Our Red Neck Camper.......

You might be a red neck camper if THIS is the way you dry laundry!

Yesterday I accidentally let a baby washcloth get sucked into the dryer lint filter at Amber and Mike's so I brought my clean wet laundry home to dry.

This looked like a pretty good place to hang them!

I'm really looking forward to decorating this area for fall and am just itching to get back home and pull all of my stuff down from the attic!

In the mean time, Louis Dean has bought several pots and even a couple of tomato plants. I bought a large rooster coffee mug for a dollar at the local Dollar Store.

I just love those places!

One LARGE mug of coffee is about all I drink these mornings.

LD and I spent the day caring for the Quad Squad while Amber took herself and her laptop off to Starbucks to do some work. It's practically impossible for her to get much of her work projects done at home because she can see and hear all that's going on.

I used these Baba Buddy Bottle Proppers today and loved them!!

LD and I fed all four quads in 25 minutes - from diaper change to feed to burps!

We impressed ourselves!

Little Kailey does NOT like to wait and with these feeding aids she doesn't have to!

After the 3:00 feeding we did Mat Time.

The babies are all beginning to smile and coo and bat at the toys.

In between the Quad Care I made a 'new' recipe this afternoon.

I collect cookbooks and this one is from 1999 University of Oklahoma Women's Association.



You mix up Ritz Bits Peanut Butter and Honey Roasted Peanuts.

Cook up a caramel coating of butter, sugar, light corn syrup, vanilla and baking soda.

Coat the crackers and peanuts - bake at 250 for an hour.....

and you have a tasty treat!

We got 'off work' at 5:30 this evening, stopped by the grocery store and were back in the camper by 6:30 for a quiet evening.

I put a pan of sweet potatoes and onions with rosemary in the little toaster oven to bake.......

......and we headed over to the pool to wait for them to cook.

I love a good soak in the hot tub!

Not a bad way to relax while dinner cooks!!

Can you tell by looking at him how much FUN he is??

Dinner was good. We cheated and bought a roasted chicken at the grocery store and opened up a can of Ranch Style Beans.

Now our evening is over and it's almost time to go back over to Amber and Mike's.

Sundays and Tuesdays we spend the night so they can get some sleep.

I think they call this a 'Split Shift!'

And that's exactly what we do!

I take two of the quads and Louis Dean takes the other two!

Goodnight all......and may we all sleep like SLEEPING babies!!!

Celebrating September Morn!!

The first day of September is my very favorite day of the whole year!

I love it more than my birthday or even Christmas.

I KNOW it isn't really and truly FALL yet but it is for ME!

I celebrate it the same way every year!

The very FIRST thing I do is put on Neil Diamond singing September Morn!

I play his music all month long!

September Morn is THE sound of September to me.

For the 'Fragrance of Fall' I bake Fruitcake Cookies!

I mixed the dough up yesterday afternoon at Amber's house.

The recipe calls for THREE pounds of nuts and fruit so it makes a pretty heavy dough!

I always eat the first one fresh from the oven - just to make sure they're as good this year as they were last year!

I have been making this recipe for the last 27 years!

This is our handy dandy little toaster/oven Amber and Mike gave us.

It sure is coming in handy!

The first three nights we were here we ate TV dinners.

They LOOK good......

......but don't taste all that good.

I asked Louis Dean, "Are they made out of REAL food??"

That's the exact same question Summer asked ME when I told her what we'd been eating!

SO using the microwave has been the main way we have been preparing food.

Today - to CELEBRATE September first - I grilled some smoked sausage on our ceramic grill and made up a potato salad from the potatoes and eggs I cooked while I was at Amber's yesterday. I also cooked some candied carrots and when I went to heat them up while ago - in the MICROWAVE - it had 'bit the dust!'

Guess all that TV dinner cooking had done it in!

No worries!! I dumped the carrots in our crock pot and turned it on high.

A late lunch but it IS real food!!!

I put out a couple of fall tablecloths I picked up at the Dollar Store.

When we go home in a week or two I will sort through my fall stuff and bring some down here!

Since it didn't take long to spread two tablecloths and hang a Sunflower Fall Greetings sign on one of my chickens - I had some free time!

Our camp site is right across from the pool!

The sun was out! The weather was HOT!

And I had the whole pool and hot tub to myself!!!

Ah, I had a blissful hour out there.

As I lounged by the pool I could see them working on my car across the late.

In keeping with this celebratory day I am having it detailed.

