The More the Merrier

One week ago 33-year-old mother Evonne Derrico gave birth to a healthy set of quintuplets; two boys and three girls (Deniko, Dariz, Deonee, Daician and Dalten, although, don't ask me which are the girls and which are the boys, because all of those names are kind of unusual to me). Evonne carried the babies for eight months (about four weeks longer than the national average for quints). Evonne was originally expecting quadruplets, but a fifth baby was discovered at a later appointment.

The father, Deon, said that he and his wife have been blessed with "the most magnificent gift." (The  quintuplets were conceived without the use of any fertility drugs, which is quite extraordinary.) The Derricos already have a relatively large family (at least, by the world's standards). They have a seven-year-old girl, three-year-old boy and one-year-old twin boys. (And yes, all nine children's names start with the letter "D.") :)

Deon and Evonne said that they've always dreamed of having a large family and have talked about having between 11 and 12 children. Deon said, "I want as many children as God will bless me with." He also said that he and his wife have not ruled out having more children. The family has more than doubled in size, and Deon did admit that he has some anxiety when it comes to knowing how he'll support his large family, but that he'll do whatever it takes to support them.

I thought this picture of the Derrico family was so cute with Deon and the kids all gathered around Evonne. Since it's only been one week since the quints arrived it's a little too early to have a picture of all 11 of them, since all of the babies weigh less than 3 lbs and are still in the NICU, but the second picture does show all five babies.

Mayor Bobby Tufts

This story is a few weeks old, but I thought it was cute, so that's why I wanted to make a post about it, even though I'm a little behind the times.

Dorset is a tiny tourist town in Minnesota and is the self-proclaimed "Restaurant Capital of the World." Dorset has a grand total of four restaurants. That's really not that many restaurants to have in one town, but maybe it seems like a lot when you consider that the town only has a population of 28 people max (but is sometimes less, depending on whether the minister and his family are in town). I guess if you do the math that would make it one restaurant for every seven citizens, so maybe that's why they make that claim. Anyway, Dorset has an annual food festival the first week of August, and that's when the election for town mayor takes place. Anyone (and I mean ANYone) can run for mayor in Dorset (a dog was even on the ballot a few years ago!). People can cast as many votes as they like, so long as they're willing to pay a dollar for each vote.

The incumbent mayor, Bobby Tufts, decided to run for reelection. (He was elected for the first time last year at the ripe old age of three. (Yes, three!) I know what you might be thinking… "what business does a three-year-old have being town mayor?!" Fortunately, Dorset doesn't have a lot of complex issues like most towns in America! Dorset has no formal city government and the mayor has no official duties since it was incorporated as part of the nearby town of Park Rapids when ZIP codes were created.

Bobby (who is now four years old) won the election again on August 4. Most of the town's citizens are pleased with Bobby's leadership so far and are looking forward to what he will accomplish in his second term. According to one article I read, fundraising is a passion of Bobby's, and he's already raised $750 from a walk he participated in this past summer. He plans to hold events throughout the year to raise money for charities like Ronald McDonald House.

Here's the adorable Mayor Tufts. In the second picture, Bobby is shaking hands with one of his supporters. I love the expression on his face in the next pic; he looks so proud!

The Beauties of Skype

Keeping in touch can be easier said than done, especially if the person you're trying to keep in touch with isn't good at keeping in touch with you! I usually keep in touch with people (like my sisters) via email which gets the job done, HOWEVER, emailing is a very long, tedious process for me since I can't just type out an email with my fingers. I'm very grateful for my voice dictation software, but it does take a certain amount of patience to use since it takes a lot longer to DICTATE an email—and correct the mistakes—than it does to TYPE one.

Skype is a wonderful way to keep in touch. You can cover SO MUCH more in an hour-long conversation than you can in an email that takes you the same amount of time to dictate. My sister Annette was the first person that I tried Skyping with. We'd occasionally talk on Skype, but not very often. I miss Annette and her kids so much after their fun visit a few weeks ago, so I'm determined to Skype with them more often, because there's just something to be said for having an actual conversation, instead of just corresponding through emails.

The person I've kept in touch with via Skype the most is my friend Nate. We became good friends when he was here for school, and when he moved away after that I wasn't sure how well we'd be able to keep in touch. I know I'M good at sending/responding to emails, but lots of people just aren't so good at it! Nate and I started Skyping after he left and we talk on a semi-regular basis, which is great, because it's enabled us to keep in contact with each other. He just carries his iPad around his house and takes me wherever he goes, whether it's the kitchen, living room, etc. It's fun to feel like I'm right there with him.

