Bomb Threat

Did you see Sweet Home HS on the news? Had a bomb threat early in the morning & they sent the buses on to the JH where they crammed all the HS kids in the gym. It wasn't pretty.

(Sorry if this is a repeat. I posted this all with a comment but then it went wacky on me.)

Anyway, the police identified the suspect and had her in custody by mid-day.

I've continued to be superbusy--still trying to get the gigantuan district improvement plan done at the same time as I'm trying to get everyone trained in the new state testing system. Lots of changes this year with that.

We now have Howie. He is a 1-year-old fox terrier of the black head and speckly white body variety. Charlie tries not to like how, but forgets herself occasionally and gets caught up in playing with him. Of course, if he ventures too close to her food dish, her toys or her humans he gets a fierce scolding. She drew a little blood today as well. I'll let Dad give you the details of this acquisition. I'm sure he'll leave nothing out in the telling.

We have little sugar ants in our bathroom. Can't figure out why. I removed the mouthwash and cold medicine thinking they might have sugar in them. DAd has sprayed with toxic chemicals. The hardy little devils keep coming, although they do seem to spend a lot of time running in circles or clinging desperately to electric cords. They are not well.

I, however, am on the mend. Thought I had this cold licked, but some stuffiness remains. I shall prevail. Had my annual (although it has been a couple of years) checkup and was pronounced healthy. I have to go back to have several parts checked by radiology of one sort or another, but that's another day. Too busy right now.

I'm trying to get excited about Halloween, but all I can think about is having to spend 3 hours answering the front door 100 times. Bah humbug.

Maybe if I had a costume I'd be more excited. When I retire, I'll sew myself one of those, too.

haunted house

This Saturday we're going to a haunted house. The woman organizing it said it's really haunted; it was her husband's parents and is now abandoned. Maybe I'll see a phantom or something. I'll let you know. I'm dressing up as a '50's girl - poodle skirt and all. Tuck is going as Frankenstein -India as Frankenstein's bride. Christian is wearing a Planet of the Apes mask. I don't think I can get him to kind of hunker down and swing his arms like an ape, but I'll try. Tim as usual won't be dressing up. I'll just introduce him as Opie or Howdy Doody.

Haven't heard from Greyson recently???? Must be having better baby days.

I found a published author who read my novel and said it was great but had too much stage directing and that is a novice mistake. She thought after I made some of these transitioning changes I'd have a good chance of getting published!

I've been told we should get freezing fog any day now. I guess it's beautiful, but can get a little dreary after a few weeks. Glad I don't have to travel.

Hope to hear from someone.
Traci

Colds

I knew it was bound to happen. The Deans were sick, my husband was sick, my mother was sick, now I am sick. So far it doesn't seem to be that bad of a sickness and I haven't had a cold for over a year so I guess it is time. The babies have been fine so far.

I have been back to work for 3 weeks now and am getting used to the whole schedule again. We have started getting the babies up at 11pm for a feeding. Or I should say Greyson feeds them and I sleep. And then I get up when they wake up around 5am for a feeding and Greyson sleeps in. I have started just going strait to work after I get them back down for a nap. So sometimes I can get to work at 6:30am and back home by 3pm and have the afternoon at home. I am not normally an early riser so it is tough for me.

And then we have Saturday's, my day to sleep in. But for some reason my mother and sister think that I should be up at 8 or 9am just because they are. Well I am not. I feed the babies and go back to sleep as soon as they are down for the morning nap. And I only answer the phone so it doesn't wake the babies. So if I seem a bit grouchy when you call, that is because I am.

We have been giving the babies a bath in these plastic baby baths, but because they are getting bigger and splashier they are starting to make quite a mess of the counters where we bathe them. So to try something new we decided to bathe them both in there baby baths but put them in the clawfoot tub so they can splash all they want. Of course as soon as we got them both in Samia started crying and her voice reverberated inside the cast iron clawfoot tub and scared Piper who screamed and scared Samia who joined the screaming and the noise bouncing off the tub walls was deafening. So until they start liking bath time a bit more we won't try them at the same time in the echo chamber again.

Samia's belly button looks almost normal. The hernia is gone but now she has some extra wrinkly skin left over. But that should go away as she grows. Piper's hernia is less but still there.

I have been doing a lot of breastfeeding the last month and apparently Piper has taken a liking to it. She now is turned off by the bottle and will often just roll the bottle nipple around on her tongue and makes this disgusted face and refuses to drink for a bit. She does that even if there is breastmilk in the bottle. She is quite the turkey. Greyson finds it quite frustrating. I think she will get over it once she realizes she doesn't have an option while I am gone.

