Indian summer!?

Can you call it Indian summer when it's been warm/hot for so long? I don't know. Normally it gets cold and then warm up again for a few days in the fall. That's what I would normally call Indian summer, but never mind we like it!

Today, we'll have the wonderful temperatures of up to 90F/32C and we are enjoying it! It's a different warmth than before, and it's so nice. Took the kids out this morning, and they were playing around in Pearl's backyard and exploring. After about an hour play it was time to go home and eat lunch and then now I just put them down for their nap. It's working good so far, even if they were very tired now, they did eat a little lunch and had a good drink. Hopefully they can keep this routine and sleep for about 2 hours now.

Then if Cassandra doesn't have too much homework, we'll head for the playground after picking her up. I'll pack up some snacks for a picnick just in case so we have everything ready when we pick her up!

picture Google

Isabella's X-ray

Waiting for the doctor to check out the x-ray plates.

Well, back to the incident with Isabella where I had to take her to the hospital and have an X-ray. I had just changed them and went to the kitchen to throw away the dirty diapers, when I heard a big cry. Not too bad of a scream, but still one of the screams that you know that something has happened. I was out of the living room for maybe 2 minutes. Isabella had gotten her right index finger stuck in the door, by Benjamin, who had shut the door, and Isabella had her finger at the backside of the door, by the hinges, so ofcourse it was a harder pinch.

It looked really bad! The pictures above that I took when we were in the hospital, was around an hour after it happened, and here the finger had returned to "normal size" if a little swollen, but right there and then, the finger was flat and totally pinched in and so red on the tip. I was scared that it would be broken, as it wouldn't take much for their little fingers to brake. While I took Isabella to the kitchen to cool her finger off in a bowl of cold water to easy the pain, I called our pediatrician. They said that if I wanted her to be seen right away as an emergency to X-ray it (as I of course wanted) the fasted way would be to go to "The Same Day Care" at the hospital. The ER was normally longer waiting time and so would the doctors office be. So within 10 minutes of when it happened, I had dressed them and got them into the car and we were off to the hospital, which luckily isn't more than about 10 minutes drive away!

We had to wait for a short time, and then the nurse took us to the X-ray place, had to wait for a little bit again, and then it was our turn. They were both a little bit cranky now, as they still hadn't gotten their lunch, as it happened just before lunchtime. Thankfully, I had crackers and snacks in the diaper bag that they happily munched on and drinks of course I always bring along anyway.

When the doctor finally came, he said that nothing was broken and everything looked alright. It could swell up to double size he told me, and I should give Tylenol for pain if needed. Luckily, it never did swell up that much, probably because I cooled it right away, and she was playing and using the finger already then and there and played with no problems later in the afternoon, so I never even gave her any Tylenol for pain, as she was doing fine. When we asked her where her boo boo was, she would hold up her finger and show us, so she did know what we were talking about!

That's the finger where the boo boo was - picture not taken the same day though!

Walk to the library

This morning after breakfast, I took the kids for a walk. Since Sunday, when they slept longer and didn't have their nap until after lunch, I've tried to keep this new schedule. To keep them up a little bit longer I took them for an long power walk yesterday. Today, I had to go to the library to return some books that were due, so that was something that I could take Benjamin and Isabella along for.

It's not that far, maybe 20 minutes walking, and the weather was great. It was still a little bit chilly in the shade when we left around 10am, but the sun warmed up very fast. During the walk, we met a cat, and that is something that my kids just love. Cats and dogs, are a true hit on the walks! Squirrels are so many here, so they are so used to them, so they hardly bother with them anymore.

 Not many trees here change color into red, orange and yellow. 

Here they mostly turn brown and fall off, but a few trees on the way started to shift in red!

Passing by our mini food market where we had to stop to have a look at this big cow!

Fall is here!! The signs are everywhere. Not just the shifting trees, but the stores are starting to decorate with pumpkins, corn, hay and lots of fall flowers to plant. I think that I will get two big plants for the stairs in the front, but the pumpkins will have to wait. If you get them now, you will for sure have to buy new ones for Halloween, as it's too warm outside, and they go bad fast! It does look nice though when it's all decorated. I love the fall colors.

Checking out the scarecrows. 

Look at their feet, isn't that so cute!!?

So often they sit like this, and always with the opposite foot on top!

