Busy isn't busy enough....apparently.

I thought I was busy before I started school. Now the word busy means that I can't see straight. It's all doable though. My class deadlines are on Sunday and Monday nights, which is great for me because I've been doing most of the reading during the week. Then I do the assignments, discussion boards, and everything else that is due on the weekends when Bob is home.

Bob's been working a lot too. On top of his full time job, he's also working hard on a video game he's creating with a partner.  Get ready Facebook, you're about to get a whole new game. Well, in about two more months. Since it's hard to get any work done at home, he's rented a small office space a few minutes from our house to get work done during his spare time. It's an investment for sure, but the game could eventually be the start of something that could be big for our family. I'm super proud of him. 

So he's trying to get extra work done and I'm trying to find quiet time for school work. I'm going to go the library every weekend for about 4 hours.....at least that is the plan. I'm keeping up okay. I just may lose my "A" status on my transcript, which is fine with me if I can just finish the classes! 

Is that all? Nope! We're also getting ready to finish our kitchen makeover that we started last June. I've had a couple of quotes to replace the floor in the kitchen and our three bathrooms. I am so over the carpet in our bathrooms. The carpet in the girls' bathroom has been both pooped and pee'd on. (By the girls of course.......Aren't you glad I shared that info?) When we start potting training, we simply cannot have carpet in our bathrooms. Plus, carpet in bathrooms is icky. So yeah, in the next couple of weeks, our current floors are going to be ripped out and new ones installed. It's gonna get messy!

If that's not enough..... We're also planning on buying a "new to us" SUV. Our teeny minivan just isn't cutting it and Bob doesn't want to drive his car anymore. We want both of our vehicles to fit the whole family. The minivan only fits us. We'd like the SUV to be big enough that we can fit the whole family plus a couple of other passengers. We're planning trips to the zoo, future vacations, and other outings where we'd like to have someone come with us to help with the girls. It's just not possible with either vehicle right now. I'm so tired of buying vehicles though. Bob and I were laughing tonight. We've been together for a little over 5 years and this will be the 4th vehicle we will buy together. We're not picky, our circumstances just keep changing. Also, one of the cars we bought right before we got married was a crappy VW Passat that broke down all time even though it was less than 3 years old! So yeah, this weekend we will start our search for the perfect family SUV so we don't have to buy any more cars for several years!

Even though we're super busy, it's totally worth it. I don't love that I've chosen now as the time to continue school, but now just makes sense. Unless Bob's video game makes us some big bucks and leads him to other projects, I'll be going back to work some day. So it just feels right to finish what I started years ago. 

High Chair Boot Camp

Because yeah… boot camp is hard….. or so I hear. Really, I'm told it sucks, um grass minus the g and the r. (See? I'm doing really well with this not cussing thing.)

As I complain about constantly, the girls throw so much food on the floor at meal times. I think it's just become a habit. They even throw food they like, just to watch it fall to the floor. Especially Sophia! She likes to make sure I'm watching before tossing her cheerios or whatever she is eating. Then she laughs at me when I tell her not to do it. It's awesome! Morgan likes to pretend she's going to take a bite and then she tosses it over her shoulder and doesn't look back. She's even got this arm thing going on where her head will be facing toward me and I see her little arm just fly up into the air to the side…. then there goes her cracker, or egg, or whatever she doesn't want. She does it with such grace and style too! She's going to be a dancer for sure!

Then there is Rachel. She pretty much only throws food she isn't going to eat. If it's something she likes, it usually stays on her tray until it enters her mouth. However, we all know she is the picky eater anyway. Did you hear she's also a food therapy drop out? That's right! She refuses to go. Haha… okay kidding, I have decided to ditch her therapist. Frankly, I don't like the woman and she's completely not understanding of the fact that I have more than one toddler to feed. I'm not convinced anymore that Rachel has issues that I can't fix myself. I think she's just picky.

Okay, so back to my point. The food war continues. They're still winning, but I think I'm gaining some ground. This past Saturday, Bob and I implemented "High chair bootcamp."

Dum, da, da, daaaaaaaa.............

What is high char bootcamp? Well, it's a made up name for us to get the girls to stop throwing their food. My friend, and fellow triplet mom, has been coaching me on what to do. If one of the girls throws any piece of food off of their tray, we take them out of the high chair and put them in the "pack in play" play pen on time out for one minute. We tell them they are on time out because they threw their food on the floor. After their minute is up, we put them back in their high chair and we say we're going to try again. We say, "eat your food, do not throw it on the floor." (Cheerfully, of couse.) If they throw something on the floor again, we take them back out of their chair. Yeah….it's made for some very long meals around here, but they are starting to get the point.

