don’t want to leave depressing posts on top so here’s a pic of bill murray in caddyshack. gunga, gunga, lunga.

speaking of gophers, the little animals around here are creeping/crawling/climbing and scooting along the furniture on THEIR FEET. the boys are getting incredibly mobile and more than a little mischevious (especially ethan). they are going to turn one year old in three weeks and are transitioning from babies to toddlers. i can’t believe it but i guess it was inevitable. they are getting really fun (when they aren’t falling over or trying to gouge each other’s eyes out) but gone are the days when i could sit them on the floor and they would stay there. and the eating? oh my god- these boys can eat. i’m thinking of starting a “feed the wild animals er babies” fund because they can put it away. of course, lily refuses to eat anything by mouth so she makes up for it a little bit. she has developd what they call an oral aversion and refuses to take a bottle or eat baby food so all of her feedings go in through her g-button straight to her belly. she gets therapy three times a week to work on this and some other issues but she’s stubborn. i think she just wants to do it herself and will at her own pace. that’s my girl- stubborn and strong to the point of infuriating others. you go lil.

i went outside at 5:45 am to take out the trash and saw an incredible sunrise. the pink clouds formed a bowl around the rising sun against a bright blue background and as i stared at it, one thought resonated in my head. “it’s all going to be alright, just hang on.”

this marriage shit is hard. no wonder i was never with anyone else for longer than a year and a half straight. sure, i was off and on with some ex’s for a lot longer than that but this stretch of longevity is a first.

i’ve been happy most days but by the time the husband comes home, i’m TIRED. i’m tired and i don’t want to do anything but play on the computer, read or watch t.v. we constantly “debate” whose day is harder and i find myself in the position of defending how hard i work while he’s at work. let me repeat that. how hard i work with three babies. does anyone else in the universe doubt being home with four kids, three of them babies that are erupting teeth and one with extensive medical needs, is easy? am i stuck in some sort of fucked up opposite land?

he says he knows it is hard but i don’t know how hard he works. when i point out he doesn’t understand how hard i work, he points out i don’t know hard he works and then i point out i work hard and then he points out he works hard. do you see how MIND NUMBING this argument is?

okay- deep breathe. raising triplets is hard on a marriage. having a special needs child is hard on a marriage. being relatively newly married is difficult. working full time and going to school while trying to please your wife and four kids is difficult. not ripping your husbands’ balls off is not easy either.

Alright, all the cool kids are doing it.

What I’ve been obsessed with in my life

Child:

Music, Albums and Turntables. Bread. The band. I used to listen to my parents’ album on their giant cabinet stereo. WTF? I also used to love “Countin Flowers on the Wall” by The Statler Brothers, which I came to appreciate much later on the Pulp Fiction Soundtrack, because of the Captain Kangaroo Part. My first 45 was Peaches and Herb’s Reunited (and it feels so good) and my first album was Paul McCartney’s Pipes of Peace.

Holly Hobby. A neighbor’s dog ran off with my Holly Hobby doll and I never saw it again. It was very sad.

Annie. Ohmygod, I used to sing along to the Annie Soundtrack over and over again. My uncle said it was the most annoying thing I ever did and that’s saying a lot.

Star Wars- First movie I ever saw as a child. I used to fantasize that my 3rd grade crush was Han Solo and I was Princess Leia.

Reading- I was a book fiend. I read all of The Little House on the Prarie and Chronicles of Narnia books by third grade. I am still a little pissed that Laura got to go to advanced reading but I didn’t when I totally should have been there.

Teen:

Animals- I wanted to be a veternarian. I loved all animals but my primary obsession was with my cats and dogs. My family is infamous for not keeping its pets. We adopted and returned at least ten dogs and three cats during my childhood. In 1993, my parents bought a new house and they took our cat over there while the construction was still going on. The cat freaked the fuck out and hid under the porch because of the noise. The builders had no idea he was under there so they built the front porch around him. My Dad heard him under there and dug a tunnel for him to escape, which he did, and was physcially fine but wouldn’t go outside again. This cat had always been an outdoor/indoor cat who shit outside but once he refused to go outside, he shat in the brand new house on the brand new carpet. Dad said he had to go, even though he had been my pet for 8 years, and told me if I didn’t do it, he would take him to the pound. The Mississippi had massively flooded that summer and many people had lost their pets so the Humane Society set up mobile shelters/adoption centers for people to bring flood animals. Do you see where this is going? I took my cat to the temporary shelter, told them I found him by the river and that he must have lost his poor, flooded family. Luckily, we met a family right away who had lost all of their pets in the flood and they adopted him within thirty minutes. I am still ashamed.

