Origins of Stuff

Have you ever wondered where stuff comes from? "What stuff?", you may ask. After many years of careful observation and study, I'm convinced the "what" is irrelevant. My studies have determined "stuff" refers to any group of objects that you inexplicably have too much of. In the case of today's commentary, I refer to clothes. Specifically children's clothing.

Over the past several days, Cindy has been going through the clothing that our children have outgrown. You should see the kitchen and dining room. The stove is still clear, but every other conceivable surface is covered. The counters are full. The dining room table has disappeared. The floors have morphed into a strange maze of boxes. I went to make a glass of tea, and emerged three hours later, having become lost in the plethora of garments. This is just the 6-18 month sizes. God help us when she tackles the larger pieces.

Many years ago, my Dad offered this theory... In the dark of night, or simple hours of quietness, when no one is home, the "stuff" comes to life. It then moves from room to room, fertilizing the other stuff. After this frenzy of propagation is completed, it takes only hours for the new "stuff" to emerge. I am beginning to believe his theory may have valid foundations.

This new found life form must also be intelligent, as items I am specifically searching for find unique ways to remain hidden, only to be found after a replacement has been purchased. Many times I have placed something in a certain location so it can easily be located when needed, only to have it move unaided to another place. Maybe there are some time space continuum accesses available to these life forms. I even set up a night vision camera to catch these after hour activities, but their intelligence and awareness enabled them to move about undetected by my high tech surveillance.

Whatever the cause of such strange activities, we will continue to combat this tribble like phenomenon in what ever ways we can. Please remember us kindly should we ever loose this battle, and fail to emerge from our house one afternoon.

Birthday Boy

Today Mark turned 8. I can't believe that my first baby is now 8 years old. Well lets see eight years ago my labor started on Sunday night (Jan.7th) at 6PM right when church started. They were already 5 minutes apart but I didn't tell George until we were headed to dinner. We ate Mexican food that night and I ordered a big burrito supreme. After dinner we went to my parents house until 9PM. George kept asking me every few minutes if I was still having contractions. Well after we got home that night he finally made me call the doctor. When I talked to the doctor he didn't believe I was in labor because I wasn't in a lot of pain but he told me to go to the hospital for observation. Once at Brookwood, George asked me if I wanted him to drop me off at labor and delivery and I told him no that I would walk from the parking deck. The nurse hooked me up to the monitors and said "Wow you are in labor. I can't believe you just walked all the way from the parking deck." The nurses tried to stay out of my room as much as possible because we had the air conditioning on. We didn't see the doctor until 7 the next morning when he broke my water.

We welcomed our first baby at 1:25PM weighing 8 pounds 12 ounces.

Twins

Today my babies turned 2. I can't believe that it has been two years since I had my little bundles of joy. All morning I have been thinking about what happened the day they were born. I had been on bed rest since the week before Christmas and let me tell you that is not fun. I started having contractions 2 days before but they would get to every 5 minutes then stop, so every time I called George at work he would ask me "Is it time?" Well when he got home from work that afternoon he asked me if I was still having contractions and I told him that I was. He informed me that if I was still having them in 30 minutes he was calling the doctor. He ended up calling the doctor at 5:30 PM and by 6 PM we were headed to the hospital to be checked. When we got there I was already dilated to 5. My doctor came in to talk to me about having a c-section and I told him I didn't want one so we decided to see where the babies were positioned. Elizabeth was head down but John was turned sideways up in my ribs. I called Joscelyn around 8:30PM crying because I had to have a c-section. She told me that everything would be OK and that there was nothing to a c-section. Needless to say I cried the whole time I was in the operating room.

At 9:12PM we welcomed Elizabeth weighing 6 pounds 4 ounces and John at 9:14PM weighing 6 pounds 9 ounces.