We started on Saturday morning, and much to my surprise, not one of them threw food during breakfast. It was a first. I started to wonder if they heard us talking about our master plan the day before. hahahaha….. At dinner time that night, Sophia was taken out of her chair 3 times. When put back in her chair after her third time out, she didn't throw a single thing for the rest of the meal. We've also given them less pieces of food to lower the temptation and break the habit. Morgan has been put on time out a few times too. We decided that we're not doing this with Rachel yet. She's still not eating many finger foods anyway so she really doesn't throw that much at all. We'll work on her later if it is a problem. Anyway, today was the third day and I'm happy to say that our floor is much cleaner. They still forget and toss some over the side, but then I can tell they know they've done it! They look at me like… "Okay mom, take me out of my chair." Sophia has also caught herself pre-throw and then stopped herself from doing it. She's utilizing the cup holder in the tray now. If she doesn't want something, instead of tossing it over the side of the tray and onto the floor, she's just putting it in the cup holder area. It's fine with me! Less for me to sweep and she's really learning her lesson.

I'm not expecting things to be perfect, but WOW…what a difference a few days makes. We're going to keep doing this until we can sit down and eat like civilized toddlers. (Do civilized toddlers really exist? HA) Seriously though. I've been avoiding play dates recently because the girls' food throwing had gotten so out of control. I just didn't have the energy to deal with it. Now that we've started boot camp, there's no turning back now! We're going to see this through!

My next goal is to get rid of the high chairs and put them at the table using their booster seats. I'm not going to do that until the food throwing stops! Hopefully, it stops soon. I want my kitchen space back!

We're on our way for sure!

Who's bright idea was this?

I just finished week one of school. I have fifteen more weeks to go. It's going to be just a bit more work than I thought it was. I don't know why I got the bright idea to take two classes while taking care of (gasp) 19 month old triplets. (Can you believe the girls will be 19 months old in jus a couple of days?!)

I'm determined though. Well that, and I spent over $500 paying for the classes and the books so I am going to finish these classes no matter what! Too bad I didn't feel that way when my mom was paying for school back when I was 18. Sorry Mommy!

I've been studying or doing homework almost every single night since the first week started. My original plan was to do the school work during nap time, but that quickly fizzled out. I'm too busy doing laundry, washing dishes, eating lunch, folding clothes, or even trying to sneak in a shower while they sleep. I just can't focus during the day. This night time studying thing is really going to cut into my Fall tv line up. HA! Good thing Dancing with the Stars has a terrible cast this season.

As challenging as it may be to do this, I'm happy that I'm doing it!

Hopefully, I'll still be able to say that ten weeks from now when I'm burnt out.

The results are in

I'm happy to report that Rachel's biopsy was BENIGN. I'm so relieved.

However, the diagnoses is a little confusing. The reason it took so long for the results to come in was because Kaiser had to send it down to UCLA because the pathologist here wasn't sure of the diagnoses. UCLA diagnosed it as a Spitz Nevus. This is almost always a benign growth. The bad thing about it is that they always grow back unless they are totally and completely 100% removed.

In order to remove it completely and make sure all of the Spitz Nevus tissues are removed, Rachel would have to undergo a more invasive surgery. This time, they'll have to knock her out to do it. I feel very unsettled about having my 23 pound baby go under anaesthesia.

So based on the results of the pathology report, we were referred to a pediatric surgeon.

We were able to see the surgeon (Dr. D) yesterday with a last minute appointment. I'm so thankful that we got in yesterday because I feel so much better about everything. Dr. D isn't 100% convinced that doing surgery is the right thing to do at this point. He told me that based on what he has seen on previous cases, he's not certain he agrees with the Spitz Nevus diagnoses. He agrees the biopsy was benign, which is the most important thing at this point, but he wants to wait and see before doing an operation on an almost 19 month old.

We've decided to follow up in 30 days. Dr. D wants to see how Rachel heals. He says kids surprise us sometimes and heal much better than we would think. If it really is a Spitz Nevus, it's going to grow right back. If it was just an abnormal benign growth, it will heal. Since the dermatologist never took any photos, Dr. D feels like we're better off waiting. He wants to make sure she needs surgery before we just go ahead with it this soon. There is no harm in waiting.

Dr. D also expressed extreme frustration with the dermatologist for cutting the growth off of Rachel while she was awake and being held down. He said we should have just been sent straight to him instead of putting Rachel through that. I was surprised because doctors tend to cover the rear ends of their "own kind."

Either way, I feel good about where we stand. I think waiting is the best option all around.

