"Boo Boo on th' Car"

So even after a late night last night, Doug woke up early this morning. I think the first time I was up with him he was cold, but the second time I think he just couldn't get back to sleep. I carried him out to the couch and he sat curled up on top of me and was jabbering something about "boo boo on the car." So this is the first time since the accident that he seemed to be processing it. Fortunately he is my "couch baby" so I was able to turn on our favorite "Baby Loves Trains" video (with the sound off...it only has music in the background anyway) and let him curl up on the sofa and watch it while I got dressed.
That will be one thing that I miss about the trailer once we finally do get in a house. It is pretty easy to keep an eye on the boys when you only have 31 feet to work in.

Safely Back

We are safely back home. Jim was very tired after the trip because he felt every little bounce and jolt of the car on the road on the way home. The boys were ecstatic to be at home and Andy went to bed just fine. I am wondering if being in the trailer is getting him used to being able to hear our voices and to having some light as he is going to sleep. In the trailer there is only a curtain separating their room from the rest of the trailer. Doug had a little trouble going to sleep but the poor child got my sleeping habits. He just doesn't need as much sleep as Andy does and I could hear him talking and singing and playing a little for about 30 minutes after being put in bed. I took pity on him and gave him some water and tried to resettle him, but it wasn't until I started turning out even more of the lights in the trailer that he finally sounded like he settled down.
Now we just need to get caught up on everything we had going on and with all the new stuff that is related to the accident. I will say that if you ever decide to spend some time living in a trailer that you should be sure to take a lock box with all of your important papers in them...you never know what you might need...like the title to a car so that you can settle with the insurance.

Fall Fun

Thanks to my sister-in-law I can post some pictures. Some are from the fall festival party that they had and then some are from the next day with just the family. Andy and Doug are going as sports players for Halloween (thanks to the clearance rack at Wal-mart) and then in the hayride picture you can see their cousin Samuel (Jim's sister, Jennifer's son) as Bob the Builder sitting on the lap of Michael (Jim's brother) who is dressed as the man in the yellow hat, and Michael's daughter Delaney (sitting right next to him) is dressed as a monkey. Hopefully I will remember the camera tomorrow and have batteries for it and everything and then I can catch Jo in her strawberry outfit. In the picture of Michael at the top of a "hill" that my boys are trying to climb up (and then obviously actually did make it up) the hill is actually a mulch pile from all the trees that Wayne and Carla cleared from their property.

Soap Opera

I used to say my life wasn't a soap opera...just everyone around me seemed to have soap operas going on. However, this last week feels like maybe it is my life that qualifies for daytime television.
When Jim went to the math teachers conference, my old car (an Escort Wagon) quit. This is the same car that we just put two new tires on after a screw tore up a tire. So we paid a bunch of money (probably more than half what this 1994 car with 250,000 miles on it is worth) to get the car fixed.
Well, this weekend I was following my father-in-law and Jim was following me on the way to a Halloween party. Someone in front of my Father-in-law came to a complete stop to turn right into a driveway. Wayne stopped, I stopped, and I looked up to see that Jim was trying to stop.

Yep, my own husband hit me while I was in a rental car. I had all three children with me, and other than Jo cried because she got woken up from her nap we were all fine. Jim on the other hand wasn't going to go to the hospital at first, but then ended up going off in the ambulance.

I had to wait until the state trooper came, and then both cars were taken off. Fortunately, if this was going to happen it happened when we had people around to help us. Jim's brother Michael came and took all the kids in his car. Jim's family quickly unloaded all the personal items into the other vehicles. Jim's dad, Wayne, took everyone to the party and then came back and waited with me. Then we went to check on Jim. I got to go to the party for a little while so that I could feed Jo and I could eat. We had other family that helped get everyone home, and Wayne, Jo and I got to go pick up Jim from the hospital.
So the sum total of all of this is...
Jim has a broken rib and clavicle, the Escort is totalled, Jim's family is loaning us a car so we can get back to Tuscaloosa without risking getting a small car from the rental place, and Andy has had trouble falling asleep the last couple nights. My neck and shoulders are a little bit sore, but that could be from the accident or it could be from funny sleeping positions due to sleeping with small children.

I would say though, that if God really wanted us not to drive the Escort anymore that He might have picked a nicer way to do it...like winning the lottery or something. Jim said if we had put on a bit more mileage that we would have made it the equivalent of going to the moon.

Double Trouble

So yes we have the dreaded "three under three." I guess at least we had the twins first so that we didn't know any better. Jo was born 4 days before the boys turned 2. I didn't plan it that way...but the good Lord seemed to think I could handle it I guess. There are times I wonder about my sanity. When I drove down for this weekend visit with my in-laws (Nana and Pop, Jim's sister and her son are visiting, and we will go to a Halloween party at his brother's house) I was by myself. We stopped at a convenience store. I got to go to the rest room but that involved dragging all three children with me. Jo at least is in a car seat but I made Doug and Andy stand against the wall and then prayed that they wouldn't touch anything too disgusting. There of course was not any sort of changing station in the restroom so I did all the diapers on the hood of the rental car. I change the boys first and then did Jo's diaper. I was afraid Jo was getting chilly so I went to put her in the car and turned around to find that the boys had been playing with the cigarette butts while I was working. Then, since my guys tend to poop when they get a chance to run around I ended up having to do diaper changes again. So it took one restroom break and 5 diaper changes before we were back on the road.

