our daughter is a clepto...

Oh SO much has happened over the past week, so much so that the tribe is now attending preschool! Yes, we bit the bullet & enrolled them in school. A HUGE expense but one we have to find the funds to cover! They really, really needed this! I think they needed this about as much as I needed it! LOL!As many of you know that when you enroll anyone into school there comes a HUGE list of stuff they need before they actually attend their first day. There is the normal expenses like bedding for the mat they will take their nap on, EXTRA sets of clean clothes, panties/diapers in case of accidents (Remember we are NOT fully potty trained yet!) But one expense I did not even think of was SHOES! They needed new shoes, sneakers to be exact. Being that the school playground has wood chips they have to have closed in shoes to keep those feet protected! So while Dustyn, the tribe & I were at the mall last week we happened upon the Stride Rite store. It just happens to be across from the play area so there we were! This is what happens when you have time to kill before Daddy gets off from work! haha! Going into the Stride Rite store is NOT a normal event for this family especially since almost every piece of clothing & shoe we have for them is a hand me down.Most of all we can not afford Stride Rite shoes! I do not know what I was thinking walking into that store but since we were there we decided to check their shoe sizes. It really does pay to get a toddlers foot sized by a professional! After about 30 minutes I found out that the shoes on their feet were the WRONG size! Uh Oh! Before I knew it I was buying four new pairs of sneakers! The only good thing was that they were on sale! Let's just hope these shoes last a few months! PLEASE?! Trying to contain four toddlers while you are checking out shoes is a feat within itself! They were all over the place! The clerk helped us out tremendously & gave us some coupons. I do not know if Daddy will let us buy NEW shoes again after seeing that bill! LOL! We decided we better cut our losses & left to go meet Daddy for dinner. There we were unloading the tribe from their HUGE blue stroller into the 'burb when I find a BRIGHT yellow sandal in the bottom of the stroller.This is NOT a match to any shoe we currently own & after closer inspection I notice it has a price tag attached to the bottom of the sole! "Someone" stole it! I could not believe it!! Of course I took a picture! hehee! After process of elimination we determined that Camryn was the culprit! I kind of thought it would be her since the sandal was yellow. They tend to gravitate towards their colors. SO I asked her if she took it & she finally fessed up! You can tell by her BIG grin that she knew she had been had! (= So I left D with the tribe as I trekked myself back into the mall to return the sandal. As I walked into the store I start to tell the clerk about finding the lone sandal in our stroller & how Camryn took it! I wonder how often this occurs? Hmm.. Funny thing is that she did not even notice it missing!Too bad one shoe would not help us out! hahah! It was quite funny! Made me realize how many more funny stories we will get to share about them as they get older! As soon as I returned the "stolen shoe" I immediately started dialing her Daddy's cell phone to tell him about the lastest fulton "funny"! There I was saying "Guess what?!"...



Our daughter is a clepto...

walking in my shoes...