Forgive me for waiting so long to report the results. I started school this week, my dad was in the hospital (he's okay), and the wait for Rachel's results was mommy torture! These issues were not a recipe for a blog entry!

Rachel's surgery

I'll start by saying that I'm so relieved that the growth has been removed from Rachel's ankle. Whatever it was, I'm just glad it's off of her.

I was so nervous yesterday morning. I could barely sleep Sunday night. I got the girls up, fed them breakfast, and then got Rachel ready to go. (My mom and step-dad watched Sophia and Morgan.) Bob went with us to the appointment. The stress began as soon as we got there.

We arrived about 10 minutes before our 9:15am appointment. When I went to check Rachel in, we were told that she doesn't have an appointment. Me.... freaking out....said, "um, yes we do." The clerk quickly said, "well she's not on the schedule today." I was about to go off when I remembered I had tucked the appointment card away in the diaper bag before we left home. I pulled it out and showed her that we DID have an appointment that day. She grabbed the card and asked us to "wait a second."

I was totally fuming! I was there on the date and time that they had told me to be. I had had anxiety for the past week leading up to this appointment. We got a babysitter for our other two and Bob had taken the morning off work. I wasn't going to leave until they removed the stinkin tumor. I didn't care if I had to stay there all day. It was THE day!

I don't know why she wasn't in the computer. Totally their mistake. They ended up, of course, doing the procedure anyway. I think she was on the schedule, just not in their computer system. Who knows......

So they put some numbing creme on Rachel's ankle then covered it and sent us on our way for one hour while the stuff numbed her up. We ended up going to Starbucks for breakfast and to kill some time. It was strange that it was Bob's first time in a restaurant with the any of the girls. He still refuses to take them out to eat anywhere. (Nerd!) I think he had fun playing with Rachel. He kept trying to feed her part of his croissant and she kept tossing it on the floor. I'm sure the Starbucks employees loved that!

We returned to the office and got called back to the surgery room. We ended up having to wait another 30 minutes before the doctor came in to start. Bob held Rachel down while they gave her a shot to finish the numbing job. Rach pretty much started screaming. I think it was more from being held down than it was the shot and the procedure. It lasted all of about 6 or 7 minutes and she was done. Poor thing screamed almost the whole time while I rubbed her head and tried to calm her down. She did really well once it was over. Poor little sweetie. I hate that she had to go through that.

The doctor isn't sure what this growth is. He sent it off to the lab for a diagnoses and biopsy. He doesn't think that it is anything to worry about. We should hear from him in about a week. It's hard not to worry about it. All I can say is that I'm glad it's not on her anymore.

She did really well yesterday and today. The only time she fusses is when I have to clean the area they cut, apply anti-biotic ointment, and re-bandage it, which I am supposed to do once a day. Otherwise, it hasn't slowed her down one bit. She has been taking steps for the last 3 weeks and over the past several days, she's really just walking all over. I was afraid the surgery would send her back to walking on her knees, but it hasn't at all.

I'm really proud of her. She was so exhausted yesterday that she was asleep within 5 minutes of putting her down for a nap.

So now we just wait.....and wait... seems like forever. I hope this week will go by quickly!

Thanks to our friends and family for all the prayers. We definitely feel all the support!

Quick Rachel update

Rachel's surgery went very well today. She was such a trooper and I'm so proud of my little girl. We have to wait about a week for the biopsy results.

I'm exhausted and am going to sleep, but just wanted to post a quick update here. I'll be back with the full story in a day or two.

Thanks to all of our friends for your support and prayers. We are truly blessed.

Our very own park

I'm so excited. The girls have their very own park right in our back yard. My step-brother was getting rid of this structure because his kids have outgrown it. My dad brought it down for the girls last year. We weren't sure we were going to be able to use it this summer. The landscaping in our backyard was not swing set friendly.

My awesome dad came down and worked really hard in our back yard for several days to put this in for the girls. He had to remove a tree that was surrounded by a ton of bricks. Then he and Bob flattened the ground and installed the structure. We're also going to remove the tree behind it, but that won't happen for another few months. Right now, we're just really enjoying this set. There isn't a park anywhere in our area that has three toddler swings! I'm really loving that the girls can all swing at the same time now.

They are full of smiles while swinging. Sophia gets especially excited when I put her shoes on her. She says, "owwwsiighh" over and over again..... (meaning OUTSDE of course... hehehehe.)

Here they are swinging!

Weeeeeeeeee!

Here's my dad admiring his work! Great job Grandpa! The girls LOVE their swingset!

I'm just so happy that we have a safe place to play outside now. No more guilt about not being able to take them to the park! We own the park now. hahahaha....