Sometimes it can be frustrating trying to get everyone to cooperate. I can't complain too much because my children are all pretty good natured, but that doesn't necessarily mean that they are cooperative. For instance there was the morning that I had to do just about everything twice. I was trying to get myself, the three kids, and all of the stuff that I need and they need during the day out the door. I got Jo set, then I got Andy together, and last I worked on Doug. By the time I was done with Doug, Jo had pooped big so I had to get her another fresh diaper and an entirely new outfit. By the time I was done with that Andy had taken not only his shoes off but also his pants. Since we tend to get ideas from our brother, while I got Andy back together Doug went in their bedroom and stripped his pants and shoes also. If you have nice cooperative children who prefer clothes...count yourself lucky.

Solid like a rock?

So we had the home inspection on the house we have a contract on. Officially I get the report on Monday, but I was there for basically the entire inspection. Our biggest decision that we have to make is about the foundation of the house. The house is on a hill with a walk-out basement. There is some cracking in the front wall and on some of the walls in the bedrooms. The people selling the house had a structural engineer come in and we have a copy of a letter saying that the house doesn't appear to be settling any more. It comes down to whether we are comfortable with that or not. There are some other things that need to be fixed, but the house was built in 1968 so that is not surprising. Decisions...decisions....

Busy days

The circus was fun, but why is it that everything always seems to happen all in the same week. It would take a long time to type all the nitty-gritty details (and this is from someone who types pretty fast) so in a nut shell:
Tuesday: Jim had a flat tire after the circus...a screw tore up the inside of the tire so we end up replacing two tires for it to be balanced right.
Wednesday we went to the Fall Festival at church. The kids got to wear their costumes (I am proud that I spent under $3 for costumes for Doug, Andy, Jo, and Mommy...though Mommy's costume is not done yet). We get to do the cake walk, decorate pumpkins, toss bean bags, fish for prizes...all the classics.
Thursday I spent 4.5 hours with the home inspector (got some discussing to do), Jim went to Montgomery and the car broke down on him so now both cars are in the shop, dropped off information with the mortgage people, ran a couple errands, then drove to get the stroller, front carrier and a couple other items out of the truck, and then drove by myself with all three kids for 5 hours to get to Nana and Pop's house. We made it and mommy is mostly still sane.

Learning Curve

Ok, so now that I have a few posts under my belt I am starting to explore some of the other things that you can do in a blog. I have reset the "comments" setting so that anyone can comment and not have to have an account.

Oh, and I also found the cable for the camera and hopefully will be able to find some time to download at least a few of the over 200 pictures currently living on the digital camera. Someday perhaps I will actually invest in the cable for the camera phone so that I can get the ones off my cell phone since some of them are older than Jo.

Playing Grandma

Andy started pulling down the board books we have stored on the top bunk. I was in a rush trying to get all of us out the door. I kind of hollered at him "What are you doing?" in a moment of frustration. He calmly informed me that he was "playing grandma."

IT is amazing what will make an impression on young children. All summer Andy's favorite thing was to"help" (or as my older sister would say...help, more work). Right at the beginning of the summer my mom came through to help take care of things when Jo was first home from the hospital. It was about the time that we really committed to moving and she ended up packing a great number of boxes for us. She let Andy help carry books to pack and so apparently he must have remember that experience from back in May.

Under the big top

We took the kids to a little circus yesterday. The boys were a little wary at first because they had fallen asleep in the car on the way there and were just waking up as things were getting started.

Everyone ended up having a marvelous time. It was a pretty small circus so the only animal act they had were some horses, but they had jugglers, and several acts with people doing acrobatic things either on platforms or up in the air. They had a family that used a board to catapult each other up onto shoulders or a raised chair, and there was a motorcycle in a steel sphere at the end of the show. And of course there were clowns. Both boys really enjoyed it. Andy was trying to strike some of the poses he saw the acrobats do and Doug was clapping and smiling and clearly enjoyed the clowns. Even Jo was squealing and bouncing. The boys enjoyed the popcorn and cotton candy and both looked at their coloring books all the way home.