I happen to have two different friends that have quadruplets, I know how lucky am I!? Joellen used to work with me years ago. She ended up moving away a LONG time ago but we continue to keep in contact. She too struggled to get pregnant & with medical intervention had quadruplets. She has a set of twins too but that is another story! LOL! Michael & I visited her family the summer before we got pregnant. At this point in our struggle multiples were not on our mind nor did we ever think we would have any. We just wanted one baby! Anyhow that visit with her is still etched in my memory like it was yesterday. We arrived just before she got back from grocery shopping with all 6 kids. I know, CRAZY! She had like 4 gallons of milk plus several bags of food. I was truly amazed! She has three boys & one girl, plus her twins are boys. The boys were wild! They each wanted out attention, wanted to sit by us for lunch, etc. Lunch that day was so funny. They wanted to eat something other than what was on their plates & Joellen did not budge. She told them that was their lunch and to sit down & eat! LOL! I am SO this way! ha! Being that they live up north they have a basement, this is something a native Floridian knows nothing about. Their basement was the BEST playroom ever! There was SO many toys down there for them to play with. I guess when you have that many kids you need a TON of toys! I decided right then that I wanted a basement, in Florida! hahah! I think we left their house that day in a blur thanking God that was not us! Ha Ha Ha, the joke sure was on us! Little did we know that just a year later we too would be having quadruplets! WOW! Life sure is amazing! Those who cross your path and you get to call them friend is too! Joellen & I were meant to have that connection! She is one of the first people I called when my triplets turned into Quadruplets. She calmed me down & said that life would be CRAZY but it's manageable. Her saying that was all that I needed to hear! Thank heaven for her! (= This is why I appreciate my friendship with her so much. She provides for me something that is a hot comodity around her, someone that understands all the chaos! I talk to Joellen especially when I am in need of an "experienced" quad mommy's advice. She helped me through those first few months with VALUABLE advice on what to do, how to feed them all at the SAME time & how important it was to keep to a tight schedule. That is SO important even now! We continue to chat from time to time over the phone. We have not been able to travel up to see them since that day in June of '05. But one day we will introduce our children to each other! My other compadre is Nicole, she is my "new" friend who lives about two hours S of me & her quads are 15 months old. We chat about schedules, their development & our mommy guilt quite a lot! Yes that is something we struggle with even now. It is always good to have someone to bounce ideas off that will not judge because they too feel like you. The cool part is that she lives so close. The bad part is that our schedules conflict & we never get together in person. I know, TERRIBLE! I have to work on that! I just keep telling myself that we will get together one of these days! At least for now we can give each other the support & encouragement we need. I cannot tell you how important it is to talk to another momma that is part of the same club! I value these friendships SO much! In this CRAZY life we lead I NEED more friends that have been...

walking in my shoes...

Resolutions...

Today is January 1st & I have already broken one of my resolutions! Uh Oh! I just finished eating a LARGE Oreo Blizzard from Dairy Queen. I know what a way to ruin my New Years Resolution on day one! But boy was it YUMMY! It is probably filled with TOO many calories to count & my hips could have done without it! Now I need to start over tomorrow. I FINALLY have a good pair of running shoes so I can actually start exercising! They cost me an arm & a leg but they are so darn cute! This is my first pair of running shoes in about 10 years. Can you tell how much I run!? haha! I NEED to exercise, I need to get healthy, I need to drink more water & most of all I need to lose my "clothes". My hubby calls the fat deposit below his waist his "clothes". Ever since I had these babies of ours I now have "clothes" too! I think my C section did not help the matter. That area is numb & does nothing. I could do sit ups FOREVER and I'd still have my "clothes". Oh, how I LOVE this time of the year & making then breaking my New Years...


Resolutions...

One of these shoes is not like the other....

Have I told you how smart my kids are?? hehee.. Each day they AMAZE me at how much they know. Their little brains are just sponges!! Oh, to be a kid again! Does anyone remember years ago when we were just "little people" our mom's would turn the TV on, without a remote I might add, to watch Sesame Street? The PBS station was one of the 5 channels we could get with our "rabbit ears". Big bird & the gang sure did amuse us! It is hard to believe that they are still a staple in my children's lives. The only difference since I was a child is that it's not Big Bird they crave but his buddy Elmo! Well after Sesame Street I would watch "The Electric Company".. remember that show?? They did all kinds of stuff like putting words together so we could sound them out. I think it was on that show that they did the segment "One of these things is not like the other". They would have 4 objects on the screen and 1 did not fit in. I always liked that segment. I do not know which show had it OR if they still do it. BUT it sure was fun! Miss Cam Cam proved to me that she did not need to watch that show to know what matches. She knows what things belongs to what. Just earlier today she came to me with one of her new pink shoes on her right foot. I am happy to say that she put the correct shoe on the correct foot. I told her to go get the other shoe so she could have both shoes on. You see we have about 8 pairs, 16 shoes, of different styles for her to pick from. I figured it would take some time for her to find her match & then I could finish some things. Well, not even a minute went by & she comes back with her Left shoe. I could not fool her! I have tried this MANY times with various things & each time she comes through. Like I said before she one SMART cookie! Remember....

one of these shoes is not like the other....