Good thing we have TWO vehicles! Poor LD is having a string of things breaking on him! Now his truck battery has died a certain death so he will be taking me over to Amber and Mike's at 4:00 and then go on to buy a new one....IF he can get the truck to hold a charge long enough to get there! I'm hoping they get finished with my car before I have to leave. They had to stop when it came up a BIG thunderstorm and a real downpour of rain! Glad I chose to enjoy the pool earlier rather than later in the day!

It will be 22 hours since I have seen the quads when I go over there in a little while.

I am missing them and can't wait to see them!

While I can feed two and change diapers on three babies in the time it takes him to feed one - he DOES specialize in holding, rocking and comforting them.

And that's just exactly how we plan to spend the rest of the afternoon and evening.....

with four precious babies! Amber and Mike are going on a much looked forward to Date Night!

I think this has been a perfect September 1st!!!



The Last Few Days......

have been the beginning of a new stage in being a Grandma to quadruplets!

Since arriving late Sunday afternoon:

We have given 84 bottle feedings!

(this includes a couple of 'cluster' feedings.)

We have used approximately 93-100 diapers - since Sunday at 6:00 pm!

Amber and Mike were pretty sleep deprived when I got here but Amber has a schedule where no one is getting up for EVERY night feeding and we all seem to be doing fine. The one who is the MOST tired obviously needs MORE sleep!

Amber is a master at structured schedules that are still flexible.

We left Monday at 1:00 for eye appointments for the three babies, arriving in time to change, feed and burp them before the doctor saw them. Then we visited Trystan in the NICU where we took turns staying with the babies in a Ronald McDonald House room - which was a life saver! That kept the babies from being in waiting rooms and exposed to more germs than their little bodies can handle! We were able to again feed and change the babies before leaving the hospital arriving home at 8:00 PM.

A long day for babies, parents AND Grandma!

The next day we left the house at 11:00 am for doctor appointments and returned at 3:00 pm! Any outing is a major event when you have so many but it went smooth as silk thanks to Amber and Mike's forethought and planning. The babies did NOT get worn out and arrived home in good spirits both days. Even though they had to get shots! Made ME want to cry! The girls were pretty vocal but they were easily comforted - AFTER it was all over. And they were a bit fussy later in the evening.

Not so with Harrison! He was a big boy and only cried when he got the shots - they each got THREE!!! Brave Harrison has been through so much when he was fighting for his life with all the IV's, shots, procedures, transfusions and such that these simple vaccinations didn't even faze him! He went right back to sleep!

You can read all about the homecoming and days after in Amber's latest blog post

Quad Squad Homecoming 3 out of 4!

Today was an easier day! NO appointments!

I wanted to bake a Chocolate Sheet Cake to take with us when we go to pick up Trystan. I didn't have the handwritten recipe I copied down in a gray spiral notebook way back in the 1970's that I usually use. I LOVE the Internet and was able to find the exact same one online!

I found it here! 

So off to the local HEB grocery store for the needed ingredients!

It turned out GREAT!

I cut it in squares and packaged it up for the NICU nurses and some for the parents who visit the Ronald McDonald House. Some of these folk have been there a very long time waiting for their babies to get better. It squeezes my heart to see their suffering.

While I was out I was treated to Starbucks by my daughter Summer - via a gift card!

I can just feel myself relaxing as soon as I walk in the door of a Starbucks!

A PERFECT spot to sit with a glass of tea and read a few chapters of a good book on a hot July afternoon in Texas! The A/C was cranked up and I nearly forgot it was over 100 degrees outside! That's with the 'heat index.' It was ONLY in the 90's but the humidity made it FEEL like 105!

I hit up a Goodwill - since I COULD!

I may finish my current book before I go home so I thought I best get another one - or two!

I can't see squat anymore so I scarfed up with these reading glasses for $4.00 a pair.

I threw in a couple pair of sunglasses as well.

AND - since it was Senior Citizen Day - I got an EXTRA discount on everything!

I wasn't gone all that long but as soon as I came in I had to take a peek at the babies!

Kailey and Harrison look so much alike!

I can't wait til Trystan gets home because she and Logan favor each other a LOT!

So much so that I am happy Trystan has a birthmark and I can tell them apart by that if I get confused!

Louis Dean and I usually have a glass of wine together in the evening.

Tonight was no exception - even though he and I are about 250 miles apart.

He poured his and I poured mine and then we sat and visited with each other catching up on our day - by phone.

I'll close this post tonight with a little secret.

Guess who went to 'Lovely Nails' this afternoon for a pedicure AND manicure?

Guess who the ladies there fuss over and all of them want to visit?

And guess who I am missing tonight as I close out the day?

I will be so happy when we get our camper ready to come down.

It should be SOON!!!!