Update and a Soap Box

Happy Saturday!
So here we are again... Shep's at work and it's just me and the boy hanging out... He's once again in his exer-saucer watching Hoodwinked, but I am off my mashed potato and banana slushee kick and am trying to be a little more productive. We'll see! Dax's girlfriend is coming over to visit this afternoon so I really should get busy... The house is a mess and Dax is still hanging out in his pampers.

I just wanted to stop in and give you guys an update, and thank you for all the prayers for my friends. There's good news! The mass in Kimberly's brain is benign, and surgery is scheduled for the 20th. She'll be at St. Thomas for 3 days and then hopefully will be able to go home. We're all so thankful it's not more serious!

And Baby Payton is doing really well. They've been able to wean some of her settings and she's handling it. She must have heard the doctors say she wouldn't make it, so she kicked it into overdrive. Rumor has it she's just as hardheaded and oppositional as Dax was/is. That's a really good thing sometimes!

I was reminded as my friends entered these tough times of how insensitive some people can be when your life is falling apart, and often they do so without even meaning to. Kimberly and I sit around at times and laugh about some of the things people say in the interest of trying to make you feel better, like when people tell me how lucky I am that only one of my twins survived or how I should try harder to stay pregnant longer this time or how God took Kimberly's boyfriend because He felt like she should be stronger and how lucky she is she doesn't have to clean up after a man anymore. So as my friends are surviving yet another difficult phase in both of their journeys, and I hear a whole new set of crazy things people say and do, I feel compelled to remind everyone to evaluate your statements, actions, and motives prior to attempting to help someone who is in such a sensitive and potentially devastating place... An extra second of thought might lead you to reword that statement or discontinue that action that would cause more harm than good...

Sorry, had to take a second to sit on my soap box. I do that from time to time. You should get used to it.

While I'm thinking about it, I'm reminded of something strange that has happened. A year ago I was newly pregnant with Dax and Aubrie, right? From the second everyone found out we were pregnant, especially once people found out it was twins, we were inundated with people telling us the most awful, terrible pregnancy horror stories. I swear, people would say, "Oh my goodness! You're pregnant with twins? My friend just lost both her twins..." or "I was pregnant with twins once and I had the first one at 4 months and the second one was born disabled and still lives at home with me when he's not in jail..." or "Oh my friend had twins but one of them died in the womb and now the other twin has teeth growing on her stomach..." I was sitting with Kimberly telling her one day about all the crazy things people say, and she didn't believe me, but minutes later a man walks up and says, "You're having twins?! Wow. My friend got pregnant with 5 babies, and they all died." I just looked at her and laughed. I think she believed me after that. (Those are all true stories, I promise!) So, fast forward to a year later, and we have our very own scary pregnancy story, and nobody will tell us any scary stories anymore. I guess they feel like they can't top the one we lived this past year, so they just let it rest. People are funny.

But I can't wait until I get old and crotchety and start running down new young moms and say, "Oh, you're pregnant? Let me tell you a story..." But I'll wait until I get old and crotchety. Or maybe just crotchety.