At the library, I got a lot of new books for the twins. They are enjoying books so much, and are now getting better and better with them and not braking them, so now with supervision of course, I actually can let them look in some library books! They got so into the books and wanted to look at some during the walk home. Turning the pages and after they were finished with one, they actually swapped books with each other. If it was good sharing or just a coincidence - well, as long as there's no tears, mommy is happy!

On the way home it had warmed up to 78F/25.5C!

Found a new series about Twins! Girl/Boy = perfect!

1 year!

Today it's one year ago since I wrote my first blog entry here on this blog. Never could I have thought how much fun I would have documenting our lives, and how many nice people I have met - or lets say came in contact with through this blog. It's so nice to have met all of you and I'm so happy to see when you visit me!

Never could I have thought that I today one year later would have had more than 22,000 visits to my blog! I appreciate every comment, and I will try to answer them a little bit faster. I have added more and more blogs to my lists, who I visit on a regular basis.

I'm so glad that I did start though, only wish that I would have started earlier, it would have been fun to go back now and check out the time of the pregnancy for instance. To look back and remember. But, maybe I'll do a post here on the blog about the pregnancy when I have nothing else to blog about, I have plenty of pictures from my growing belly! Maybe there is new people visiting my blog that are expecting twins, and who would be interested in knowing more, who knows!?

Even if this blog is mainly about family and to document our lives like I wrote here, I do  want to know if there is people out there that want to know something in particular, something special that they would like to know about me or anything else? Please feel free to ask, and I'll let you know! 

Now - a big THANK YOU for your support and your feedback to my entries and pictures! It's so nice to know that not just family and friends, but also new blog friends find it interesting to keep coming back for a visit on my blog! I appreciate it- a lot! 

To all of you goes the Sweet Reader Award!

I can't wait to see what my second year of blogging will bring, but I'm glad I get to share it with all of you! I can tell you this though- it will be very interesting and as I don't know either how everything will be or turn out, where we stand, where we live in a year from today, I'll be just as excited to find out!

19 years!!

Today, my husband and I celebrate that it's 19 years since we became a couple. 19 years! Wow, it doesn't seem to be that long ago. So much has happened since we met and we have so many memories from all this time. I cherish all this time and hope for many many more happy years to come.

On the top of the world in September 1992!

I think that this is the first picture of us a couple. We went with friends to Adelboden in Switzerland for a hiking trip in the mountains and had a break on the alp top (see the snow and how steep it is?). We were so in love and literally felt like we were on the top of the world! I still remember exactly how I felt and how it looked around me and how wonderful it was to sit there with him...sweet memories!

 River rafting on Aare, Switzerland 1993

One of my favorite pictures of us. I love the scenery. We loved going on Aare! But I also love the way he pulls me close to him and kisses my hair. That's so him, and this picture has it all - pure love and happiness!

 5 year Anniversary, Kansas 2011

This is the latest picture of us, when we celebrated our 5th Anniversary, a month today ago.

Now, we stand before a new beginning again. We will soon move and start over again. A new town, a new State and a new part of the country that we never have been before. We will have a new house, and hopefully we will be able to make it a new home. It there is anything that we have learned it's that it doesn't matter what we have, where we live or what we do - as long as we have each other!

Chris,

I love you always and forever! 

Happy 19 Years!

Lazy sunny Sunday

Sunday morning, the twins slept until 9am, and so did the rest of the family! So nice to sleep in as we were all tired. Cassandra too, she slept good, but were still tired all day, too much partying and staying up late with friends!

As the twins slept so late, there was no meaning in trying to put them to bed around their "normal" time for their morning nap at 10.30am-12.30/1pm, so we all had a long big breakfast/brunch and then we were outside in the garden playing for a while so that they would stay awake a little bit longer. Gave them a little yoghurt before I put them to bed, as they had eaten so good brunch just earlier. Put them down for their nap around 11.30am and they went down without much fuzz.

Chris wanted to watch some sport on TV, Cassie was upstairs in her room playing so I decided to just take my coffee and sit outside. It was so warm, put my bikini on and took my phone and went outside, sat in the chair with feet up and it was warm! Really nice, but oh my, did I get sunburned! I did not think that I had to put on sunscreen so late in the season, and as I have a pretty good tan now after the long hot summer, I was not at all worried about getting burned. Well, I learned my lesson!

I went inside around 2pm, when the twins were waking up, and after a quick look in the mirror and change of clothes, I could really tell that I had burned myself. Red chest and you could really tell how my bikini top looks like, as all the lines were very obvious!