I also Skype with my dear friend Sienna. She lives less than 15 minutes away, but I just don't have the opportunity to see her as often as I'd like. She and I email each other all the time, but then I asked her if she wanted to try Skyping. It's awesome talking to her on Skype because we talk about a lot more things in much more depth than we did it in our emails.

My sister Kristin moved to California at the end of 2010, and I haven't seen her or her family since. It would cost a pretty penny for her family of seven to visit, even if they drove—and especially if they flew. It seems unfair that they have to live 30+ hours away, ONE WAY! Anyway, I've asked Kristin to get a webcam several times over the past two and a half years so that we can Skype each other, but she never did. So I took matters into my own hands! Actually, when I got a new computer a few months ago, I decided that I'd send my old laptop to Kristin's family for them to use after I transferred all of my files off of it. (The laptop was only a few years old and it was still in great condition; I just needed something a little more current to support my specialized software.) It's been a win-win situation for all of us. A win for them to have a laptop again (since her husband's laptop bit the dust several months ago), and a win for me since my laptop has a built-in webcam. Hooray…now we can finally Skype each other!

We've talked on Skype several times since I sent my laptop to Kristin last month. It's so amazing to see her sweet face and to hear the sound of her voice. It's truly like "old times" and makes me remember all of the good times we had in the five, glorious months when Kristin's family lived with us while her husband Scott was looking for a job after graduating. It's also been so fun to see my nephews! If Kristin calls me when the boys are around they crowd around the laptop. They like to wave, make bunny ears (or moose antlers), get as close to the camera as they can and open their mouths, show me projects they've made or other things they're working on, etc. Even though I haven't seen the boys in more than two and a half years, they're still exactly the same, and they still know who Aunt Heather is!

I'm so grateful for awesome technology that allows things I would've never thought possible a few years ago.

Pig Mania

When Annette and her kids were here we played Pass the Pigs many times. I don't know if you're familiar with that game, so I'll tell you a little bit about it. To get the full story, though, we actually need to go back to the 1980's.

One of the games my family owned and loved playing when I was a kid was Pig Mania. (The game box says, "an original game of chance using pigs as dice.") The game came with two small pigs and you would roll them out on a table. You would get a certain amount of points depending on what position the pigs landed in. You would keep rolling until you either got "pig out" or "makin' bacon."

Pig out is where both pigs land on their side, but with legs that are in a different position (the pig has legs that are closer together on one side of their body and legs that are farther apart on the other side). If you rolled both pigs on their side and one of them had legs close together, and the other had legs far apart you would "pig out." You'd keep all of the points you'd racked up during your turn which would then be over. "Makin' bacon" is when both pigs are touching each other when they land. You lose all of the points you accumulated during your turn and you take a zero for your score that round. The winner is the one with the highest amount of points after a certain amount of rounds. I don't know if I'm explaining the game very well, but it's actually really fun.

I don't know what ever became of our Pig Mania game, but I imagine it eventually got worn out and thrown away since it got a lot of use. When I was a young teenager I missed our Pig Mania game and thought it would be fun to buy a new one, but I couldn't find it for sale anywhere. I found another game that looked similar to it (I can't remember what it was called) and I decided to give it a try. It turned out to be really disappointing, though. The pigs were too slippery and didn't roll well since and they always seemed to land in the same position. I decided to try again when I saw another Pig Mania-type game at the store called Pass the Pigs. The pigs were nice and rubbery and rolled the way the're supposed to.

When Kimball and Rebecah visited they found my old Pass the Pigs game (which surprised me since I'd forgotten about it and figured it was long gone). We had lots of fun playing it together, and it was funny to watch the kids play it.

I found this picture online of the Pass the Pigs game (which looks identical to the one I have). Several of the positions that the pigs can land in are also pictured.

Pig Mania/Pass the Pigs is a fun game that has lots of nostalgic memories from my childhood attached to it. (I'm pretty sure Amazon still sells a version of it.)

Kimball and Rebecah

One of the things I liked best about my sister Annette's visit was being able to spend time with her kids. I feel like I really got to know them better during our time together this time around. It's probably because they're both getting older now and they aren't babies anymore, so we have more interactions together. I thought it would be fitting to make a blog post about the kids and to share some funny stories and about them and some of the things about them that I like best.

