Excuse me!?

Yesterday I had one of those conversations with an absolute stranger that got me kinda upset:
Stranger: You have three kids?
Me: I have four.
Stranger: Haven't you figured out the biology of that yet?

Excuse me!? I wanted to tell her to mind her own business but I said, "Actually, I got my degree in biology and I wanted four kids." Which, I guess, was kinda the same thing. I think she was just trying to be funny but she said it in front of Leah, mama no likey.

What is WRONG with having four kids!? Especially when they provide such high quality entertainment as demonstrated by Davis in this video clip:

My kids are super cute...
I'm pretty sure Jeff and I owe it to the world to make four MORE ;)

Artsy Fartsy

The big kids made these shirts in their art class.
They cut stencils in posterboard and used spray paint.
Their teacher called it graffiti art.
Love it!

My New Favorite Picture

We are AWESOME parents, very attentive

"On the front lobe of my left-side brains"

-"Hey Soul Sister" by Train

I'm an unabashed science geek. And I know my hubby loves me because he used his connections so we could have a "date" shadowing the Medical Examiner performing autopsies this morning. That's love right there.

It was such a great experience. Honestly, driving down to the coroner's office I started to get nervous. What if I pass out, or gag/throw up, let alone pass out!? Well, it wasn't like that at all. We shadowed Dr. G and she was great. The smell was strong but once they get going it's very medical and fast and fascinating. Dr. G had a great attitude and a great energy about her. She even said a couple of times that she loves her job. She was really just great. In the spirit of full disclosure though, one of us did have to step out for a few minutes and it wasn't me :)

We were able to observe the step-by-step autopsy of a 50-something male that just dropped dead crossing the street yesterday. Cause of death: unknown. Words cannot express how awesome the inside of the human body is. I was in awe the whole time. And it was even a little bit exciting seeing "things" that might have caused his death even though we didn't see anything that was obviously the cause. Dr. G said she'd most likely see something on the toxicology reports but it will take about two weeks to get those.

The other cases there were an elderly man thought to have passed away from natural causes, a 21-week fetal demise whose mother tested positive for amphetamines, a 2 1/2 year old whose parents said he choked on candies but had bruising from and earlier "fall", an embalmed elderly man who died weeks ago of what were initially ruled natural causes (hence no autopsy) but sent in because a family member recently expressed his suspicion of foul play, and a 21-year old male here celebrating his birthday who drunkenly fell from the fourth story of a parking garage after he sat on top of the wall. It was a very eclectic group. Unfortunately our sitter could only be here for a few hours so we didn't get to see any of the other autopsies but I was riveted by what I did see.

The case of the 21-year old stuck out to me. His body was very bloated but his hair was in a perfect faux hawk. The PD had a camera of his that contained pictures of him wearing the same clothes he fell in drinking VERY EXPENSIVE tequila in a limo with friends, attending the Love show and (from a worldly perspective) having a great time living it up in LV. And now he's dead. And now he's dead because he couldn't think rationally. Alcohol is bad, end of sermon.

Another moment I'll never forget is this conversation with Dr. G.:
Dr. G: So are you at home.
Me: Yeah. I stay home with the kids.
Dr. G: That's a good choice.
Me: Do you have kids?
Dr. G: No. I kept putting it off because of my job and now I think it might be too late. I might be too old.
Me: *silence*
Honestly, sometimes I think that I'm behind. I don't have a graduate degree or an income or any marketable talents of any kind really. But I'm happy to be "at home". I'm happy to hear the cute things my kids say, to chauffeur them to art class, gymnastics, school etc., and to jump for joy when they all sleep through the night and wake up in the morning happy and healthy. I like my job.

So now I want to send a thank you to the doctors and the awesome techs that made it fun. But really, what would be appropriate? I thought about making these cookies:

Too morbid? Maybe a nice, wholesome fruit basket would be better.
You tell me.

An impromtu date to see Eclipse kinda took away the pain of applying for passports. LOVED it! It seems the Twilight films are progressively getting better :)

Random thoughts:
1. Favorite one so far, it is my favorite book of the series but the acting and directing were just better.
2. Bella's hair (the wig) was good for me but Edward's hair was awful. I LOVED it in the other movies but this time it was too curly or something.
3. Edward looked like he had gained weight, in a good way.
4. Edward was happier. A lot more like the Edward from the book for me.
5. There were a few changes from the book that made Bella seem less annoying so that was good.
6. The only thing I really missed from the book was when she actually cries over Jacob. In the book she's REALLY depressed about everything and in the movie she didn't even shed a single tear.
7. It was super funny. Loved the script.

Side note...
This is super funny too:

Passport Pain

Getting passports for the kids was such a pain! It took forever, required an obnoxious amount of paperwork and cost a scrillion dollars. All so we can travel to MEXICO!

Here's a partial list of "the hoops":
1. Jeff had to be there to sign in person (or have a notarized paper stating his consent) so we had to work it into his completely full schedule.
2. The online resource said the were no Saturday hours and then the sign at the post office had Saturday hours for the passport desk listed. Make up your mind people.
4. The worker at CVS said Leah couldn't wear a white shirt in her picture but instead of going home and changing I had her take the picture anyways. They accepted it just fine and the passport officer never said anything about it. The passport picture taking at CVS is quite sketchy but sooo much cheaper.
5. Mostly because I've become completely disorganized in the past year I couldn't find Leah or Davis' birth certificates anywhere! There were in a folder that I suspected Leah had taken to put other papers in, but I just couldn't find it anywhere. I even gave up and drove down to the So. NV Health offices to get new ones only to realize Leah was born in UT so we HAD to find them. When we got home I kinda lost my temper, made the big kids look all through their stuff and I told them they couldn't stop looking until we found them. A few minutes later Leah comes out with them, yay! I cannot stand being disorganized!!
6. And then there is always the question of whether or not they'll come in time for our trip. If we don't have them we'll be able to go enjoy the beach house just fine but who knows if they'll let us back into the good old USofA. Only time will tell.