 

Oh well, after lunch for the kids, we all went to Rice Park again for some playtime in the sun. Benjamin and Isabella were running all over and were chasing the ball that we brought. Ben was really into climbing in the equipment and Chris had to go down the slides with him many times. Isabella liked walking around and we found a lot of pine cones that she thought was fun to play with.

Cassie met some other kids that she played with and after about an hour, we all had had enough, the twins were getting tired and I wanted to get home to feed them before they would get too tired. This was a totally new schedule for them, plus that the whole weekend was a little bit upside down with times of sleeping, napping and eating.

At home, Chris started up the BBQ and we had chicken, steak, rice and salad. So nice with a home cooked meal! After dinner and bath time for the twins, they were ready for milk and bedtime around 8pm as normal. I hope that this now will be our new schedule. It would be so nice to have a longer morning, eat lunch and then a longer nap just getting ready to pick up Cassie at 3pm and then have a long afternoon to do things. Now with two naps, everything has been circling around their nap times and as they don't sleep in the stroller we have been pretty much bound to the house. We'll see if we can keep this up!

Busy Saturday

Woke up around 7.30am and felt really tired as I had heard Isabella throughout the night, but still, the kids were excited and happy! They got up into our bed and Chris had better luck with the milk order this morning, only two fancy big glasses..!

We got ready, packed everything up and got down to have breakfast. Plans got changed for the Marines and the kids, they were originally supposed to go to the Zoo, while the wives were attending the meeting, but it all got changed and now everyone were supposed to be at this big restaurant and game place at 11am. Of course that was a little bit of a drive to get to that place and both of them fell asleep in the car there. That didn't really matter, because when we came there, everyone was getting lunch, so the meeting didn't start until a little bit later....We had just had a big breakfast buffet, so pizza wasn't really what we wanted right away.

When Chris and the twins came inside, he let them sleep a little while until he came inside, the meeting was just about to start, and all the husbands and kids left the room to go to the game areas.

The meeting was OK. It was a lot of information about Recruiting Duty in general, and about what our husbands do and a lot of information that would be really great if you just arrived at this duty, but for me that now only have another month or two before we're out of here, it was very much "yesterdays news". Well, they now started up more things for the wives and that they should keep in touch through one wife in charge from each station in the area and I hope for them that they will have some support from these groups. There was also a lot of complaining about this duty, about that our husbands is working all the time and that they never are home....well - Welcome to Recruiting duty!

I was called out as the GSGT knew that I was a wife in my 3rd year of Recruiting Duty, and of course he knows my husband very well, and he asked me to repeat what I had said on a meeting already two years ago. I first didn't know what he meant, but when he said that it had really stuck with him and he knew especially that it was me who had said it, about how to try to be independent and if I had some advise to give.

I basically said that you have to be or try to become very independent very fast, as you can't count on your husband for pretty much anything. That you should have your routine, plan out your days and weekends with the kids, and see it as a benefit if the husband actually can be there for it. That you should make dinner every night, but not count your husband in, but pack it up for him to eat as a lunchbox, as he never will be home in time for a normal dinner. That you should be supportive and remember that even if this is hard, and that it's not always easy, remember that even if he comes home late - he still comes home! He's not deployed and he's not in a dangerous situation/place - he's safe, and that should be worth a lot! I probably said a lot more that I don't really remember now, but still I hope that some of the wives got something out of it. There were many there that were young and just didn't get it. That just didn't get that this is what it is, this is what he/they signed up for when they signed up for Recruiting Duty.

After the meeting, I went outside to the game room to meet Chris and the twins, and they had done well. One wife came up to me and said "Well said", that she appreciated what I had said, which of course made me feel good. In fact, the highest boss, the CO and the two GSGT's that were in charge of this event came up and said that they appreciated what I had to say and that they thought that it was nice to hear that kind of support.

Not everyone makes it, in fact, the divorce rate in America is over 50%. In the military I read that it's over 65% and now in fact, the horrific statistic shows that the divorce rate on marriages on Recruiting Duty is as high as 80%!! We too, have one couple that we know well that unfortunately belong to that statistic during their tour of RD. Another couple went to counseling for a while to work out issues and now luckily they seem to be doing OK again. Well, I'm very happy to say that we won't join the statistic!

After that, we said good bye and packed everyone up around 3.30pm. We stayed a few times to get a snack, a drink and made one stop where we got the twins out so that they could stretch their legs and have a snack as well. They did manage to sleep a little bit, which they really needed, and then I had to move back to the middle seat again to entertain.

