass bath time, which is basically stripping down 5 babies, washing 5 babies, and then drying, dressing, and diapering 5 babies. They also weigh them to keep track of their progress. The biggest baby is 19 pounds while the smallest baby is only 15. After bath they do jammies after changing everyone and rubbing them with lavender lotion. They also read to the babies 3 times a day, and they all seem to enjoy it. The whole time I was there, I did not hear a peep out of their older to kids (Riley and Kaiya).

At 7:30, the older 2 went to bed and I chatted with Rachelle (the mom) for a little while. She is an amazing woman. She is so organized and smart and very, very nice for letting me come. I also met her husband Jayson breifly, but he seemed really exahusted. He is a really involved dad though, which is great, because with that many babies, you really need all the hands you can get.

I was actually a little worried after this first meeting because it was kind of akward being in a house where I didn't know anyone, but I knew it would get better. Afterwards, I went to Virginias house.

Day 2:I woke up at 7 AM (5 AM Cali Time) to shower and eat breakfast and then went over to the Wilkinsons about 8. We did breakfast which consisted of myself feeding Rustin, Rachelle feeding Kassidy and Kyndall, and Virginia feeding Ryder and Kaydence.

Afterwards we cleaned up the babies and put them down for a nap. Each baby sleeps in a different room for nap time (as opposed to bedtime where they all sleep in the same room). They each slept for 2+ hours, and I slept for a little while too! I was tired and my schedule is all messed up.

After nap they each have a bottle. I fed Kaydence her bottle, Ryder part of his bottle, and Kyndall her bottle. Kaydence is quite the little charmer with her chubby face and happy little smile. She and I played pass toys back and forth for about 25 minutes. Ryder is not too sure of me yet. He is the fussiest of all the babies but he has his really sweet and adorable moments too. Kyndall is just a teeny-weeny ball of energy. She is running all around constantly. Rustin is my little buddy. He has a deep voice for a baby and he likes to follow me arond. Kassidy is a big time mama's girl and so she isn't too interested in me. She is very sweet and cuddly with both her mother and Virginia though.

Then they played for a few hours. I was amazed at how often they got into little fights, I mean, they are only a year old! They snatch at eachothers toys whenever they get a chance.

After playtime they had lunch. They each eat some baby food and some solid food. The solid food is finger foods, which they all feed themselves. After that was clean up and another nap.

The three girls (Kassidy, Kyndall, and Kaydence) didn't nap. They laid in bed either singing to themselves or crying until 3 o'clock. Then they got up and had another bottle. Their big brother and big sister came home. Riley is 8 and seems like a very tenderhearted little boy. He was showing me the things he can do with his keyboard while he practiced the piano. Kaiya is 5 and is going through a faze where she only wants to talk like a baby. This doesn't really hide the fact that she is very articulate and wants to play with everyone. She is rough with the babies from time to time, but she does obey when you tell her to be soft. We had play time and then came dinner.

Rachelle fed Rustin, Ryder, and Kyndall while I fed Kassidy and Kaydence. After dinner there was more playtime, then jammies, books and bed.

These kids are very routined and stay on a pretty strict schedule. Of course, with 7 kids, what other options do their parents have? Today was much better as far as my feeling comfortable. Rachelle and Jayson like me I think, 3/5 babies will willing hang around me, and I think the older two pretty much like everyone. Right now I'm waiting for Virginia to come and get me, and then we'll go back to her house and hit the hay. At least, I will. Because its like 10:00 Cali time.

August 1

Today I worked bizarre hours. 8:00-10:00 and then 12:00-4:00. We just hung around the house today, because we had visitor after visitor after visitor. When your mom has 8 siblings, a lot of aunts and uncles come to visit.

Other than that, I've not done a whole lot. I need to go to the gym, so I'll probably do that around 8 o'clock. I need to run some laundry. And dinner. I have to figure out dinner. Either my mom cooks or I do, so maybe she has a plan.