Rebecah (3½) Some of my nieces have been downright scared of me and haven't really wanted much to do with me when they're young. It doesn't hurt my feelings, and I completely understand. I must seem really odd to them and it must be confusing/perplexing at times as they wonder why I don't move, why I can't hold them and interact with them like everyone else, why I'm in a big wheelchair, etc. Even though some of my nieces/nephews go through a stage where they're a little (or a lot) leery of me, they always come through it after awhile.

Rebecah is one of my nieces that's been especially slow to warm when it comes to me. She's finally starting to like me a little more (although she's still quite reserved around me most of the time). One of the things she did when visiting that I thought was hilarious was when Annette would be in my room doing something with me and/or helping our mom with my care. Rebecah did NOT like this! Sometimes she would tug on Annette's hand and say, "I want you to come oooout!" Annette wasn't about to let her three-year-old call the shots, so she stayed put which only fueled the fires of Rebecah's frustration. (There were some major meltdowns which were actually quite comical, leaving my mom, Annette and me to stifle our laughter.)

Rebecah has always been a rather clingy child and often wants to be held by her mom and ONLY her mom. Sometimes Annette would be helping with my care and Rebecah would be carrying on saying, "I want you to hoooolllld me" over the over. One night when Annette was putting Rebecah to bed she whispered in her mom's ear, "I don't want you to go back to Heather's room." We had a good laugh over that. She's definitely not used to having to share her mom so much and was certainly jealous at times when I was taking too much of her mom's attention!

Before anyone gets the wrong idea about Rebecah and starts thinking that she's bratty girl, I must set the record straight. Her actions are completely in line with her age, and while she has her moments and occasional meltdowns, she's fun and adorable and is sweet (most of the time!). I was able to win her over more and more over the nine days that she was here. When Annette took Kimball out for some one-on-one time on his birthday, Rebecah and I were buds and watched Tangled together.

One morning Rebecah was doing puzzles and after completing one she'd tip-toe to the edge of the kitchen and peek in at me. When I'd look in her direction she would exclaim, "I did it! I did another puzzle!" (I must not be so scary after all, right?!) The funny thing about this, though, was that she wanted her mom to leave the room when she wanted to come tell me about doing another puzzle because she was embarrassed. :)

I wanted to get a few pictures with Rebecah and after a little coaxing she consented to pose with me. The lighting isn't the best in these pictures since the lights in the kitchen always make people's skin tones look a bit off, but I still like the way they turned out. I couldn't decide which one I liked the best since I liked several of them for different reasons, so I'm including a bunch:

Kimball (6) When Kimball arrived he had a loose tooth and he worked at wiggling it all week with no success. I was starting to think that he'd leave for home with both of his two front teeth still intact, but that darn tooth finally fell out on Saturday morning. I was excited to be able to witness it, and Kimball was excited/proud of himself for pulling his own tooth. (And the Tooth Fairy still managed to find him even though he was far from home!)

As soon as Kimball lost his tooth the other central (big one in the middle) started wiggling. I guess it had already been slightly loose, but it started wiggling more and more with that first tooth out. Before Kimball left I asked him if he thought both teeth would be out by the time he starts kindergarten this coming Wednesday (September 4). Annette said she hopes not because she doesn't like "windows," and certainly not a double window. I told her I think it's cute to see kids with "windows," as it's something that's normal/understandable for kids that age, and not something that's unusual/bizarre. I jokingly told Annette that she better hope that it's the other central tooth that comes out next and not the smaller one on the other side, because then he would look like a hillbilly with one big tooth next to two gaps! ;)

Kimball liked coming into my room to watch TV with me. (I usually have my TV on even if I'm working on my computer, just to provide some background noise.) He would come snuggle into my recliner (after I was back in my bed) and watch whatever was on TV (even if it was something "boring" like the news). He also liked watching Wheel of Fortune, too, and I enjoyed having a buddy.

Kimball is a ball of energy! He's so sweet and fun, but I can tell he's definitely ready for school. He needs it to keep him busy/out of trouble! ;) I loved listening to him read Frog and Toad to my mom; he's an excellent reader! He's also so creative and really good at building things with Legos and K'nex. Here's the cute soon-to-be kindergartner. He's sure looking grown-up!

On Sunday afternoon I tried to get a couple more pictures with Rebecah since the lighting was more natural. She looked so pretty in her blue dress (it really complemented her pretty blue eyes).

The kids are much more inclined to cooperate and smile if we promise to take a few silly pictures at the end!

One of the other things I love about having kids around is hearing them ask questions that are often funny or off-the-wall. It just shows that their little minds are thinking. I sure love these guys and had a blast with them!