We were back home around 7pm and Chris went to get Cassandra right away, while I got dinner for the twins and then they had a very  much needed bath and their bedtime milk. They went to bed around 9.30pm and then slept all night long without as much as a peep!! Cassandra had had a great time, with sleepover, party and after the party they had even gone to the movie theater. She was very tired as well, and for the first time ever? the whole family was asleep at 11pm when I turned off the last light!

Oklahoma sunset

 

We had a beautiful sunset in Oklahoma. Sun went down around 7.30pm and the sky was on fire! It was so beautiful. I took the pictures while we were driving, but still they came out pretty good. As it's so flat and no mountains or big forests there to take away the horizon, there was only a few trees here and there. It was something special for sure to see the whole sky in these colors! It was over within 10 minutes. 

Oklahoma City trip

 Pictures taken by the Oklahoma border! First time out of State for the twins!! :D

Chris came home from Oklahoma City on Friday around 2pm. We packed up the car and at 3.10 pm he got Cassandra and then after having afternoon snacks, Chris drove her to her friend Gracie and for the sleepover. We left the house around 4.30 pm and were on our way. I had thought by leaving at this hour, that they both would fall asleep and stay asleep for a while, but no. They were happy and content for a while, but then it wasn't much fun anymore.

I then switched and sat in the middle seat in the 2.nd row in the car, we had put in that seat just for this trip in case it would be crazy, and I'm glad that we did. I could entertain them and keep them happy with snacks, drinks, toys and books and we were all good.

Just before we came to Oklahoma City around 8pm, they were both close to sleeping, but then I didn't want them to sleep, so I tried to keep them awake, and it worked out well.

picture Google

picture Google

At the Sheraton, we quickly got everything up to the room, got the crib and the pack-and-play ready for sleeping, and were debating in if we should just order room service for dinner or if we should head out in town for something. As the twins both got a new boost of energy and kept running around and thought it was a great adventure, we decided to go out in town to eat and then hopefully have really tired babies who would fall asleep with no problems. I called Cassandra to say goodnight, she was all happy playing with her friend and everything was just fine! Made me happy to hear as I was a bit nervous being so far away.

Just got up to the room, as Chris had stayed in there the last 2 nights, it wasn't "picture ready", therefore the Google picture above! It was a really nice room though!

Our kids love to stay in the window to look outside at home, here at the 12th floor it was a very different view! So many lights and so much to see! And the cars were so small!

Isabella checking out the room service menu....

-"Where do they have the milk???"

Outside the hotel we saw a horse and carriage passing by. 

A real "Cinderella pumpkin carriage!"

At a Sports bar at 9pm. The boys were facing the big screen to watch the game...

 ..while the girls who weren't as interested in the game faced the other way!

We walked down to Brick town, and went to a Sports bar where Chris had been before. We only wanted to get a quick burger and nothing big and fancy that would take time. We wanted to get something to eat fast and get back to the hotel within reasonable time. We did, the twins had some of the burger as well, and then we walked back. It was so warm still and a wonderful night.

It was so special to walk the same streets with my husband as we walked when I was pregnant with the twins when we were there at the ball just about 2 years ago. Then I was only 11 weeks pregnant, I knew that I was expecting twins, but I didn't know yet that it was a boy and a girl.

Back at the hotel, we quickly changed them into pajama and Chris ordered about 4 cups of warm milk for them. Well, when we finally got the milk, Benjamin was already asleep, and Isabella was close to, and didn't want any. They also instead of a pitcher with 4 cups, gave us a tray with 4 big fancy glasses of warm milk! Looked really funny, but no time for any pictures..

So how did the first night sleeping in a hotel go? Make that the first time sleeping ANYWHERE else instead of at home in their own beds. Well, Benjamin did wonderful, he slept all night and we didn't hear a peep from him until 7.30am the next morning. Isabella had a rough night though. She woke up after about an hour of sleep, had such a hard time falling back to sleep (as she always has...) and I carried her around for a long time, rocking her and trying to make her go back to sleep. After a long while, she was so asleep, that I dared to put her back into the pack-and-play. She did wake up about 3 times after that during the night, but not more than a little bit of crying so I didn't pick her up anymore, but waited it out, and she did go back to sleep within about 10 minutes every time. Thankfully she never woke Benjamin up!