Where were you? September 11, 2001

Blissfully asleep is where I was at 5:46 am west coast time. Being the mother of three 18-month olds and having Paul home meant I was getting to sleep in. But he was waking me up, WHY WAS HE WAKING ME UP!!! Turning on the TV in the bedroom, why? I'm still sleeping, why? He is saying a plane crashed into the World Trade Center. What?  I was thinking, "what a horrible accident." I'm watching a plane fly toward the building "How do they have a film of it?" "They don't. This is a second plane. Oh my God, this is a SECOND plane." Then.......this isn't an accident!

Babies are crying somewhere in the house. Someone is hungry. Our day has to go on like usual, like it normally does. Bottles and diapers, crying and naps, baths and meals and the pure exhaustion that goes along with all of that doesn't seem so bad today. I get to do all of that. Over the next days and weeks watching the news non-stop is heartbreaking. The mothers, children, wives.......all of the "never agains".

There is another realization also. If we lived on the east coast instead of the west, I could have been one of those wives. My children could have been those children. My husband after all is a firefighter. It wouldn't have mattered that he was home that morning. He would've gone. He would have wanted to, needed to be there with his brothers. I can't imagine all of those wives knowing their husbands were there and then watching the towers come down. At that point I suppose they wished their husbands were cowards rather than heroes

I remember thinking, "I'm glad my parents are already gone from this world", so they didn't have to know the amount of hate that was out there.
I think our world is getting back to something more normal than it was. We aren't quite so afraid of everything. But then something as simple as a power outage brings back the fear. People were wondering if the power going out all over San Diego on September 8th was some type of terrorist attack.
I don't mind being cautious. I don't mind taking off my shoes at the airport or being scanned.
I mind that my children don't get to grow up with the careless innocence that I did.    

Jigs and Reels, Hornpipes and Traditional Sets

Dancing on Coronado Island

First Place!

Tied for Third!

Babies

A family friend gave birth to triplets this past Monday. They made it to 35 weeks 4 days-amazing!!  Monster sized babies in the triplet world. Identical girls weighed in at 4 pounds 9 ounces each and their brother was a whopping 5 pounds 6 ounces. That's over 15 pounds of babies! The pictures of the new trio looked like they were full term. None of the little old person look that more premature babies have. I went back and looked at some of our first photos from March 2000. My three made it to 32 weeks.

Just 7 hours old

Easter-2000 They were 23 days old

They're a little larger now

Already!?

Today is the last day of Summer, the last day of my babies being Elementary School kids. Whether you call it Junior High or Middle School, it starts tomorrow.

Kindergarten

Kindergarten

1st Grade

2nd Grade

3rd Grade

4th Grade

5th Grade

Already?

But they're just babies.

Sooo Yucky!!

The kids and I (mostly I) spent ALL day cleaning their rooms. They looked like a small toy store exploded in both rooms. I can't believe any of them can ever say they're bored or have nothing to do. They each have a big Rubbermaid box to dump stuff in. I made them dump out the boxes and start going through everything. I also made them empty two book shelves and go through all the books. there were toys and books from years ago and I had to fight them for each and every item I either wanted to give away or throw away. The dust! Oh my gosh, the dust. And the sneezing because of the dust. I feel like I've been camping for a week. I'm filthy and exhausted and we still have to battle the loft. And exactly how many stuffed animals is too many?

FINALLY!! Back to dance.

Their first year of Irish Dance-2007



Yay, we're back to dance tomorrow after about 5 weeks off. I bet everyone is going to be achy tomorrow night.

 Their very first feis. Soooo little.

 Sacramento 2010.

Our first feis since December is in two weeks. Kieran is going to compete again!

Baby Turtles Swimming Off Into the Future.

Heading for the water at dawn.

The Kemp's Ridley Sea turtle is the most endangered Sea Turtle. In 1947 there were 40,000 nesting females recorded by an amateur photographer on one beach in a single day. Today there are 1,000 nesting females in total.



Waiting for the turtles to arrive from Sea Turtle, Inc. About 200 babies hatched only four hours earlier.

Here they come!!!

A cooler full of turtles. Not the usual items brought to the beach in a cooler.

The first two to head toward the Gulf of Mexico.

Taking a breath.

SPX-the turtle rescue dog. He can sniff out the nests on the beach.

They're so tiny.

You can just make out the tiny heads and flippers.

Tickle, tickle, wake up, you have an adventure to go on.

Turtle tracks.

The last two head off into the sunrise.

"Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore"
-Andre Gide

Beach and Sand Turtles

 Kieran's turtle. It's a female, notice her eggs?

 Kyle's fortress.

 Ummm yeah, it's supposed to be a jelly fish.