July 31

Well, compared to how the rest of the week has gone, today was just AWESOME. The boys were both awake and already watching Snow White when I got there. After the movie I whipped up some pancakes and scrambled eggs. They ate with little fuss which was a nice surprise. After that we wrestled and read books until about 10:15, which was when the baby started to get pretty tired. Generally, Victor goes down between 10:00 and 10:30, so we went into the bedroom and laid down. He was super fussy and I wasn't sure he would go to sleep. I just laid next to him, closed my eyes and waited. After I had hummed "Hushabye Mountain" 6 times, I checked on him and he was fast asleep. Stefen had a cheesestick snack and read a few books with me. Then it was time to pack up a bag and get our swimsuits on to go to swim lessons. Victor was still sleeping at 11:15 and so I had to wake him up so he could go swimming at 11:30, but he only cried for a minute and then sat contentedly in his carseat with a bottle the whole drive to swim lessons. Swim lessons were fun. I got in with them and we really enjoyed ourselves. Stefen wasn't too happy about going home, but after a few minutes, he got over his bad mood and was back to being pretty happy. For lunch we had carrot sticks, banana, turkey, fruit snacks, and organic cheetos. Oh! And fresh grown watermelon, which was delicious. After lunch I did the dishes and the kids played with their toys. By this point, it was 1:25 and the kids were both really tired, so I put on a show for them. I hate plunking them in front of movies, but they were totally exhausted. Their mom came home at 1:50 and I went home pretty shortly after.

At 2:30 I went and had my hair done and my eyebrows waxed. It was beyond the time I needed to get done.

For the rest of the day I've been pretty lazy, I'll probably hit the gym after supper.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO THE WILKINSON QUINTS!!!

July 30

Today was a sun up to sun down move day.

Worked my typical 8-2:15 job with the boys. They were great until I tried to serve them something they didn't like and both threw fits about it. It was spinach and beef ravioli, they normally like it, but we were trying a new brand. We ended up eating something else after I had tasted it and (shockingly) agreed with them that they were not very good. (I don't eat ravioli very often, they are too high calorie and fattening). After that we walked around the block 4, yes 4, times to try and get the baby to sleep. Thankfully on our last lap, both boys fell asleep in the stroller.

Their mom got home and I ran out the door to the dentist. That was not terribly thrilling so I won't talk about it.

After the dentist, Baby Jackie (11.5 months) came to my house for the evening. She is such an angel. She was smiles all evening, down to 8:45 when her mom came to get her. We went out to dinner this evening and she didn't even fuss too much when she got tired.

Hit the gym from 9 to 10, and then got online to blog.

Shockingly, I'm not even that tired.

July 29

Got to work at 8:15 this morning. The house was a mess, there were dishes and laundry that never got finished. I had left the house clean yesterday. Their mom asked me to go to the grocery store today and so I had to run home (2 houses down) with the boys to get my keys. Stefen started to have a meltdown and started screaming and grabbed me by the shoulders and tried to shake me. It was scary. My mom and dad took him while I went to get the carseats ready. We did better after that. Victor fell asleep about 10:30 and napped for maybe 40-45 minutes. He's teething and so he doesn't nap very well. After the nap we had some play time and lunch. Then we were going to go to the park, but it was super smokey so we stayed inside. Stefen told me that I could never leave his house. He said I loved him too much. It was pretty cute.

Well, now its 3:23 and I am gonna nap. I didn't sleep very well on "vacation". Afterwards, I'll probably run some errands for my own family and eat dinner. Do a workout. The norm.

Update

I have 2 weeks and 4 days left of nannying for the family that I currently work for. I have to say that I think themom and I would have a lot of work to do if I was sticking around.

The 3-year-old, Stefen, has been having a really rough time lately. He knows that when I show up, his mom leaves. He hits me, pinches me, and has colassal meltdowns almost every day. I love him, I've been his nanny for almost 2 years now, but it is very challenging to deal with his behavior. It wears on me, especially because his little brother is beginning to follow in his footsteps. Their mom knows what happens, but to be honest, there isn't a lot she can do.

I love the boys though. So much. I will do my best to have fun with them and help Stefen and Victor through this.