They're Home!

On Thursday, Jenn surprised me with the homecoming of not only herself, but our two beautiful girls.  Elisabeth Marie and Katherine Faye are home to stay now.  We are all doing so very well.  The girls are sleeping for 2-3 hours at a time...a good start.  Jenn and I are getting a little sleep, so all is well.
The girls go back for their one week check up on Thursday.  If miss Elli has gained weight she'll stay with us...if not...she gets to visit the NICU again.  We'll pray that all of the food she's been pounding down helps to bulk her up.
I am going to start, simply, embedding the link to my facebook account into these ramblings.

I love Grandma



Bye for now.
MJKEGR

Katherine

Kati was discharged today!  She will spend her first night in a hotel with Jenn.  Hopefully we will bring Elisabeth home tomorrow or Saturday.

wow...over one week old

Here are the new pictures of our gorgeous ladies.  They are hopefully moving into cribs by tomorrow evening.  They will hopefully move quickly from hospital cribs to bassinets at home.
Enjoy the pictures.

Update

The girls are doing well...all three of them.  The little girls got their IVs out yesterday.  They also got stop phototherapy for jaundice.  They eating anywhere from 35 to 50 mL of food.  And they becoming more beautiful by the day.
Jenn is doing well.  She is getting rest, and is enjoying being a mom.

The men of the family are doing well, also.  George and Ryne are a little stressed at the in/out life I am leading right now, but are dong well.
I am little tired from the commuting, but will deal with it.

bye for now.

More pictures and ramblings of an obsessed father!

Our girls are blossoming.  They are absolutely gorgeous.  Jenn and I are nothing but stricken with awe at how amazing these two little girls are.  Below are some pictures.  

I had to start commuting for work today.  Kind of sucks, but money, for some reason, is necessary for survival.  

I feel ok being away from them for a little bit, because Jenn is such a great mom and the girls are doing so well.  Kati and Elli are both off of IVs now.  They are solely on formula and milk.  They are doing so well. 

We'll keep you updated on the girls and their journey toward home.  

Pictures

                                        Here they are.  Pictures of the most beautiful twin girls ever!

Here's the Riley twins!

They made it! Elisabeth Marie and Katherine Faye are here.  Katherine came out weighing 5lbs 11oz and 45 minutes later, Elisabeth joined us weighing 4 lbs 8oz.  They are doing very well.  Because they were premature they will be residing in NICU for some amount of time (a week, 2 days, a month).  The next post will 4 or 5 hours, and there will be pictures. They are beautiful.  Jenn did such a great job today and yesterday (22 hours of labor).  Look for pictures soon!


bye for now.
-Matt

The girls

We went to the doctor on Friday.  The girls are doing well, Jenn, Elisabeth, and Katherine.  Elli and Kati are each 4 1/2 lbs.  Everything is well.  

Coming soon...babies!

We are looking forward to the little ladies (Elisabeth and Katherine).  They should be here in the next few weeks and we have been making preparations.  The nursery is almost complete (minus some wall hangings).  I've included pictures of the nursery and Jenn.  Enjoy.

March

March...in a lot of the United States it is the beginning of Spring, and this year South Dakota has decided to follow suit.  We have been enjoying 50-60 degree weather and sunshine.
We have also begun to prepare for the girls' arrival into this world.  We set up the cribs in the nursery.  We are preparing a place for them in their room.
We have also settled fully into our new house.  We cleaned up the yard, pruned the trees, and raked the leaves.
Below are pictures of our cribs and our new house (WE HAVE TREES! in west river south dakota that is a hot commodity.

My students need you

I am trying to get a set of whiteboards for my students to use in the classroom.  Here is a link.  If you can help, it would be greatly appreciated.

http://www.donorschoose.org/donors/proposal.html?id=368208

Visit with the girls

Today we went to the doctor to visit with our girls. During the ultrasound we got a surprise. Elisabeth, who was breach the last time we saw her, has decided to flip over. Both girls are now head down...that's good, I hear.

Kati is about 2lb 10oz and Elli is about 2lb 12oz. They are both growing at the appropriate rate. Everything is going well.

We are going back in three weeks.

Bye for now,

Matt and Jenn

House

This is what the flood did to the basement.

The floor buckled from water damage.
Flood water.

We're finally in! We finally got to move into our house about 2 weeks ago now. We were very grateful for our friends here in Kyle for letting us invade for 2 months, but we sure are happy to be in our own house again. The house is exactly the same as our first house, so it was easy to move things in.

Jenn and Elli and Kati are doing well. We are looking forward to 2 or 3 months from now when we get to hold our girls. We are very very excited. Jenn will most likely be having a C-section near the end of May.

George and Ryne (our dogs) are doing well, also. They are enjoying having their own space as well.

School is going well. Our students are learning and are happy, so all is good. We have just about as much school left as Jenn has pregnancy.

We're looking at another snow coming tonight and tomorrow. Hopefully it won't be too big a storm. Our students' education is at the whim of the weather.

Well, bye for now.

-Matt, Jenn, Elli, Kati, George, and Ryne

Help out

Hey guys,

TFA (Teach for America) is trying to get a huge Pepsi Refresh grant (250 K). The grant would allow us to continue our efforts in urban and rural public schools. It would allow us to further fight the battle of educational inequity. Here's the link to vote for TFA for the Pepsi Refresh Grant. Thank you in advance for your continued support.

Vote Now!

Girls!!!

Hey all,

We went to the doctor today, and...we're having girls. Elisabeth Marie (Elli) and Katherine Faye (Kati). We are very excited. When I scan the pictures in, I'll add them to the blog.

They are both healthy and only one ounce apart. Daddy's girls are doing well. The due date is June 4th, but I wouldn't be surprised if they came early to mid-May.

Bye for now.

No go...

So...we heard back from the licensing advisor at the Indiana Dept. of Education...and he says that since we went through an untraditional teacher preparation program, we are required to have three years teaching experience before applying for an Indiana reciprocal license. So it looks like we will be out here for one more year...seeing our students grow up in front of our eyes. Prolonging the departure...

I will be putting up a video of our flooded house soon. I just have to have 5 minutes to relax first. We had parent-teacher conferences last night and this morning.

One great thing...my kids took their Unit 6 math test and got a 91%...that is the highest they've gotten all year, and the highest score I've seen at Little Wound in the 5th grade...they were so pumped...and I can't lie...so was I.

Well now my random ranting is over so bye for now.

-Matt and Jenn

oh, and we get to see the babies next Friday!!! I could distinctly feel each baby yesterday...it's more real when you can feel them.

Holy Flood, Batman!

Well...we returned from a great vacation to a flooded basement. The main level of our house HAD been under water and therefore the tile flooring looked liked the badlands. The four layers of flooring had buckled and puckered. We also have black mold, white mold, and other varieties of mold inhabiting our house. We are moving. I will be adding pictures soon.

The kicker...oh the kicker...we had a blizzard and have not had school for the past three days. So not only is our house destroyed, but our students' as well. They pretty much had a third week of vacation. They will be something when they return.

The upside...the flood helped us clear out our basement and begin packing. We lost about 1/4 of our belongings. So it has been a cleansing of sorts. Water has always been a symbol of cleansing and maybe this was a gift from God. Three days off from school have allowed us to rest, get school work planned, and pack our house. Pardon my cliche, but...every grey cloud has a silver lining.

We are currently living with our friend Brittany and her dog Talmo. So add it up...three people and three dogs in an apartment...it's a good time.

Hope all is well with you and yours!