So that is my update and I may repost this on the baby blog so that Greyson's family can see it as well.
Take care everyone,
Mel

Six months old/ Our happy Noah

Well, I had to share Noah's six month old pictures. Every 3 months I have a coffee cup made with the baby's new picture. I drink my morning coffee out of the newest one and retire the older one to the motorhome. It makes me feel a little closer to him , and makes me smile. Grandpa is very much smitten with his grandson, so I get no complaints about my cup purchases.

On a more serious note, our area is sure suffering today with the Santa Ana winds. The malibu area really has a fire burning which is spreading. Phil and I have reservations at the Malibu RV resort next weekend, so glad it wasn't this weekend.

We are just loving the RV and Murphy just thinks its so much fun. Dogs to meet, wind and new smells, not to mention being with Mom and Dad with all the attention.

Grandma is fine and enjoying Bernie as lot. She had a cataract removed, but is disappointed that it didn't help her vision as much as she expected. Due to her diabetes, there are some changes to the blood vessels in the back of the eye that affect her vision separate from the cataract.

Hello to everyone, hope to see some pictures of everyone else.

Love,

Aunt/ Sister Chris

Fall

The colors here are gorgeous. It's been cold and rainy and as Winnie the Pooh would say, "A blustery day." I found my light lamp and that should help with my lack of energy and the achy bones I feel at this time of year.

I wanted to recommend Madagascar as a great movie. Pay attention to the details...it has Chris Rock and one of the stars from Friends on it. The leader of the lemurs is by far my favorite character. It's animated, but has a lot of humor that goes over the heads of our kids.

India's arm is almost mended. She has a dance and decided to pluck one of her eyebrows. I told her the gaps of no hair wasn't noticeable. Is that right to lie to your daughter? Tucker spent some time fixing his hair on picture day. I asked him if they took his picture before or after P.E. He said, "They took it before, when we were still handsome."

Christian is still calling Lainey, Courtney, and Marcus nightly. He's making friends here, but misses Prineville a lot. I can relate. Had coffee and muffins with some new friends of my own this morning. I don't think I mentioned to Tim that I'm not the military wife sort and I'm not moving again. I'm not. I'M NOT.

Haven't opened my bag of Halloween candy yet; that's a good emotional sign. We have two spitty babies so I dress like Mr. Rogers for work; comfy shoes and cardigan - turtleneck to unlayer after a really bad urp.

Hope to hear from you all.
Traci

Mom and Tim at Sunriver

Yes, as the rest of us slave away, Tim and Mom are enjoying Sunriver. Tim called and told me it snowed the first day he was there.

The biting and otherwise aggressive toddler is at another caregivers. It has been so much less stressfull...not wondering when she'll purposefully smash a babies fingers or throw blocks at another toddler, then maul them for crying. It was an interesting family/staff meeting. The family claims that none of this behavior happens at home. Yeah. Denial. And I'm not talking about some famous river.

Football is almost over. I don't do well in cold environments. The gym is acceptable.

We bought two huge bags of candy from Costco. I can't wait for the leftovers.

Traci

Fun Weekend

Had 2 babies, 2 little kids and 2 big boys and 2 of my direct offspring ,one son-in-law, 1 mother and 1 husband over the weekend. The twins are getting so big, and Piper has rolled over. Can't do it at will yet, but the time is soon. I think Larry had a nice birthday visit. He got his favorite cherry cheese cake and we didn't even try for 60 candles.

We heard Brian got a very large deer, so their freezer will soon be full of venisen.

Nicholas and Gabe played a few hands of pinochle with us. They are learning it fast.

Not much else - I think I'm still tired from the visit and gained back two lbs.

The HS principal and I are going to Sunriver to a conference this weekend at Sunriver. They have a condo over there so that's where we'll be staying. Looks like the weather is going to be awful so maybe we will see some snow over there. I'll need to take the laptop and work with me.

j

back to work...lots of babies there.

Greyson, my years of being at home or partially at home with our munchkins make me feel for you. It's tiresome, annoying, and seems endless. Plus you have the "it's so nice to be a Mr. Mom and get to spend all that time with your precious twins." And you're thinking, "Uh, I'd rather be a Wal Mart greeter or try and promote a durable plastic knife by slicing five pound bricks of cheese at various stores instead of doing the job I'm doing today."

I'm back to work. I got bit by the precious two year old. Even through two layers of clothing she left a nice bruise. My boss said I needed to show her parents. So I did. They didn't even say they were sorry. Monday we'll have 11 infants/toddlers. I'm hoping for a six foot snowfall.

The kids went fishing and caught 2 trout each. The guy who took them smoked them for us. Not too bad. Today we go for our monthly Costco visit. We're taking two icechests. I haven't been writing so I've been reading about a book a week and that keeps my mind occupied. Somehow the twenty diapers a day just wasn't doing it. Our new home is huge, but we're still in the unpacking process. We'll be ready for visitors by the end of October I think.
Love to all,
Traci