Popularity or Lack there of (sadly)

River Phoenix

More Music. New Kids on The Block. (Just shut up.) But then I went from liking NKOTB to Red Hot Chili Peppers, Faith No More, Nine Inch Nails, Fugazi, Smashing Pumpkins, Morrisey, Love & Rockets, The Cure, Depeche Mode, Ministry, etc., etc., etc. I also rediscovered Sir Paul and The Beatles.

Concerts. My first big one was INXS/PIL and my first small one was Fugazi.

Boys. Once I started hanging out with a crew of public school skater boys on Main Street, my taste in boys changed a bit but was still just as obsessive. My friend Dena and I used to spend hours driving past our crushes’ houses and calling/hanging up (before the advent of Caller ID).

Young Adult- Now

Music, continued. I went through a heavy 60′s period- Janis, Jimi, The Doors, Grateful Dead but, I think, became more well rounded and now listen to damn near everything except 99% of country music because it sucks. In my van, I’ve been listening to the following CD’s- Matisyahu, Modest Mouse, Johnny Cash (The boy asks for Ring of Fire everytime we go for a ride), The Pixies, The Fugees (First one- i have listened to this CD for six years or so), Thom Yorke, and a few mix CD’s.

Photography- Cheese is Rice (April made this up as a kid as an alternative to saying “Jesus Christ” so she wouldn’t get in trouble), I have 2, 843 photos on Flickr and counting. I can’t stop. I take my camera everywhere- it is so beaten up- and annoy all my friends and family. One day, they will be glad.

Reading- Still obsessed. I’m usually reading 2 or 3 books at a time. Right now, I’m finishing A Prayer for Owen Meaney, a book I read 1/2 of and then lost three years ago so I rebought last week in Barnes and Nobles’ (NO I DON’T WANT A DISCOUNT CARD) discount section. I’m also reading “The girl who loved Tom Gordon” by Stephen King. I won’t apologize for reading Stephen King, I like him. He’s a great story teller. I also read a few magazines a week, the newspaper and 7.4 billion Web sites. I think that is why I love the internet, because I can read instead of watching.

Coffee. Yeah, it’s an addiction. Buy me a Starbucks gift card today!

Concerts- I went to many, many shows. Not so much now since I have no time/money. The last show I went to was Primus (where I got to meet Les Claypool while DnD were freezing their balls off outside).

Travel- I went to many, many cities.

Shopping- This one just popped up recently when my mother’s genes kicked in. I like to look for deals and can spend hours in the Target Clearance sections. I used to buy a lot of clothes/make-up/shoes/purses when I worked fulltime but now I wear t-shirts and Jesus Sandals (thanks Anna) all the time so what’s the point? Oh yeah, and I don’t have any money.

Boys. Er, Men. Now just one.

Blogging, er, blah-gging? Internet. Internets. World Wide Web. Email. Random Blogs, Celebrity Gossip Sites (can’t stop!), news, you name it.

My kids- Can’t help but be obsessed with them since they are with me all of the time.

Okay, I’ve taken enough time doing this. Hope you enjoyed my OCD. I hearby tag YOU.

He really is a great big brother.

He made them “baby city” and entertained them for at least an hour.

the boys both started sitting up. on the same day. ethan started, jack watched and then sat up more steadily and longer than his brother. i can’t imagine what it must be like to have an identical twin (we think- we were told they weren’t because they were in their own placentas but um… they are identical looking). it seems they already communicate with each other very well. i can only imagine what the future holds…

This morning, we’ve watched Madagascar (I love the lemurs- particularly Maurice, the aye-aye, voiced by Cedric the Entertainer. I replay the part where Gloria the Hippo says “Oy Vey” and Maurice repeats “Oy Vey Everybody!” and the lemur troop shouts “Oy Vey!”) and now we are watching Racing Stripes. They have the typical children’s movie arcs: Coming of age character feeling repressed and wanting to prove himself, joins up with some funny sidekicks, excels and discovers inner strength and budding sexuality with a love interest, crashes with a loss or discovered character weakness and tries to quit but sidekicks convince him to return to his quest and then the winning! Redemption! First kiss! Dance number and blooper reel/dance scene.

But that’s not what was interesting. What got me was the zebras – enough to look them up. The question of “Are zebras black with white stripes or white with black stripes?” comes up in both movies so i wikied it.

One of the strongest pieces of evidence for black with white stripes, rather than white with black stripes comes from abnormal zebras where the ‘stripes’ form as dots and blotches rather than lines. These appear as white blotches on a black background, which is only understandable if it is normally a black animal with white stripes.

(Wow, I think Racing Stripes has a song by Bryan Adams. wtf happened to him anyway? Is he hanging out with Steve Guttenburg?)

Mark Twain supposedly offered this advice to prospective parents,

“As long as you are in your right mind, don’t you ever pray for twins. Twins amount to a permanent riot. And there ain’t no real difference between triplets and an insurrection.”

well this is the oddest page i’ve seen in a while.