Car Repairs

I would just like a month without any car repairs. I was going to post about the house on Monday since we verbally confirmed the deal on Sunday evening. However, I had some excitement with our big brown truck (or BBT as some like to call it). On Friday the brake and ABS light came on. This was a little surprising because we just had brakes done all around in August. The brake light came on in Septmenber but it went off with the addition of brake fluid and the dealer seemed to think that was not a problem and no leak was found.
Then on Sunday the transmission started slipping. You could accelerate but had to do it gradually. Needless to say I was not looking forward to driving the BBT to drop off the kids at the sitters and then have to drive clear across town to sit at the dealer while waiting for the BBT to be fixed. It turns out however, that if it had worked like planned that life would have been very simple.
I get the kids loaded up in the morning and we set out. About 5 miles out from the trailer the transmission started engaging only sporadically. So a kind police officer who was going the other direction turns on his lights (I already had flashers on) and I am able to get to a small dirt road and pull over. I assured him that I was ok and I went to work on the cell phone. First I had to call the auto roadside service plan and get a tow truck. The lady freaks out on the phone that I have three little ones because she doesn't know how I am going to fit them in the tow truck. Then I called our babysitter to see if he could at least come pick up the boys, and then I had to update Jim on my progress. So Ben arrives and we get the car seats loaded as it is starting to rain (of course) and he wisks the boys off. There was not enough room in his little car for three car seats so Jo gets a bonus day with mom. Then Jo and I wait for the tow truck. Finally (about 1 hour after I have started out from the trailer) the truck comes and he loads up our big Dodge truck and we head down to the dealer. The driver was completely enamoured of Jo so he spends half of the drive talking to her.
We get down to the dealer, get the BBT off the tow truck, I finally get to go to the restroom, and then the guy behind the desk is ready to talk to me. It turns out that the guy who usually does their transmission work had brain surgery the previous week and the dealer has not hired anyone new because they didn't know if their guy is coming back. SO I make another call to the auto service place and they approve towing to the next dealership down the road (30ish minutes away), and then I called Jim to update our progress. The exact same guy in the tow truck comes back to pick us up again and we all head down the road. After Jo falls asleep we had a nice long conversation about RVs as we drive down the interstate.
We get to the dealership in the next town and they of course have several jobs ahead of us. So I get everything all set up and we go to rent a car. We get to ride in the courtesy car to the car rental place. Of course then we have to wait in line at the car rental place. Then of course they don't have any vehicles that can hold three car seats so we get to ride to another branch to go get a car. Finally we get a car that we are praying will hold 3 car seats (which it turns out it just barely does) and we can head back home in time to pick up the boys.
So the bad news out of that is that I spent the whole day dealing with car issues and not really getting any other work done, but the good news is that so far everything (including car rental) is covered under warrenty. Jo has gotten to ride in a tow truck 3 times in her short 5 month life, and she gets some bonus days with mommy because I accidently left the breast pump in the BBT and it is not worth the drive to go get it. As my husband would say, "We are stressed, but blessed"

"Big House"

Andy talks about a "big house" as any house that is not the trailer. Our latest news on the "big house" is that we found one and made an offer, they counter-offered, and we counter-offered again, and the accepted. So one of the things I did yesterday was stop and sign the contract. Now we just have to get past the inspection and see how long it will take for the mortgage to get put together and we will hopefully have a house! (and regular internet access)

Private Network- Please Ask

So I was going to update as regularly as possible but somehow the gods have conspired against me this last weekend. We live in an RV and don't have regular internet access. We do get a little bit of wireless signal from the house across the street.
After about a month of living in the RV and driving to one of the numerous places in a college town that has wireless internet, we noticed that we were occassionally picking up some signal from the house across the street. One night the name of their signal changed to "Private Network...please ask." Well, we happened to know them because we meet them when we first parked the RV, so Jim walked across the street and talked to them. It turns out that they had figured out that my computer would occssionally connect (since people often leave their wireless router with the default name) and they were seeing 4 or 5 other computers that were mooching off their internet. So they gave us permission to connect if we needed to. So sometimes we have enough signal and sometimes we don't. My main internet source currently is when I am working my Graduate Assistant hours on campus.

Pictures of the Family

The top is a picture of my "Boys". This picture is a little old (from winter 2006-2007) because most of my newer pictures are either on my desktop computer (packed up ATM) or still on the camera waiting to be downloaded (because the cable is packed up also).

Then there is a picture of my twins from this last spring. As you can see there is no doubt that they are fraternal. I wouldn't have guessed that they were twins if I hadn't gave birth to them. They are like "his and her" babies, or I joke that I had a clone and a baby (since Andy looks just like his daddy's childhood pictures).

Lastly is a picture of Jo. She is more of a mixture of everyone. This was her newborn picture and she doesn't much look like this now. She looks like a very happy baby now. Her latest thing has been displaying her bubbly personality by blowing bubbles.

All of my children are very flirtatious.

By way of introduction

Hi all,
I have been curious about blogging and though I am slightly internet impaired at the moment (we are living in an RV while looking for a house) I thought I might try this.
I think of myself primarily as a mom and a teacher. I taught gifted education for 7 years before my family convinced me I could go back to school and work on a PhD in Special Education with an emphasis in Gifted and Talented. I have three children all under the age of three. My sons are Doug and Andy who are 2 year old fraternal twins. Four days before their 2nd birthday I gave birth to their sister Jo.
As if I wanted to add more stress to my life we, my husband Jim and I, picked up our whole family and moved to the university where I have been taking classes. We did this so that I could be a graduate assistant. We have been living in a 31 ft RV Travel Trailer while we are in the process of getting a house. Our house in our previous city finally sold so now it is a matter of getting the house that we want here. So currently we have 3 (yes 3) storage units with our life packed up in them.
I guess this will be my way of recording my journey through the various threads of my life, motherhood, family, PhD, church, etc.
Susan